Daily English 1286 Experiencing Headaches

Dialogue/Story

Slow Speed begins at: 0:55
Explanation begins at: 3:24
Normal Speed begins at: 18:02

Complete Transcript

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1,286 – Experiencing Headaches.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1,286. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

This episode is a dialogue between Lupe and Eiji about having a headache. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Lupe: Why are you lying on the couch with the lights out? Oh, you poor thing. Do you have a headache?

Eiji: Yes, a very bad one. My head is throbbing.

Lupe: Why don’t I get you some hot tea? That always helps me when I have a pounding headache.

Eiji: No, I just want to lie here quietly.

Lupe: I know that when I have a tension headache, it always eases the pain when someone massages my neck and shoulders. Would you like that?

Eiji: No, I don’t think it’s a tension headache. It came on suddenly.

Lupe: Then it’s not a sinus headache either? Are you feeling pain around your cheekbones?

Eiji: No, it’s not a sinus headache. I feel a little nauseous actually.

Lupe: Ah, then it must be a migraine. That explains the dark room and the need for quiet. I know the perfect cure for a migraine.

Eiji: Me, too, but I don’t have it here.

Lupe: I’d be happy to get it for you.

Eiji: Great. The only place that stocks it is in the next town.

Lupe: But that’s over two hours away.

Eiji: If it’s too much trouble . . .

Lupe: No, no, I’ll go. But how will you manage while I’m gone?

Eiji: I’ll just have to find a way to muddle through.

[end of dialogue]

The word “ache” (ache) means pain. So, a “headache” is a pain that you have in your head, of course. Our dialogue is all about headaches. Lupe begins by asking Eiji, “Why are you lying on the couch with the lights out?” “To lie” (lie) means to put your body in what we would call a horizontal position. When you sleep on a bed, you lie on the bed. Your body is not standing up. It’s, we would say, “lying (lying) down.” Notice the spelling changes when it is turned into a participle (or “-ing”) form.

Eiji is lying on a “couch” or a “sofa” – a big thing that two or more people can sit in. He has the “lights out,” meaning he’s turned the lights off in the room so that it’s dark. Lupe says, “Oh, you poor thing.” The phrase “poor thing” is used to show sympathy or pity for another person who is in a bad or difficult situation. When you feel sorry for another person who is having a bad time, you might use that phrase, “Oh, you poor thing.” She says, “Do you have a headache?” Eiji says, “Yes, a very bad one. My head is throbbing.”

The verb “to throb” (throb) means to have a very, in this case, painful feeling that starts and stops regularly. Often when you have a bad headache, you feel like your head is throbbing. It’s almost as though part of your head is like your heart. In fact, we use that verb “to throb” when describing what a heart does. A “heart” is, of course, a muscle that is constantly moving. That motion, we could call a “throbbing motion.” It’s like something is going up and down inside of your body. Well that’s the feeling of pain that Eiji is experiencing – a “throbbing pain” in his head.

Lupe says, “Why don’t I get you some hot tea? That always helps me when I have a pounding headache.” The word “pounding” (pounding) is the feeling, or we might say the sensation, of being hit repeatedly – over and over again. Sometimes your headache feels like you’re being hit in the head constantly. “Throbbing” and “pounding” are very closely related in meaning here.

Eiji says, “No, I just want to lie here quietly.” Lupe says, “I know that when I have a tension headache, it always eases the pain when someone massages my neck and shoulders. Would you like that?” Lupe describes what helps her when she has a “tension (tension) headache.” “Tension” is a feeling often caused by stress, where your muscles are tight.

So, a “tension headache” is usually one that is caused by feeling stressed, or feeling anxious, or feeling nervous about something. Lupe says that it always “eases” (eases) the pain when someone “massages” (massages) her neck and shoulders. “To ease” means to reduce pain or to get rid of pain. A “massage” is when someone rubs your body, usually in an effort to relax your muscles, to make them less tight. Eiji says he doesn’t want a massage from Lupe. He says it’s not a tension headache.

“It came on suddenly,” he adds. When something “comes on,” it begins very quickly or without warning. When we say a headache “came on suddenly,” we mean it appears to have started instantly. It wasn’t a small headache that grew into a big headache. It was a big headache right away. Lupe says, “Then it’s not a sinus headache either?” A “sinus (sinus) headache” is a headache caused by pain in, of course, your sinuses. Your sinuses are in your head. They’re connected to, or part of, your breathing that is done through your nose.

Sometimes when we have a cold or our sinuses become infected, it’s difficult to breathe, but also it causes pain in our head. Lupe says, “Are you feeling pain around your cheekbones?” Your “cheeks” (cheeks) are the parts of your face that are located on either side of your nose. Your “cheekbones,” then, are the bones that are on that part of your face below your eyes, on either side of your nose.

Eiji says, “No, it’s not a sinus headache.” He adds, “I feel a little nauseous actually.” “Nauseous” (nauseous) is an adjective that describes a feeling in your stomach that you’re going to be sick – that you’re going to, we would say, “throw up” or “vomit.” “To vomit” is when the contents of your stomach, what’s in your stomach, comes out through your mouth – not a very nice feeling.

Lupe says, “Ah, then it must be a migraine (migraine).” A “migraine,” or “migraine headache,” is a very severe, a very intense headache that causes a lot of pain. Sometimes it can also cause “nausea” – that is, that feeling of being sick in your stomach – as well as problems with your vision. You can’t see properly. Not all migraines, however, have those symptoms or those things that are associated with it.

Lupe says, “That explains the dark room and the need for quiet.” People who get migraine headaches often are able to ease their pain by lying down and turning off the lights. “I know the perfect cure for a migraine,” Lupe says. A “cure” (cure) is something that helps a medical problem; usually it’s something that makes the medical problem – the sickness, the disease, the illness – go away. Some of you old enough might remember a rock band called the Cure that was popular in the ’80s and ’90s – the old days.

Anyway. Lupe thinks she has the perfect cure for a migraine. Eiji says, “Me, too,” meaning I also know what the perfect cure is. “But,” he adds, “I don’t have it here.” We get the feeling right now that perhaps Eiji is just trying to get rid of Lupe. He wants Lupe to leave him alone. Lupe says, “I’d be happy to get it for you.” Eiji says, “Great. The only place that stocks it is in the next town.

“To stock” something means for a store to have something available to sell you. That’s why we sometimes use the expressions “in stock” and “out of stock.” If you go to a store to buy say a pair of shoes and the store says, “We don’t have that kind in stock,” they mean they don’t actually have any of those shoes there at their store. They are, we might also say, “out of stock.” “To be out of stock” means you don’t have it. “To be in stock” means you do have it.

Eiji says the only place that stocks this drug, we’re guessing, is in the next town, meaning not in the town or small city where they are right now, but in one that is close to them, perhaps 10 miles or 20 miles or even farther away. Lupe says, “But that’s over two hours away,” meaning the next town is two hours from where they are now.

I must say that is a little unlikely if they’re in the main part of the United States. Most towns have another town within, oh, 10 or 20 miles. That’s because when the country was first getting started, that’s about how long you could go in a single day – but perhaps they’re located in Alaska. I don’t know. Alaska is a big state located, of course, between Canada and Russia, that is part of the U.S. that doesn’t have very many towns or people in it.

Eiji wants Lupe to go get him this medicine. Eiji says, however, “If it’s too much trouble” – meaning, well, if it is too much work or involves too much time for Lupe, she doesn’t have to do it – but you can tell by the way he says it that he really wants Lupe to leave, to go to this town.

Lupe then agrees. She says, “No, no, I’ll go.” She’s saying, “No, it is not too much trouble. I’ll go to this town.” Then she asks, “But how will you manage while I’m gone?” The verb “to manage” (manage) has a lot of different uses in conversational English. Here it means to be able to do something that is difficult, to be able to survive through a difficult situation.

Eiji says, “I’ll just have to find a way to muddle through.” In other words, “I’ll have to find a way to muddle through while you are gone, without your help.” The phrasal verb “to muddle (muddle) through” something means to be able to do something that is difficult even when you don’t have the necessary experience, education, or skills to do it. It means to be able to do something, but probably not do it very well.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialogue]

Lupe: Why are you lying on the couch with the lights out? Oh, you poor thing. Do you have a headache?

Eiji: Yes, a very bad one. My head is throbbing.

Lupe: Why don’t I get you some hot tea? That always helps me when I have a pounding headache.

Eiji: No, I just want to lie here quietly.

Lupe: I know that when I have a tension headache, it always eases the pain when someone massages my neck and shoulders. Would you like that?

Eiji: No, I don’t think it’s a tension headache. It came on suddenly.

Lupe: Then it’s not a sinus headache either? Are you feeling pain around your cheekbones?

Eiji: No, it’s not a sinus headache. I feel a little nauseous actually.

Lupe: Ah, then it must be a migraine. That explains the dark room and the need for quiet. I know the perfect cure for a migraine.

Eiji: Me, too, but I don’t have it here.

Lupe: I’d be happy to get it for you.

Eiji: Great. The only place that stocks it is in the next town.

Lupe: But that’s over two hours away.

Eiji: If it’s too much trouble . . .

Lupe: No, no, I’ll go. But how will you manage while I’m gone?

Eiji: I’ll just have to find a way to muddle through.

[end of dialogue]

If you’re lying around wondering what the cure is for your English problems, the answer is ESL Podcast and the dialogues by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.

Glossary

to lie – to be in a horizontal position when one’s body is on a bed, table, or floor

* I meant to lie in bed for just a few minutes, but I fell asleep for over an hour.

poor thing – a phrase used to show pity and sympathy for another person who is in a bad, difficult, or sad situation

* Poor thing. He was just four years old when his parents died in a car accident.

headache – a continuing pain felt inside one’s head

* Trent gets a headache if he stops drinking coffee.

to throb – to produce a painful sensation that starts and stops regularly, or strengthens and weakens regularly

* My thumb throbbed for hours after I accidentally hit it with a hammer.

pounding – producing the feeling or sensation of being hit repeatedly

* Doctor, I feel a pounding ache in my upper arm. What could be causing it?

tension headache – pain inside and around the head, feeling as if something is squeezing one’s head, face, neck, and possibly shoulders

* Sometimes a massage can help to reduce the pain of a tension headache.

to ease – to reduce or relieve pain; to reduce the amount of pain, tension, or stress that someone is experiencing

* Here, eat this cracker. That should ease your hunger a little bit until dinner is ready.

to massage – to slowly rub one’s own or another person’s body, especially the neck and shoulders, to reduce tension in the muscles and help one/someone relax

* Sheila loves it when her husband massages her feet while they watch a movie together.

to come on – to affect someone suddenly and without warning

* When I feel an asthma attack coming on, I need to take my medicine immediately.

sinus headache – painful sensations in the head, cheeks, forehead, and eyes usually caused by congestion (blocked passages in and around the nose)

* This cold has left me so congested that I can only breathe through my mouth, and now I think I’m getting a sinus headache.

cheekbone – the bone below the eye and above the cheek

* Many women use makeup to draw attention to their cheekbones.

nauseous – feeling as if one is going to vomit (throw up); having an unsettled or upset feeling in one’s stomach

* Riding on roller coasters always makes me feel nauseous.

migraine – a severe, very intense headache with terrible pain, often with vision problems and/or nausea

* When Demi has a migraine, she stays in a quiet, dark room and tries not to move.

cure – something that treats a medical condition and makes the problem go away

* Scientists still haven’t found a cure for the common cold, but fortunately, there are a lot of pain relievers that can help.

to stock (something) – for a store to have something available to sell; to have something in a store’s inventory

* How do small companies convince large stores to stock their products?

to manage – to cope; to be able to do something that is difficult or challenging

* How did you manage to raise three kids on a single income?

to muddle through – to be able to do something that is difficult or challenging even though one does not have the necessary experience, education, or tools

* The trainer is running late, so we’ll have to muddle through this on our own until she arrives.

Comprehension Questions

1. Which of these might cause someone to feel nauseous?
a) A massage
b) A cheekbone
c) A migraine

2. What does Eiji mean when he says, “I’ll just have to find a way to muddle through”?
a) He will deal with the situation without Lupe’s help.
b) He will call a doctor to request medical advice.
c) He will try to sleep so that he doesn’t feel the pain.

Answers at bottom.

What Else Does It Mean?

to lie

The verb “to lie,” in this podcast, means to be in a horizontal position when one’s body is on a bed, table, or floor: “Please put on this robe and lie on the examination table. The doctor will be here in a few minutes.” The verb “to lie” also means to not tell the truth: “I lied when I said I liked her cooking.” The phrase “to lie ahead” describes something that will happen or affect someone in the future: “We’ve done some great work, but many challenges still lie ahead.” Finally, the phrase “to lie low” means to not draw attention to oneself and to try to not be found or noticed by others: “The criminals are probably lying low to avoid being caught by the police.”

to stock

In this podcast, the verb “to stock” means for a store to have something available to sell, or to have something in its inventory: “Do any of the stores in town stock spices for Thai cooking?” If a store is “well stocked,” it has a lot of items for sale: “This store has to be well stocked before the storm comes.” The phrase “in stock” means available for sale: “Why would a store have snow shovels in stock in the middle of summer?” The phrase “out of stock” means all sold with no more units available: “We’re temporarily out of stock, but we expect a new shipment to arrive next week.” Finally, the phrase “to stock up” means to buy a lot of something so that one can use it later: “Quentin always stocks up on toothpaste and deodorant when it goes on sale.”

Culture Note

Common Headache Cures/Home Remedies

When a headache “strikes” (happens or occurs with negative consequences), there’s little that doctors can do. Most people do not go to the doctor, because they assume that he or she will simply tell them to take aspirin or another painkiller. People usually take an “over-the-counter” sold in stores and pharmacies without a “prescription” (a written order from a doctor) and hope to experience “pain relief” (a reduction in the amount of pain one is experiencing) soon.

Sometimes people try additional “home remedies” (ways to treat illnesses or injuries on one’s own, without advice from a medical professional). Those who know that headaches can be caused by “dehydration” (not having enough water in one’s body) might drink a lot of water. Some people drink coffee instead because they believe the “caffeine” (the stimulant in coffee and soda) will “widen” (make bigger) the “blood vessels” (the small tubes in which blood travels throughout the body) in the brain, “thereby” (in that way) reducing pain.

Other people “swear by” (believe strongly and say that something works) placing a “damp” (moist; with a little bit of water), cool washcloth on their forehead. But others prefer to use a “heat pack” (something that produces heat) to reduce the pain.

Other home remedies involve special foods and drinks. Mint, “lavender” (a small purple flower with a strong smell) oil, “ginger” (a very strong-tasting, yellow root often used in Chinese cooking), and “basil” (a leaf with strong flavor, often used in Italian cooking) are all thought to have pain-relieving “properties” (characteristics).

Comprehension Answers

1 - c

2 - a