A: Whoa, whoa, what’s going on? Watch out! B: Hey, watch where you’re going! A: Oh, no! I’m so sorry! Are you all right? B: Oh...I don’t know. A: I feel terrible, I really didn’t mean to knock you over. My tire, just exploded, and I lost control of my bike. Really, it was an accident. Please accept my apologies. B: Just let me try to stand up. SONG: Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near? B: Oh, wait a second, you seem really familiar, I think I know you from somewhere. A: Yeah, that’s right! I think we have met somewhere before. We met at Aaron’s place last weekend! What a coincidence! But anyway, I’m glad to see that you’re not too badly hurt, and I should probably get going. I have a nine o’clock meeting. But here's my number. Call me and we'll exchange insurance information. B: Ouch! My ankle! I think it’s broken! You can’t just leave me like this! B: Are you calling an ambulance? A: Nope, I’m canceling my appointment so that I can stay here with you. SONG: Do you remember when we met? That’s the day I knew you were my pet. I wanna tell you how much I love you.
M: Hello everyone! And welcome back to another great lesson with EnglishPod! My name is Marco. E: And I’m Erica. M: Erica, today we have a great intermediate lesson. E: That’s right, we’ve got a lesson about love… M: About love? E: And about apologizing. M: Uh, okay, love and apologizing. E: They go together. M: Yes, they do, if… especially if you have a girlfriend or boyfriend, right? E: That’s true. M: Hehe. Okay, so, why don’t we start by looking at our “vocabulary preview”? Voice: Vocabulary preview. E: In today’s vocabulary preview we will learn two important words from our dialogue. What’s the first word? M: Knock over. E: Knock over. M: Knock over. E: Knock over. M: So, that’s a really simple one, when you knock something over… E: You make it fall down. M: Make it fall down. E: Yep, speaking of knocking things over, this morning I knocked over my coffee cup all over my desk. M: Yeah, I saw that. E: Yeah. M: You almost ruined our lesson plan for today. E: Yes, I did. It was all over the place. M: Hehe. Okay, let’s look at our second word – explode. E: Explode. M: Explode. E: Explode. M: So, when something explodes, this is what happens. Sound of an explosion. E: Alright, that’s pretty clear. M: Hehe. That’s more than clear I think. So, now we’ve looked at our two vocabulary preview words for this dialogue and we are ready to listen to it for the first time. DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME E: I love happy endings. M: Hehe. Such a romantic dialogue. E: Yeah, this guy, oh my God, he is amazing! I would love to meet a guy like that. M: Like that? Like crashing into you? E: Maybe not LIKE that. M: Hehe. E: Okay, well, I think it’s time to, uh, look at some of the language in this dialogue. Let’s start with our “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway. E: Today we have three important words from our dialogue that we will learn for our language takeaway. The first word is familiar. M: Familiar. E: Familiar. M: Familiar. E: This one I think is a little bit hard to explain. M: Yeah, so, let’s listen to some examples on how we use familiar. Voice: Example one. A: Norman Clark, that name sounds familiar. Where have I heard it before? Voice: Example two. B: Do you know where we are? C: I have no idea. Nothing looks familiar, I think we’re lost. Voice: Example three. D: You look really familiar. Did we go to high school together? E: So, when something’s familiar, you think you know it, but you’re not exactly sure. M: Exactly, familiar. E: Okay, our next word is… M: Place. E: Place. M: Place. E: Aaron’s place. M: Exactly, so, when we refer to place, we refer to house. E: Right, so, I can say “Hey, Marco, come over to my place for dinner tonight”. M: Exactly, or I could say, um, “We’re having a party at my place tonight at eight”. E: You might ask someone “How’s your new place?” M: Right. E: How’s your new apartment? M: Exactly, that’s a good one. E: Yeah. M: So, place. It’s a house. E: Right. Our final word today is… M: Coincidence. E: Coincidence. M: Coincidence. E: Coincidence. M: So, again we have some great examples for you to understand how we use coincidence. Voice: Example one. A: I’m going to Ney York this weekend. B: What a coincidence? I am too. Voice: Example two. C: By coincidence, everyone in the room was named Alex. Voice: Example three. D: We met by pure coincidence. One day we ran into each other on our bikes and we’ve been together ever since. E: A coincidence is something that happens by chance, right? M: Right, you didn’t plane it, it just happened. E: Yeah, these funny little things happen all the time, I love it when these coincidences happen. M: Hehe. Yeah, they’re great. So, Erica, why don’t you tell us about a coincidence that’s happened to you? E: Well, uh, the other night I was having dinner, uh, in a restaurant and I looked up and I saw my old professor… M: Wow! E: From university. M: Hehe. E: I was such a coincidence, because here we are in Shanghai and I see my professor from Canada… M: Hehe. E: Having dinner at the table next to me. It was such a coincidence. M: That is a coincidence. E: Yeah. M: Or has it ever happened to you that you’re thinking of someone and that person calls you? E: That happens all the time. M: Hehe. That’s a coincidence. E: Yeah, yeah. M: Okay, so, now that we have learned these three language takeaway words, we can listen to our dialogue a second time, but this time it’s gonna be slower. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow) E: Well, that was much clearer, wasn’t it? M: Yes, that was clearer and this brings us to “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder. E: In today’s fluency builder we’re going to show you different ways of apologizing. It’s so important to be able to apologize well, um, and fluently. M: Exactly, and you also wanna say something different from “I’m sorry”. E: Right. M: So, that’s what we’re gonna show you today. E: We heard some great expressions for “I’m sorry” in the dialogue. Let’s listen now. Phrase 1: I’m so sorry; I feel terrible; please accept my apologies. I’m so sorry; I feel terrible; please accept my apologies. E: Yeah, I feel terrible, I say this one all the time. M: Yeah, it’s a great way of saying “I’m sorry”. Now, also if you wanna say “I’m sorry”, you also wanna tell the person that you made a mistake, right? E: That’s true, and we did hear some wonderful expressions for “I made a mistake” in this dialogue. Phrase 2: I didn’t mean to knock you over; it was an accident. I didn’t mean to knock you over; it was an accident. E: Well, I didn’t mean to knock my coffee cup over this morning. M: Exactly, it was an accident. E: It was. M: Hehe. Not on purpose, right? E: Or so you think. M: Hehe. Okay, so, all of these phrases are really useful and great for apologizing and telling someone you made a mistake. E: Well, it’s time for us to listen to our dialogue a third time. This time it’ll be at its normal speed and I think you’ll be able to understand a little bit better. DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME M: Great dialogue and great music, right? E: Wonderful music, who picked that, Marco? M: Of course, me. I’m a romantic type, I love romantic music. E: Really? M: Yes. E: Well, speaking of a romantic type, do you believe in love at first sight? M: I… I kind of do. E: Really? M: I… I’d like to believe it. Yeah, well… If… E: That surprises me. M: Hehe. Well, I think the first time that you see someone it impresses you someway and you feel attracted to that person. E: Really? M: Yeah, at least it’s the first feeling that you get that makes you want to talk to that person or get to know that person. E: I’m the exact opposite. M: Really? E: When I see somebody for the first time, my first impression is always wrong. M: Uh, okay. E: So, if I see someone and I like them at the beginning, in three weeks I’ll hate them. M: Hehe. E: And if I see someone and I hate… I don’t like them when I first meet them, I will… I’ll be their best friend. M: Uh, yeah, yeah. E: So, love at first sight doesn’t work for me. M: Hehe. I’m sure that our listeners have some stories at love at first sight. Maybe they met their wives or their boyfriends in this way. E: I’d like to hear about it. M: Me too, and if anybody knows the name of the songs we used, also be sure to post it on the discussion board. E: That’s right, our challenge for this week. M: Our challenge for this lesson. E: Yeah. M: So, that’s all for today everyone, but be sure to go to our website at englishpod.com, and as we said leave all your comments, your s