Episode 192 Ride Shotgun With Me While We Read a Romance Novel

Today we're reading a short excerpt from Jill Shalvis's novel 'Almost Just Friends'. This is an American romance novel. Jill has written 50 romance books so far! So she's very well known in America. Romance novels and 'Chick lit' generally is quite a relaxed genre of books. There's a lot of conversation in these books and a lot of colloquial language so I think they might be quite good for learning English. In this excerpt our main character, Piper, is talking with her friend Jenna as they drive to an accident. They both work in an ambulance so there's lots of talk about the kinds of people and challenges you might meet in that job. #englishreading #romancenovel #englishlistening #esl #englishpodcast From the blog: Vocabulary from the Reading Piper rode shotgun - sit on the passenger seat next to the driver. This is a historical idiom and comes from the frontier/cowboy days of the American wild west when it was quite dangerous so the person next to the driver would carry a shotgun. They patched up a trucker - he didn't have major injuries so didn't need to go to hospital For his efforts - suggesting he did a good thing but a bad thing happened because of it Hitchhiker - Someone who stands at the side of the road asking to get a lift with other cars to go somewhere. The contractor got whacked in the face - 'whacked' means hit. Shovel - a digging tool They just left the hospital after a drop off - They just left her at the hospital and didn't need to do anything else. On the way to grab lunch - to get lunch, but it gives us the idea of speed. They weaved and bobbed through the traffic - going around and through traffic Jenna being very liberal with her horn - she was using her horn too much Should have their licences revoked - to remove a licence that has been previously given Eyed the message - to look at something She should give it a bit of a light makeover for curb appeal. - to improve how the house looks so people will be more interested to buy it. Alaina would hunt down some buyers - she would find someone to buy the house Jenna took a sharp left turn and had Piper practically kissing her window - She's going too fast and Piper has slid across the chair and her face has hit the window. You've been cagey about that ever since - You're being suspicious and not talking about something. I'm referring to the fact that you're on a first-name basis - tells us Piper is more comfortable with this person and knows him better than her friend had expected. She waggled her eyebrows - To move her eyebrows in a suggestive fashion. Additional Vocabulary There can be pluses and minuses to literally everything - idiom meaning there can be good things and bad things about everything. Genre - a category of books or movies Chick Lit - a genre of books that are written for a female audience Derogatory - Insulting Colloquial - in common daily use Americanisms - something specific to America choppy writer - tends to use short sentences Pet peeve - something I personally find annoying this is not across the board -idiom - across the board is used to mean across the whole area, category or whatever we're discussing. In this case it means across the whole genre, but it could be used to talk about a company or profession too. a vast array of books - a very large selection Prolific - has written many more books than the average writer Personal Demons - idiom - you have things from your past that you are still struggling to deal with or heal from EMT - Emergency Medical Technician plasters - In the UK we call these plasters, in America they call them Band-Aids. thumb a lift - Another phrase meaning 'to hitchhike', literally meaning to put your thumb out as a sign that you wish to take a ride with someone driving past. mode of transport - a way or method of transport