Car Talk

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• rust bucket
• junker
• hatch
• metropolitan

• cruising
• hand-me-down
• fixer-upper
• a lemon

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

America has a very strong car culture. Many people, especially people outside of major metropolitan areas, do not like to use public transportation. There is a feeling of freedom in getting behind the wheel of your own car and just cruising.
Listen to John and I talk about our first cars.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

Log in to Listen

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Dave

John

Dave:  John, what was your first car?

John:  You know, I’ve never actually owned a car. I just kind of use hand-me-downs from my parents. But, ah, I think the first car I drove was an Isuzu Trooper.

Dave:  How old were you?

John:  In high school.

Dave:  Okay. Was it a nice car?

John:  Ah, it wasn’t that nice, but it was stuff that I could, you know, whenever there was a problem, I could, I could handle.

Dave:  Yeah.

John:  With the engine or anything like that. It wasn’t really a fixer-upper but I’m kind of a do-it-myself type of guy.

Dave:  Yeah.

John:  Sometimes you get your hands on a lemon, you know, and you got to be able to fix it or you’re just going to keep taking it back into the shop and, and they’re going to take all your cash.

Dave:  Yeah. My first car was a 1985 Chevy Celebrity station wagon, which was a total rust bucket.

John:  Sounds like a junker.

Dave:  It was a total junker.

John:  How much did you pay for that thing?

Dave:  Think I paid 200 bucks for it.

John:  Oh!

Dave:  I could only get in through the back hatch because both doors were, like, sealed shut.

John:  You got in through the…?

Dave:  So I had to climb in through the back hatch.

John:  How old were you then? This wasn’t recently?

Dave:  This was when I was like sixteen, seventeen.

 

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

 

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3