Words - Instant English

easy listening
LANGUAGE
Words, words…
Words,
words…
Words, words…
Words, words…
Subway o underground? Accident o incident?
Un’altra serie di false friends da ricordare... by John Rigg
LANGUAGE LEVEL
BASIC
Track
Speakers:
Rachel Roberts (Standard
British), Chuck Rolando
(Standard American)
Glossary
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
14
5
toothpaste dentifricio.
pipe - tubatura.
waste - scarico.
hilarious - spassosi.
occurrence avvenimento.
precipitates a crisis
- causa una crisi.
falls over - cade.
speech - discorso.
random - casuali.
crash - in questo
caso, ‘piantarsi’,
bloccarsi.
switch it off and
restart it - spegnerlo
e riavviarlo.
without getting
hurt - senza farsi del
male.
fourteen
THE TUBE
The Americans call it the subway, but
the British call it the underground. The
British also call it “the tube.” A tube
is literally a cylindrical container, such
as a tube of toothpaste1, but it can
also be a pipe2 carrying water
or waste3. So when your plans
fail, you say they have “gone
down the tube.” It’s also a
synonym for television, and we
can ask, “What’s on the tube tonight?”
This explains the name of the popular
internet site www.youtube.com, where
you can see thousands of hilarious4 and
eccentric amateur videos.
THE ACCIDENT
The Italians call it an
“incidente,” but in the
English language it’s
called an accident.
According to The
American Heritage
Dictionary, an incident
in English is “an occurrence5 or event
that interrupts normal procedure and
precipitates a crisis6.”
When two cars crash or collide into
each other, that’s an accident; when a
person falls over7 and pushes another
person, that’s an accident; but when
protesters throw eggs at a politician
and interrupt a speech8, that’s an
incident.
Accidents are unexpected and
random9: an incident can be planned,
but it can also be accidental!
CRASH
A car accident is also known
as a crash.
Curiously, a computer can
crash10 without moving: in this
case, we can only switch it off
and restart it11. People can also
crash without getting hurt12:
if you say, “I think I’ll crash,”
it means you’re very tired and
you’ve decided to go to bed.
The poster for Paul
Haggis’ Academy
Award-winning
movie, Crash.