739. The Escaped Man (Short Story for Learners of English) Vocabulary & Grammar

hello listeners and hello video viewers it's time to do another story on the podcast this time i'm going to be reading a story called the escaped man by an author called ct platt the story is presented on comma fall.com commercial.com is a website where you can find short stories fan fiction and other reading texts and it's all presented in a nice and easy to read format so this time the story is the escaped man and it's written by ct platt okay and the way this is going to work is that i will read the story once and you can just try and follow it and understand it and then i will summarize the story very quickly in plain english to make sure you've understood basically what happened and then we will go through the story again line by line and i will break it down for language and i will teach you bits of vocabulary and bits of grammar i'll point them out for you so not only can you enjoy hopefully an entertaining story but also we'll use it as a way to learn some english okay learning english through stories is a great idea and it tends to work because it places language in a vivid context and is generally quite entertaining and fun so listen to the story and then let me break all the language down for you bit by bit okay so we're nearly ready to start reading the story just before i i read it to you here are a few questions okay just to help you focus so question number one is where does the story take place okay what do you think where's the location of this story and how do you know and secondly is this american english or is this british english and how do you know and thirdly the third question is simply what is going to happen next can you try and guess what's going to happen next okay right so if you're ready uh let's begin and i'm going to go to commercial.com now and start reading through the escaped man okay so i want you to try and get into the right mood here this is a sort of a mystery story okay and it's got a slightly dark atmosphere to it so here we go imagine rain rainfall imagine the rain beating down here we go the escaped man by c.t platt the rain was falling heavily it was like driving through a thick curtain of water he eased off the accelerator a little had to be careful driving on wild nights like these the last thing you'd want is to have an accident or breakdown you just want to be at home on these stormy nights the thwack thwack of the windscreen wipers was hypnotic he stared out into the glow of the headlights the rain sounded like white noise interference as it battered the car he was reminded of the opening scenes of a hitchcock film through the wash of the rain he spotted a figure at the side of the road the person wore a green parker and had their thumb jerked out why on earth would anyone be hitchhiking tonight surely you would just stay put until the morning they must have been in a rush to get where they were going he signaled down and pulled over the hitchhiker climbed in he shut the door quickly glad to be out of the rain he pulled his hood back and sighed he was somewhere in his mid twenties and had wild red hair and a thick beard awful night eh said the driver the hitchhiker held his gaze for a long moment drops of rain water trickled down his face yes yes it is the driver pulled out and continued through the storm the hitchhiker glanced over his shoulder into the blackness behind them [Music] you okay the hitchhiker simply nodded they drove on in silence for a short while the bbc radio phone-in blaring out from the car's speakers filled in for conversation they listened to the radio and their own thoughts as they moved on where are you headed ask the driver north the hitcher pointed you traveling to visit friends the driver couldn't tell if that was a yes or a no he adjusted his tie nervously the hitcher stared at him in his suit and tie the hitches seemed scruffy in comparison in his parker and pink floyd t-shirt do you work around here ask the hitcher yes said the driver i was stuck late at the office you know how it is no not really again they drifted into silence the talk show radio show carried on as they drove through the wind and rain the hitcher shifted in his seat and stared out of the windscreen [Music] no music the hitcher asked what is there no music we could listen to i like the talk radio shows i'm i'm not really a music fan the hitches eyes glazed over for a moment then he spoke i like listening to music calms me down the driver said nothing several miles later there was a news bulletin on the radio the reporter tried to remain professional as she read the announcement we are getting reports that a patient has escaped from a manchester psychiatric institution the man is said to be psychopathic and is said to have a history of murder the hitcher jabbed a finger on the button on the radio panel teeny pop music blurted out from the speakers the driver stared at his passenger his question unasked i hate the news answered the hitcher it's so depressing it brings me down there's never any good news is there the driver didn't reply don't worry i'm not the killer said the hitcher fidgeting with his coat don't worry i i'm not the killer no said the driver i mean no of course you aren't they drove on listening to the crappy pop music and over excited radio djs the rain pounded on the car what do you do for a living ask the driver the hitcher was quiet for a moment then he grinned i'm a writer really how interesting have you had anything published no as yet i'm an undiscovered artist i'm sure you'll make it what are you working on at the moment i'm writing a novel oh yes it's about a serial killer the driver didn't speak he flicked the radio station back on a man was rambling on with himself about the change in days his wheelie bins were emptied where can i drop you asked the driver the hitcher said nothing when the driver glanced round his passenger had his eyes closed he was either asleep or feigning slumber so just they drove on through the storm down the snaking lanes an hour later the storm still growled and raged the hitcher looked out of the window the driver steered the car in silence another news bulletin came over the radio we're getting more information on the escaped patient the killer's name is simon hughes he escaped from the green pastures institute earlier this evening simon hughes made his escape by changing from his hospital issue uniform into a suit and tie and pretending to be one of the medical staff he stole a car and drove off the hitcher turned to the driver what did you say your name was my name's simon the hitcher stared in shock simon grinned the headlights of a passing car glinted off the knife blade in simon's hand the end okay so that's the escaped man by ct platt what were the questions i asked you where does this take place was the first one and the answer to that question is that the story takes place somewhere in the uk i think it's england and in fact since the um the killer escape from the from an institute in manchester i think it must take place in the north of england somewhere uh british english or american english it's british english as we will see in a moment as i go through the the story line by line i'll point out um the things that show that it's british english and thirdly what is going to happen next well i just wanted to kind of keep you on your toes but did you did you um see that twist coming because there was a twist in the story that sort of thing is called a twist did you see the twist coming some of you will have seen it coming the first time i read this i have to be honest i sort of saw it coming because the way the story was setting things up seemed a bit too obvious and i thought well there's going to be a twist here let me explain what happened then so a man was driving through the rainy streets of england somewhere and he sees a hitchhiker and it's raining very heavily so he lets the hitchhiker in the hitchhiker behaves a little bit suspiciously and seems to be a bit disdainful or hateful towards the driver and it seems the the the way the characters are described it it sort of presents the driver as a much more normal person wearing a suit they've been to work just friendly uh giving someone a ride in their car and the hitch hiker is presented as someone with wild red hair they do something a bit more unconventional in their work writing a book about a serial killer he seems to be a bit sort of um anti-establishment or anti-social in some way he seems like a slightly scary character and then we hear on the radio that a serial killer has escaped from an institute an institute would be a hospital or something like that and so naturally we think that it's the hitchhiker with his crazy appearance and his scruffy uh look and his kind of serious slightly psychotic um behavior but then it turns out that the serial killer is the driver of the car because the the next news bulletin explains that the psychotic killer escaped from a hospital changed their clothes into a suit and stole a car and the name is simon hughes and this person's wearing a suit the driver and he's in a car and so the hitchhiker sort of gets shocked and realizes that this could be the killer and it turns out that the the driver is also called simon and then at the end they've got a knife uh a traffic light or um another light from a car reflects off the blade of the knife uh which shows that the driver is going to kill the hitchhiker the next victim so there you go that was the twist that it was the driver that was the killer not the hitchhiker i wonder how many of you uh noticed that twist before it happened okay now it's time to get into the english teaching side of this and so i'm now going to break the story down line by line and what we're looking for what i'm looking for are bits of vocabulary so this could be phrases or any outstanding bits of vocabulary that i think were likely to be a bit more difficult the standard stuff i think that most people will will understand at an intermediate level or something we're looking for phrases and bits of language that are a bit beyond that kind of level and anything else that i think is worth pointing out okay right so here we go the escaped man by ct platt the rain was falling heavily now what i'd like to point out here is simply that stories often begin with past continuous this is past continuous the rain was falling heavily in fact it's a bit of a cliche that stories begin with the rain falling you know it's a sort of a cliched way to begin a mysterious story it's just to say that it was raining heavily the rain was falling heavily now stories often begin with past continuous because we use past continuous like this that's the verb be in the past that's was or were plus an ing form we use this to set the context in which the the main events of the story happen so for example you know it could be the sun was shining and the birds were singing i was driving along in my car when something happened and those past continuous contextual things always get interrupted or or are followed by past simple past simple these are the main events of the story this happened then this happened then this happened just the main events of the story one after the other whereas past continuous this thing was happening here was the situation interrupted by a past simple event the rain was falling heavily um he eased off the accelerator a little bit okay there's also past perfect which is used to describe background details backstory for example uh the rain was falling heavily it hadn't rained like this for months you know this is the first time this was the first time it had rained like this so we used past perfect to describe events before the main events that we're talking about i'm pretty sure there's no past perfect in this story though but we do get bits of um past continuous again just to establish the context we'll point them out as we go through falling heavily yes the rain was falling heavily it was like driving through a thick curtain of water it was like doing something so just you know nice descriptive language this is what we call a simile whenever you use the word like it was like blah blah blah you know the sun was like an orange in the sky um the rain was like a thick curtain of water in fact it's it probably was a thick curtain of water but anyway it was like and then an ing form meaning it was similar to this it was like driving it was like walking it was like you know um teaching um it was like driving through a thick curtain of water that's fairly clear he eased off the accelerator a little the accelerator is the pedal in the car that makes the car drive faster that's the accelerator it's a pedal on the floor and you press your foot on it in order to go in order to move forwards but if he eased off the accelerator to ease off means to put less pressure on or to slow down basically but when you when you're pressing your foot on the accelerator you have to press it down with some force and if you ease off it means you put less pressure on use less force take your foot off the accelerator a little bit and slow down he eased off the accelerator had to be careful driving on wild nights like these wild meaning normally we have wild to describe animals uh which are not domesticated or not pets like uh you know an elephant would be a wild animal or any other animal that you would encounter in the wild like a bear or just a you know any kind of bird these are wild animals wild nights wild nights like these where the rain is is falling down heavily we don't quite know what's going to happen it's a bit dangerous wild means un unpredictable and potentially dangerous the last thing you'd want is to have an accident or breakdown the last thing you'd want this is quite a nice phrase the last thing now it could be the last thing you want or the last thing you'd want so it can you could have wood here or or not and this is wood by the way the last thing you'd want is to have an accident um you can use that for other things like you know you should probably take an umbrella and right you should probably take an umbrella with you because the last thing you want is to get caught in the rain you know best pack some water with you because the last thing you want is to get thirsty on the road you know so the last thing you'd want is to have an accident or breakdown and this is a breakdown okay the noun a breakdown this is when the car has a problem and doesn't drive anymore that's a breakdown that's the noun we also have the verb version and that's to break down notice that we if it's a verb we stress the second part to break down okay you better take some fuel you wouldn't want to break down the last thing you'd want is to break down the last thing you'd want is to have a breakdown so you have a breakdown or you break down you hear the difference in stress so when it's a noun the first syllable is stressed breakdown and when it's a verb the second part is stressed to break down the last thing you'd want is to have an accident or breakdown you just want to be at home on these stormy nights the thwack thwack of the windscreen wipers was hypnotic so windscreen wipers these are the things that on a car that helps to keep the water off the windscreen they wipe the water away right those things they're called windscreen wipers because the glass here on the front is the windscreen by the way yes british english this is um british english windscreen in american english they call it the windshield but in the uk it's called the windscreen okay so the thwack thwack of the windscreen wipers thrack this these are this is an onomatopoeia a word that sounds like what it's describing and it's just describing the noise that the windscreen wipers make thwack flak thwack the thwack thwack of the windscreen wipers was hypnotic meaning it's sort of like um the repetitive sound hypnotized the driver a little bit or something like that sort of a hypnotic repetitive sound starts to put you into a trance or something he stared out into the glow of the headlights stared meaning looked intensely like that without looking away he stared out into the glow of the headlights so as other car i guess the glow of his headlights forming a glow where as the rain is coming down a glow into the darkness the rain sounded like white noise interference as it battered the car white noise interference so interference would be noise which comes in let's for example let's say for example you're talking on the telephone or you're listening to the radio and if there's other noise like that's interference it's noise that interferes something else that you're doing like listening to the radio you have to tune the radio to try and try and get rid of the interference so the rain on the car sounded like white noise interference as it battered the car so we know what interference is it's noise that sort of interrupts something but um white noise white noise is is a form of noise that has no distinguishable distinguishable characteristics to it no rhythm no melody or anything like that it's just like the noise that you get when you turn on an old tv and you unplug the aerial from the back and you just get that's white noise so the rain sounded like white noise interference as it battered the car batter means hit bam bam bam right he was reminded of the opening scenes of a hitchcock film so alfred hitchcock has was a filmmaker famous for his dramatic storytelling his dramatic visual storytelling and this is the sort of way that hitchcock films would often begin hitchcock films are also known for uh featuring like death killers murderers serial killers and things like that so it's sort of a bit like the beginning of a classic hollywood thriller or something like that through the wash of the rain he spotted a figure at the side of the road the person wore a green parker and had their thumb jerked out right through the wash of the rain he spotted a figure at the side of the road a figure means the outline of a person okay so he he spotted a figure at the side of the road now the outline of a person the person wore a green parker a green parker is like a long green coat with a hood on it and had their thumb jerked out so your thumb obviously that when you go hitchhiking your thumb is what you stick out so people can see that you're hitchhiking he had his jump his jump no jump is not a word i don't know what that is he had his thumb jerked out to jerk out i guess means to stick out so to jerk your thumb out just stick your thumb out so people can see it he had his jump his jump again what do i keep saying jump i don't know he had his thumb jerked out like that showing that he was hitchhiking why on earth would anyone be hitchhiking tonight surely you would just stay put until the morning they must have been in a rush to get where they were going why on earth would anyone be hitchhiking tonight so this on earth we use this to sort of emphasize our questions and on earth goes after the wh question word so if it's for example why what are you doing what on earth are you doing uh where are you going where on earth are you going who are you who on earth are you and so on how did you do that how on earth did you do that so it just makes the question more emphatic why on earth would anyone be hitchhiking tonight surely you would just stay put until the morning to stay put is to stay in one place without moving just stay put stay put until i get back wait here stay put don't move stay put means stay in the same place they must have been in a rush to get where they were going so the person is speculating here it's in the past so that's why it must have been he's certain that the person was in a rush now why would this be why would this person be in a rush maybe they're trying to escape or something like that this is what the story is sort of suggesting to you it's cleverly written because the story is telling you this person is escaping the hitchhiker is escaping from something they're in a rush to escape they're rushing to to escape for some reason i don't think the character is russian though i think they're both british that was the russian joke anyway he signaled down and pulled over so when you're driving you signal with your indicators click click click click click click signal left signal right in this case he signaled down suppose it means he signals to pull over and he pulled over to pull over is when the car pulls up at the side of the road and stops right just like a taxi pulls over in order to pick someone up the car pulled over in order to pick up the hitchhiker pull over and pull up as well means basically the same thing stop at the side of the road so he signaled and pulled over the hitchhiker climbed in he shut the door quickly glad to be out of the rain if you're glad it means you're happy you're relieved ah what a relief to be out of the rain he pulled his hood back and sighed say that side ah that's the sigh he pulled his hood back and her side he was somewhere in his mid-20s and had wild red hair and a thick beard wild red hair i suppose his messy red hair and a thick beard awful night a said the driver the driver is quite friendly now the driver is on this side if you're watching the video you'll see that the driver looks to his left because we are in britain and in britain we drive on the left okay which is in fact the right side of the road i know what you you think left that's wrong no left is right because left is right and right is wrong it doesn't matter of course but anyway in the uk we drive on the left so if you drive on the left then the driver's seat is on the right of the car so as a driver as the driver i'm looking this way when i talk to the hitchhiker and the hitchhiker's looking this way so the driver says all for night a awful night trying to be friendly and the hitchhiker held his gaze for a long moment someone's gaze is the way that they are looking so he held his gaze for a long moment meaning he stared at him like this in his eyes what did he say awful night and then the hitchhiker's response is to do this just holding his gaze holding his eyes for a long moment drops of rain water trickled down his face yes yes it is this is the bit i enjoy i enjoy doing the faces of the driver in the hitchhiker yes it is yeah said the hitchhiker what's up with this hitchhiker where's he going in such a hurry and why has he got such weird behavior the driver pulled out which is the opposite of pull over in this case pull out into the road to drive away and continue through the storm the hitchhiker glanced over his shoulder into the blackness behind him glance is sort of like take a quick look again what's the uh what's this hitchhiker escaping from huh like seems a bit suspicious glancing over his shoulder you okay said the driver the hitcher simply nodded yeah man yeah man i'm okay like are you are you okay yeah i think so hmm suspicious behavior they drove on in silence for a short while they drove on me means they continued driving so they drove on in silence so in goes with silence in silence and on goes with drive so they drove on in silence for a short while the bbc radio phone in blaring out from the car's speakers filled in for conversation so the bbc radio phone-in bbc radio another indication that this is in the uk because the bbc's the british broadcasting corporation um and a radio phone-in so phone-in that's a phrase a phone-in is a radio show where people phone in listeners can phone in meaning send telephone calls to the radio station and talk to the presenter during the show it's a kind of chat show format the radio phone in so the bbc radio phone in blaring out from the car speakers blaring out just means not making a loud noise so music blares out from speakers a radio show blares out from the radio so the bbc radio phone in blaring out from the car speakers filled in for conversation fill in fill in this is when something is missing and you put something else in uh as a replacement for example if normally you have sarah as your english teacher and one day you come to school and sarah's not there and i'm there instead and everyone's like where's sarah and i said i'm afraid sarah's sick today she can't come to school today because she's not well but i'm filling in for sarah today okay to fill in in this case i replaced sarah for a day uh in the case of the story the radio phoning the noise of the radio filled in for conversation because there was no conversation so the radio sort of filled in the noise instead replaced the conversation that wasn't happening they listened to the radio and their own thoughts as they moved on just listen to the radio listen to your thoughts is a phrase that we do say as they moved on so we've got drive on move on what else have we got with on i'm sure there are others hmm i'm sure there are others with on but anyway we've got drive on and then move on right they listened to the radio and their own thoughts as they moved on move on continue moving uh drive on continue driving where are you headed ask the driver headed to be headed somewhere means to be going somewhere somewhere is your destination okay for example i'm just heading to the pub do you want to come when you get to the pub you head to the bar once you've got your drinks you head to a table you see and then when you're finished you head home okay where are you headed meaning where are you going basically north pointed the hitcher pointed i don't know why it was necessary for the hitcher to point north at this in this case where are you going north all right got my compass north that way all right are you traveling to visit friends there's so for the driver he's trying to make polite conversation i imagine that the driver would be using that sort of intonation like i'm just trying to make conversation so um are you traveling to visit friends or that sort of thing now by the way you could repeat after me as we go through this you could even go back to the beginning of this episode this video and repeat each line after me and try and copy my intonation that can actually be a very good thing to do obviously listen understand the story understand the bits of english i'm explaining to you but try to repeat the lines from the story as well and try and give some color and performance to it as well so you could skip back to the beginning of this and after each line pause and repeat the line after me try and make it sound like the way i did it as well um you traveling to visit friends are you are you are you traveling not are you traveling but are you traveling are you traveling to visit friends hmm that's what hmph means it means the driver couldn't tell if that was a yes or no he couldn't identify if hmm was a yes or no he adjusted his tie nervously so if you're wearing a tie which is the thing that goes around your neck when you're wearing a suit and that's pronounced suit by the way not sweet or suit it's suit so when you're wearing a suit with a tie sometimes you need to adjust the tie as it's around your neck if it's a bit tight or something or it might just be a nervous habit to adjust your time adjust meaning change the way it's positioned change the position of something he adjusted his tie nervously the hitcher stared at him in his suit and tie so i'm imagining here that the hitcher has got nothing but contempt for this driver in his suit and tie just a someone who works an ordinary nine to five job the hitcher seems to be sort of an alternative type person who probably has contempt for people who work normal jobs so the hitches stared at him in his suit and tie with a disgusting look of contempt on his face the hitcher seems scruffy scruffy means untidy in comparison in his parker and pink floyd t-shirt this is the hitcher right do you work around here yes said the driver so this is where i as the driver i'm trying to be as innocent as possible yes said the driver i was stuck late at the office you know how it is oh he's maybe a bit posh yeah i was stuck late in the office you know how it is no not really says the hitcher unfriendly again they drifted into silence oh bit awkward they drifted into silence drift so when a boat is on the water it moves slowly right it moves eventually over time it drifts and you can drift into silence as well that's when you slowly drift into sight to suddenly slowly become silent so they're just sitting there in silence the talk radio show carried on so we got to drive on to move on to carry on the talk radio show carried on as they drove through the wind and rain the hitcher shifted in his seat that means he sort of changed his seating position maybe his bum was getting tired or something maybe he was feeling a little uh nervous or anxious anyway he shifted in his seat and stared out the windscreen or stared out of the windscreen windscreen is the big window at the front of the car that's the windscreen then you've got the back window you've got the side windows but the main one at the front is called the windscreen in america the windshield that's what they call it there they're wrong of course it's a windscreen oh got the sounds of drilling outside no music the hitcher asked full of hate and murderous rage no music he said sharpening his knife no music then uh what is there no music we could listen to i i really like the talk the radio talk shows i'm i'm not really a music fan said the driver the hitches eyes glazed over for a moment if your eyes glaze over it's like you suddenly become very bored or it's like you're not really there so i'm going to try and show you my eyes glazing over on video so this is me all alert and looking wide awake but if my eyes glaze over it's like i'm not really concentrating on at all i'm not really looking at anything in particular i'm just lost in my own thoughts my eyes are glazed over a bit like if i go into one of my classrooms full of students learning english and i say okay everyone today we're going to do nine hours of pure grammar and everyone's eyes probably would just glaze over as they mentally switch off so anyway the hitchhiker's eyes glazed over for a moment and then he spoke and this is where the hitchhiker is revealing his slightly psychotic personality maybe and he says i like listening to music it calms me down [Music] when i'm in a murderous rage the music calms me down anyway i like listening to music it calms me down said the hitchhiker in a slightly psychotic moment the driver said nothing i've got a nutter in the car several miles later here's another indication that we are in the uk because we use miles uh rather than kilometers a mile is about 1.6 kilometers or kilometers several miles later there was a news bulletin on the radio show a bulletin just means a little news report the reporter tried to remain professional as she read the announcement so apparently the pro the reporter was sort of shocked or nervous but tried to remain professional and now i'm i do this i'm going to do this in my bbc news report voice we're getting reports that a patient has escaped from a manchester psychiatric institution the man is said to be psychopathic and is said to have a history of murder so um we're getting reports that a patient has escaped from from a manchester psychiatric institution that's fairly clear grammar wise vocab wise a psychiat psychiatric institution would be a sort of a hospital for people with psychiatric disorders that's mental disorders here's some grammar the man is said to be psychopathic and is said to have a history of murder this is just another way of saying that people say the man is psychopathic we don't know who said this or maybe it's not important who said this or it's obvious who said this it's probably going to be doctors at the institute the institution but it's a common phrase is said to be meaning people say so the man is said to be psychopathic and he's said to to have a history of murder oh the hitcher jabbed a finger on the button on the radio panel jabbed we got jerked his thumb out for hitchhiking and now he's jabbing his finger on the button to jab your finger on the button means to poke the button to quickly press the button bing like that quickly in order to in this case interrupt the radio broadcast so the hitcher quickly switches off the radio or switches the channel tiny pop music blurted out from the speakers so here's blurted out again meaning when the noise comes out no we had blair out didn't we before b-l-a-r-e blaring out from the speakers blurting out from the speakers is basically the same thing people can blurt out as well that's when you say something that without really thinking about it bam the word just comes out he blurted out the answer without thinking about it for example so in this case teeny pop music blurted out from the speakers tinny tin tin is a form of metal but if you say that music is tinny it means that it's trebley it doesn't sound deep and rich it's just that sort of just very trebley sounds teeny music pop music blurted out from the speakers the driver stared at his passenger his question unasked so the driver is kind of shocked about the news report someone is somebody escaped a murderer is on the loose a murderer and the hitchhiker's just quickly turned off the radio or turned the channel and so the driver is looking at his passenger like this did i look the right way in the story i can't remember like that i hate the news answer the hitcher it's so depressing it brings me down depressing means makes you feel sad and depressed it brings me down means it makes you feel sad and depressed don't bring me down with your bad news you're bringing me down this this sad music is bringing me down there's never any good news is there said the hitcher the driver didn't reply don't worry i'm not the killer said the hitcher fidgeting with his coat the hitches fidgeting with his coat if you're fidgeting with something it means you're sort of playing with something in your hands maybe because you're nervous or you're thinking about something but fidgeting means kind of playing with something in your fingers i always fidget with my train tickets don't worry i'm not the killer said the hitcher fidgeting with his coat no said the driver i mean no of course you aren't they drove on listening to the crappy pop music crappy means bad uh and over excited radio djs the djs on djs on radio shows they're always very excited like this in fact they're too excited they're over excited you're listening to the drive times show on raby radio excited fm um the rain pounded on the car bam bam bam bam what do you do for a living asked the driver the hitcher was quiet for a moment then he grinned i can't really do a grin you've got to be a really good actor he's quiet for a moment then a grin is normally it can be quite scary i'm a writer he said oh really how interesting have you had anything published says the driver no as yet i'm an undiscovered artist oh another scary thing not only is this person slightly crazy and ginger but also they're an undiscovered writer sort of person who has been slaving away writing but um no one has discovered their artistic talent and we know don't we from history that when poor artists don't get recognized what happens that's right they try to take over the world and and try and kill everyone so this is another scary thing about this hitcher that's not only does he have ginger hair which is obviously terrifying especially on a dark night i'm joking of course but also he's an undiscovered artist so he probably hates society and hates people like this idiot in the suit and the driver says i'm sure you'll make it what are you working on at the moment i'm writing a novel oh yes it's about a serial killer the driver didn't speak he flicked the radio station back on flick flick flick flick flick you flick a switch flick means pune um hit something with your finger quickly so you flick a switch or you might flick let's say imagine this there's a peanut sitting on a table you don't want to eat it you want to fire the peanut across the garden so ping you flick it with your finger that's flick as well flick a switch flick the channel on the radio um a man was rambling on with himself about the change in days his wheeling be his wheelie bins were emptied so a man was just talking about uninteresting things rambling means talking without any specific purpose or direction long-term listeners my podcast should know rambling is what i do on the podcast quite a lot talking without um a specific focus just letting yourself talk and meander and go from one subject to the other and it's rambling with an a not with a u uh people often write in comment sections and stuff i love your rumbling it's not rumbling rumbling is the sound of thunder that's rumble ramble r-a-m-b-l-i-n-g talking with without any particular direction also rambling means walking in the countryside uh for enjoyment so anyway a man was rambling on meaning continuing to ramble so we've had drive on move on ramble on carry on a man was rambling on with himself about the change in days his wheelie bins were empties wheelie bins are big bins big rubbish bins um that you put all your rubbish in in your black rubbish bags so you in your kitchen you've got your rubbish bin with a black bag in it and you put your rubbish in there and then when it's full you tie it up take it outside and put it into your wheelie bin and the wheelie bin is outside normally the front of the house and when the rubbish removal people come with their big van they take the bin and wheel it on its wheels to the back of the van and then tip the contents into the into the back of the truck where it gets crushed so a wheelie bin is a large plastic rubbish bin with wheels on it which you can move around and wheelie bins get emptied by the council when they bring their rubbish fan through and apparently this man on the radio was basically talking about nothing important talking about the days when his wheelie bins were changed so nothing particularly important just typical uh radio talk show stuff where can i drop you ask the driver meaning where can i you know deliver you in this in this car meaning stop the car let you get out you pick someone up in a car you give someone a lift and you drop someone somewhere you can just drop me outside the cinema drop me outside the office where can i drop you ask the driver the hitcher said nothing when the driver glanced around had a quick look round his eyes uh uh his passenger had his eyes closed he was either asleep or feigning slumber slumber means sleep feigning means pretending faking feigning slumber then means pretending to be asleep so he was either asleep or pretending to be asleep he was either asleep or feigning slumber so he was when his eyes closed they drove on through the storm down the snaking lanes lanes are roads narrow little roads snaking means they're turning left to right here we have on comfortable.com the picture that normally accompanies this line of the story is not available and instead we've got like a car that says this content is not available in the background instead of a picture of some rain or something anyway the story continues an hour later the storm still growled and raged growled that's growl is what a a frightening animal would do like a tiger or a lion or a crocodile or whatever it is the storm still growled and raged the hitcher looked out of the window the driver steered the car in silence steer the car turn left and turn right another news bulletin came over the radio so by the way at this point we all think that the driver is a nice person who just works in an office and who took pity on this hitcher and we think the hitchhiker or the hitchhiker is some kind of crazy um anti-social madman who wants to murder everybody especially this guy in a suit another news bulletin came over the radio we're getting more information on the escaped patient the killer's name is simon hughes he escaped from the green pastures institute earlier this evening okay more more information his name is simon hughes he escaped from the green pastures pastures institute sounds like a sort of institute for mentally ill people earlier this evening simon hughes made his escape by changing from his hospital issue uniform into a suit and tie and pretending to be one of the medical staff he stole a car and drove off okay so this is where the twist happens this is when we realized that the killer the escaped killer is in fact the driver of the car because he escaped by changing from his hospital uniform into a suit and tie and pretending to be one of the medical staff he stole a car and drove off the hitcher turned to the driver what did you say your name was now as far as i know the the driver hasn't given his name yet am i right i don't think this the driver's actually given his name but anyway this is the question that you ask when someone has already told you their name and you want to ask again what did you say your name was what did you say your name was meaning what's what's your name again what did you sorry what did you say your name was you've already told me but i'm asking again what did you say your name was another way of saying it is uh what was your name again sorry what was your name again my name's simon said the driver the hitcher stared in shock simon grinned the headlights of a passing car glinted off the knife blade in simon's hand dun dun dun simon is the killer and he's got a knife simon grin the headlights of a passing car glinted off the simon of the knife blade so the headlights reflected glinted off the knife blade in simon's hand and that is the end of the story okay there you go all right listeners okay viewers so that's been um another story on luke's english podcast i hope you've enjoyed it um listen to some of my other episodes i've got lots and lots of other episodes with stories loads of them in fact on my youtube channel i've got a playlist which is called stories and obviously that's going to contain stories but not all of my episodes are on youtube you should know so go to my website teacherluke.co.uk and you can find the episode archive let's have a quick look here then i can show you so to the website click on episodes and then you will find the entire episode archive and i've got over 700 i've got nearly 750 episodes here a lot i've been doing this for 12 years okay the podcast is mainly an audio podcast i also do youtube videos sometimes i've been doing more youtube videos recently but if you are someone who's just discovered my podcast on youtube you should know that i have loads of episodes of the audio podcast which you can listen to and if you're thinking luke can you do us an episode about this can you do an episode about that can you do more stories there's a good chance that i've done episodes about the things you're interested in and i have done lots of stories before so if i just type in story we'll see what we find let's have a little look here um i did one about michael jackson episode 19. let's see number 29 is a mystery story that i wrote uh which also you can use to learn narrative tenses you heard me talking about past continuous and past perfect and past simple you get all of that from episode 29. let's just have a look at a couple of other examples um we've got sick in japan is this true story of how i ended up in a hospital bed i thought i was gonna die in japan luckily i was okay the pink gorilla story is a an improvised story full of comedy and a stupid chase i get chased by a pink gorilla through the streets of london and there are many many more things like that more stories and more interviews and all sorts of stuff in the episode archive so check them out thank you so much for listening to this episode of my podcast another thing i should say is that i've got a i've got an app did you know that um in the app store on your phone just search for the luke's english podcast app and you'll be able to get it and this gives you the entire episode archive on your phone including access to tons of uh bonus episodes okay there are app only episodes you might be interested in the one which is called the hyde park mystery story that's a mystery story i wrote and in that story you can learn 50 different ways of walking 50 different words different verbs for walking that's a lot all in an interesting mystery story and that's in my app on your phone soon uh just download the luke's english podcast app on your phone um okay thank you very much for listening thank you for watching don't forget to like and subscribe to my youtube channel and to tell your friends about luke's english podcast i will speak to you again uh very soon but for now it's just time to say goodbye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

Channel: Luke's English Podcast

Views: 67,483

Rating: 4.9651046 out of 5

Keywords: learn, learning, english, lesson, lessons, luke, podcast, luke's, vocabulary, native, speaker, interviews, listening, pronunciation, british, accent, london

Id: mLKqMEynYzo

Length: 55min 47sec (3347 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021