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Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 600, Talking About Sight.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 600.

I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development

in beautiful Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, California, visit our website at ESLPOD.com, become a member of ESL Podcast,

and you can get our learning guides for each of our current episodes that will help you

improve your English even faster.

This episode is called Talking About Sight, about how you see and voice your voice.

It's a vocabulary related to seeing.

Let's get started.

This medication I'm taking is messing with my vision.

Everything is blurry.

That's a good reason for you to stay home from work today.

I can't.

I have to give a presentation.

I have to give a presentation this afternoon, and I can't flake out on my co-workers.

What good are you to them if you're blind as a bat?

Everybody else will have crystal clear vision, so all I have to do is to put in an appearance.

Things may not be as sharp as I'd like them to be, but I can still make out people and

objects.

As long as they're really big.

I don't think your co-workers are going to want you to blindside them today with your

strange behavior.

You're going to do more harm than good.

I can see well enough.

I only see double if I move my head like this.

Whoa!

At this point, I can't see.

At this point, I don't care if you have x-ray vision.

That medication is affecting more than your vision.

It's impairing your better judgment.

Sue begins our dialogue by saying,

This medication I'm taking is messing with my vision.

Everything is blurry.

Medication is just another word for medicine or a drug that you take to help your health.

To mess with is an informal expression, meaning to interfere with something or someone.

To make something more difficult.

To get in someone's way in order to make something more difficult for them.

You may say to someone,

That's a rather strong statement.

You're saying,

Here, however, Sue just means that

the medication is messing with your vision.

The medication is interfering with or affecting in a negative way

her vision.

Vision.

V-I-S-I-O-N

is another word for eyesight,

which means how well or how poorly you're able to see things.

If you have what we might call perfect eyesight,

we would say you have 20-20%.

Meaning, you are able to see without any glasses.

Well, Sue does not have 20-20 vision.

She says everything is blurry.

B-L-U-R-R-Y

When things are blurry, they are unclear.

We would say they are not in focus.

Your eyes can't see them clearly.

It's sort of like they are closed.

There are clouds around them.

Or you can't see where one thing begins and another ends.

Another adjective we might use in this situation

when talking about vision is fuzzy.

F-U-Z-Z-Y

Blurry is probably more common, however.

Hamid says,

That's a good reason for you to stay home

from work.

He's telling her that she should not go to work

because her vision is blurry.

Sue, however, says,

I can't.

I can't stay home.

I have to give a presentation this afternoon.

And I can't flake out on my co-workers.

The expression to flake,

F-L-A-K-E,

out

is a two-word phrasal verb

meaning not to do something

you are supposed to do.

Especially something you are supposed to do

with another person.

For example,

you say that you are going to go to a movie

with your friend

and that you will meet at the movie theater.

But then you decide you're not going to go to the movie

and you're not going to go to the movie.

And you don't even tell your friend.

That would be to flake out.

Even if you did tell your friend,

that could also be considered flaking out,

especially if you do it at the last minute,

meaning right before the actual time

you are supposed to go to the movie.

We can also use the verb to flake

to mean the same thing,

but to flake out is probably more

common, the two-word phrasal version.

Sue is giving a presentation

with some of her co-workers,

people with whom she works,

and so cannot stay home.

Hamid says,

What good are you to them

if you're blind as a bat?

What good are you to them

means how are you going to help them

if you are blind as a bat?

Blind as a bat.

This is an old expression in English.

To be blind means to be unable to see.

A bat is an animal

that I was told in school doesn't see.

So to be blind as a bat

means that you cannot see.

You're unable to see very well.

Sue says everybody else will have

crystal clear vision.

Things that are crystal

C-R-Y-S-T-A-L

clear

are things that are very clear,

very easy to see,

or very easy to understand.

You can use this not just for

vision,

eyesight,

you can also use it to talk about

vision,

an explanation, for example.

This explanation is crystal clear.

I can understand it easily.

We hope these explanations

are crystal clear to you.

Sue says all she has to do

is to put in an appearance.

To put in an appearance

means to show up,

to be seen in a particular place,

even if you don't do anything important,

even if you don't stay there very long.

My friend is getting married.

I don't really want to go

to the party after the wedding,

what we call the wedding reception,

but I need to put in an appearance

at the church where he's getting married.

I need to go there and be seen.

Sue says things may not be as sharp

as I'd like them to be,

but I can still make out people and objects

as long as they're really big.

Sharp here means easy to see,

easy to understand,

clearly defined,

something similar to crystal clear.

Sharp, however, has several other meanings

in English,

and those can be found in our learning guide.

She says that she can still make out

people and objects.

To make out is a two-word phrasal verb

that means to be able to see something

when it is otherwise difficult to see,

usually because it is too far away.

You see someone walking

20 miles an hour,

toward you,

but they are far away,

and you can't make out

if it's a man or a woman.

You can't see clearly enough.

Hamid says,

I don't think your co-workers

are going to want you

to blindside them today

with your strange behavior.

To blindside,

one word,

means to surprise someone,

but in a bad way,

in a negative way,

to do something unexpected

that is very negative.

We were all blindsided

when Jenna shared the company's secrets

with the television reporters.

We were all surprised

in a very negative way.

Hamid says that Sue will blindside

her co-workers,

her colleagues,

her co-workers,

if she can't see.

He says,

you're going to do more harm

than good.

The expression,

to do more harm than good,

means that your actions

or words

will create more problems

than they solve.

It will be more negative

than positive.

Sue says,

I can see well enough.

I only see double

if I move my head like this.

Whoa.

To see double

means to see two images

of something.

If you have too much to drink

or you have taken some medicine,

you may start to see double,

at least some kinds of medicine.

Sue says that she is seeing

two of everything.

She only has that problem

when she moves her head

in a certain way.

But when she does this,

she appears to be affected by it.

She says, whoa,

which is a way of expressing

that you are experiencing

something strange

or something unusual.

Hamid says,

at this point,

I don't care

if you have x-ray vision.

That medication

is affecting more than your vision.

X-ray vision

is the ability

to see through objects,

to see what's inside of something.

If you go to the doctor

and the doctor thinks

that you may have broken a bone,

say in your arm or leg,

they may take you to the doctor.

They may take you to the doctor.

They may take an x-ray.

They may take a special picture

which can see inside,

if you will,

your arm or leg.

To have x-ray vision

is just another way of saying

to have incredibly good eyesight,

magically good eyesight.

I think Superman had x-ray vision.

He could see inside of things.

I'm not sure.

I'll have to ask him

when I talk to him again.

Hameed says,

the medication,

the drugs that Sue is taking

is impairing her better judgment.

To impair,

I-M-P-A-I-R,

means to make something worse,

to make something not as good

as it would normally be.

Talking on a cell phone,

while you are driving,

impairs your ability to drive.

That's true.

In fact,

some research says that

talking on the cell phone and driving

is as bad as drinking and driving.

Both of those things

impair your ability to drive.

Your better judgment

is your ability to know

what is right and wrong,

or what you should,

or what you should do or say

in a particular situation.

Hameed is saying that

the medication is impairing

Sue's better judgment.

She's not able to think clearly

because of the drugs

she's been taking.

Now let's listen to the dialogue,

this time at a normal speed.

This medication I'm taking

is messing with my vision.

Everything is blurry.

That's a good reason for you

to stay home from work today.

I can't.

I have to give a presentation

this afternoon,

and I can't flake out

on my co-workers.

What good are you to them

if you're blind as a bat?

Everybody else will have

crystal clear vision,

so all I have to do

is to put in an appearance.

Things may not be as sharp

as I'd like them to be,

but I can still make out

people and objects,

as long as they're really big.

I don't think your co-workers

are going to want you to be

They're not going to want you

to blindside them today

with your strange behavior.

You're going to do more harm

than good.

I can see well enough.

I only see double

if I've moved my head like this.

Whoa!

At this point,

I don't care if you have

x-ray vision.

That medication is affecting

more than your vision.

It's impairing

your better judgment.

Don't mess with the writer

of today's script.

That's because it was

Dr. Lucy Say.

From Los Angeles, California,

I'm Jeff McQuillan.

Thank you for listening.

Come back and listen to us again

here at ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast

is written and produced

by Dr. Lucy Say,

hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.

Copyright 2010 by the Center

for Educational Development.