Podcast 147 - Six B2 Idioms (part 2)

Addiction (story) starts at 7:50

Mysteries of the Universe (story) starts at 11:06

mysteries of the universe

have an eye for sth - be good at judging something by looking at it e.g. and eye for fashion, an eye for detail

can't keep/take your eyes off somebody/something - like something so much that you can't stop looking at it

look somebody in the eye - look at somebody intently because you have something important to say

be a piece of cake - be very easy to do

take your breath away - what you do when you look at something that is fascinating or beautiful

cross your mind - when an idea comes to you

Addiction

'Where is it, John? I want it back now!' John's father spoke severely and held out his hand. 'Don't just stand there pretending you don't know. I want my mobile phone back now, and I mean it!'

'I haven't got it, Dad.' John said weakly. 'I haven't got it and I don't know where it is!' At just fourteen years of age, John just didn't have enough confidence in himself to be able to lie convincingly. He looked down at the floor or to one side or to the other. He just couldn't stand up straight and look his father in the eye.

His father was furious, and he looked hard at John. 'I'm not going to play any more of your silly games, son. Give me the phone now or you'll be punished. It's not your property, and I want it back now!' He was now breathing hard. John wondered if he would get violent. His father had never hit or slapped him before. But events in their lives were now changing and his father's moods were more and more extreme.

John's body trembled when he spoke the following words. 'Mum doesn't want you to have it, Dad. She said it's destroying you. It's destroying our family. That's why she left yesterday. You shouldn't have the mobile phone, Dad!' Tears began to roll down John's cheeks.

John's father became less sure of himself. He looked away. Now it was he who couldn't look his son in the eye. 'That's none of your business, son. Just give me the phone back. There's nothing wrong with me.'

'Yes there is, Dad. And you know it!' John felt more in control now. He was defending the family - now his mother wasn't here. 'All that betting. You can't stop, can you, Dad? You keep betting and losing. You're spending all the family money. We'll be poor, Dad. You can't go on like this…'

Mysteries of the Universe

Max Headroom's spaceship began to slow down as it reached the end of the wormhole. Max had never been so far from his home planet before. However, what was incredible was that he had only been in space for about twenty-four hours and yet he was now close to the centre of the Galaxy.

Max had discovered the entrance to the wormhole close to the planet, Jupiter. It had been an accidental discovery. He had detected it first of all on his ship's instrument panel. An area of space that was not included on his map, and when he had approached to investigate, he saw the revolving bright ring of material and a dark opening in the middle. It couldn't have been a black hole because there was no force attracting his ship towards it, instead it just existed there - like an open door welcoming a traveller to enter.

There was a lot of the explorer and adventurer in Max and he very much wanted to point his ship towards it and pass through the revolving material and go inside the blackness to find out what would happen.

Space travellers had often spoken about wormholes in conversations on the space travellers' social networks. Apparently, millions of years ago, some believed, an ancient civilization had constructed them to travel about the Galaxy easily and in a much shorter amount of time. It seemed that travelling faster than the speed of light had always been impossible for Mankind. This meant that to reach the Galaxy centre would take at least 26,000 years, so the tunnels had been built to reduce those impossible travel times. Those ancient beings had managed to construct them by somehow bending space to reduce the enormous distance involved. It was a bit like reducing the distance between the top and bottom of a sheet of paper by folding the ends together so they touched.

However, Max thought twice before entering the wormhole. He thought of his promise to his wife, Sheena. They were now back together again at last, but on the condition that Max only took his spaceship no more than once a month on a weekend trip. So, what would happen if he flew his spaceship into this unknown space? Would he ever come back?

Sheena had gone to the doctor's on that same Saturday morning by herself for a checkup to see how the baby was coming along. She'd sent a message to Max on his spaceship, but Max hadn't even opened it yet…

The excitement of the mystery of what existed beyond the tunnel entrance was too much for Max, and he manoeuvred his ship into the ring of bright material. The journey through the wormhole was noisy and the ship shook violently. Max was worried. Would the ship stay in one piece? Perhaps it would break up. It was not the most reliable spaceship, in fact, he had bought it second-hand, and had not had it serviced at the garage for over a year. The journey took several hours and then the noise and the shaking suddenly stopped. Max glanced at his space map and noted his location - just five light-years from the centre of the Galaxy.

The sight before him was astonishing. Space was no longer black and empty, instead it was full of spheres, presumably planets, of bright beautiful colours. Some were tiny spots of light and others were enormous colourful balls hanging majestically in space. Many of the planets had rings around them like Saturn in our solar system, while others were not quite round but looked like shining rainbow-coloured pears. In fact, the whole crowd of these magnificent brightly-coloured objects reminded Max of a sort of celestial bowl of magical fruit.

Max took as many pictures as he could and then knew he must leave as soon as possible. It was not easy to do because there was so much more to discover here, but he knew he had to make a U-turn and head back to the exit of the wormhole. Perhaps one day he could come back and explore this region more but he now felt guilty about his wife and her visit to the doctor's. He should have gone with her. Max forced himself to look away from that fascinating sight no human being had ever seen before and he turned the ship around.

To distract his attention from the extraordinary view outside, he opened up the message he had received from Sheena. There was no text, which Max found strange at first. But then he noticed there was a video attached. He quickly opened it - hoping it would not be bad news. But what he saw was more beautiful and more extraordinary than anything he had seen that day and when the video started to play it took his breath away.

The video screen was nearly all black but not quite. In the middle there was a ring of bright lights, and when Max looked closely he could make out the shape of a large head and a small body looking as though they were floating in space. Occasionally it moved but very slightly. It was an ultrasound scan of his unborn child. An audio suddenly began to play. It was Sheena's voice.

'It's our son, Max. The doctor says he's healthy and doing well. Come back. We need you.'