Podcast 47 - B2 the magician - story

Vocabulary for the story and ability in the past

Story starts at 6:29

Hello, and another exciting story for you today. And also, there is an interesting grammatical point attached to it. You may remember from a previous podcast [podcast 5], talking about could and managed to in the past. So if you remember, when we talk about situations in the past, which are continuing for a long time, or I should say, continuing for a long time, then we can use could. For example, when I was little, I could stand on my head. But if it's just a single event in the past, then we have to use managed to, or was able to. For example, last week, I had a puncture on my bicycle, the tyre of my bicycle had a puncture, and I was able to fix it, or I managed to fix it. We can't say ~~I could fix it~~, because it's a single event in the past. So, there are a few examples of that and some vocabulary for you to listen out for while I'm telling you the story.

Well, then we've got a cruise liner, one of those huge ships, which take passengers on holidays around the Mediterranean, for example. And then we've got the word to cheer - hooray, hooray, - to cheer, C-H double E-R. Then we have a little expression - to be an overnight success. That means to be successful in a very short period of time. Like so many people today, on those competition shows on the television. They come from nowhere, and they sing a couple of songs and make themselves famous, so they are an overnight success. And then we have fame and fortune. Now that's a little collocation, I suppose. We put those words together, fame and fortune. So to enjoy fame and fortune is to enjoy being famous and being very rich and wealthy.

And then again, we have a drunk in my story, somebody who drinks too much alcohol, and we have the verb to heckle. Now that is spelled H-E-C-K-L-E. And to heckle is when there is a show going on, for example, and people don't like it. And from the audience, they begin to shout and boo, booooo! They say get off, you're no good. That is to heckle. And then we have another little word combination - fits of laughter - to be in fits of laughter, meaning to be laughing very, very much.

And then we have another word which is to dwindle, D-W-I-N-D-L-E and to dwindle is to decrease, it's to disappear slowly. In this story, you'll see that the main character sees his possibility of becoming rich and famous dwindle.

And then we have a grinding noise - to grind G-R-I-N-D is to mix two things together with something which makes a lot of noise as it rubs together like stone on a stone or on metal. You grind coffee, for example, coffee beans to make the powdered coffee - to grind. But in this case, though, is the grinding of an iceberg against the side of a ship. I'll say no more, as I'll give away the end of the story!

And then we have to scramble. S-C-R-A-M-B-L-E, to scramble is to make your way from one place to another as best you can, usually by pulling yourself along with your hands and pushing yourself along with your feet. That is to scramble.

Okay, that's enough of the vocabulary. But listen out for those words, as I go through the story and the use of managed to, be able to and could and listen to the context that I use them in.

The story of the magician

The magician

Arthur Pinkerton managed to find a job as a magician, a magician on a cruise liner that crossed the Mediterranean Sea, taking its passengers from one port to the other. And of course, you need a lot of entertainment for the passengers at night. So they have things to do. Watching interesting shows. And Arthur Pinkerton had a wonderful show as a magician.

And every evening, he did his tricks to entertain the passengers. He could make rabbits, ladies watches and bunches of flowers appear and disappear. And he was very pleased because the audience loved his show. They clapped and cheered. They loved him so much. He was a real professional. There was nothing he could do wrong. Every trick worked just beautifully. He was an overnight success. All the passengers from the cruise liner wanted to come and watch his show. And Arthur thought that one day soon, he would enjoy fame and fortune.

But then one evening, a drunk at the back of the room, started heckling. "The rabbit is in his coat," he shouted out. "He's got the watch in his pocket." Or, "the flowers are behind his back". Arthur couldn't make the drunk shut up and the audience was in fits of laughter. They thought it was so funny. And Arthur's hopes of reaching greatness in the entertainment world began to dwindle.

Then suddenly, there was a loud grinding noise [grinding noises] and the ship trembled violently and rolled over onto one side. The audience began to scream and rush about in panic. The ship had hit an iceberg. And in a few minutes it had sunk. Arthur and the drunk survived and were able to swim to a large piece of floating wood and scramble onto it. Out of breath, cold and frightened, the drunk turned towards Arthur and said, "Okay, I give up. Where did you hide the ship?"