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TOPICS
The Lewis and Clark Expedition; Famous Authors: Anne Rice; to generate versus
to create versus to make; a tad off target; run-on sentence
_____________
GLOSSARY
expedition – a long, often dangerous, journey, to explore an unfamiliar area and
to gather information
* In the movie, scientists sent a group of people on an expedition to the center of
the Earth.
corps – a group of people working together to accomplish something
* Our corps of software engineers is working day and night to find a solution to
the problems our customers reported.
to lay claim to – to say that something belongs to oneself and that no one else
can have it or own it
* Cherise lays claim to being the only woman to have climbed this mountain, but
I’m not sure I believe her.
navigable – passable; for a sea or body of water to be able to be traveled by
boat or ship; passable; able to be traveled
* This lake may be navigable by small boats, but not by a ship of this size.
fur trapper – a person who catches animals to kill them and to sell their fur (the
skin and soft, warm hair that grows on it)
* Fur trappers in this area trap beavers for the making of fur coats.
to split up – for two people or groups to no longer remain or travel together and
to go in separate directions
* If we’re to find our lost dog before it gets dark, we need to split up so we can
search more streets in this neighborhood.
journal – a small book one writes in to record one’s thoughts, actions, and/or
experiences; a written record one keeps of one’s thoughts and life events
* Cynthia’s journal included her most secret thoughts and wishes for her future.
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manifest destiny – the idea that the United States was intended by God to
include the area of land in North American from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
* Many Native Americans were killed as Americans, who believed in manifest
destiny, claimed more and more land for the country.
bicentennial – 200th anniversary; 200 years after an event has taken place
* The United States celebrated its bicentennial in 1976.
vampire – a dead person who drinks the blood of other humans and animals by
biting their necks
* In the movies, vampires often have long teeth used to drink their victims’ blood.
off-and-on relationship – a relationship that exists sometimes and not other
times; for something to be true sometimes and not other times
* Max and Fanny had an off-and-on relationship over eight years before they
finally got married last year.
to renounce – to say that one no longer believes in something or wants to be
part of something
* Myung renounced his membership in the male-only golf club when his daughter
asked him why she couldn’t become a member when she grew up.
to generate – to cause something to exist; to cause something to happen
* Did your sales presentation generate any interest in our new products?
to create – to cause something to exist; to cause something to happen
* Salil created a controversy when he said that he would no longer wear shoes to
work.
to make – to cause something to exist; to cause something to happen; to cause
an action
* Manny didn’t know how to make cookies for the party, so he bought some at
the bakery.
a tad – a little bit; a small amount; somewhat
* These pants fit around the waist, but they’re a tad too tight in the legs.
off target – not correct; inaccurate; mistaken; not what was wanted or expected;
not the intended result
* Your accusations are off target. I haven’t seen my ex-boyfriend for over two
years!
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run-on sentence – a sentence that has two or more independent clauses
(complete sentences) that are joined together without the right punctuation or
conjunction
* June’s essay had so many run-on sentences that the teacher had a difficult
time following her argument.
_____________
WHAT INSIDERS KNOW
Béla Lugosi
With so much interest in vampires in television and movies these days, it is easy
to forget one of the first “on-screen” (on TV or in movies) vampires: Dracula.
Many movies have been made about the character of Dracula, based on the
1897 novel, also called Dracula, written by Irish author Bram Stoker.
In 1927, Béla Lugosi was “cast” (given the acting role) in the Broadway stage
version of Dracula. Lugosi was born in 1882 in Hungary and “dropped out of”
(quit) school when he was only 12 years old to act in the theater, eventually
becoming an actor at the National Theater of Hungary in Budapest.
During World War I, he fought in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and later, he
traveled to the United States by working as a “crewman” (group of workers on a
ship, in a factory, etc.) on a “merchant” (related to the transport of goods and
products) ship.
The Broadway theater production of Dracula was very successful and in 1930,
Lugosi was cast in the same role for the movie version of Dracula. For Lugosi,
playing Dracula was a “two-edged sword” (something that was both good and
bad). While the role made him famous, he was also “typecast” (only seen as
being able to play one type of character or role) as a Dracula-type “villain” (evil
character; bad guy) and he had a very difficult time being considered for other
types of roles. Another “stumbling block” (difficulty) in his acting career in the
U.S. was his Hungarian accent. He often “lost out” (was not selected for) roles
because of his “distinctive” (easy to recognize) accent.
Today, Lugosi is still remembered in the classic role of Dracula. He died in 1956
and was “buried” (placed underground) wearing one of his original Dracula
“costumes” (clothing worn by actors in their roles) from the Broadway stage play.
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COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 297.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 297. I’m
your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational
Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com. Download this episode’s Learning Guide, an 8to 10-page guide we provide for all of our current episodes that gives you some
additional help in improving your English. You can also take a look at our ESL
Podcast Store, with additional courses in English, as well as our ESL Podcast
Blog.
On this Café, we’re going to talk about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, when
people explored the western part of North America in the 19th century; it is one of
the most famous “expeditions” or trips in American history. We’ll also continue
our series on famous authors, talking about an author named Anne Rice. And,
as always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get started.
This Café begins with a discussion about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In
1803, then-President Thomas Jefferson arranged for the United States to buy a
huge piece of land – almost 830,000 square miles or more than 2 million square
kilometers of land – from France. This was known as the Louisiana Purchase;
that’s what it’s called in the United States. It increased the size of the United
States significantly. Basically, the central part of the United States was acquired
by the United States – was put into the possession of the United States during
this time after the Louisiana Purchase.
However, very little was known about that area that the United States just bought
from France. Few white people had explored the area, although there were
many Native American or Indian “tribes” or groups living there. President
Thomas Jefferson wanted to learn about this new “territory” or land that he had
purchased. Normally, you look at what you’re buying before you buy it, but
Jefferson bought it and then went to look at it – or had someone else look at it,
and that someone else was Lewis and Clark. Jefferson organized an expedition.
An “expedition” (expedition) is a long journey, often a dangerous journey, to
explore, to find out about an unfamiliar area. We might talk about an expedition
to the South Pole, for example, or an expedition to outer space, outside of the
area of the planet Earth; these could be called “expeditions.”
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This particular expedition was called the Corps of Discovery. A “corps” (corps –
notice that we don’t pronounce the “p” or the “s” because it comes from French)
is a group of people working together; that’s what a “corps” is. You might have
heard of the Marine Corps, which describes a part of the U.S. military; we also
have the Peace Corps, which sends groups of volunteers to other countries. The
Corps of Discovery was led by a U.S. army captain named Meriwether Lewis and
his partner, William Clark. But the Corps of Discovery soon became known more
by the names of the leaders as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The people on this expedition – the “explorers” we’ll call them, because they
explore, they go and discover new things – had several “missions,” that is,
several things they were trying to do. First, the expedition was laying claim to the
territory. The phrase “to lay (lay) claim (claim) to something” means to say that
something belongs to you, that no one else can have it. The United States had
already bought the land from France, but the country wanted to explore it, to
learn more about it, to, in some ways I suppose, assert their authority over the
land.
The expedition was also supposed to look for a navigable water route across the
continent. Some say this, in fact, was the more important mission. Something
that is “navigable” (navigable) can be traveled by a boat or a ship. In this case,
the United States was hoping to find a river, or a water route, that could be used
to transport people from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the west.
They did not have Google Maps to tell them where the rivers and mountains and
other things were, so the expedition, of course, was going to try to figure that out.
The expedition was also told to learn as much as it could about the plants and
animals living in the territory, and to establish relationships with the Native
American tribes, or groups of American Indians who were living on the land.
There were 33 people in the expedition when left the area later to become
Hartford, Illinois. Illinois is in the central part of the U.S.; it’s where the City of
Chicago is. They left on May 14, 1804. They followed the Missouri River
westward, or towards the west.
Throughout the expedition, they formed relationships with many Native American
tribes and nations. In most cases, the Native Americans helped them. The
expedition members probably would have died without their help finding food and
a place to sleep – shelter. However, there were also many times when Lewis
and Clark almost fought with Native American tribes, especially the Sioux
(Sioux).
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They spent their first winter near what is now Washburn, North Dakota. North
Dakota is just west of Minnesota, on the Canadian – or now on the Canadian
border. While they were there, they met a French fur trapper and his slave wife.
A “slave” is someone you own as property. This “fur trapper” was a person who
trapped animals, or caught animals in order to kill them and then to sell their “fur,”
or their skin and soft, warm hair that grows on it. The fur trapper’s wife was a
Native American woman – a girl really; her name is somewhat controversial.
People have different spellings and pronunciations for it. The closest is probably
something like “Sacagawea,” most Americans pronounce it “Sacagawea,” which
is almost certainly not correct. The spelling that has been agreed upon for most
scholars – most historians, and by the official documents is (Sacagawea). Even
though she was traveling with a young baby, she helped the expedition a great
deal. She was one of their primary translators, since she spoke with some of the
Native American tribes. She also shared her knowledge about how to survive in
this new territory. She’s one of the names that most Americans know from this
period of history. She was what we might call the “go between,” the person in
between the two cultures who helped the white men, the Americans, deal with,
talk with, communicate with the Native American tribes. She has a place in
American history similar to Pocahontas, who became the wife of one of the early
Americans “settlers,” or people who came from Europe to North America. She
was also considered the “go between,” the person who was a cultural “broker,”
we might call her, someone who helps both sides understand each other. So,
Americans have a very positive view of the woman they call Sacagawea.
The expedition spent its second winter near what is now Astoria, Oregon. They
had reached the Pacific Ocean. There was not, unfortunately, a water route, a
series of lakes and rivers that connected the Louisiana Purchase Territory with
the Pacific Ocean. However, they were quite successful in showing that it was
possible to go across this long distance. It’s important to understand, also, that
the expedition was going into territory that was not part of the United States. The
Louisiana Purchase is only what is now the central part of the U.S. This area in
the Northwest – modern-day Washington and Oregon and the Canadian province
of British Columbia – this area was not American territory, and in fact, some
people say that one of the purposes of the Lewis and Clark mission was to make
sure that that they knew about this area so that the British didn’t get there first.
The expedition began its trip back home in March of 1806. The group split up for
a while on the return journey to explore different areas. “To split up” is a twoword phrasal verb meaning to form two small groups. While they were
separated, both groups experienced problems with the Native American tribes,
but they were able to “reunite,” to come back together in August of that year.
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Unfortunately, when the groups reunited, one of the men thought Lewis was an
animal and ended up shooting him in the leg!
The amazing thing is that almost all of the original 33 explorers made it back to
St. Louis, Missouri by September 23, 1806. Of course there were many injuries
and illnesses, but only one man died on the expedition, and that was because of
appendicitis, not because of anything directly related to the expedition.
One of the reasons the Lewis and Clark Expedition became famous in American
history was because of a journal that Lewis and Clark kept. A “journal” (journal)
is a small book where you write down what happens every day, and Lewis and
Clark kept a journal. They took measurements of things; they drew maps, more
than 140; they recorded the existence of more than 200 plants and animals that
were previously unknown to western scientists, and they mentioned more than
70 Native American tribes. So, there was a scientific benefit from this expedition,
as well as a cultural and perhaps even a military one. Now the United States
knew how to get, or at least one way to get into the area between the Louisiana
Purchase and the Pacific Ocean.
Lewis and Clark traveled more than 8,000 miles during their two-and-a-half-year
expedition; they used horses, boats, and sometimes just walking. Overall, the
expedition was a great investment by the U.S. government; it was their first
expedition. It cost about $40,000, or less than a new Mercedes-Benz! They not
only laid claim to the new territory and explored the land, but it also encouraged
other Americans to begin moving into these new territories, to begin moving
westward, which is one of the great themes of American history in the 19th
century.
The expedition, some people say, “underlies,” or forms the foundation or basis of
what became known as “manifest destiny,” the idea that the United States was
“destined,” was intended by God to cover the entire North American continent,
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We don’t have time to talk about
the idea of manifest destiny here, but it was very powerful in American politics in
the 19th century.
Today, there are many statues and monuments to Lewis and Clark along the
route – along the path that they took for their expedition. There were also many
special events during the “bicentennial” or 200th anniversary of the expedition,
from 2003 to 2006. There’s a college named after Lewis and Clark in Portland,
Oregon; it’s called Lewis and Clark College. Imagine that!
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Now let’s turn to our series on famous authors. Today we’re going to talk about
Anne Rice, who has written in many different “genres” or styles or types of
writing. She’s a very popular American author; not considered one of our best
authors, but she has sold a lot of books.
Anne Rice was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1941. She was named by her
parents Howard Allen, which is a very unusual name for a girl; Howard is
normally a boy’s or a man’s name. But Rice began calling herself as Anne at an
early age, and that was probably a good thing since it would have been very
confusing for most people if her name had remained Howard.
Her first novel, and perhaps her most famous one, was Interview with the
Vampire, which was published in 1976. It was later made into a movie starring
Tom Cruise. A “vampire” (vampire) is a dead person who drinks the blood of
other humans and animals by biting their necks. Obviously, vampires are not
real, although I sometimes think that my neighbor is a vampire. It’s possible; he
goes out at night a lot. Hmm. Well, we talked about vampires in English Café
227, so I won’t talk about it too much here. Rice’s book became the first of a
series of books called the Vampire Chronicles. A “chronicle” is a story that takes
place over a long period of time. She also wrote several books about “witches,”
women who have magical powers, especially powers to do bad things.
In 2005, she made a very radical change in her career, we might call it an
“abrupt” (abrupt) or sudden change, when she announced that she was going to
write only for the Lord, for Jesus. She wrote Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and
one other book about the life of Jesus Christ and she plans on writing another
book in that series later this year, in 2011. So, she started writing about
vampires, and she ended – or is coming to the end of her career by writing about
Jesus Christ, the founder the Christian religion.
Anne Rice was raised a Catholic, but she has had an off-and-on relationship with
the Catholic Church throughout her life. An “off-and-on relationship” is something
that sometimes works well, but sometimes doesn’t. Sometimes when people are
dating they have an on-and-off relationship with their boyfriend or girlfriend:
sometimes they love them, sometimes they hate them. Anne Rice has an offand-on relationship with the Catholic Church, meaning that sometimes she
appears very religious in her career, and other times she is no longer wanting to
be associated with the Church. In fact, she left the Catholic Church when she
was 18 years old, but after some medical problems and surgery she returned to
the Church in 2005, although she continued to disagree with some of its
teachings.
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Then, in 2010, just five years later, she renounced Catholicism, or the religion of
the Catholic Church. “To renounce” (renounce) means to say that you no longer
believe in something or want to be part of something. She says she continues to
believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but she does not want to be part of
organized Christianity.
Many people are fascinated by her religious views. Her books are also very
popular and, as I mentioned, have been made into movies. Her vampire novels,
however, are almost certainly what she will be remembered for, regardless of her
relationship with the Church or with Christianity.
Rice is one of the best-selling novelists in the United States, or has been over the
last 34 or 40 years. She has not been considered a great writer, but she has
been a very popular one.
Now let’s answer some of the questions that you have sent to us.
Nam (Nam) from Vietnam wants to know how we use the following three words:
“generate,” “make,” and “create.” “To generate,” “to create,” and “to make” can
all mean to cause something to exist; before there was nothing and then
suddenly there is something. Well, there’s always something; it changes into a
different form perhaps.
“Generate” causes something to exist, and it is used typically in math, science,
and computer science. For example you might to say, “I’m going to use my
computer and try to generate some possible answers to this math problem.” Or,
“The nuclear power plant generates electricity.” It produces it; it makes it; it
causes it to exist.
“Create” can also mean to cause to exist. Usually it is used, however, in art,
religion, and what we might call the “social sciences,” things like sociology or
psychology. “Some people believe God created the universe in six days.” God
created it; He brought it into existence; He caused it to exist.
“Make” is used, also, to mean to cause something to exist, but it’s used more
generally, more commonly. “Shaun made a wonderful dinner.” Or, “The builders
made a beautiful house.” You could say, “Shaun created a wonderful dinner,”
but that wouldn’t be the normal expression you would hear.
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“Make” has a couple of additional uses. One is to cause something to happen.
For example: “I’m going to make a phone call to my aunt.” “I’m going to make an
appointment with my doctor.” What you are doing is you are causing something
else to happen. You’re going to phone your aunt; you’re going to call your doctor
and make the appointment. The appointment will come into existence in a way; it
will happen because of what you are doing. “Make” can also mean to cause an
action: “The boss made me stay late today.” I was forced to; I did not have a
choice.
The best word to use when you’re not sure which one of these to use is “make,”
because you can use it for almost all of the same sentences that you would
perhaps be able to use “create” and “generate.” “Generate” is probably the least
common of the three, and is used typically only in talking about math or science
or computer science issues, or to talk about power – electricity, that sort of thing.
Tzu-Ling (Tzu-Ling) from Taiwan wants to know the meaning of an expression, “a
tad off target.”
A “tad” (tad) means a very small amount, a little bit, or somewhat. “I’m a tad tired
right now” means I’m a little tired right now. “Tad” isn’t a common word; you
won’t hear it that often in conversation, but you might.
“To be off target” can mean to be not correct, to be inaccurate, to be mistaken
about something. “We thought the building would cost 100 million dollars, but we
were off target.” We were wrong, it cost a lot more than that. “Off target” can
also be not what you expected, not what you wanted. “The man’s jokes making
fun of women were off target,” since the women didn’t find them very funny. So,
we put these two together, “tad” and “off target,” and we get something that is a
little bit off target.
The opposite of “off target” is “on target.” “That movie review was right on target
(or simply ‘was on target’) when it described the acting as terrible.” That’s the
opposite of “off target.”
A “target” is typically something that you shoot at with a gun for fun. Often it has
circles, what we would call “concentric” circles, one circle outside of another
circle, and then another circle outside of that, and so forth. It’s sometimes black
and white, with circles alternating between black and white, and you try to get
into the middle of the target. Target is also a popular store in the United States,
and the symbol for Target is the other kind of target that I was just describing, the
kind of that you shoot at. That does not mean that you should shoot at the
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 297
Target store, however, if you come to the U.S., especially since my sister-in-law
and my niece work for Target, my niece who’s getting married in a few months,
so please try not to shoot her!
Mario (Mario) in Italy wants to know what a “run-on sentence” is. Well, a
sentence in English has a subject and a verb: “I walk.” “He hit the ball.” “The
neighbors’ children are screaming again.” Those are all sentences with subjects
and verbs.
You can sometimes have a more complicated sentence. You could have
something such as “I ran to the store and my brother called me on my cell
phone.” It’s putting two sentences together. We call those two parts of that one
long sentence a “clause.” A clause is something that could be a complete
sentence. A “run-on sentence” is a sentence that has two or more of these
clauses – technically they’re called “independent” clauses – and is considered a
sentence that goes on too long, so that by the time you get to the end of it you
forgot how it started.
Run-on sentences often have no punctuation or they don’t have a proper
“conjunction,” a word to join up the two clauses that are in the sentence. For
example: “It is nearly seven o’clock we cannot get to the store before it closes.”
Well, this sentence is a run-on sentence because it’s missing a conjunction to
connect the two parts – the two clauses in the sentence. “It was nearly seven
o’clock,” that’s one clause; “we cannot get to the store before it closes,” that’s the
second clause. You could correct this by saying “It is nearly seven o’clock and
we cannot get to the store before it closes,” or you could separate them into two
separate sentences.
As a general rule, a run-on sentence is considered grammatically incorrect and a
sign of poor writing. Occasionally, however, it’s used in literature and may be
used for a specific purpose in literature. Think of the famous Irish author James
Joyce, who had sentences that went on and on without a period for many, many
lines. So, sometimes they’re used for a specific purpose. But overall, you should
avoid run-on sentences, sentences that go on too long, or don’t have the proper
punctuation or the proper use of a conjunction.
The expression “to run on” is also used in other circumstances. It means to
continue to go longer and longer and longer; the idea is usually too long. “The
movie ran on for three hours.” It was way too long; it kept going and going and
going when you thought it was going to stop – kind of like this Café!
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 297
If you have a question or comment you can e-mail us. Our email address is
[email protected].
From Los Angeles, California, you know who I am. Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on the English Café.
ESL Podcast’s English Café is written and produced by Dr. Jeff McQuillan and
Dr. Lucy Tse, copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
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