564 TOPICS American Authors – Mary Roberts Rinehart; Famous Songs

English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com ENGLISH CAFÉ – 564 TOPICS American Authors – Mary Roberts Rinehart; Famous Songs – “I’ll be seeing you”; to dispense, wedgie, and on principle; to get on with (something), to get along with (someone), and in a nutshell; semi _____________ GLOSSARY stock market – the part of the financial market where portions of companies are bought and sold * The stock market is affected by many factors, such as oil prices and government policies. to crash – to fall suddenly and by a large amount, losing much of its value; to fall suddenly and violently * The value of gold crashed overnight, reaching the lowest prices in the past 20 years. mystery – a movie, play, or book that describes a crime that is difficult to solve, usually a murder * In the mystery novel Murder on the Orient Express, a man is killed on a train and the murderer or murderers are trapped on that train. to solidify – to make something stronger; to reinforce something * Being offered her dream job solidified Mary’s opinion that moving to a new city was the right decision. middle-aged – a person who is between early adulthood and old age, usually age 45 to 65 * After his long illness, Daniel looked middle-aged, not 33 years old. romance – a movie, play, or book about a love story * The romance novel told the story of a rich woman and a poor man falling in love. fiction – a short story or novel that describes imaginary people or events * Some fiction is so realistic that it’s difficult to believe that the characters and story aren’t based on real people and events. 1 These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2016). Posting of these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited. English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com ENGLISH CAFÉ – 564 play – a story that is acted out on a stage by actors and actresses * During the play, one of the actors started coughing and couldn’t say his lines. musical – a performance where actors on stage sing and dance, as well as speak lines of dialogue * The final song in the musical was a happy and upbeat one, involving all of the actors and actresses dancing and singing on stage. to embrace – to hold someone or something closely in one’s arms * When Jacque got off the airplane, his father embraced him. signature song – a song that a singer or band is best known for performing * The band played the singer’s signature song as she walked onto the stage. to dispense – to supply to others; to give to many people * Her mother dispenses cooking advice to Julia whether Julia wants it or not. wedgie – the act of pulling the back of someone's underwear quickly in an upward motion as a joke or prank * The boys thought it would be funny to give the new student a wedgie in the locker room. on principle – in order to show one's acceptance and support of a particular belief * Ros is an animal lover and doesn’t eat meat on principle. to get on with (something) – to make progress in doing something; to proceed despite hesitation; to continue after a temporary pause * Stop talking about it and get on with it. This deck isn’t going to build itself! to get along with – to have or establish a friendly relationship with someone; to have smooth relations with another person * Did you get along with all five of your brothers when you were growing up or were there a lot of fights? in a nutshell – very briefly; in summary * In a nutshell, our vacation was a disaster from beginning to end. 2 These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2016). Posting of these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited. English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com ENGLISH CAFÉ – 564 semi – partial; partially; not completely; almost; a short heavy truck that has a long trailer attached to the back * After being hit by a car, Mina was semi-conscious and wasn’t able to give a description of the car or the driver. _____________ WHAT INSIDERS KNOW Howcatchems In a traditional detective story, a “crime is committed” (someone does something that breaks the law) and then the “detective” (a police officer or other professional who investigates crimes) has to “figure out” (research and determine through hard work) who did it and how. Sometimes this is called a “whodunit” (“who has done it”), because the detective and the reader are trying to figure out who committed the crime. In an “inverted detective story,” this is “reversed” (backward; the opposite). An inverted detective story begins with a detailed description of the crime, including who committed the crime and how. Then, the rest of the book “follows” (covers, presents, and talks about) how the detective “caught” (apprehended) the “criminal” (the person who committed the crime). These inverted detective stories are known as “howcatchems” because the reader wants to find out how the detective caught the criminal. The best-known howcatchems are from the American TV show Columbo, which was “aired” (shown on television) from 1971 to 2003. Each episode “features” (is primarily about) a man named Columbo, a police detective, as he figures out who committed a crime. Almost all of the episodes begin with the viewers seeing the crime “unfold” (happen; occur). Viewers get to “observe” (see) the criminal’s “reaction” (response) to Columbo’s presence as he “gets closer to the truth” (begins to realize what actually happened). Columbo normally has a friendly relationship with the criminal until the end of the show, and the viewers rarely get “insight into” (a true understanding of) Columbo’s thoughts until the end of each episode. 3 These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2016). Posting of these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited. English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com ENGLISH CAFÉ – 564 COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 564. This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 564. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California. Go to ESLPod.com and take a look at our ESL Podcast Special Courses. If you’re on Facebook, you can like us on Facebook. Go to facebook.com/eslpod. On this Café, we’re going to talk about the American author Mary Roberts Rinehart. We’re also going to talk about a famous love song from the twentieth century, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and as always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get started. Mary Roberts was born on August 12th, 1876, in the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is located in the eastern part of the United States, one of the original thirteen U.S. states. Mary Roberts began her career, her working life, as a nurse when she was 20 years old. In 1896, that same year, however, she married a doctor by the name of Stanley Rinehart and changed her name to Mary Roberts Rinehart. She kept what we would call her “maiden name,” or her last name before she got married. A “maiden” (maiden) is a non-married woman. Mary Roberts Rinehart and her husband Stanley had three sons and one daughter. In 1903, the stock market had what we call a “crash” in the United States. The “stock (stock) market” is a place where you buy and sell, well, of course, “stock.” “Stock” is partial ownership of a company. When you “buy stock” in a company or when you “buy a company’s stock,” you are buying a certain percentage of that company. You own a small percentage of that company. A “stock market,” then, is a place where you buy and sell partial ownership of companies. If we say a stock market “crashes,” we mean that the value of the stocks goes down quickly, goes down suddenly. All of a sudden, stocks that were worth a lot of money are not worth very much money. This means that the value of the companies themselves, of course, go down rapidly. From time to time – “periodically,” we would say – stock markets crash, and the U.S. stock market crashed in 1903. 4 These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2016). Posting of these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited. English as a Second Language Podcast www.eslpod.com ENGLISH CAFÉ – 564 This was very bad news for the Rineharts because they lost a lot of the money that they had because they had owned a lot of stocks. This meant that they needed to find other ways of making money. So, Mary Roberts Rinehart decided she would make money by writing stories and selling them. Writing came easily to Reinhart. She wrote 45 stories in 1903 alone, meaning in the period of just 12 months, she wrote 45 stories. Many of these stories appeared in a popular magazine at that time by the name of Munsey’s Magazine. In 1908, about five years later, Mary published her first novel, called The Circular Staircase. This was a mystery novel about a woman named Rachael Innes who sees and hears strange noises and things at a summer home – a place where she lives during the summertime. A “mystery” describes a story usually about a crime that has been committed, often a murder.

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