Laura: oh, I didn’t think I make it home in time for the game.
Jun: what games?
Laura: The playoffs! Turn on the TV. I hope it is still in the first quarter. It is! who’s winning? What’s the score?
Jun: I don’t know. you know I don’t watch sports. Whao! That was a great shot. did you see that?
Laura: No, what happened? maybe they will show it again on instant replay. I wonder who the coach put in for the starting lineup.
Jun: Geez, I think there’s a player down on the field.
Laura: It looks like he’s walking off the field. he can’t be hurt too badly.
Jun: look! they are putting your favorite player in. oh, what a play!
Laura: wait a second. I thought you didn’t watch sports.
Jun: I was never a sport fan before I met you. I think you are a bad influence on me.
Laura: yes, very bad. now , stop hogging the couch and pass the chip.
In this dialogue we have Laura coming home and she begins say “ I don’t think I make it home in time for the game.” to make it home means to arrive home, we sometimes use the expression “make it” to mean arriving on time or arriving before the event begins or something begins that you have to attend. So she says “ I didn’t think I make it home in time for the game.” Jun says “what game” and Laura says “the playoffs.” “playoffs” are when you have especially a professional sports but also in college sports and high school sports when there is a tournament, a competition between the teams and they tried to decide who is the best team, who is the champion so they have a playoff system where teams play each other and whoever wins goes on to the next round. a “round” is a different level in the playoffs and depending on how many teams there are that participate in the playoffs, there could be several rounds of playoff and most professional sports and amateur sports that are particular those have teams, there is a playoff system. Laura wants to watch the playoff, she says she hopes it is still in the first quarter, the first quarter is the first part of the game. Now we don’t know in this dialogue what game they are watching but in games such as American football, there are four parts to the game, four sections in the game and the first part is called the first quarter, quarter of course is 25 percent of something. Laura asks “who is winning?” “winning ” means who has the higher score, who is doing the best? Then she says “what is the score?” and the “score” is the number of points that each team has. Jun says that he doesn’t know , that he doesn’t watch sports meaning he doesn’t watch sporting games or games for sports like American football, soccer and so forth. but then he says “whao, that was a great shot.” to say something is a great “shot” is an expression we use for, could use it for basketball, could use it for hockey, could use it for soccer. Shot is when a ball is thrown or kicked or move somehow in a certain direction, we don’t use that word for American football, we don’t say “that was a great shot.” it would have to be for hockey or basketball or soccer something like that. Jun ask Laura if she saw what was just on in the game? She says: “no, maybe they will show it again on instant replay.” “instant” means right away, immediately, replay means to play again, if there is a soccer game and someone kicks the ball and score a goal, instant replay would allow us to see that again right away on the television. Laura says “I wonder who the coach put in for the starting lineup.” The coach is the person who is headed the team, he is the most important person, he tells the player what to do. the starting lineup is the same as the first group of players that play on the team. usually, a “lineup” is the group of players that are playing on the field or in the game, the starting lineup is the best players, and we typically put in the best player first. When we talk about other players, we sometimes talk about the second string or the third string, these are the second best group of players and third best group of players. Well, Jun says that he thinks there is a player down on the field, when you say someone is down in the sporting game, you mean that they are injured, they are on the ground because they hurt themselves. Laura then says that he doesn’t seem to be hurt too badly meaning too much and Jun says: “ look, they are putting your favorite player in.” to put the player in meaning to put them in the game, the coach tells them that they should play. Jun says: “what a play.” “play” as a noun when we are talking about sports means a particular events, a particular part of the game. to play of course is a verb but as a noun here in sports “a play” is when a player, someone in the game does something usually scores a point or does something very good, we say that was a great play, they did something very well. Jun says that he has never been a sport fan and that Laura was a bad influence on him, to say someone is a bad influence on you means that they had talked you things or made you do things that are not good but here and many times we use that expression as a joke when we are talking about things that really aren’t bad like watching sports. Laura says: “now, stop hogging the couch and pass the chips.” to hog something, “hog” as a verb means to use it and not let anyone else use it, so to hog the couch would be to lie on or sit on the couch and not let anyone else to lie or sit on the couch . the expression “ pass the chips” means give me the chips, now “chips” in American English means usually potato chips or something like a potato chips. In British English “chips” are what we would call in the United States “French fries” or type of French fries, usually potato that are fried in oil, the British have a famous dish called “fish and chips” and the chips there are not potato chips, they are again similar to what we have here called French fries.
