#1020 Tell Me vs How Can You Tell? Obama Lookalike, Hustle

Show 1020 Tuesday 7 April
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.

Today we’re studying another scene from the movie 21. Not that I’m suggesting that you actually watch this movie, just this scene. I think it’s a good one to study the word tell.
You can find this scene on their site by the way. It’s clip number 3.

This is the situation. It’s in a casino and some men are watching another guy playing a game at the casino. They’re watching him on a security camera.

The guy who’s playing the game is winning. And the men that are watching are trying to find out if he’s just lucky or if he’s cheating somehow.
One man, Cole, says: He’s not running the progressive system. He doubled on ten when the debt was heavy but didn’t on eleven when it got lighter.
I don’t really know what that means, but the other guy, Clark, says: How can you tell if it’s heavy or light?
And Cole replies: I’m counting.

And then Clark says: Tell me something Cole, if you could count that well, why are you still consulting for us?

So he has used the word tell in two different ways.

Most students I’ve taught know that tell means this: to give information to sb by speaking or writing.
For example: He told me that he was coming to the party.

And in the scene when he says: Tell me something Cole … he’s asking for some information, which is the answer to his question.

But tell has other meanings too, such as: to know, see or judge sth correctly and to distinguish one thing or person from another.

For example: I could tell she was annoyed from the expression on her face.
That means: I knew she was annoyed because of how her face looked.
It doesn’t mean: I’m going to tell someone that she was annoyed.

In the movie, the man says: How can you tell if it’s heavy or light?
That means, how do you know or how can you correctly judge if it’s heavy or light?

So do you know the difference between these two sentences?
It’s hard to tell if she’s angry.
It’s hard to tell her if she’s angry.

STICK NEWS



Kia ora in Stick News today a Barack Obama lookalike is starring in a bank commercial in Turkey.

Michael is a 44-year-old man from Pennsylvania.
For 18 years he worked for a bank.
In January, he was laid off.
But he now has a new job, thanks to his resemblance to the president of the United States.
So far his jobs have included appearing in an alcohol commercial in the Netherlands and a bank commercial in Turkey.

And that was Stick News for Tuesday 7th April.
Kia ora.

TDES Niseko Snow Report
with SAS Scott Adventure Sports

with David New

What are ski poles for?

Ah, the poles, um, often … for beginners … we often get asked that. And, um, we don’t generally tend to do a lot with, with poles to start off with. Ah, often they actually hinder people rather than help. So you’ll find that in beginner lessons, we’ll quite often, ah, will take poles away. And with children, sort of, up to the age of seven or eight, or something, they, they quite often don’t ski with poles for a long time. Um, but the poles come in useful for later on when we start to bring in what’s called the pole plant. And what that is, is where we touch the pole into the snow, and that helps, aids, with the timing of the turn and helps to set up a, a new turn. So the pole plant becomes important later on. But also for beginners, it’s all about being able to push ourselves along on the flat, you know, getting into the important restaurant for that break.

Word of the Day

Today’s word is hustle.

A guy in the scene says: Let’s just say I like being on your side of the hustle.

So what does hustle mean?

Hustle has a few different meanings. He’s using the word is an informal way and it says here the informal meanings are chiefly American English.

I like one of the Urban Dictionary’s definitions of hustle, which is: to make money doing something slightly shady.

Shady means: of doubtful honesty or legality.

And gambling can be pretty shady.

conversations with sarah
#643 How can you tell if it’s heavy or light?

* Watch this conversation here - it's clip 3.

Step 1: Repeat Clark’s lines.
Step 2: Read Clark’s lines and talk to Cole.

Cole Clark, I think I got something here. Take a look at this.

Clark That guy. He’s the kid.

Cole He was on the tape from last week. Got a big roll and he’s crushing your table. Plus he ordered a tonic and lime.

Clark Tonic and lime? What does that mean?

Cole It means he wants you to think he’s drinking.

Clark So is he counting or is he getting lucky?

Cole He’s not running the progressive system. He doubled on ten when the debt was heavy but didn’t on eleven when it got lighter.

Clark How can you tell if it’s heavy or light?

Cole I’m counting.

Clark Tell me something Cole, if you could count that well, why are you still consulting for us?

Cole I’ve been asking myself the same thing. Let’s just say I like being on your side of the hustle.

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music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

nsr start
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: Is It Real?
from: Switzerland
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Hugo 'Droopy' Contini
album: Strikes Back !
track: Jackie's Idea
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
MySpace

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