Show 1058 Friday 12 June
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
Today we’re studying a song called Livin’ On A Prayer by an American band called Bon Jovi.
This song came out in 1986, when I was at primary school.
And Bon Jovi were very popular at my primary school so this song brings back memories of standing around watching a group of guys lip syncing and playing air guitar to a dubbed cassette recording of this song. We all thought they we’re very cool – or probably very ace - at the time.
Anyway, Wikipedia says the song is about a fictional working class couple, Tommy and Gina, who struggle to make ends meet and maintain their relationship.
To make ends meet is an idiom which means to make enough money to buy the things that you need.
So they don’t have much money and life is difficult.
We've gotta hold on
To what we've got
It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not
To make it is another idiom, it has many meanings, but here I think they mean make it as in to deal with something difficult, successfully.
We've got each other
And that's a lot
For love, we'll give it a shot
A shot is an attempt. So we’ll give it a shot, means we will try to deal with our difficult situation.
Oh, we’re halfway there
Oh, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand
We'll make it I swear
Oh, livin’ on a prayer
I think living on a prayer means they don’t have enough money to survive so the only way that they can survive is with hope.
So I think the song is saying something like, we don’t have enough money and our life is difficult, but don’t worry, I promise that we’ll be OK, because we have each other and that’s all that matters.
STICK NEWS
Kia ora in Stick News today a woman in Israel threw out her mother’s mattress which had almost one million dollars stuffed inside.
A woman in Israel decided to buy her mother a new mattress as a surprise present.
The daughter dragged the old mattress outside to be picked up by rubbish collectors.
Then she put the new mattress on the bed.
When her mother found out she told the daughter her life savings of nearly a million dollars were stuffed inside the old mattress.
The daughter ran downstairs, but it was too late - the rubbish had been picked up.
She alerted the dumps in the city and one of the dump site managers said that he and his staff were working relentlessly to try and find the million-dollar mattress.
And that was Stick News for Friday the 12th of June.
Kia ora.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is hock.
I’d never heard this word before. But I looked it up and apparently it’s an informal word for pawning something.
This is from the song:
Tommy's got his six-string in hock
Now he's holding in when he used to make it talk
So tough, it's tough
So Tommy used to let out his emotions or get his stress relief or whatever by playing his guitar … but he sold it to the pawn shop to get money to survive. And so now he has to somehow suppress his emotions and it’s difficult.
friday joke
You want to know how to keep and idiot in suspense?
How?
I’ll tell you later.
conversations with sarah
#670 What happened?
Step 1: Repeat Nic’s lines.
Step 2: Read Nic’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Sarah I almost died the other day.
Nic What?!
Sarah Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but …
Nic What happened?
Sarah Well, I was jogging down by the river. There’s this park down there with a path for walking or jogging or cycling or whatever and suddenly this car drove past me, like this close. If I had have suddenly moved sideways I could have died.
Nic Didn’t you hear it coming?
Sarah No, cause I was listening to music.
Nic I guess you didn’t expect cars to drive along there.
Sarah No, exactly. I thought it was a safe place. I might as well run along the road if cars go down there.
filming notes
Today's ending was filmed out the window of tdes studio MSK JR Apartment, this morning (Friday 12th June 2009).
links
today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures
music
show start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Future Cha Cha
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
friday joke start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: Sumbala
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
cws start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
qa bgm
artist: BlueDid
album: SynthPennarguear
track: 01bluediddesed
Plourin, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
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