Ten Questions ESL Podcast

LnR 085 Gift of the Magi 5 "You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor. "Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?" Jim looked about the room curiously. "You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy. "You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?" Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on. Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table. "Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first." White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

LnR 083 Gift of the Magi 4   At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops. Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty." The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves. Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face. Della wriggled off the table and went for him. "Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."  

LnR 081 The Gift of the Magi 3 Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie." "Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. "I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it." Down rippled the brown cascade. "Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand. "Give it to me quick," said Della. Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain. When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task. Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically. "If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

LnR 079 The Gift of the Magi 2 http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1014/ Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim. There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pierglass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art. Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy. So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet. On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Hi! I'm still n the US. I have recovered from the surgery I had in January and the complications in wound healing that followed it. However, it's too late for me to go back to my classes in China this term. Even worse, my university told me that they wouldn't rehire me for next term. Grrrrr. (That's a sound that means you are angry.) They have four teachers for next term but they only need three teachers. So they won't rehire me because I'm the oldest and because I missed this term. It's not fair, but sometimes life isn't fair! I'll really miss my students and teaching in a classroom. I have some ideas about what I'll do next, but I haven't quite decided yet. On the one hand, I hate losing my job, but on the other hand there are a lot of possibilities ahead of me. Here is a podcast series from 2 1/2 years ago. I made these into YouTube videos and have used them in my classes. You can find them by going to YouTube and searching for Miss Buswell. I'm posting all of the "Gift of the Magi" podcast episodes tonight, since they are a series. my website:http://www.missbuswell.com/ ------ LnR 077 The Gift of the Magi 1 http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/1014/ The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, 1862-1910 One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad. In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young." The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.  

This is a replay of a recording I made 2 1/2 years ago. It's about the American baseball championships, which we call the World Series. I made this in November of 2016. Right now it is May of 2019. It's the beginning of baseball season, and the end of basketball and hockey season. ==== LnR 076 Like I Said A: Hey, why do you (d'ya) look so tired? B: I stayed up late last night watching the last game of the World Series. A: Oh, was that last night? I'm not a sports fan. B: Yeah, it was last night! The game was fantastic! A: Why? Baseball seems so boring. B: What are you (what'r ya/whatcha) talkin' about? It was the final game. The winner would be the champion. A: So who won? B: The Chicago Cubs. It was amazing. The last time the Cubs won the World Series was 108 years ago. A: Really? I didn't know that. B:: How come? Everybody knows that! A: Like I said, I'm not a sports fan!

LnR 074 Long Time No See (Replay) NOTE: This podcast episode is from October 2016! I say that I have just spent the summer in the US with my mother and her two cats (now she has three cats) and am now in China again. I am writing this in April 2019 and am not in China, but still in the US recovering from surgery. I am almost recovered, but it's probably too late for me to go back to China to teach this term, so I most likely will stay here with my mother and her three cats until August. ---- Lnr 074 Long Time, No See! I'm going to write the sentences the way that I pronounce them. Remember, never write the words this way for your teacher or in an email to your foreign customer, client or boss! For example, never write "gonna"; always write "going to". But when you speak, you can say "gonna". 1. I'm gonna go home now. 2. She's gotta go tuh the store. 3. They wanna see the movie tonight. 4. I like tuh watch football un basketball. 5. We need tuh have a meeting at 9:30. 6. Please buy some bread un milk. 7. My brothers un sisters are gonna go home for Thanksgiving. 8. Teenagers like tuh play games on their phones. 9. You've gotta pay attention in class! 10. He wants tuh go home, but his friends wanna stay.

This is a podcast episode from about two years ago. I'm still in the US at my mother's house, recovering from surgery. I'll be OK eventually, buy my wounds are healing slower than usual. I'm resting a lot, and enjoying being with my mother and her three cats. I really miss my students n China, but I can't return there until I am completely healed, and that will take some more time. LnR 073 Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Replay) http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/poetrycompetition/article3228951.ece For a change, I'm giving you a very short podcast episode. It's just one poem by a famous British poet. Sometimes I wonder if you think my podcasts are too long. Maybe I talk too much. :-) This one has the text of the poem and very little talking. Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear -- ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Here's a replay from 2 1/2 years ago! Right now I'm visiting my mother and her three cats. I had surgery three weeks ago and am having a slow recovery. I have to rest a lot. I'm supposed to return to China in two weeks for the beginning of the school term, but I'll have to arrive two weeks late, due to the slow recovery from surgery. I hope that all of you are well! I'll be fine, too . . . soon. LnR 062 Give me = gimme Never write "gimme" when you are writing for your English teacher or your job. I'm using this spelling below to show you how we pronounce it. 1. Can you gimme some advice? 2. Hey, gimme that! I'm not gonna give you that. 3. Please, gimme a chance! I won't do it again. 4. Can you gimme the money tomorrow? Can you give it to me tomorrow? 5. I'm almost ready. Just gimme three more minutes. 6. Oh, gimme a break! Give me a break! 7. Do you want some cookies? Yea, I'll take two. No, wait, gimme three. I love chocolate chip cookies. 8. My children always want something. All I hear is "Gimme, gimme, gimme."

I'm sorry I haven't made any new podcast episodes for you for a while! I actually have three TQ (Ten Question) interviews that I've recorded, but haven't edited yet. I'm such a procrastinator! Do you know that word? It means that I put things off, I delay them. It's a terrible habit, but a very common one! Here's a casual language podcast from 2 1/2 years ago. LnR 060 Didja call 'im? "Did you call him" sounds like "Didja call 'im" if you are speaking quickly and informally. Never write "didja" and never write "im". I'm doing that here to show you how they are pronounced. 1. Didja (Did you) call 'im? Didja call 'em? Didja call 'er? 2. What's 'e doing? What's she doing? What are they doing? 3. Is that his or hers? It's his. It's hers. 4. They gave 'im the wrong number. They gave 'em the wrong number. They gave 'er the wrong number. 5. Is 'e the one? Isn't 'e your friend? 6. I see 'im. I see 'em. I see 'er. 7. What's his name? What's her name? 8. I got an email from 'im yesterday. I got an email from 'er yesterday.