Do You Understand This Dialogue?

I’m back. Amira thanks for your answer to paraphrasing the sentence:

“There was a fire in a warehouse and it was destroyed.” 

You substituted “it was burnt down” instead of “it was destroyed” which is totally acceptable. Here are some other examples:

“A warehouse was destroyed by fire.”

“A fire burned down a warehouse”

“A fire consumed a warehouse.

In English, there are many ways to say the same thing. This is the reason when something is translated into English by different translators, it may not be exactly the same words. However, the main thought is communicated.

The explanation for the remaining portion of the lesson wil be posted shortly. Your contribution is appreciated.

Nice!

Hello Mr. Alston, 

“There was a fire in a warehouse and it was burnt down” is my paraphrase.

Hello Amira,

You are correct in your answer. I will explain why in my explanation.

Now I invite the audience to re-word (paraphrase) the following sentence:

“There was a fire in a warehouse and it was destroyed.” 

I think both meant that the fire alarm was activated.

Bill: I confirm that the fire alarm set off

I encounter a lot of paradoxes in my watchings and readings. They’re so common in the language.

Thanks Mr. Alston for the lesson

Paradoxes can be confusing but Lesson No. 88 should help expose you to some of the nuances in English. Try to answer the question.

Lesson No. 88 – Paradoxes:

There was a fire in a warehouse and it was destroyed. Upon investigation of the cause of the fire many people were questioned. Let’s listen in to one of the questions asked of two supervisors.

Fire Inspector: Bill, was the fire alarm activated?

Bill: I confirm that the fire alarm went off.

Fire Inspector: Thanks Bill, I’ve recorded your response. Dave, was the fire alarm activated?

Dave: The fire alarm went on.

Fire Inspector: Thanks for your response; it will help in the investigation.

Questions:

1. Did Bill respond that the fire alarm was activated?

2. Did Dave respond that the fire alarm was activated?

3. Can you re-word the first sentence differently but say the same thing?

Hi Amira, yes “drain the swamp” practical meaning is to “get rid of corruption or anthing harmful” 

The context that President-elect Donald Trump uses it is retaining to Washington DC politics.

Context determines the actual meaning. Hope this helps.

Hi Mr. Alston,

I’m still wondering if “drain the swamp” has a synonymous meaning here. 

Lesson No. 87 – Explanation for A Native Speaker’s Private Conversation – Part 5:

Curtis: It looks like Donald intends to “drain the swamp” and shake things up!

Curtis: It looks like Donald intends to “drain the swamp” and get things straight!

Dee Dee: Many people want to chime in with their opinions about why girlfriend lost the election but she still won the popular vote by 2 million.

Dee Dee: Many people want to vocalize their opinions about why Hillary lost the election but she still won the popular vote by 2 million.

Sheila: Yeah but her crowd aren’t giving high fives to each other.

Sheila: Yes but her crowd isn’t giving congratulations to each other.

Shaun: Donald has hit the ground running with selecting people for his cabinet.

Shaun: Donald has started immediately with selecting people for his cabinet.

Curtis: All bets are off on Trump keeping all of his campaign promises.

Curtis: It’s not a sure thing on Trump keeping all of his campaign promises.

Dee Dee: Well, at least he didn’t win by a landslide.

Dee Dee: Well, at least he didn’t win by a huge amount.

Sheila: To seal this deal, the Electoral College electors have to finalize the election on December 19th.

Sheila: To complete this election process, the Electoral College electors have to complete the election results on December 19th.

Shaun: For all practical purposes, it’s already a done deal.

Shaun: For all practical purposes, it’s already a done deal.

Amira, once again you have done an excellent job in your re-write. Continue to strive to take every opportunity to interact with English and you’ll avoid getting “rusty” and will advance to the next level.

Unless there is a request for more of this type of lesson, this will be the final one of this type using the U.S. political activity as a platform.

Thanks to all who submitted their re-write of the conversations. 

Amira, you’re right on course with your re-write. Let’s hold tight until others may weigh in.

Curtis: It looks like Donald intends to “drain the swamp” and shake things up!

Curtis: It looks like Donald intends to eleminate corruption and make great changes to the US.

Dee Dee: Many people want to chime in with their opinions about why girlfriend lost the election but she still won the popular vote by 2 million.

Dee Dee: Many people want to argue with their opinions about why Hillary lost the election but still won the popular vote by 2 million.

Sheila: Yeah but her crowd aren’t giving high fives to each other.

Sheila: Yeah but her crowd aren’t celebrating her winning.

Shaun: Donald has hit the ground running with selecting people for his cabinet.

Shaun: Donald has started right away with selecting people for his cabinet.

Curtis: All bets are off on Trump keeping all of his campaign promises.

Curtis: People are waiting to see if Trump will keep his promises from the campaign.

Dee Dee: Well, at least he didn’t win by a landslide.

Dee Dee: Well, at lest he didn’t win by a gread deal of difference in votes.

Sheila: To seal this deal, the Electoral College electors have to finalize the election on December 19th.

Sheila: To end this conversation, the Electoral College electors have to finalize the lection on December 19th.

Shaun: For all practical purposes, it’s already a done deal.

Lesson No. 87 – A Native Speaker’s Private Conversation – Part 5:

The dialogue now focuses on a discussion after the election of Donald Trump as President using the words (in bold) that were provided in the last lesson explanation.

Curtis: It looks like Donald intends to “drain the swamp” and shake things up!

Dee Dee: Many people want to chime in with their opinions about why girlfriend lost the election but she still won the popular vote by 2 million.

Sheila: Yeah but her crowd aren’t giving high fives to each other.

Shaun: Donald has hit the ground running with selecting people for his cabinet.

Curtis: All bets are off on Trump keeping all of his campaign promises.

Dee Dee: Well, at least he didn’t win by a landslide.

Sheila: To seal this deal, the Electoral College electors have to finalize the election on December 19th.

Shaun: For all practical purposes, it’s already a done deal.

Question:

Do you understand this conversation?

Try to paraphrase (re-write) this conversation.

Note: The words to identify are bolded.

You can use the internet and/or this link http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ to assist you in identifying the meaning of the phrases.

I’ll provide an explanation after others have posted theirs.

AlexandrAmica, Pdfdump, and others, here is a detailed explanation of the phrase “Heavy on the young”

“Heavy on the young” explanation:

In the U.S., if you order food from a restaurant like a hamburger, fish sandwich etc. and you want to request extra condiment such as ketchup or tartar sauce, you would say “heavy ketchup” or “heavy tartar sauce” and the cook would put extra sauce on your sandwich.

In the dialogue, one old man said to the other old man, “how’s it going young man?”  He asked him in a friendly fun-type of way how was he doing today, even though he wasn’t a young man but asked him as a joke.

The other older man responded, “Heavy on the young,” which he meant jokingly, keep telling me I’m young, young, young (heavy=extra)!  In other words, he wanted the greeter to put emphasis on the “young” part of his greeting.

This is in the category of fun language between people you are comfortable with. It is not common language but I want to expose you to it so you won’t always think in a literal sense.

This example is the same as a husband asking his wife to do a favor for him and she responds, “yes sir” and he responds with the phrase “Heavy on the Sir” and she responds again in a loud voice “YES SIR!” to add emphasis to the affirmation of “yes sir.”

It’s just an example of having fun with the language. 

I didn’t understand what does mean “heavy on the young”. Is it somethink like “I fill great”?

Neginb, at the end of the day make sure to pick up the vocabulary words to add to your English knowledge.

Ani beita, you basically have the jest of the response.

Amira, the meaning of “Hold up” in the context that President Obama used it means “stop, wait to hear what I’ve got to say.” He used this phrase instead of saying “stop” because it’s a phrase that the people there could understand.

I grew up with this phrase being used frequently. I hope this helps those trying to answer the question.

Hello Mr. Alston,

I think President Obama meant to say “Wait and see” or “Be patient and give him the time”.

Asked jokingly responded with another joke. Heavy as a ” young” man his age (age old).

@FatemehS And one more thing, dignity means alot of things. It would be very superficial (!) if you think that losing dignity is just related to a person who was perisident for only 8 years !

Sorry Mr Altson, this is the last one.

@FatemehS I do respect to your opinion but as i said i dont confirm Trump. Before judging, try to read the comment completly please