1The Bob and Rob Show Study GuideLesson 76: Hodgepodgedate: March 10, 2007file name: bobrob 03-10-07

Show notesToday we had the regular phrasal verb and idiom sections as well as Both Sides of the Pond. We also invitedBubba back to provide some humor (Rob spells it humour)

Phrasal Verbs and Idioms"to miss out (on something)"To lose a chance to gain from something or enjoy oneself by not participating e.g: He just missed out on anew world record.

to miss something/somebody outTo not include something/somebody either by accident or on purpose e.g: Hey, youve missed out Fred, dontforget Fred. (we can also say leave someone out).

Idioms: 1) to be on the mendTo be recovering after an illness or injury e.g:Rob is finally on the mend after breaking his leg.

2) mend (your) fences (with somebody)lTo find a solution to a disagreement with someone e.g:Lets hope that the estranged sisters can mend their fences.

Bonus Idiom: mend your waysTo improve your behavior or lifestyle and so on e.g:If those kids dont mend their ways, theyll end up in jail for sure.

JokeA Superman joke from good ol Bubba.

Ancient Japanese Study SecretQuantifiers: Little and few

One of the tips we mentioned today was that few is used after personal pronouns whereas little is not. Look atsome more rules concerning little/few here and try some of the exercises on the link at the top:http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/little_few01.html

2Both Sides of the PondWe dealt with some pronunciation/stress differences this week:(US) amenity (UK) amenity(US) anchovy (UK) anchovy(US) anti /antai/ (UK) anti /anti/(US) apparatus (UK) appara/y/tus(US) aristocrat (UK) aristocratEXTRA: (US) asphalt /asfault/ (UK) asphalt /asfelt/

Song"Superman, I Wish I Was You" by Molly and Sonny Boy. See more at http://www.music.podshow.com

Show transcript

BOBHey, hey, hey, it's the Bob and Rob Show again, again, and again.

ROBAre we recording now, Bob?

BOBWe are, we are recording. Always got to be sure you hit the record button before you do a show.

ROBThat's a good idea.

BOB I tell you, a good audience we got here today. Hi, everyone out there. Ooh, wow, a few screams, I think theywere screaming at me.

ROBIn your dreams, Bob.

BOBHow you been,1 Rob?

ROBPretty good, thank you, pretty good, and how about you?

BOBI've been alright, just same old, same old. Same as always.

ROBI'll tell you something, I was listening to - out here in Japan, they have something called the Armed ForcesNetwork2 ...

BOBThe radio show for the military. American military forces living around the world. Did you like it?

ROBVery interesting. They have some interesting DJ's on there. One chap he came on - he hasn't been on forawhile - and yesterday, his partner said to him, "So, hey, how are you doing"? And, you know what hisresponse was? Well, no this was in the original one - he said, "Flippity flip, flippity flop, flippity flew," and hispartner did not know what to say.

BOBWell, I don't think I would know what to say either. That's odd.

ROBYeah, he's a wacky 3character, but it was quite funny.

3BOBFlippity flop, flippity do. It's kind of funny though, it's creative. I mean, you get so tired of these generic4responses, you know, "fine," okay," not bad." It's nice to be a little creative and throw something interesting inthere.

ROBDefinitely. So, that was funny.

BOBI used to listen to that quite a bit, but now - this was before the Internet - I used to listen to it quite a bit.Remember that? - Back in 1993-94, when I was living over here in Japan, I didn't have the Internet, I had theradio. When I got homesick I'd listen to a little American Armed Forces Network radio. But, you know, you gotthe Internet now.

ROBSure, yeah.

BOBSo it's amazing that we've got; Podcasts, you've got videocasts, I can watch the US, ABC news, or the BBCnews, every night, or anytime.

ROBYeah. That was a very good old persons impersonation, by the way, Bob.

BOBWell, thank you. I'm getting up there now. I'm 37, in a few years I'm going to start getting arthritis5 in myknees.

ROBBut I don't think radio is dead, you know. Radio is still very much alive.

BOBRadio is dead for me because - radio, well, not all radio - I like some public radio in the US, National PublicRadio6, but most radio, to me, is dead; it's just too commercial, it's kind of generic, it sounds all the same, toomany advertisements.

ROBAnd plays lot's of pop music.

BOBPlays lot's of pop music, yeah. I'm not into pop music.

ROBThe only time I listen to the radio is when I'm driving in the car. I drive to work occasionally.

BOBYou don't listen to Podcasts? You don't listen to the Bob and Rob Show?

ROBNo, not often. No, every week.

BOBYou should do podcasting, then you could choose the content that you want. Why listen to the radio?Because, half the stuff you're not interested in listening to.

ROBMaybe, I can hook up7 my MP3 player in my car somehow.

BOBYou can, you can. There's lot's of devices and equipment for doing that. You can easily hook your MP3 playerup to your car stereo.

ROBYeah, that's true.

4BOBAre you a little bit nervous about the technology of doing that? Are you kind of a techno-phobe8?

ROBI'm a techno-phobe, yeah, I think I am. I might be a bit of a "blinking twelve."9

BOBWell, I can go over to the electronics store with you, Rob. I will help you pick out something, and you canlisten to the MP3 player in your car.

ROBAlright.

BOBBecause, then you can choose the content that you want.

ROBYeah, that's true. Okay, flippity flop, flippity flew.

BOBHey, you know we're doing a hodgepodge today, right.

ROBRight, right.

BOBToday we're doing a hodgepodge, but ...

ROBTalking off the top of our heads10.

BOBYes, yes. So today, we're doing a hodgepodge, and I thought I'd throw a Bubba joke in.

ROBOh, yeah, he's great.

BOBDid you ever do any bar tricks? You go to a bar, or a pub ...

ROBI've got one trick, actually, it's more of a joke than a trick.

BOBYou do that? I do magic tricks; I like magic. I'll go into a bar sometimes, and do some tricks with cigarettes, orwith cards. I do that a lot.

ROBI'll tell you my trick. You know the beer mats, the coasters, you call them? They're usually made of hardpaper.

BOBYeah, like, cardboard.

ROBYeah. Well, I rip a little piece out of one and then stick it on my nose, so ...

BOB... that it sticks.

ROBYeah, and then I turn around to all my friends and I say, 'Who threw that"? Oy, who threw that, come on." Thatalways gets a laugh with my friends.

5BOBThat's funny. Are they laughing with you, or at you?

ROBA bit of both, I think.

BOBThis is a Bubba joke about a guy that goes in a bar, and another guy in the bar does an amazing trick. He fliesaround outside.

ROBThat's pretty amazing11.

BOBThat would be amazing, and naturally, the guy wants to know how he does it. Pretty easy joke, just listen to itand you can understand. So, anyway, this is a little Bubba joke for you. All right, here we go:

OTHERHowdy friend this is Bubba Bohaks with your daily wisecrack from bubbabohaks.com. Visit me there in theFun Barn. A man goes into a bar in this big tall building. The bars at the top floor. He saw another man take apill, take a big ole drink of whiskey, walk to the window and jump out and flew around. The man flies back intothe bar and lands. And he's amazed, so the guy says, "How did you do that?" The man says, "Oh, I got thesemagic pills that make you fly." So the man does it a couple of more times, takes these pills, takes a drink, fliesaround, jumps out the window there, and flies back in. The man says, "Oh, I would love to be able to fly. I'dlike to buy one of your pills." The man says, "Well, I only have one more pill left." So the guy says, "I'll giveyou five-hundred dollars for it." And he says, "No, it's worth more than five-hundred dollars." So the man says,"All that I got to my name is a thousand dollars." So the man that flies says, "Okay, I could sell you my last pillfor a thousand dollars." So he gives this here pink looking thing, and the man takes a drink of whisky, takesthe pill, jumps out the window and falls to his death. The bartender looks at the man, shakes his head andsays, "You know, you're a mean12 drunk, Superman."

ROBGreat.

BOBThat was good. Superman, the man of steel.

ROBA bit nasty there.

BOBYou know, even Superman has a dark side.

ROBSure, yeah. I guess everyone does.

BOBI guess so. Alright, Rob, I believe you've got some phrasal verbs for us.

ROBToday, I thought we could look at the phrasal verb, "to miss out."

BOB"Miss out." I see.

ROBYes, "to miss out" on something. There are a couple of meanings attached to it - "to miss out" on something, itcan mean "to lose an opportunity" ...

BOBLike, if you're young and you spend your time working, or you spend your time - maybe, if you're an athleteand you're always training - sometimes, you could "miss out" on your childhood. If you're not out playing withyour friends, but instead you're busy studying too much, or training for athletics; you'd grow up regretting, and

6maybe saying, "You know, I really missed out on my childhood." Or, as a father, you could miss out on yourchild's childhood, if you're away too much, if you're too busy.

ROBYeah. And also, perhaps, it's quite common here - I don't want to generalize - but some businessmen herehave been known to work very long hours, and they miss out on their children's upbringing.

BOBA lot of them are actually transferred overseas, and they don't bring their families with them.

ROBSure. Right, yeah.

BOBAgain, I'm generalizing, but if it's a country that's a little dangerous, often they won't bring the families withthem. So they live a year or two overseas separated from their families.

ROBSo they're"missing out." And another meaning for "missing out" is to "miss out on, perhaps, getting top prize"for example, or "missing out on gaining something."

BOBOh, okay.

ROBTo be "just beaten," so for example - who did the Colts beat in the Super Bowl?

BOBThe Chicago Bears.

ROBThe Chicago Bears, okay. "So, the Chicago Bears missed out on the ...

BOB... World Championship...

ROB... the World Championship in the Super Bowl."

BOBThat's true, or if you get second prize, like for a drawing or a lottery, you could say, "Ah, I just missed out onthe grand prize."

ROBOkay, another one?

BOBWhy not, we want to give our listeners one-hundred ten percent.

ROBYou can, "miss somebody out," or you can "miss something out." I don't know if this is used in America.

BOBDoesn't sound familiar.

ROBIt's mainly used in Britain, I think, and this would mean "not to include somebody or something deliberately."

BOBWe would say, "leave them out."

ROBOkay, we can use that too. For example, if you're listening to a lecture, and the teacher or the professor,"misses out" on the most important piece of information, then it means "that lecturer hasn't mentioned it."

7BOBOh, okay. Well, thanks, for providing the phrasal verbs. I've got some idioms today; I'm going to look at theidiom, "mend." And as you know, "to mend something" means "to fix." Like, "to mend your clothes," "to fix yourclothes." And today's idiom is, "to be on the mend." I remember after you had your climbing accident, youwere "on the mend" for quite awhile. And, basically, that means "to get better after an illness or injury." Like,"I'm on the mend," I'm getting better." So, you were on the mend for awhile, weren't you?

ROBYeah, about two years.

BOBAnother idiom that you can use with "mend," is "mend your fences."

ROB"Mend your fences," is this going to be the bonus idiom?

BOBWell, no. I'm just throwing this one in because, I'm nice. I want to do another one. It means "to find aresolution with a disagreement with someone." So, "Can't you mend your fences with your enemy, or your ex-wife, or your whatever - your boss"? Just, 'to make up'. Again, like I said, to find a solution to a disagreement.Like, I think people really want to encourage the US and Iran, to mend fences.

ROBRight.

BOBBecause, things have been a bit tense.

ROBYeah, so step towards peace.

BOBYes. And the bonus idiom is "mend your ways." For example, "If Roberto doesn't mend his ways, we'll have tothrow him out of the office here." If that man doesn't mend his ways, he's going to end up in prison." "Mendsomeone's ways."

ROBAnd that will be explained more fully ...

BOBIn the study guide.

ROBYeah, okay. Thanks, Bob, great job.

BOBWell, I think it's time for a little Ancient Japanese English Study Secret.

ROBAncient Japanese English Study Secret.

BOBWe're looking today at the quantifiers, "few," and "little." Often we see these, for example, "I have a fewdollars," or "I know a little bit about China." But sometimes, they can suggest not enough, not having enoughof something. Just some examples of ways you can use "few," and "little," in that sense. For example, "It'sone of the few schools in the city where you can study Chinese" So in that sense, "it's one of the few schools"has a connotation, or suggestion of scarcity, or not being enough. Or another example might be, "We shoulduse the little time we have on earth to help others." So it has a connotation, "the little time," not being enough."Not sufficient." So that's another way you can use those very popular quantifiers "few," and "a little."

ROBYeah, good. And we can also use them another way. Instead of "the few," or "the little," we can use, "whatfew," or "what little."

8BOBThat's true.

ROBAnd again, this is to accentuate the smallness of the amount, or the minimal size of the number, or amount.So for example, "They gave what little money they had to the charity."

BOBOkay, but you could say, "they gave little money," but when you say, "what little," it emphasizes the littleness,the small amount.

ROBYou can also say - another example - this isn't actually true about the Bob and Rob Show but - "What fewlisteners we have are always made welcome." We've actually got quite a few members.

BOBQuite a few, billions and billions. Just another note about "few. It's used after personal pronouns, but rarely doyou use "little," after a personal pronouns. For example, "I learned to play tennis during my few days off,during spring vacation." So, "my few days," you wouldn't say, "my little days." Or "She put her few belongingsinto the suitcase, and walked out of the house." So again, you wouldn't say, "her little" belongings. Anyway,"few" is often used after personal pronouns.

ROBGood.

BOBI think that's enough for this topic.

ROBThat's been Ancient Japanese English Study Secret.

BOBAncient Japanese English Study Secret. Well, well, well, I think it's time for Both Sides of the Pond, Rob. Whatdo you have in store for everyone today?

ROBWell, today we're just going to look at a few pronunciations again. Mostly these involve a change on thestress, we change the stress of the word.

BOBOkay, well, give me a word.

ROBIn Britain we say, "amenity."13

BOBIn the US we say, "amenity."

ROB"Amenity," okay, wow, we don't say that. The food "anchovy14."

BOBAnchovy?

ROBSorry, "anchovy," anchovy."

BOBOh, "anchovy," we say, "anchovy."

ROBYou say, "anchovy"?

9BOBYeah, "anchovy."

ROBWe say, "anchovy."

BOBInteresting. No wonder I never understand you.

ROBIf you're against something in the UK, we say, "anti."

BOBI think in the US, we can say, "anti," or "anti."

ROB"Anti," okay, we don't use that.

BOBBoth, are okay.

ROBAnd we say, "apparatus."

BOB"Apparatus"?

ROB"Apparatus," okay, we stretch the "y" section. And in the UK we say, "aristocrat."

BOBWe say, "aristocrat," "aristocrat."

ROBA different stress.

BOBBut I think we say, "aristocracy," as a noun. Do you say, "aristocracy"?

ROBYeah, we say, "aristocracy."

BOBWell, thanks for providing those.

ROBNo problem.

BOBOkay, a little Both Sides of the Pond. Okay, just a few announcements today. Thanks for all your messagesand support. Thanks for the donations, and you know where to find us, we're at www.thebobandrobshow.com.

ROBYes, and if you're interested in becoming a member. You'd like to get the study guides and the detailedtranscripts, then please, consider becoming a member.

BOBIt's really a good deal now, cause we've done, probably, almost twenty shows with the study guides, soimmediately, you have access to twenty study guides.

ROBYeah, useful.

BOB

10

And our song for the day is - we did a joke about Superman - and we have kind of a funny song here by agroup called, Molly and Sonny Boy, and it's called, "Superman, I Wish, I Was You."

ROBCool.

BOBIt probably should say, "I wish I 'were' you15," but anyway, it's just artistic license16.

ROBYes, you're being a grammarian17, Bob, don't worry about it.

BOBI'm not a grammarian; a lot of things I am, but not a grammarian. This show we got from podshow.com, youcan learn more about the artist by going to www.podshow.music.com. And, I think, we're going to make likeSuperman and fly out of here quickly. We gotta get going.

ROBYeah, let's get going. Good luck with your studies, and we'll see you next time.

BOBAll right, take care, everyone. Bye.

OTHERSong: "Superman, I wish I was you" By, Molly and Sonny Boy -- At fantastic speeds he flies through the air /He fights evil forces others wouldn't even dare / He can tackle a missile with his own bare hands18 / He's theone they call Superman / Superman, Superman, I wish I was you / I'd do those things that I can't do / I'd leaptall buildings, I'd walk through the fire / I'd be the one everyone would admire / His x-ray vision let's him seethrough brick / His alter ego19 can't never 20phone in sick / Though he's from a different planet / He lives hereon earth / Cause he's an orphan, an foundling, Kriptonian by birth / Superman, Superman, I wish I was you /I'd do those things that I can't do / I'd leap tall buildings / I'd walk through the fire / I'd be the one Lois Lanewould desire / Lois Lane really digs21 him, so it seems / She thinks she's found that man of her dreams / Asthe man of steel he can really take the heat / But drink Kriptonite could mark his defeat / Superman,Superman, I wish I was you / I'd do those things that I can't do / I'd leap tall buildings / I'd walk through fire / I'dbe the one everyone would admire / I'm ambassador to Mt. Shasta and around the world / Superman comicsare bought and sold / He's an alien who doesn't need to bike or to swim / You'll never see him working out atthe gym / Superman, Superman, I wish I was you / I'd do those things that I can't do / I'd leap tall buildings / I'dwalk through the fire / I'd be the one Lois Lane would desire / Oh, Superman, Superman, I wish I was you / I'ddo those things that I can't do / I'd leap tall buildings / I'd walk through the fire / I'd be the one ... would admire.

Extension and Review Study*note: we encourage you to respond to the questions and readings by posting on the discussion board (Loginusing your Bob and Rob Show membership username and password)http://englishcaster.com/discussionboard/

1/ Have you ever just missed out on something? If yes, describe what happened. If no, describe what youwould not want to miss out on in your life.

2/ Have you ever had to mend fences with anybody? What advice would you give to juvenile delinquents22to mend their ways?

Glossary 1 How you been = this is slang. Ommitting the verb is very colloquial. Of course the full question should be'how have you been?'2 Armed Forces Network = Also known as AFN. They have a website here: http://www.yokota.af.mil/afn/3 Wacky = strange in a funny way, (remember wacky baccy from the drug show?) Another way to say wackyis oddball.4 Generic = something that is shared by a whole class of things e.g: we send generic emails to a whole groupof people if we change our address or phone number.5 Arthritis = a physical illness affecting the muscles of the body usually in old aged people.6 National Public Radio = Also known as NPR. Here is their website: http://www.npr.org/There is also aNPR podcast directory. Check it out here: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php

11

7 hook up = phrasal verb meaning 'to connect something to something'. You can also hook people up, whichmeans to introduce them to one another.8 techno-phobe = a person scared of technology.9 "blinking twelve" = slang way to say techno-phobe. The blinking 12 refers to the clock on a video player,which is never set and so constantly blinks, or flashes.10 Talking off the top of our heads = idiom meaning to ad lib, to talk freely without a script or rehearsal. 'Offthe top of my head' also means to make a guess without thinking too much about it.11 pretty amazing = example of gradable adverb with non-gradable adjective.12 Mean = nasty. In British English, mean means miserly, tight with money.13 Amenity = a public place where people can go for pleasure or entertainment.14 Anchovy = a small fish with a strong salty taste. Often used as a pizza topping.15 I wish I 'were' you = Bob is in fact quite correct, the subjunctive mood requires 'were'.16 artistic license = we've mentioned this before but it's good to review vocabulary. Artistic license refers tothe made up words, phrases and even grammatical changes that poets, writers and other artists employ tomake their work unique or more creative.17 Grammarian = someone who studies grammar in detail and places a lot of importance on it.18 bare hands = phrase meaning the use of just one's hands.19 alter ego = another side to someone's character. Here it means Clark Kent.20 can't never = this double negative is an example of a native speaker grammatical mistake. Maybe it'sartistic lisence as Bob says?21 Digs = slang for 'likes alot'.22 juvenile delinquents = teenagers who get into trouble a lot, often with the police.