coffee break english season 2 episode 3 [Music] hello and welcome to coffee break english i'm josie and i'm mark and we are delighted that you're joining us once again today yes and we hope you've been enjoying the series so far on the coffee break english podcast we help you to improve your english by studying texts about interesting things from all around the world we look at culture and we listen to lots of different accents each episode also features a different language point so far we've traveled to the united states we've also visited south africa and
in this episode we are traveling to australia so josie can you tell us what this text is about yes as you said mark we're going to australia this week and this text is about steve irwin okay we'll listen to the text together now let's get started [Music] hi mark hi josie this is matthew reporting today from australia and today we're talking about a famous australian if you mention crocodiles to australians they instantly think of steve irwin born in melbourne in 1962 erwin was a conservationist who loved animals and the natural world his parents were both
wildlife experts and in 1970 the family moved to queensland where they started a small wildlife park irwin grew up around animals and quickly followed in his parents footsteps he liked exploring nature and playing with animals and he wrestled his first crocodile when he was just nine years old as he got older irwin continued working with wildlife he volunteered with organizations which found safe homes for animals and he eventually took over the family wildlife park renaming it the australia zoo in 1991 he met american naturalist terry raines who became his wife just four months later terry
also loved wildlife and nature so after the wedding the couple spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles and taking them to safer homes the videos which steve took during this trip became the first episode of the crocodile hunter one of many television shows which made the family famous the irwins had two children bindi sue who was named after two animals which steve had cared for earlier in his life and robert who was named after steve's father like her dad bindi went on to host her own wildlife tv show tragically steve irwin was killed by a stingray to
the heart in 2006 which happened while he was filming an underwater wildlife show however his legacy lives on through his family who continue his wildlife and conservation work he has left his mark on the world in other animal related ways too a species of turtle he discovered was named irwin's turtle after steve and his family in 2009 a new australian land style was discovered which was given the name crikey steve irwini after steve's famous catchphrase crikey [Music] that was fascinating yes i learned a lot about steve irwin there josie are we going to be looking
at a particular language point in this episode we are indeed mark this episode we're going to be focusing on defining relative clauses and pronouns okay that sounds a little complicated it does when you use that terminology but basically we're going to be looking at when we use the words who which and where perfect so let's take a closer look at the text okay josie you read each sentence and then we can talk about the words in each sentence okay sounds good if you mention crocodiles to australians they instantly think of steve irwin okay uh we
know what crocodiles are we do i wonder if our listeners do i think crocodile may well be a similar word in many other languages i think so to my knowledge there are many languages in which it's similar okay so anything interesting in that sentence to be honest no shall we continue yeah why not so born in melbourne in 1962 irwin was a conservationist who loved animals and the natural world what is a conservationist so a conservationist is basically a person who who works for the preservation of animals and plants they want to preserve animals and
plants steve irwin was a famous conservationist yes he was is there anything else you want to look at in this sentence well yes here in this sentence we have the first use of what's called a relative pronoun so erwin was a conservationist who loved animals this word who is a relative pronoun and it's used when we're talking about people it's joining the two parts of the sentence isn't it that's right basically it's uh giving more information about something that we've already said so erwin was a conservationist okay who loved animals and the natural world we're
giving more information about steve irwin here okay that makes sense we'll see more examples of the relative pronouns in the text we will let's continue his parents were both wildlife experts and in 1970 the family moved to queensland where they started a small wildlife park okay so let's talk about this sentence is there anything you want to pick up on here yes so this word wildlife could you define that for us please mark well it's it's a good example of a compound noun where two nouns come together so we've got wild and life and wildlife
is used to mean wild animals and nature all those kind of things that's right basically any life that you find in the wild in nature yes okay so the next thing i'd like to talk about in this sentence is the word where so we have the family moved to queensland where they started a small wildlife park so in the previous phrase we saw who which we said was a relative pronoun this word where is also a relative pronoun but it's not used to talk about people this time instead it's used to talk about places that's
right yes so by using this word where we're joining two parts of this sentence and giving more information about queensland the family moved to queensland what did they do there they started a small wildlife park so that works in exactly the same way as who in the previous sentence that's right okay let's continue erwin grew up around animals and quickly followed in his parents footsteps to follow in someone's footsteps what does that mean josie hmm well this is an interesting expression basically it means to do as someone did before you so if you imagine you
are uh walking on the beach and your your your feet make some marks on the wet sand these are your footprints or we could say your footsteps now imagine that someone is walking behind you and they put their feet in exactly the marks that you made they do what you did before so to follow in someone's footsteps literally it means to do what you did before walking behind you on the beach using the same footsteps or footprints that you're using but here it's used figuratively exactly yes so it just means that steve irwin did like
his parents did his parents loved animals and so did he he made a career from his love of animals excellent let's move on then and finish this paragraph okay he liked exploring nature and playing with animals and he wrestled his first crocodile when he was just nine years old okay to wrestle so to wrestle means to to fight so think of the the wwf this kind of fighting but um how is wrestling or wrestled spelt mark so we have a silent w in wrestle w r e s t l e for to wrestle that's right
this is very similar to the word uh to write with a pen to write w-r-i-t-e another silent w it's also interesting to point out that in the word wrestle we don't really pronounce the t that's right we almost have two silent letters here good okay so we now know a little more about the origins of steve irwin and his background let's continue on with the text okay as he got older irwin continued working with wildlife he volunteered with organizations which found safe homes for animals and he eventually took over the family wildlife park renaming it
the australia zoo okay the first part of this is is straightforward as he got older irwin continued working with wildlife could we say he continued to work with wildlife we could indeed there would be no difference in meaning here okay so steve volunteered with organizations anything we need to think about there yes so here this word organizations this of course comes from the verb organize which can be spelt two different ways in the uk and the u.s so in the uk we spell this o-r-g-a-n-i-s-e and in the u.s how do we spell it mark it
would be o r g a n i z or z e that's right we've already seen quite a few of these spelling differences and we will see many more indeed okay so these organizations we find out more about these organizations with another relative pronoun we do indeed this time it's not who it's not where it's which so he volunteered with organizations which found safe homes for animals we're giving more information about these organizations so the relative pronoun which is used when we're talking about things okay so so far we've seen who when we're talking about
people where when we're talking about places and now we have which talking about things that's right and if things sounds a little too general basically we use which when we're not talking about people or places that makes sense okay so these organizations which found safe homes for animals and then what did he eventually do so eventually he took over the family wildlife park and we have a nice phrasal verb here yes we do so to take over is a phrasal verb a verb which has two words and in this case take over means to start
to manage or to become the boss of something so steve he started to manage his family's wildlife park he became the boss of it and he also gave it a new name yes so he renamed it the australia zoo as we saw in the previous episode when we add the prefix re to a verb it means to do something again so if he renamed this wildlife park he gave it a name again he gave it a new name perfect okay let's find out what happened next okay in 1991 he met american naturalist terry raines who
became his wife just four months later right first of all what is a naturalist a naturalist is an expert of natural history okay and we also have another example of a relative pronoun here we do indeed we have another who so he met american naturalist terry raines who became his wife just four months later we're using the pronoun who because terry reigns is a woman she's a person and we're giving more information about her using this word who okay we're going to find out a little more about steve irwin after our break we'll be back
in just a moment [Music] each episode of the coffee break english podcast is free and you can use our podcast to help you improve your english but there's more that's right we have a full course available on our website which will help you make faster progress and understand everything much better for every lesson we offer videos bonus audio recordings lesson notes with exercises and vocabulary lists in lots of languages all this is available on the coffee break academy so visit coffee break academy academy.com [Music] welcome back today we are talking about the australian conservationist steve
irwin josie can you continue with the text please yes so before the break we learned about steve's wife terry reigns and they got married in 1991. let's learn more about her terry also loved wildlife and nature so after the wedding the couple spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles and taking them to safer homes okay so what is a honeymoon well a honeymoon is the the holiday you go on after you get married i think it's a really lovely word honey and moon together two really nice things together very romantic indeed and trapping crocodiles what does that
involve yes so trapping crocodiles basically means when you catch crocodiles in order to protect them to maybe take them to a safer place as steve and terry did okay let's find out more about this okay the videos which steve took during this trip became the first episode of the crocodile hunter one of many television shows which made the family famous i think i've spotted another relative pronoun there i'm sure you have there are actually two in that sentence yeah let's let's find out more about this then so what are the two relative pronouns they are
both which we have the videos which steve took and one of many television shows which made the family famous both videos and television shows are things not places or people so that's why we use which not where and not who okay let's continue okay the erwins had two children bindi sue who was named after two animals which steve had cared for earlier in his life and robert who is named after steve's father yet again more relative pronouns here this time who indeed so we're talking about steve and terry's children so we are using who they
had two children one was bindi su who was named after two animals and robert who was named after steve's father okay and we also know something about bindi yes like her dad bindi went on to host her own wildlife tv show to go on to do something that's an interesting phrasal verb yes so another phrasal verb here to go on to do something means to to do something later or after so steve's daughter bindi she hosted her own tv show after her dad she went on to host it okay let's continue our text tragically steve
irwin was killed by a stingray injury to the heart in 2006 which happened while he was filming an underwater wildlife show no a stingray is a type of fish yes it's a fish which is very flat and wide okay so tragically steve died during the filming of an underwater wildlife show we've got another relative pronoun in this sentence we have we have um he was killed by a stingray injury to the heart in 2006 which happened while he was filming a wildlife show so an injury this is a thing so we are using the pronoun
which here okay let's continue and find out about his legacy okay however his legacy lives on through his family who continue his wildlife and conservation work what exactly is a legacy so a legacy is something that's left behind by someone who has died so sometimes this could be money or property in this case it is steve's work his ideas and they live on through his family yes they they continue through his family his family continues his work let's complete the text he has left his mark on the world in other animal related ways too what
does it mean when someone leaves their mark yeah so if you leave a mark you leave an impression on something it doesn't necessarily have to be a physical mark something that we can see like a footprint indeed like a footprint so in this case steve left his mark on the world he left an impression he left a memory okay so let's find out about these ways in which he left his mark a species of turtle he discovered was named irwin's turtle after steve and his family in 2009 a new australian land snail was discovered which
was given the name crikey stever winnie after steve's famous catchphrase crikey okay so um a couple of things here first of all the which in this uh sentence is interesting yes so we have another relative pronoun we're using which now in this case which is describing this new snail which was discovered now many people may think that we should use who to describe animals because they are alive like like people but in english we don't do this in fact we use which for animals not who okay and finally let's talk about the word catchphrase yes
so a catchphrase is basically a phrase that someone says all the time and they are known for this so think for example of homer simpson and what was his catchphrase mark i think homer simpson always says exactly yes he's very famous for this and steve irwin's catchphrase was crikey that's right and crikey just means wow it's a term used to express surprise it's actually an australian slang word and we also use it a lot in britain okay let's listen again to the text now and hopefully you'll understand much more this time around you mention crocodiles
to australians they instantly think of steve irwin born in melbourne in 1962 erwin was a conservationist who loved animals and the natural world his parents were both wildlife experts and in 1970 the family moved to queensland where they started a small wildlife park erwin grew up around animals and quickly followed in his parents footsteps he liked exploring nature and playing with animals and he wrestled his first crocodile when he was just nine years old as he got older irwin continued working with wildlife he volunteered with organizations which found safe homes for animals and he eventually
took over the family wildlife park renaming it the australia zoo in 1991 he met american naturalist terry reigns who became his wife just four months later terry also loved wildlife and nature so after the wedding the couple spent their honeymoon trapping crocodiles and taking them to safer homes the videos which steve took during this trip became the first episode of the crocodile hunter one of many television shows which made the family famous the irwin's had two children bindi sue who was named after two animals which steve had cared for earlier in his life and robert
who was named after steve's father like her dad bindi went on to host her own wildlife tv show tragically steve irwin was killed by a stingray to the heart in 2006 which happened while he was filming an underwater wildlife show however his legacy lives on through his family who continue his wildlife and conservation work he has left his mark on the world in other animal related ways too a species of turtle he discovered was named irwin's turtle after steve and his family in 2009 a new australian land style was discovered which was given the name
crikey steve irwini after steve's famous catchphrase crikey [Music] thank you very much for joining us for this episode of coffee break english if you would like access to more content then you can go to the coffee break academy where we provide the transcript along with notes and other materials this is all available at coffee break academy dot com that's right mark and if you'd like to practice your english you can also do so on social media just search for coffee break english on facebook and on instagram where we post regular language challenges and cultural information
we'll be back again soon with more coffee break english until then thanks for listening and goodbye see you soon [Music] you have been listening to a coffee break languages production for the radiolingua network copyright 2021 radiolingual limited recording copyright 2021 radiolingual limited all rights reserved
