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This is Tom's English

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podcast.

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[inaudible] .

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Welcome to Tom's English

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podcast. Sport

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these days is big

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business. Whether you play

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or watch any sport yourself

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is one thing, but if

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you're learning a language, following

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sport is one of the best ways

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to improve your vocabulary, your

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listening and your reading . As

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well as this, there are many expressions

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which we use which

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come from sport and

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which can help you to express yourself

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better. It's always nice to

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have a question at the beginning

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of my podcast and today

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you have a sporting chance

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of getting this one right. The

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British are well known

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for having invented lots of

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different sports, but

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which of these sports did they

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not invent? Table

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tennis, tennis, volleyball,

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or g olf As

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usual. I will only give you

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the answer to this at the end, but

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please think away. One

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sport that I didn't mention was

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football or soccer,

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and many people often ask me if

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they should use football or

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soccer when referring

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to the beautiful game, the

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most popular sport on the planet,

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as played by such players as

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Pele, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi

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and Christiana Ronaldo. And of

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course Bobby Moore. Now, it's

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true that in the United States, the word

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soccer is used,

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but both the word soccer

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and football are used in the

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UK. The word soccer

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is in fact an abbreviation

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of the word association

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because there were two

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forms of football; association football

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and rugby football - soccer

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football or association.

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Football became a way of referring

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to what we know today as

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just football. Nowadays

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in Britain, we just use the word

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football and rugby,

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but of course in the United

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States they kept the prefix.

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S occer.

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I'm going to use five

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different phrases which have

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their origins in sport.

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I want you to listen and tell

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me which sport you

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think they come from. Then

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I will explain each. Number

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one - "That question's

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too difficult for me. I'm

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really stumped."

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Cricket - to

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be stumped is one

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of the ways a player can be eliminated

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from the game, so being

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stumped means being unable

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to answer a question.

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Two --" With Jimmy I'm not really surprised.

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Upsetting the neighbours is par for the course with

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him." Golf.-

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A p ar score is an average

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score, so if you say par

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for the course, this is a

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typical performance or

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expected behavior.

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Three "Telling

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his boss that his idea was

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stupid was one of the worst

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own goals I've seen." Football

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- an own

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goal is when you score a goal

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for the other team, so

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we use this to say that you have

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harmed your own chances or

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made your own situation

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worse. Four - "Everyone

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was relatively calm before,

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but after that last

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insult, the gloves are

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off." Boxing

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- fighting

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without boxing gloves is dangerous

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and painful. If we say

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the gloves are off,

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the real fighting is

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going to start . Five - "I

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don't think we should use the same team for

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every project. I prefer

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to choose horses for courses.

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" Horse

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racing - Some

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horses perform better in

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different places or courses,

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so we should adapt our

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approach to suit the circumstances.

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Now you have heard five

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different expressions related

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to five different sports.

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I'd like you to listen to a

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story about what happened

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last week, but

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in my story I'm going to leave

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out the sporting metaphors

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and you can try to think

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and include the correct

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metaphors. Last week I

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started a new job. On

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my first day I arrived

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an hour late. It

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was a real _____________

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The first morning I had

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to help organize the database.

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I think I did okay at

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least, but

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when my boss asked me to create

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a new piece of software before

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2.00pm I was really

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_________. He

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accused me of being incompetent

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and after that the

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_____________________. We

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had a terrible argument. I

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walked out and I went home.

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Maybe the job wasn't right

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for me. After all, it's all_______________________

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Now listen to the same story

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but with the sporting

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metaphors to see if you were right.

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Last week I started

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a new job. On

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my first day I arrived

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an hour late. It was

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a real own

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goal. The first morning

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I had to help organize the database.

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I think I did okay. At least

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par for the course,

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but when the boss asked me to

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create a new piece of software before

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2:00 PM I was

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really stumped.

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He accused me of being i

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ncompetent, and after that the

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gloves were off. We

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had a terrible argument. I

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walked out, I went

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home. Maybe the job

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wasn't right for me. After all.

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It's a ll horses

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for courses.

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Do you remember my question

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from the beginning? Yes.

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There were four sports,

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tennis, table-tennis, volleyball,

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and golf. Golf

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was invented in Britain, as

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was table tennis and

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tennis, but

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volleyball was not. William

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Morgan sounds like he might've been English,

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but in fact he was American

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and he lived in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

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He was the man in 1895

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who invented volleyball. You

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learn something new every

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day, especially if

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you listen to Tom's

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English podcast. Thank you.

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Goodbye. Tom's

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English podcast

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[inaudible] .