ESL Reading

A:  What took you so long?  We’ve been waiting for hours. B:  I was stuck in traffic.  We were moving at a snails pace for miles. A:  Meeting at six doesn’t mean leaving the house at 5 to six. B:  I left early.  The traffic was horrendous. A:  It’s rush hour.  What did you expect? B:  It was the worst traffic I’ve ever seen. A:  You can’t keep playing that card.  It’s like the tenth time you’ve used that excuse. B:  Well, what can I say?  I’m sorry.  How can I make it up to you? A:  What’s with the attitude?  I really don’t appreciate your tone of voice. B:  I suppose you’re never late. A:  Well, I’m not late nearly as often as you.  You don’t respect anyone else’s time. B:  I like to think I more than make up for it with my personality.

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Stuck: This is a verb we use to describe being in traffic for a long time.  You can use it to describe some situations that you don’t want to be in but can’t get out of.  For example you could say, “I was stuck in line for 2 hours at the bank”.  “Why did you leave me all alone stuck talking to that boring guy?”
Snail’s pace: A snail is a small animal that moves very slowly.  A snail’s pace is a very slow pace.

Horrendous:  Really bad.  “That movie was horrendous”.  “I heard he was good at tennis?”  “Are you kidding?  He’s horrendous”
Rush hour: This is the time when everyone is either driving to work or driving home from work.  It’s the time when there are the most cars on the road and the traffic is really bad.

What did you expect? This is a rhetorical question that is similar to saying “Of course it would be like this.  Why did you think it would be any different?”  If a guy who didn’t study looked surprised when he failed his test, you could say to him, “What did you expect?  You knew it was a hard test and you did no preparation”.

You can’t keep playing that card: This expression means you can’t keep making the same excuse.  Maybe someone would accept the excuse once or twice, but finds it unreasonable for the person to keep using it.  If someone asked you, “Can I borrow some money?  I’ve been too sad since my girlfriend left me”.  You could say.  “You can’t keep playing that card.  She left you over a year ago.  It’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and get a job”.

Like:  It is slang here and means, “approximately or about”.  “How old is she?”  “I’m not exactly sure.  I think she’s like 30”.

Make it up to: If you “make something up to” someone it means you do something good to compensate for your mistake.  If someone is angry with you because you forgot to call them on their birthday, you might be able to make it up to them by treating them to dinner.

What’s with the attitude? This is a rhetorical question that means “Why do you have a bad attitude right now?” or “Why are you talking to me in such a rude way right now?”  It’s not a very nice thing to ask.  If you ask this question it means you are fairly upset with the other person.

Tone of voice: There’s a saying in English that goes: “its not what you say but how you say it”  It means that it’s even more important how you speak to someone than your actual words.  You can say “Why did you stay out so late last night?”  in a friendly way, or say the same thing in a way where you show you are upset.  It’s the same question but the tone of voice changes the meaning.

More than make up for it: If you more than make up for something it means that the good qualities or the good thing you did, makes your bad ones forgettable or much less important.  You could say, “I know he’s a little selfish with his time sometimes, but he more than makes up for it with his great sense of humor and generosity with money”.  You could also talk about an athlete by saying, “Although he’s quite short, he more than makes up for it with his speed”.

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