English Learning Conversation

A: Good afternoon sir. License and registration please. B: Officer, may I ask why you are pulling me over? A: You were doing over 140 in an 80. That’s going to be a huge fine and several points. B: Officer, there’s nobody on the road. I promise I won’t do it again. Please let me go this time. I won’t be able to afford the insurance. A: I also notice that you aren’t wearing a seatbelt. And what’s that smell? Have you been drinking? B: Here’s 50 bucks. Just take it and let me go. A: I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the car. B: Why? A: You’re under arrest for attempting to bribe an officer. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. B: Oh come on officer. I was just playing around. You’re cuffing me?

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License and registration please: When a police officer stops someone’s car, they always ask to see the driver’s license and the registration of the car. They want to make sure that the driver is legally allowed to drive, and that the car isn’t stolen.

Officer: This is a word that is used instead of “police man”.

Pulling me over: “Pulling someone over” is the expression we use to talk about a police officer asking a car to stop on the side of the road. You could say, “I was driving last night and all of a sudden a police officer pulled me over for no reason”.

Doing over 140 in an 80: We use the verb “doing” in this context, which means driving. This sentence means, “You were driving more than 140 kilometers per hour when the legal limit was only 80 kilometers per hour”.

Fine: A fine is some amount of money that you have to pay when you do something illegal. You have to pay a huge fine if you get caught smoking on an airplane.

Points: In some countries, all drivers start off with a certain number of “points”. Certain illegal driving activities cause the driver to lose points. The more points you lose, the more car insurance you have to pay. Also, if you lose too many points, you can lose your driver’s license.

I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the car: Police officers often talk in a formal way. Instead of just saying, “get out of the car” they would say, “I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the car”. They both mean the same thing.

Under arrest: If you are “under arrest” it means that the police have good reason to believe you committed a crime and the police have the right to take you to the police station and handle you in the manner that is appropriate according to the law.

Bribe: Bribing someone means to offer them some reward (often money) to bend the rules in your favor. For example, offering $100 to your teacher to give you a higher grade is a form of bribery.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law”:

This sentence is what police officers say to people when they are under arrest in the USA. The basic idea is that the person arrested is allowed to not say anything at all if they choose. If the arrested person does say something, the police have the right to mention it in the court.

Cuffing: This is a slang term for “putting hand cuffs on someone”. Hand cuffs are made of strong metal and they lock the arrested person’s hands together. It is very difficult to fight or cause harm if you are wearing hand cuffs.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Fun English Lessons, fun-english-vip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.