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The Race - Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, this is the vocabulary lesson for The Race.

Let’s go through the story slowly and talk about some of the vocabulary. Alright… The race.

It’s 5 o’clock and Allen, Allen is a name of course, is riding his motorcycle in San Francisco.

He is riding down Van Ness St., Van Ness is also a name of course, and when we say riding down… down, we sometimes say y’know, he’s going up the street or he is going down the street and sometimes that means maybe, going up a hill or down a hill.

Sometimes it means, y’know, North and South. Y’know if you’re going up the street, it might suggest you are going north on the street. If you say go down Van Ness. It might mean go south on Van Ness or it might mean go down the hill here at the top of Van Ness Street and you’re going to go down meaning down a long hill.

So that’s why we say sometimes to go up or go down a street. Here it means going down a hill Van Ness has a big hill. So Allen is at the top of the hill and he is riding down Van Ness Street and he comes to a stoplight.

A stoplight is a traffic light of course, y’know green, yellow and red. Sometimes we say traffic light but sometimes we say stoplight, same, they’re both the same, stoplight or traffic light.

Okay, a red Ferrari pulls up next to him. Ferrari is the name of a car, of course. So Ferrari is a very fast car, made in Italy. Ferrari, I think most of you probably know what a Ferrari is.

Okay, pulls up next to him. To pull up next to someone, it’s the idea that you… you… you come next to them. You were behind them and then you come next to them. So you can imagine someone is at a stoplight and another car comes from behind and then comes and stops next to you or next to the person.

We say they pulled up next to you. They pulled up next to the person. It’s the idea of coming from behind to the side. So from behind to the side of someone. So a red Ferrari pulls up next to Allen. Comes from behind Allen and then stops next to him.

The driver is wearing dark sunglasses. Okay, the driver of the Ferrari is wearing dark sunglasses.

He looks over at Allen. Okay, this is another two word verb… Looks over. To look over at is the idea that you look to the side, right? You’re looking sideways. Not in front of you. We don’t… if you say look over you’re not looking to the front. You’re looking to the side, right?

So they are next to each other and then they look to the side. The driver turns his head to the side and looks at Allen. So that’s the idea of to look over at someone. It has the idea of looking to the side.

Allen looks at him, Allen looks at the driver and realizes that the driver is Tom Cruise.

That’s right. Tom Cruise is the driver of the Ferrari. Tom Cruise looks over at Allen. Turns to the side and looks at Allen. Tom sneers at Allen. Sneer… to sneer… to sneer means to move your mouth and look kind of angry, right?

It means you maybe… only one side of your mouth goes up, right? It’s kind of a half smile. So maybe the left side of the mouth goes up, but the right side does not move. It’s kind of half smile, we call that sneering or to sneer.

And to sneer it usually means the person is angry or the person does not like you. It’s a negative thing, to sneer. Okay, so Tom sneers at Allen, right? He sneers at Allen.

And he says, “When the light turns green, let’s race”. So Tom Cruise wants to race Allen on his motorcycle. Tom has a Ferrari car and Allen has a motorcycle. Tom wants to race. Allen says, “Alright, you’re on”.

You’re on means I agree with you or it means I will do it. I will do what you said. I agree to do something. Usually we use you’re on for a contest, for competition, for something where one person will win and another will lose.

For example, a race, some kind of difficult thing. For example, if you say, “AJ, I will give you 100 dollars if you swim 10 miles”, right? I will give you 100 dollars if you swim 10 miles and I say, “you’re on”. It means I agree. I agree to do it. I agree to do it.

So in this story, Allen agrees to race Tom. He agrees to do it. He says, “You’re on. I will do it”. Then Tom says, “I’m goinna smoke you, sucka!” This is slang. Of course… a slang.

Now gonna means going to. It’s the future… future tense. We say gonna in normal speech. We don’t say going to… we say gonna. So he says I’m going to smoke you. I’m gonna smoke you, okay?

To smoke someone is slang. It means to beat them. It means to win against someone. So usually, it’s used with the future a lot. I’m gonna smoke you, means I’m going to beat you. I’m going to win and you are going to lose. That’s what to smoke someone means. Especially in a race. We use it a lot with racing. I’m gonna smoke you means I will be faster. I will beat you.

And then sucka… sucka or sucker, two pronunciations, sucker or sucka. That’s a… it just means… it’s kind of a negative name for somebody. It’s a little bit like jerk or asshole, but sucka is kind of weak. It’s a little negative, but not so much. So sucka is a little bit negative, not terrible… not terrible.

Alright, so Tom’s being a little negative. He says, “I’m gonna smoke you, sucka”. Allen says, “You wish”. Meaning you wish you would smoke me, you wish you will win.

Okay, but then he says, Allen says, “I’m gonna beat you and your sorry-ass car”. Okay, sorry-ass is also a slang. Sorry-ass… sorry-ass car… sorry-ass apartment… sorry-ass job. Sorry-ass means terrible, cheap, low quality, not good. That’s why we say sorry-ass. So Allen says, “oh, Tom your car is nothing. Your car is bad. Your car is cheap. Your car is low quality. It’s a sorry-ass car, sorry-ass car”.

Alright, the next line. Allen and Tom wait at the light. They rev their engines. Okay, to rev an engine. Engine is the motor for a car or motorcycle, right? The power for the car. It’s the power for the motorcycle. To rev means to vuummmm… that’s revving the engine, right?

You push the engine so it goes fast, but you are not moving, right? So you’re pushing the gas… vuuuum… but you also push the brake, so no moving, no moving. That’s called revving the engine, revving the engine. You make the engine loud… revving the engine.

So Tom is revving the engine of his Ferrari. Allen is revving the engine of his motorcycle. And they are waiting for the light. Suddenly, the light turns green. Allen and Tom take off.

Okay, to take off. To take off means to start quickly. It means to go quickly or to start very quickly. So to take off, we use it, for example, when someone is stopped, they’re not moving, stopped, and suddenly they move. Suddenly, they go. We say they take off. To take off is to suddenly move or to suddenly start, okay?

So they take off. The light turns green, Tom suddenly starts and moves his car. AJ… Allen… not AJ… Allen, Allen suddenly goes on his motorcycle. He takes off on his motorcycle.

Okay, take off has other meanings also, but here it means to start suddenly.

Okay, they zoom down Van Ness at top speed. To zoom means to go fast. It’s easy. To go very fast, zoom, to zoom. He zoomed down the road. He went fast down the road.

So they zoom. They go very fast down Van Ness at top speed. Top speed means as fast as possible. It means fastest.

Okay, so they zoom, they go fast down Van Ness. Tom Cruise is winning, but suddenly blue and red lights appear behind Tom. It’s the police. They pull him over.

Okay, to pull someone over. We use this phrase, we use this with the police. When you are driving and the police come behind you and they turn on their lights, then you must go over to the side. You must stop your car. We say the police pulled him over or the police pull you over.

To pull over, with the police means the police stop your car, right? They pull you over. So Tom is going very fast, the police come behind Tom and they pull him over. Tom must stop.

Allen zooms past Tom laughing. He yells, “Better luck next time”. Better luck next time is an idiom. It’s a common phrase. We say it a lot. “Better luck next time” means you failed, but hopefully next time you will do better.

It’s similar to good luck, better luck next time is similar to good luck. What’s the difference? The difference, better luck next time, we use after someone fails. After something bad happens, we say, “oh better luck next time”.

It means this time you failed, but next time maybe you will succeed. Next time, maybe you will do better. So we say better luck next time.

alright and finally the last sentence. Allen is the winner… Allen is the winner.

Okay, that is all for the vocabulary lesson for The Race.