Rent an Apartment
A new Idiom here is “Put a cork in it.”
Beverly: “I need a new apartment.”
Rianna: “What’s wrong with your current place?”
Beverly: “It’s too noisy. The people above me make too much noise.”
Rianna: “Can’t you ask them to put a cork in it?”
Beverly: “They don’t care, and the landlord won’t do anything about it.”
Rianna: “That can be infuriating.“
Beverly: “Well, I have to study many hours every day. These neighbors overhead ruin all my study time.”
Rianna: “I understand. You can’t get through college like that.”
VOCABULARY WITH IDIOMS
Put a cork in it means to stop talking and be quiet. See online Idioms Dictionary.
Infuriating means to make furious, to enrage. See online Dictionary.
Overhead means situated above head height. See online Dictionary.
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
“That is infuriating.” In this sentence, “infuriating” is the present participle functioning as a predicate adjective. Present (and past) participles can function as verbs or adjectives, and one way to distinguish between them is to add the adverb very before the participle:
That is very infuriating. — adjective — works fine —
That is infuriating my customers. — verb
*That is very infuriating my customers. — does not work with verb form —
INTERMEDIATE-ADVANCED DIALOGUE
New Vocabulary is “Overhead,” and the English Grammar focuses on Modals.
Jackson: “This one looks interesting.”
Silas: “We can go over and look at it.”
Jackson: “Fine, but just tell me a few things first.”
Silas: “It’s one bedroom, washer-dryer included in a laundry closet, the top floor of a three-story, and right in the U-District, so you can walk to school.“
Jackson: “Sounds good, no noise because nobody overhead.”
Silas: “That’s right, and mostly just motorbikes on the street, so the traffic isn’t noisy either.”
Jackson: “Speaking of which, what about parking?”
Silas: “One block away, so you’ll have to walk that when you want to drive.”
Jackson: “That’s fine, but it costs extra, right?”
Silas: “Sure does, but they have weekly and monthly deals.”
Jackson: “There’s a one-year lease? What about a deposit?”
Silas: “First and last gets you in. One month’s notice gets you out.”
Jackson: “Okay let’s check it out. The photos look good.”
VOCABULARY WITH IDIOMS
Go over means to visit some place. See online Idioms Dictionary.
Overhead means situated above head height. See online Dictionary.
Speaking of which is used to segue into a topic or point related to what was just said. See online Idioms Dictionary.
Check out means to evaluate someone or something. See online Idioms Dictionary.
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Suggested Topic for Comments: Modals
“We can go over.” “You can walk to school.” The Modal “can” has a Phrasal Modal counterpart in “be able to,” and its core meaning of potential force is applicable in both social interaction and when used to express logical probability.
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