19 Christmas Chronicles I

DG

 done Oct25 2026
A:I hate working on Christmas Eve! Whoa! Get a load of this guy! Come in central, I think we’ve got ourselves a situation here.
B:License and registration please. Have you been drinking tonight, sir?
A:I had one or two glasses of eggnog, but nothing else.
B:Step out of the vehicle, please. Sir, what do you have in the back?
A:Just a few Christmas gifts, ’tis the season, after all!
B:Don’t take that tone with me. Do you have an invoice for these items?
A:Umm...no...I make these in my workshop in the North Pole! 
B:You are under arrest, sir. You have the right to remain silent. You better not pout, you better not cry. Anything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, the state will appoint  one for you. Do you understand these rights that have just been read to you?
A:You can’t take me to jail! What about my sleigh? It’s Christmas Eve! I have presents to deliver! Rudolph! Prancer! Dancer! Get help!

key vocabulary

Just out of curiosity, where did you find that?

Don’t take that tone with me

we’ve got ourselves a situation here ---have a little bit of a problem. 
Boss, I’ve got a bit of a situation, can you help me with it?

step out  == means to go out of a place for a short period of time.
step out of the vehicle .  step out of  the office.

opposite step in 

Get a load of something”, I mean look at, 带有「哇，这东西很离谱 / 有意思，你一定要看看」的惊讶感

talk back = 顶嘴；take that tone = 用这种语气；take back = 收回


1. **get into the spirit (of sth)** ✅ 固定习语（原文 this spirit，口语里常用 the spirit） 核心含义：**进入… 的氛围、沉浸在节日气氛里、兴致上来了**

- get into the Christmas spirit = 烘托起圣诞氛围、有过节那味儿了

**with that in mind** 【高频口语短语】= keeping that in mind 👉 记住刚才说的、基于刚才这点、有了这个前提

remain silent  --keep silent 

### I did not see that one coming.口语简写常说：**I didn’t see that coming.**（one 可加可不加）✅ 翻译：**我完全没料到 / 这太出乎意料了**

**specifically** /spəˈsɪfɪkli/adv. 专门地、确切地、特指 放在句尾，用来加强：我以为它**特指**car。here

chronicles  [ˈkrɑːnɪklz]编年史;   历代志下
registration [ˌredʒɪˈstreɪʃn]n. 登记; 
eggnog [ˈeɡnɑːɡ]n. 蛋奶酒
vehicle [ˈviːəkl]n. 交通工具;   车辆
Attorney A lawyer
appoint means choose--you only use it for people
invoice  [ˈɪnvɔɪs]  发票
the North Pole[poʊl]   北极
arrest[əˈrest]v. 逮捕;   拘
pout [paʊt]v. 噘嘴;   (恼怒或性感地)撅嘴;  n. 撅嘴;   生气，不高兴
attorney[əˈtɜːrni]n. 律师(尤指代表当事人出庭者
jail [dʒeɪl]n. 监狱
sleigh [sleɪ]n. (尤指马拉的)雪橇;
spirit[ˈspɪrɪt]n. 精神;   心灵;   情绪;
rum [rʌm] adj.奇特的；古怪的n.朗姆酒
Chief of staff 参谋长

host

M: Hello English learners and welcome to another lesson with EnglishPod! My name is
Marco.
E: And I’m Erica.
M: And today we’re bringing you a great Christmas lesson.
E: That’s right, we’ve got a lot of Christmas vocabulary in today’s lesson for you.
M: Yeah, it’s almost Christmas time, so, everyone is getting into this spirit, especially here
at EnglishPod, so, we’re gonna teach you a little bit more about this.
E: Speaking of the spirit, I think it’s time for us to look at our “vocabulary preview”.
Voice: Vocabulary preview.
E: So, in this part of our show we’ll look at some key language in the dialogue that you’ll
need to know to understand the dialogue and, actually, today we only have one word.
M: Eggnog.
E: Eggnog.
M: Eggnog.
E: E-G-G-N-O-G, eggnog.
M: So, eggnog is a really popular Christmas drink.
E: It’s a traditional Christmas drink.
M: Right, what does it made of?
E: Um, eggs, um, cream, sugar and usually rum.
M: Rum! Oh, so, it has alcohol.
E: Yep, normally, it has alcohol.
M: Okay, alright, that’s interesting. There’s actually a drink very similar to this in, um, Chili.
E: Really?
M: Yep, they call it Monkey Tail.
E: So, in Spanish that would be…M: Cola de Mono.
E: Very nice. Hehe.
M: Hehe. Yeah, so, it’s actually really, really good. And it’s really similar to Eggnog.
E: Okay, well, with that in mind, uh, let’s take a listen to our dialogue for the first time.
DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME
E: Well, I did not see that one coming.
M: Yeah, that was interesting. Santa Clause is being taken to jail.
E: What’s gonna happen next, Marco?
M: I don’t know, let’s talk about that in a little while. Let’s take a look at some language
from this dialogue.
Voice: Language takeaway.
M: So, the first word that we have on our language takeaway today is vehicle.
E: Vehicle.
M: Vehicle.
E: Vehicle. So, this is a vehicle.
Sound 1.
E: And this is a vehicle.
Sound 2.
E: And this is a vehicle.
Sound 3.
M: So, all of those are vehicles. Now, I thought that a vehicle was a car, specifically.
E: No, any machine that carries people from one place to another is a vehicle.
M: Great, alright. Let’s take a look now at our second word – attorney.
E: Attorney.M: Attorney.
E: So, what is an attorney?
M: A lawyer.
E: Well, that’s simple enough?
M: Yeah, a lawyer.
E: Let’s move to our third word, which is…
M: Appoint.
E: Appoint.
M: Appoint.
E: Appoint.
M: So, appoint means choose.
E: Okay, so, the President of a country might appoint his Chief of staff.
M: Right, or I can appoint my attorney.
E: True, so, can you appoint a thing? Can I appoint my coffee cup?
M: No… Hehe. No, no, you only use it for people. You choose someone.
E: Okay, appoint…
M: You can’t choose something.
E: So, I appoint someone.
M: Exactly.
E: Alright, let’s move to our final word.
M: Sleigh.
E: Sleigh.
M: Sleigh.
E: Sleigh.M: So, Erica, you’re from Canada, you can tell us about sleighs.
E: Alright, a sleigh is a vehicle that is pulled by a horse and travels over snow or ice.
M: Okay.
E: So, you know like Santa drives a sleigh.
M: He drives a sleigh. So, do you drive a sleigh or ride a sleigh?
E: Um, good question…
M: Hehe.
E: Well, the song says “you ride in a one horse open sleigh”.
M: Right, okay.
E: Well, you know what, I think it’s time for us to look at some interesting phrases that we
found in this dialogue, so, let’s look at “putting it together”.
Voice: Putting it together.
M: Today on putting it together we have two great phrases for you and let’s take a look at
the first one – step out.
E: Step out.
M: Step out.
E: So, step out means to go out of a place for a short period of time.
M: Right, so, in our dialogue, for example, the police officer said “Step out of the vehicle”.
E: Get out of your vehicle.
M: You can also say “Step out of the office”.
E: You can say “I just stepped out of the shower”.
M: Right, now we can also say step in.
E: It’s the opposite.
M: The opposite, right?
E: I can ask “Marco, step in to my office for a moment”M: Oh-oh, okay. So, that’s step out and step in, great phrases! Let’s take a look at our
final phrase – get a load of.
E: Get a load of.
M: Get a load of.
E: So, when I say “Get a load of something”, I mean look at, right.
M: Right, look at this guy – get a load of this guy.
E: Yeah, that’s what we herd in the dialogue. Now you can use this phrase in a number of
different ways and we have some examples for you.
Voice: Example one.
A: Get a load of this! A war has started in Antarctica.
Voice: Example two.
B: Get a load of that house! It’s so big!
Voice: Example three.
C: Get a load of him. He’s wearing a pink suit!
M: Okay, I think we’ve covered a lot of interesting words and phrases, so, we are ready to
listen to our dialogue a second time. But this time it’s gonna be a little slower, so, we can
pick up all these great words.
DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)
M: Okay, so, we noticed some really great words and phrases, and with this, now we can
start with some “fluency builder”.
Voice: Fluency builder.
M: Today on fluency builder we have two great phrases that you can use to sound a little bit
more natural when you speak.
E: That’s right, our first phrase you can use if you want to say “Don’t speak to me like that”.
Phrase 1: Don’t take that tone with me. Don’t take that tone with me.
E: So, you often hear this phrase, uh, coming out of the mouth of a mother or a father.M: Yeah, when their children are maybe talking back.
E: Yeah.
M: “Don’t take that tone with me, young man!” I used to get that a lot.
E: Really?
M: Hehe. Yeah.
E: Sorry about that.
M: Hehe. Okay, our second phrase… We use it when we have a problem.
E: The phrase we heard in the dialogue was “I think we’ve got ourselves a situation
here”. Let’s listen to another example.
Phrase 2: Houston, we’ve… got ourselves a situation here. Houston, we’ve… got ourselves a
situation here.
E: Sometimes I use this phrase when I wanna tell my boss that I have a problem. Uh, I
might say “Boss, I’ve got a bit of a situation, can you help me with it?”
M: Okay, yeah.
E: Yeah.
M: I have a little bit of a problem.
E: Yeah, useful phrases, hey?
M: Really useful phrases, great stuff, so, now we can listen to our dialogue a final time and
this time we can understand everything that’s in it.
DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME
E: So, when the police officer was arresting Santa Clause, uh, he said something a little bit
strange, hey?
M: Yeah, he said “You’d better not pout, you’d better not cry”.
E: Now, are those part of the normal, uh, rights that a police officer reads?
M: Hehe. No, no, they’re not part of the normal rights, but it’s actually from a Christmas
song, so, lets’ listen to how it goes in the song.Song: You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, better not pout, I’m telling you why,
Santa Clause is coming to town.
E: I’m pretty happy we had a song to play there instead of us having to sing.
M: Hehe. Yeah, but that’s great, because if the children cry or if they are not good kids,
then Santa Clause will not give them presents.
E: Oh-oh.
M: So, that’s why.
E: Okay, listeners, I hope that you’re not pouting, I hope you’re not crying, um, but it’s for
us to go, so…
M: Be sure to go to our website at englishpod.com and be sure to leave all your questions
and comments and maybe some of your Christmas stories.
E: Alright, thanks for listening and until next time…
M: Bye!
E: Good bye!