Episode 2: The Prank

Shirley talks about a prank she played with her brothers as child. 

Go to elllo.org/podcast/ for links to bonus material 

(Start of Audio Script)

Hello, everybody and welcome to the podcast.

This is episode #2 - The Prank.

And in today's podcast we hear from Shirley and Yuri again. We heard them in episode #1 talking about the shack. Shirley is from Scotland and Yuri is from Italy. And today, we hear about a prank Shirley did as child. 

Now, a prank is like a joke you play on other people, and it makes you laugh, but maybe the people who you play the prank on, they don't know what's happening. So here, we're going to hear Shirley talk about a pretty good prank she did with her brothers when she was little. 

So let's go ahead and listen, and we'll come back at the end of the podcast.

(Start of Conversation)

Yuri: So, Shirley, we were talking about childhood memories. And you're from Scotland. Is there anything from your childhood that you can tell us?

Shirley: I've got a really funny story actually. Maybe I was about ten years old or something, and we used to have this little kind of shack in the countryside that we were dragged to every weekend, and away from civilization, you know, and no running water, no electricity. So we kids had to make our own fun. I've got my brothers, myself, and a couple of cousins, we would always go there at weekends or school holidays or something, and one of the highlights was to go to the Sunday School, the Sunday morning church service, and the reason ... one of the reasons this was attractive to the kids was because they bribed us to go there by giving us sweets when got there, so it was great. So we always went anyway. It was a church service for about an hour, singing hymns and stuff like that. Anyway, this one Sunday we arrived early, about half an hour early. There was nobody there. The church wasn't open yet, so it was, as most people know, it rains a lot in Scotland, so on that rainy day, we all were wearing our cagoules which is a kind a rain jacket with a big pocket in the front, and while we were waiting for everybody else to arrive, we started just kind of playing around in the trees. There was a little river nearby, and it was at the time of year when the tadpoles were turning into baby frogs, so we got this crazy idea to collect all these ... I'm talking hundreds of frogs were around, so we all got a big handful of baby frogs, put them in the big pocket of our cagoule, went off into church. So there we are, we're kind of in the middle of the crowd. You know, we weren't at the front of the back, kind of in the middle, and everybody's standing up singing the hymns, and really getting into, you know, the church singing and stuff like that, and then we decided that we would get the frogs out, so each of us, one at a time, one of us kids, one at a time kind of crouched down like we were tying our shoe lace, and let all of these frogs out of our pockets, so these tiny little frogs started jumping all over the church, and there's all these ladies in their Sunday best and started squealing and screaming and the minister didn't know what was going on, and he's trying to keep everybody calm, and we're just singing along with the hymn, you know, we're really innocent and they had no idea, cause they didn't see us do it, so they had no idea what had happened, and yeah, we got away with it. We didn't get told off, cause we didn't get caught, and yeah, when after the church service, you know, we had such a laugh after the church service, and yeah, that's one of my greatest childhood memories. Getting up to mischief with my brothers.

(End of Conversation)

So, what do you think? Was it a good prank?

I think so. That's pretty brave. Wow! Doing that in church? Man! I don't think I was that brave as a child to do something like that in church. I'm very impressed because that's a pretty good prank. 

What about you? Were you ever naughty as a child? Did you ever play a prank on anybody else?

As for me, I was a pretty good kid, but I idid get in trouble  a few times. Maybe in another podcast I might share my prank story. But for now, I think I'll wait. 

And as for today's podcast remember, you can go to elllo.org/podcast/ for links to this episode and many, many more. Also, remember at elllo.org there are thousands of listening activities especially made for English language students, like you to help you improve your English. 

We have many, many real conversations from speakers all over the world. just like Shirley and Yuri. And we have quizzes, vocabulary as MP3, videos and much much more.

So, stop by and learn anytime. And that's it for today. 

Thanks everybody. I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and we will talk to you soon.