Every year sports fans in American wait for the biggest football game of the season, The Super Bowl. This game is always on a Sunday, so we call this Super Bowl Sunday. Today is Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 3, 2008), and I thought it would be a good time to share with you some expressions connected to sports. I found it interesting that there are a lot of expressions in everyday English / that come from sports. I'm going to share three of them with you today.
The first expression is “kick off”. Kick off is the beginning of game. One player kicks the ball, and the playing begins. We often ask “when is kick off time?” That means when does the game start? And in fact kick off time is any second now. The players are going to the field, and soon one player will kick that ball, and the Super Bowl will begin. But what does kick off mean in every day English? Let's start with the first meaning: [see screen and listen Jennifer] Note that when it takes an object / this phrasal verb (kick off) can be separated. We can say; kick off the new year right, or you can kick the new year off right. [see screen and listen Jennifer] So note / it can be transitive or intransitive, meaning we can use with an object or without. Here's second meaning (kick-off), [see screen and listen Jennifer]. In business, kick-off meetings are very common.
This year, two teams playing for Super Bowl are New England Patriots and New York Giants. Well, kick off was around 6:30 (PM). We're now in the third quarter. The New England Patriots are leading. Now to win a game like a football, which is a team sport, you can't just have one player that's very good. All the players have to work together. So we have this expression: “team player.” I think it's obvious what that means in sports. But, how do we use this expression in everyday English? [see screen and listen Jennifer] People on their job interviews and their resumes love to mention this as a quality that they have. They can say on a good team player. [see screen and listen Jennifer]
All right, now it's the fourth quarter and there's less than 2 minutes to go. I'm sure one of the teams is going to call a “time out.” I think you know that in sports a time out is a short rest for the players. They stop playing and the coaches usually give instructions. But, what is the time out for other settings? Let's look at this first meaning: [see screen and listen Jennifer] Now I don't know about other cultures, but it's quite common in American families for parents to give children time outs. I know I do. And the second example, [see screen and listen Jennifer] Now let's look at this meaning: [see screen and listen Jennifer]
Is he working good? Well, he might be good on his previous job, but he seems having hard time in our settings.
Well, it's end of the game and the end of our lesson. The new Super Bowl Champions are the New York Giants. I hope you enjoyed the lesson, thanks for watching!