ESL Podcast 628 – Introducing a New Product

Augie: Today’s the day. I’m giving you the heads up. Our company is rolling out its new line of cell phones.

Lillian: I can see you’re excited about it. What’s so special about the new products?

Augie: This line of phones has state-of- the-art technology and never- before-seen features. It’s been in development for over a year and it’s been really hard keeping it under wraps.

Lillian: I thought information was leaked weeks ago.

Augie: Those were just rumors¹, and the company put a clamp on those pretty quickly.

Lillian: Wasn’t the new line supposed to come out next month?

Augie: That was the original plan, but since McQ Corp. is coming out with its own line of phones soon, we wanted to get a jump on them.

Lillian: And steal their thunder.

Augie: Yes, and steal their thunder. We had to scramble² to get the phones ready ahead of schedule, but I think it was worth it. They’re really going to make a splash.

Lillian: I hope so. I hope all of this hype has been justified³.

Augie: Oh, it will be. I’ll know soon enough.

Lillian: How?

Augie: You’ll be begging me to get you one.


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

1 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

3 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。