English Recordings

He was very upset about it, but he calmed down eventually.
She was rude towards him but it was clear he was trying to calm her down.
She got carried away in the shop and spent all her money on new dresses.
1. Carry on working!
2. He carried on as if nothing had happened.
The government is going to carry out a survey on the nation's health.
The idea eventually caught on and became all the rage by the 1980s.
A passer-by stopped his car to help and, along with several neighbors, managed to chase the dog away. No one was bitten.
Normally I find it very hard to chat up a girl but that evening I was drunk and had no inhibitions.
I can't imagine John being the kind of person to openly argue, but rather chew it over in silence and, eventually, decide for himself.
1. We chilled out last night and watched a movie at home for a change.
2. Chill out, woman! Don't get so excited over nothing.
I've tried talking to her about it, but she just clams up and changes the subject.
During the night the fog cleared off.
1. I cleared up the mess from the kids in the back garden.
2. I think this misunderstanding will be cleared up soon.
3. The weather is horrible at the moment. I hope it clears up later.
The company directors were eventually forced to climb down in the face of a fierce and sustained public backlash.
Not long ago, I came across an old friend from my schools days.
This stretch of coastline is famous for the fossils that you just come across lying on the beach.
1. John finally came around after 2 days. We had all been very worried about him.
2. Bill and Ann are coming round tonight. We're going play cards.
When he came to, he was being loaded into an ambulance.
As the final results came through by fax, it couldn't have been any worse.
My cousin was in a serious car accident last week. Fortunately, he came through it with only minor injuries.
You'd better make sure you know these verbs because they always come up in the exam.
1. Scientists are trying to come up with a proven cure for cancer.
2. We are trying to come up with enough money to buy a new car.
1. Let food cool down before putting it in the fridge or freezer.
2. I thought we could finally calmly discuss our argument, now that she had cooled down a bit.
I hoped Mike would focus on the important issue, but he copped out.
The health minister said the government must cough up more money if it wants to maintain a high-quality health system.
You can always count on her to know the latest information.
Riot police cracked down on protesters last night and arrested over 100 people.
The government said they must cut back on education expenses.
The tree was damaged in the storm so they had to cut it down.
People with diabetes are usually advised to cut down on sugar and sugary foods.
For years, the country was part of the Soviet Union and was cut off from Western Europe.

When he took a snake out of his pocket everyone backed away and stood watching it from a safe distance.
"John was going to call the police when I told him I'd wrecked his car, but he backed down when I said I'd pay for the damages."
"Tom was ready to call the police when I told him I'd wrecked his car, but he backed off when I said I'd pay for the damages."
He agreed to help but backed out when he found how difficult it was.
"The people waiting in line are too close to the door. We won't be able to open it unless they back up."
"You're too close! Back your car up so I can open the garage door."
"If you don't believe me, talk to Dave. He'll back me up."
"When my computer crashed, I lost many of my files. It's a good thing I backed them up."
I'll call you back as soon as I hear anything.
Call in next time you're in town
We can't afford to call in a technician every time the washing-machine breaks down.
The concert was called off because of rain
I'll call you back as soon as I hear anything.
He called me up this morning.

"Dad is away at the moment but is coming back on Friday."
"It�s great to be back again after all those years."
"There was no one in when I went by earlier."
"Everyone must have been out when I went by earlier."
"They tried to keep it secret but the story is out now."
"The storm is over now; we can go out now.�
Don't expect her to answer the door bell at eight o'clock on Sunday morning. She won't be up.
"At first Lily said she would be at the party. Later she begged off."
"We need lots of balloons for the party. Will you blow them up?"
A: "That old building really came down quickly!"
B: "That's because the construction company used dynamite to blow it up."
"When I told Jerry that I'd had an accident with his car, he blew up."
"Don't blurt out your answers without thinking.�
�A lot of his mistakes boil down to his lack of education.�
"If you're going to travel to Peru, you'd better bone up on your Spanish."
The new manager made a big mistake when he started bossing the staff around.
The company went bankrupt, but managed to bounce back with new management.
I�m really brassed off because I didn�t get paid in full.
"We spent a lot of money at the supermarket. When we broke the total cost down, we spent more on cleaning supplies than food."
"She will be late for work today. Her car broke down on the freeway."
�She broke down when she heard the bad news.�
"Jane's apartment was burglarized last night. Someone broke in while Jane was at the movies." / "Somebody broke into Jane's apartment while she was at the movies.

"These are nice shoes, but they're too stiff. I hope it doesn't take too long to break them in."
"I hope I can learn my new job quickly. The manager hasn't scheduled much time for breaking me in."
"What time did the party break up last night?"
"Tim and Julie aren't going steady any more. They got really angry with each other and broke up."
"Have you heard the news? Julie broke up with Tim!"
"I'm sorry to hear that their marriage broke up. I'm sure the divorce will be difficult for the children."
"The two criminals broke out of prison yesterday.�
�Riots broke out after the government increased taxes again.�
1. �The new paint on the walls really brightens up the room�
2.�Meeting my friend on the street has really brightened up my day.�
"The new law brought about a slight decrease in petty crime"
"The new lifestyle brought about a huge change in her personality"
"Yes, you can borrow my pen, don't forget to bring it back to me when you're finished."
"Looking at the photos brought back a lot of memories of the place."
"No one thought Chuck could get an A in that course, but he brought it off."
"The government are bringing in a new tax bill."
"John Grisham is bringing out a new novel."
"Madonna has just brought out a great new album.�
"We planned to discuss overtime pay in the meeting. Why didn't someone bring that topic up?"
"Lucy's parents died when she was a baby. Her grandparents brought her up."
"If you're going to travel to Peru, you'd better brush up on your Spanish."
"Over the years the company built up a reputation for technological innovation�
�You need to build up your confidence.�
"Lightning struck Mr. Kennedy's barn last night. It burned down before the fire fighters arrived."
"All of Mr. Kennedy's hay burned up when his barn burned down."
"Did you hear how rudely Fred talked to me? That really burned me up!"
"Hey you! Don't butt in! Wait for your own turn!"
"I guess Marty really wants to be promoted. He's been buttering his boss up all week."
"Buzz off! You are annoying me."

“Don't answer back to your teacher!”
“The public had hoped to see the politician answer for his actions before a tribunal.
"We were living in a police state, where the police answered to no one."
“The professor applied for a job at the famous university”
“My aunt wrote to us asking after our Mum who is sick.”
"Tom was asking after our grandmother, who is sick in hospital."
“I asked around to see if anyone knew the address I was looking for.”
“We stopped our car to ask for directions”
“The woman asked the door salesman in.
"Nancy has a new boy friend. Joe asked her out last night."
"I would like to ask our neighbours over tomorrow tonight for dinner. We haven't eaten together for a long time.
"We discussed the matter at length but failed to arrive at a decision"
“It is hoped that after the discussions they will be able to arrive at an agreement."
“We auctioned off our old furniture and got a great price”
"As an employee I should avail myself of the opportunity to buy cheap shares in the company."
"When I average out what I spend on clothes it comes to about £50 a month."
"My time off work this year averages out at two days a week."

Staff who refused to abide by the new rules were fired.
We are quite willing to abide by their decision, whatever it may be.
"We were aced out by a rival agency."
"My Mum had a difficult time. I was always acting up as a child."
"I guess I'd better get the television repaired. It's been acting up lately."
"What's wrong with him? He's acting like an idiot."
“The employee was sacked because she couldn’t account for the missing money from the cash register”
“The script itself is well written and well acted out by the cast”
“He has become desperate and is acting out his frustration by behaving like an idiot.”
"His theory is hard to believe, but his research adds up."
"His theory seems, at first, to be plausible, but the facts in his research don't add up."
"What's the total of those bills? Could you add them up
"The bills add up to $65. That's more than I expected!"
“Allowing for delays, we should reach our destination by 6 o’clock this evening”

months
month's

mouths
mouth's

Smith's car.

Two Smiths.

clothes

sevenths

24
74
94

1 B.C.
0 A.D.

2020 A.D.

1919 A.D.
1999 A.D.
9919 A.D.
9999 A.D.

The 11,000 s.

2,011 - 2,013 = -2

10! = 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

(1 + √5 / 2)^n

Ladies and gentlemen.
JAL Welcomes You Aboard.
Please Open Door Slowly.
Thank you.

The next station is Takadanobaba. The doors on the left side will open. Please change here for: The Tozai Subway Line, and The Seibu Shinjuku Line.

“Eriko was a man a long time ago. He married very young. The person he married was my mother.”
“Wow…I wonder what she was like.” I couldn’t imagine.
“I don’t remember her myself. She died when I was little. I have a picture, though. Want to see it?”
“Yes.” I nodded. Without getting up, he dragged his bag across the floor, then took an old photograph out of his wallet and handed it to me.

She was someone whose face told you nothing about her. Short hair, small eyes and nose. The impression was of a very odd woman of indeterminate age. When I didn’t say anything, Yuichi said, “She looks strange, doesn’t she?”
I smiled uncomfortably.
“As a child Eriko was taken in by her family. I don’t know why. They grew up together. Even as a man he was good-looking, and apparently he was very popular with woman. Why he would marry such a strange…” he said smiling, looking at the photo. “He must have been pretty attached to my mother. So much so he turned his back on the debt of gratitude he owed his foster parents and eloped with her.”
I nodded.
“After my real mother died, Eriko quit her job, gathered me up, and asked herself, ‘What do I want to do now?’ What she did was, ‘Become a woman.’ She knew she’d never love anybody else. She says that before she became a woman she was very shy. Because she hates to do things half way, she had everything ‘done,’ from her face to her whatever, and with the money she had left over she bought that nightclub. She raised me a woman alone, as it were.” He smiled.
“What an amazing life story!”
“She’s not dead yet,” said Yuichi.

Whether I could trust him or whether he still had something up his sleeve…the more I found out about these people, the more I didn’t know what to expect.
But I trusted their kitchen. Even though they didn’t look alike, there were certain traits they shared. Their faces shone like buddhas when they smiled. I like that, I thought.

I felt certain that if you looked really closely you would see a few normal signs of age – crow’s feet, less-than-perfect teeth – some part of her that looked like a real human being. Still, she was stunning. She made me want to be with her again. There was a warm light, like her afterimage, softly glowing in my heart. That must be what they mean by “charm.” Like Helen Keller when she understood “water” for the first time, the word burst into reality for me, its living example before my eyes. It’s no exaggeration; the encounter was that overwhelming.

Yuichi returned, jingling the car keys. “If she could only get away for ten minutes, she should have just called,” he said, taking off his shoes in the entryway.
I stayed where I was on the sofa and answered “Mmm,” noncommittally.
“Mikage,” he said, “were you a little bit intimidated by my mother?”
“Yes,” I told him frankly. “I’ve never seen a woman that beautiful.”
“Yes. But…” Smiling, he sat down on the floor right in front of me. “She’s had plastic surgery.”
“Oh?” I said, feigning nonchalance. “I wondered why she didn’t look anything like you.”
“And that’s not all. Guess what else – she’s a man.” He could barely contain his amusement.
This was too much. I just stared at him in wide-eyed silence. I expected any second he would say, “Just kidding.” Those tapered fingers, those mannerisms, the way she carried herself…I held my breath remembering that beautiful face; he, on the other hand, was enjoying this.

“Yes, but…” My mouth hung open. “You’ve been saying all along, ‘my mother’ this, and ‘my mother’ that…”
“Yes, but. Could you call someone who looked like that ‘Dad’?” he asked calmly. He has a point, I thought. An extremely good answer.
“What about the name Eriko?”
“It’s actually Yuji.”
It was as though there were a haze in front of my eyes. When I was finally ready to hear the story, I said, “So, who gave birth to you?”

I went back and sat on the sofa, and out came hot tea. Usually, the first time I go to a house, face to face with people I barely know, I feel an immense loneliness. I saw myself reflected in the glass of the large terrace window while black gloom spread over the rain-hounded night panorama. I was tied by blood to no creature in this world. I could go anywhere, do anything. It was dizzying.

Suddenly, to see that the world was so large, the cosmos so black. The unbounded fascination of it, the unbounded loneliness…For the first time, these days, I was touching it with these hands, these eyes. I’ve been looking at the world half-blind, I thought.
“Why did you invite me here?” I asked.
“We thought you might be having a hard time,” Yuichi said, peering kindly at me. “Your grandmother was always so sweet to me, and look at this house, we have all this room. Shouldn’t you be moving?”
“Yes. Although the landlord’s been nice enough to give me extra time.”
“So why not move in with us?” he said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
He struck just the right note, neither cold nor oppressively kind. It made me warm to him; my heart welled up to the point of tears. Just then, with the scratch of a key in the door, an incredibly beautiful woman came running in, all out of breath.

I was so stunned, I gasped. Though she didn’t seem young, she was truly beautiful. From her outfit and dramatic makeup, which really wouldn’t do for daytime, I understood that hers was night work.
Yuichi introduced me: “This is Mikage Sakurai.”
“How do you do,” she said in a slightly husky voice, still panting, with a smile. “I’m Yuichi’s mother. My name is Eriko.”

This was his mother? Dumbfounded, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Hair that rustled like silk to her shoulders; the deep sparkle of her long, narrow eyes; well-formed lips, a nose with a high, straight bridge – the whole of her gave off a marvelous light that seemed to vibrate with life force. She didn’t look human. I had never seen anyone like her.

I was staring to the point of rudeness. “How do you do,” I replied at last, smiling back at her.