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Rebecca	Gareth

Views #1081 | Intermediate (B2)

Techno Oh No!

Gareth talks about some bad incidents he had with his new computers and family.

Script
Vocab
Quiz

Rebecca: Alright, so today we're going to talk about kids and technology. So Gareth, you're a father. Do you have any opinions on when children should be introduced to technology?

Gareth: Yeah, I have a lot of opinions. I'm really interested in parenting, being a parent, and also technology, so it's interesting, and I often wonder whether or not I should let my kid play with computers and when I should start introducing these kinds of technologies like a cellphone and that kind of stuff.

Rebecca: So do you have any interesting stories about this and children?

Gareth: In the last two weeks, my sons -- we've -- his grandfather actually, they are in cahoots about it. They destroyed, nearly destroyed, my computer. So I have a laptop computer, an apple laptop computer, and I left it at home, and I went to work, then I received an e-mail from my wife saying, call me as soon as you can, and I panicked and I called her as soon as I could, and she said that her father-in-law and my son were eating dinner and my father-in-law had glass of milk, and he spilled it all over the computer.

Rebecca: Oh, know.

Gareth: Yeah, so when I heard this I thought, "Oh, know, it's probably damaged, destroyed" I probably need to send it to apple care and get them to retrieve my data, but luckily I got home and it works fine. I haven't noticed any damage, so far, but because it's water and it's coming into contact with metal, I'm worried that it's gonna rust over time, and start to damage it. So that's the kind of first story that I have about that. The second story, it happened today.

Rebecca: Today?

Gareth: Yeah, so yeah, I love apple products and I often want to buy the latest product, so I bought an iPad, and last night it came, so I downloaded some apps and I put some music on there, some photos on there and I found this really, really good app for my son, and it's about toy story, and he loves toy story, and it's a great app. It's like a book, but you can color the pictures and it reads the book to you, and you can record your own voice over the top of it, so I can later on get him to record his voice and act out some of the parts, so I've got this app loaded onto the iPad and I left it with him this morning when I came here, and my wife called me to say that he's already damaged to connector. Like he's bent the connector, and I don't know if it's damaged the iPad. Hopefully it hasn't but I'll find out soon.

Rebecca: Oh, my goodness. So maybe trying to keep kids away from technology when they're young is better.

Gareth: That's what I've learned.

Rebecca: At least cheaper.

Gareth: Exactly. If you had asked me this question two weeks ago, I would have said yeah, give them technology. Let them play, but now no.

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

in cahoots

They are in cahoots about it.

When people are in cahoots, that means they are working together with a plan. People are often in cahoots to do something negative. Notice the following examples of cahoots:

The students were in cahoots to fool the teacher.
The husband and wife were in cahoots to commit the crime.

spill all over

He spilled it all over the computer.

When you spill something all over a surface, that means you cover it with the spilled item. If you spill something 'on' a surface, it is usually a small area, but if you spill something all over, them most of the area is covered. Notice the following:

I spilled coffee all over the table.
There was trash all over the floor.

retrieve my data

I asked them to retrieve my data.

When you retrieve something, you collect something that went away or was lost. If we retrieve data, then we get data back that we lost. Notice the following:

My dog retrieves the stick after I through it.
After the power outage we lost some data, but we were able to retrieve all of it.

over time

It's gonna rust over time.

When something happens over time, that means it happens eventually or in the future. Something might not happen immediately, but over time it will happen. Notice the following:

We all tend to forgive other people over time for their mistakes in life.
Over time, we all tend to get wiser.

over the top of

You can record your own voice over the top of it.

When you do something over the top of something else, that means you write or record over it. Often when we record over the top of something, we erase the original content and replace it with new content. Notice the following: