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Jessica's Gems - The Open Window by Saki

Listen to the story, 'The Open Window' by Saki, and then listen to Jessica's Gems. The language points from the story include: The very useful verb construction 'wonder' and how to use it. When to use 'if' and 'whether' Clear up any confusion about 'on time' and 'in time' We also discuss certain phrasal verbs that were used in the story and other English language bits and pieces. Here are some notes connected with our discussions: Possible explanations: HOW TO USE – WONDER 1) I wonder if + SUBJECT / VERB * I wonder if it will rain tomorrow. * I wonder if the train is on time. * I wonder if Jack is coming to the party. 2) I wonder if + YOU CAN~ / IT’S POSSIBLE TO~ * I wonder if you can tell me where the station is. * I wonder if it’s possible to send it by regular mail. * I wonder if we can meet on Thursday next week. 3) I wonder + WH QUESTION WORD * I wonder what that noise is * I wonder who opened the window * I wonder when the meeting will start. * I wonder where the post office is in this town. * I wonder why the boss is in a bad mood. * I wonder how I can get to Jack’s house. * I wonder how much / how many / how often~ From BBC Learners…How are you Jessica? I’ll do my best to stop you wondering how to use ‘wonder’.In the kind of sentences you have asked about, ‘wonder’ means the same as ‘thing. Saying ‘I am wondering’ uses the present continuous tense. That tense implies that you’re thinking about something right now, at that moment and it emphasises that there’s something you don’t know or you haven’t decided upon. Here are a couple of examples:I’m wondering whether to go to the party or not -means 'I’m thinking about it now but haven’t made a decision yet'.I’m wondering if I should take a taxi to work today.I’m wondering where John is - which means 'I’ve been waiting 20 minutes for her and she still hasn’t arrived'.Let’s move on now to ‘I was wondering’. As it uses the past continuous tense, it implies that you started thinking about a subject before the time of speaking. You state that the ‘wondering’ started in the past. Again a few examples:I was wondering where you had put my sunglasses.I thought I’d call you because I was wondering where you are at the moment.I was wondering if we should go and visit Paula this weekend.Of course, ‘I was wondering’ can be placed entirely in the past and referred to as an action you did yesterday, last week, last month. An example is:Yesterday, I was wondering if we can afford to go to Spain in May.I was wondering last night whether you really love me.As a general rule of thumb, if you are not sure which one to use, then say ‘I was wondering’. The reason is this: if a thought occurred to you (in your head) and then you immediately reported it to your friend, it was still ‘wondered’ in the past. That means saying 'I was wondering’ is always right!Don’t forget that when ‘I was wondering’ is followed by ‘if’ or ‘whether’, it can be a polite frame for a question or request. I’ll leave you with some examples of this:I was wondering if I could take you to the cinema on Friday night.I was wondering whether you’d be able to help me move housenext weekend.I was wondering if you’d mind writing me a letter of recommendation.So now I’m wondering whether the use of ‘wonder’ makes sense to you and I’m hoping it does! Note from John: Wonder is a very commonly used structure which can be very useful. It is a structure that is often used to invite the start of a conversation topic. So, to give an example let’s say person A and person B both know Person C. Person A could use this as a way of building a conversation, they could say ‘I wonder how David is getting on in New York’ this is not a statement or a question it is more of an invitation to a topic of conversation. And somehow it is a soft/polite way of asking for something like in the example ‘I wonder if you can help me’ 'If and Whether': Note from John: * But I like this rule that, only use if when something happens dependent on a condition, for example, I will only play tennis if it doesn’t rain tomorrow or I will go shopping if you will come with me. In all other cases whether can be used. I don’t know whether I should wear the blue or white shirt (there is no condition) but if there was, for example I can wear the blue shirt if I spill something down the white one. The open window by Saki My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me." Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing. "I know how it will be," his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; "you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice." Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction came into the nice division. "Do you know many of the people round here?" asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufficient silent communion. "Hardly a soul," said Framton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here." He made the last statement in a tone of distinct regret. "Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady. "Only her name and address," admitted the caller. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state. An undefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation. "Her great tragedy happened just three years ago," said the child; "that would be since your sister's time." "Her tragedy?" asked Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place. [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OpeWin.shtml#1] "You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn. "It is quite warm for the time of the year," said Framton; "but has that window got anything to do with the tragedy?" "Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting. They never came back. In crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shooting ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog. It had been that dreadful wet summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning. Their bodies were never recovered. That was the dreadful part of it." Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human. "Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing 'Bertie, why do you bound?' as he always did to tease her, because she said it got on her nerves. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window - " She broke off with a little shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance. "I hope Vera has been amusing you?" she said. "She has been very interesting," said Framton. "I hope you don't mind the open window," said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; "my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn't it?" [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OpeWin.shtml#2] She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary. "The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise," announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one's ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. "On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement," he continued. "No?" said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention - but not to what Framton was saying. "Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!" Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension. The child was staring out through the open window with a dazed horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction. In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?" Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall door, the gravel drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat. A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision. [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OpeWin.shtml#3] "Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window, "fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?" "A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of goodby or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost." "I expect it was the spaniel," said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve." Romance at short notice was her speciality.

Jessica's Gems - An Ideal Family by Katherine Mansfield

The story reading in this episode is 'An Ideal Family' by Katherine Mansfield about a rich old man who's family are seen by outsiders to be an ideal one, however, the reality is somewhat different. Jessica's Gems: Myself and Jessica discuss certain language points which were taken from the story: We discuss 'shall vs will,' 'should vs ought to,' 'to be up to vs to be up for' and other gems which are useful insights for any non-native speaker who is trying to get to the next level in English.

Jessica's Gems - The Lottery Ticket by Anton Chekhov

Very useful resource for intermediate and advanced students of English. The first part includes a reading of the classic short story 'The Lottery Ticket' by Anton Chekhov. The listener can also read the English text at the same time of listening. The student has to try to understand the idea of the story. Following the story there will be an episode of 'Jessica's Gems' where Jessica (student of English from Italy) asks John (native English speaker and teacher from the UK) questions on some of the language used in the story. They discuss all matters to do with the English language including grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Link to grammar point connected with modal verbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3L9WDTIzPI [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3L9WDTIzPI] Come and visit us at: www.englishonair.com [http://www.englishonair.com]

8th Podcast

In this podcast Jessica and I interview each other in order to share their experiences of learning and teaching the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) There are two different perspectives, the first from someone who runs pronunciation courses and the second from a former student who has studied on the course. Visit us at: www.englishonair.com [http://www.englishonair.com] Transcription:

7th Podcast

This is the final part of the interview with Norman Mounter where he is talking about his new dark work of historical fiction 'Broken Oaths' which is to be released on the 25th of June 2021. In Jessica's Gems I am bombarded with language questions from Jessica. We discuss terms like 'heavily pregnant' and pinnacle and she even asks me to explain some medical terms. Visit us at www.englishonair.com [http://www.englishonair.com] Transcript: