[Music] hello everyone welcome back to English pod my name is Marco and I'm Erica and today we're bringing you an advanced lesson for all of our Advanced Learners out there that's right and in this lesson we're visiting a history class yes uh we're going to be talking about a very interesting topic that's known around the world which is international workers day that's right and we're going to learn a little bit about the history of um the workers movement in the United States right but we're also going to be taking a look at some great words and of course a little bit more advanced or complicated structures that's right so uh I guess without further Ado we can get started with the [Music] dialogue all right everyone settle down let's get started as you know an important aspect of becoming a good citizen is is understanding the Genesis of our legal system it's not enough to Simply memorize our laws it's necessary that we comprehend why and how they were formed this brings me to our topic for today does anyone know what we celebrate on May 1st s De Mayo no that's that's May 5th in Spanish James no wonder you're failing my Spanish class no May 1st is International workers day do we get a day off from school in no it is not considered to be a national holiday here in the US but in other countries it is oh man in the 19th century working conditions were appalling with workers being forced to work 10 12 and 14 hours a day support for the 8h hour workday movement was growing rapidly despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders and by April 1886 250 50,000 workers were involved in the MayDay movement previous legislative attempts to improve working conditions had failed so labor organizers took drastic measures they passed a resolution stating that 8 hours would constitute a legal day's work and on May 1st 1886 the resolution took effect cool is that why we only work 8 hours now yes but the happy ending came at a high price on May 3rd 1886 police fired into a crowd of Strikers at the horic Reaper Works Factory killing four and wounding many a mass meeting was called for the next day to protest the brutality and then what happened well as we say the rest is history all right so we were in a history class and we learned something new something interesting right yeah International workers day um it's it's not celebrated in the US but in many other countries it is right on May 1st a lot of people have a day off so that's always good yes all right so why don't we take a look at some of the words that we saw in this dialogue which were may be a little bit different or difficult in language takeaway language takeaway all right we're just going to look at five words here and the first one we talked about the Genesis of the movement right Genesis Genesis okay so many of you may know that Genesis is a book in the Bible right that's right and that's where this word comes from it's the first book in the Bible mhm so it's the beginning or the origin origin so that's a Genesis so the Genesis of our legal system you would say right or the Genesis of this problem mhm so it's the origin yeah it's a little bit of a formal word isn't it yeah I guess maybe you can say the origin or the beginning yeah but maybe in in an academic setting you can talk about the Genesis yes very good all right what do we have next well one of the reasons why the the workers movement got started was because of the appalling working conditions mhm appalling appalling if something is appalling it's shockingly bad it's very very bad yeah so now if something is appalling like the working conditions were appalling that's right you would feel appalled exactly I'm appalled at your behavior okay so it's almost like you are disgusted yeah that's right very very strong word yep very strong okay okay so the working conditions were appalling and people were setting up this movement right but what happened they met some hostility hostility hostility hostility from the police right that's right so what is hostility um hostility is the state of of receiving an unfriendly reaction okay they acted in a very unfriendly way and it also suggests you know a hint of violence even okay yeah yeah yeah so if somebody is hostile they can maybe be aggressive and maybe to a point violent that's right okay so a hostile person yeah or a hostile environment a dangerous environment okay hostility hostile very good y now because of these appalling working conditions the labor movement decided to take drastic measures drastic measures yeah drastic measures this is a really wonderful phrase and I think it would help us to listen to a few examples of this phrase in use example one the president was faced with some difficult decisions and was forced to take drastic measures to solve the crisis example two the police took very drastic measures to control the protesters outside the Government Palace so we understand drastic measures as extreme actions or decisions right yeah exactly I think there's a saying that says desperate times call for drastic measures no desperate times call for desperate measures dang well okay but it goes around there somewhere right like that if you really have an emergency you need to do something drastic you have to take drastic measures or you can even say take drastic action okay very good and what about our last word after the protest ended uh in violence um people started to get angry because of the brutality the police showed okay brutality brutality so again maybe brutality and hostility are maybe similar right a little bit similar so brutality is the state of being harsh or very forceful okay so brutality now we also use the word brutal right so that means harsh or very forceful now sometimes we can use that word but not in a harsh or forceful way right yeah and it's it's quite yeah I I might say something like oh my God that test was brutal uhhuh it was brutal or so it was really hard or really difficult right so that's what you're saying with this word that it's very hard hard or it was very intense yeah maybe one more one more example okay so for example I can say oh I went for a run today and it was brutal I'm so tired so it was really difficult yeah brutal and Marco is this something that's used by everyone that phrase brutal using in in that context would be for younger people maybe not really you wouldn't really hear older people using it like so it's a little bit slangy yeah yeah okay all right great great so those are uh five interesting vocabulary words as Marco mentioned we want to look at some more difficult structures now in fluency Builder fluency Builder okay so we have some phrases that we saw in this dialogue and well let's start with the first one well the teacher opens his discussion by talking about how an understanding of the legal system is an important aspect of being a good citizen okay an important aspect an important aspect so well maybe we know the word important right so what's an aspect OB a part of something an important part of something okay so the teacher started with an important aspect of and then specified the idea or what part it belongs to right so it usually follows this form noun is an important aspect of noun okay so for example quality control is an important aspect of keeping customers happy okay perfect a part of very good so aspect sounds a little bit more formal or just a lot more intelligent right yeah professional and actually this it's a wonderful way of setting up your idea so the teacher said that it's an important aspect of understanding the legal system was understanding its origins or its Genesis yep and then she moved on and said that it's not enough to Simply memorize laws that's right it's not enough to Simply do something okay so the beginning of this sentence it is not enough to Simply something mhm by starting a sentence like this you are indicating that more is required right so here it's not enough to Simply memorize the laws we're we're saying that most people just memorize the laws but they need to go further and understand them exactly another example would be it's not enough to Simply pass your exams you must get good grades as well right or maybe in a business context it's not enough to Simply satisfy your customers you must impress them okay very good so that's a very good way of starting out this idea of more is required that's right more is required all right all right well I want to move on to one final Point here I found this sentence to be really really interesting they passed a resolution stating that 8 hours would constitute a legal day's work okay so why is this interesting well I found that you know there's two verbs going on here they passed a resolution that 8 hours would constitute illegal day work so we've got two verb times going on here at the same time and I'm wondering about this one would okay so what's happening here obviously this happened in the past it's like about 100 years ago right right so the resolution was passed 100 years ago uhhuh right so it this is going on in the past right but there was a future action that was going to happen in consequence of this right so the resolution stated that 8 hours would constitute mhm so it's like the primary action was the passing of the resolution and the result is this sort of F this event that happens in the past but is a future event to the first primary event does that make any sense at all so this is called the future in the past right that's right okay so it's a it's a grammar structure many of you maybe know the simple present or or the or the future tenses but this is a little strange one and as we said so maybe it's a little bit difficult to understand the grammar in general so why don't we take a look at some more examples of how we would use this future in the past example one the president said that he would cut taxes by 5% example two I made a promise that I would not smoke anymore example three Carl told me he would buy a new car okay so now I think it's clear this whole idea of the future and the past and well uh we'll also be answering any questions on the site if you have any problems right that's right okay so why don't we listen to the dialogue one more time and then we'll come back and talk about this holiday which is the international workers [Music] day all right everyone settle down let's get started as you know an important aspect of becoming a good citizen is understanding the Genesis of our legal system it's not enough to Simply memorize our laws it's necessary that we comprehend why and how they were formed this brings me to our topic for today does anyone know what we celebrate on May 1st s Deo no that's that's May 5th in Spanish James no wonder you're failing my Spanish class no May 1st is international workers day do we get a day off from school in no it is not considered to be a national holiday here in the US but in other countries it is oh man in the 19th century working conditions were appalling with workers being forced to work 10 12 and 14 hours a day support for the 8-hour workday movement was growing rapidly despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders and by April 1886 250,000 workers were ined involved in the MayDay movement previous legislative attempts to improve working conditions had failed so labor organizers took drastic measures they passed a resolution stating that 8 hours would constitute a legal day's work and on May 1st 1886 the resolution took effect cool is that why we only work8 hours now yes but the happy ending came at a high price on May 3rd 1886 police fired into a crowd of Strikers at the McCormack Reaper Works Factory killing four and wounding many a mass meeting was called for the next day to protest the brutality and then what happened well as we say the rest is history all right so Erica in Canada do you celebrate this we do but not on May 1st oh really when is it the first weekend in September oh really and why um I am not 100% sure I think it's because we already have a long weekend in in uh May because we C because on the 24th of May is the queen Queen Victoria's birthday so we have to celebrate that yeah we can't have two vacations in the same month oh wow well yeah I mean it's not productive right exactly what about in Ecuador uh yeah we do on May 1st it's a it's a holiday and we actually have two holidays in May as well because on the 24th we actually celebrate the Battle of pcha which is one of the decisive battles for the independence of Ecuador so we don't mind having two holidays in the same month well it sounds like um Ecuador is a better holiday schedule than Canada so it is so yeah on May 1st people take vacations and or companies usually on May 1st will do something special for their employees oh that's kind of a nice gesture isn't it yeah so it's like it's workers day so they they'll set up maybe a barbecue or a trip or something like that so that's what usually happens on May 1st great well what about in your country's listeners um do you celebrate um may day may day yeah May 1st right and if you do well let let us know come to our website englishpod do.com and leave your questions and comments there as well that's right well thanks for downloading this lesson and until next time bye bye [Music]