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Mr Fantastico    Time: 2:49    Accent: e & Spanish Dictionary    Sound BrE    Explanations

Mr Fantastico

 
 
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Description

This is the city with the most superheroes, so many, that most of them are soon forgotten. Here we have an interview with a long forgotten glory of the past: Javier Jiménez, better known as Mr. Fantastico.

Transcript

Welcome to Paragon City, home to the greatest population of superpower beings on the planet.

Now, everyday in this city, literally hundreds of new heroes are born. Here are just this staggering amount of superpower men and women running around in their kits and underwear here, I mean, honestly, who can remember them all?

This is Javier, and believe it or not, 25 years ago he was considered one of the greatest costumed adventurers of all times, but today you’d be hard pressed to find even a single person who remembers his name. Well, he is this American hero.

My name is Johnny Barbarian, every week on our show we’ll choose a different superhero, and then we’ll bring you closer into that superhero’s life.

- Look, señor, I was a little "niño", I couldn’t’ve been more than six, maybe seven years old.
- Oh, so you were just starting out in the first grade.
- "Sí". That’s when my superpowers ++++ in for the very first time. Now, all of a sudden, bang! My whole body was swallowed up into a giant ball of hell fire. Flames shot out of my arms and, booof! Pang! Woosh! Fantastico! He, he, he, he.
- Do you think maybe you could give us a rough estimate of about how many people’s lives you’ve saved since you first became a superhero?
- Oh, I don’t know. If you’re counting the entire planet maybe, I don’t-, billions, something like that.
- Billions? Wow! Well, on that note we’re gonna take a little break. Uhm, but when we return, I promise, Javier...
- Everything I promise is going to be Fantastico! He, he, he, he.


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Explanations

HOME TO X= X lives there

BEINGS= creatures (animals or people). From the verb "to be", a being is something that is alive, especially if we don’t know in which category to put it. But most often, a being is a person.

LITERALLY= We use "literally" to emphasize that what we’re saying is true, even if it sounds surprising, strange or exaggerated.

STAGGERING= shocking, surprising

KIT= in this context it means the special clothing and equipment you use when you take part in a particular activity, especially a sport or a battle.

UNDERWEAR= the clothes you wear under your outer clothes (pants, panties, bras, vests). Superheroes usually dress in very tight fitting clothes that look like underwear)

I MEAN= we use this phrase when we’re going to explain something better (here, we’re going to say "who can remember them all", which is giving more details about the statement that there are lots of superheroes there)

HONESTLY= we use this word to emphasize that we really believe that what we’re saying is true

Javier= a Spanish name. In Spanish, the letter J is pronounced like a strong H (same as Scottish -ch, as in "loch").

BELIEVE IT OR NOT= we use this phrase to express the idea that what we’re going to say is true even if it is difficult to believe.

YOU’D BE HARD PRESSED TO X= it would be very difficult to

THIS AMERICAN HERO= the one we’re going to talk about. This expression is also the name of this TV programme.

SEÑOR= Spanish for "sir" (this superhero is a Spanish-speaking Latino, so he uses some Spanish words and has a bit of a Spanish accent, as many US Latinos do)

NIÑO= Spanish for "kid", child

COULDN’T’VE= could not have. Here COULD NOT is used for a negative deduction

FIRST GRADE= The first grade is the first school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 6-7 years old. It is a part of primary education.

SÍ= Spanish for "yes"

ALL OF A SUDDEN= suddenly

MY WHOLE BODY= all my body (ALL and WHOLE have a different word order but the same meaning)

GIANT= huge, very big

HELL FIRE= a very strong fire (like the one you have in hell, according to popular old pseudo-Christian believes)

FANTASTICO!= Spanish for "fantastic", wonderful

A ROUGH ESTIMATE= an approximate number

THE ENTIRE PLANET= all the planet

BILLIONS= in AmE and now in BrE too (since 1974), one billion is 1,000,000,000 (but in most other countries one billion is 1,000,000,000,000, so very frequently, numbers are wrongly translated from English to other languages)

ON THAT NOTE= we use this phrase to politely end a conversation and have a break or leave.

GONNA= going to

A BREAK= a short period of time when you stop what you are doing in order to have a rest before you begin again.

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Votes: 0

robsan9 Spain - 11/11/2010 20:07

It seems like a opening of a videogame, Doesn't it?
robsan9