bumper-to-bumper

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 287: A Traffic Jam.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 287. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com to download a Learning Guide for this episode.

This episode is called “A Traffic Jam.” It’s a story about someone who gets on the road to drive, and finds that there are many other cars there that are slowing traffic down. Let’s get started.

I was on my way to a restaurant to meet my date for dinner when I hit a traffic jam. I saw that the road was congested, but since I had to take the bridge to reach downtown, I had no choice but to stay on that road.

The traffic was bumper-to-bumper. One crazy driver even tried to drive on the shoulder to get around the backup. But as it turns out, there wasn’t any way to bypass it because the backup wasn’t due to an accident, a stalled car or some rubberneckers.