Pomp and Circumstance

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 374: A Graduation Ceremony.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 374. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

You can visit our website at eslpod.com to download a Learning Guide for this episode. The Learning Guide is an 8 to 10 page guide that gives you all of the vocabulary, definitions, new sample sentences using all of the vocabulary we go over here on the podcast, comprehension questions, additional explanations of vocabulary, cultural notes, and a complete transcript of this episode.

This episode is called “A Graduation Ceremony.” It’s a dialogue between Rafael and April talking about a typical American graduation from a high school or college. Let’s get started.

Rafael: They’re playing Pomp and Circumstance and the graduates are filing in. Do you see your daughter? I don’t see my son.

April: No, we’re too far from the field and everybody is wearing a cap and gown. It’s hard to see who’s who.

Rafael: Oh, there’s the dean and I think that’s the commencement