Let's Learn English! Topic: Utilities and Services πŸ”ŒπŸ’‘πŸ“ž (Lesson Only)

35,631 views ・ 2024-10-22

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Well, hello, and welcome to this
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English lesson about utilities and services.
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So utilities and services are all of
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the things you pay for besides rent.
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When you rent an apartment or when you rent a house
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or when you own an apartment or own a house, there
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are things you need and you have to pay for them.
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Obviously, there's a little bit of a hint
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here about what the lesson is about.
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You see a light bulb and a water drop and a
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flame, and I'm not sure what the fourth thing is.
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And then, of course, wi fi or Internet, you
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need to have a place to live, but you
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also need certain things, certain utilities and services in
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order to have an enjoyable day.
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Electricity, for one, is a really cool thing to have.
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It allows me to have lights.
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It allows me to use my computer.
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And the Internet, of course, allows me
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to teach you an English lesson.
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So once again, welcome to this
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English lesson about utilities and services.
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Utility bill.
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Why am I starting with utility bill?
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Well, everything I'm going to talk about
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in this English lesson costs money. Okay.
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And when things cost money, you get a bill.
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So usually these utility bills
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are monthly here in Canada.
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I think that's pretty common around the world.
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There are things you need and you
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need to pay for them each month.
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So each month you will get a utility bill, you
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will get an electrical bill, you'll get a gas bill,
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you'll get an Internet bill, and you will have to
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then send that company, that utility company that money.
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I'm not sure what this bill is for, but it's $311.62.
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That's pretty expensive.
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I hope that's not the phone bill.
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That would be a little bit pricey.
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Anyways, utility bills, it's basically a piece of paper with
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your name and address and the date and an amount
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of money that you owe for that utility.
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Usually for that month, they come monthly.
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And you do need to pay for electricity.
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We sometimes just say power.
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I didn't put this word on the screen, but
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in Ontario, Canada, some of us say hydro.
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So I would say, like, I pay for hydro.
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But if you're learning English, just ignore that we pay
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for electricity or we just use the general term power.
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So basically you have the electric company or
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you have the company that generates power or
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electricity, and then in order to have electricity,
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you need to pay a monthly bill.
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So you can plug in your toaster and you can plug
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in your computer and you can plug in your lights.
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Oh, the lights just went out. Yeah, that was me.
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I pushed the button.
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Oh, and my camera was adjusting there.
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Anyways, electricity probably one of the most
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common bills that you will pay.
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One of the most common utilities.
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By the way, I mentioned that
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this was about utilities and services.
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We tend to use the word interchangeably a bit.
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Utilities are usually things like electricity.
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Having your garbage picked up is considered more of
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a service, and I'll try to keep that in
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mind as I teach each of these.
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The electricity comes into your house or apartment
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somewhere, and it comes into an electrical panel.
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So this is a panel with circuit breakers in it.
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If it's really old, it might have fuses
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in it, but this is where your electricity
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comes into, uh, your apartment or your house.
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Um, sometimes, like when I turned the light off,
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if it wasn't me turning it off, it might
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have been a breaker tripping in the basement.
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And, uh, we sometimes call them trips as well.
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You probably have a phone.
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If you have a phone, you probably have a phone plan.
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In order to use your phone, you have to pay someone
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so that it is connected to, to the phone network.
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Maybe you have an old fashioned phone.
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Maybe you have a new phone like most of us do.
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In order for me to use my phone, there
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is a SiM card in my phone, a little
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card, and that allows my phone to connect.
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Who am I connected to?
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Telus, I think, is the company.
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So I pay them a certain amount of money every month.
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I think about $50 a month so that I can use this
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phone to make phone calls, to text, and to use the Internet.
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I have both the ability to phone
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text and I have a data plan.
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By the way, if I'm talking too
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fast, it's from lack of sleep.
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Sorry about that.
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Anyways, you need a phone plan.
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In order to use a phone, you need
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to be connected to the phone network.
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So you will decide what phone plan do I want?
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How much data do I need every month?
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Do I want unlimited calling minutes?
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Do I want the ability to
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send an unlimited amount of texts?
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So that is what you would do.
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And that is one of your utilities.
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If you have an old fashioned phone, it's probably
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connected to the wall, and then a wire or
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cable goes out to the phone company.
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Water.
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You do definitely need water.
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You need drinking water.
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Or I call it, I think I say potable
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water, but someone told me it's potable water.
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So don't learn your pronunciation from me for that one.
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But you need drinking water.
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You need water to cook with.
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You need clean water in your house
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so that you have something to drink. You have something.
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If you want to boil some eggs, you have something that
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you can use to wash the dishes, you need water.
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So you will get a water bill every month.
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Because I live out in the country, I actually buy my
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water and it comes in a truck, and we pick up
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our drinking water in two town with large blue jugs.
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I think I've showed you those before.
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I don't have one sitting by me right now.
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We sometimes also refer to it as running
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water, especially if you rent a cabin.
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In northern Canada, you can rent a cabin with
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running water, or it might not have running water.
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That means you will have to bring
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water with you in bottles or jugs.
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So water, running water.
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And I used the term drinking water as
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well, a common way to refer to water.
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There are two things there.
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Sorry, let's talk about just this one thing.
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In order to have water, your country or your city
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or your town must have a water treatment plant.
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If I go to the tap to get a glass of
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water, to drink it, it has to be clean drinking water.
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In order to do that, the water
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goes through a water treatment plant.
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They take it from a lake or
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river, it gets cleaned and disinfected and
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sanitized and filtered, and many things happen.
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I don't know if you can see all the words,
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but at one end you have water from the lake.
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At the other end, hopefully you
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have clean, safe drinking water.
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I think if we make this bigger, the, there are some
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really big words on there that even I don't know.
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But this is the process for creating
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drinking water, a water treatment plant.
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You also have what's called sewer.
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When I lived in town, my water bill
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and my sewer bill were the same bill.
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In some towns in Canada, your sewer bill is
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based on the amount of water that you use.
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So if you use a certain number of liters
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of water per month, you're charged for the water.
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But then you're also charged a sewer fee for the
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water, because basically any water that comes in your house
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goes down the drain or the toilet at some point.
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But you pay for sewer.
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I'm not sure how much this costs in Canada, but certainly
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you pay for water to come into your home, into your
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apartment or house, and then you pay for sewer, so that
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when you flush the toilet, it goes through the pipes and
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it goes away to the wastewater treatment plant.
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So in Canada and in many parts of the
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world, you have water treatment plants to create good
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water, but then you also have wastewater treatment plants.
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And this is where all of your sewage, all of the water
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that goes down the drain will end up here, and then it
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will go through a process where it is again filtered and cleaned
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to a certain amount, and then it is let out into a
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lake or river once it is safe to do so.
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Once it's been, you know, all of the
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solids have been removed and it's been treated.
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And it's not drinking water when they're done, but
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it's certainly safe to release into the environment.
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You will probably pay for natural gas or gas
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or propane or some type of gas that you
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can use for cooking and for heating water.
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In my part of the world, it's
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usually natural gas or what's called propane.
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And when you have this, you can then cook. Okay.
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We actually use electricity to cook, but my sister has
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a gas stove, and at school we have gas stoves.
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I think we have gas stoves.
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I should check where you have an actual flame.
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You're using an actual flame to cook?
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Um, some people also heat their
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houses with natural gas or propane.
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Our house is heated with propane.
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If you're wondering what propane is, it's
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just another form of burnable gas. Okay.
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Don't know a lot about it, except that I
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have a big tank out there filled with propane,
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and that's what goes into my furnace.
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And it makes a flame and it heats my house.
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But yes, you'll.
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You will get a gas bill.
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You have to pay.
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You have to pay the gas bill every month, or
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they might turn off the gas, and then you don't
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have anything to heat your house or apartment or home.
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That's not very nice when that happens.
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And here is my.
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A picture of a furnace. This.
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I was going to say my furnace. This isn't.
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Well, it's pretty close to looking like my furnace.
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A furnace is used for heat.
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Sometimes we say you have to pay for
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gas and electricity, but we sometimes just say,
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oh, I have to pay my heating bill.
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I have to pay for heat and electricity and water.
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So you can say that you have to pay
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the gas bill or the natural gas bill, or
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you just have to pay your heat bill.
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Cable tv, satellite tv.
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There are different ways to pay for a tv service.
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So if you want to watch tv, you can
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hook up an antenna in Canada, and you will
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have four or five channels for free.
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Like, you can put an antenna on your
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roof, or you can pay for cable tv.
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If you're in a city, there will actually be
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a cable tv wire that comes into your house.
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I guess technically it's a cable.
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There will be a cable that comes into your house, and
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you will pay a monthly fee, and you will get a
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certain number of tv channels, depending on how much you pay.
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If you live out in the country like
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I do, you can get satellite tv.
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They will put a satellite dish on your house, and
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then from there it's basically the same as cable.
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But, but instead of a cable coming
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into your house, you're getting the signal
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from a satellite up in orbit here.
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Cable tv isn't too pricey.
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I think it's about 30, $40 a month if you
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want cable tv, satellite tv is a little more expensive.
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But where I live, I buy satellite tv
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because again, if I hook an antenna up,
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I think I get four channels really good.
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And I like having a few more channels than that.
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And then, yes, I do have a satellite dish on my house.
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I will show you where that is in
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a video at some point, probably on my
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shorter channel, maybe when I do the lesson.
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By the way, there's no video coming out
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on my short English lesson channel today.
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I'm just going to pick that up again next Wednesday. So.
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But yes, you can have cable tv, you can
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have a satellite tv, and you will have a
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satellite dish if you need that type of service.
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All of us obviously have Internet.
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Somehow you are watching this on the Internet.
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You must have Internet, an Internet connection in your house
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or in your apartment in order to browse the web.
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I don't know if we still use either of those terms.
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In order to watch YouTube, in order to download games
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or to play games, you need an Internet connection.
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And obviously you need to pay for that.
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Now, there's two ways to get an Internet connection.
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Currently, this is my home Internet connection, but I
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also have a data plan on my phone.
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So I can use the Internet on my phone,
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or I can sit at a computer or use
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my tablet and use my home Internet connection here.
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A home Internet connection is about, if you were in the
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city, about $40 a month canadian for me, much more.
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My Internet connection is $268 a month.
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Yeah, out here on the farm, dollar, 268 a month.
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I could get a cheaper plan, but then
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I wouldn't be able to live stream.
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So in order to have home Internet, you must
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have a router somewhere in your house or apartment.
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A router is a small box, and the Internet connection
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goes into the box, and then you can plug other
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computers into it, or it generates a Wi Fi signal
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14:27
so that you can use Internet wirelessly throughout your home.
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14:33
But yes, if you would like to use
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14:35
the Internet, you need to pay someone in
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14:38
order to have an Internet connection.
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14:42
And there's something called a bundle.
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14:44
Um, because home phone and Internet and tv all,
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14:53
some of them all come on the same cable,
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14:55
or it can come on the same cable.
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14:58
You can get all of it from the same company sometimes.
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15:01
And this is called a bundle.
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15:02
So I could get a bundle.
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15:06
I could actually bundle my mobile phone, my
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15:10
home phone, my Internet, and my tv altogether.
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15:15
But it's not.
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15:17
It wouldn't work well for me because the Internet
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15:19
connection isn't the one I need for live streaming.
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15:22
But if you want to save some money, you
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15:25
can buy all of those services from the same
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15:28
company, and they will give you a discount.
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15:31
A discount means you pay a little bit less.
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15:34
So that's called a bundle.
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15:36
If you go to a fast food restaurant,
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15:38
you can buy a combo drink, fries, hamburger.
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3485
15:41
But when you buy Internet, tv, and
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15:44
phone, we call it a bundle.
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15:46
We wouldn't call it a combo.
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15:47
You might call it a package.
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15:49
They might have a good package for you.
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15:52
You might have a security system.
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15:54
We have a lot of security systems in our businesses.
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15:58
Some people have security systems in their home.
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16:02
A security system can be as simple as
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16:04
if someone opens a door, an alarm goes
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16:07
off, but it might also be monitored.
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16:10
When you have a security system that is
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16:13
monitored, it means that if someone breaks into
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3231
16:16
your home, it alerts someone at the monitoring
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3935
16:20
center so they can call the police.
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16:22
They can call you on your phone to let
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2375
16:25
you know that someone is breaking into your house.
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3191
16:28
So a security system might not have a monthly fee, but
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5345
16:33
if you are paying someone to monitor it, you might be
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3823
16:37
paying a monthly fee, so that if something happens, they give
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3847
16:41
you a call or they call the police.
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3363
16:46
If you're old, you might have a medical alert system.
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3552
16:49
This lady, it looks like she's being
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2183
16:51
taught how to use her pendant.
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16:54
There's probably a button on it.
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2055
16:56
If she falls or if she's not feeling strong enough to
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4119
17:00
stand up, she might be able to push that button, and
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4194
17:04
then it will alert someone to come and help her.
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3519
17:08
So we would call that a medical alert system.
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3176
17:11
And it's generally used by people
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2339
17:14
maybe in their seventies or eighties.
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17:17
Usually, if they live by
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1808
17:19
themselves, they might have this.
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2111
17:21
If you have a medical condition and you live
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3446
17:24
by yourself, you might have a medical alert.
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3040
17:27
Um, pendant.
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1385
17:29
It's like a button that you can push, or there
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17:30
might just be a button somewhere in your house.
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3243
17:35
And then, of course, we have
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17:36
garbage or trash and recycling.
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2687
17:39
I I made this all look like
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1059199
1727
17:40
the same thing, but it's different.
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1671
17:42
Garbage and trash are the same things.
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2671
17:45
The things you throw out.
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1847
17:47
Recycling is the things you throw out, but
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2647
17:49
you want them to be used again? Okay. Um.
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3807
17:53
So this might be included in your taxes.
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4823
17:58
Like, for me, this is just included in my taxes.
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3527
18:01
Or you might have to pay a separate bill.
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3223
18:05
When I was young, we took our garbage to the dump
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3223
18:08
and we had to pay to bring the garbage there.
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2255
18:10
I know in some of your countries, garbage and recycling
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3223
18:13
is completely free, but that is one other expense, one
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4455
18:18
other service that you need to have each month because
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1098311
4689
18:23
you can't just let your garbage pile up.
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1103001
1871
18:24
That would be a really, really bad thing.
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2947
18:28
Snow removal.
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1424
18:29
You might not have this where you live.
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2135
18:31
You might have sand removal where you live.
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1111961
1879
18:33
I don't know how things work.
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1271
18:35
I saw pictures of really big sand storms
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1115113
2239
18:37
hitting a city once, and it looked a
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1117353
1991
18:39
lot like a snowstorm, except it was sand.
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2535
18:41
But here in Canada, when it snows, you either have to
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3927
18:45
shovel it yourself or you might pay for snow removal.
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4251
18:50
I do my own snow.
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1607
18:51
I have shovels and tractors and things like that.
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2647
18:54
But people who live in the city
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2079
18:56
might pay for a snow removal service.
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3023
18:59
So a person will come in a big truck with a
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2463
19:01
blade on the front, and they will plow your driveway.
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1141885
3835
19:07
Yeah, I'm trying to think this.
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1147700
2144
19:09
Like we say, this is a.
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1149845
1223
19:11
They plow your driveway.
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1151069
1679
19:12
It's an interesting word, snowplow. Yeah.
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1152749
2881
19:15
So they'll come and they'll do snow removal.
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1155631
1607
19:17
They might have a snow blower that shoots the snow.
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2743
19:19
They might have a tractor with a
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1159983
1391
19:21
loader to lift and remove the snow.
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1999
19:23
But you might need to pay for snow removal.
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1163375
3835
19:28
Oh, yeah, this is a good one. Okay.
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1832
19:30
You might have rent.
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1667
19:32
That includes utilities.
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2360
19:34
You might have rent with utilities not included.
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1174671
4319
19:38
So in Canada, this isn't always true, but generally
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1178991
5137
19:44
when you rent an apartment, the utilities are included.
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1184129
4407
19:48
You pay one fee for everything.
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1188537
3191
19:51
So it's rent, heat, electricity.
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1191729
4431
19:56
You probably have to pay
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1671
19:57
for Internet and tv separately.
399
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2467
20:01
So when it says rents included,
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1648
20:02
it says all utilities included.
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1202689
1559
20:04
So this might actually include Internet and
402
1204249
1959
20:06
tv, although I think that's rare.
403
1206209
2239
20:08
But you also have a situation where you might rent
404
1208449
3019
20:11
an apartment or house and utilities are not included.
405
1211469
3743
20:15
So you pay rent, but then here you also have to
406
1215213
3175
20:18
pay extra for electricity and Internet, et cetera, et cetera.
407
1218389
5191
20:23
So what I was going to say, though, is in
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1223581
3087
20:26
Canada, often when you rent an apartment, utilities are included.
409
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4447
20:31
But if you rent a house, you
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2343
20:33
have to pay for the utilities.
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1567
20:35
Again, that's not always true.
412
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1439
20:36
It's just the most common way for it to happen.
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4281
20:42
Water lines and sewer lines.
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2192
20:44
So when water comes into your house or
415
1244843
3287
20:48
apartment, it has to come from somewhere.
416
1248131
2295
20:50
If you go out into the street and dig, don't
417
1250427
3535
20:53
actually do this, but if you go and dig, you
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2743
20:56
will find a water line or a water main.
419
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3463
21:00
Technically, the water line runs from
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1260171
3559
21:03
your house to the water main.
421
1263731
2439
21:06
And the water main is a really big pipe that's
422
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3199
21:09
usually under the road or along your street or road.
423
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4281
21:13
So that.
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1273653
895
21:14
That's how the water gets to your house,
425
1274549
2447
21:16
through a water main or water line.
426
1276997
2503
21:19
Now, we do use these terms interchangeably because
427
1279501
3807
21:23
we're not all experts, but, uh, the.
428
1283309
2775
21:26
When water comes to your house, it comes through a
429
1286085
2271
21:28
water line or water main, um, which are pipes.
430
1288357
3527
21:31
When water leaves your house, when you
431
1291885
1951
21:33
flush the toilet, or when you.
432
1293837
1823
21:35
When water goes down the drain, it goes
433
1295661
2319
21:37
through a sewer line to a sewer maintained,
434
1297981
2617
21:40
it goes off to the wastewater treatment plant.
435
1300599
4201
21:45
And then we have things
436
1305940
1120
21:47
called manholes or maintenance holes.
437
1307061
2575
21:49
Sometimes they have to fix the pipes that are
438
1309637
2559
21:52
underground, they have to go into the manhole or
439
1312197
2791
21:54
maintenance hole, and they have to fix a leak.
440
1314989
2631
21:57
Or hopefully, it's not the sewer pipe.
441
1317621
2007
21:59
That probably smells really, really bad, but definitely
442
1319629
3047
22:02
there are times where they have to go
443
1322677
2303
22:04
fix things and they need to get access.
444
1324981
3139
22:09
If you drive around, you will
445
1329380
1368
22:10
see utility poles in Canada.
446
1330749
2695
22:13
In my part of Canada, we call them hydro poles.
447
1333445
2703
22:16
In some places, they're called
448
1336149
1367
22:17
power poles or electrical poles.
449
1337517
2359
22:19
But utility pole is probably the best term.
450
1339877
2763
22:23
You actually might be surprised what's
451
1343380
3232
22:26
all on this utility pole.
452
1346613
1999
22:28
I think these are actually Internet or phone wires.
453
1348613
5537
22:34
I think the very top wires are probably electricity.
454
1354151
4699
22:39
I'm not sure.
455
1359790
872
22:40
These might be cable tv or electricity
456
1360663
3263
22:43
or phone or Internet as well.
457
1363927
2575
22:46
Often a utility pole will have multiple things on it.
458
1366503
4695
22:51
This one's pretty full.
459
1371199
1447
22:52
This is a lot of stuff, but
460
1372647
1087
22:53
I'm pretty sure this is cable tv.
461
1373735
2591
22:56
And I'm pretty sure the top is
462
1376327
1591
22:57
electricity, and maybe the middle is some.
463
1377919
2351
23:00
Something else.
464
1380271
1119
23:01
And then we have.
465
1381970
1096
23:03
The lines are actually called power lines.
466
1383067
2199
23:05
That's what I would refer to those as the
467
1385267
2871
23:08
power lines at the top of the utility pole,
468
1388139
3531
23:12
if you're lucky, you might have a backup generator.
469
1392610
3920
23:16
I have a generator, but it's not like this one.
470
1396531
2967
23:19
This is an automatic backup generator.
471
1399499
2647
23:22
If the power goes out, if the electricity goes
472
1402147
3223
23:25
out of this has an engine in it that
473
1405371
2989
23:28
runs off natural gas or gasoline, and it automatically
474
1408361
3903
23:32
starts and makes electricity for your house.
475
1412265
3087
23:35
So very cool.
476
1415353
1255
23:36
My backup generator is just on wheels, and I have to
477
1416609
3319
23:39
drive it somewhere, and then I have to pull it.
478
1419929
2879
23:42
Actually, my.
479
1422809
903
23:43
I don't have to pull it.
480
1423713
1023
23:44
I has electric start.
481
1424737
1423
23:46
I have an older, smaller one
482
1426161
1495
23:47
that you have to pull start.
483
1427657
1903
23:49
But a backup generator makes electricity
484
1429561
3393
23:52
when the power goes out.
485
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2415
23:55
That is its job.
486
1435371
1779
23:58
There's also something called off grid.
487
1438130
2608
24:00
So I'm definitely on grid, so I
488
1440739
3415
24:04
am connected to the electrical grid.
489
1444155
2695
24:06
When you are off grid, it means
490
1446851
2343
24:09
that you must make your own electricity.
491
1449195
3735
24:12
It sometimes means as well that you do not
492
1452931
3023
24:15
have running water and you might not have sewer.
493
1455955
4885
24:21
But generally when we talk about
494
1461380
1736
24:23
the grid, we're talking about electricity.
495
1463117
3175
24:26
When we talk about off grid, it means you
496
1466293
2199
24:28
don't have, there's no wire coming from a utility
497
1468493
3671
24:32
pole to your house or cabin or apartment.
498
1472165
3511
24:35
So you are off grid.
499
1475677
1495
24:37
And then it usually extends to also
500
1477173
2743
24:39
mean that you don't have running water.
501
1479917
5107
24:45
You probably have to bring your own water.
502
1485025
1879
24:46
If you went to a place like this, you
503
1486905
2039
24:48
would need to bring some bottles of water.
504
1488945
2635
24:52
And then the people who work
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1492560
1256
24:53
on this are called utility workers.
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1493817
2223
24:56
They might install utilities, they might do
507
1496041
3399
24:59
maintenance on utilities, they might repair utilities.
508
1499441
3911
25:03
But a utility worker is
509
1503353
1335
25:04
someone who climbs utility poles.
510
1504689
2535
25:07
They sometimes dig in the ground to
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1507225
2103
25:09
fix wires or pipes that are underground.
512
1509329
2927
25:12
A utility worker is the person or the
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3333
25:15
people who make all of this stuff work.
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4399
25:19
We actually owe them a lot, by the way.
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1647
25:21
The world works well because of these people.
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2815
25:24
So thank you.
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599
25:25
If you're a utility worker, you're awesome.
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2199
25:27
Thank you for the electricity and the water and the
519
1527255
2903
25:30
sewage, sewer pipes and everything that you take care of.
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1530159
3611
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

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