Play a part

Play a part

Today’s expression is to play a part. What does it mean to play a part in something? An actor or an actress can play a part in a movie. That means they play a character in a movie. But that’s now how we’re talking about it today.

Here’s how you first heard it. Old age plays a part in your overall risk of heart disease, but other factors are more important. Besides old age, what other factors play a part in your risk of heart disease? Whether or not you smoke plays a part; your diet plays a part; whether you have high blood pressure or diabetes. These factors all play a part in your risk of heart disease.

Got it now? If something plays a part, it makes a contribution or it has an effect. But we usually use “play a part” when it’s important that one certain thing is not everything. It’s not the only important factor.

Old age plays a part in your risk of getting a heart attack, but it’s not the only factor. It plays a part—just a part—and other factors also play a part.

There are probably a lot of people who have played a part in your success in school when you were a kid. Who played a part in your childhood? Probably teachers, your parents, other relatives, coaches on sports teams, mentors, peers, friends, someone at church. Some of these people probably played a part in your success. And if you’re like most of us, you probably had a few adults who played a bigger part than others. For those people, you might emphasize that they played a big part in your success in school.

So now you’ve heard that a person can play a part in something, and a regular thing can play a part. It doesn’t have to be a person. Here’s another example that’s not a person.

I was looking back at my budget for last year and I found that my heating bills in 2019 were a lot lower than in previous years. And I live in a cold city! What’s up with that? My travel schedule played a big part in my savings on energy bills last year. I was on the road a lot last year. And if I’m not home, my thermostat keeps my apartment at a relatively brisk 62 degrees. When I get home, I turn the heat back up. My travel schedule played a big part in my energy savings last year. The weather also cooperated. We had some cold days, but it wasn’t nearly as cold as previous years—so the relatively reasonable temperatures also played a part, albeit a smaller part.

JR’s song of the week

Quickly as we wrap up today, JR has a song of the week, a recent one. It’s by The Weeknd and the song is Blinding Lights. I just listened to it for the first time and the lyrics sound pretty clear. JR wanted to mix it up a little bit this week, since we’ve had some old ones on lately. “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd is the song of the week today.

That’s all for today! Thanks for joining us. We’ll be back again on Monday with a new episode for you. I can’t wait.

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