Shut down, Bucket list

To "shut down" is to stop a process; a "bucket list" is a list of things to do before you die.

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Shut down

Let’s do “shut down” first. This is a phrasal verb with a lot of good uses. In the section about the protests in Iran, you heard that the government acted swiftly, or quickly, to shut down some social media. In this sense, shut down means that the government disabled the social networks Telegram and Instagram. It took action to make sure they don’t work. So, after the government shut down Telegram, nobody could use it. They also shut down Instagram, so now nobody in all Iran can use Instagram.

Shut down has a couple of other applications. One common one is when you turn your computer off, you usually click a button that tells the computer to close all its programs and prepare to turn off. When you do this, you’re shutting down your computer. You’re closing all the programs so nothing is running, and then you’re turning off the power. You’re shutting down your own computer.

Outside of technology, shut down can be used to mean to immobilize, or to cause something to stop. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is looking to shut down criticism of his government; he’s looking to stop the criticism of his government. You might remember from last week that a power outage caused the Atlanta airport to shut down—or stop functioning—for almost 12 hours. A snowstorm can sometimes cause a whole city to shut down if the people aren’t prepared for it.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and discovered that the government forced it to close, maybe because of a health or safety violation? If so, the government shut that business down—they forced it to close. There’s a Thai restaurant near my house that was shut down for a few weeks because they didn’t pass a health inspection.

Bucket list

The second expression this week is “bucket list.” This one is easier—it’s just slang. It means all the things a person wants to do before he or she dies. There’s an expression in English—“kick the bucket.” It’s kind of a playful way of describing death. So, before you kick the bucket, before you die, you might want to do certain things. A person’s bucket list, therefore, is the list of things they want to do before they die. Some people might put experiences like visiting Paris, hiking a tall mountain, or going skydiving on their bucket list. Others may put accomplishments on their bucket list; they may say they want to write a book, appear on a TV show, or be elected to public office.

A bucket list is usually a pretty informal thing; most people don’t have actual lists of things they want to do before they die, but many of us do have certain things in mind we’d want to do or accomplish. If you’re in a conversation with a friend, and your friend says she’s going on vacation to Paris next spring, you might say that seeing the Eiffel Tower is on your bucket list—it’s something you really want to do some time in your life.

I’d be curious to hear what’s on your bucket list, if you have one. If you send me a note on Twitter or Facebook, or by e-mail, I’ll read the best ones on next week’s program. I’m PlainEnglishPod on Facebook and Twitter and my email is [email protected]

That’s it for this week—I hope you liked the program. Make sure to check us out for a new episode every Thursday morning. See you next week

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