Drag Vocabulary [Effortless English DVD1 > LV1 > 05]

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Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for Drag. “Drag”, it’s the name of this lesson set. Let’s begin the vocabulary. 

First the title: High Price of mom’s help is drag on family business. Okay, “High price”, alright, it means “cost a lot”. The mom is helping the family business, but it’s…… her help, her cost, meaning her salary, meaning the money they pay Mom is a drag on the business.  Okey, to “be a drag’, a drag on something, or sometimes just “a drag”. “A drag” means you hurt something or you slow something, or you cause a problem for something. For example “ Mom is a drag on the business”, means Mom is causing a problem for the business.  She’s slowing the business, she’s causing a problem for the business. So, a drag. Sometimes we use “a drag” when we talk about personality,  somebody, describe someone. If you say “He is such a drag” or “He is a drag”. In that situation It means not fun, not fun. So, here’s a drag means he is not fun. But here, in this story “drag” means  she is causing problem for the business. She’s *** the business down. 

Okay, let’s start the letter.  So “ Dear Abby, twenty years ago, my sister and I bought a business from our Mother. ” Okay. So,  the Mom had the business. It was the Mom business, later she sole the business to her daughters. So now the daughters own the business, the Mom is not the owner  now.  She was in the past,   now the sisters, the daughters own the business. 

And they love their Mom and their Mom loves them. 

They say, “ We will be finish payin g off the business in two years.” To “pay off” means to finish paying. So we use “pay off” when you must pay for something over time. Maybe every month, you pay some money. For example, if I buy a car, every month, maybe I pay  $200, and in 20 years (huh huh) I will pay off the car, means I pay everything, I pay all of the cost. So, in 2 years they will pay off the business. It means they bought the business from their Mom but they are still paying her money for the business. In two more years they will finish paying her,  they will totally own the business.  

Okay. “ One problem ( or our problem), Mom who is 77 (so the Mom is 77 years old) she still draws a salary ”. “Draws a salary”. Now here, the word “draw”  means “takes” or “ to take” . Alright, you know the meaning of “draw” like you drawing with a pencil. But here the meaning is different, here it means “take” , she still takes a salary. She takes a salary, she gets a salary, she draws a salary. We use the word “darw” sometimes with money, with a salary.  “Salary” means your payment every month from you job, your  pay check every month from your job. So she draws a salary. So the sisters still pay her. They pay her to buy the business, they also pay her a salary like an employee. Maybe $10 per hour. So they pay their Mom for doing work and

 

they are paying her to buy the business. So they paying her to different things.  

And they said ,“She draws a salary above and beyond the payment for the business. “Above and beyond” means “ more than”, or “also”, or in addiction to , or plus. Alright, She draws a salary plus the payment from the business. So she had the payment and also… Alright, in addiction she had a salary.  So”above and beyond”  means that plus more. Okay. 

Her workload has lessened the greatly… Workload, her workload has lessened.  “Lessened” means getting smaller,getting smaller,getting smaller.  So her workload is gettinh smaller. “Workload” means how much work you do. It’s your jobs at work. If you have a heavy  workload, then you are very busy  at work, you have a lot to do. If you have a light workload, then you are not busy. It’s an easy job. Workload. So now the mom has a light workload. She’s old, she doesn’t do very much. But they’re still paying her every hour. She comes to the business.  

Okay. So they said, “In face, her workload is so light” (so small, so light). “ She could do all of her work in one day ” (so she has very little work at the business now) And if she did every thing in one day, it  would l essened the burden of her salary .  Okay, “lessended” means makes more, makes more. And the “burden”, the burden is something difficult you must do, or something heavy you must carry. Hmm, two meaning’s. So, “ the burden of her salary ”, it means her salary is top , it’s heavy, it’s difficult for the sisters. They must pay their Mom every day, every hour she comes and this is difficult, it cost a lot of money. So, it is a burden, it’s a burden to the sisters. So, they want Mom to work less, they want Mom to work only one day each week. They want Mom to work one day, so they only pay her for one day,  maybe an hour’s , then they can save a lot of money for the business. So that’s why they want Mom to work less. 

But Mom doesn’t like the idea, she says she would go crazy if she retired . “Retired” means stop working. So Mom says, “no no, I will go crazy. I don’t want to work less, I want to come every day”. The sisters don’t want her to retired, they say, “she still come in to the office as often as she wants . She could come every day and do her perso nal, paperwork, banking, letter writing, reading, ect …” So it’s OK for Mom to come, just to social light to talk to them. So, she’s not alone. They say that’s OK but they don’t want to pay her to do her personal work, paperwork, banking. Because “ these are all things she does at work on the clock ” .  Ah, “on the clock “ means when you are working . It means during work time. Okay, during the time you are pay . So Mom has been doing personal work during work time on the clock. So they are paying Mom, but Mom is not helping with the business. She’s writing letters to her friends, she’s reading books, she’s not doing work, but she wants the sisters, the daughters to continue paying her. So it’s a problem!   

They said, “If we try to discuss this, Mom gets hurt ”  Okey, when they tell Mom, “Mom, you’re costing of money and you’re not working”, Mom gets hurt. She says, “ Just let me kn ow when I’m not worth the money”.  “ We don’t want to do that. We hope she would see the fairness of this and suggest it sheself. “ Ah. So the sisters, the daughters they don’t want to fire Mom, they don’t want to make her quit. They hope Mom will understand by herself. But she’s not. 

Okay. Last paragraph . “Business expenses are going through the roof . ” Ok. “Expense” means cost. Alright, money you pay out. The opposite of income. “Income” means money coming in. Expense money going out. So the business cost are going through the roof. “Going through the roof” means going off very fast. Their cost are increasing . Their cost are going off very very fast. So they are losing money. 

“ And there are updates we should make ” .  “Updates” means improvements, improvements. They need to improve the business, make it better.   “ But we can’t do the updates ( They can’t improve) whole we’re paying Mom at the level we are”. So, they can’t continue to pay Mom full time. Because the business is losing money.  They can’t pay her that on top of money for the buy- out.  “On top of” means… aslo, means in a diction, too .  “On top of” means above and beyond, they’re  both mean same thing. “On top of” means in addiction, too. Or plus. Money for the buy-out, “buy-out” means you’re buying a business from someone else. They are buying the business from their Mom. So they say “Oh, it’s too expensive. We mmust pay Mom to buy the business, plus we must pay her salary every hour. “ These too, are too much. We can’t pay for the buy-out on top of her salary, too. It’s too much. 

Okay. That’s all. You use your dictionary. If necessary look at the text, you use your dictionary and review the words. Llisten to this lesson many times.      

     

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