Spotlight - 14.2019

58 Spotlight 14/2019 THE BASICS

THE BASICS

Easy English

Here, you’ll find a dialogue and interesting

facts related to it — at the A2 level of English.

By VANESSA CLARK

EASY PLUS

Dialogue

Here, we present interesting lives from around the English-

speaking world. This time, we talk to Phil Maloney, an on-call

firefighter.

What is an on-call firefighter?

I work full-time in an office, but when I get a call, I leave my desk

and become a firefighter. I get about two calls a week, mostly for

road accidents and fires.

Are there a lot of on-call firefighters?

Yes. About 60 per cent of us are only on-call, or part-time.

We don’t need a whole team of full-time firefighters. We’re all

fully trained, and we have a training session every week. We’re

paid, too.

Is December a busy time for firefighters?

There are always more fires at Christmas. You have candles and

tea lights around the house, and you leave the matches or lighter

where your kids can find them. Alcohol makes people careless,

too. You leave the pan on the cooker. It’s cold, so you get out that

old electric heater and put it on “max”...

OK, do you have a safety message for us?

Test your smoke alarm every month and change the batteries on

New Year’s Day. Make it your New Year’s resolution!

Show and tell

Now, find out about US firefighters’ favourite dog: the Dalma-

tian.

The Dalmatian is a lucky dog for American firefighters. Toy

Dalmatians are often seen on board fire trucks as lucky mascots,

and some firehouses even have a real Dalmatian as a pet.

Firefighters and Dalmatians have been partners for many

years. They have worked together since the mid-19th century,

when fire wagons were pulled by horses. The Dalmatians ran

with the wagon. They could bark to warn people that the wag-

on was coming. While the firefighters were busy with the fire,

the dogs would guard the wagon.

Horses are often afraid of fire, and

firefighters thought that the dogs

helped to calm the nervous horses.

If your children watch the pop-

ular cartoon PAW Patrol (Helfer

auf vier Pfoten), you can now tell

them why Marshall, the fire-

fighter dog, is a Dalmatian.

bark [bA:k]

, bellen

cooker [(kUkE] UK

, Herd

Dalmatian [dÄl(meIS&n]

, Dalmatiner

lighter [(laItE]

, Feuerzeug

mascot [(mÄskEt]

, Maskottchen, Talisman

match [mÄtS]

, Streichholz

on-call [Qn (kO:l]

, Bereitschafts-

pan [pÄn]

, Pfanne, Topf

resolution [)rezE(lu:S&n]

, hier: guter Vorsatz

tea light [(ti: laIt]

, Teelicht

Are you “on fire” — really

excited — about what you’ve

read on this page? Then do

our exercises in Spotlight plus:

spotlight-online.de/spotlight-plus

Illustrationen: Martin Haake; donatas 1205/Shutterstock.com; Fotos: Valerie Loiseleux, alvarez/iStock.com

Phil Maloney, firefighter Cabinet of curiosities