O podcast de hoje fala sobre “Só pode ser… “ e “Não pode ser…”

Transcrição

Hey, how’s it going? This is Ana Luiza with a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

In this podcast I’m gonna talk about a couple of simple expressions, very simple… And these expressions are somewhat related. So I’m going to make up a little story so that I can use all the expressions in the context of this story. It’s a silly story… It’s very silly, but bear with me.

Imagine this: you are watching a reality show on TV, but it has only one episode, OK? It’s like a game, or a quick competition, and this is how it works: there’s a group of people… Let’s say five people, men and women, and one of them is actually an extra-terrestrial, OK? One of them is not from planet Earth. But no one knows who the extra-terrestrial is, and the first person to figure that out will win a big prize.

So let’s say the contestants’ names are Sara, Mike, Jennifer, Brad and Anna. One of these people is not a human being, and someone has to figure that out in order to win the big prize. The extra-terrestrial looks like a human being, so it’s not that easy to figure out who the ET is.

And these five people are hanging out in this very nice house, and you and your friend are watching them on TV. And, of course, you guys are very curious. The two of you wanna know which one is the creature from outer space. When you start watching the show, you notice that they all look human. You know, they look like regular men and women. However, the host of the show explains that, although they LOOK like regular human beings,  if you pay close attention to their behavior you will be able to identify the extra-terrestrial.

So you and your friend are glued to the TV for hours. You guys are watching these people, trying to notice any strange behaviors, or just anything that would give away who the ET is. And… you start noticing that there’s something unusual about one of the contestants, Jennifer. You think you saw her lifting a cup without touching it. That’s right, she didn’t grab the cup with her hand. She just placed her hand right above the cup, and the cup kinda jumped into her hand! So you say to your friend “I know who the extra-terrestrial is. I definitely know.”

And your friend then says “I know too. It can only be Mike”. So you and your friend disagree, of course. You think it’s Jennifer, but he is sure it’s Mike. He said “It can only be Mike”. That means that your friend thinks there is no other possibility. “It can only be Mike” means Mike is the only possibility. He’s the one. In Portuguese we might say “Só pode ser o Mike”. It can only be Mike.

And you say “I disagree! It can’t be Mike.” It can’t be Mike. You think there’s no way it’s Mike. It can’t be Mike. Mike? That’s not possible! There’s only one ET and you’re almost 100% sure it’s Jennifer. So, it can’t be Mike. In Portuguese, we would say “Não pode ser o Mike!” It can’t be Mike. And your friend continues: “It has to be Mike! He has super powers! He lifted that heavy rock with no one else’s help!” And you say “Well, that makes him Superman, but he’s not the ET. It’s Jennifer! It has to be Jennifer.”

So ‘it can only be’,