Feifei: Hello and welcome
to The English We Speak. I'm Feifei.
Rob: And I'm Rob. Phew, Feifei, is
the air conditioning on?
Feifei: Let me check.
Looks like it's broken.
Rob: Again? The company fixed it
just this week.
Feifei: Yeah.
Rob: And that's three times this month!
Feifei: I know...
Rob: I honestly can't face calling
the company one more time.
I've wasted hours on the phone
to them! Seriously.
Feifei: OK, OK, Rob. No need to get so
hot under the collar!
Rob: But... OK. You're right.
Give me a minute.
Feifei: While Rob is cooling down, let me
explain that phrase I just used.
To get 'hot under the collar' means
to become very annoyed or angry
about something. There is another
meaning, but we'll get there later.
OK, Rob, how are you now?
Rob: Just a minute more.
Feifei: OK, let's listen
to these examples first.
Nick got a little hot under the collar
when he returned from a meeting
to discover his
colleagues had eaten all his chocolates.
I hate driving in big cities. I just get
too hot under the collar
when others drive badly.
I prefer to take a bus and chill out.
Try not to say anything about
Wayne's new haircut.
He knows it looks terrible. When
I mentioned it he got
very hot under the collar.
Feifei: This is The English We Speak
from BBC Learning English.
So, how are you feeling now, Rob?
Rob: Much better. Don't worry,
I'll call the air conditioning company.
Feifei: If you do, err... can you ask them
which engineer is coming to fix it?
Rob: Why does that matter?
Feifei: Well, you see, there's
this one engineer who makes me...
all hot under the collar!
Rob: Ahh, I see! You find this person
attractive and they make you feel
excited or even a bit nervous?
Well, that's the other meaning of
hot under the collar, by the way.
Feifei: Well, yes. Sorry. I should admit it.
It's been me who has been breaking the
air conditioning all along... Just...
just... just in the hope that...
Rob: Just so that you can see
that cute engineer?
Feifei! That really is shocking. OK, let me
make that call.
Feifei: Yes, it's getting a bit hot in here.
Bye.
Rob: Bye.