Clean up your act
Learning English Conversations
BBC
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2016
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Someone behaving badly? Here's a phrase that tells them what to do
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a download from BBC Learning English. |
| 0:03.0 | To find out more, visit our website. |
| 0:06.0 | The English we speak. |
| 0:09.0 | From BBC Learning English. |
| 0:13.3 | Hello and welcome to the English we speak from BBC Learning English. I'm Rob. |
| 0:18.8 | Oh hello, I'm Fay Fay Faye. |
| 0:20.8 | Uh, Faye, what are you doing over there? Cleaning this place is so dirty in fact Rob have you got any soap I could borrow |
| 0:30.0 | Faye Faye this isn't like you you don't normally take cleaning so seriously |
| 0:35.8 | Well I'm cleaning up because my boss told me to he said I've got to clean up my act |
| 0:43.0 | Oh Faye Fay, you can put down that cloth. |
| 0:46.1 | He didn't literally mean do the cleaning. |
| 0:48.9 | He wants you to improve your behavior or your performance. Have you not been working very hard? |
| 0:54.8 | Who, me? I always work hard. |
| 0:58.2 | Although I have had a lot of things to do at home and I did make a few mistakes last week and when I get stressed I start to shut at people. |
| 1:08.4 | Oh yes I did hear you. Well I'm sure I can help you clean up your act. If you're sure you know what that means? |
| 1:15.7 | Yes. Apparently I need to improve my behaviour. Let's hear some more examples of the phrase in action. |
| 1:22.6 | I used to drink a lot of alcohol, |
| 1:27.0 | but when I got ill I decided to clean up my act |
| 1:30.3 | and now I only drink cola. |
| 1:32.1 | He turned up late for work every day looking a real mess, |
| 1:37.0 | so they told him to clean up his act or face losing his job. Cleaning up my act means I have to work harder. |
| 1:49.0 | So it's got nothing to do with cleaning or acting Rob. |
... |
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