Hi. This is the normal speed of our story about Sisa,
a woman who disguises herself as a man for many, many years,
in order to make a living for her children.
Be sure to listen all the way to the end
where I will talk about some useful vocabulary.
Okay. So in that story, Sisa was six months pregnant
when her husband, the breadwinner in the family, passed away.
Now, 'breadwinner' is a word that means
the person who earns the income in the family.
Now, traditionally, this was the man.
The man worked outside the house.
He's the one that made all the money and he brings it home,
and he uses that money to support his wife and children.
Now, where does this come from?
Well, in the early 1800s in England, bread was the main source of food.
And if you were poor, that was the thing you needed the most, bread.
And to make bread, you need dough.
So that's the ingredients to make bread.
So whether you buy bread or you use ingredients to make dough, it costs money.
So both of those words, 'bread' and 'dough', are now slang terms for 'money'.
That's what they mean, 'money'.
And 'to win' something means to struggle for it, to work at it, to work for it.
So a 'breadwinner' is a person who goes out and works hard
and brings back the income for the family.
We now live in a different world.
Both men and women are breadwinners.
The 'primary breadwinner' is the one who makes the most money in the household,
and then there are 'secondary breadwinners' who make less.
They contribute something but they're not the primary breadwinner.
In this environment, lots of people now in a household
may be bringing back the money which means 'to bring home the bacon'.
There's another term. Or, 'to put food on the table'.
In your household, do you bring home the bacon?
Are you a breadwinner in your house?
And the people who depend on the breadwinners
are those like children or people who don't work.
And if you depend on someone else for your livelihood, for your income,
then they are your 'meal ticket'.
You could say, "Oh yes, my father or my mother, they bring home the bacon,
They are the ones who give me the money I need to survive."
This can also refer to an ability that you have that earns you money.
So if you're a professional pitcher on a baseball team,
your arm is your 'meal ticket'.
And if you are really, really good at Mathematics and numbers,
then that is your 'meal ticket' as an accountant.
You can work with money. You can work with numbers.
Your brain is your 'meal ticket'.
So all of these terms are useful and they have to do with food and with money,
and both of those represent sustaining your life or your livelihood.