You know, part of my family actually originate from Scotland.
In fact, on my mother's side, her maiden name that's the name that she was born with is Armstrong, and that is a very Scottish name.
They were a clan of peoples who lived in Scotland near the borders between Scotland and England.
And in fact, they were thrown out of Scotland for stealing sheep many centuries ago.
In Scotland, there's a lot of emphasis on New Year.
And perhaps in Scotland, the New Year celebrations are bigger than they are in the UK.
Christmas is also important.
But the reason for that, the reason that New Year is so important, is that for centuries Christmas was actually banned, prohibited in Scotland, because in 1560 Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church.
Many of the Presbyterian leaders, that is, the more Protestant Christians, the Presbyterians.
They thought that Christmas was too much of a happy occasion and it was too pagan.
If you think today about Christmas tree and lots of traditions about Christmas which probably go back to pagan times,
So it was actually prohibited in Scotland for a long, long time.
And people would work on Christmas Day.
And so the big celebration was New Year, which the Scottish call Hogmanay, which is New Year's Eve Hogmanay.
And there are traditional foods like haggis, which is made from a sheep's stomach and the internal organs of a sheep.
Whiskey is a lovely drink to accompany.
OK, well, not for children, perhaps, but for adults.
As you know, whiskey is famously very important in Scotland.
So today's story is actually interesting.
Well, it's sort of based in Scotland.
I don't know if it's a particularly Scottish story.
Well, you see, originally I wanted to invite my friend John McFarlane, a Scottish man, who would come and read the story for me in the Scottish accent.
Unfortunately, he's tied up with his family in Scotland as Christmas is coming.
So what does that mean?
It means that I have to read the story today in a Scottish accent.
Now what I'll do, I'll read through.
What you need to do is to first of all try to understand what I'm saying, and also to listen out for the phrasal verbs.
And the phrasal verbs in today's story, because I'm just doing one this week for Christmas and the phrasal verbs are be one and be two.
So there's kind of a mixture in there.
So it's for all my be one listeners and be two listeners.
OK, off we go.
Hello and welcome to Practicing English.
My name is Mike Bilbre and these are podcasts for students of English at B1 or B2 levels.
For transcripts, please go to practicingenglish.com.
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Check it out today.
So here is the story.
Listen up and try to understand.
And for those of you out there who may be Scottish and listening to this, please forgive my Scottish accent.
It's the best I can do.
I should do better.
After all, as I said, there's Scottish in my blood.
So here's the story.
Listen out for the phrasal verbs in the story.
A Christmas surprise.
Christmas didn't turn out well for Flora.
She lived in the north of Scotland, where the weather can be a problem in the winter months.
She lived in Caius, a fishing village in the northern end of St.
Clair's Bay on the east coast of Caithness in Scotland's Highland area.
She wanted to spend Christmas with an aging mother who lived in Lergue, not far away but higher up the mountains.
A heavy snowstorm had cut off the town, so travel there was impossible.
She had to give up that idea.
Feeling disappointed, she decided to stay in and wait for the weather to change.
On Christmas Eve, Flora woke up early and put on her warmest coat to check outside.
The streets were quiet and most shops were closed.
While she was looking around, she noticed an elderly neighbor, Mr Armstrong, trying to clear away the snow in the front of his house.
Flora went over to help him, even though she didn't know him very well.
As they worked together, Mr. Armstrong opened up about his life.
He told Flora that his family lived far away and that he usually ended up spending Christmas alone.
Hearing this, Flora didn't want to walk away and forget about him.
Instead, she came up with an idea.
Later that day Flora set up a small Christmas dinner in her apartment and she invited Mr Armstrong over, and he happily turned up just before sunset.
They shared stories, laughed a lot and slowly got to know each other better.
Laura realized that, even though her original plans had fallen through, something special had worked out in the end.
Okay, well, full marks if you understood.
80% of what I said?
I will now go through those phrasal verbs that I used in the story.
You can actually read it, of course, if you go to your podcast show notes in the app that you are using or if you come to practicingenglishcom podcast 284.
So the story starts off, Christmas didn't turn out very well for Flora.
To turn out means to have a result as a result.
So if something turns out well, it means the result is good.
In this case, it didn't turn out well for Flora.
Flora being a typical Scottish girl's name.
She lived in the north of Scotland where the weather can be a problem in winter months.
She lived in Case County, a fishing village in the northern end of Sinclair's Bay on the east coast of Caithness in Scotland's Highland area.
That's the far north east of Scotland where it's very, very cold.
She wanted to spend Christmas with her ageing mother.
Ageing means somebody who is getting very old.
Who lived in Lairg.
Lairg?
Here's a name of another town, not far away, but higher up the mountains.
A heavy snowstorm had cut off the town.
So if you're cut off, it means there's no way to get through to that place because you're cut off, because of the snow to be cut off.
You can be cut off in other ways as well.
You can be cut off by phone if the phone is not working and it stops working and so you can't communicate with somebody.
The phone cuts off, we say.
Or you can be cut off from friends.
Maybe because you're working so hard you don't have time to keep in contact with other people.
So she had to give up that idea.
So to give up means to not do something anymore.
So she had this idea.
She couldn't continue with it.
So she had to stop thinking about that and do something else.
To give up.
In the same way you can give up smoking.
This is a B1 phrasal verb, isn't it?
Feeling disappointed, she decided to stay in and wait for the weather to change.
Be one phrasal verb meaning to remain in your house if you stay in.
OK, so stay in.
We often use the word just in and out to talk about being in the house or being out of the house, to stay in or to go out to eat out, meaning to have a meal in a restaurant, not in your home.
On Christmas Eve, Flora woke up early and put on her warmest coat.
It might be an A2 phrasal verb or B1, to put on, meaning to wear.
The streets outside were quiet and most shops were closed while she was looking around.
So to look around is to move your head from side to side to see what you can see.
To look around.
And she noticed an elderly neighbor.
Elderly meaning old.
Mr. Armstrong. trying to clear away the snow in front of his house.
So you try to clear something away, you try to get rid of it, probably in this case with a shovel or a spade to try to lift the snow.
Put it on one side so that you can make an access to your house to clear away.
Clear away, you can clear away the table after a meal, after your Christmas meal, perhaps you clear away the table to have presents, for example, whatever.
Flora went over to help him, even though she didn't know him very well.
As they worked together, Mr Armstrong opened up about his life.
So to open up as a person this is more of a B2 phrasal verb means to be more honest about things and to speak more about your personal life.
To open up.
He told Flora that his family lived far away and that he usually ended up spending Christmas alone.
So to end up has a similar meaning to turn out in that it talks about the final result.
So, he usually ended up spending Christmas alone.
It means in the end he spent Christmas alone.
That was the result.
So you could say as well, it turned out that he usually spent Christmas alone.
Hearing this, Flora didn't want to walk away and forget about him.
So if you walk away, it means you leave someone and have nothing more to do with that person.
To walk away, it means to ignore something that's going on, not take any notice of a person anymore.
Instead, she came up with an idea.
To come up with an idea is to... An idea comes to your mind.
To come up with an idea.
Later that day, Flora set up a small Christmas dinner in her apartment.
So, to set up means to organize something.
In this case, a dinner. for her and Mr. Armstrong.
She invited Mr. Armstrong over and he happily turned up just before sunset.
So to turn up is to arrive at some place.
To turn up.
If you turn up at somebody's house, you arrive there.
Often, perhaps unexpectedly, They shared stories, laughed a lot and slowly got to know each other better.
So to get to know somebody, meaning to talk to someone, so you know more about them and you are therefore perhaps more friendly.
You know more about each other.
To get to know each other.
Flora realized that, even though her original plans had fallen through, meaning not to work.
If a plan falls through, it fails.
It doesn't work out, which is another phrasal verb, to work out.
It fell through.
It didn't come to anything.
Something special had worked out in the end.
So here's that work out again.
So something did work out.
Something did become successful.
It worked out in the end.
What I'll do now.
So as not to make this recording too long, I'm just going to read some of the sentences which have the phrasal verb.
So this is not the complete story.
And what I'd like you to do is to replace the that you hear with the phrasal verb, the complete phrasal verb.
OK, I'll leave a space in time so that you can say it, and then I'll say it anyway, so you can check your answer.
So here we go with the test.
A Christmas surprise.
Christmas didn't very well for Flora.
Turn out.
A heavy snowstorm had *** the town, so travel there was impossible.
Cut off.
She had to *** that idea.
Give up.
Feeling disappointed, she decided to *** and wait for the weather to change.
Stay in.
On Christmas Eve, Flora woke up early and... her warmest coat to check outside.
Put on.
The streets were quiet and most shops were closed.
While she was... she noticed an elderly neighbour, Mr Armstrong.
Looking around.
Mr. Armstrong was trying to the snow in front of his house clear away.
As they worked together, Mr. Armstrong about his life opened up.
He told Flora that his family lived far away and that he usually Spending Christmas alone.
Ended up.
Hearing this, Flora didn't want to and forget about him.
Walk away.
Instead, she an idea.
Came up with.
Later that day, Flora A small Christmas dinner in her apartment.
Set up.
She invited Mr. Armstrong over and he happily just before sunset.
Turned up.
They shared stories, laughed a lot and slowly each other better.
Got to know.
Flora realized that even though her original plans had... Fallen through.
Something special had... In the end.
Worked out.
So that's all from me for this week.
This is the 23rd of December, 2025.
And tomorrow is Christmas Eve.
I'm just making this one podcast for this week.
So I would like to wish you a very... Oh, I do this in a Scottish accent.
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hogmanay!
Speak to you again soon.
Goodbye.
John McFarlane, what are you doing here in Seville?
I thought I'd come and see you.
Well, that's wonderful, but what about your family?
I brought the wee bairns and the wife with me.
Instead of spending Christmas in Glasgow, we thought we'd come and spend Christmas and hog money in Seville.
Oh, that's wonderful.
Come in.
Have you got a wee dram, Mike?
I'm feeling thirsty.
A wee dram?
A small whiskey.
Ah, yes.
I'll get one for you now.
Please take a seat.
