This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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I am away I've gone to the coast Fish and chips and ice cream I love most But don't you worry, we've got you covered.
Old shows to binge You'll soon rediscover Hip hip hooray I'll be back on the 8th Until that day Let's laugh and wait Anna's away, but the joy's here to stay Old shows, new smiles, hip hip hooray And there's a way Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast. the podcast that's designed for lovers and learners of English.
I'm your host, Anna, and today we are going on an adventure.
To the great outdoors. So today's episode is going to be a little bit different.
I want you to find a quiet place. Turn up the volume.
And come with me as we experience a different environment.
I open my door and swing my bare legs out of the car.
My feet are greeted by the soft, cool ground beneath.
The moss has a slight spring to it and a few blades of grass tickle my calves as I emerge.
I had forgotten how it felt to stand in this meadow on a summer's day.
Returning always feels like greeting an old friend.
I stretch my arms above my head, close my eyes and embrace it.
The sun kisses my face, warming my cheeks just a little. before the refreshing breeze comes in like a jealous rival to caress my skin, giving rise to goosebumps.
I pull a light shawl over my shoulders and set off for the middle of the meadow.
The beauty here is striking. The wide open space, The rolling hills beyond, a continuation of green pastures lifting up to meet the clear blue sky.
I pause again to take in the view. The desire to explore is growing inside me, but I am here to wait for my friend.
And so I will continue to wait. I plonk myself down on a boulder that seems oddly out of place but I don't give its origin much thought.
I sit and gaze into the distance, breathing in the day. filling my lungs with fresh air.
I scan the scene. A few shrubs randomly dotted across the field.
Wild flowers in full bloom popping their heads above the long grass and swaying in tandem in the breeze.
A huge oak tree marks the far corner of the meadow, A solitary oak laden with young acorns offering respite from the unrelenting sun.
A squirrel quickly darts up the trunk with impressive dexterity, clutching something in its jaw.
Suddenly, something buzzes past my ear, making me jump.
A default reaction which I always scold myself for.
It's just a bee. A busy little bee bumbling about, minding its own business as it visits each flower that it comes across.
I could stay here all day, lose myself in this noisy quiet, just breathing.
Not thinking. But then. The noisy quiet is suddenly shattered by my ringtone. rudely blasting out, desperate for my attention, and once again I am back to reality.
Hello, Anna speaking. Yes, of course. I will be right there.
Okay, let's have a look at some of the vocabulary that I used when describing my experience within the meadow.
First of all, I said I opened the door and I swing out my legs.
Now often... When we are getting out of a vehicle...
We'd say, I stepped out or I got out of the car.
But here I said, I swung out my legs. And this is the idea of being... kind of sitting with your knees pointing in one direction, and then you swing your body, you turn your body, And at the same time, you're moving your legs into a different place.
So you're swinging them. You're swinging them to the side.
So it's just a different way of basically saying I stepped out of the car, but I swung.
My bare legs out of the car. Now I said bare legs.
Bare here means... naked uncovered which suggests that it's a warm day so i swung out my bare legs my feet greeted by the soft, cool ground beneath.
The moss has a slight spring to it. So moss is...
Like a green... It's like a plant, isn't it?
A green plant based thing that covers often... tree trunks or stones, boulders or ground.
And moss can be very soft. It often grows in places that are a little bit damp, a bit more humid.
So you'll find a lot of moss. in places where there's dripping water or in like, you know, the woods or the forest where it's a little bit darker, more covered and there's a lot more moisture. in the air.
So the moss has a slight spring to it, slightly springy.
And I said, there are a few blades of grass that tickle my calves.
So a blade of grass is what you use to describe one single piece of grass, a blade.
And I guess it's called a blade of grass because it's very flat and has sharp edges. ish edges very defined edges Edges like a blade, like a knife. although it would be very hard to cut yourself with a blade of grass.
Anyway, I said a few blades of grass tickle my calves.
Carves is the plural of the... muscle that sits on the lower part of your leg.
So the back of your lower leg is your calf.
Your calf. So as a single calf, it's C-A-L-F, calf.
But when we're talking about your two legs, your two calves...
Then we say C-A-L-V-E-S. Calves. Calves.
So the blades of grass tickle my calves as I emerge.
To emerge is to come out of something. to show yourself to the world.
A chick will emerge from an egg when it's finally ready to come into the world.
I had forgotten how it felt to stand in this meadow on a summer's day.
Returning always felt like greeting an old friend.
I stretch my arms above my head, close my eyes and embrace it.
The sun kisses my face, warming my cheeks just a little before the refreshing breeze descends. comes in like a jealous rival.
So to be jealous, to have green eyes, to be jealous is to... want something that somebody else has.
You don't want them to have it. You want it.
You are jealous. And here we are personifying the breeze and suggesting the breeze. is jealous of the sun.
The sun is kissing my face and the breeze wants to kiss my face.
So he is a jealous rival. A rival is kind of like an enemy.
If two people are rivals... They don't get on.
They're usually fighting for the same thing. you'll have rival football teams.
It doesn't necessarily mean that you hate each other, but you can be rivals in a personal way.
And then I go on to say that the breeze caresses my skin.
So to caress... is another way of saying kiss to caress or touch to caress.
Giving rise to... This is a nice phrase, meaning it causes...
Causing, giving rise to Goosebumps So the breeze causes goosebumps.
It gives rise to goosebumps. Now goosebumps describes the raised little bumps you get on your skin when you're cold.
I've heard other people in different countries calling it chicken skin.
When a chicken has been plucked, it has all these little bumps on its skin.
And that's how you look when you have goosebumps.
So the breeze gives rise to goosebumps. I pull a light shawl over my shoulders.
Now here, I'm talking about the material of the shawl being light.
A light shawl. So it's just a very thin... lightweight shawl.
A shawl is like a piece of material that you...
Hang on your shoulders or on the upper arms. goes around your back and hangs over your arms or shoulders.
It's like a scarf, but it's not like a full length. like a scarf is it doesn't wrap around your neck several times a shawl is just to go over the shoulders or upper arms Sometimes shawls are quite large actually and they can wrap around your entire upper body.
But in this case, it's just a light shawl, just something for the summer. and I set off for the middle of the meadow to set off is a phrasal verb meaning to go I head off I go The simple beauty is striking.
Striking is a nice way to describe something that is very beautiful. or very impressive, it impresses you in a way that really hits you.
To strike is to hit. So if something is striking, then it stops you.
It makes you take notice of it. Whoa. That is amazing.
That is a gorgeous view. So the scene, the beauty, the simple beauty is striking, the wide open space.
This is a nice collocation. We often talk about a big space. like a field as being a wide open space, a wide open space.
And the rolling hills, here's another collocation.
We talk about the rolling hills. The rolling hills is where you have hill after hill after hill.
Just like a big ball would be rolling up and down these hills.
Up and down, up and down the rolling hills.
A continuation of Green Pastures lifting up so i'm thinking of these green hills all reaching up trying to touch the sky So lifting up to meet the clear blue sky.
That's another collocation. We often talk about the clear blue sky.
Sky. I pause again to take in the view.
Now take in is a great phrasal verb It means to have a moment to absorb something. something.
We often use this phrasal verb for news.
So if something is news to you, you might need a moment to take it in especially if it's shocking or unexpected news... if it's very good news or very bad news...
You might need a moment to absorb it and think about how you feel. understand how you feel and what you think about it you need to take it in but we also take in The view.
So it's having a moment to absorb the view, look at the view, think about it, enjoy it. you take in the view.
The desire to explore is growing inside me, but I am to wait here for my friend. but I'm content to wait.
Content is a nice word, to be content. Just means to be happy.
I am not upset about this. I'm just content.
Everything is okay. I plonk myself down.
It's a bit of a juxtaposition in the type of language I've been using up to this point.
I plonk myself Plonk yourself down is kind of like a slang phrase.
Meaning I sit down, but to plonk yourself down is to sit down a bit haphazardly.
So without much care, you just throw yourself down.
I plonk myself down. on a boulder that seems, oddly, out of place.
So it's weird, it's oddly, it's odd. Oddly out of place.
Out of place is a nice phrase to remember.
If something doesn't seem like it belongs, it is out of place.
I felt out of place. The boulder seemed oddly out of place.
Very weird for this boulder to be... On its own, in the middle of a meadow, where on earth did it come from? but I don't give its origin much thought.
Here's another phrase, to give something much thought.
We usually use this in the negative, I don't give it much thought.
Just means you didn't think about something very much.
I didn't give it much thought. Didn't you question why there was a cat outside your front door?
No, I didn't give it much thought. Didn't you care that your brother hadn't come home?
That night, I hadn't given him much thought, really.
He stays out late often. You don't give something much thought.
I hadn't given it much thought. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash?
Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and policies.
The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket.
Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.
Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
I sit and gaze into the distance. To gaze is to look for a long time.
I gaze. We often talk about gazing into someone's eyes if we are enamoured.
I'm gazing into your eyes. I love you. breathing in the day, filling my lungs with fresh air.
To fill your lungs is to breathe in deep.
Your lungs, obviously it's an organ. In your body, we have two of them.
We use them to breathe. If we fill our lungs, then we're taking a deep breath.
We fill our lungs with fresh air. It's another collocation, fresh air.
I might tell you, you've been inside all day, don't you want to go outside and get some air? some fresh air?
The funny thing is we use the phrase fresh air even if we are in a city and perhaps the air isn't so fresh.
So do you want some fresh air? Usually it means do you want some air from outside?
Do you want some outdoor air rather than the stale indoor air?
Should we get some fresh air? Yeah, let's stretch our legs and get some fresh air.
I scan the scene to scan something. Usually when we're talking about scanning something, we're talking about... a machine that scans.
So these days we have scanners in almost every shop.
Because we scan cards, we scan coupons, barcodes are scanned.
You have a barcode scanner. At the supermarket everything is scanned, isn't it?
But to scan just means to kind of do a thorough look across something.
So if I scan the room, it means I look across the whole room.
I've lost my keys. Where are my keys? I've scanned the entire house and I can't find them anywhere.
A few shrubs randomly dotted across the field.
Now a shrub... What is a shrub? It's like a tree, but not a tree.
And it's not a plant. A shrub is like a bigger, bushier plant. like a woody plant.
It's smaller than a tree. So it's not a big tall tree.
You couldn't climb a shrub. But it's not like a little plant that would give you flowers.
It's got woody stalks. Like a bush. That's a shrub.
And I said, there were a few shrubs randomly dotted across the field.
If things are dotted across an area, it means there are just a few of them kind of spaced out. across the area there's not like a group of shrubs in one area they're dotted around They're very random, all over the place.
Wildflowers in full bloom. Wildflowers are the kinds of flowers that will just pop up anywhere.
And they're usually very beautiful. There's been a big push in recent years to... kind of encourage the growth and the seeding of wildflowers because it helps with the wildlife, particularly with the bees, because obviously there's a problem with the decline in bee population.
So wildflowers, you can find them everywhere now.
These fields are being... left to go to seed and for all these wildflowers to be introduced so that the bees can really enjoy them and hopefully increase their population.
So the wildflowers in full bloom. They're all out.
They're all blooming. You'll see all the beautiful flowers. flowers popping their heads above the long grass.
So we have long grass, which is usually the wild grass that's been allowed to grow up tall.
And we have short grass, although we don't call short grass short grass.
It's just grass. And that's the kind of grass that you would have on a playing field or in your garden.
If you have an area of grass, that would be a lawn that you would have to mow.
To mow is to cut. But in a meadow you'd often have long grass.
And that was swaying in tandem with the wildflowers.
If you do something in tandem, you work together, you do it together.
So the wild grass and the wildflowers were swaying in tandem, swaying and moving back Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in the breeze.
A huge oak tree marks the far corner of the meadow.
So if it marks the corner, it shows me where the edge of the meadow is or the far corner of the meadow.
I know where the far corner of the meadow is because the oak tree is right there.
It marks that point. a solitary oak so this oak is all alone often that is the case isn't it we tend to have These huge oak trees in meadows and there'll just be one, maybe a couple, but usually it's just one big one.
They are huge. really, really big trees.
And this one is laden with young acorns.
Acorns are the fruit of of an oak tree.
If you are laden with something, then you're full of it, you're weighed down with it almost. to be laden.
You have lots of things laid on you. That's the way I think about it.
And this solitary oak is offering respite. from the unrelenting sun, to offer respite.
Respite is like a break. or a temporary pause in something that is difficult.
So If I am suffering with long term pain, maybe I have. problems with my joints and inflammation and I'm always in agony.
Well, medication might offer me some respite from that pain.
It might give me some short term relief. from that particular troublesome problem.
Some people would find the unrelenting sun too much.
Some people are sun worshippers and love the sun. but it can be too much for others.
And so this oak tree is offering shade. so that it's a point of respite for people who don't want to be in the unrelenting sun.
Unrelenting means never ending. It doesn't stop.
It just keeps going, keeps going. And obviously we have clear blue skies, which means there's no cloud cover.
There's nothing to stop this sun beating down on you all day long.
And then a squirrel quickly darts up the trunk.
The trunk is the body, the thick body. part of a tree the part that goes from the earth up into the sky that's the trunk And this squirrel darts up the trunk.
To dart somewhere is to move very quickly.
And squirrels do dart around very fast. So the squirrel darts up the tree with great dexterity.
To be dexterous means to be strong, good at something physically.
And actually, I didn't say great dexterity in the story.
I said impressive dexterity. I'm impressed by how well this squirrel can go from the bottom of the tree to the top while... clutching something in its jaw.
So to clutch something is to hold on to something very tightly.
We have a kind of handbag here called a clutch, a clutch purse or a clutch bag or just a clutch.
And it's like a little handbag or a large purse... that doesn't have like a strap.
So you don't wear it over your shoulder.
You literally just hold onto it. And because it's got your phone and your money in, you do clutch it, you do hold it tightly and make sure it stays. with you at all times because you don't want to lose those things.
So to clutch. Then something suddenly buzzes past my ear. making me jump.
To jump is to flinch, to physically act. very quickly and usually without thinking.
It's like a natural reaction. If someone sneaks up behind you when you're not expecting and goes, boo, then you're going to jump.
If you jump in a big way, then you'd say I jumped out of my skin.
But here I just said this little buzz by my ear made me jump.
And I do jump actually personally quite a lot if there's...
Like an unexpected spider. I remember once.
Here we go. Here's my life story. I remember once... lying in bed with my son.
So we were sleeping. on a floor bed together.
It's when my son was just about one year old.
And I remember thinking, because we're on a floor bed, I thought, oh, I bet the spiders at some point do come and like walk across this bed.
And as I thought that, I thought, I'll check under my pillow just to make sure there are no spiders and...
Would you believe it? Would you Adam and Eve it?
I lifted up my pillow. And there was a huge spider.
Just... having a nice time on the sheet under my pillow.
I jumped out of my skin. It was not pleasant.
And then it didn't make for a good night's sleep because I was like paranoid about spiders forever after that anyway we no longer use the floor beds that's good Right, so coming back to the story, this little buzzing past my ear made me jump.
A default. So the default is what you go to, what you keep coming back to, like your basic setting.
A default reaction, which I always scold myself for.
So to scold yourself or to scold someone is to tell them off. to be angry with them and tell them that's not right, don't do that.
So I tell myself off for having this reaction.
This default reaction to bees, a buzz. It's just a bee.
It's not going to hurt you. It's a busy little bee and this is quite a common way. to describe a bee, a busy bee because of the alliteration And because bees by nature are very busy, they are busy working.
"'collecting all the pollen, making honey, looking after the queen.'
Bumbling along. They are called bumblebees and they do bumble along.
We can say that a person bumbles along. It's where you kind of move around without much direction, just like a bee does.
A bee kind of moves around without a definite direction.
It doesn't go directly from one flower to the next.
It kind of hovers up and almost like it's drunk.
It doesn't do it in an efficient way. It just bumbles around.
So it bumbles along, minding its own business.
This is a common phrase to mind your own business.
This means to just care about what you are doing, not about what other people are doing.
So don't worry about anyone else. Mind your own business.
I might say that to you. Hey, look. Stop asking me questions about what I'm doing, mind your own business please.
Look after your own things, your own behavior. your own projects whatever you're doing you look after that you mind your own business So this little bee was minding his own business as it visited.
Each flower that it came across, to come across something is to just discover something new. by accident as you're traveling along.
I was walking down the high street and I came across a young woman who looked just like my mother.
We got talking and it turns out that she is my long-lost sister.
Okay, moving on. I could stay here all day. lose myself in this noisy quiet.
Okay, that's a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?
An oxymoron where two things don't seem to belong together.
They seem to be the opposite of one another.
A noisy quiet. It's noisy because you have all that sound of outdoors.
But it's quiet because you don't have any of that industrial... distracting noise of modern living.
So the noisy quiet. Just breathing, not thinking.
And then the noisy quiet is shattered. Shattered.
Shattered is normally a word that we use to describe the breaking of glass. but we also use it to talk about the sudden breaking of silence.
The silence was shattered. Think about how glass breaks.
When you break glass it doesn't just crack. usually it like breaks into a thousand pieces, doesn't it?
It absolutely shatters. It can completely breaks into lots of little pieces.
That's what shattered means. So this noise shatters the noisy quiet.
And it's my phone. rudely blasting out.
Blasting out. It's very loud. It's very rude.
It blasts. It's desperate for my attention.
Really wants my attention. And once again, I'm back to reality.
So back to my normal life. Boo. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you found this particular podcast interesting. if you did then please come and let me know you can find me on instagram at british english pro and yeah drop me a message and tell me what you thought Thank you for being here.
Until next time, take care and goodbye.
