Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast.
My name is Anna and you're listening to week 33, Day 3 of Your English Five A Day, the second season.
This series is all about regularity so that you can build a habit that allows you over time to improve your listening skills Increase your vocabulary and most importantly, start feeling more confident and more like yourself when you communicate in English.
Everything is recorded for you in our vocabulary vault.
The link for that is in the show notes and if you'd like to go a step further... then there are courses and services available to help you with your English communication.
Now, let's focus on today's episode, starting with the snapshot of what's to come.
Jayden had just finished wringing out his wet T-shirt after the intense workout when he heard the terrible news about his father's accident.
Immediately, he began to break into a sweat from pure shock and fear.
He tried to steady himself against the gym wall, his legs feeling weak beneath him.
Within moments, he was slumped on the bench, his head in his hands, struggling to process what he had just been told.
Alright, let's dive into that vocabulary starting with the idiom to break into a sweat.
To break into a sweat. Break. B-R-E-A-K. into a sweat.
S-W-E-A-T To break into a sweat is to suddenly start sweating, often due to fear, stress or physical exertion, physical effort.
For example, if you hear something that makes you instantly very anxious, you might break into a sweat.
Like if someone says to me, Anna, could you just pop up onto the stage right now?
I know you haven't prepared anything. But could you just jump up onto the stage and sing a song to these 10,000 people watching?
Is that okay? Now, even though I'm a trained singer, even though I sung in front of hundreds of thousands of people, Millions of people even on YouTube have heard my voice. jumping up on stage and singing in front of even a hundred people without preparation would terrify me.
I would instantly start sweating. So I would break into a sweat. at hearing that request.
When I'm traveling around London, if I am standing on the platform waiting for the tube and the train pulls up full of people, but I know I have to get onto that busy packed tube, then I break into a sweat.
I'm instantly anxious because I don't like being on a packed train.
What makes you break into a sweat? Here's another example.
He broke into a sweat when he realised he'd left his passport at home.
Oh! Yes, that can happen, can't it? If you suddenly realise you've forgotten something Extremely important.
The stress can make you break into a sweat, like forgetting your passport when you're at the airport.
Oh no! Next on the list, we have the phrasal verb, ring something out.
So, to ring out. This is a separable phrasal verb.
You can put the object in between ring and out.
So ring out a towel. wring out a cloth or a t-shirt.
Ring, we spell W-R-I-N-G. The W is silent.
Ring. Out, O-U-T. To wring something out is to twist and squeeze it.
Usually it's something that's wet. And the point is to remove the liquid.
So if I'm cleaning my floor with a cloth, maybe there's just a spillage. that has dried and it's all sticky on the floor.
Maybe it's juice and it's dried slightly, so it's a bit sticky.
I might push a lot of water on it to loosen it up.
And then I take a cloth, give it a scrub.
But then I've got a very wet cloth and I still have water on the floor, so I'll soak up as much water as possible, then wring out my cloth. before putting it back on the floor to soak up more water and I'll keep wringing it out until I've finished the job.
Okay, here's an example sentence. She wrung out the towel and hung it up to dry.
Okay. Fantastic. Next, we have the adjective unbearable.
Unbearable. Unbearable. We spell U-N-B-E-A-R.
A-B-L-E. Unbearable. If something is unbearable, then it's too painful, unpleasant or difficult to deal with.
It's unbearable. When I sat down to do my bookkeeping, that I had neglected for 11 months or so, And I saw that there were thousands of lines that needed reconciling.
And I had to do it by click, click, click, click, clicking over and over and over again to match all the lines.
It was such a mind-numbing job that required focus and attention, but was just a repetitive and very, very dull.
Task. I found it quite unbearable. It got to a point where it was just so unpleasant. that I just had to stop and step away and stretch my body because I was getting so tense and so stressed with how mind-numbing it was.
It was unbearable. Sometimes I find the temperature to be unbearable.
I feel the cold quite easily, but I also am sensitive to heat.
And if it's too warm during a hot spell, I might get to a point where it's unbearable and I have to take action.
I have to go and put my head in a fridge. or stand in a cold bath in the middle of the night to try and cool myself down because the heat is unbearable. what would you describe as unbearable?
So here's an example sentence. The heat was unbearable, so we stayed inside all day.
Next, we have the verb phrase steady yourself, steady yourself.
Steady S-T-E-A-D-Y. Yourself. Y-O-U-R-S-E-L-F.
Yesterday we had brace yourself. Today we have steady yourself.
Steady yourself is more about... balancing your body or your emotions.
So it's usually after a shock or after a sudden movement.
Brace yourself, remember was about preparation.
But if you're steadying yourself, you are getting back to a balanced steady state.
For example, I might say to you, Brace yourself.
I've got some bad news. So there I'm saying prepare.
I've got some bad news. Are you ready? Here's the bad news.
And then after the bad news, you... lose your balance, you nearly fall over because it's such terrible news.
It hits you emotionally and that affects you physically.
You take a deep breath, but you feel dizzy.
You don't know if you should cry or scream or rage.
You are just completely knocked for six.
You don't know who you are or what you should do in response to this terrible news.
I need you to make a decision. I need you to act responsibly.
So I need you to steady yourself. Find your balance.
So come off the floor, stop leaning against the wall, steady yourself. and steady your emotions.
Try to come back to a calm mind so that we can make a decision on what to do next.
Steady yourself. Here's an example sentence.
I took a deep breath to steady myself before going on stage.
OK, next and last on today's list, we have the adjective slumped. slumped.
We spell this S-L-U-M-P-E-D, slumped. If something is slumped, then it's sitting or lying in a lazy, tired or fallen position.
If it's a person, then the body might be bent forward or pointing down.
Sometimes when you're walking around a big city or a high street, In the UK, you might see a person on the floor slumped over.
Maybe it's a homeless person and they're slumped over on the street and you don't know what to do.
Should you phone an ambulance? Are they just sleeping? here's another example sentence she was slumped over her desk fast asleep Okay, so that's our five.
Let's do a quick recap. We started with the idiom break into a sweat, which is to start sweating suddenly because of stress.
Fear or physical effort. Break into a sweat.
We have the phrasal verb ring out, which means to twist and squeeze something, usually to remove the liquid.
You ring out. Then we had the adjective unbearable, which is something that is too painful, unpleasant or difficult to deal with.
It's unbearable. We had the verb phrase steady yourself which is to make your body or emotions more balanced. usually after moving suddenly or feeling shocked.
Steady yourself. and we had the adjective slumped, which is to be in a sitting or lying position because you're lazy or tired or, You've fallen.
And if it's a person, then it's often with the body bent forward or bent down, fully down. slumped.
We are now going to do this for pronunciation purposes.
So please repeat out loud after me. Break into a sweat.
Break into a sweat. ring out ring out Unbearable.
Unbearable. Steady yourself. steady yourself slumped slumped Okay, what's the phrasal verb that means to twist and squeeze something to remove liquid?
Ring out. Yes, fantastic. And if a person is not feeling very well and they're sitting on the floor and their body is bent forward, What adjective could I use to describe this person?
They're slumped. Yes, very good. If I want you to balance your body and your emotions after a shock...
What verb phrase would I use? Steady yourself.
Very good. It's quite difficult to deal with something.
What adjective could you use to describe that thing? unbearable.
It's unbearable. Very good. And if the stress of something makes perspiration, water appear on your forehead, what idiom could we use to describe what's happening to you?
You break into a sweat. Yes, very good. Okay, listen to our snapshot once again.
Jayden had just finished wringing out his wet T-shirt after the intense workout when he heard the terrible news about his father's accident.
Immediately he began to break into a sweat from pure shock and fear.
He tried to steady himself against the gym wall, his legs feeling weak beneath him.
Within moments he was slumped on the bench, his head in his hands, struggling to process what he had just been told.
Now it's time to listen out for our target vocabulary once more as we head into storytime.
Ken had just finished wringing out the dishcloth when the sharp pain hit his chest like lightning.
He dropped the wet cloth and gripped the edge of the sink.
The pain was so sudden that he knocked over the plate he had been washing and heard it smash on the kitchen floor.
The sound seemed to come from far away. He tried to steady himself against the sink, his hands still damp from the washing up.
His heart was racing and he could feel himself starting to break into a sweat.
Something was very wrong. This wasn't like the mild chest pain he sometimes got after climbing stairs.
This was different. This was terrifying.
Not now, he whispered to himself. Please, not now.
Ken lived alone in his small cottage. His nearest neighbour was Mrs Peterson, but she was probably at the shops.
Ken's mobile phone was upstairs in his bedroom.
The landline was in the hall, but it felt miles away.
The pain was getting worse. It spread from his chest down his left arm and up into his jaw.
He had read about heart attacks in health magazines.
He knew the signs. but he had always thought it happened to other people, not to healthy men like him.
He tried to walk to the hall, but his legs felt weak.
Each step was unbearable. The world seemed to be spinning around him.
He managed to reach the doorway before his strength gave out completely.
Ken slumped against the doorframe, sliding down until he was sitting on the cold floor.
His breathing was shallow and fast. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears.
The sweat was now pouring down his face and back.
Help, he called out weakly, knowing that no one could hear him.
He thought about his daughter, who lived two hours away in London.
He thought about all the things he had planned to do that day.
He had promised to ring his sister that evening Would anyone worry if he didn't call?
With enormous effort, Ken crawled towards the hall table where the phone sat.
Every movement was agony. He could feel the cold sweat making his clothes stick to his skin.
His hands were shaking so much he could barely dial.
Nine. Nine. Nine. I think I'm having a heart attack, he managed to say when the operator answered.
The voice on the other end was calm and professional.
An ambulance is on its way. Can you get to the front door?
Ken looked towards the front door. It seemed impossibly far away, but he knew he had to try.
He had to survive this. He had too much left to do.
Too many people who needed him. Slowly, painfully, he began to crawl towards the door, following the operator's instructions and hoping help would arrive in time.
And that brings us to the end of today's episode.
I do hope you found it useful. Remember, all the vocabulary is recorded for you in the vocabulary vault that you can access by clicking on the link in the show notes.
Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.
