and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast.
My name is Anna and you're listening to week 44, day 2 of your English Fiverr Day, second season.
I'm here, your fluency guide, ready to take you on a journey of learning more and more English vocabulary so that, over time, you improve your listening skills, You extend and expand your comprehension and generally feel more confident and more like yourself when you're communicating in English.
So let's begin, as we always do, with a snapshot of what's to come.
By the end of the week, I was ticking things off my to-do list with grim determination.
Reports, calls, deadlines, the work.
I'd imagined office life would be glamorous, but spilling coffee on my boss during a meeting was nothing short of mortifying.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining.
She laughed it off and I realised she was far kinder than I'd ever thought.
OK, let's dive into that vocabulary now, starting with the phrase tick things off.
Tick things off.
Three words, tick, T-I-C-K. things, T-H-I-N-G-S, off, O-double-F, tick things off.
To tick things off is to mark items as completed on a list or just to generally complete tasks one by one.
You might not have a physical list.
It might be a mental list where you are completing each item on that list.
You are ticking things off.
I have many to-do lists.
I have to-do lists that tell me to do to-do lists, because I have so many things that I need to keep records of that.
I need to keep moving forward and it can be difficult to stay on track.
So I have many lists and I like to tick things off my list.
Makes me feel like I've had a productive day.
So here is an example sentence.
I love ticking things off my to-do list.
It makes me feel productive.
OK, next we have the adjective glamorous.
Glamorous.
We spell this G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.
Glamorous.
If something or someone is described as glamorous, then it's attractive, exciting and special, especially in a way that suggests wealth or sophistication.
Glamorous.
So when I wear a very nice dress, maybe with some sparkly sequins or beads, and I wear nice makeup, maybe I even put on some false eyelashes and paint my nails and do my hair in a nice way, then you could say
Where are you going?
You look so glum today.
Here's another example.
Being a flight attendant seems glamorous, but it's actually quite tiring.
Next, we have the idiom the works.
The works.
Two words.
The works.
W-O-R-K-S.
The works means everything possible. or all the available features or extras.
For example, I went to the pizza place last night and stuffed my face.
Dough balls, pizza, salad, dessert, drinks, the works.
Alright, next we have the adjective mortifying.
Mortifying.
We spell this M-O-R-T-I-F-Y-I-N-G. mortifying.
Mortifying.
If something is mortifying, then it's extremely embarrassing or humiliating.
For example, if you fall over and your underwear is exposed, I'm thinking more of a female here.
If you're wearing a dress or a skirt and you fall over in the street in front of strangers and your skirt flies up and you expose yourself to everyone standing nearby, then that is mortifying.
That's not something that you want to happen.
It's so embarrassing.
Very, very humiliating.
Here's another example.
Forgetting someone's name at a party can be absolutely mortifying.
All right.
Last on today's list, we have the idiom, every cloud has a silver lining.
Every cloud has has a silver lining.
Six words.
Every E-V-E-R-Y cloud C-L-O-U-D has H-A-S a silver S-L-I-V-E-R lining L-I-N-I-N-G.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
This phrase can be shortened to simply every cloud. the full phrase is then implied.
This means that there's always something good that comes even of the worst situations.
So even difficult times have some positive aspects.
It can be hard sometimes to find those positive aspects, but it's a way of being grateful or trying to look at the positives when things are quite negative.
So I like to use the example of breaking your leg and not being able to go on holiday.
You could say, well, at least I don't have to sit for eight hours on a flight.
Or, well, at least I don't have to spend lots of money on my holiday now.
At least I've got travel insurance and that will cover me for having this accident and pay me back for my flights that I've already paid for.
Or at least I can... watch Netflix endlessly for two weeks.
So it's not better than, it's not even equal to the good thing that you're now missing out on, but it's something, and something is always better than nothing.
Here's another example.
I lost my job, but every cloud has a silver lining.
Now I have time to travel.
All right, that's hour five.
So let's do a quick Recap.
We started with the phrase tick things off, which is to mark items as complete on a list, either physically or mentally, to tick things off.
We had the adjective glamorous, which means something that's attractive, exciting and special, particularly in a way that suggests wealth or sophistication.
Glamorous.
We had the idiom The works, meaning everything possible.
The works.
We had the adjective mortifying, meaning extremely embarrassing or humiliating.
It's mortifying.
We had the idiom every cloud has a silver lining, which means that there's always something good in a bad situation.
Even difficult times have some positive aspects.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Now, I'd like you to raise your voice and repeat out loud after me.
Tick things off.
Tick things off.
Glamorous Glamorous, The works, The works mortifying, mortifying.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Fantastic.
Now, let's revisit our snapshot.
By the end of the week, I was ticking things off my to-do list with grim determination.
Reports, calls, deadlines, the works.
I'd imagined office life would be glamorous, but spilling coffee on my boss during a meeting was nothing short of mortifying.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining.
She laughed it off and I realised she was far kinder than I'd ever thought.
Alright, I want you to listen out now for our target vocabulary as we head into my favourite part of the episode.
Yes, it's story time.
Daryl and Libby were organising their wedding as if they were professional wedding planners.
Every weekend, they sat together with their notebooks, ticking things off their enormous list.
They wanted everything. everything to be absolutely perfect.
We need the most glamorous venue in the city, Libby said, showing Daryl pictures of a beautiful hotel with crystal chandeliers and marble floors.
Daryl agreed immediately.
They booked the hotel, ordered flowers from three different shops and hired a famous photographer and chose a seven-course meal for their guests.
They wanted the works.
The night before the wedding, Daryl couldn't sleep.
He kept thinking about his speech, the rings and whether or not the weather would be nice.
Libby was the same.
She checked her dress five times and went through the timeline again and again.
The wedding day arrived with blue skies and sunshine.
Everything seemed perfect as Libby got ready with her bridesmaids.
But then disaster struck.
The wedding car broke down on the way to the church.
Libby had to travel in her father's old van, still wearing her beautiful white dress.
She arrived at the church behind schedule and her dress a tad grubby from squeezing into a dirty old van.
It got worse.
Daryl's best man, Johnny, had forgotten the rings.
They were still sitting on the kitchen table at home.
Daryl's face went red.
It was absolutely mortifying.
Everyone had to wait while Johnny drove back to get them.
Finally...
They exchanged their vows and headed to the hotel for the reception.
But when they arrived, they discovered the chef was ill.
The seven-course meal they had planned so carefully, it couldn't be made.
Instead, the hotel offered them fish and chips for everyone.
Libby looked at Daryl.
Daryl looked at Libby.
Then suddenly, they both started laughing.
They couldn't stop.
All their careful planning, all those months of preparation and nothing had gone right.
Well, said Daryl, wiping tears from his eyes, at least everyone will remember our wedding.
They ate fish and chips with their guests.
The photographer, who thought the whole situation was hilarious, took wonderful natural photos of everyone laughing and joking.
Without the formal seven-course meal, people relaxed and danced more.
The party went on until midnight.
Later, looking at their wedding photos, Libby smiled.
Yes, everything had gone wrong, but it had also been the most fun day of her life.
Their guests still talk about it years later.
Not because it was perfect, but because it was real and full of laughter.
Every cloud has a silver lining, Daryl said, kissing his wife.
Our wedding was a disaster, but it was perfectly us.
And Libby had to agree.
And that brings us to the end of today's episode.
I do hope that you enjoyed it, but most importantly, I hope it was useful.
Until tomorrow, take very good care of yourself.
And goodbye.
