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Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 21, Day 2 of Your English 5 A Day, the second season.
With this series, you are growing, day by day, episode by episode.
episode. You're growing your vocabulary, you're improving your listening skills, becoming more familiar with the structures of English and in time, you'll start to feel more like yourself when communicating in English.
So keep up the habit and keep tuning in.
We start Let's start today, as we always do, with a snapshot.
As Jack trudged up the steep incline behind his farm, the wooden handles of his horse -drawn plough digging into his palms, he noticed how the thick fog had reduced visibility to barely 20 feet ahead.
head. A buzzard, perched majestically on the weathered fence post, seemed to watch him with its keen eyes somehow piercing through the mist as it surveyed the valley below.
Though exhausted from his morning's labour, Jack paused to appreciate the sight, knowing that mating season would soon bring pairs of these magnificent birds performing their aerial dances above his fields.
Alright, let's dive into the vocabulary starting with the noun incline, incline.
We spell this I -N -C -L -I -N -E, incline.
An incline is a slope or surface that goes up or down, an incline.
Now, you might feel more exhausted if you are walking on an incline.
It's very different to walking or even cycling on a flat surface.
It might be a slight incline that you barely notice, but you can feel that you're using more energy to move yourself forward when you're working on an incline.
Here's an example sentence.
The car struggled to drive up the steep incline.
Next, we have the noun plough.
This one has an unusual spelling.
We spell it P -L -O -U -G -H.
Plough. A plough is a large farming tool or machine that's used to dig the soil.
A plough. So, it tends to turn the soil and lift it and break it apart.
So, often you'll see At the beginning of a season, a farmer ploughing his fields to get it ready to sow the seeds.
Here's an example sentence.
A tractor pulled a heavy plough across the field.
Next is the adjective perched.
Perched. We spell this P -E -R -C -H -E -D.
Perched. If something is perched, then it's sitting or resting on the edge or top of something that's quite high or narrow.
For example, you might be perched on a rail if there are no seats or benches for you to sit on.
So you might perch on a rail instead.
So you're resting or leaning or sitting on a very narrow piece of metal. I often remind my children that they must pull the bench out fully and sit on it properly when they are at the table because there have been times when they have perched on the very edge of the bench because they haven't pulled it out fully and it's resulted in them falling and hurting themselves.
So I tell them do not perch on the bench, pull it out and sit on it properly.
Here's another example.
The house is perched on a hill with views of the valley.
Next, we have the noun visibility.
Visibility. We spell this V -I -S -I -B -I -L -I -T -Y.
why. Visibility. Visibility is how well you can see something, especially in conditions like fog, rain or darkness.
So, what is the visibility like?
Is it poor? Is it good?
Here's is an example sentence.
Visibility was poor due to the heavy fog.
Next and last, we have the noun phrase mating season, mating season.
Two words, mating, m -a -t -i -n -g, mating, season, s -e -a -s -o -n, n.
Mating season. Mating season is the time of year when animals come together to reproduce.
In the Disney film Bambi, spring was depicted as mating season, when all the animals were coming together, falling in love, doing the deed and reproducing.
It was mating season.
Okay, that's our five, so let's do a quick recap.
We started with the noun incline, which is a slope or surface that goes up or down, an incline.
We have the noun plough, a large farming tool or machine that is used to dig the soil, a plough.
We had the adjective perched, which is to be sitting or resting on the edge or on the top of something high or narrow.
Perched. We had the noun visibility, which is how well you can see something, especially in conditions like rain, fog or darkness.
Visibility. And we had the noun phrase mating season, which is the time of year when animals come together to reproduce.
mating season. Alright, now it's your turn so please repeat after me.
Incline Incline Plough Plough Perched Perched Visibility Visibility, visibility.
Mating season, mating season.
Very good. What's the noun I would use to talk about a slope?
An incline. Very good.
And as a farmer when I need to dig the the soil?
What machine do I need to use?
My plow. Yes, if I'm resting on a narrow bar, what adjective could you use to describe me?
Perched. Yes, Anna is perched on a bar.
And And if we're talking about how well we can see during the rainstorm, what noun are we going to use?
Visibility. We're going to talk about the poor visibility during the rainstorm.
And finally, what is the time of year when animals come together to reproduce?
Mating season. Fantastic.
Fantastic. Okay, let's listen to our snapshot once again.
As Jack trudged up the steep incline behind his farm, the wooden handles of his horse -drawn plough digging into his palms, he noticed how the thick fog had reduced visibility to barely 20 feet ahead.
A buzzard, perched majestically on the weathered fence post, seemed to watch him with its keen eyes somehow piercing through the mist as it surveyed the valley below.
Though exhausted from his morning's labour, Jack paused to appreciate the sight, knowing that mating season would soon bring pairs of these majestic birds performing their aerial dances above his fields.
OK, now it's time for my favourite part of the episode.
Listen out for our target vocabulary once again as we head into story time.
That boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts are going abandoned and way more sales happening.
So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whatever your customers are scrolling or strolling.
On the web, in your store, in their feed, and everywhere in between, businesses that sell more sell on Shopify.
Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skins uses.
Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify .com slash westwood1, all lowercase.
Go to Shopify .com slash Westwood One to upgrade your selling today.
Shopify .com slash Westwood One.
Malcolm Hargrove stood at the edge of the steep incline that separated his property from the Wilson's.
The morning mist hung low over the valley, reducing visibility to mere shadows of the oak trees that marked the boundary.
His weathered hands gripped the worn wooden handles of his horse -drawn plough.
An heirloom passed down through four generations of Hargroves who had worked this same soil.
Come on, Samson, he urged the massive Clydesdale beside him.
The horse's breath formed clouds in the cool spring air as they prepared for the day's labour.
Modern farmers would have already finished this field weeks ago with their rumbling tractors and hydraulic equipment.
The neighbouring farms had become a symphony of mechanical noise, diesel engines, automatic seeders and irrigation systems that whirred and clicked with cold efficiency.
But Malcolm held to the old ways with stubborn pride.
His son had left for the city years ago, unable to understand his father's resistance.
You're killing yourself for nothing, Curtis had said during their last argument.
One tractor could do in a day what takes you a week.
Malcolm adjusted his cap perched precariously on his head and guided Samson forward. The plough bit into the earth, turning over rich, dark soil that smelled of promise and possibility.
This connection, his boots on the ground, the strain in his shoulders, the relationship between man, animal and earth, this was what the others had forgotten.
Beyond his field, he could see Douglas Wilson's new combined harvester cutting through wheat with mechanical precision.
The machine cost more than Malcolm's entire farm was worth.
A pair of buzzards circled overhead, their mating season displays bringing a hint of wildness to the cultivated landscape.
Malcolm paused to watch them, aware that Wilson wouldn't have noticed such things from inside his air -conditioned cab with the radio blaring.
The land speaks if you listen, his father had taught him.
Machines make too much noise to hear it.
As the morning wore on and visibility improved with the rising sun, Malcolm continued his methodical progress across the field.
Each furrow was a meditation, each step a prayer.
His back ached and his hands were blistered, but the work satisfied something deep within him that no convenience could replace.
He knew people called him foolish, backward, even crazy, but as he watched Samson's powerful muscles ripple with honest effort, he pitied those who would never know this particular joy, the sacred partnership between human, animal and earth, that had sustained his ancestors for generations.
And that brings us to the end of today's episode.
I do hope you enjoyed it and until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.
