Hello and welcome to the English Like a Native podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to week 22, day 2 of Your English Five a Day, the second season.
This is the series that indulges your need to daily dip into the English language so that you can, slowly but surely, increase your vocabulary and become more like yourself when communicating in English.
So let's begin, as we always do, with our Snapshot.
When the door burst open, Rachel's carefully maintained composure shattered as she let out an audible gasp at the sight of her long -lost brother.
The raucous cheers from their family members floated out into the garden, sudden, drowning out the soft music playing in the background.
Without hesitation, Rachel yanked her brother into a tight embrace.
Tears of joy streaming down her face as five years of separation melted away in an instant.
Alright. Let's dive into today's vocabulary starting with the verb float, to float.
In In this case, we had float out.
Float, we spell F -L -O -A -T.
To float is to move gently and lightly through the air or on water, often softly or calmly.
I'm trying to teach my son how to float in the water so that if he becomes distressed or tired, he knows he can just turn over onto his back and float for a moment.
I was also talking to my eldest son Jacob about why a glass, when sitting the right way up, will float in a body of water.
But if you turn it onto its side, it will sink.
Here's another example.
The balloon floated out of the window and into the sky.
Next, we have the noun gasp.
Gasp. We spell this.
G -A -S -P. Gasp. A gasp is a short, sudden breath taken in.
Like that. We often do it when we are shocked or scared or something unexpected happens.
So, I will often let out a gasp if I see my child fall to the ground.
Or if somebody scares me, they might then hear a gasp.
Here's another example.
She let out a gasp when the cold water touched her.
Okay, next we have the noun composure.
Composure. We spell this c -o -m -p -o -s -u -r -e.
E. Composure, composure.
Composure is a calm and controlled state, especially during difficult or stressful situations.
Composure. Here's an example sentence.
The speaker remained full of composure during the tough questions.
Now, I try hard to keep my composure when dealing with my children in a stressful situation, especially if I see my sons becoming more upset.
Perhaps my four -year -old is on the brink of a meltdown.
He's about to have a tantrum or he's about to start crying and I can see that that's coming.
So instead of escalating that situation by becoming more tense or adding more stress to the situation, I try to keep my composure so that I can help him to regulate his emotions.
In what situation have you had to keep your composure?
Has there been a situation where you tried to keep your composure, but you lost composure?
Next, we have the adjective adjective, raucous, raucous.
We spell this R -A -U -C -O -U -S, raucous.
Raucous is something that's loud and noisy in a rough or uncontrolled way.
So, we often talk about a crowd or a group of people being raucous if they are loud and noisy in an uncontrolled way.
If you're a teacher, you will be used to your class at times being raucous, usually after break.
When you first come into the classroom, the room is raucous.
The group are raucous and you have to calm them down, get them to sit down in their seats and focus.
Here's another example.
The football fans were raucous after their team won.
Last on today's list is the verb yank, to yank.
We spell this Y -A -N -K, yank.
To yank is to pull something hard and suddenly.
Here's an example sentence.
He yanked the toy from his brother's hand.
When I was walking to school this morning to drop off my children, my partner was with me and as we walked, my partner suddenly yanked me to one side and I was looking at him thinking, what on earth did you yank me to one side for?
And he said, you were about to step in dog mess.
You were about to ruin your nice trainers stepping in the mess that a dog has left on the pavement for you.
So I was grateful once I realised why he had yanked me.
I was grateful that he did.
All right, that's our five, so let's do a quick recap.
We started with the verb float.
Float, meaning to move gently and lightly through the air or on water.
Very slow and calm.
Float. We had the noun gasp, which is a sudden short breath that's been taken in, a gasp.
We had the noun composure, the calm and controlled state, especially during stressful or difficult situations, composure.
We had the adjective raucous, which describes something that's loud and noisy in a rough and uncontrolled way, raucous.
And we had the verb yank, which is to pull something hard and suddenly yank.
Let's now do this for pronunciation purposes.
Please repeat after me.
float float gasp gasp composure composure Raucous, raucous.
Yank, yank. Very good.
What's the noise that I make that's a sudden sudden, short breath taken in?
A gasp. Yes, a gasp.
Very good. And if it's a very stressful situation and we're trying to remain in a calm and controlled state, what are we keeping?
ping. Composure. We're keeping our composure.
Very good. It's hard to keep your composure if the group of people that we're suddenly surrounded by become very loud and noisy in a rough way.
What adjective could we use to describe this crowd?
crowd. Raucous, a raucous crowd can make it difficult to keep your composure.
And what's the verb that describes moving in a gentle and light way through the air?
Float, yes, Yes, to float.
Very good. And if you pull something hard and suddenly, what are you doing?
Yanking. Yes, you yank that thing that you just pulled suddenly.
Right, let's listen to our snapshot once again.
When the door burst open, Rachel's carefully maintained composure shattered as she let out an audible gasp at the sight of her long -lost brother.
The raucous cheers from their family members floated out into the garden, drowning out the soft music playing in the background.
Without hesitation, Rachel yanked her brother into a tight embrace, tears of joy streaming down her face as five years of separation melted away in an instant.
Now let's head into my favourite part of the episode.
Listen out for our target vocabulary once again during today's Storytime.
Olga stood at the edge of the lake, her heart racing.
The water was calm, unlike her thoughts.
It had been five years since the accident.
incident five years since she had dared to swim you can do this she whispered to herself taking a deep breath to maintain her composure the morning air was cool against her skin as she stepped forward allowing her toes to touch the cold water from the nearby campsite the raucous laughter of other holiday makers floated out across the lake they were enjoying their breakfast Unaware of the personal battle happening just metres away, Olga envied their carefree attitude.
She took another step, then another.
The water now reached her knees.
Her breathing quickened, but she forced herself to stay calm.
Just a quick swim, she reminded herself.
Nothing more. As Olga waded deeper, something brushed against her leg.
she let out a gasp, a sharp sound that cut through the morning quiet.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
It's just a plant, she told herself firmly, just a water plant.
But then she felt it again, something solid, something that seemed to move with purpose.
Without thinking, Olga yanked her leg away and stumbled backwards.
That's when she saw it, a dark shape beneath the the surface moving slowly towards her.
Time seemed to freeze.
Olga's carefully maintained composure crumbled as memories of the accident rushed back.
The capsized boat. The dark water closing over her head.
The panic. The shape moved closer.
Olga's feet felt heavy, rooted to the lake bed.
Run, her mind screamed, but her body wouldn't respond.
Suddenly the water broke and a head emerged, slick, wet, with curious eyes.
Oh! Olga's fear dissolved into surprised laughter.
It's just an otter!
The creature regarded her with intelligent eyes before diving back under the surface.
Olga watched as it swam away, its body moving gracefully through the water.
Something shifted inside her.
If this small animal could move so confidently through the lake, perhaps she could learn to do the same again.
With newfound determination, Olga pushed forward. The water reached her waist now, then her shoulders.
She took a deep breath and bent her knees, allowing the lake to embrace her fully.
For one terrifying moment, the old fear threatened to return.
But then Olga remembered the otter.
Its easy movement, its fearlessness.
She stretched out her arms and began to swim.
Slowly at first, then with growing confidence, she felt her body float out across the surface of the water carried by its gentle support.
The raucous voices from the campsite seemed to fade away.
There was only this moment, this victory, as Olga finally made peace with the water.
