Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 30, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. The series that is dedicated to expanding your active vocabulary and improving your listening skills by deep-diving into five items every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. So, let's kick off today's episode with an idiom and it is head for the hills. Head for the hills. You may also hear a similar expression which is run for the hills. So, to head for the hills, we spell it head, H E A D. For the hills, H I L L S. To head for the hills is to escape or to flee very quickly, often to get away from a difficult situation or to avoid danger. Here's an example,"As soon as the storm hit, we knew it was time to head for the hills." So, there is a very physical embodiment of that idiom: you have to run to higher ground to get away from bad weather. I mean, actually, if there was a storm, I probably don't know if higher ground would be the option there the the logical option anyway. But you can use this metaphorically if you're in a difficult situation. For example, if I am on a date and it's going terribly, and I've just learned some information about my date that is horrifying to me, in my head, I might be thinking,"Oh, I need to run for the hills." Or,"I need to head to the hills." Because this is just horrendous. I don't want to be in this situation anymore. Okay. So next on the list is a noun and it is disdain. Disdain. Disdain. We spell it D I S D A I N. Disdain. Disdain. Disdain describes a feeling of contempt or an intense dislike for someone or something. Here's an example sentence,"The rich man showed disdain towards the poor beggar on the street." Oh, that's not very nice, is it? I sometimes will catch my sons giving me a look of disdain if I tell them they can't have chocolate before dinner or if they're begging me to have a go on daddy's computer game, then I say,"No, you're only three and you're only five. You're not going on the computer." And then they give me a look of disdain,"I hate you, mummy. I'm very, very unhappy with you. How dare you ruin our lives!" Okay, so next on the list is the adjective tattered, tattered. We spell this T A T T E R E D, tattered. If something is described as tattered, then it's worn and potentially torn. So, this usually describes fabrics like clothing or maybe a tablecloth or a towel. If it's worn and it's got tears in it, then it's tattered. Here's an example,"The old flag was tattered and faded, but it still held a special meaning for the army veteran." I certainly have quite a few clothes that are quite tattered because I've had some of them for nearly 20 years. I'm not big on buying clothes. I don't buy clothes for myself very often. I always think the money could be better spent elsewhere. So, I just keep wearing the same clothes again and again and again, and eventually they start to fall apart. They are quite tattered. Next on the list is another adjective and it is abandoned. Abandoned. We spell this A B A N D O N E D. Abandoned. Abandoned. Abandoned describes a place or an object that has been left without care or without being used. So, for example, an abandoned building is a building that is no longer occupied. No one visits it. It's just been left. No one's using it anymore. No one looks after it. If a kitten has been abandoned, then it's been left. No one is caring for it. And that's when I come along and rescue it and say,"You can come home with me little kitten." Here's an example sentence,"The abandoned house on the corner of the street was creepy and dilapidated." Okay, next on the list is a noun and it is rumour. Rumour. We spell this R U M O U R. Rumour. Rumour. A rumour is a piece of information or a story that is circulating but has not been confirmed as true. So, if I hear some information about the man that lives next door, but I hear the information from a neighbour that lives across the road. And they say,"Oh, did you hear about the man next door to you?""Oh, yes, apparently he was arrested for dealing drugs.""Oh, really? Yeah. Terrible, isn't it?""Oh, I must go and tell my friends." That's a rumour. It's unconfirmed information that's being passed around. Rumours can ruin people's lives. They certainly cause trouble. Here's an example sentence,"There's a rumour going around that the company is going to lay off some employees next month." OK, so that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the idiom, head for the hills, which is to flee or escape something quickly, either danger or a difficult situation. Then we have the noun disdain, which is a feeling of contempt or intense dislike for something. We have the adjective tattered, which describes fabric being worn and torn. We have the adjective abandoned, which describes a place or an object that has been left without use or care. We have the noun rumour, rumour, which is a piece of information or story that's going around that isn't yet confirmed or hasn't yet been confirmed as true. Okay, so let's now do this for pronunciation. Raise your voice and repeat after me. Head for the hills. Head for the hills. Disdain. Disdain. Tattered. Tattered. Abandoned. Abandoned. Rumour. Rumour. Very good. OK, let me test your memory now. If I am walking down the street and I can see that one house is looking really, really bad. The windows are cracked and there's no door on the front, there's just some boards across the door and there are a lot of issues that need dealing with, like the gutter is broken and there are tiles missing off the roof and there's a crack all the way down the front of the house. It's obvious that no one lives there and no one's taking care of this building. What adjective would I use to describe it? Abandoned. Yes, absolutely. And if my child looks at me with intense dislike in his eyes, I would say,"Don't give me that look of..." What? What noun could I use to describe intense dislike? Don't give me that look of disdain."How dare you look at me like that!" Disdain was the answer I was looking for. Very good. If I am in a very difficult situation and I really want to escape, what idiom could I use? I want to head for the hills absolutely to escape this awful situation. And I spoke earlier about my clothing being over 20 years old and some of the items that I wear time and time again falling apart. What adjective could I use to describe these worn and torn items of clothing? Tattered. Yes, tattered. My tattered clothes. And finally, if I am telling a story about something that I heard from somebody else, I don't know if it's true, but I'm passing the story on anyway. What am I passing on? What is this thing? It's a rumour. Yes, very good. Okay, now I want you to listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. As I crept along the corridor, the floorboards creaked under my feet until I finally reached the door, the locked door with a faded'keep out' sign hanging on a metal hook. I looked at the key that was in my hand, it was one of those old-fashioned skeleton keys, unlike the rest of them which were the more modern-looking ones with teeth-like shaping. As I put the key into the lock I hesitated, what would I find behind this wooden barrier? Slowly, I turned the key until I heard the click of the door unlocking. Slower again, I nudged the door open, little by little, until it hit something and I couldn't open any further. Am I doing the right thing? What will I find in this undisturbed room? I wanted to lock it back up and head for the hills. No, I needed to know! I moved my hand up and down the wall in search of a switch and then, click, we have light! What laid before my eyes was astonishing, it was an Aladdin's cave of... well, of everything! There was a wall with shelf after shelf of Christmas decorations, another wall ceiling to floor with Halloween costumes, masks, weird objects I couldn't make out and as I looked around I saw magician's props, woodworking tools, doll's houses, miniature cars and toys that looked like they hadn't seen the light of day for centuries. There was.... Sorry, I'm getting carried away. Let me take you back a couple of months. This house had been up for sale for the last 16 years and no one, I mean no one had shown any interest. It is a beautiful Victorian house set in 20 acres of countryside on the outskirts of Liverpool and I just couldn't understand why it hadn't sold. Yes, I'd heard rumours of it being haunted, the ghosts of previous owners roaming the halls, noises emanating from the living room late at night and strange goings on in general, but that was just scaremongering, wasn't it? The locals didn't seem to want to talk about it much so I simply brushed their disdain away and arranged a viewing. I fell in love with the estate as soon as I stepped foot on it. It had an air of mystery yet wonder, intrigue yet familiarity. Within a week I had paid my deposit, handed in my notice at my boring office job in Manchester and booked the removal van. This was my chance to start again, to take on this amazing project and make it my own. I spent the next few weeks decorating, refurbishing, gardening and soaking in the fact that I was the proud owner of this wonderful property. I was in my element and I couldn't have been happier with my new life and my new home. Whilst out in the garden one sunny afternoon I found a key hidden under a flowerpot. It didn't seem to fit any of the locks I had seen so far, so I picked it up and put it in my pocket. It was that night I ventured up to the top floor, the floor I hadn't had time to discover, until now... So back to the room, I walked around gazing at the Halloween costumes, the handmade toys, the creepy dolls and their tattered clothing, the dusty Christmas ornaments. It really was like a treasure trove, I loved it! I noticed on one of the shelves that there was a doll very different to the others, her eyes were brighter, her clothes prettier. I picked her up to take a closer look and that's when I spotted another door handle. Was there a secret room I didn't know about? Excited to see what else I might discover, I moved the shelf out of the way, forced the stiff handle down and pushed the door open. I was immediately hit by a blast of cold, damp-smelling air. With my heart thumping and my pulse racing I fumbled to find the light switch, and that's when I saw it. That's when I screamed. That's when I knew why this house had been abandoned for so long. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. If you enjoyed this episode or any other episode, then please do take a moment to leave a like, a rating or a review, and remember to recommend The English Like a Native Podcast to your English language learning friends. Until tomorrow, take very good care, and goodbye.