Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 30, Day 5 of Your English Five a Day. This series is all about improving your listening skills while also increasing your active vocabulary by deep-diving into five items that every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. Now to get more out of this experience, I highly recommend that you get your hands on the Free Five a Day database where you can access all of the vocabulary covered in this series, the words, the meanings and example sentences, and then take that vocabulary and start trying to use it in your everyday English. So, if you're interested in the database, just use the link in the description. Now without further ado, let's dive into today's list. Number one is a noun and it is prowess, prowess. We spell this P R O W E S S, prowess. Prowess is having exceptional skill or ability for something. So, if you have sporting prowess, then you are a very able and skilled sportsperson. Where does your prowess lie? Here's an example sentence,"Alana's prowess in martial arts was evident in her swift and precise movements. Hi ya!" I never did martial arts. I don't like hitting people. I'm not a fighter. I'm a lover, not a fighter. And I don't like being hit either. So, martial arts was never something that piqued my interest. How about you? Do you do martial arts? I know some of my students do. Okay. So let's move on to the next item. Next, we have the idiom put your best foot forward or put one's best foot forward. So put, one's best, B E S T. Foot, F O O T. Forward, F O R W A R D. Put your best foot forward. If this is said to you, then you're being encouraged to make an effort to do your best or to make a good impression. So, if I was heading into an interview and feeling really, really nervous, might say to myself,"Come on, Anna, just put your best foot forward. Let's go, make a good impression. Make an effort. Come on. Do it." Here's another example."When meeting her potential in-laws for the first time, Jane decided to put her best foot forward by dressing elegantly and preparing a thoughtful speech." Wow, that is a lot of effort to go to for meeting the in-laws! Right, let's move on. Next, we have the verb mumble. Mumble. We spell this M U M B L E. Mumble. To mumble is to speak in a very low, indistinct and unclear way. So, if I kind of talk like this, then I'm just, you know, not really articulating and a bit quiet with my voice and a bit creaky and, oh, this is a bit mumbly. So, that's a mumble. That's a mumble. It's not very clear. I often think about teenagers being typical mumblers. In those teen years, everything's changing so fast and you're really unsure of who you are and you feel a little bit awkward in your own body. Your voice starts to change, everything's changing and you just feel so lost, that many teenagers just end up being a bit shy and not wanting to speak out or speak up. And so many teenagers will mumble for that reason. So, it's not just teenagers though. Many people mumble. Here's an example sentence,"Stop mumbling and tell me what's wrong, I can't help you if you don't talk clearly." Sounds like me talking to my son when he gets upset and he cries. And then he's trying to talk to me through his cry. And I can't understand him, and I'm like,"Darling, I don't understand what's wrong. You need to stop crying and talk to me." Anyway, let's move on. Next, we have a noun, which is comeback, comeback. We spell this C O M E B A C K. Comeback. A comeback is a response to someone's insult or perhaps a jokey comment. So, if someone makes a comment that is designed to make other people laugh, and the comment is directed at me, and it's either insulting or a bit jovial, a bit jokey, but it's designed to make other people laugh, and I respond to it, in a very clever way, in a witty way. And that is my comeback. Sometimes people say,"I have no comeback to that." I have no comeback. I cannot respond to that. Okay. So we see it, don't we? Sometimes, comedians will be up on stage and they'll have hecklers in the audience. A heckler is someone who shouts something out designed to throw the comedian off track to distract the comedian or to try and be funny. So the audience laugh at them instead of the comedian. And often, comedians are very good at coming back to them with a very clever comeback. So the audience member may throw something insulting at the comedian and the comedian responds with something very funny. That is a comeback. Here's another example,"Helen's snappy comeback shut down any further criticism from her peers." Okay, let's move on to our last item. It's a verb and it is assert. Assert. We spell it A S S E R T. Assert. To assert is to state or to affirm something with confidence. So, typically it's not even providing proof or evidence, you just say that something is. So here's an example sentence,"The witness asserted that he had never seen the defendant before." So, it's to say something with absolute confidence. Okay, so that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun prowess, which is exceptional skill or ability in a particular field or activity. Then we had the idiom, put your best foot forward, which is to make an effort to do your best or to make a good impression. Then we had the verb mumble, which is to speak in a very quiet and unclear way. Then we had the noun comeback, which is a response to someone's comment or insult. And we finished with the verb assert, which is to say something with absolute confidence. So let's now do this for pronunciation practice. Please repeat after me. Prowess. Prowess. Put your best foot forward. Put your best foot forward. Mumble. Mumble. Comeback. Comeback. Assert. Assert. Fantastic. Okay, let me do a quick test of your memory. If someone shows complete disrespect and throws an insult at me in the street and I respond to them, what can I call that response? My comeback. Yes, I give them a comeback."Ha ha, that showed them." Now, if I state something with absolute confidence, what verb could I use here? Assert. Yes, I'm going to assert that something is true. And if I have wonderful ability on the squash court, what noun could you use to describe this exceptional skill that I have on the squash court? Prowess. Yes, I have amazing prowess on the squash court. Hopefully, I do. And if I am feeling a bit jittery and nervous about going into my interview, and you are trying to convince me to make an effort to do my best, what idiom would you use?"Come on Anna, put your best foot forward. You can do it." But if in the interview, I am so nervous that I end up speaking in a very low and unclear way, what am I doing? What verb would you use? Mumbling. I am mumbling. What a disaster! Oh no. Okay, there we go. Now I want you to listen out for those five items once again in today's storytime. Do you know the story of the renowned oil painter named Leon from Willowbrook? His prowess with the brush was unmatched, and his paintings were sought after by collectors worldwide. But one fateful day, a priceless artefact went missing, and Leon was wrongfully accused of theft. With his reputation tarnished, he disappeared for nearly two decades. When Leon returned to Willowbrook, he was a shadow of his former self. His once-famous face was now weathered, and his eyes held a haunted look. Determined and with belief, he put his best foot forward, hoping to reclaim his life and clear his name. But the townspeople, still bitter from the past, mumbled to each other about his return and refused to acknowledge him. Leon found solace in his art, painting in the solitude of his small cottage. Using the landscape, nature and the wildlife around him, he would paint for hours on end, often until the sun had gone to bed and the moon was bright, shimmering over the lake that surrounded his flower-filled garden. Oh, how Leon had missed his tiny cottage and its blossoming oasis, he'd missed sitting by the water and painting the reflections that were shining back at him, the smell of the pine trees and roses, of jasmine and sweet pea. One day, a local market stall owner stumbled upon one of his masterpieces, a breathtaking landscape that seemed to come alive with colour. Intrigued, the owner purchased the painting and displayed it on his stall. As fate would have it, a wealthy art collector visiting Willowbrook happened upon the painting while meandering around the market. Recognising Leon's signature style, the collector was astounded to learn of the return of such a talented artist."This is Leon's work, this should be displayed for the world to see, not hidden away on a little market stall!" he declared."He's a thief, not an artist." hissed an old man."You have no proof, just an unfounded accusation. Besides, why would a man who can create priceless pieces of art need to steal anything?" The art collector's comeback made those in earshot think twice about Leon. Word spread quickly, and soon, the townspeople began to recognise Leon's genius once more. With newfound respect, Leon was finally able to assert his innocence. The real thief was eventually caught, and Leon's name was cleared. The town of Willowbrook welcomed him back with open arms, and Leon's paintings once again graced the walls of galleries and homes around the world. Take a look at your walls, you might just have a masterpiece hanging above your sofa! And that brings us to the end of today's episode and the end of Week 30. Thank you for letting me tickle your eardrums. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.