Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna, and you're listening to Week 32, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. It is my mission, my aim, my goal to help you to improve your listening skills while also expanding your active vocabulary. We focus on five items every day of the working week from Monday to Friday, and we've been doing this now for 32 weeks. Now the way you move forward from simply listening every day is to try then to work with the vocabulary to bring some of the new items into your active daily conversations. Now you are able to access all the vocabulary that we've covered in all 32 weeks by using The Master Sheet. You can access this for free and it's constantly updated for you. So, just use the link in the description if you're not already on The Master Sheet. I recommend that you make your own copy and then make your own notes alongside the notes that I've added. Okay, so let's get on with today's episode. We're going to start with an action word, a verb, and it is to beckon, to beckon. We spell this B E C K O N, beckon. To beckon is to signal to someone to approach you. So, if I am sitting in a restaurant, for example, and I need to ask the waiter something, but the waiter is on the other side of the room, I'll put my hand up and I'll pull my hand in towards me in a gesture to make him come towards me,"Come here." And so I'm beckoning the waiter. Here's another example,"The cat beckoned me with its paw, inviting me to pet it." Oh, my pussycat, when I'm sitting with him on my lap if I dare look at my phone, he will put his paw on my wrist as if to say,"No, you're not allowed to look at your phone. You have to stroke me. How dare you look at your phone while I am on your lap? Stroke me now!" So, my pussycat uses his paws, not to beckon me, but to tell me off, to berate me. When I'm in a busy room with my children, rather than shouting their names, I normally will just say their name quickly and then beckon them over rather than saying,"Jacob, Casper, come here." I'll just beckon them over with a little gesture. Alright, moving on from beckon to an adjective and it is teeming, teeming. We spell this T E E M I N G, teeming. If we describe a place or an event as teeming, then it is full of people, it's full of activity, movement or life. For example, when I moved my plant pots over the weekend, one of them was teeming with ants. I believe the ants have nested in my acer plant pot because as soon as I moved it, there were ants everywhere. The pot and the patio around the pot was teeming with ants. There was a lot of movement and like hundreds of ants, they were not happy. Here's another example,"The city streets were teeming with pedestrians during the afternoon rush hour." Next on the list is an idiom and it is a race against time. A race against time. Race, R A C E. Against, A G A I N S T. Time, T I M E. A race against time. A race against time is a situation where someone is working urgently and quickly to complete a task or to achieve a goal before a deadline or before something bad happens. For example, this may be used if somebody is very poorly. They have an illness and the doctors don't know what the illness is. So, they have to run lots of tests and maybe send the patient to specialist hospitals for tropical diseases or something. And they will say,"It's a race against time.. Our patient is going downhill quickly." That means, degrading, becoming more ill, fast. So, our patient is going downhill quickly. It's a race against time to find out what's going on and try to treat the illness. Here's another example,"The firefighters were in a race against time to rescue the trapped residents before the building collapsed." Alright, so we've had beckon, teeming, and race against time. The next item on the list is another verb. We've got a lot of action going on today. The verb is to pry. To pry. Pry, we spell P R Y. Pry. To pry is to force something open or extract something with difficulty. So, for example, my neighbour got locked out of her house quite a long time ago now. And she knocked on my door and said,"I don't know what to do. I've locked myself out of the house. Is there any way you can try and help me?" And we had a look at the property and we saw that one of the small windows on the front of the house was open. Now this is a teeny tiny window. And she said,"Do you think you could fit through that window?""I don't think I can but I'll try." So we got the ladder out and I climbed up the ladder and I very carefully climbed up onto the windowsill opened up this tiny little window at the top of a window frame and I could manage to get my shoulder, my arm in, but I couldn't fully get my head through. And so I said,"There's no way I'm getting into this window, but what I can do is try my best to reach down and open up the bigger window below." So, with great difficulty, I was able to manipulate my body in order to open up the bigger window, but then we found that the bigger window didn't open fully into the room because the bed, a big double bed was up against the window. And as I tried to open the big window, it just pushed against the headboard of this big double bed. And so I said,"Oh no. I've managed to unlock the window but I don't think I can get in." She said,"I must get in, please, please, it's really important. I have to get back into the house. I think I've got the oven on." So, I did my very best to push my body in through a very tiny opening. I pried this window open as best I could, pushing the bed a little with my body strength while also trying not to fall off the windowsill. And the end of the story is success. I did manage to get in with a few scrapes and bruises and open the door for my neighbour to re-enter her home. So, to pry. Here's another example,"The detective pried open the locked safe with a crowbar, hoping to find evidence." And last on the list is a noun and it is shock waves. Shock waves. We normally send shock waves. Shock, S H O C K. Waves, W A V E S. So we send shock waves. A shockwave is a strong reaction, like surprise, alarm or dismay, anger that spreads quickly through a group of people, usually as a result of something bad happening. So, a sudden incident that occurs might send shock waves through a community. The death of a group of teenagers in Wales last year, in a road accident, sent shock waves through the local community. Here's another example,"The news of the IT company's bankruptcy sent shock waves through the industry, leaving competitors scrambling to adjust their strategies". Alright, so that's our five for today. Let's do a very quick recap. We started with the verb beckon, to signal someone to approach, to beckon. Then we had the adjective teeming, teeming, which means full of activity, movement, people, or life. Then we had the idiom a race against time, meaning where you have to work quickly and urgently to achieve something before a deadline or a negative consequence. We had the verb to pry, which is to force something open or extract something with difficulty. And then we had the noun, shock waves. We send shock waves, which is a strong reaction to something bad happening, a strong reaction that spreads through a community. Alright, so let's now do this for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Beckon. Beckon. Teeming. Teeming. A race against time. A race against time. Pry. Pry. Send shock waves. Send shock waves. Very good. Okay. So, if I am working really hard and really fast, with great urgency, to finish my podcast recording before it is, to be released and the deadline is coming up fast. What idiom could we use here to describe this situation? It's a race against time. Absolutely. And when I head into London, on a day when there's a big event happening, then I would expect London to be full of activity and full of people. What adjective could I use to describe the London streets when I see that it actually is full of people and activity and movement? It's teeming. Yes, it's absolutely teeming. And if I then go to a restaurant and I sit down and I'm ready to order, I'm going to lift my hand and make a gesture to signal to the waitress to come over and take my order. What am I doing? What's the verb here? Beckon. I am beckoning the waitress, signalling to her that I'm ready to order. And after my day in London, I head home and unfortunately, my door, my wooden door has expanded in the heat, which means it's quite stiff and difficult to open. So, I'm going to have to force it open with great difficulty. What am I doing? What verb could I use here? Pry. I'm going to pry my door open. And finally, if something terrible occurs. And one by one, everyone in the local area that hears about it is terrified and horrified by the news. What is happening? The news has sent what, what noun? The news has sent... shock waves through the community. Very good. Alright, listen out for today's items, during our story time. The azure waters of Fiji beckoned to wreck diver, Jack, as he prepared for the adventure of a lifetime. The location: an uncharted shipwreck nestled deep in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. Equipped with his state-of-the-art dive gear and a team of seasoned professionals, Jack descended into the abyss. The ocean floor revealed a hauntingly beautiful sight a once mighty vessel, now a ghostly shell of its former glory, teeming with marine life. As they explored the ship, Jack discovered something unusual a hidden compartment. His heart raced as he pried it open, revealing a trove of ancient coins and precious gems. The sunken treasure had been waiting for centuries to be found! But suddenly, the ocean floor shook violently. An underwater volcano was erupting, sending plumes of ash and debris towards the surface. Panic set in as Jack and his team raced against time to escape the wrath of the sea. Dodging sharp coral and swimming for their lives, they finally reached the safety of their boat. Panting and exhausted, Jack felt a mix of terror and exhilaration. He had survived the most thrilling adventure of his life, and discovered a treasure that would change everything. As they sailed away from the volcanic eruption, Jack looked back on his unexpected adventure with gratitude. He had not only uncovered a piece of history but also tested his own limits in the unpredictable waters of Fiji. Jack's discovery sent shock waves through the diving community. It was the most significant shipwreck treasure find in decades. But for Jack, the real treasure lay not in the material wealth he had found, but in the memories and the unforgettable experience of exploring the depths of the Pacific Ocean. He couldn't wait to get back down there again to see what other wonders he might uncover! And that brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you for letting me tickle your eardrums. I do hope you come back again tomorrow. Until then, take very good care and goodbye.