Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 38, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. This series has been developed to slowly but surely increase your vocabulary, improve your listening skills, and make you feel generally more comfortable with the English language. So, sit back, relax, and just listen to my dulcet tones as I introduce today's list. We start with the noun intellectual, intellectual. We spell this I N T E L L E C T U A L. Intellectual. Intellectual. An intellectual is a person, who is very educated and they're interested in complicated ideas. They enjoy studying and thinking about things very deeply and carefully. Are you an intellectual? There's a good chance that you are; you're interested in learning a second language or maybe a third or a fourth. You are an intellectual. Here's another example,"The revolution sustained much support among intellectuals." Next on the list is the adverb willingly, willingly. We spell this W I L L I N G L Y, willingly. Willingly. If you do something willingly, then you do it in an eager manner. You do it without hesitating, without reluctance. You're ready for it. You are happy to do it. You do it willingly. Here's an example,"Tom willingly offered to help with Sam's science project, even though he was already busy with his own. That's a good friend for you." Next on the list is the phrasal verb, cover for someone. To cover for someone. We spell this cover, C O V E R. For, F O R. To cover for someone. Although that'for' would become weak in pronunciation, it would be cover for. Cover for."Could you cover for me? Could you cover for Susie on Friday?" Okay, so to cover for somebody is to do someone else's job or duty for them while they are away, while they are absent. Maybe they're sick, maybe they're going on holiday, or maybe they are stopping work for a while to have a baby or something like that. So, if they are absent and they can't do their job, then they'll need cover. If the job is important, they'll need cover. So who's going to cover for that person? Here's an example sentence,"Do you need me to cover for you at work today, so you can go to the doctor's appointment?" Have you ever had to have someone cover for you? Or have you ever had to cover for somebody else? I used to be a substitute teacher, and I would cover for people at a moment's notice. So, I'd wait for my phone to ring very early in the morning, usually between 5 and 6 am. And if my phone rang, then I knew that that day I would be getting up and going to a new school to cover for someone who was off sick. It was really stressful actually. I like to know what time I'm getting up, where I'm going and what I'm doing. I don't like the unknown. I don't like going to bed in the evening and not knowing what I'm doing the next day. I used to find it really stressful, but obviously, I was happy to be able to help out and cover for those, who really needed it. If they needed to stay home in bed to rest, then I was happy to cover for them. Okay, moving on. We have another phrasal verb today. So, two phrasal verbs in one day. This one is to blunder into, blunder into, blunder, B L U N D E R, blunder, blunder into. To blunder into something is to find yourself in a difficult or unpleasant situation by accident. So, you just blundered in there. You didn't mean to get into that situation or into that place. I have, on occasion, blundered into the middle of an argument. So, I've walked into a room and heard people mentioning something that I am quite knowledgeable on. And I jump in and give my two pennies worth, not really knowing exactly what was going on. And then found myself right in the middle of a very, very heated debate. And then I realised that perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut and kept my thoughts to myself. Have you ever blundered into a situation that you struggled to deal with? Here's an example sentence,"The hiker blundered into the wrong trail, ending up lost in the wilderness." Last on the list is an idiom and it is over one's head. So, over your head or over my head, over her head. Over is O V E R and head, H E A D. So, if something is over one's head, then it exceeds their abilities. If you're trying to explain something really complicated to me, I'm just going to look at you with a blank expression on my face and decide whether or not I should admit that everything you're saying is completely over my head. It exceeds my ability. I'm unable to understand this complex topic that you're trying to deliver. Here's another example,"That latest project was totally over my head. I struggled to complete it and had to ask my colleague for help." Okay, so let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun intellectual. So, an intellectual being a very educated person, who's interested in complicated ideas and enjoys studying. We had the adverb willingly, which means you're eager to do something, you do it without reluctance. We had the phrasal verb to cover for someone, which is to do someone else's job while they are absent. We had the phrasal verb to blunder into, which is to find yourself, quite by accident, in a difficult or unpleasant situation. And we had the idiom over one's head. So, over your head or my head or her head. And this means that it exceeds their abilities. It's too much for them. They can't comprehend it or do it or understand it. Okay, so let's do this for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Intellectual. Intellectual. Willingly. Willingly. Cover for someone. Cover for someone. Blunder into. Blunder into. Over one's head. Over one's head. Very good. Let me quickly test your memory. What phrasal verb means that I do someone's job while they're absent? To cover for. Yes, I'm covering for a person. And if I do that cover without reluctance, if I'm eager to do it, what adverb would you use to describe this eagerness? Willingly. I will cover for you willingly. If I'm talking about a person who's highly educated and enjoys studying and thinking deeply about things, what noun could I use to describe this person? An intellectual. Absolutely. I'm covering willingly for an intellectual. Now, what phrasal verb means to find yourself in a difficult situation by accident? Blunder into, exactly. And finally, what idiom suggests that something is exceeding your ability? It's over your head. Yes, you'd say,"I'm so sorry, it's over my head." Okay, let's bring that all together. In today's storytime. Alicia had agreed to cover for her colleague Max while he was on holiday. He had been working hard and needed a break. She willingly agreed to help. She got on with Max and she knew he'd cover for her when her holidays came around. Alicia had a problem though. Max's explanation for how to do his job went over her head. He had left her written instructions, but she couldn't make sense of them. And only Max knew how to do some important tasks. What a mess I've blundered into, she thought. How am I going to get my work done as well as his? Alicia re-read Max's instructions. But the more she read, the more confused she became. She decided it was time for a coffee break. While she was walking to the coffee machine, she bumped into Claire, who used to work with Max. Alicia shared her struggles with Max's written instructions."I could never make sense of Max's instructions either. He's an intellectual, but that doesn't make him a good teacher," said Claire."I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't understand him," said Alicia."I've covered for him before. Perhaps I could take a look.""That would be amazing." Alicia bought Claire a coffee and the two colleagues walked back along the corridor to Alicia's office."It's been a while, but I've used this spreadsheet before," explained Claire as she sat in Alicia's chair. Alicia sat beside her and watched. In a few clicks, Alicia showed Claire what to do to complete Max's tasks. When Max got back, Alicia told him what happened. He agreed to make short videos explaining how he did certain things. Their boss loved the idea of creating video instructions and decided to make it a policy in their department. What had started off as a disaster, had turned into a positive for everyone. Everyone in the department could cover for each other more easily, thanks to the video instructions. It was like having a colleague next to you, showing you what to do. Well, that brings us to the end of today's episode. Remember that you can access The English Like a Native Podcast on multiple streaming platforms as well as on YouTube. The podcast has its own channel where you can read the words on screen as I speak. So if you have discovered the channel, please make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications. And if you haven't, head to the show notes to find the link so you can come over and join the YouTube party. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.