Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 12, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day, a series that aims to increase your vocabulary by five pieces every day of the week from Monday to Friday. Today we are kicking off as usual with a noun and the noun is allure, allure. This is spelled A L L U R E. Allure. Allure is the quality of being attractive or interesting or exciting. So, if you have a restaurant or a cafe, you will need some sort of allure something that will bring people in to sample your wares, to sample your food and your drink and your service. What would your allure be? It might be an amazing aroma from the freshly brewed coffee or the fancy decor of your new establishment. Here's an example sentence."The allure of the stage has drawn me back to acting, I knew I couldn't give it up for long." Next we have another noun and it is hidden gem. A hidden gem. A hidden gem. This is spelled H I D D E N, hidden. Gem, G E M. Hidden gem. A hidden gem refers to a place that is beautiful or valuable but not very well known, so it doesn't have the recognition that a very popular, well-known place would have. So, for example, near to where I live, there is a very popular Michelin-starred restaurant. So, it has lots of official recognition for being an excellent restaurant with incredible food. And everyone goes there. You have to book months in advance to go to this restaurant. But there are a number of other restaurants not too far away that also have amazing food and it's just a wonderful dining experience and they are not as well-known. They're kind of popular because of word of mouth. The local people talk about those places more often and suggest that those places are places you should go if you have a special occasion to celebrate. These are hidden gems. Can you think of a hidden gem in your local area? A restaurant or a place like a park or a riverside? Or a special little local shop, perhaps. Here's an example sentence."There are some real hidden gems in the UK. People need to spend more time travelling around their local area rather than going abroad all the time." Next on our list is the verb dash, dash. We spell this D A S H, dash. To dash is to move or go somewhere very quickly. It's not necessarily running, but it's just moving around quickly. So, if I have to pop out quickly to go to the shop to buy some bread, because we are cooking a full English breakfast and you must have toast with a full English breakfast, and we've already started cooking everything. So, I need to go to the shop quickly to get bread. It doesn't mean I'm going to sprint to the shop; I might jog. Or, if the shop is a little further away, I might jump into my car. It just means that I'm not going to delay or hesitate. I'm going to do it quickly. I'm dashing. Here's an example sentence."Oh, I've been dashing around all day, I really need to put my feet up and have a nice cup of tea." Next on our list is an idiom and it is none other than. None other than. None other than. We spell this N O N E, none. Other, O T H E R. Than, T H A N. None other than. Now this is quite tricky. Notice how I blend'none' and'other' together. None other, none other, none other. And with'other', I keep my tongue in the out position. So, the tongue is out for the T H. Other. I open my mouth for the'uh', the schwa sound, and then with my tongue still out I go into the next'th' of'than'. Other than. Other than. Other than. None other than. None other than. It's a bit tricky. What does this mean? It's said when you want to show that someone or something is a surprising or an exciting choice or example. So, usually when someone is being presented to do some sort of presentation or at an awards ceremony, usually that person will be talked up by the host. They won't say their name initially, they'll be saying,"The next person to join us on the stage is well known for doing these wonderful things. They are very kind and patient and we all know this person very well. It is none other than Mr. Smith." So, this is saying that it couldn't be anyone else. It's just this person, of course. But you can use this if it's a surprise to you or if it's an exciting choice. Here's an example sentence."The award ceremony was presented by none other than the film's director himself. What a treat to see him in the flesh." So, see in that example, it was a surprise that the award ceremony was presented by the film director. But in the first example, I was suggesting that it couldn't have been anyone else, of course it's this person. We all know the person that I'm talking about. Okay, moving on to our final phrase, or rather collocation, and it is pressing concern. Pressing concern. A pressing concern. We spell this P R E S S I N G, pressing. Concern, C O N C E R N, concern. Pressing concern. Pressing concern. A pressing concern is an urgent matter, something that needs to be addressed, something that needs to be dealt with. If you have a pressing concern, it's something you're really worried about and it's bothering you. You need it to be dealt with very quickly. For example, if you were to experience a symptom, a health symptom, that's quite worrying, like a mark that's appeared on your face, and it's not a normal mark, it's like a mole that's just come up, but it's also sore, and it bleeds a bit, and it's come out of nowhere, and it's quite large, and you've had it for weeks. That would be a pressing concern. That would be very worrying. You'd want to go to the doctor and speak to them as soon as possible. Here's another example."The environment is a pressing concern that we must address together." Okay, let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun allure, allure. Now, allure is the quality of being attractive and interesting and exciting. Then we had the noun hidden gem, a place that has value and beauty that's not very well known. Then we had the verb dash, dash, to move or go somewhere very quickly. We had the idiom none other than. None other than. Used to show that someone or something is surprising or exciting or it couldn't be anyone else. And then we have the collocation, pressing concern. A pressing concern. An urgent matter that needs to be addressed. So, let's do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Allure. Allure. Hidden gem. Hidden gem. Dash. Dash. None other than. None other than. Pressing concern. Pressing concern. Fantastic. What would I say if there was an urgent matter that needed to be dealt with? I'd say it was a pressing concern. And if I'm introducing someone and it's a really surprising choice, to be honest, this person, what idiom would I use? None other than. And if I need to do something in a very quick way, what verb would I use? To dash. To dash. And I'm going to suggest a place that's beautiful for you to walk your dog, but not many people know about it. How would I refer to this place? A hidden gem. And finally, if something is very attractive and interesting and exciting, it's I could refer to it as an allure, an allure. Okay, so let's bring all of those together in a little story. It was right then, in that moment, that Ellie's world fell apart. The allure of Tom had overwhelmed her at first, he was a handsome twenty-something-year-old with dark hair, sea-blue eyes and a Mediterranean tan. They had met a few weeks ago where Ellie was working in a bar. Tom had walked in and whilst Ellie was dashing around serving cocktail hungry customers, she spotted him. The moment their eyes met, Ellie's knees went weak and her heart started to flutter. Even though the bar was packed with holidaymakers all waiting for her service, Ellie took a moment to stop and talk to the most gorgeous man she had ever seen. Could he really be interested in her too? They chatted for a while and exchanged numbers, something she had never done on a first encounter with someone, but then Tom was different. He was special. They met after work and spent the next two weeks together, every day, biking around the island, lazing by the pool, visiting the local sites, discovering hidden gems of secret beaches, and spending their evenings under the stars in each other's arms. Ellie thought to herself,"I've hit the jackpot here!" But then, after a few weeks, she began to notice Tom change; his attitude towards her wasn't the same as it had been. He seemed distant and irritated. He was always on his phone when they were together, and when they were apart and she tried to call him, he didn't answer. She didn't think much of it initially, but it soon became a pressing concern. When a beautiful brunette turned up at the bar and confronted Ellie, she realised what was happening. The two women spoke, their words turned to anger and they ended up arguing in front of the onlooking crowd. The brunette, who identified herself as Freya, was none other than Tom's wife! It turned out that Tom and Freya had had an argument a few weeks ago, and he was using Ellie to get back at her. Ellie, heartbroken and embarrassed, ran out in tears and vowed never to fall for someone so quickly again. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it useful and I look forward to speaking to you again tomorrow. Until then, take very good care and goodbye.