Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 30, Day 4 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series where we are exploding your active vocabulary and improving your listening skills by deep-diving into five items every day of the working week, from Monday to Friday. We start today's list with the idiom at the drop of a hat. At the drop of a hat. Drop, D R O P. Of a hat, H A T. At the drop of a hat means that you will do something immediately, without waiting, without hesitating, you will do it. I would use this often to say that I can't just do something immediately. So I'll say,"Look, I want to help you, but I can't do as you wish at the drop of a hat." I can't just leave my children and leave my work. And walk out of my house and come and help you. I can't do it at the drop of a hat. We need to book it in advance. I need to put it into my diary and then I can assist you. So, I can't, for example, teach a private lesson at the drop of a hat. I need to schedule it in advance because my schedule is so busy, so I need to find space to put it in. Most of us can't just do something at the drop of a hat. But in some circumstances, we need to. For example, if you are a young man and your wife is pregnant, and she's about to give birth at any day, any day now, she's about to give birth to your child. So, you are going to work, but you know that any moment you might need to leave work, go and take your wife to the hospital to birth your child. So, you would go to work and say,"Look, I might need to leave at the drop of a hat. I'm waiting for the phone call from my wife." And I'm sure that your employer would be very accommodating in that scenario. Here's another example,"She was always ready to go on an adventure at the drop of a hat." Woohoo! Okay, let's go on to our next item. This is a verb and it is to conquer. To conquer. The spelling is slightly unusual. We spell it C O N Q U E R. Conquer. Conquer. To conquer. To conquer is to climb a mountain successfully or to overcome a situation. So, we often talk about conquering a mountain."He finally conquered Mount Everest after years of trying and failing." Or you could conquer a problem, a situation, something that's been an obstacle for a while. You might conquer your own fears, for example. So, Anna has always wanted to do a skydive, but her fear of heights has held her back until now. She finally conquered her fear of heights and leapt out of a plane. Brilliant. OK, here's another example,"Maria is determined to conquer her fear of heights by climbing three mountain ranges this year." Okay, so conquer. Let's go on to the next item. We now have a noun, and it is descent. Descent. We spell this D E S C E N T. Descent. The descent is the act of moving downwards. So, if you are trying hard to conquer a mountain and you achieve it. You get to the top,"Yay! I've conquered the mountain!" But you can see that the weather is about to turn. It's about to turn horrible. Wind and rain. You don't want to be on the top of a mountain when a storm comes in. So, you'll say to your team,"Let's start our descent." Here's another example."The plane had to make a sudden descent due to an engine failure. There was complete panic on board." Gosh, I would be in a state of panic as well. Right, moving on to the next noun, we have terrain, terrain. We spell this T E R R A I N, terrain. Terrain is the physical features of an area of land. So, it could be the mountains, the valleys, the forest, or a body of water. That is the terrain. If you want to go camping, then you would hope that the campsite has suitable terrain for you to pitch your tent on. You need a nice flat field that's not boggy, it's not wet and waterlogged, and it's not too steep either. Nice and flat and dry. Here's another example,"The hikers weren't prepared and so struggled to navigate the rough and rocky terrain of the mountain." Next on the list is an adjective and it is frayed, frayed. We spell this F R A Y E D. Frayed, frayed. Frayed is usually referring to fabric or clothing, and it's when it's worn and tattered. Do you remember the word tattered? We had that this week. Actually, just yesterday. So, for example, if you have a length of rope, and you can see some of the strands are broken, and it looks like it might actually snap at some point. Because it's quite worn and frayed because all the little strands are broken. Here's an example,"The hem of my favourite dress is frayed from years of use, but I still don't want to get rid of it. Do you know a good seamstress?" Okay, so that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the idiom at the drop of a hat, which means to do something immediately without hesitation. Then we had the verb to conquer, which is to climb a mountain successfully or to overcome a situation often we use this when referring to fears. Then, we had the noun descent, which is the act of moving downward. We then had the noun terrain, which describes the physical features of an area of land. Then we had the adjective frayed, frayed which refers to fabric or clothing that is worn or tattered. Alright, so let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. At the drop of a hat. At the drop of a hat. Conquer. Conquer. Descent. Descent. Terrain. Terrain. Frayed. Frayed. Very good. Okay, let me test your memory. So, what's the idiom that I would use to say that I can do something immediately, without hesitation? At the drop of a hat. Yes, I will do it at the drop of a hat. You'd ask and it will happen. And what is the noun that describes the act of moving downward? Descent. Descent. What's the adjective I use to describe a rope that's quite worn and tattered and looks like it might break? Frayed. Frayed. And what's the noun that I use to describe the physical features of an area of land? Terrain. Terrain. And finally, I'm going to climb this mountain, but I'm not just going to climb it, I'm going to get to the top. What verb can I use here instead? Conquer. Absolutely. I am going to conquer this mountain. We are conquering this mountain of vocabulary. So, fantastic, now let's listen out for those items once again in today's storytime. I have always been adventurous and loved to explore new places. So when my friends suggested a hiking trip to the Rocky Mountains, I immediately agreed. Little did I know that this trip would turn into a life-or-death situation for me. We arrived at Long's Peak, a beautiful and challenging spot in the Rocky Mountains and met with our guide to go through the safety briefing. We were going to take the Keyhole Route where we would have to scramble, tackle sheer vertical rock faces, and avoid falling rocks! We needed to be prepared. The guide explained the climbing ethics that we were to follow, she told us how the weather could turn at the drop of a hat and provided us with a list of essential equipment and a map. We were now ready and raring to set off on our adventure. So we started our climb. I could feel the excitement and the adrenaline rush through my body. I had never climbed a mountain before, but I was determined to conquer this one. My friends and I had undergone training for this trip, learning how to use ropes, harnesses, and other necessary equipment. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the steep and rocky terrain of Longs Peak. The higher we climbed, the more difficult it became. But with each step, I felt more accomplished and determined to reach the top. As we reached the summit, the view was breathtaking. I could see for miles, and the feeling of accomplishment was indescribable. Being a flat summit, we had a 360°view, I marvelled at the eastern plains to the south was the Indian Peaks Wilderness and to the west, the Rocky Mountains National Park. Nothing in my photo album would compare to the stunning shots I captured here! Still in awe of the scenery around us, we agreed to make our way back down as the weather looked ready to turn, but as we started our descent, disaster struck. My rope, which was already frayed, snapped, and I found myself hanging onto the side of a cliff. My friends quickly called for help, and after twenty agonising minutes, not knowing if I would live to see another day, I finally caught sight of the rescue helicopter far in the distance. I held on for dear life,"Will the helicopter reach me in time? This really is a cliffhanger moment... And that brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for lending me your ears. I very much enjoyed tickling your eardrums today. So, do make sure that you join me again tomorrow for another episode. And if you'd love to get your hands on the database of vocabulary, the meanings and example sentences from every single Five a Day episode from the last 30 weeks and every episode moving forward, then you can. Just click on the link in the description and get your access. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.