Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 32, Day 4 of Your English Five a Day. We are blowing up your vocabulary in a good way, not blowing it up like destroying but blowing it up as in expanding your vocabulary. How do we do that? Well, we focus on five items every day of the working week so, that you can listen while you commute, while you get ready, while you do your chores or exercise. I fit perfectly into your daily routine and slowly but surely you expand your vocabulary and improve your listening skills. You can also access the database of all the vocabulary covered in our Master Sheet. That will be linked in the description below. So, let's kick off today's list. We start with a verb and it is to shield. To shield, meaning to protect. We spell this S H I E L D. Shield. To shield is to protect or shelter someone or something from harm or danger. Here's an example sentence,"Oh, I forgot to bring my sunglasses so I'm using my hand to shield my eyes from the sun. I hope I don't get finger tan marks on my face!" You might, if you're a parent, take steps to shield your child from hearing or learning of things that might upset them when they're young. For example, if I have the radio on during the day and the news starts and there's some awful story, perhaps involving a child losing their life or something terrible happening, my son, who is five, picks up on these things. And so, I tend to quickly turn off the radio during the news spot in order to shield my child from hearing about things that might give him nightmares or make him feel upset in some way. And we shield our children from all sorts of harm. When I'm walking down the street with my child or with my children, I will put my children on the far side of the pavement. So, they are the furthest point away from the road and I'll put myself in between them and the cars so that they don't trip and fall into the road or in case a car were to mount the pavement. I would prefer that it was me that got hit rather than the children. So we shield the people that we love. Next on the list is an idiom and it is to have a lump in your throat. So, to have a lump in one's throat. Lump, L U M P. Lump. Throat, T H R O A T. To have a lump in your throat. To have a lump in your throat is to have that feeling that you get when you maybe are a little bit overwhelmed. So, you're having an emotional response to something. So, if you want to potentially start to cry, but you're holding it back, or if you're starting to feel a bit anxious or maybe a bit excited, you might feel like that constriction and tightness in your throat. So, you have a bit of a lump in your throat. You feel a bit choked. For example, if my eldest son and my youngest son are playing happily together and they start saying stuff to each other that's just super cute and I overhear them and my youngest son maybe says to my eldest,"You're the best big brother ever. I love you." And they have a little cuddle and this does sometimes happen and I catch it. I'm like, the other side of the room and I hear it and I witness what's just happened. I'll get a little lump in my throat. I'll feel a bit choked because I'm just like,"Oh, that's so cute. Oh!" I'm so overwhelmed with love and just emotion as a mother of thinking how gorgeous my children are. So, I have a little lump in my throat watching moments like that. Here's another example,"As she watched the graduation ceremony, she had a lump in her throat, overcome with pride for her daughter's accomplishments." Next on the list is a noun and it is awe. Awe. Now we are normally in awe of something. In awe of. In awe of. Awe, we spell A W E. A very simple word. A W E. Awe. So, you are in awe of something. Or in awe of someone. Or you could just stand in awe while watching performers on the stage doing something magnificent. So, awe describes a sense of overwhelming wonder, admiration or respect, often accompanied by a feeling of humility. Like it's quite humbling when you watch someone else who's wonderful. There's no sense of jealousy or ill will. You just watch someone and think,"Wow, you are an amazing human being." You admire them. You respect what they're doing and what they've achieved and you just feel good for them. There's no bad feeling at all. So, to be in awe of someone. Here's another example,"The sight of the vast, star-filled sky left Nikki in awe." Moving on, we have a phrasal verb and it is wash over, wash over. We spell this W A S H, wash. Over, O V E R. If something washes over you, we're normally talking about emotions or sensations, and it's that moment of becoming very quickly overwhelmed with an emotion just like a wave washes over the shore. So, here's an example,"A wave of sadness washed over Tina when she heard the news that her best friend was leaving school to move abroad." Last on the list is a verb and it is whisper. Whisper. We spell this W H I S P E R. Whisper. There's a silent H there. Whisper. To whisper is to speak very softly. Often because you want to be secretive, so you want to say something that's a secret and you only want one person to hear or you're conspiring, you're up to no good, planning and plotting something, or maybe your children are asleep and you don't want to wake them up. Here's an example sentence,"My boys often whisper secrets to each other under the covers at bedtime. I'd love to know what they are saying." Alright so, that's our five. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the verb shield, which is to protect someone or something from harm. Then we had the idiom to have a lump in one's throat, which is that sense of tightness or constriction, which usually comes as an emotional response to something like sadness, anxiety, or excitement. We had the noun awe. To be in awe of something is to sense an overwhelming admiration, respect, or wonder, usually accompanied by a feeling of humility. We had the phrasal verb wash over, which is to overwhelm someone with a strong emotion or sensation. And we had the verb whisper. Whisper, which is to speak very softly, often to keep a secret or to conspire, or just to be quiet and not disturb someone. Okay, so let's do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Shield. Shield. To have a lump in one's throat. To have a lump in one's throat. In awe of something. In awe of something. Wash over. Wash over. Whisper. Whisper Very good. Now, if I'm witnessing something that's making me feel very proud, and I'm getting a tight sensation in my throat, what idiom could I use here to describe this moment of starting to feel emotional? I have a lump in my throat."Oh my gosh, I've got a lump in my throat." And if when I see my child up on stage doing something incredible that I never could have imagined was possible, I'm going to have an overwhelming sense of admiration and respect for my child. What noun could I use here? I am in what? I am in awe of my child. And as I'm sitting there watching, I might lean over to my partner and tell him how proud I am. But of course, we're watching a live performance, so I'll have to speak very softly. What verb would I use here? What am I doing when I'm speaking softly? Whisper. I'm going to whisper to my partner. And my partner, upon hearing my words, saying how proud I am of our daughter, of our child. He is suddenly overwhelmed with a strong, strong emotion and starts crying. What phrase or verb could I use to describe this sudden overwhelm? Wash over. A sense of pride and emotion washes over him and he bursts into tears. Very good. Alright, listen out for these items once again during today's story time. The morning of my son's first day at school had finally arrived. I woke up early, my heart pounding with a mix of excitement and nervousness. I had carefully picked out his outfit the night before a navy blue polo shirt and khaki trousers and laid it out on his dresser. As I helped him get dressed, I couldn't help but feel a lump in my throat. I had always known this day would come, but I had never realised just how hard it would be to let him go. I remember the first time I held him in my arms. So small and fragile and how I vowed to protect him from all harm. But I knew I couldn't shield him from the world forever. It was time for him to spread his wings and fly. I just hoped that I had prepared him well enough for the challenges that lay ahead. We arrived at the school and I could feel my anxiety growing with every step we took towards his classroom. I could see the other parents dropping off their children, some with tears in their eyes, others with smiles on their faces, but I couldn't tell if they were feeling the same mix of emotions that I was. We entered the classroom. And I watched as my son looked around in awe. He saw all the new toys and books and the other children playing together. I could see the excitement on his face, and I knew that he was going to be okay. I hugged him tight and whispered in his ear,"I love you and I'm so proud of you. You're going to have a great day." I fought back the tears as I watched him walk over to his new teacher, eager to start his new adventure. As I walked out of the classroom, I felt a sense of relief wash over me. Ah, I had done it. I had let him go, and even though it was hard, I knew that it was the best thing for both of us. I couldn't wait to see all the amazing things he was going to learn and experience in his first year of school. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. If you did enjoy it or any of the episodes that you've heard, then please take a moment to leave a like, a rating, or review. That helps the podcast a great deal and allows other people to stumble across this material too. So thank you in advance. Until tomorrow, take very good care of yourself, and goodbye.