Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 45, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that is dedicated to improving your listening skills and expanding your active vocabulary. So, listen closely as we dive into today's list. We start today with the verb upcycle, upcycle. We spell this U P C Y C L E, upcycle. To upcycle is to change something that's old in a way that makes it better or more valuable than it was before. Normally you'd upcycle something that's probably going to be thrown away or disregarded, because it's looking a bit dated, maybe a bit worn or tatty. You'd upcycle it by decorating it or fixing it and making it look good again, making it look fresh so that someone will want to have it in their home. Here's an example sentence,"Mary decided to upcycle old glass jars into stylish candle holders for her living room." Have you ever tried to upcycle anything? I once took an old box, just a tatty old box that was falling to pieces and I tried to turn it into a lovely box that my mum could keep trinkets in, like a jewellery box but slightly bigger. I spent so much time sewing a fabric cover for it and I tried to embroider it with a love heart and my mum's name. And I think I stuck shells on the inside. It was a lovely thought. I put a lot of my time and effort into it, but it ended up looking like a terrible mess. My mum received it with grace. She smiled and thanked me and put it in a special place in her room. She hid it well; she hid it well. I'm sure inside she must have been thinking,"Oh my goodness me, what is this monstrosity? What has Anna made?" But she made me feel like she really appreciated it at the time. So, thanks Mum. Next on the list, we have the adjective obscure, obscure. We spell this O B S C U R E, obscure, obscure. Obscure means not well known and usually not very important, or it could be difficult to understand. Here's an example sentence,"The author's obscure writing style made it difficult for readers to decipher the meaning of the novel." I'm always really impressed by people who have these crazy memories. They have a memory like a library, and they can, without thinking about it, throw out an obscure fact, or an obscure quote from a book they read that's not very well known, twenty years ago. I'm certainly not that person. I have a memory like a sieve. Okay, so next on the list is an adjective and it is clad, clad. We spell this C L A D, clad. Now, to be clad means to be covered, basically. So, if you're a person and you're covered, then you're dressed. So, if you are clad in wool, then you are dressed in wool. If you are clad in a bin bag, then you're dressed in a bin bag. It would be a very odd thing to dress in, but you know, fashion changes. It could be the fashionable thing one day to wear a bin bag, but clad can also be related to anything that is covered. So it's not just for people. For example, I have a bomb shelter in my back garden. It's a very unusual feature of the property I live in, and it's quite an ugly building. It's made of concrete. So we decided to clad it in wood. So, now it's clad in this beautiful wood and it blends in much better with our lovely garden. So, we don't have this huge concrete structure sitting as an eyesore in the garden. Now we have this lovely wood-clad structure instead. Here's an example sentence,"The knight was clad in shining armour, ready for battle." Next on the list is the idiom get one's teeth into something, get one's teeth into something. Teeth, like the teeth in your mouth, T E E T H, teeth. Into something. To get your teeth into something is to become deeply engaged in or very enthusiastic about a project or a task. For example, when you retire you will probably be looking for something that you can really engage in. Because who wants to sit around getting bored? It's always good to have something to work on. So many pensioners that I know, people who have retired, like to get involved with some sort of project. It might be a gardening project. It might be a community project. They might decide to set up a charity or a business in their retirement. They want something to get their teeth into. Here's an example sentence,"After weeks of planning, James finally got his teeth into the new marketing campaign and was excited about the progress the team were making." What have you got your teeth into lately? For me this year mostly has been spent getting my teeth into a rebuild of my B1 course followed by the rebuild of my B2 course. They were huge projects and I really had to get my teeth into them. I had to become very enthusiastic and work very deeply on the rebuild and it turned out well. So, tell me about what you've recently got your teeth into. Last on the list is another idiom and it is to be as old as the hills, to be as old as the hills. Old, O L D. As the hills, H I L L S. If you are described as being as old as the hills, then you are very old, extremely old. Here's an example sentence,"The classic story of an underdog fighting against the powerful is as old as the hills." Okay, so that's our five. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the verb upcycle, which means to change something that's old in a way that makes it better or more valuable than it was before. We had the adjective obscure, which means something that's not well known or not very important and potentially quite difficult to understand. Then we had the adjective clad, clad, which means to be dressed, if it's a person, or to be covered in something, if it's a thing. Then we had the idiom to get one's teeth into something, which is to become deeply engaged or enthusiastic about a task or project. And finally, we had the idiom as old as the hills, to be as old as the hills is to be extremely old. Alright, let's do this now for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Upcycle. Upcycle. Obscure. Obscure. Clad. Clad. Get one's teeth into something. Get one's teeth into something. Be as old as the hills. Be as old as the hills. Fantastic. Okay, let me test your memory now. If I take an old chair, I strip it, I revarnish it and put some new legs on it to make it look better than it did before, what have I just done? I've upcycled it. Yes. If I take a box and cover it in iron, I could say it is iron what? What adjective could I use to describe the covering of this item? Iron-clad. It's iron-clad. An iron-clad box. How lovely. Good for security. Okay, and if I tell you a fact that's not very well known, how could you describe it? Obscure. Yes, very good. If I want to describe something as being very old, what idiom could I use? As old as the hills. Very good. And finally, if I become deeply engaged in something, what idiom could you use here? I get my teeth into it. Yes, fantastic. Okay, let's listen out for these items once again. In today's storytime. Today, we have a fun story about a lady named Clara who absolutely loves to upcycle. Clara finds great joy in this creative process, and her imaginative ideas are anything but ordinary! Clara lives in a small, friendly town where she's well known for her special talent of turning trash into treasures. She takes long walks, visiting second-hand shops and flea markets, always on the lookout for unique items that she can transform. One sunny Saturday morning, as Clara strolled through her favourite second-hand shop, she stumbled upon a tatty old wooden chair. The chair seemed to be as old as the hills and looked quite tired. Its paint was chipped and the legs were wobbly, but Clara saw potential where others saw rubbish. With a big smile on her face, she decided to get her teeth into this exciting project. Clad in her favourite paint-splattered apron, Clara got to work on the chair in her cosy workshop. First, she carefully sanded the wood to make it smooth and ready for painting. It took some effort, but Clara enjoyed the process. Next, she chose a bright green paint that was cheerful and refreshing, one that would make anyone feel happy when they looked at it. After the paint dried, Clara added some beautiful, colourful fabric to the seat, giving it a completely new look. The old chair had transformed into a lovely garden seat, perfect for enjoying warm afternoons outside! But Clara didn't stop her creative journey there. She loved sharing her passions for upcycling with others, so she decided to invite her friends over for an upcycling party. All her friends were excited and brought their own old items to transform. Together, they spent the day laughing, chatting, and creating wonderful things. They turned old cans into beautiful flowerpots, painted them in cheerful colours, and made colourful decorations from used magazines. Clara stood back and watched as everyone's creativity blossomed. As the sun began to set, the yard was filled with laughter and amazing, yet obscure creations. Each friend left with new ideas, and of course, new treasures they had made. Clara's love for upcycling not only allowed her to create beautiful things but also brought her community closer together. Through her imaginative projects, Clara showed everyone that with a little creativity and effort, old things could become new and useful again. And on that note, I feel a little creative upcycle project coming on... watch this space! And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you enjoyed it and I do hope that you come back again tomorrow. Until then, take very good care and goodbye.