Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 47, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that is all about giving you a healthy, daily dose of English vocabulary so that you increase your vocabulary, improve your listening and have a little company while you're doing whatever it is you're currently doing. So, stick with me for the next 15 or so minutes and let's get going. We start with the noun cast."Anna, we've had this before!" I know, I know. But this time we're talking about a cast that you would use if you have a broken limb. So cast, C A S T, cast. Cast is that protective shell that's normally made from plaster or fibreglass and it's moulded around a broken limb, which is an arm or a leg, and it allows part of your body to be completely immobilised while it heals properly. So if you break your arm, and it's quite a bad break, then you may need to have your arm in a cast. I personally had a terrible break to my femur, which is the biggest bone in your body, your thigh bone in your leg. I broke it when I was 11 or 12 years old and I had to have a full leg cast to immobilise my leg while this complicated fracture, I had a spiral fracture up my femur, it was quite complicated and weakened the bone so I had to have a full cast to protect the bone while it healed. Here's another example,"After her fall, she wore a cast on her leg to help it heal." Now have you ever had to wear a cast? And when you did, if you did, did you get everyone to sign it and draw little pictures on it? That's certainly the done thing in schools. Although these days I see people with different coloured casts. Some people have a white one, that's the traditional cast, but sometimes you see people with bright pink or blue casts. I've seen green ones. I don't know if there's a reason for different colours, or if, you know, hospitals just like to offer different colours these days. If you know, then please drop me a message and let me know. Next on the list is the idiom to be as good as gold. Good, G O O D. As gold, G O L D. To be as good as gold. Sometimes we drop the'as', so you might hear, good as gold,"He's good as gold." It means to behave very, very well. So we often use this for animals or children. We wouldn't really use this to talk about another adult. That would seem a little patronising. But if I am looking after your dog, for the day, while you go out for the day and you come back and say,"I hope he's been good for you today. I hope he didn't play up or do anything naughty." And I want to reassure you. And I'd say,"No, no, he's been as good as gold." He's been very well-behaved. Here's an example sentence,"The babysitter told me that you were as good as gold while I was out." Fantastic. Okay, next on the list is the phrasal verb stick up for, stick up for. Stick, S T I C K. Up, U P. For, F O R. To stick up for someone is to defend them or support them in the face of criticism or adversity. At school, I would often stick up for the underdog. So there were a number of girls in my school, in my class, who would be bullied for no good reason, of course, bullies just choose their victims. These girls that I would stick up for were usually the ones that were quite bright, but very quiet and lacking in confidence. And so the bullies would pick on them. They would single them out, tease them and be unkind and steal their pens and throw things at them in class. I would often stick up for them because I hate injustice. Now that did lead to me getting beaten up a few times, but I carried on doing it, carried on sticking up for the underdog, doing what I could. I once stuck up for a girl who, or I say girl, I mean a young woman, who was being thrown around by her boyfriend on a night out. He was being quite rough with her. They were having an argument and he was, had his hands on her and throwing her around a little bit and I thought,"Oh goodness, this is getting a bit out of hand." So I stepped in to stick up for her and she slapped me. She gave me a good palm to the face. I should learn my lesson. Just mind your own business, be more British. Anyway, that's my story of sticking up for people. Do you have one? Have you ever stuck up for anybody or has anyone ever stuck up for you? Here's another example,"Even when others doubted her abilities, Kiera's friends always stuck up for her." Next on the list is an idiom, and it is think twice, think twice. Think, T H I N K. Twice, T W I C E. To think twice is to consider something more carefully. So, for example, you've made a decision to do something, but then something happens. New information is shown to you. And it makes you think again about the decision that you made. And this time you're going to think about it a little bit more carefully. For example, imagine you're about to buy a house. You've viewed the house. It looks beautiful. It has the perfect number of rooms for you to function with your family in the house. It's got a lovely garden. It's in a nice location and you think,"Fantastic. I'm really, really happy with this house. I'm going to buy it." Then you get a survey done, which is what any sensible property purchaser should do. You should have a survey done and they check the building to make sure that everything is as it should be. And when the report comes back from the surveyors, they say,"Actually, we found there is an asbestos roof over the garage and there's some rising damp in the kitchen." And you think,"Oh goodness, an asbestos roof is quite dangerous. That will need to be removed and replaced and rising damp is not an easy issue to fix. That's a very expensive problem." So now you're going to think again, do I actually want to buy this house? And you're going to think more carefully. You're going to look at the cost. You're going to have to weigh up how much the repairs are going to be for the damp and the roof. And then you'll make your decision based on that data instead. So you'll think twice about buying that house. Here's another example,"Think twice before giving out personal information on the internet." Last on the list is the idiom stand your ground, stand your ground. Stand, S T A N D. Your, Y O U R. Ground, G R O U N D. To stand your ground. To stand your ground means to refuse to be pushed backwards or to continue in your beliefs in an argument. So let's say we are discussing whether buying the house that we've just mentioned is a good idea or not. We're doing it together, you and me. You really want the house. You really want to buy this house because you've just fallen in love with it. But upon learning what we now know about the damp and the roof, I think it's a bad idea. I've looked at the numbers, I've looked at the data, and I think it's going to end up costing us too much money to fix. And actually, I think we should consider some other nice properties that we've viewed. But you refuse to back down. You are standing your ground, and we argue and debate and argue and debate, but you will not change your mind. You are standing your ground. You're saying,"No, I'm putting down the deposit, so I should have more of a say in this, and I am insisting that we buy this house." I can't change your mind. You are standing your ground. Grrr. Here's another example,"Pauline was nervous, but she stood her ground, even when David challenged her opinions." Okay, that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun cast, which is the protective shell that is moulded around a broken limb so that it immobilises the limb to allow it to heal. We had the idiom to be as good as gold, which is to behave very well. We had the phrasal verb stick up for, which is to defend or support someone in the face of criticism or adversity. We had the idiom think twice, which is to consider something more carefully. We had the idiom stand your ground, which is to refuse to be pushed backwards, physically, or to continue in your beliefs in an argument. Okay, let's do this now for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Cast. Cast. As good as gold. As good as gold. Stick up for. Stick up for. Think twice. Think twice. Stand your ground. Stand your ground. Very good. Right. What idiom can I use if someone has behaved very well? My child at the babysitter's behaved very well. What idiom would that babysitter use to describe this good behaviour?"Ahh, she was as good as gold." Yes. Very good. If I need to consider a decision that I've made more carefully, what idiom could I use? I need to think twice. Yes, I need to think twice about this. If I am defending someone in the face of criticism, what phrasal verb am I using? I am sticking up for this person. Yes, very good. And, oh no, I've fallen over and broken my arm. What will I have moulded around my arm to protect it? A cast. Yes. Very good. Finally, I am adamant that this cast must stay pristine clean. I don't want anyone to sign it because I think it looks silly. I think it looks childish. That's my belief. And you're not going to change my mind even though you're desperate to sign my cast and put a silly face on it. I am not going to change my mind. What idiom would you use to describe what I'm doing? Yes, I'm standing my ground. You are not signing my cast. Thank you very much. Okay. Listen out for today's items once again, in today's storytime. Jennifer was known for her good behaviour at school. Her teachers often said she was as good as gold, always following the rules. She never got into trouble. But one day, she decided to stop being so well-behaved. That particular lunch break, Jennifer saw her friend Mark being bullied by some older boys. They were making fun of his glasses and pushing him around. Jennifer knew she had to do something. Without thinking twice, she ran over to the group."Stop it!" she said."Leave Mark alone!" The bullies turned to her, surprised."What are you going to do about it?" asked one of them. Jennifer stood her ground."I'm going to stick up for my friend," she said bravely. She pushed the bully away from Mark, but he was much bigger and stronger than her. In the fight that followed, Jennifer fell and hit her arm on the concrete. She felt a sharp pain and knew something was wrong, but she didn't give up. She kept standing between Mark and the bullies until a teacher came running over. The bullies ran away, and the teacher helped Jennifer up."Are you okay?" she asked, noticing Jennifer holding her arm. Jennifer shook her head, tears in her eyes."I think I hurt my arm," she said. At the hospital, the doctor told Jennifer she had a broken arm."You'll need to wear a cast for a few weeks," he explained. Jennifer was upset about the cast, but she didn't regret sticking up for Mark. Her parents were proud of her bravery, even though they reminded her to be more careful in the future. The next day at school, everyone wanted to sign Jennifer's cast. Mark was the first one to write on it."Thank you for being my hero," he wrote. Jennifer smiled. When a friend needs your help, being as good as gold isn't always the right solution. Sometimes you have to act, even if you end up with a broken arm! And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please take a moment to leave a like if you're watching on YouTube, and if you're streaming from any other platform, a rating or review would really help others to find this podcast too. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.