Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 48, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that is dedicated to increasing your active vocabulary and improving your English listening skills. We do this by visiting five items of vocabulary every day of the working week, from Monday to Friday, and you can access all the vocabulary from the master sheet. The link is in the details below. So, let's get started with today's items. We have to start with a phrasal verb, and it is grow apart, to grow apart. Two words. We spell this G R O W, grow. Apart, A P A R T. To grow apart. If two people in a close relationship grow apart, or if they grow apart from each other, then they gradually become less close in that relationship, usually because they no longer have the same interests, or they don't want the same things anymore. But often it's because we go to different places. So, for example, I had a couple of very good friends when I was younger, and we lived on the same street, so we saw each other all the time, even though we didn't go to the same schools. Once I moved, I only moved to the next town, so we were still able to see each other a lot because it was just a bus ride away, and that wasn't too much of an effort. But then I moved into the city to go to college and my friends did other things. And so, we became separated in distance. And then I was busy with college, and I was doing, you know, other things that you do when you're a teenager, you start to, you know, form new social groups, explore new hobbies. And I was doing a lot of work at college as well. I was doing a part-time job to pay my way. And so my friends and I didn't have much time for each other and we had very different lives, and very different interests. And although we are still in touch all these years later, we have definitely grown apart. We're no longer close. Here's an example sentence,"Over the years we gradually grew apart and lost touch with each other." So think about your life. Who have you grown apart from? Is there someone that you used to be close to that you're not close to anymore for whatever reason? Okay, let's move on now to an idiom, and the idiom is to no avail, to no avail. Three words, to, T O. No, N O. Avail, A V A I L. We normally say that we've done something to no avail. So it means that you've done it without success or any effect. For example, I may run a big promotional campaign. So you guys know that I have a Fluency Programme. You know that I have a Conversation Club and I have a membership that allows you to access a whole range of courses. And so I might decide this month to run a promotion in order to bring more students into my community so that they can enjoy my classes and my courses. And I may make a huge effort. I might tell everyone here on my podcast. I may make some videos about the courses on offer. I may send out three emails telling everyone on my newsletter about the course promotion. And imagine I don't sell one course. I don't sell one membership. Nobody joins my Conversation Club. Nobody joins my Fluency Programme, and no one joins my courses. That would be very, very soul-destroying. But I could say I made all that effort to no avail. I did it and it was completely without success. Okay. Sometimes this happens in life. We do things to no avail. You might prepare a huge presentation to really present your case at work as to why your company should take the route that you're suggesting. Maybe you've thought of a new product, or you want to partner with a different company, and you think it will be very beneficial for the company you work for to take these steps and you try and tell everyone about it, you present your case, you've done a great job but to no avail. It doesn't change anything. Nothing actually happens. And it's so frustrating. Here's another example,"Amanda tried to convince Johnny to join the team to no avail, as he was steadfast in his decision." Okay, next we have another idiom. And the idiom is from the wrong side of the tracks, or you might say on the wrong side of the tracks. So wrong side, wrong, W R O N G. Side, S I D E. On the wrong side of the tracks, T R A C K S. If you are from or on the wrong side of the tracks, it means that you're from or you're currently living in a poor area or a poor part of town. Here's an example sentence,"Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks instilled in Megan a fierce determination to succeed." Next on the list is the adjective elusive, elusive. We spell this E L U S I V E. Elusive, elusive. This adjective means that something is difficult to describe or difficult to find or achieve or remember. Could cover a whole range of things. So something that's just quite tricky to define, or find, or get. Here's an example sentence,"The clues in the mystery novel were so elusive that even the most astute readers struggled to solve the case." You can describe a person as being elusive if they are difficult to pin down. For example, if I'm rarely at home and every time you try to call me you just can't get through. And I'm barely responding to emails, and I pop up occasionally at social events. So you do see me and I say,"Oh, we need to arrange that coffee. We should definitely get together." You say,"Yes, yes. I've been trying to get in touch with you." I said,"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm just very busy. We'll definitely get it in at some point next week." You try to get in touch with me and you can't get in touch with me. Every time you knock on my door, I'm not home. And then I message you and say,"I'm so sorry, I'm just in France this week. I'll be back in a couple of weeks. Just reach out to me when I'm home and we'll sort something out." And you could say,"Anna is so elusive. She's so elusive. I can never find her when I need her. I can never pin her down and get her to commit to going for coffee." That would be quite annoying, wouldn't it? Okay, last on the list today is another adjective and it is affluent, affluent. We spell this A F F L U E N T. Affluent. Affluent. If you are described as being affluent, then it means you have a lot of money. Here's an example sentence,"Most affluent neighbourhoods not only have bigger houses but also more trees." When you are walking around the city of London, it's quite bizarre. You can be in an area that appears to be incredibly affluent, you know, very expensive cars and very expensive-looking buildings, sometimes with a man on the door and you can see people walking up and down in very expensive clothes and you think,"Oh yes, this is an affluent area." And then you turn the corner and it's completely different. It's definitely not very affluent. And then you turn a corner again, and once again, you're in what seems to be a quite upmarket part of town. And you're like,"Wow, the scene can change here so quickly." I once lived in an area of London that was considered to be one of the roughest estates in the borough that I was living in at the time. And this was over in East London. And I remember it being quite tricky because people didn't like visiting me there. People would arrive and feel scared to come and visit me in my flat because they were thinking,"Oh, I'm going to be the victim of a crime. It's quite scary here." I knew the area quite well. I didn't feel, I didn't, I mean, yeah, I maybe felt a little bit unsafe, but I lived there, so it wasn't that bad. But I would find that as I would walk away from my estate, I would literally turn a corner and I'd go from my really rough estate to a beautiful harbour, where there were these, you know, very expensive houseboats and beautiful harbour-facing flats. You had the River Thames there on your doorstep. It was definitely a more affluent part of the area. And that was literally a two-minute walk from my flat. Anyway, it's time to do our recap. So, we started with the phrasal verb grow apart, where two people in a close relationship become less close over time. Then we had the idiom to no avail, which means you do something without any success or effect. Then we had the idiom from the wrong side of the tracks, which means that someone is from or living in a poor area or part of town. Then we had the adjective elusive, describing something that is difficult to describe or find or achieve, or remember. And then we had the adjective affluent describing a person or a place that has a lot of money. So let's do this now for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Grow apart. Grow apart. To no avail. To no avail. From the wrong side of the tracks. From the wrong side of the tracks. Elusive. Elusive. Affluent. Affluent. Very good. Now if I make a huge effort to do something, maybe I'm trying to dig a hole in sand and I need this hole to be really, really deep. And then by the time I finish my work, I turn around, the wind has blown, and all the sand has just caved in and there's just nothing there. It's just flat. There's no hole at all. I could say I spent all that time digging without any success. What idiom could we use to replace without any success? I did all that work to no avail. Very good. And if two people who were very close when they were younger are no longer close, what phrasal verb could you use to describe how this relationship has changed? They have grown apart. That's what they have done. They've grown apart. Yes, to grow apart. And if someone was born and grew up in a poorer area of town. What idiom could you use to describe where they are from? They're from the wrong side of the tracks. Yes, it doesn't sound very kind, does it, to say that? Next, we have a person who's quite difficult to find and also quite difficult to describe really. What adjective could we use for this person? They're elusive. Yes, they are quite elusive, really. And if this elusive person also has a lot of money, what adjective could you use here? Affluent. Yes, the elusive young lady is actually quite affluent. Very good. Okay, let's listen out for these items once again in today's storytime. Chloe and Michelle had been best friends since they were children, after meeting on the first day of school. Though they came from different backgrounds Chloe from the more affluent side of town, Michelle from the"wrong side of the tracks" their friendship had always felt effortless. As they got older, however, Chloe and Michelle began to grow apart. Chloe became absorbed in her studies, determined to get into a top university, while Michelle struggled to keep up in school and spent more time with a new group of friends. Attempts by the parents to intervene and keep the girls close were to no avail. Despite their growing differences, Chloe and Michelle still cared about the friendship they'd once shared. Chloe would catch glimpses of Michelle around town, looking carefree and content, and she wondered what her old friend was up to. Michelle, meanwhile, would see Chloe studying at the library, and she couldn't help but feel jealous of her friend's academic success. Yet the more time passed, the more elusive their connection became. They no longer felt comfortable opening up to each other, and conversations grew awkward. Chloe and Michelle had been so close, but now they were growing further and further apart. One day, as Chloe was walking home from school, she spotted Michelle sitting on a bench, staring off into the distance. For a moment, their eyes met, and Chloe felt a familiar stirring in her heart. But before she could say something, Michelle looked away, and Chloe continued on, the moment lost. As Chloe made her way home, she wondered was it too late to bridge the gap between them? Or had she and Michelle grown apart for good? And that brings us to the point in the show where I ask you to please take a second to leave a like if you're watching on YouTube. It really does help the channel to grow. And if you aren't a YouTube podcast watcher, then consider coming over and subscribing to the channel. I'll leave a link in the description for you. Thank you so much for listening. I look forward to tickling your eardrums again tomorrow. Until then, take very good care and goodbye.