Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 49, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. Stick with me as you get your healthy daily dose of English words and phrases so that you can widen your English vocabulary and improve your overall listening skills. So, without further ado, let's get started. We begin today's list with the noun craze, craze. We spell this C R A Z E, craze, craze. It's like you're going to say crazy, but we just don't have the/i:/ on the end, craze. A craze is a fashion or an activity or a type of music that suddenly becomes very popular but only remains popular for a short time. So something becomes a craze. It might be a new robot pet that everyone is suddenly going crazy for. Recently, or in recent years, it was the spinners. Do you remember the spinners? Suddenly everyone had these fidget spinner things. I can't even remember what they were called. Fidget spinners, is that right? Those poppy toys as well is another craze that people went through. When I was younger, there was a craze for these little toys called gonks. They were like trolls with long hair, and we called them gonks. I had a number of gonks. I loved them. Some had blue hair, some had pink hair. They were very cute. Did you have a gonk? Maybe gonks weren't a thing in your country, but can you think of any recent craze or a craze that you were really into, that you were swept up in when you were a child? Here's an example sentence,"The latest fitness craze is taking over social media, with thousands posting their transformation journeys." Next on the list is the adjective astute, astute. Astute, we spell A S T U T E, astute, astute. Astute means being able to understand situations or behaviour very well and very quickly, especially so that you can get an advantage for yourself. So if you're very good at reading a room and knowing how to talk to people just by quickly understanding their behaviour and what's going on, then you're quite astute. If you are good with data, If you can read data quite quickly and then find a way to use that to your advantage, then you are very astute. So it's a good thing to be astute. Here's an example sentence,"Despite her young age, Claudia was an astute negotiator, managing to secure the best deal for her team in a competitive market." Next on the list is the phrasal verb wind up, and this is in the context of closing. So I know that yesterday we had the phrasal verb wind up when we were talking about the motion of turning something in order to make another thing go or move upwards. We talked about winding up the car window. Well, today we're talking about wind up in terms of closing something. You wind it up. So wind, W I N D. Up, U P. So this would be perhaps to close down a company or an organisation or you could even close a meeting. So if you have a meeting that's been going on for a long time, and you're trying to work out the details of something that's quite difficult someone might eventually say,"Hey, come on, let's wind this up now. We can revisit it again tomorrow. So let's bring it to a close." Here's an example sentence,"After 50 years in business, they had to wind up the company due to bankruptcy." Next on the list is the adjective craft, craft, C R A F T. We also had this yesterday, but yesterday it was a verb. As an adjective, it's relating to food or drink that's made using traditional methods by small companies or local people. Here's an example sentence,"Craft beer has become more popular recently." So this is quite commonly related to beer or gin. So you might have craft beer, craft gin, you might have craft cheese if a local food producer makes their own cheese using traditional methods, then that would be considered craft cheese or craft chocolate, perhaps. Next on the list is the phrasal verb fall out, fall out. We spell this F A L L, fall. Out, O U T. To fall out means to have a disagreement or a quarrel with someone, an argument with them, and it results in a break in that relationship. So if you have a fallout with your friend, then you might not consider yourselves friends at that point, and you would have to use another phrasal verb make up with them after you fall out. So you have to mend the relationship and forgive one another again. Have you had a fallout recently? Have you fallen out with anybody? It's horrible falling out with people, isn't it? I don't fall out with people very often. I try to keep my inner circle quite healthy, and I surround myself with positive people. I rarely spend time with people I'm at odds with. Here's another example,"It's unfortunate that they fell out over a trivial matter, as they had been close friends for years." Alright, let's do a quick recap of our five. We started with the noun craze, which is a fashion or activity or type of music that suddenly becomes very popular for a short time. Then we had the adjective, astute, which means being able to understand a situation or behaviour very, very well and very quickly so that you can get an advantage for yourself. We had the phrasal verb, to wind up, in the context of a meeting, a company or organisation, this means to close something. Then we had the adjective craft, relating to food or drink that's made using traditional methods with small companies or local people, not the big companies. Then we had the phrasal verb, fall out, meaning to have a disagreement or an argument that results in the breaking of a relationship. Alright, let's now do this for pronunciation purposes, please repeat after me. Craze. Craze. Astute. Astute. Wind up. Wind up. Craft. Craft. Fall out. Fall out. Very good. So if I'm making my own chocolate and I use traditional methods, I do it in my kitchen and quite unique, these chocolates. What adjective could I use to describe these chocolates? Yes, they're craft chocolates. Craft chocolates. And if after making my craft chocolate for several years, I decide that I'm going to close the little company that I started, Anna's Craft Choccies, because it's a lot of work and now I want to focus on something else. What phrasal verb would I use to describe closing down my company? I'm going to wind up my business. Yes, I'm going to wind up my company now. And if I'm winding it up because I've seen a gap in the market for craft cheese, and I think that there is a huge opportunity, looking at the data, to take advantage of this current situation, what adjective might you use to describe me understanding this situation quickly? Astute. Yes, Anna is very astute. And if the popularity and the need and demand for craft cheese is suddenly a huge thing, it's suddenly very, very popular, but it's going to be quite short-lived. What could you describe this sudden rise in demand as; this fashion for craft cheese? What could you describe it as? What noun would you use? It's a bit of a what? A craze. Yes, a craze for craft cheese. And I was quite astute to notice that that gap was emerging. And I wound up my business and I started my craft cheese business. But in doing so, my very good friend and I, we had this huge disagreement because my friend was helping me with the craft chocolates, and she didn't want to do the craft cheese. She didn't think it was a good idea. So we had a huge disagreement, which led to us actually no longer being friends. What phrasal verb could you use to describe what happened between us? We fell out. Yes, we fell out with one another. It's so sad. Okay, so that's our five. Please listen out for them once again during today's storytime. Todd and Jules had been good friends since school. They were both astute businessmen who had started and sold several successful companies together. One day, they noticed a new craze taking over their city: craft beer."Everyone's talking about craft beer," said Todd."Maybe we should open a brewery?" Jules agreed enthusiastically."Great idea! We could create our own unique flavours!" They spent months planning their new venture. Todd focused on creating interesting beer recipes, while Jules handled the financial side. They named their brewery"Hoppy Days" and opened with high hopes. At first, business boomed. People loved their craft beers, especially Todd's"Midnight Mango" ale. The friends worked long hours, often staying late to finish the day's operations. However, as time passed, Todd and Jules began to disagree on how to run the brewery. Todd wanted to experiment with more exotic flavours, but Jules thought they should stick to popular tastes."We need to stand out in the craft beer market," argued Todd."But we also need to make money," Jules countered. Their arguments became more intense. They started to fall out over every decision, from hiring new staff to ordering supplies. The once strong friendship began to crack under the pressure. After two years, Todd and Jules realised they couldn't work together anymore. With heavy hearts, they decided to wind up the business. They sold the brewery to another company and went their separate ways. Years later, they met, by chance, at a coffee shop. As they talked, they realised that their friendship was more valuable than any business. They agreed that sometimes it's better to keep business and friendship separate."Want to grab a beer for old times' sake?" Todd asked with a smile. Jules laughed."Sure, but maybe not a craft beer this time." Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode then please do take a moment to leave a like if you're watching on YouTube and if you're streaming on another platform, then maybe consider leaving a rating or review. It all helps this podcast greatly and it helps others to find this podcast too. Thanks so much. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.