Your English Five a Day #6.5

E115: Unlock the magic of language and join me, Anna, as we venture into the delightful world of English vocabulary in Week Six, Day Five of Your English Five a Day. Our journey takes us through fascinating words like 'light-hearted,' 'earshot,' 'unconventional,' 'distributed,' and 'revitalise', each one woven into a captivating tale about the charming town of Littleton. As we unravel their meanings, you'll witness Littleton's struggle to rejuvenate its tourism industry, offering a window into the practical use of these newly learnt words. This linguistic adventure promises to invigorate your everyday conversations, infusing them with newfound expressiveness and flair.

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Transcript

0:01

Hello. Welcome to the English Like a Native Podcast. The podcast that has an episode released every single day. Oh, that's so many episodes, Anna! I know, and I'm starting to feel it. You could say that I'm burning the candle at both ends. That's when you're doing far too much. But anyway. That's a story for my therapist. If I had a therapist. You are listening, I'll say once again, to the English Like A Native Podcast. My name is Anna and this is Your English Five A Day. This is Week Six, Day Five. So we've reached the end of the sixth week. This series is all about expanding your vocabulary. So without further ado, let's learn our five words for today, all with explanations, example sentences, and then at the very end, I'll give you a lovely little story. Let's go. Number one on our list is an adjective, and it's the word light-hearted. Light-hearted. It's spelt L I G H T. Light. Then a little hyphen and then hearted, H E A R T E D, hearted. Light-hearted. If you are light-hearted or if something is light-hearted, then it's happy and not very serious. So it's a quite a positive adjective. You might make a light-hearted comment. So a comment that's meant to be positive and jokey, you know, like not meant to offend, meant to make people smile. You might be a light-hearted person, someone who's generally quite positive and not too serious. Here's an example sentence."I had a really good, light-hearted chat with Darcy yesterday. Much better than our usual down to business conversations." Next on our list is a noun, and it's the noun earshot. Earshot. Earshot is spelt E A R, like the ears that we have on the sides of our head. E A R S H O T, earshot, all one word. Now this means the range of distance within which it's possible to be heard or to hear what someone is saying. So if you are relatively close to someone, or at least close enough to hear them speaking, then you are within earshot. Within earshot, or we might say in earshot. You're close enough to hear. Here's an example sentence."When Nathan is out of earshot, I need to tell you something. You have to promise not to tell anyone else." Okay, moving on. The next word is an adjective and it's the word unconventional. Unconventional. I think I use this word quite often. It's definitely an active word in my vocabulary. So unconventional is spelt U N, un. C O N V E N T I O N A L. Unconventional. unconventional. Now, if something is described as unconventional, then it's different from what is usual or different from the way that most people do things. So if I, if I'm shoveling up the leaves that have fallen into my garden, which is something I was doing recently, and instead of using a rake to, you know, pull all the leaves together and lift them into a bin or something. If I'm using two pieces of cardboard, or just trying to think of two flat things, two dust pans and using them like jaws to, like, scrape up and pinch the leaves, then you could say, well, that's an unconventional way to clear the leaves from your lawn, but okay. Okay. Here's a example sentence."Your idea is very unconventional and I'm not sure the boss will like it, but I think it's great." Next on our list is a verb and it's the verb distributed. Distributed. We spell this D I S T R I B U T E D, distributed. Distributed. If something has been distributed, then it's been given out to several people or spread or supplied. So we often see leaflets being distributed. When in a major town or city, when you're walking around, someone will be handing out leaflets, flyers, giving them to everybody. During the pandemic, then free tests were distributed around the UK. Lots of people were given COVID tests to try and stem the tide of the virus. Here's an example sentence."How many leaflets have you distributed so far? We've got 1, 000 to get through so we need to speed things up." And last on our list is the verb revitalise. Revitalise. This is spelt R E V I T A L I S E. Revitalise. If you revitalise something then you give it new life. Or energy or activity or success. So it's like bringing something back to its full power, full energy. I often feel revitalised after going on a holiday and having a break. Here's an example sentence."This town needs revitalising. What can we do to bring the tourists back to Littleton?" Okay, that's our five for today. Let's hear them once again. We had the adjective light-hearted, which means happy and not serious. We had the noun earshot. If you are in earshot, then you are close enough to hear someone. We had the adjective unconventional, so to be unusual or do things in a way that's not typical. We had the verb distributed or distribute. If you distribute something, you give it out, you hand it out to several people, you spread it, and then we had the verb revitalise, which is to give new energy, new life to something. Let's do that now for pronunciation, so please take a moment to repeat after me. Light-hearted. Earshot. Unconventional. Distributed. Revitalise. Fantastic. Now let's listen to them all together in a little story. Littleton, an old fishing village on the Welsh coast of Pembrokeshire. A thriving place to live, work and visit. With quaint cottages, a glorious beach, and an air of charm and character, it attracted thousands of visitors each year, but this was soon to be threatened. The light-hearted residents of Littleton were like one big family. Everyone knew each other and they were always there for one another, to lend a helping hand. That was until a leaflet was distributed throughout the village, put in letterboxes of all the homes and businesses, left under the windscreen wipers of cars and buses, and taped to all of the lampposts and traffic lights. A huge manufacturing plant was scheduled to be built on the edge of this beautiful, tranquil landscape, and construction was due to start in just two months. This very unconventional way of informing residents about this shocking development was not welcomed with open arms. The village was in uproar. People were arguing with each other, blaming the local councillors for going behind their backs, and what was once a friendly and sociable neighbourhood became a hostile and tense community. One lifelong resident who was within earshot of a local politician heard them on the phone telling the developers not to worry about the people's reactions."They won't be complaining when the plant brings thousands of jobs to the area", he proclaimed."This town needs revitalising. And bringing in a food manufacturing plant is going to do just that." These words did not sit well with the people of Littleton when they were told what was said. It wasn't the jobs the factory would bring that the people were concerned about. It was the mass of extra traffic, the pollution, the noise, the question of where all the new families would live and the school placements their children would need. They would lose their tight knit community and become nothing short of an industrial town. It was against everything the Littleton residents had ever known and prided themselves on, and they weren't going to take it lying down. The whole community came together once again and fought for their village to be kept as it was. With a lot of hard work, determination and pressure on the authorities, the decision was finally made to move the plant a few miles away to a more open area where there were no houses or tourist dependent businesses and the land was better suited to such a large scale project. Workers would have to travel there, or temporary accommodation would have to be built at the expense of the developers. Littleton lived up to its name and proved that when people work together, little things can make a ton of difference. And that wraps up today's session, and Week Six. Thank you so much for joining me. I do hope you found this week useful. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.