Your English Five a Day #24.3

E238: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast with me, your host, Anna! Tune in to Week 24, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day, where we explore five pieces of vocabulary each weekday to enhance your English skills. Join us on this journey to expand your vocabulary and improve your language proficiency!

🌟 First on today's list is the noun "contentment", followed by another noun "enclosure". Next up, we delve into the adjectives "drastic" and "unique". Last but not least we explore the phrase "a dream come true".

🐺 Engage in some pronunciation practice and a fun memory test before we go on to the heartwarming tale of Ben, a retired police dog trainer who embarks on a new chapter in his life as a zookeeper. As he enters the gates of the zoo, Ben is filled with contentment, grateful for the opportunity to work with animals once again.

⭐ ENGLISH LIKE A NATIVE PLUS ⭐

Join English Like A Native Plus - a membership allowing you to access the bonus episodes, plus live classes and all podcasts' transcripts & vocab lists. Become a Plus Member here: https://englishlikeanative.co.uk/elan-podcast/

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating/review - it is a simple, free way to support us. 

Transcript

0:01

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 24, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series where we are working hard to explode your vocabulary by deep-diving into five pieces every day of the week. But of course, you're not just hearing five pieces of vocabulary every time you tune in. You hear lots of vocabulary. It's just that we target five pieces each day. And I say of the week, I'm talking about the working week from Monday through to Friday. You'll find an additional episode on Saturday. And if you're a Plus Member, a bonus episode on Sunday. Plus Members also benefit from transcripts and vocabulary lists. If you're interested in supporting the podcast, I'll leave a link to being a Plus Member in the show notes, but let's start today's list. We begin with the noun contentment, contentment. This we spell C O N T E N T M E N T. Now the pronunciation can be/kənˈtentmənt/. There are three Ts. So, you can pronounce that middle T, contentment. But what tends to happen when you're speaking in full flow, you tend to naturally drop that middle T, which sounds like this,/kənˈtenmənt/,/kənˈtenmənt/,/kənˈten mənt/. Contentment. Contentment describes a state of satisfaction. Fulfilment. You are content. So, I will feel a sense of contentment when my sons are home and safe and my stomach is full. I've had a lovely dinner. Everyone is relaxed and the house is clean. That usually puts me into a state of contentment. How about you? What fills you with content? What gives you a sense of contentment? Here's an example sentence,"After years of searching, Jane finally found contentment in her simple life on the farm." Next on the list is a noun and it is enclosure. Enclosure. We spell this E N C L O S U R E. Enclosure. An enclosure describes a small, very defined space used to for containing animals or protecting land. So, if you work in a zoo and one of the animals needs to have some vaccinations or some medicine because it's sick, but it's, you know, a very dangerous animal. So, let's say it's a rhino and you can't just go into the rhino's enclosure and give it an injection. You might have to coax it into an enclosure and then when it's in its enclosure you can get close enough to perform the procedure or to give the injection or whatever it is you need to do. Here's another example,"The farmer built a new enclosure for his sheep to keep them safe from predators." Next on the list is an adjective and it is drastic. Drastic. We spell this D R A S T I C. Drastic. If something is described as drastic, then it's extreme or severe. Here's an example sentence,"The company had to make drastic budget cuts in order to stay afloat." Sometimes people have drastic haircuts, don't they? So, when someone has very, very long hair and it's an average colour, maybe it's just brown. Lots of people have brown hair, but then one day they walk into the room and you go,"Gasp! Oh, what have you done to your hair?" Because suddenly it's very short. It's like pretty much shaved on a number two. It's like a buzz cut and their hair is pink. You say,"Wow, that's, it's not just a haircut. That is drastic." You've made a drastic change there. So, it's very severe or very extreme. Next on the list is an adjective unique. Unique. We spell this U N I Q U E. Unique. I'm sure you're familiar with this adjective, but if not, unique describes something that is one of a kind. There's nothing else like it. It's the only one that is like that. So, essentially we are all unique because we all have our own DNA that's different to everybody else's DNA. There are similarities, but we're all unique. We all have a unique perspective. We all have unique experiences and we have our own beliefs and understanding and so our point of view is quite unique. So, if anyone tries to tell you you're not unique, you know deep down inside you are. Here's an example sentence,"Jenny's handmade dress was truly unique and stood out among the other store-bought dresses." Last on the list today is a phrase and it is a dream come true. A dream come true. This is a common phrase and in case you're not hearing me accurately, we're spelling dream, D R E A M. Come, C O M E. True, T R U E. A dream come true. A dream come true basically describes a situation or an accomplishment or achievement that you really hoped for or desired you really, really wanted it. Maybe you've wanted it all your life and it's finally happened. So, for me, becoming a mother was a dream come true. It hasn't been easy, but I've finally done it. I've produced two beautiful boys and it is a dream come true, a situation, a state of being, an achievement that I'd always hoped to achieve. So, it's a dream come true for me. Here's another example,"Winning the lottery was a dream come true for the lucky ticket holder." Do you play the lottery? I used to play the lottery a long time ago. I don't anymore. It just seems like a waste of money really, but I guess you've got to be in it to win it. Alright, so, that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun contentment or contentment, which describes a state of satisfaction or fulfilment with a current situation. Then we had the noun enclosure, which is a space that's defined and enclosed where you would contain animals or protect the land. Then we had the adjective drastic, drastic, which describes something that is extreme or severe. We had the adjective unique. Which describes something that is one of a kind. There's nothing else like it. Then we had the phrase, a dream come true, which talks about an accomplishment or achievement or situation that one has always desired and hoped for. So, let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Contentment. Contentment. Enclosure. Enclosure. Drastic. Drastic. Unique. Unique. A dream come true. A dream come true. Fantastic. Let's now work on your memory. When I was given a job working as an assistant in the local animal sanctuary, it really was something that I had wanted for such a long time. It was so satisfying. What phrase could I use to describe achieving something that I'd always wanted? A dream come true. Absolutely. Getting a job in the animal sanctuary was a dream come true. I'd always wanted it. This particular animal sanctuary was different to all the others because it didn't specify a type of animal that it would take. It would literally take any creature, great or small, which made it one of a kind. What adjective could we use to describe this animal sanctuary other than saying it's one of a kind? Unique. Yes, it would take any creature, great or small, which makes it quite unique because the other animal sanctuaries have very specific types of animals that they will take. Now, we had an elephant come in who was in a terrible state. Something had happened. He'd been involved in some sort of collision or he'd gotten himself stuck somewhere. We don't really know what happened. But his tusks were in a terrible state. One was fractured all the way deep into the root of the tusk, and the other one had some sort of growth on it, which was very unusual. The local vet took a look and said,"I'm afraid we're going to have to do something quite severe here. We're going to have to remove both tusks completely." What adjective could we use to describe a severe action like removing this elephant's tusks? Drastic. Yes, we're going to have to do something drastic, I'm afraid. We're going to have to remove his tusks. Now for everyone's safety, the first thing we needed to do was get the elephant into a very tight and closed space, so that we could calm him down and then tranquilise him in a way where he wouldn't fall over or hurt himself further. What noun could we use to describe this enclosed space that we're going to put him in? Enclosure. Yes, we are going to have to put him in an enclosure. Now, once we did that, we tranquilised him. The procedure, although it was drastic, went very well indeed. And after we'd finished, both animal and all of us on the animal sanctuary team felt a huge sense of satisfaction and fulfilment at a job well done. What noun could we use instead of saying a state of satisfaction? Contentment. Yes, we all felt a sense of contentment. Okay, so, what happened? Well, I was offered a job at the local animal sanctuary, which was a dream come true, because this particular animal sanctuary was quite unique. It wasn't like all the others, because they took on all animals, great or small. There was an unfortunate case though of this poor elephant who had some terrible damage to his tusks which required drastic action. We had to remove the tusks completely. In order to do this we had to coax him into an enclosure in order to tranquilise him. But once the procedure was done we all felt a sense of contentment at a job well done. Fantastic. Let's bring those pieces together one last time in today's little story. As Ben walked through the gates of the zoo, he couldn't help but feel a sense of contentment wash over him. After 30 years of working as a police dog trainer, Ben had finally retired and found a new job working at a zoo in France. It was a drastic change, but he couldn't have been happier. Every morning, Ben would make his way to the animal enclosures, greeting each one of them like old friends. One particular day, as he reached the wolf exhibit, Ben saw his favourite animal, a unique grey wolf named Luna. She had been rescued from a life of captivity and brought to the zoo to live out her days in peace. Ben had developed a special bond with her, and she always greeted him with a wag of her tail. Next, he moved on to the big cats. As he walked by, he couldn't help but feel a sense of pride, knowing that he had helped train some of these animals in a recent big cat presentation. Ben's experience as a police dog trainer had given him a unique perspective on animal behaviour and it had helped immensely in his new job. Ben continued his rounds, feeding and caring for the animals, making sure they were comfortable and well taken care of. The zoo was his home now and the animals were his family. But his day wasn't just about taking care of the animals, he also got to interact with the visitors. It was always a joy to see the wonder and amazement on their faces when they saw these incredible creatures up close. As the day came to an end, Ben said goodbye to the animals and made his way home. He may have retired from his previous job, but his passion for animals had only grown stronger. Working at the zoo was more than just a job, it was a dream come true. And Ben couldn't wait to do it all over again the next day. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it useful. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.