Your English Five a Day #25.3

E245: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast, where every weekday we bring you Your English Five a Day to boost your vocabulary. I'm Anna, your host, and today on Week 25, Day 3, we're diving into five new words to enrich your English skills.

🤧 First up is the verb "sneeze", followed by the adverb "frantically". Next up, we explore the verb "ensue and then we move on to the noun "blockbuster".  And our final item on the list is the noun "bruise".

💄 Now, let's practise pronunciation and do a little memory quiz, before wrapping up with a story about Jane, a make-up artist on a Hollywood blockbuster set. Despite mishaps like smudged mascara and missing props, Jane's quick thinking saves the day.

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Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 25, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day. This is the series where we aim to increase your vocabulary by five pieces every single day of the week from Monday to Friday. We start today's list with a verb and it is to sneeze. To sneeze. We spell this S N E E Z E. Sneeze. To sneeze is this,"Achoo!" It's the sudden and involuntary expulsion of air through the nose and mouth. Usually, because your nose has been irritated. It's a bit tickly, or because you have some dust or something in your nostrils in your nasal passages and you need to get rid of it. I don't sneeze very often. I'm quite lucky. I'm not the kind of person who struggles with allergies. I do know a number of people who struggle, particularly at this time of year in the spring, when the pollen is high and, you know, people are cutting their grass and things like that and my poor friends with these issues with hay fever, when they step outside at this time of year, they're often struggling with eyes watering, lots of sneezing, and just feeling pretty rotten. Do you suffer with hay fever? Here's an example sentence,"I couldn't stop sneezing due to my hay fever. I'm going to lock myself indoors until all the flowers have gone from the garden! Achoo!" My grandfather always used to walk around with a hanky in his pocket. He would often sneeze so he had a hanky always on hand to deal with his sneezes. Now often in this country, when we do sneeze, we say,"Bless you!" So, if I sneeze, I go,"Achoo! Oh, bless me, so sorry, bless me!" Or if I see someone else sneezing, I might say to them,"Bless you!" And that person would normally reply,"Thank you!" Next on the list is the adverb frantically. Frantically. We spell this F R A N T I C A L L Y. Frantically. Frantically. If you do something frantically, then you do it in a very hurried, panicked manner. Often it's quite disorganised,"Ahh!" If you're frantic, you're not thinking straight. You're doing things in a crazy way. So, let me think. What did I do frantically? Ah, last weekend I was painting the fence, and we didn't have much time to complete the job, so, I would grab the paintbrush and throw it into the pot, and I would grab the cardboard and slap the paint onto the fence. Now the cardboard that I'd grabbed, I was holding underneath the bottom of the fence so that I didn't get paint on the path and everywhere else. So, it was kind of acting as a catcher for any big drips or dollops of paint that would fall off my brush. Normally, you'd spend time in advance protecting everything when you're about to paint. So, you'd put tape around the edges and you'd put sheets down or something to protect the surrounding areas. But I was frantically throwing this paint around. I didn't have time to protect the surfaces. And obviously, the worst thing happened. I got this black paint everywhere because this little piece of cardboard that I was using to protect the other surfaces was not enough, unfortunately. So, I should not do things frantically. It doesn't help. Slow and steady, slow and steady wins the race. Here's an example sentence,"I searched frantically for my lost keys before realising they were in my pocket the whole time." Okay, next on the list is another verb and it is ensue. Ensue. We spell this E N S U E. Ensue. To ensue means to happen or occur as a result of something else. So, for example, I might say,"My youngest son grabbed my keys out of my hands and ran off. A chase ensued." So, because he took my keys and I needed them because he took my keys and ran away, I then gave chase. I then started to chase him. So, there was this chase that happened because he took my keys. So, something that happens because of something else, as a result of something else. Here's another example,"After the storm, chaos ensued as people rushed to secure their homes from the impending flood." Alright, next on the list is a noun and it is blockbuster. Blockbuster. We spell this B L O C K B U S T E R, blockbuster. A blockbuster is a movie or a film that is incredibly popular and very successful. It usually has very high box office sales. So, normally it would sell out like it would fill all of the cinemas as soon as it opens at the cinema. People are rushing, they're flocking to the cinema to see these blockbuster movies. Here's an example,"The latest Marvel blockbuster shattered box office records, bringing in millions of dollars in its opening weekend." When was the last time you went to see a blockbuster movie? I have to admit, I am a huge fan of the Marvel films, and I can completely understand why each Marvel film has become a blockbuster. It is such an exciting franchise. Okay, next on the list is a noun and it is bruise. Bruise. We spell this B R U I S E. Bruise. A bruise is a discoloured area, patch on your skin that is caused by an impact, by an injury. So, if you are walking along and you walk into an open door. Let's say it's a little cupboard, but it's high up and your head goes into this cupboard, then you might end up with a bruise on your head. So, it'll be this dark blue or purple, sometimes they go a little green after a while, mark on your head. And this is caused by broken blood vessels under the skin, which then bleed into the skin. And that's what leaves you with this discolouration of the skin. Now I have a story. Last week I was on court playing squash, playing doubles, so, there were four of us on court and one of the ladies hit another lady in the face with her squash racket. It does happen when you're playing doubles. It's one of the risks. And the lady who was hit instantly had a lump on her cheekbone. And she was telling me how much it was hurting, even after she put ice on it. Anyway, three days later, I saw her again at my gym. And she turned towards me. I could see that the lump had turned into a huge bruise and, in fact, she had what we call a black eye. When your eye or the area around your eye bruises, that's called a black eye. And it was quite a significant bruise on her cheekbone and around her eye. Poor thing. Here's another example,"The football player had a deep bruise on her leg after colliding with another player on the field." When was the last time you got a bruise? I think for me, I can't even remember. I must have picked up a bruise on my leg or on my arm from walking into table tops and banging into walls. When you've got really energetic young boys, you're often throwing yourself around. So, it's very easy to bruise yourself when you're the mother of two young, energetic children. So, I can't remember a specific occasion when I last had a bruise, but let's go and do a recap of today's words. We started with the verb sneeze. Sneeze, which is the expulsion of air through the nose and mouth when it's irritated."Achoo!" We went on to the adverb frantically. Frantically. When you do something in a hurried and panicked way, quite disorganised, not very productive. Frantically. Then we had the verb ensue. Ensue. When something happens as a result of something else. Then we had the noun blockbuster, which describes a very popular and successful movie or film. And then we have the noun bruise, bruise, that horrible discolouration that comes to the skin after you've had some sort of trauma or impact. Okay, so let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Sneeze. Sneeze. Frantically. Frantically. Ensue. Ensue. Blockbuster. Blockbuster. Bruise. Bruise. Fantastic. Alright, let me test your memory. The other day, I went to the cinema and I watched the movie that everyone has been raving about. This is a cult film that's been so successful. What noun could I use to describe this highly successful film? Blockbuster. Yes. So, I finally got down to see this amazing blockbuster that has become a cult in itself. Now the film was a horror film. It was a very scary movie and my partner is a very nervous kind of person. So, he was really scared during this movie and I had a bit of a cold and at one point it was so tense but I had this sensation, this tickle in my nose and I knew at any moment I was going to have an involuntary expulsion of air through my nose. I couldn't hold it back and then finally I let it go,"Ah, Achoo!" What did I do? What other word could I use to describe this'achoo' moment? I sneezed. So, at the most scary moment in the film, I sneezed, which panicked my partner. He jumped up and screamed and then started scrambling to leave the cinema as quickly as possible in a really panicked and hurried and crazy manner. What adverb could I use to describe the manner in which he was trying to leave? Frantically. Frantically. He was frantically trying to leave the cinema because I sneezed at the worst possible moment and I scared him. Now, his panic led to lots of other people panicking. So, lots of other people started jumping out of their seats and wanting to leave all at the same time. What verb could I use to talk about what happened as a result of him getting up and frantically leaving? The verb ensue. So, a mass exodus ensued. Many people started leaving because my partner got up and was leaving in such a hurried and frantic way. Now I got up and tried to calm everybody down, but I was trampled. I was trampled by the spooked audience that were all now trying to leave the cinema en masse and unfortunately, this huge person stood right on my thigh and now I have a huge injury on my skin, a big discoloured circle on my skin as a result of the impact of this huge person stamping on my leg. What noun could I use to describe this discolouration? A bruise. A bruise, yes. So, to quickly recap, I went to see this amazing blockbuster with my partner. Now, it is a horror film and my partner doesn't like horror films. And while we were watching during a very scary moment, I, unfortunately, sneezed, which scared the life out of my partner who jumped up and frantically started screaming and trying to leave the auditorium and then a mass exodus ensued. Everyone was getting up in a panic, trying to leave the cinema thinking something terrible was going on. And in the kerfuffle, I was knocked to the ground and a huge person stood on my leg and bruised it very badly. I had a huge bruise on my leg. Okay, so let's revisit all five pieces once again during today's story time. Busily working away in one of the most famous film studios in London is Jane, a 32-year-old make-up artist from Birmingham. She loves her job and takes pride in making the actors and actresses look their best on the big screen. Today, the studio is in the middle of shooting a Hollywood blockbuster, and Jane is in charge of the lead actress's make-up. As she carefully applies foundation and blusher to the actress's face, she feels overcome with a sense of excitement and nervousness. This is a big production and she wants everything to go perfectly. But as they say, when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. And that's exactly what happens to poor Jane. First, the lead actress sneezes, just as Jane is about to apply mascara, smudging it all over her face. Jane frantically tries to fix it, but the actress's eye is now red and puffy, making her look like she's been crying for hours. Next, the wig for the male lead actor goes missing. Jane searches desperately but it's nowhere to be found. The production is put on hold as they try to locate it, causing a delay in filming and costing the studio thousands of pounds. Just when Jane thinks things can't go any worse, the lead actor spills coffee all over his costume, leaving a huge brown stain. Jane quickly rushes to the set with a stain removal kit, but in her haste, she accidentally spills the entire bottle on the actor's arm. He has an instant reaction, turning his skin a bright shade of pink. The director is furious and demands that everything be fixed immediately. Jane is overwhelmed and doesn't know what to do. But then, an idea pops into her head. She quickly grabs some make-up and creates a fake bruise on the actor's arm, which works, as the actor's character has just been in a car accident. The director is impressed and thinks it adds an interesting touch to the scene. Jane breathes a sigh of relief and the rest of the shoot goes smoothly. As the day comes to an end, Jane reflects on the chaos that ensued and realises that sometimes, it's the unexpected mishaps that make for a great story. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found that useful. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.