Your English Five a Day #22.2

E223: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast with me, your host, Anna! Get ready to enrich your vocabulary with Week 22, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day. In this series, we dive deep into five essential pieces each weekday, aiming to expand your active vocabulary and language skills.

👍 Today's journey begins with the idiom "all fingers and thumbs". Next, we explore the adjective "scalding", although with a slightly different meaning to the one we explored in a recent episode! Then, we delve into the adjective "adaptive" and the phrase "spirits", often used with 'good' or 'bad' to describe feelings. Last but not least, we take a look at the phrasal verb "get by".

👩‍🌾️ Join us for a pronunciation drill and a quiz to test your memory. Then, immerse yourself in the inspiring story of Rebecca, a resilient young farmer who faces adversity with courage and determination.

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Transcript

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Hello. Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 22, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day. This is a series we've been doing for 22 weeks with the aim of increasing your active vocabulary by deep-diving into five pieces every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. And you can make your learning go further by becoming a Plus Member and getting access to bonus material, transcripts, and vocabulary lists. I'll leave the link in the description for you to find out more. Now, today's list starts with an idiom, and it is all fingers and thumbs, all fingers and thumbs. We spell this all, A L L. Fingers, F I N G E R S. And thumbs, T H U M B S. We use this idiom to describe someone who is clumsy or awkward with their hands, just like if you're trying to open up a bag of crisps, but you're having real trouble opening the bag, and in trying to open the bag, you end up tearing the entire thing wide open so the crisps fall all over the floor and then you also knock over a jar that smashes on the ground and as you go to grab the dustpan and the brush to sweep up the mess that you've made you drop the dustpan and you just are very clumsy with your hands, it's like your hands are not working very well. You are all fingers and thumbs. Now, I sometimes have used this to describe myself in moments of clumsiness. So, it's not like a permanent state. Sometimes we are a little bit clumsy when usually we're not. So, in those circumstances, you'd say,"Oh, I'm all fingers and thumbs today." Here's an example sentence,"Can you help me undo my necklace, please? I'm all fingers and thumbs today." Oh yes. That particular issue is something I do struggle with. Sometimes the clasp on an item of jewellery, like a bracelet or a necklace can be really tricky. They're so small and fiddly, aren't they? So, often you have to get someone to help you to do that. Okay, next on our list is an adjective and it is scalding, scalding. Now, if something is described as scalding, you might remember this from a previous episode, it's close to something else we've covered, but it means that it's extremely hot and it normally refers to a liquid. So, we spell this S C A L D I N G. Scalding. Scalding. So, if something is scalding hot, you might get scalded. You might burn yourself if you were to touch it, or if it were to touch your bare skin. One thing that I usually struggle with is when you are boiling a pan of water. Let's imagine you're doing boiled eggs, something I do quite regularly. Sometimes the pan of water will bubble and spit. And so you get these little drops of scalding hot water being thrown out of the pan. And if you have bare arms, or you're too close to the pan in general, it can catch you and burn your skin, which is why I always tell my children not to be in the kitchen when I'm cooking or when I have pans on the hob. Here's an example sentence,"I tried to take a sip of tea, but it was scalding hot, it burnt my lips!" Ah, there's nothing worse. There is nothing worse. I tell you what, actually, if I ever put tea in a takeaway cup, so, we've got some cups that are like little flasks or thermoses, and if I put my tea in there and put the lid on and then go out, even an hour later it will still be scalding hot and I find that, you know, I'll give it 10-15 minutes and I'll go to take a sip and it will always burn my mouth. So, I'm reminded that actually takeaway tea and coffee, as much as it sounds lovely, usually is too hot. So, I have to try and remember to put cold water in before I leave the house to cool it down, to stop me from scalding myself. Alright, let's move on from hot tea to another adjective adaptive. Adaptive. We spell this A D A P T I V E. Adaptive. Adaptive. If you are described as adaptive then you have the ability to adapt, to change. To suit different situations. Some people are not very adaptive. They can't change. They don't like change. They are set in their ways. They do things a certain way, and if things around them change, they can't. They are not adaptive. I think we become less adaptive as we get older, generally, don't we? But youth, young people, do tend to be quite adaptive. Okay, here's an example sentence,"As team leader, you need to have an adaptive attitude, no two days are the same in the world of scientific research." Okay, moving on to the next phrase, and it is spirits, spirits. Now, this is S P I R I T S, spirits. Spirits. Now, in this phrase, we're referring to feelings. So, you'll often hear high spirits, meaning good feelings, or low spirits, meaning negative feelings, not feeling good, feeling down and depressed. You might try to raise someone's spirits. So if someone is in low spirits, you'll want to bring them up so, they're in high spirits. So, you'll have to hear the context in order to know that this version of spirits means feelings, but anything that refers to lowering, or lifting or being in high or in low spirits refers to someone's mood, how they feel. Here's an example sentence,"I've been in high spirits all week, it must be because I had a relaxing weekend away! I need to do that more often." Are you in high spirits at the moment? What do you need to do in order to raise your spirits? What makes you feel good and happy? I'm in high spirits today because the sun is shining and my acer, my beautiful acer at the bottom of the garden is starting to show its new red leaves and this time of year it's so beautiful so, it always puts me in high spirits. Okay, moving on to the last phrase. This is actually a phrasal verb and it is, get by. Get by. G E T. Get by. B Y. To get by means to be able to live in a difficult situation or to manage in a difficult situation. So, it's not living in comfort with lots of excess where you have more food than you need. And the nice food and nice clothes and a nice warm place. It means that you have just enough food to stop you from starving. It means you have just enough money to pay your bills, but you have to watch every single penny. You get by, you manage. Lots of people during times of financial hardship have to get by with what they've got, they have to live with the difficult situation that they're in. They can, they can get by, they've got just enough to manage, but they don't have anything more. They have just enough to get by. Here's an example sentence,"I don't know how we get by financially from month to month, but we always seem to manage." Okay, so that's our five for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the idiom all fingers and thumbs, meaning you're quite clumsy or awkward with your hands. Then we had the adjective scalding, scalding, meaning extremely hot, usually liquid. Then we had the adjective adaptive, meaning you're able to change to suit different situations. We had the phrase spirits, meaning feelings or mood. You can be in high spirits or low spirits. Then we had the phrasal verb get by, which is to live in or with a difficult situation. Now let's do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. All fingers and thumbs. All fingers and thumbs. Scalding. Scalding. Adaptive. Adaptive. Spirits. Spirits. Get by. Get by. Very good. Now let's test your memory. I've just put the kettle on and the water, when it's boiled, is extremely hot. What word could I use to describe this extremely hot liquid? What adjective? Scalding hot liquid. Now unfortunately, this scalding hot liquid leads to an accident because today I seem to be very clumsy with my hands and I don't seem to be able to pour from the kettle to the cup with ease. What idiom could you use to describe my awkwardness with my hands? All fingers and thumbs. I'm all fingers and thumbs and I spill the scalding hot water and unfortunately burn my leg quite badly. But despite that, I'm still feeling quite positive. I'm in high what? What phrase would we use to say that I feel positive? Spirits. I'm in high spirits. Yes. I'm in high spirits despite being all fingers and thumbs and scalding myself while trying to pour a cup of tea. Now the doctors tell me that I can't manage hot water for quite a few weeks while they try to work out why I'm all fingers and thumbs. And it's okay because I can change to suit these different circumstances, these different situations. I think that it's going to be okay because I am very what? What adjective can you use to say that I'm good at changing to suit different situations? I'm adaptive. Absolutely. So, I can live through this very difficult situation of being a Brit not allowed to drink tea for three weeks. I can live with that, just about. What phrasal verb could we use instead of saying,"I can live with it?" I'll get by. Yes, I will get by without my tea because I'm adaptive. And we do need to know why I'm all fingers and thumbs. And I can stay in high spirits despite scalding myself and having this awful burn on my leg. I will get by. Okay, so let's now bring all of our words and phrases from today together in a little story. Today's heartwarming story is about Rebecca, a young farmer who has recently faced a life-changing accident on her farm. While reaching for a tool from the table to repair one of her tractors, Rebecca accidentally knocked over the kettle of water she had just boiled, the scalding hot water spilt all down her, resulting in severe burns that left her blind. I had a chat with her earlier this week and she really is an inspiring young lady. She told me,"I never thought something like this could happen to me. I was always so careful on the farm, now one small mistake has changed my life forever." But Rebecca's spirits are not dampened, she has always been a very adaptive person and with the help of her trusty guide dog, Lily, she has become used to her new way of life and continues to work on the farm."Lily is my eyes now. She helps me navigate through the farm and makes sure I don't miss a beat." Rebecca has had to make many adjustments to her daily routine, but she refuses to let her disability hold her back. With determination and the support of her family and friends, she has found ways to get by and continue doing what she loves."It's not easy, but I've learned to do things differently. Some days I'm all fingers and thumbs, but I get by, I still have my passion for farming and I do what I can to be as good as the farmer I once was." Rebecca's story is a reminder of the resilience and strength of the human spirit. She may have lost her sight, but she has not lost her determination to succeed. With the help of her loyal guide dog, Rebecca continues to thrive as a young farmer, proving that with a positive attitude and the right support, anything is possible. 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.