Learn the English Phrases WITH FLYING COLOURS and WHEN PIGS FLY!

5,487 views ・ 2021-07-21

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In this English lesson I wanted to help you
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learn the English phrase, "To pass with flying colors."
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When you take a test and if you get
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almost every single answer right,
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if you get almost every single answer correct,
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we would say that you were able
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to pass the test with flying colors.
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So maybe you went to take a driver's test
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and you did everything right.
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You made all of the correct turns.
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You did everything that the tester asked you to do.
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We would say that you were able
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to pass that test with flying colors.
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Maybe you've just taken an English test
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and you got almost every answer right,
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if not all of them,
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we would then say that you were able
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to pass with flying colors.
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So it simply means to do really, really well on a test.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase, "When pigs fly."
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This is a phrase that we sometimes say in English.
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It's a little bit of an older phrase.
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I haven't heard it a lot recently,
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but I did hear it on the news the other day.
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When you say, "When pigs fly,"
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you're saying that something will not happen, okay.
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If you said to me, "Bob, do you think that someday
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you'll jump out of a plane with a parachute?"
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I would say, "When pigs fly."
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That basically means that that will never happen.
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I have no plan to ever jump out of a plane with a parachute.
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I'm afraid of heights. It just does not interest me at all.
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If you said to me, "Bob, are you gonna go
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parachuting tomorrow?"
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I would say, "Well, that's not gonna happen tomorrow."
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And I would say, "When pigs fly, that's the day
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when I'll go parachuting."
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So to review, when you pass something with flying colors,
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it means you do a really good job on a test,
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and you get a really good mark or grade.
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And if someone says to you, "When pigs fly,"
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they're basically saying that something
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is never going to happen.
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from my buddy, Brent
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from "American English With This Guy."
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"I totally agree about the short days in the winter.
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I always dread that time of year.
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Why can't summer last forever?"
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And my response was this,
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"Yeah, it's weird when you're coming home from work
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at four o'clock in December and it's already getting dark."
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Yeah, I think I forget what it's like
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to live in the place I live
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in terms of the seasons and the length of the days.
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I really enjoy the fact that the days
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are super long in the summer.
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We can get up early in the morning.
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We can enjoy a full day of rest or work
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or whatever we're doing, and it doesn't get dark
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till nine or 10 at night.
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The third week of June, it's still light out
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at 10:00 p.m. here,
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light enough to be able to be outside and do stuff.
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So I think, I just think that's normal.
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I forget that many of you live closer to the equator,
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and you probably have day lengths
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that are very similar all the time.
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But for us here, yeah, it's kind of cool.
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But as Brent said,
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Brent from "American English With This Guy,"
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that's his YouTube channel, by the way,
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in the winter, in the dead of winter, it's not as enjoyable.
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You end up coming home from work at four o'clock or 4:30,
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and by the time you get home,
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it's already dark out and you can't do anything outside.
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So that's the drawback, okay?
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The advantage is we have really long days in the summer.
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The disadvantage is that we don't have
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very long days in the winter.
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I wanted to show you, I'm not sure if you can see it,
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we are having a very hazy day here in Ontario, Canada.
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There are forest fires far to the north.
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That's actually that direction, by the way.
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There are forest fires, but the smoke from the forest fires
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is actually traveling all the way to this area.
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And then combined with that,
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it's already very, very hot and humid.
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So when I look in the distance, it looks very hazy.
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If you look over there where you can see the windmills,
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it's kind of hard to see them.
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They're a little bit faint.
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So anyways, air quality is low,
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but education quality is high.
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Bob, the Canadian here,
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I'll see you in a couple days
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with another short English lesson.
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Bye.
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