Learn the English Phrases COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK and COME ALIVE

5,573 views ・ 2021-08-04

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, come out of the woodwork.
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This is what people do after you win the lottery.
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They come out of the woodwork.
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This is a phrase that means that people show up,
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or it could be animals, or something else,
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but things show up, people show up
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after something good has happened to you.
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Here's a good example, we'll talk about the lottery.
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If you won the lottery,
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I'm sure that people would come out of the woodwork.
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Friends that you haven't seen for years,
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relatives that you didn't even know you had,
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they would come out of the woodwork
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because they would want money from you.
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I think this phrase is similar
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to when you drop some food on the floor
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and insects, ants and stuff,
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come out of the walls of your house to eat it.
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They come out of the woodwork, literally,
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and people come out of the woodwork
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if you win a lot of money.
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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today
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is the phrase, to come alive.
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People come alive when,
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if they normally don't do a lot of things
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where there's a lot of activity
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and then suddenly do them.
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A good example would be this,
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when I was a kid, I had a little fish,
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so it can be more than just people,
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I had a fish in a fish bowl,
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and it would kinda swim around slowly until I fed it,
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and then it would certainly come alive.
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It would swim up to the top of the bowl
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and eat all the food.
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Sometimes, I've noticed at wedding receptions,
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after the wedding ceremony there's a reception,
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and sometimes they play music,
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and older people might come alive
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when they hear a song that they knew
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or that they used to listen to when they were younger.
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They come alive, they might even dance a little bit.
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So anyways, to review, when people come out of the woodwork,
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it means they show up,
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usually after something good has happened to you.
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I think if you were to become the mayor of your town,
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old friends and relatives that you didn't even know you had,
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might come out of the woodwork
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and try to get you to do favors for them.
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And then the phrase to come alive
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simply means to act in a lively fashion,
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usually after not acting very lively.
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So you come alive.
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I usually come alive as soon as
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I hit the start button on the camera.
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But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.
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This comment is from Yaroslaw, and the comment is this,
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"I miss your Geoguessr lesson, teacher Bob."
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And my response was, yeah, sorry about that.
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I've had to make a decision about that,
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and I probably won't be doing them again anytime soon.
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It was just one thing too many.
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So I think all of you are familiar with the fact
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that in life you decide to do certain things,
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and sometimes you decide to do one thing too many.
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So when I was doing the Geoguessr lessons,
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I was noticing that I was talking a lot every week.
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I was doing a lot of live streams, a lot of videos,
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and so I thought to myself, I need one day a week
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where I don't do a lot of talking, maybe two.
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So I've decided that on Sundays and Tuesdays,
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those would kinda be my days off
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from doing anything where I needed to talk.
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So, sorry about that.
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There will probably be no Geoguessr
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for the foreseeable future.
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Maybe in the fall if I have a bit more time
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and my throat, my throat's just a little bit
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sore all the time, and I don't know why.
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Hopefully that gets better soon.
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Anyways, I wanted to show you the zinnias today.
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Let me do that fun thing where I spin the camera around,
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and then I can keep talking and show you the Zinnia beds.
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So the Zinnia is one of my favorite flowers
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because it produces a lot of blooms,
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and it produces them in a variety of colors,
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which is really good for us as flower farmers.
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Hopefully you're not getting seasick.
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So I love the zinnias, they look great this year.
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I take a little bit of credit for that
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because I'm the one that prepares the soil,
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so I think I did a good job.
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Anyways, I'll give you a nicer view.
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Thanks for watching.
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I'll see you in a couple of days
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with another short English lesson, bye.
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