Listening, Vocabulary, Comprehension: 8 English Expressions

"Business and money and books", ah, business, books, and - hi, James from engVid.

Just trying to figure out why E has got - oh, I get it.

We're doing an LVC lesson today.

Okay.

So, today's lesson is on how books and reading can be used for business and casual conversation.

We're going to do an LVC, and what is that?

This is a lesson in which we're going to work on your listening skills, we're going to increase

your vocabulary, and help you with comprehension all at the same time.

Think it's a difficult thing to do?

Stick with us and we'll get it done.

How are we going to do it?

What I need for you to do to help me help you is grab a pen and a pen - pencil and grab

some paper.

If you can't do that, don't worry about it.

Just pay attention.

You can always do this, redo this later on.

And I'm going to read a story to you.

I won't be visible on the camera.

You're going to listen.

The reason why I'm doing that is our sense of hearing gets better when we don't watch

something else.

I'll read the story, you'll listen to it, we'll come back, I'll explain all of the vocabulary

that I've picked specifically for you to learn, we'll go over that vocabulary, then to work

on your comprehension, what we're going to do is we'll read the story again, you will

then listen, see how much you've got, and of course we'll test it finally with a test

at the end.

Are you ready?

Let's go.

"My mother told me that you can't judge a book by its cover.

This was especially true of Mr. E. He was a bookworm by nature, and in my book he was

a really good guy.

Some of his co-workers weren't as honest as he was and would cook the books if it made

them more money.

So you always had to read between the lines when you did business with them.

One day Mr. E. caught his colleague trying to cheat a little old lady, so Mr. E. ran

him the riot act and threatened to throw the book at him if he ever did it again.

Like I said, Mr. E. is a good guy, and I'm going to take a page out of his book and be

a good guy, too."

Alrighty.

So, we have done our listening component where you heard a story and a whole bunch of words

you didn't understand, and we're going to take the time now to work on the "the" part

of our lesson, the vocabulary that I picked for you.

All right?

This will aid us in our comprehension in our next section.

So, let's stand over here.

You can't judge a book by its cover, and that means the outward appearance of a thing doesn't

tell you what's inside.

Okay, simple.

Just because it looks one way doesn't mean it's that way all the way through.

A perfect example is an egg.

An egg has an outside hard shell, and you knock on it, it's hard, but if you crack an

egg open, everybody knows the inside is liquid.

It's not hard on the inside.

You meet a person who is quiet and shy, but they could be, like, a great fighter, and

you wouldn't see it on the outside because they keep it on the inside.

So, don't judge a book by its cover means just because it looks a certain way, it doesn't

reveal to you the true nature of the thing.

Number two, bookworm.

Someone who loves books and loves reading.

Yep, that's basically it.

E is a worm, and a bookworm is someone, like, because, you know, the worm goes in the ground

and stays there.

A person who's a bookworm gets into books, they love to read and read a lot, okay?

You could say, for instance, if you have a friend who loves reading all the time, he's

a bookworm.

He's always in the library, and it would tell me right away, loves to read library, it just

makes sense.

In my book, it means in my opinion, this is what I think, right?

Everybody's their own book, in a way of speaking.

As you live, you create your own story, so in your book, this is how you believe or how

you see it from your perspective.

Cook the books to falsify facts and figures.

Some of you might put falsify.

It's when you change things you shouldn't change.

There was what's right and correct, and what's false is usually similar to wrong.

So, when you falsify, you take something and you change it so it's no longer true.

Example, if someone has books for accounting and they're counting things, and they have

a thousand, they might add another zero and say it cost 10,000.

That's not true, that's false information, right?

Or fake news.

Next.

Read between the lines.

There's an old joke, actually I'll come to that in a second, it means to search for the

truth and the meaning of what is said.

There's what somebody says and what they really mean, okay?

So, in that case, when we say read between the lines, you've got line, line, what's in

between?

Yeah, some of you caught it, and if you didn't, you can't read between the lines.

It means there's a real intent or a real meaning, but they may not be able to say it.

For example, "Johnson, you're a great worker, we have had a tremendous time working with

you.

As you know, we have to let go of some of the workforce here, and we've always appreciated

work you've done.

You're being fired."

He didn't say it.

Read between the lines.

"We have always liked", not "we like".

We have always...

They're talking in the past tense, you're gone.

So, there's the words they say, but in between is the real meaning.

Next.

Read someone the riot act.

It means to strongly warn somebody to improve their behaviour.

The riot act is something in many cities all over the world have, which is basically when

the people are acting out or protesting in the streets, if there's a riot act, it means

the police will go out to control them and say, "Change your behaviour, you're being

too disruptive."

When someone reads you the riot act, they're saying, "Hey, look, this is what you're doing,

if you keep doing this, this is what's going to happen, and it's not going to be party

with a cake and your friends, you're going to be in trouble."

So, when they read you the riot act, they tell you what you're doing, how they feel

about it, and what's going to happen if you continue, and it's not a positive thing.

Okay?

Throw the book at someone, and it means to punish someone severely.

Now, if you stop and think about it, if I took a book and I threw it at you, it's going

to hurt.

And that's basically what this means.

When you go to court, if the judge throws the book at you, he's going to say, "Well,

for doing this particular bad thing, you should go to jail for two years, but I'm sending

you for ten years!"

He's throwing the book at you, because that's the maximum in the book, and he's saying,

"You're going to be punished this much."

Okay, last one, take a page out of someone's book.

Do you remember when I talked up here and I said in my book, we're all basically books?

Well, if you're a book, you have many pages, because you've lived a long time.

So, in this particular thing, it says to act in a way someone else would act.

You are reading someone else's book, and you're saying, "I like that behaviour.

I want to be like that, so I'm going to take that page out, put it in my book so I can

act like that."

It's usually for things that we find respectful in someone else, or we respect in someone

else.

So, it could be working hard, being tough, keeping your word, being - you take that page

from someone else's book, put it in your book, you want to take on those characteristics.

Well, guess what?

Now that we've gone through the vocabulary, let's try out your comprehension.

I bet you're going to do better than you think.

My mother told me that you can't judge a book by its cover.

This was especially true of Mr. E. He was a bookworm by nature, and in my book, he was

a really good guy.

Some of his co-workers weren't so honest, or weren't as honest as he was, and would cook

the books if it made them more money, so you always had to read between the lines when

you did business with them.

One day, Mr. E caught his fellow colleague trying to cheat a little old lady, so Mr.

E read him the riot act, and threatened to throw the book at him if he ever did it again.

Like I said, Mr. E is a good guy, and I'm going to take a page out of his book and be

a good guy, too.

Alrighty, then.

Jim Carrey.

Okay, so let's test our comprehension, because we did the listening to vocabulary.

I'm just going to go through some questions to demonstrate - no, to prove to you that

you have learned more than you thought.

So let's do the first one.

The accountant worked - I'm going to need a pen, here - the accountant worked for the

mafia and would often something to hide their money from the government.

What would he do?

Well, accountants work with - what - books.

I do hope he makes a nice risotto.

He would cook the books, alright?

That means change it, falsify the information in the books to make it look like it's one

thing when it's not.

Okay?

Next, something is the best season.

Well, that sounds like it's my opinion, does it not?

Yeah.

So, I would say - kind of helped you when I said "in my opinion", right?

But it's in my book, summer is the best season.

What about number three?

Stop being a - go outside and play with your friends.

Hmm.

You're inside, what would you do inside besides - well, the lesson is on books, right?

So I would say - and we made a joke about Mr. E, I think he's a worm, but he's not a

bookworm.

And a bookworm loves to read, and they usually like to read inside, so go outside and play

with your friends.

Get some fresh air.

What about number four?

Mr. E's wife - I probably would be pretty upset if I had a worm for a husband, and he

came home late smelling of tequila - that's alcohol, sorry, bad joke.

Read him the riot act, remember?

When you read the riot act, you threaten someone that if you don't change your behavior, something

bad is going to happen.

So, he's late, he smells of alcohol, tequila, hmm.

Then you say, hey, if this happens again, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Now, finally, number five, which is a really long one, so that should help you a lot, okay?

So - ah, that's right.

You can't always get what - no, that's not it, that's a song.

It's a long one.

That's right.

You can't always judge a book by its cover.

You see the cover could be really exciting on the outside with bright colors, and inside

it's a very boring book.

In this case, you can't judge a book by its cover.

He may be shy, but he's a good fighter, right?

So, he just seems quiet and shy, but he can fight.

Now, let us go and do the bonus, and on the bonus I have three words - sorry, three phrases

for you that have to do with books and reading.

And the first one is to close the books.

Well, when you close the books, you think about it, you read the page, there's from

page 100 to page 400, you read all of it to 400, and then you close the book.

Well, what does that mean?

Basically, you're finished.

So, if you close the books on something, you're going to stop spending time and effort on

something.

So, let's imagine Mr. E is with Mrs. E, and he's come home smelling of alcohol and late

for months at a time.

She may close the books and say, "Okay, I'm divorcing you.

That's it.

I'm done with this relationship."

Closing the books on it.

You're done and you're moving on.

No more energy or time to be spent on it.

What about the next one, to hit the books?

Well, you're not actually punching them, but it means to study.

Right?

So, in order to pass my IELTS test, I had to hit the books pretty hard.

Right?

Study hard.

And finally, there was a president called George Bush, and it's George Herbert Bush

a long time ago, and he made a famous speech where he was talking before a war, he said,

"Read my lips!"

No, it was taxes.

I'm sorry.

He was like, "Read my lips.

No more new taxes.

Listen carefully.

Watch 'em."

So, when somebody says, "Read my lips", it means listen carefully.

So, if you ask your parents, for instance - some of you are parents, so your kids may

do this - "Mom and Dad, can I borrow the car?

Read my lips."

No.

That's the answer.

Okay?

And it means listen carefully, because I'm not going to repeat it.

That's what it is.

So, you got your bonus.

You did your quiz, which I'm sure you probably got five out of five on.

You're patting yourself on the back, which is great.

Once again, I want to say thank you.

And how do I thank you?

Yes, I'm a crazy person, so the way I thank you is by giving you homework.

Because with homework or working at home, we can improve our English, so you can become

a native speaker faster.

And in that regard, the two questions I have for you today are the following.

When politicians speak, you often have to do something to get to the truth.

What phrase would go in there to make that a true statement?

And the second one is the judge something at the criminal and sent her to jail for 200

years.

That sounds pretty serious to me.

Anyway, the points for this one will be 100,000 points for each one you get correct.

Please make sure in the comments below you put down the answers to those questions.

As you know, other students, whether you're on engVid or you're on YouTube, usually give

a thumbs up, thumbs down, which helps you with your point score.

And yeah, that's it.

But before I go, I need to say something, and what do I need to say?

I would like you to subscribe.

Okay?

So, I'd like you to subscribe to engVid.

Oh, quote of the day, I almost forgot, I almost got away.

Quote of the day is this, I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good

book.

And if some of you are scratching your head, what - who said that?

It's J.K.

Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books.

And this particular video goes out to Carly from Canada.

Anyway, so, thank you once again.

I need you to go - no, I don't need you to, you want to go to, because after you've done

this and you think you're pretty good, you can go to www.eng as in English, vid as in

video.com where you can do the quiz, see some other great teachers, and see how good you

really are.

Anyway, I bid you adieu, you shall have a good day, and I will see you again soon.

Don't forget to subscribe, hit that notification bell, and you'll get all my latest videos.

Latest.

Ciao.