Learn English Vocabulary Daily #9.4 - British English Podcast

Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to the series called Your English Five

a Day, where we try to increase your English vocabulary by deep diving into

five pieces of vocabulary every day of the week from Monday to Friday.

Today is Week 9, Day 4.

And we're going to kick off today's list with a noun and

it is segregation, segregation.

I spell this.

I spell this!

Everybody spells this, S E G R E G A T I O N.

Segregation.

Segregation.

Segregation is the policy of keeping one group of people apart from another and

treating them differently, especially because of race, sex or religion.

So, this is not a very positive word to be starting our list on today, but

all of these words will be revisited in a longer episode that will be released

in a few weeks, so bear with me.

So, segregation, an unpleasant thing.

You can segregate other things, but in this case, in this context, we're

talking about the segregation of people.

Here's an example sentence:

"My local community is fighting to end segregation in schools and housing."

Have you personally ever experienced segregation?

I guess I've experienced some form of segregation when I

went to an all-girls school.

We were separated from boys.

The boys had to go to the boys' school, which was a few roads down, and the

girls had to go to the girls' school.

Moving on to another noun, and it is boycott, boycott.

This is spelled B O Y C O T T, boycott.

To boycott something is to refuse to buy a product or take part in an activity as

a way of expressing strong disapproval.

So, if you don't like something that a company is doing or a policy that a

politician has put forward, then you would show your disapproval by refusing

to buy a product from that company, or refusing to take part in an event

organised for or by that politician.

To boycott.

There have been many examples of boycotts over the years.

Here's an example sentence:

"The union called on its members to boycott the meeting, they urged

all staff to go on strike instead."

Next on our list is the adjective sneaky, sneaky.

How do we spell this?

S N E A K Y, sneaky, sneaky.

If something is described as sneaky, then it's either secretive, done

without other people knowing, or it's a little bit unfair.

So, for example, if my friend put three nice chocolates on the counter for me

to eat when I came into the house, but my partner took a look, could see that

no one was around, and quickly popped two of them into his mouth and ate

them without anybody knowing, knowing that they were for me, not for him.

And then when I came in and said,

"Oh, what's this chocolate?"

He said, "Oh yes, yes, yes.

Your friend left one chocolate for you."

Then that's a bit sneaky.

That's not very fair and it's secretive.

Sneaky.

Are you a sneaky person or have you ever done something that was sneaky?

I certainly have done a few sneaky things in my time.

Although, I wouldn't say generally that I am a sneaky person, but I've

definitely done a few sneaky things.

I won't go into them right now because I don't want you to think of me as a sneaky

person, but just use your imagination.

Okay, so here's an example sentence:

"Listen to this, I have a sneaky plan to help us win the election next month..."

Moving on from sneaky, we have an idiom: to throw your hands up.

To throw your hands up.

That's T H R O W, throw.

Your, Y O U R.

Hands, H A N D S.

Up, U P.

Throw your hands up.

This is to show that you are shocked or that you disagree strongly with something.

Here's an example sentence:

"The bosses threw their hands up in shock at the employee's suggestion

of a four-day working week!"

"How dare you?

You want to rest for three days?

Unbelievable."

Moving on to our final word for today; it is an adverb and

it is seemingly, seemingly.

We spell this S E E M I N G L Y, seemingly.

Seemingly.

If something happens seemingly then it's appearing to be something,

especially when this is not true.

Here's an example sentence which might help you to understand this further:

"Have you noticed how Clark remains confident and seemingly untroubled

by his recent problems at home?"

So, if I were to be involved in an accident — let's say that I was

hit by a crazy cyclist cycling on the pavement, which is not really

allowed, at 50 miles an hour.

He's going very fast, and he doesn't see me and hurtles into me.

He comes off his bike.

I fall to the ground, completely wrapped around this bicycle, which is

now just a metal heap on the floor.

And I may stand up after this accident, seemingly unscathed because

there are no obvious injuries — no cuts, no bruises, and I'm not really

complaining of any pain anywhere.

I'm seemingly okay.

However, later that day, we discover that I had internal bleeding, and that led

to an emergency situation where I had to be rushed to hospital to save my life.

But at the time, I was seemingly unscathed, unhurt, seemingly okay.

Alright, so that's our five for today.

We had segregation, the noun, the policy of keeping people

apart or treated differently based on race, sex or religion.

We had the noun boycott, to refuse to buy a product or take part in an activity

as a way of expressing disapproval.

We had the adjective sneaky, to do something in a secretive way or to do

something that's unfair or secretive.

Then we had the idiom throw your hands up, which is a way of

showing that you're shocked or that you disagree with something.

And then the adverb seemingly, appearing to be something,

especially when it's not true.

So, for the sake of pronunciation, please repeat after me.

Segregation, segregation.

Boycott, boycott.

Sneaky, sneaky.

Throw your hands up, throw your hands up.

Seemingly, seemingly.

Very good.

Now let's bring everything together in a little story.

Emmeline Pankhurst was a leader of the suffragette movement in Britain, who

fought for the right of women to vote.

She was passionate and fearless, and she did not hesitate to use

radical methods to achieve her goal.

She believed that women had to challenge the system that oppressed them, and she

inspired many others to join her cause.

One day, she decided to organise a boycott of the census, which was

a way of counting the population.

She encouraged women to hide or leave their homes on the night of the census,

so that they would not be registered.

She also planned a sneaky attack on the census office, where she and her fellow

suffragettes would destroy the records.

She gathered a group of women who were willing to participate in the action, and

they disguised themselves as cleaners.

They entered the census office at night, and they locked the doors behind them.

They quickly found the papers and the machines that stored the

data, and they set them on fire.

They also smashed the windows and the furniture, and they left messages on

the walls, such as "Votes for Women" and "No Taxation without Representation".

They managed to escape before the police arrived, and they

rejoiced in their success.

They had made a bold statement, and they had disrupted the government's plans.

They hoped that their action would draw attention to their case,

and that it would pressure the authorities to grant them the vote.

However, not everyone was impressed by their actions.

Many people criticised them for being violent and reckless, and they accused

them of endangering the public.

They also argued that their boycott of the census would harm the social

services that relied on the data, such as health and education.

They said that the suffragettes were selfish and irrational, and

that they did not deserve the vote.

Emmeline Pankhurst was not deterred by the backlash.

She knew that she had to face a lot of opposition and hostility,

but she also knew that she had a lot of support and sympathy.

She was convinced that her mission was just and noble, and that she had

to fight for it with all her might.

She did not care about the consequences, as long as she could make a difference.

She continued to lead the suffragette movement, and she organised

more protests and campaigns.

She and her followers endured arrests, imprisonment, hunger

strikes, and force-feeding.

They faced segregation, discrimination, and violence.

They seemingly had to throw their hands up in despair, but they never gave up.

They persisted until they achieved their goal, and they made history.

They changed the world for women, and they made it more equal."

And that wraps up today's episode.

I do hope you found it useful.

If you did, please take a moment to leave me a rating or review so

that others can find this resource.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.