Learn English Vocabulary Daily #14.4 — British English Podcast

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 14, Day 4 of Your English Five

a Day, a series that aims to increase your vocabulary by five pieces, every

day of the week from Monday to Friday.

Today we start with the noun porpoise, porpoise.

Now the spelling of this is slightly unusual.

We have P O R P O I S E, porpoise.

Porpoise.

A porpoise is a mammal that lives in the sea.

It swims in groups and it looks very similar to a dolphin, but

it has a shorter, rounder nose.

Have you ever seen a porpoise?

Okay, let's have an example sentence.

"Sadly, in 2002 and 2003, over 300 dolphins and

porpoises were washed ashore."

Moving on to something a little more light.

We have the adjective exhilarating, exhilarating.

We spell this E X H I L A R A T I N G.

Exhilarating.

Exhilarating.

If something is described as exhilarating, then it makes you

feel very excited and very happy.

Exhilarating.

I almost think of this particular adjective as describing a break from

the norm, a breath of fresh air.

Imagine you've been stuck inside one room for weeks and weeks and weeks

and you haven't had any fresh air and then you finally get to step outside

on a warm summer's day with a light breeze and you breathe in, "Ah!"

That would feel so nice.

Just the freedom to then run and breathe.

That would feel exhilarating.

Or going on a roller coaster ride can be exhilarating.

Getting that rush of adrenaline, screaming with excitement and

getting the thrill that comes with extreme rides like roller coasters.

That's quite exhilarating.

Here's an example sentence.

"The feeling of swimming with, and getting the dolphins to

'speak' was so exhilarating.

It was one of the best experiences of my life."

Have you ever had the good fortune to be in the water with a dolphin or a porpoise?

I haven't ever been in the water with a dolphin, but I have been in the water

with a sea cow, which is a manatee.

And that was amazing.

Right, moving on to a noun, and it is welfare, welfare.

We spell this W E L F A R E.

Welfare refers to physical and mental health and happiness.

The UK has been described as a welfare state because we have a benefit system

in place that is supposed to protect people who are on low income or who

are sick and unable to work or those who are taking time to have children.

So, we have this state that pays for and looks after the basic

needs of its citizens, the physical needs and the mental health

and happiness of its citizens.

So, it's known as a welfare state.

So, let's have an example sentence with welfare.

"The welfare of the animals should be the park's primary concern, they need to live

as if they were in their natural habitat."

Next on our list is an idiom, and it is like a duck to water.

Like a duck to water.

Usually we talk about taking to something like a duck to water.

Like a duck takes to water.

If you are misunderstanding me, let me spell this out for you.

Like, L I K E.

A.

Duck, D U C K.

To, T O.

Water, W A T E R.

Like a duck to water.

This idiom is used when you start something for the first time, or you

do something for the first time, that you have a natural ability to do it.

So, some people take time to really understand and feel comfortable

doing something new, but some people really pick it up fast and

feel comfortable very quickly.

In that situation, you'd say,

"Like a duck to water".

"They took to it like a duck to water."

So, for example, if I were to bring you into my studio and put you in front of the

camera and do an off the cuff conversation with you to record as an interview.

If you were completely confident, you knew how to have the right kind of interview

etiquette so, you were pausing and waiting for the gaps in order to speak

and you were taking the conversation in the right way and covering all the

things that I want you to cover almost in an instinctive way, then I could say,

"Wow, you are a natural in front of the camera.

You're very good at this interview process.

You took to it like a duck to water."

So, you are very natural at this.

"Is this your first time?

Really?

It's your first time.

That's incredible."

Okay.

Moving on to our last word.

Now, we have an adverb and it is gracefully, gracefully.

We spell this G R A C E F U L L Y.

Gracefully.

If you do something gracefully, then you do it in a smooth,

relaxed, and attractive way.

I was saying the word gracefully, but thinking about something that's very

ungraceful which is me on ice skates.

So, I do not skate gracefully.

I am quite ungraceful when I'm on the ice because I don't take

to skating like a duck to water.

I find it quite hard.

It's something I've always wanted to do, to be a graceful skater, but I

can't skate gracefully, unfortunately.

I'm always wobbling all over the place and struggling to get my balance and then

falling over and banging my tailbone.

Anyway, let's have an example sentence with gracefully.

"It's amazing how dolphins swim so gracefully through the water.

It's magical watching them glide back and forth."

Okay, that's our five for today.

Let's do a quick recap.

We started with the noun, porpoise, porpoise.

An animal that's like a dolphin but has a shorter nose, lives in the sea.

Then we had the adjective, exhilarating.

Exhilarating, something that makes you feel very excited and happy.

We had the noun, welfare, referring to the physical and mental health and

happiness of an animal or a person.

We had the idiom, like a duck to water, meaning that you take to something

very easily, very naturally, like you've done it many times before.

And then we had the adverb, gracefully, to do something in a

smooth, relaxed and attractive way.

Now let's do it for pronunciation.

Please repeat after me.

Porpoise.

Porpoise.

Exhilarating.

Exhilarating.

Welfare.

Welfare.

Like a duck to water.

Like a duck to water.

Gracefully.

Gracefully.

Fantastic.

Now, what is the name of that mammal that is like a dolphin but has a shorter nose?

A porpoise.

And if something makes me feel so excited and very, very happy,

what adjective could I use?

Exhilarating.

Yes.

Exhilarating.

What is the noun that refers to your physical and mental health and happiness?

Welfare.

Welfare.

How about the idiom that refers to doing something very easily and naturally

as if it wasn't your first time, even though it is your first time?

Like a duck to water.

And finally, what's the adverb that describes doing something in a very

smooth, relaxed and attractive way?

Gracefully.

Gracefully.

Alright, let's bring everything together in a little story.

As part of the porpoise family, dolphins are some of the most friendly, playful

and funny creatures you can encounter.

In the wild, they chase boats, trying to outrun them.

They swim in groups and keep their young very close to ensure their safety.

They jump sky-high and show off their almost acrobatic abilities.

It makes you wonder whether these amazing mammals should

be kept in captivity at all.

Zoos and water parks often have shows and swimming experiences that people

pay a lot of money to take part in.

But what about the welfare of the dolphins?

If you have ever seen a show, or paid to swim with dolphins, you will have seen

that they take to their playful acts and circus tricks like a duck to water.

It's as if they want to be superstars rather than being free and out

there in the big wide ocean.

Although, it's an exhilarating experience for us, being so close to these animals

who move so gracefully through the water, and being able to make them

speak, spin, clap, and even blow bubbles, is it right for the animals?

Should they be made to live in confined spaces, away from their

natural habitat, eating the food that humans give them rather than what

they can catch out in the open ocean?

It's certainly something that we all need to consider.

And that brings us to the end of today's episode.

As always, I hope you found it useful.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.