Shadowing Practice: Learn English with a Book | Animal Farm | Deep Work Session | Part 1 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Reading stories is the best way to improve your language skills.
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And today I'm going to read this very famous book with you.
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This book is Animal Farm by George Orwell.
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My name is Eric and I've been an English teacher for many years.
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Today I'm going to read this book with you and explain the English as we go.
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Comment below, tell me what country you're from, what your first language is, and if you have any questions as we go.
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Let's begin.
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Mr. Jones of the Manor Farm had locked the henhouses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop holes.
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So we'll go sentence by sentence. of the manor farm.
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Here we see a capital M, so that is the name of the farm.
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Manor is also a word, which means a large house.
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So Mr. Jones of the manor farm had locked the hen houses.
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So these are houses for hens.
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A hen is a female chicken, a female chicken.
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So he's locked the hen houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop holes.
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Pop holes are little doors for animals in the sides of buildings.
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So the hen house maybe looks something like this, and then there's a little hole in the side, which we could call a pop hole.
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with the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side
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to side he lurched across the yard kicked off his boots
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at the back door drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery
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and made his way up to bed where mrs jones was already snoring
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so with the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side so let's make that
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one unit with the ring of his light.
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So here with does not mean with like I'm with you right now.
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With here is saying that this is happening at the same time as this.
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So the light is moving, dancing it's kind of a poetic way to talk about light
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it's moving at the same time as he lurches well what's what's lurching
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so to lurch it's to move in an uncoordinated way he's drunk he's drunk
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so imagine a drunk person walking or a very tired sleepy person walking they're not walking confidently.
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They're lurching.
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They're not walking in a straight line.
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So that's, let's say, to walk slowly, awkwardly. To lurch.
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So as he's walking across the yard, the light from his lantern is moving.
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A lantern is an old kind of lamp or light.
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So a lantern might look something like this.
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It's a little glass box and maybe there's a oil lamp inside
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or a candle inside and so there's light coming from that.
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And so that ring of light around the lantern is dancing.
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It's moving from side to side as he walks.
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Then he kicked off his boots at the back door of his house.
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He took off his boots.
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So here, kicked off is a phrasal verb.
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And it's just like take off.
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I can put on clothes and take off clothes.
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You can put on boots and kick off boots.
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Actually kick them off.
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Drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel.
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Notice drew.
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It's just another way of talking about pouring a liquid.
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I drew some water for myself before I started this video.
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So that's just another way to say pouring from the barrel.
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The barrel is the old wooden container for, well I guess they're not old,
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there's new barrels too, but it's that classic kind of wooden round container for wine or beer or
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other things in the scullery.
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Scullery is not a very common word today.
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This book is not very old, but scullery is not a very common word.
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A scullery is a special room on a kitchen where you might do some washing.
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You might wash some vegetables or pots or things in the scullery.
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But again, that's a very rare word.
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And he made his way up to bed where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.
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Snoring is that sound people make when they are asleep.
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We represent that with Zs sometimes.
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So his wife, Mrs. Jones, is already asleep.
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So what happened in the first paragraph?
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He's drunk, he went inside.
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As soon as the light in the bedroom went out, there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings.
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Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize middle white boar,
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had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to all the other animals.
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So, as soon as the light in the bedroom went out.
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Another phrasal verb.
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To go out.
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If we're talking about a light,
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to go out means to stop shining.
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If you think about modern lights, it's going off.
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But you can't say that about fire.
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You can't say that a fire is on or off.
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That's not a normal way of speaking.
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We say that a fire is burning or that it is out.
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So to go out is to stop shining.
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So the light in the bedroom stopped.
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there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings.
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So to stir is to move something around.
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And I'm doing this motion because maybe I could stir something into my water, right?
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Stirring, stirring.
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So when we're talking about people or animals, stirring just means moving, moving around.
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The animals are going to go somewhere or they're going to gather together, as we will see.
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So here, to stir could mean to wake up or to start moving.
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Fluttering.
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Fluttering is the movement and sound of wings or leaves.
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Fluttering is that movement of them.
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So let's see, I could use some paper.
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That's kind of fluttering.
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You can imagine the wings of chickens or other birds.
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That's fluttering.
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So the animals are moving.
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Word had gone round.
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Word here means the news or the story.
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It's not a word.
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Notice there's no the or a.
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It's not a word.
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This is just news.
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Word had gone round.
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so round here is around around it's very common around word
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had gone around it has spread the news had spread during the day
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that old major the prize middle white bore so major here capital m That is a word,
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but here it's a name for the prize boar.
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So animals might win prizes.
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Their caretakers or their farmers,
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their owners might be given prizes for them because they are particularly large or healthy or they win prizes.
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So that's why he's called a prize boar.
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A boar is a male pig.
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A boar is a male pig which has children or which can have children.
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We'll call them kids.
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They can have children, kids, piglets.
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I know, I know, they're not really kids.
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Piglets, let's call them piglets. So boar.
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A boar could also be a wild boar, a kind of wild pig,
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but in this context, this is just a male pig which can have piglets.
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So Old Major is an important old pig on the farm,
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and he had had a strange dream on the previous night.
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So that's not a mistake. Had had.
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That is our past perfect form of have. Because we have dreams.
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To have a dream is what we say when we experience a dream.
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When we we are in a dream we have had a dream.
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So it's past perfect because this is the past of the past.
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So the story is already told in the past.
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We have the past.
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And then we're talking about the night before, the previous night.
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And so we use the past perfect for that.
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You see, because the book is already in the past simple, we need to go to the past of the past.
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Wish to communicate it to the other animals.
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Notice wish being used this way.
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In modern speech, in regular speech, even at this time, we would say want.
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Wished to do is a little bit more formal or a more posh way of speaking.
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Want would be the way we'd say that normally today in North America.
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It had been agreed
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that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way.
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So, it had been agreed, again, that's the past perfect, but in the passive had been agreed
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and always think about what is the it what is the
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it well here the it is this whole phrase here they
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should all meet in the big barn as soon as mr.
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Jones was safely out of the way notice we have this phrase as soon as and it comes back again
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as soon as.
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At the moment when the light went out.
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At the moment when Mr. Jones was safely out of the way.
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The safely here is talking about the animals.
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They want to meet and they don't want Mr. Jones to know.
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Out of the way, this is an expression.
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This whole thing you could think of as an idiom, but it's very literal.
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So a good example would be my drink.
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I don't want it to be on the camera, so I move it out of the way.
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We don't want Mr. Jones to be at the meeting, so we wait until he is out of the way.
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Out of the way.
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Old Major, so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty,
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was so highly regarded on the farm
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that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say.
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So, old major is major.
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This is the way that they speak of him, even though his name is Willingdon Beauty.
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So, The word so is a word you should spend some time on.
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Put some stars here.
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It's a very important word because it has so many different meanings.
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Here, this is one meaning that's not so common in speech.
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So he was always called.
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this means in this way this is what he was called
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so this is the way that people spoke about him
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so in this manner in this way thus is another word for
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that so he was always called he was always called old major though the name under
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which he had been exhibited was willington beauty This is something we should look at. Though.
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Though marks what we call a concessive clause.
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And that's just a fancy way of saying there's more information that might surprise you.
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So what do I mean?
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What do I mean?
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They call him Old Major, but his name is actually Willingdon Beauty.
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They call him Old Major, but his name is actually Willington Beauty.
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So, though here is functioning a little bit like the word but.
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The name under which, this is a whole unit here.
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The name under which he had been exhibited.
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This whole thing is a kind of relative clause.
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Which is our relative pronoun.
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So his name that they gave him when he was shown, that's where he won his prize, was Willingdon Beauty.
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And he was so highly regarded.
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So if we regard someone highly, we like them.
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We think they are respectable.
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He was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep.
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So notice that structure.
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So highly regarded that.
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For example, it's so hot outside that I won't go out.
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So hot that I won't go out.
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So highly regarded that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say.
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So to lose, ready to lose means they're okay with it.
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They're fine with that.
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That's okay with them.
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An hour's sleep.
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Don't worry about this hour's sleep.
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It's an expression.
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We might use this with minutes as well or days, other units of time.
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I can say that it was a 10 nights stay or that it took three hours time to drive somewhere.
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It's one way of talking about time.
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An hour's sleep means one hour of sleep in order to hear what he had to say.
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In order to is a mark of purpose.
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So why will they lose sleep?
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So that they can hear what he had to say.
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At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam.
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At one end of the big barn, on a raised platform, almost like a stage, let's say.
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Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw.
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So straw is what animals sleep on.
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So it would be dried grass, let's say.
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Ensconced.
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Ensconced is something like positioned comfortably.
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So I have a little pig here.
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There he is.
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And he's comfortable.
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He's ensconced on his bed of straw.
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Under a lantern which hung from a beam.
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So a beam is a piece of wood, which is important for the structure of a building.
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So there's a beam, and then there's another lantern hanging from it, and it has light.
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He was 12 years old and had lately grown rather stout,
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but he was still a majestic looking pig. So stout.
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Stout means fat.
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Fat, let's say thick.
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So you can imagine an old pig, a very healthy old pig, being quite large.
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Stout means fat.
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Majestic, still a majestic looking pig.
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So majestic has to do with majesty.
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It has a royal meaning, or something which is very wonderful,
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remarkable, impressive, something majestic, like a mountain, for example.
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You can imagine a beautiful mountain lake is majestic.
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Or a lion, a large lion with a big mane that could roar.
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That would be a majestic animal.
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of course, we call kings and queens your majesty.
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So if I meet the king, I would call him your majesty.
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If I want to be respectful, I could say that.
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So this is something that is very positive.
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He's a majestic looking pig with a wise
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and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut.
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Benevolent.
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So sometimes it's good to learn pieces of words.
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Bene or bene here is good.
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If you think of other languages,
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perhaps French, We have lots of words in many European languages with this root of bene from Latin.
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So this just means good.
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Benevolent means you wish good on others.
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You treat other people well.
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Benevolent.
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Treating others well.
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so he looks kind he looks kind
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in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut
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so this is not a word that you need to know tushes you don't need to know it because
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nowadays we typically say tusk instead so What's a tusk?
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On a boar's face, that is a male pig,
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there are two long pointy teeth.
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They look like teeth.
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They're white.
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They're called tusks.
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Elephants have tusks.
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Some sea creatures have tusks.
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Tusks are part of the body And if they're never cut Then they're very, very long
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So he doesn't look kind But he does look kind At the same time
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In spite of You could say despite the fact You can say in spite of the fact
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Or you could even say Though his tusks had never been cut Remember how I said that when we use though,
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it's because two things are kind of surprising together?
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Well, this is surprising together.
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The long tusks look angry.
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They look violent, but he's benevolent.
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He still looks like a nice pig.
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He looks like a nice guy.
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Before long, the other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions.
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Before long.
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Soon.
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Soon.
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Before long.
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You can use this in speech, too.
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Before long.
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The other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions.
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Hmm, okay, that's interesting.
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Let's think about the word fashion.
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What is fashion?
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You might be thinking about clothes.
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But why is fashion called fashion?
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Because fashion is a way of clothing yourself.
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Fashion means way.
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After their different fashions means in their own ways.
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Different animals sit down in different ways.
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Some animals prefer to stand.
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So notice there's two things there to really notice after here means in, in their own way, after their different fashions,
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and also the word fashion.
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It is very very common in books for fashion to be used to mean way or manner.
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Way, manner, or method.
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First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jesse, and Pinscher, and then the pigs who settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform.
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So settle down, phrasal verb, means to make yourself comfortable, to calm down, to relax.
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We use this with children as well.
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We tell a child to settle down means be quiet
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and calm down relax chill out
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and they settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform
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so here immediately is not talking about time here immediately is talking about space
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So the book right now is immediately in front of the camera.
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The camera's right there, and the book is immediately in front of the camera.
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So these pigs are immediately in front of the platform right here.
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So they are right here.
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There's more straw on the ground, and then there's some more pigs there in the straw.
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The hens, female chickens, perched themselves on the windowsills.
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The pigeons fluttered up to the rafters.
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The sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud.
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A windowsill is simply the edge of a window.
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So we might have on the inside or the outside a little place and here is where the pigeons are.
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They are on the windowsill.
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Make a window there.
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The windowsill is the edge.
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The pigeons fluttered.
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So you remember flutter was back here fluttering all through the farm buildings.
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So remember, fluttering is the sound of wings or the movement of birds.
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The sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud.
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To chew the cud.
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This book has some vocabulary for animals, of course, because this is Animal Farm.
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So to chew the cud.
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Chewing, of course, is what we do with our mouths and our teeth and our jaws.
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The cud is food which is partially digested.
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Some animals, called ruminants, chew their food more than once.
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Cows do this.
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Sheep do this, I suppose.
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They chew the cud.
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They chew their food again.
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The two cart horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care,
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lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw.
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Cart horses, horses for pulling carts, these are big strong horses,
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walking very slowly, they set down their vast hairy hoofs.
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Vast is large.
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A hoof, hoof or hoof, is the foot of some animals.
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Horses are the best example.
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It's not a normal kind of foot, right?
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It is solid.
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It is heavy.
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it requires a horseshoe to walk on the pavement.
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It is a hoof.
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So they set down their feet with great care,
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very carefully, because maybe there are some small animals they could step on,
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Lest there should be, so this is a very literary way of saying in case there are some small animals concealed,
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that is hidden in the straw.
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So the horses are stepping very, very carefully so that they don't hurt anyone.
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Clover was a stout, motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.
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Stout, again, means fat, motherly mare.
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A mare is a female horse for breeding, who has children, a mare,
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approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back.
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So figure is the shape of a person.
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The shape of a person, or in this case, the shape of a mare.
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After her fourth foal.
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A foal is a baby horse.
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Foal is a baby horse.
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And I'll put mare here too.
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Mare.
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Female.
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Horse.
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So her body changed after she had four foals.
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Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly 18 hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.
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There's so many words in English for big.
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Don't use big.
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Big is such a boring word.
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There are so many others.
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We have enormous, we have huge, we have humongous, we have gigantic.
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There's so many words.
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So enormous is a great word for big.
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Big.
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Very big.
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Nearly 18 hands high.
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So this is not something you need to remember, but horses are measured in hands.
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So rather than saying he's five feet tall or six feet tall or whatever it is, he's 18 hands high.
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And as strong as any two ordinary horses combined, put together.
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Put together is combined.
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Nice phrasal verb there.
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A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact, he was not of first-rate intelligence,
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but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.
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So, somewhat, a little bit.
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somewhat means a little bit, somewhat is rather.
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He looks a bit stupid.
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Appearance is how something looks, of course.
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And in fact, he was not of first-rate intelligence.
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First-rate is the best of something.
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First-rate is the best of something.
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For example, I love this coaster.
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I think this is a first-rate coaster.
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Yes, it has some coffee on it, but I think it's first-rate.
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It's from Scotland.
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But he was universally respected.
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So even though he's not very smart, everyone respects him.
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He's universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.
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So steadiness, if something is steady, it doesn't move.
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So I could be unsteady and I'd be shaking like this, but if I'm steady, I'm not moving.
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So steadiness of character is who you are.
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If you don't change, you're reliable, you're trustworthy.
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That would be steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.
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Tremendous, big, mighty, impressive, awesome, wonderful, enormous powers of work.
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So he's strong.
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He's very strong and he can work very hard.
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After the horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey.
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Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm and the worst-tempered.
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He gets angry a lot.
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Worst-tempered.
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He seldom talked, and when he did it was usually to make some cynical remark.
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For instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.
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Seldom.
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Infrequent.
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Infrequent.
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Infrequently.
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He doesn't talk very much.
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He infrequently talks.
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And when he did, he's just being cynical.
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To be cynical is to always see what is negative in life.
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To be cynical is to be very bitter about things.
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For instance, so for example, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.
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So you can see from the context, he would sooner have had, he would rather have had.
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His preference is that he should just have no tail and no flies.
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Because if God had given him a tail, God could take away the flies, you see.
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So it's a very cynical way of thinking, very negative way of thinking.
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Alone among the animals on the farm, he never laughed.
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That means he's the only one who doesn't laugh.
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If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at.
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Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer.
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The two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side, never speaking.
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Nevertheless means despite this.
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So despite that he never laughs, he's kind of cynical and negative.
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Despite that, in spite of that, he's devoted to Boxer.
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To be devoted to something is to dedicate yourself to it or to love it or to give yourself completely to it.
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That is devoted.
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Devoted.
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This is a very strong word.
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So when people get married, they are devoted to each other.
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Religious people are devoted to their religions, to their gods.
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It's a very strong word, devoted.
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The two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard grazing.
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So a paddock is an enclosed area for animals, usually horses.
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So you might have some horses or llamas or something like that inside a fence, right?
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There's a fence, a wall around the outside, and inside you have a paddock.
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That's where you keep horses outside.
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Beyond the orchard.
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An orchard is a place where there are fruit trees.
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So you could have an apple orchard or a pear orchard.
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Grazing is eating.
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Specifically, it's when animals eat grass.
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You can remember this because of the word grass.
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To graze And then think about grass.
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Eating grass, grazing, grass grazed.
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You see the connection because Z and S are related to each other.
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So they eat together and they spend their Sundays together in the paddock and they don't talk.
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They're very close.
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Sometimes we don't have to talk.
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We're so close to each other.
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The two horses had just lain down when a brood of ducklings, which had lost their mother, filed into the barn, cheeping feebly
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and wandering from side to side to find some place where they would not be trodden on.
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A brood is a group of small birds, of young birds, baby birds.
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In this case, ducklings.
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Ducklings are baby ducks.
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So, I'll put that here.
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Duckling.
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small duck baby duck why did I say small well think of Ling as something small
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because there's other words like gosling for example a gosling is a baby goose baby goose
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so Ling is an ending that has to do with something being small
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and And that comes from the Germanic background of English, which is why in German today, if you speak German, you know that Ling sometimes means something is small,
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like Liebling, for example.
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So these small ducklings don't have a mother, and they filed into the barn.
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So that means there was one and another and another and another and another, and they moved in a line together.
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That's filed into, one by one.
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Cheeping feebly and wandering from side to side.
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Cheeping.
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Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep.
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Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep.
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These are noises.
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Noises.
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Cheep.
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In this book, there are many words for the sounds which animals make.
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And so these are not very common words, but they go with the individual animals.
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So a dog barks, a cat meows, little birds cheep.
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And so you can learn some of those words in this book if you'd like.
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Feebly means weakly.
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So these are small cheeps because they've lost their mother.
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Wandering from side to side to find some place where no one would step on them.
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To trod on something is to step on it.
477
And so they don't want to be stepped on because they're very small.
478
So they are trying to find a place where they won't be stepped on.
479
Clover, again, Clover is a mare, right?
480
Clover made a sort of wall around them with her great foreleg.
481
And the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep.
482
So Clover has her leg and she has a place for the chicks to sleep.
483
Foreleg.
484
You see four here like before.
485
A horse has hind legs like behind, right?
486
They have hind legs and they have four legs.
487
So this would be the foreleg and this would be the hind leg.
488
The ducklings nestled down.
489
You see the word nest.
490
Birds, for example, have nests.
491
So do bees and other insects, but nestled down is to become comfortable,
492
to cozy up or nestle down.
493
And they immediately, promptly fell asleep.
494
At the last moment, Molly, the foolish, pretty, white mare who drew Mr. Jones' trap,
495
came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.
496
At the last moment, Molly.
497
So we've seen a mare is a female horse.
498
She draws his trap, and she came mincing daintily in.
499
So mincing is taking very small steps, but this is not a very common word.
500
It's just small, small, small steps.
501
Daintily.
502
Daintily means that she doesn't look like she's taking heavy steps.
503
It's not heavy.
504
It's the opposite.
505
Dainty would be walking very, very gently and carefully and elegantly.
506
You could think of a flamingo, for example, or other birds.
507
When birds walk, they do it in a very dainty way.
508
A very dainty way.
509
So she came walking slowly, with small steps, in a very gentle way, chewing at a lump of sugar.
510
A lump, of course, is just a sort of blob or mass of sugar.
511
She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plated with.
512
So flirting is usually not this meaning Here flirting just means that she's moving She's moving these things,
513
she's jerking them around And what are they?
514
They're ribbons What's a ribbon?
515
This is a ribbon
516
This is a ribbon So if we put this in the hair of an animal Or a child or,
517
you know, some people put ribbons in their hair.
518
It's called a ribbon.
519
It's called a ribbon.
520
And it's plated.
521
So this means that it's woven together.
522
It is tied together.
523
So she has her hair and it's braided together.
524
So some people tie their hair together in a braid.
525
You could plate it with ribbons.
526
Last of all came the cat, who looked around, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself between Boxer and Clover.
527
There she purred contentedly throughout Major's speech without listening to a word of what he was saying.
528
Notice, when I said this, I said around.
529
It doesn't say around, it says round.
530
That's because here they mean the same thing.
531
So my brain just added around, and yours can too, because in this context it means the same thing.
532
Last of all came the cat.
533
Time for some grammar.
534
Time for some grammar.
535
Last of all, okay, came the cat.
536
Do you see what is strange about that?
537
Let's think about this for a moment.
538
We have our verb and we have the subject of the verb.
539
English normally follows the pattern of subject, verb, object.
540
English is what we call an SVO language.
541
In other languages, for example, German, you might sometimes stick the verb at the end of sentence.
542
English likes this word order, so this is strange.
543
So then why?
544
Last of all, came the cat.
545
Well, this happens in writing.
546
It happens in lyrics to songs.
547
You can think of the famous song, here comes the song, right?
548
It's here comes the song, right?
549
It's an inverted word order.
550
This is called inversion.
551
But you don't need to know that because you can see what it means here.
552
But sometimes it's good to zoom in and ask what's happening.
553
And then also, can you speak that way?
554
Yes.
555
Yes.
556
Maybe you said no, but yes, you can.
557
So for example, let's say you're walking on the street, you see your friend John,
558
and you say to your friend Susie, oh, here comes John.
559
Here comes John.
560
That's totally fine.
561
That's totally fine.
562
Here comes John is totally fine.
563
That doesn't mean that you can do this all the time and everywhere, but with the word come specifically, this is very common to have that inversion.
564
So that inversion again is when you take the subject and the verb, you switch the order.
565
You can look that up if you want to know more about inversion or ask me in the comments below.
566
Ask me any questions that you have.
567
So the cat looked around and then went to sleep.
568
She purred.
569
Purring is the sound that a cat makes when a cat is happy.
570
Content means happy, so contentedly is happily.
571
The cat is happy throughout, through all of major speech, without listening to a word of what he was saying.
572
And just like that, we're out of time for today.
573
So if this video gets enough likes and enough comments.
574
If people are happy with this book choice, then we will continue
575
and we will find out what happens to all of the animals on this very famous farm in this very, very famous book.
576
This is George Orwell's Animal Farm.
577
Let's read more of this together.
578
So like the video, share the video, subscribe to the channel.
579
Tell me where you're watching from, why you're learning English.
580
Ask me any questions you have, and I'll see you next time.
581
Thanks for watching.
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Who Is This Video For?
This video is perfect for intermediate English learners aiming to boost vocabulary, comprehension, and speaking skills through engaging content. Whether you’re practicing shadow speech or looking to refine your english speaking practice, the slow, explanatory pace makes it ideal. It’s also great for those who learn best with context—using a classic story like Animal Farm helps anchor new words in memorable scenarios.
Words & Idioms Worth Stealing
Here are key terms to add to your toolkit:
- Manor: A large, stately house (often part of a farm).
- Lurch: To move awkwardly or unsteadily (e.g., "He lurched across the room after too much coffee").
- Kick off (phrasal verb): To remove (clothes/shoes) with a quick movement (e.g., "I kicked off my shoes as soon as I got home").
- Drew: A formal way to say "poured" (e.g., "She drew a glass of milk from the jug").
- Pop holes: Small doors for animals in buildings (specific but vivid!).
How to Get the Accent Right
To master the speaker’s clear, conversational tone, try shadowing—repeat sentences aloud immediately after hearing them. Focus on: - Intonation in phrases like "dancing from side to side" (rise and fall to mimic the "poetic" feel). - The soft "r" in "manor" and "farm" (common in many English accents). - Pausing after commas, as the speaker does, to mimic natural rhythm. For extra practice, use a shadowing app or shadowing site to record yourself and compare. Pairing this with learn english with videos like this one will speed up your progress—consistency is key!
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | might be given · is already told · had been agreed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've been · has spread · have had |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | word, which means · pig which has · pig which can |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.