Shadowing Practice: Learn English with a Book | The Wizard of Oz | Deep Work Session | Part 2 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Reading stories is the best way to improve your language skills.
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Today, we're going to continue to read this very famous book, The Wizard of Oz.
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This is part two.
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Today, I'm going to read this book with you, and I'm going to explain the English as we go.
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My name is Eric.
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I have been an English teacher for many years.
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I am also a narrator.
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And today we're going to look at new vocabulary, new grammar, and we're going to understand the story as we go.
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If you liked the first video and if you enjoyed this video,
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make sure that you like the video on YouTube and that you subscribe to this channel for more content like this.
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Let me know where you're watching from in the comments and what your first language is.
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Last time we started with the cyclone.
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Dorothy, our main character, was picked up by the cyclone.
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Again, a cyclone is a tornado.
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Dorothy was in her house with her dog, Toto.
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and the house was picked up by the tornado, by the cyclone.
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And so where we stopped was right here on page five.
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We're almost done, chapter one.
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And so here the house was whirled around, was spinning again, whirling, is turning.
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The house was whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air.
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The house is rising in the storm.
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Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.
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So it's not a balloon, it's a house, but it feels like it's a balloon.
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And we saw that she's in the center of the cyclone, the center of the storm.
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We call that the eye of the storm, where everything is still.
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Still means not moving.
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In the middle of a cyclone, the air is generally still.
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But the house rises up in the middle of the storm.
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And then we come to new stuff.
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Let's begin.
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It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily.
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After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.
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So, some things to talk about.
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Howl.
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The wind howled.
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Howling is the sound that a wolf makes.
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A-woo, a-woo.
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That's howling.
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And so if the wind howls, it means you can hear it like a voice, like a voice.
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So the wind sounds bad, sounds bad.
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She found she was riding quite easily.
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Things are okay.
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After the first few spins, whirls, turns around, and one other time when the house tipped badly,
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she felt as if she were being rocked gently.
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Okay, so let's come back to as if again.
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This is always important when you see as if.
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It means that there's something coming which is not real.
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So we saw this here.
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Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.
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There is no balloon.
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That's what I mean by unreal or not real.
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The balloon is hypothetical.
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It's not a real balloon.
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So as and if together are a trigger.
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for a unreal statement.
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So here she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.
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She's not a baby.
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She's not in a cradle.
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And she's not being rocked.
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This is a sort of a imagination here.
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She's imagining this.
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She's imagining this.
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A cradle is a small, small bed. for a baby.
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Something like that.
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Very, very, very small.
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The baby is going to be in there like that.
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It can rock, right?
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It can rock.
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Rocking being moving back and forth.
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Toto did not like it.
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He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly.
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But Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.
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So again, still here means not moving.
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She's sitting still.
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To sit still is to not move.
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Here, the word about means around.
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Around.
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That's very common.
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Very, very common in books and in British English to say about when we mean around.
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This book is an American book, as far as I know,
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but around in British English today is a little bit more common with this meaning, about, about.
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Now here, now there, barking loudly, but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.
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Remember that would here is like will, but in the past.
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So if I'm talking about right now, Dorothy is sitting quite still on the floor and waiting to see what will happen.
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But because we had sat, past tense, waited, past tense, we need to take will and put it into would.
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We need to make it would.
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So that's the future of the past.
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once Toto got too near the open trap door he fell
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in that's not good what's a trap door what's a trap
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door hold on let's go back a trap door is a door in the floor and
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so they have a door in the floor down into the
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cellar the cellar is the space under the house where they can be safe
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but the house was picked up by the storm the house has gone up into the storm so there's no cellar
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there's no cellar just a trap door just a hole this is bad this is not good
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Toto got too near the open trap door and he fell in
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and at first the little girl thought she had lost him this is not good not good
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but soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole
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for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall.
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Hmm.
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This is what we're talking about right here.
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The pressure of the air has held him up so that he doesn't fall.
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The air is pushing him up, so he's not falling.
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Here we have, again, the word for being used to mean because.
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And we're going to see that many, many, many times in this book.
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The word for meaning because.
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So she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole because the air kept him up.
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She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again.
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Afterward closing the trap door so that no more accidents could happen.
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Afterward just means after.
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Crept.
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Crept.
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Present tense of crept is creep.
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So to creep is to walk very carefully or slowly like a spider, something like that, creeping, creeping along.
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So she's scared.
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She's frightened.
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So she's moving very slowly.
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Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright.
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Nice semicolon.
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We can make a little division there.
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her fright.
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Her fright.
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Fright is fear.
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Especially of something which is happening now.
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Fear.
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I could have fear for something that might happen in the future, but fright is probably something that's happening right now.
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It's immediate.
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It's in the present.
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She got over her fear.
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get over that's a nice phrasal verb for us
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so she moves on past her fear she lets her fear go
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but she felt quite lonely and the wind shrieked
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so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf shrieked his scream about we saw
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that before about means around here so the wind is everywhere that she nearly became deaf.
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Deaf means that somebody cannot hear.
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Deaf means someone cannot hear.
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At first, she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again.
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So, dashed, hear, means something like smashed, destroyed, broken smashed,
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smashed, smashed to pieces, destroyed.
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She wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again.
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If here shows us that this whole thing,
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if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again is what we call an indirect question.
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And so you could also use the word weather here.
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W-h-e-t-h-e-r, weather.
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We will come back to this.
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But my point now is this is not a conditional.
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But as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened,
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she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring.
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At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed and lay down upon it, and Toto followed and lay down beside her.
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In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.
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So here, fast does not mean fast.
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Fast asleep means very asleep.
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Fast usually does not mean very.
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But here, it means something like totally asleep.
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Totally asleep.
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Okay, anything else here?
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Crawl on all fours, as in hands and feet down on the ground.
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And the swaying floor, swaying is moving back and forth, swaying like grass in the wind.
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Swaying, swaying, or a tree in the wind.
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so things are still moving.
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The house is still up in the air, but she fell asleep.
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She fell asleep.
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Okay, chapter one is finished.
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Congratulations.
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You made it through chapter one.
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You made it through chapter one.
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Let's get on to the next chapter, chapter two.
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The council with the munchkins.
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The council with the munchkins.
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Council being a gathering of people to make a decision.
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Like the town council is people who sit together in a room and make decisions.
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What are munchkins?
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We will see.
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We will see.
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What is a munchkin?
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We will see.
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She was awakened by a shock so sudden and severe that if Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed, she might have been hurt.
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Okay.
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Here we have a conditional sentence.
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If Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed, she might have been hurt.
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Was she lying on the bed?
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Yes. Was she hurt?
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No. So this is what we call a past unreal conditional.
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Some of you might know this as a third conditional, but past unreal is a better name for it.
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Because she was lying on the bed, it says not, right?
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Not been lying on the bed, so that means that she was.
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That's what I mean by unreal.
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She might have been hurt.
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She wasn't hurt. So that's unreal.
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And this happened in the past.
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So this is hypothetical in the past. So she's okay.
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She's okay.
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She was awakened very abruptly.
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It was a shock.
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It was a surprise.
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But she's okay.
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As it was, the jar made her catch her breath and wonder what had happened.
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And Toto put his cold little nose into her face and whined dismally.
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The jar.
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The jar.
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A jar is when things move a lot.
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When things move quickly, like a plane landing sometimes is jarring, or if you're in a car and you turn too fast,
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it's jarring, something moves quickly.
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That's jar.
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So here, this is not a jar like a jar of jelly or jam.
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This is a jar like a feeling of movement, quick movement.
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Made her catch her breath.
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This is an idiom.
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Catching your breath is like that, right?
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So it's surprise and wonder what had happened.
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And Toto put his cold little nose into her face and whined.
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Whining is like dogs do when they're afraid.
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Dismally is very, very sadly.
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Very, very sadly.
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Dorothy sat up and noticed that the house was not moving, nor was it dark, for the bright sunshine came in at the window,
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flooding the little room.
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So sometimes we talk about light flooding.
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Of course, if water floods, this is a bad thing.
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There's too much water.
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But if light is flooding something.
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It's great.
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Lots of light.
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Lots of light.
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Also, again, for means because here, because the bright sunshine came in at the window.
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She sprang from her bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door.
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Sprang, spring,
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sprang sprung this is a verb to spring is to jump
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is to jump spring this is why the season of
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spring is called spring well what's jumping flowers plants all kinds
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of things are jumping up that's why spring is called spring they spring up.
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So she sprang from the bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door,
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the heel of course being the back of the foot right there is the heel.
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The dog is very close.
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The little girl gave a cry of amazement and looked about her, her eyes growing bigger and bigger at the wonderful sight she saw.
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The cyclone had set the house down very gently for a cyclone in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty.
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There were lovely patches of green sward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits.
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Okay.
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So, marvelous is an old word for wonderful.
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Sometimes people use it today.
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Oh, marvelous, marvelous, marvelous, but it's not so common anymore.
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There were lovely patches of green sward.
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Sward is a very old word you do not need to know.
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It means grass here.
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It's an area of green grass.
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With stately trees, stately, it sounds like they are very elegant,
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elegant, very special trees, very nice trees.
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Stately makes me think of kings and queens and courts and the way that people walk when they are very,
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very important people when they believe they are very important people.
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That would be stately, stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits.
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Luscious here.
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Something like delicious, full of moisture, lush.
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It's a good thing.
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It's a positive thing.
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Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes.
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On every hand is another way of saying around, around us.
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So you right hand, left hand, on the right hand side, on the left hand side, on every hand.
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They're all around, all around.
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Plumage is the feathers of a bird.
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The feathers of a bird.
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Can I draw a feather?
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Yeah, there's a feather.
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Not bad, not bad.
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That would be a a feather.
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So plumage is the feathers of a bird.
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So brilliant plumage, very bright, beautiful plumage.
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And fluttered in the trees and bushes.
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Fluttering is what birds do when they fly.
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Their wings are fluttering.
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We can talk about the leaves in the trees fluttering in the wind.
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and if you see someone that you love, you might have a flutter in your heart, romantic love, you might have a flutter in your heart.
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A little way off was a small brook, rushing and sparkling along between green banks
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and murmuring in a voice very grateful to a little girl who had lived so long in the dry, gray prairies.
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So a brook is a river, a very small river.
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Something very, very, very thin is a brook,
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a small river, rushing and sparkling along between green banks and murmuring.
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Murmuring is speaking.
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So murmuring is a soft kind of speaking, kind of like this, when there's lots of people talking at the same time, like a crowd murmurs.
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In a voice very grateful.
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So grateful today means that I'm happy for something happy for something, I'm grateful towards someone means I'm saying thank you.
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But here, the voice of the river, it just sounds good.
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She is grateful to the sound of the river
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or grateful for the sound of the river because she comes from the prairies.
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Again, we saw this before the prairies are a area of flat land in the west of North America.
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While she stood looking eagerly at the strange and beautiful sights, she noticed coming toward her a group of the queerest people she had ever seen.
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Queer, in a book like this, means strange.
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It means strange.
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The queerest people she had ever seen, the strangest people she had ever seen.
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They were not as big as the grown folk she had always been used to, but neither were they very small.
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In fact, they seemed about as tall as Dorothy, who was a well-grown child for her age,
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although they were, so far as looks go, many years older.
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So here, grown is an adjective.
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You have grow, grew, grown.
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That's the verb.
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You take the third form of the verb and you can use it as an adjective just like bore,
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bored, bored, or excited, excite, excited, excited.
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That's an adjective there.
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You take the third form.
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So they're short but they're not young.
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They're short but not young.
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Three were men and one a woman
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and all were oddly dressed odd of course means strange odd means strange they wore round hats
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that rose to a small point a foot above their heads
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so let's imagine that there's somebody's head and they have round hats
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that rise to a small point a foot above their head so i'm guessing it's something like this.
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Kind of a classic wizard hat, but these are not wizards.
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These are munchkins.
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The munchkins is what we're describing here.
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They wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads with little bells around the brim,
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some bells around the brim, that tinkled sweetly as they moved.
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The brim of a hat is this part.
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Right at the top of your face
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and the back of your head around the bottom of the hat is the brim that tinkled sweetly as they moved.
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Tinkling here is the sound of small bells.
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Water can tinkle.
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A wind chime could tinkle.
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The hats of the men were blue.
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The little woman's hat was white, and she wore a white gown that hung in plates from her shoulders.
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Nice semicolon for our division here.
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Let's talk about plates for a second.
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Plates means something is interwoven.
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Interwoven.
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So I will see if I can draw something here for plates.
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Interwoven.
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So sometimes people with long hair will tie their hair together in a braid, like a rope.
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And another way to talk about braiding is plating.
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Plating.
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So that's what that is.
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In British English, this is pronounced plaits, but in American English, plates.
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Over it.
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So over the gown.
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A gown.
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A gown is a dress.
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A dress.
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over it were sprinkled little stars
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that glistened in the sun like diamonds the men were dressed in blue of the same shade as their hats
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and wore well polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops The men, Dorothy thought, were about as old as Uncle Henry,
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for two of them had beards.
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Again, for means because.
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You see how common that is, that for means because, in books, not in modern speech, but in books.
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But the little woman was doubtless much older.
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So, doubtless, without a doubt, without any suspicion, without any doubt, we think this is certainly true,
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that the little woman is much older than the men.
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Her face was covered with wrinkles, and her hair was nearly white, and she walked rather stiffly.
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Wrinkles.
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You imagine at the side of someone's face.
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Here's the eyes.
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There's a nose and a mouth.
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Wrinkles would be the little tiny lines in the skin that people get, sometimes at the corners of their mouths,
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or the corners of their eyes.
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Wrinkles are lines.
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Lines.
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This is showing that she's much older.
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When these people drew near the house where Dorothy was standing in the doorway, they paused and whispered among themselves,
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as if afraid to come farther. As if.
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Again, always notice as if.
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When we talked about as if before, we saw that as if means something is unreal or hypothetical.
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She felt as if she were going up in a balloon.
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And we also had this again right here.
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She felt as if she were being rocked gently.
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And so she wasn't being rocked gently.
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There is no balloon.
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But here, as if afraid to come further,
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we don't know if she's afraid so it is hypothetical
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but it's not contrafactual because we're not imagining this we think we see it
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so there's a little difference there but as if is still showing us
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that this is not a fact we don't know if she's afraid But the little woman walked up to Dorothy,
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made a low bow, and said in a sweet voice, You are welcome, most noble sorceress, to the land of the munchkins.
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We are so grateful to you for having killed the wicked witch of the east, and for setting our people free from bondage.
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Okay, a bow is when someone puts their head down, there's a person, and they are bowing.
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When the head goes down as a sign of respect for somebody else, maybe there's a very important person here,
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and so this person is bowing. To bow.
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Of course, this could also be bow, which is a word for this, right?
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You have a bow and you have an arrow. So is it bow?
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Is it bow? So, context, context, context.
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The three rules of interpretation are context, context, context.
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A word by itself means nothing.
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You need to have the sentence, the paragraph, the page, and the book, which is why it's so important to use stories for learning.
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And of course, if you like doing that, subscribe to the channel.
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Let me know below. So, most noble sorceress.
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A sorceress is someone who does magic.
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Someone who does magic.
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The S ending here, S, is used for women.
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So, in a way, sorceress means a witch.
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A witch.
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So grateful for having killed the wicked witch of the East.
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What?
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This is new.
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This is new information for us.
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Who's the Wicked Witch of the East?
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We don't know.
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We don't know yet.
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We don't know. And killed?
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What?
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We don't know.
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And set our people free from bondage.
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Bondage is, for example, if someone is arrested and their hands go into handcuffs right here's some hands in handcuffs.
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I am not an artist, my friends, but those are hands in handcuffs.
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So that's bondage.
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So the wicked witch of the East, this is not a good person.
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Wicked means evil here.
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Notice two syllables.
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Wicked.
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Wicked.
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It's not wicked.
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Wicked is something else.
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This is Wicked, the Wicked Witch of the East.
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So Dorothy has helped them somehow.
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Apparently she's killed this witch person.
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Let's find out who the witch was and how did she kill her.
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Dorothy listened to this speech with wonder. With wonder.
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It means she's saying, Wow.
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Wow.
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What could the little woman possibly mean by calling her a sorceress
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and saying she had killed the Wicked Witch of the East?
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Dorthry was an innocent, harmless little girl who had been carried by a cyclone many miles from home, and she had never killed anything in all her life.
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Innocent and harmless.
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Innocent means she's like a child.
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She is a child.
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Someone who's innocent has done nothing wrong.
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Has done nothing wrong.
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Harmless.
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Well, harm is pain or hurt or bad things happening to someone,
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evil happening to someone.
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And so harmless means she causes no harm.
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She causes no harm.
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But the little woman evidently expected her to answer.
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Evidently is another way to say apparently or seemingly.
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So it looks like the little woman wants her to answer.
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So Dorothy said with hesitation,
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so slowly, you are very kind,
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but there must be some mistake.
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I have not killed anything.
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so she's hesitating she's hesitating you are very kind hesitating see going going slowly
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and there's an image of what we're talking about there's the
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man there's the old woman toto dorothy i'm the witch of
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the north hmm let's see let's see what that's talking about your house did anyway, replied the little old woman with a laugh,
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and that is the same thing.
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See, she continued, pointing to the corner of the house, there are her two toes still sticking out from under a block of wood.
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So the house, they don't show us this, but the corner of the house where it landed on the ground,
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here's the house, has two little feet sticking out from underneath it.
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So the house killed someone, killed the Wicked Witch of the East.
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Dorothy looked and gave a little cry of fright.
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Fright again means she's scared.
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There, indeed, just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on, two feet were sticking out, shod in silver shoes with pointed toes.
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a beam is a long piece of wood a long strong piece of wood
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and shod shod this is not so common anymore
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but shod means wearing somebody's wearing something especially a shoe especially a shoe shod and silver shoes so she's wearing silver shoes
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Oh dear, oh dear, cried Dorothy, clasping her hands together in dismay.
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The house must have fallen on her.
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Whatever shall we do?
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So clasping her hands together.
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Clasping is like this.
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Clasping, clasping.
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So she's, oh no, oh no, whatever shall we do?
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Now, grammar time, grammar time.
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The house must have fallen.
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Three pieces must have fallen.
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What does must mean?
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Must, when we're speaking about the present time, can mean two things.
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And when we're speaking about the past time, it means only one thing.
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Usually.
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Usually.
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So if we're speaking about the present, must can mean that you should do something.
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Like, you must try this tea.
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It's amazing.
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You must try it.
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It's such a good tea.
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In fact, I must take a drink.
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Fantastic tea.
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But must can also mean that I'm making a guess about something.
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I'm making a guess.
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So right now, you must be watching this on a screen. On a screen.
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So I think logically, you must be watching this on a screen.
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That is not should.
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It's a guess when I have confidence.
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I'm sure that you're watching this on a screen.
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There's no other way to watch it.
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So you must be watching on a screen.
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So when we talk about the past and we use must,
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almost always in modern English must means I'm making a confident guess
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so we see that there's defeat here and
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so we think logically the house must have fallen on this
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person that's my confident guess I think the house fell on her must have fallen
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so this is making a confident guess whatever shall we do
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there is nothing to be done said the little woman calmly
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but who was she asked dorothy she was the wicked witch
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of the east as i said answered the little woman she
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has held all the munchkins in bondage for many years making them slave for her night
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and day now they are all set free
489
and are grateful to you for the favor so again bondage we saw that on the last page, means that people are forced to do things they don't want to do.
490
Maybe they are actually physically bound, like in handcuffs.
491
Notice here that slave is a verb.
492
To slave is to work for someone else, is to be a slave.
493
I say work, but work without being paid, right, to be a slave.
494
Who are the munchkins? inquired Dorothy.
495
Inquire, it's just a word that means ask.
496
They are the people who live in this land of the east, where the wicked witch ruled.
497
Are you a munchkin? asked Dorothy.
498
No, but I am their friend, although I live in the land of the north.
499
Aha, so she must be the witch of the north.
500
When they saw the witch of the east was dead, the Munchkins sent a swift.
501
Swift means fast, like Taylor Swift, means fast.
502
They sent a fast messenger to me, and I came at once. At once?
503
It's a very literary way of saying immediately, right now, I am the Witch of the North.
504
Oh gracious, cried Dorothy Are you a real witch?
505
Gracious here Goodness gracious Means I'm surprised by something Oh wow,
506
oh golly gee Yes, indeed, answered the little woman
507
But I am a good witch
508
And the people love me I am not as powerful as the wicked witch was Who ruled here
509
Or I should have set the people free myself Here, should have really means would have in modern English,
510
or I should say in modern spoken English in North America, means would have.
511
If she could have, she would have.
512
So this, again, is a contrafactual past statement.
513
She didn't set them free.
514
She didn't set them free, but she would have if she could have.
515
But I thought all witches were wicked, said the girl, who was half frightened at facing a real witch.
516
Oh no, that is a great mistake.
517
There were only four witches in all the land of Oz, and two of them, those who live in the north and south, are good witches.
518
I know this is true, for, because, I am one of them myself, and cannot be mistaken.
519
Those who dwelt in the east and the west were, indeed, wicked witches.
520
But now that you have killed one of them, there is but one wicked witch in all the land of Oz, the one who lives in the West.
521
So notice that here we have two different versions of the word but.
522
But can mean something like however or additionally for a contrast, right?
523
I like tea, but I drink too much tea.
524
But here, there is but one.
525
Only is what but means here.
526
And that's quite common in writing, especially when someone like a witch is talking.
527
It sounds a little more formal.
528
But, said Dorothy, after a moment's thought, Aunt M has told me that the witches were all dead years and years ago.
529
Who is Aunt Em? inquired the little old woman.
530
She is my aunt who lives in Kansas where I come from.
531
So we are, let's see, we're almost through chapter two.
532
Of course, if you are enjoying these videos, please do comment below, like the video,
533
subscribe to the channel, and I would be happy to make lots more content like this.
534
If there are books that you want me to do, comment below.
535
Also tell me where you're from, what your first language is, why you're learning English, and if you have any questions about these books,
536
please comment below and let me know.
537
Thanks for watching.
538
I'll see you next time.
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What You'll Learn
This video helps you build two key speaking skills: using as if to describe hypothetical feelings and explaining sensory experiences (like wind "howling") with vivid vocabulary. These are critical for IELTS speaking practice, where clarity and detail boost scores. You’ll also learn to break down complex sentences, a skill that improves both your speaking flow and listening comprehension—perfect for shadowing techniques.
Listen For These Sounds
Notice how "as if she were" links smoothly: "as if she were" becomes a connected phrase, with "if" and "she" blending. The word "howled" is stressed on the first syllable, making it sound sharp, like the wind it describes. Also, "rocked gently" reduces slightly, with "rocked" and "gently" flowing together. These nuances are key for mastering natural speech, whether you’re using a shadowing app or practicing alone.
Say It Like a Native
To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, stress words that convey emotion: "horribly" in "wind howled horribly" and "gently" in "rocked gently" should stand out. Pause slightly before "as if" to signal a hypothetical, as the narrator does. This rhythm mimics real conversation, making your speech sound more natural. For extra practice, try the shadowing technique: repeat the lines aloud right after the speaker, focusing on stress and linking. Tools like shadowspeaks or shadow speak can help refine this, but even repeating the video aloud builds muscle memory for fluent, native-like speech.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been · has gone · has held |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was picked · was whirled · being rocked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | coming which is · something which is · people who sit |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was spinning · was riding · was keeping |
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.