Word Power | Robin Hood

by | Jan 11, 2021 | Vocabulary Building

Word Power | Robin Hood

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What is this episode about?

Learn 30 new words in this new Word Power episode from English Plus Podcast. Learn the first 10 words from a text about Robin Hood, the second 10 words about activity and action, and the final 10 words based on the roots -frac- and -rupt-.

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I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today’s very special because it is the first episode in 2021. And it is the first episode in our premium option podcast. The podcast episodes, we’ll all be free to listen to, but the premium option will give you access to exercises and worksheets that you can use to practice what you listen to in our episodes, and to take your English learning to the next level.

[00:00:30] So, if you would like to access the exercises or the worksheets, you can use the link that will take you to Patreon. You can become a patron of the show and have access to all the exercises and worksheets that will come your way after every episode. But the episodes themselves will stay free. You can listen to them for free, and that will never change.

[00:00:52] So now without further ado, let’s start with our first episode for 2021. And today is word power. You may remember we have vocabulary builder at the beginning of every week, but it is going to be word power from now on it’s just to show that we’ve changed the format of word power a little bit, but only to the better.

[00:01:16] And quickly before we start our episode for today. Let me remind you that we have worked power every Monday, business English on Tuesday, grammar on Wednesday, writing on Thursday, speaking on Friday pronunciation on Saturday and common mistakes on Sunday. So stay tuned and listen to all our episodes and get your English language to the next level with English plus podcast.

[00:01:41] So now without further ado, let’s start. And let’s talk about what you’re going to learn today. And let’s talk about this new format in this new format of this vocabulary builder. And now it’s called word power. Of course, we’re going to start with a text and 10 words taken from this text, 10 new words that you’re going to learn.

[00:02:02] And then we’re going to focus on a topic and we’re going to learn some words we can use for this topic. For example, today’s text is going to be about Robinhood, the Prince of thieves. And then we’re going to focus on words that have to do with activity and action. And finally, before we finished the word power, we’re going to talk about something that might look a little bit technical to you or to linguistic, let’s say, but actually it is very useful to learn.

[00:02:32] And that is when we focus on words that have roots, prefixes and suffixes, and we learn these roots, prefixes and suffixes to help us understand even more words when we can see those prefixes suffixes or roots. But let me not talk a lot about that. And let’s start right away with Robin hood, the Prince of thieves, and I will leave it to Ben to read the text.

[00:02:56] Then I will talk about the words that we’re going to focus on Robin hood, Prince of thieves, possibly as early as the 12th century, traveling minstrels began singing ballads in praise of the exploits of a thief named Robin hood. His skill and archery is free and easy lifestyle in Sherwood forest. And perhaps most of all, his ability to outwit the sheriff of noting him, endeared him to the common people in ballad.

[00:03:29] After ballad Robin hood was consistently pictured as one who stole only from the rich and shared the spoil of his actions with the poor. Even though the legends portray him as the enemy of the nobility Robin hood possessed an unflagging loyalty to his King, Richard, the Lionheart it, this feeling was shared by many people at the time as the stories of this remarkable champion of the people increased in number, so that the size of his colorful band of thieves, a huge bulk of a man called little John became Robin’s most trusted follower.

[00:04:10] Alan, uh, Dale, a minstrel entertained the group around the evening, campfire, the fat and jocular friar tuck kept everyone amused in later. Ballads, Robin acquired sweetheart made Marion. This story included all the traditional romantic qualities, danger, secret meetings, disguises, and the ultimate triumph of true love.

[00:04:35] Was Robin hood, a living, breathing, human being, or merely the figment of some Balladeers imagination. Those who claim him to be real offer an interesting and believable scenario. The laws protecting the King’s forest and deer were quite strict in 12th century, England, perhaps a Hunter accidentally killed one of the King’s deer.

[00:05:00] As a wanted man, he may have gone into hiding in the deepest part of the forest there. He might’ve been joined by sympathetic supporters apart from the ballads. However, from evidence of Robin Hood’s existence is hard to find no scholar or historian of the time mentions him. The events described in the various stories simply could not have happened in the course of one lifetime.

[00:05:28] Even, so the romantic picture of the Prince of thieves endures in modern poems, operas and movies, Robin hood clearly lives on in legend. So we have our story. We have this famous character and of course, most of us believe that he’s a fictional character, but it doesn’t matter. The story sometimes is even more important than how authentic the story is.

[00:05:54] Anyway, our quest today is not to investigate whether Robin hood is a real character or not, but to learn 10 U words from this text about Robin hood, the words we’re going to learn are consistent in deer. Exploits figment, jocular portray scenario, spoils, ultimate and unflagging. So let’s start with a very first one, and that is exploited.

[00:06:21] In the text, we said, traveling minstrels began singing ballads in praise of the exploits of a thief named Robin hood. So here, we’re talking about the exploits of a thief named Robin hood, and those Balladeers were praising the exploits. What do we mean by exploits? And usually it is implausible by the way, because here it’s a noun.

[00:06:45] It can be a verb. It can have a different meaning, but here we have it as a noun. If you refer to someone’s exploits, you mean the brave interesting and amusing things that they have done. So if you look back at this sentence, we can find a clue to that as well. When we say that Balladeers praise the exploits.

[00:07:07] So here we’re talking about something to be praised, always look for those little context clues that can make the meaning of words a lot easier, but let me not forget. Let’s talk about this spelling of exploit exploit is spelled E X, P L O I T. And now let’s move on to talk about the next word in Deere, E N D E a R India.

[00:07:33] Now in the text, we said that his skill and archery is free and easy lifestyle in Sherwood forest. And perhaps most of all, his ability to outwit the sheriff of noting him, endeared him. To the common people. Now, all of these things indeed him to the common people. What does that mean? If something endears you to someone, or if you endear yourself to them, you become popular with them and well-liked by them.

[00:08:01] And that’s exactly what happened to Robin hood. Everybody liked Robin hood. He made himself popular, or he became popular. All these things, endeared him to the common people. So that was our second word. And now for our next word, consistent in the text, we said Robin hood was consistently pictured as one who stole only from the rich and shared the spoils of his actions with the poor.

[00:08:27] And actually here we have two words while I would like to talk about consistent and spoils. Let’s start with consistent C O N S I S T E N T. Let’s take a look at the sentence. Robin hood was pictured as one who stole from the rich and gave to the poor or share the spoils with the poor. But here it was not only that he was pictured, he was consistently pictured as if the picture never changes.

[00:08:55] It was always done in the same way. Someone who is consistent, always behaves in the same way, has the same attitudes towards people or things, or achieves the same level of success in things. And we can say that about things as well. He was consistently pictured always in the same way. So that was about consistent.

[00:09:17] What about the second word in the same sentence? Spoils SP O I L S. Now he shared the spoils of his actions with the poor. The spoils are the goods, the advantages or profits obtained by winning a war or being in a particular position or a situation. Usually when armies win Wars or battles, they take valuable things from the defeated party, defeated army defeated village.

[00:09:45] Sometimes it is shameful because they take more than it is acceptable. But anyway, these things are called the spoils and the famous word for that, or a famous phrase for that, they call the spoils of war. Which is usually a shameful thing, to be honest, but not in this case. In this case, we’re talking about our beloved Robin hood and the spoils.

[00:10:05] He shared the spoils of his actions that he shared with the poor. So let’s move on to the next word, portray P O R T R a Y. And in the text we said, even though the legends portray him as the enemy of the nobility. Robin hood possessed an unflagging loyalty to his King, Richard, the Lionheart it. Now, when you portray something or you portray someone, you describe this person or you paint a picture for everybody to see it doesn’t have to be a picture.

[00:10:37] Actually it could be in writing. So that is the meaning of portray. Now of course, the word is related to paintings originally, but as a verb, we can use it in different contexts. If a film book or television program portrays someone in a certain way, it represents them in that way. And that is exactly what we have here.

[00:10:59] The legends portray him as the enemy of the King, but we can use it in other ways as well. When a writer or artist portray something, he or she writes a description or produces a painting of it. Or when an actor or actress portray someone, he or she plays that person in a play or film. So that was about portray.

[00:11:22] And what about this word? We just talked about Robin hood possessed, an unflagging loyalty to his King, Richard, the Lionheart unflagging, U N F L a G G I N G. What does that mean? Now he possessed loyalty. Yes, we know that. But what about the unflagging loyalty? Now, the word tells you that that was not going to change no matter what, it’s not going to become even less.

[00:11:49] You described something such as support effort or enthusiasm as unflagging. You mean that it does not stop or get less as time passes. And that is our loyalty, or that is actually Robin Hood’s loyalty to his King, Richard, the Lionheart it was unflagging. It never changed. It never got less as time passed.

[00:12:14] And now to the next word, jocular. When we talked about Robin Hood’s companions or associates, we talked about little John, Elena Dale, and we talked about friar tuck. And when we talked about friar tuck, we said the fat and jocular friar tuck kept everyone amused. You can say right away that this is a positive word.

[00:12:35] Because first of all, if you remember fryer talk, there’s nothing negative about this guy. And in this sense, we said he kept everybody amused. So jocular, which is spelled. J O C U L a R obviously has a positive meaning. If you say that someone has a jocular manner like friar tuck, you mean that they are cheerful and often make jokes or try to make people laugh, which is exactly the case.

[00:13:04] If you remember the movie or if you remember the cartoon or whatever, or a book you read about Robin hood, you remember that was exactly how friar tuck was. And now for the next word, ultimate U L T I M a T E ultimate in the text. We said this story included all the traditional romantic qualities, danger, secret meetings, disguises, and the ultimate triumph of true love.

[00:13:32] Now the ultimate can have different meanings, obviously. In this context, we use ultimate to describe the best possible example of a particular thing. And here it was the triumph of true love as one very important quality of a traditional romantic story, but ultimate can be used as well to describe other things.

[00:13:52] Use ultimate to describe the most important or powerful thing of a particular kind use ultimate to describe the final result or aim of a long series of events, for example. So that was ultimate. Now what about our next word? Figment? F I G M E N T figment in the text. We said what’s Robin hood, the living, breathing, human being, or merely the pigment of some Balladeers imagination.

[00:14:22] Now a figment is something invented, made up or fabricated. And if you say that something is a figment of someone’s imagination, like we said, here, maybe Robin hood was the figment of some Balladeers imagination. If you say that you mean that it does not really exist and that they are just imagining it.

[00:14:44] So, as we said earlier, we’re not concerned with whether Robin hood was real or just the figment of a Balladeers imagination. We’re more interested in the meaning of words from this text, especially this one that we have here, figment. And now for our last word that we want to focus on. From this Tex and that is scenario S C E N a R I O scenario.

[00:15:11] Now in the text, we said those who claim him to be real offer an interesting and believable scenario. And this scenario was that story of maybe in the 12th century, somebody killed a deer and it was forbidden back at the time. So he went on to hide in Sherwood forest. He joined with some other Outlaws and they created maybe a kind of band or gang or whatever you might call it.

[00:15:38] And maybe that was the beginning of what started the legend of Robin hood. So that was a way to explain what happened. But remember that was a possible scenario. Scenarios are not usually based on facts, but based on predictions or just speculations about what might have happened. So here, if you talk about a likely or possible scenario, you’re talking about the way in which a situation may develop or in this case may have developed in the past.

[00:16:09] So it could be a future scenario present obviously, or a past scenario, trying to explain what happened when you don’t have the facts. When you don’t know exactly what happened. You can use clues to talk about scenarios. So these were our 10 words for Robin, the Prince of thieves. And now we will move to Ben.

[00:16:30] Who’s prepared something very special for us. And these are 10 words we use to talk about activities and actions. So now Ben to you and you are going to tell us about words we can use to talk about activity and action. That’s right now, if you ask yourself a question, how do you act when the alarm goes off on Monday morning?

[00:16:53] Do you act differently at a football game? Is there a difference between the way you walk to the dentist and the way you go to movies, your mood, and the situation often determine how you act and the English language has numerous words to describe this endless variety of actions. We’re going to talk about 10 words out of these.

[00:17:15] These words are agile bustle, Durrell, diligent, energetic. Industrious negligent. Nimble slothful and sprightly, of course, we’re not just going to give you the word and its definition. We’re going to talk about some sentences. And from these sentences, we’ll try to understand the meaning of these words that have to do with activity and action.

[00:17:40] Remember, it’s very important to group words in your mind. That have to do with a certain topic or that relate to a certain topic because that will make them a lot easier for you to remember and use later in your own writing and speaking. So let’s start with the very first sentence using Swift agile movements.

[00:18:01] The quarterback escaped several tacklers until he found a receiver and completed the touchdown pass. So here, our word obviously is agile, a G I L E. What do you think? We mean by the word agile, when we talked about using Swift agile movements, the quarterback did what he did. It is definitely related to activity and action.

[00:18:24] And if we say that someone is agile, We mean that this person can move quickly and easily. And obviously when you think about it this way, agile makes a lot of sense in the sentence and we understand it much better. And now for our next word, bustle, B U S T L E. Remember the T is silent. We don’t say bus tool.

[00:18:46] We say bustle. So as soon as the race car came to a stop, the pit crew began to bustle about changing the tires, cleaned the windshield and filling the tank. If you’ve ever seen any of those things that happen in car races, when the car comes in the pit stop, it’s like a beehive, a lot of activity.

[00:19:07] Everybody is so busy because they want to finish as soon as possible. They don’t want to waste any time for the race driver as all the other teams try to do as well. So here, when we say the crew began to bustle about, we have a clue, we know that it is a very busy action taking place. If someone bustles somewhere, they move there in a hurried way often because they are very busy.

[00:19:32] And that is what was just happening in the sentence. And now for Durrell, D a w D L E dawdle, Janet Donald all weekend. So she found herself doing her homework at midnight on Sunday. Well, if you do nothing all weekend, you will find yourself with all the good stuff, homework to do at midnight on Sunday, which is not a very good thing.

[00:19:56] You would want to stay up for it on Sunday. So what do you think, doddle? Maybe we talked about some actions, some Swift action fast, but here we’re talking about just the opposite. If you dawdle, you spend more time than is necessary, going somewhere. And that’s exactly what happened to Janet. So that was doddle.

[00:20:17] Now the next word is diligent. It took a diligent search of the forest and the surrounding lakes. But after several weeks, the detectives found the missing coins. Well, they searched the forest obviously, but it took a diligence search. Someone who’s diligent works hard in a careful and thorough way. So that was a diligent search.

[00:20:40] It was done in a careful and a thorough way that was diligent now for our next word. And that is energetic even though the play was presented four times in two days, the actor gave an energetic performance and thrilled the audience. Well, obviously we’re talking about energetic, something that comes from a lot of energy.

[00:21:03] And by the way, before I talk about that, I mean, not forget. I just missed diligent. D I L I G E N T. Diligent and energetic is E N E R G E T I C energetic. So I’m sorry. I forgot about that. But here they are. Now coming back to energetic, we talked about the energetic performance that thrilled the audience.

[00:21:28] We’re talking about the actor giving this energetic performance. So what do we mean by energetic? Something dull, boring. No, obviously not something weak and feeble. Of course not. If you are energetic in what you do, you have a lot of enthusiasm and determination, and that is very important for performance has given by actors because that is what gives life to this performance, obviously.

[00:21:54] No. Can you imagine an actor going to stage or even on TV, you know, just. Looking like he, or she has just memorized a couple of lines and they just can’t wait to say them and go home. How Dell, how boring that can be, but not in our case, it was an energetic performance. And now for our next word, industrious and industrious is spelled I N D U S T R I O U S.

[00:22:22] Industrious. Now the parade is only three days away. If the class is to complete its float in time, it will need a group of industrious students. So we’re not talking about lazy people here. We’re talking about industrial students because we don’t have a lot of time. We need industrial students to achieve that.

[00:22:42] So obviously when you describe someone as industrious, you mean they work very hard and that’s what we need. We need students who work very hard, industrial students. And now for our next word, negligent, N E G L I G E N T negligent. Phil forgot to test the lights before the performance. This one negligent act ruined one of the best scenes in the play.

[00:23:11] So maybe we’re talking about something he forgot, but to neglect something or to be negligent that’s the adjective obviously is different. It’s not just to forget about something. If someone in a position of responsibility is negligent, they do not do something which they ought to do. And to call someone as a negligent person, we’re talking about a person.

[00:23:35] Who has this kind of forgetfulness as a habit, which is not a very good thing, because it can ruin a lot of things. Just like the act here in the play, which was supposed to be the best scene in the play. But this one negligent act ruined one of the best scenes in the play. Now let’s move to the next word.

[00:23:55] Practicing the scales on a piano does not make beautiful music. It does. However, develop the nimble fingers. A piano player needs to perform difficult pieces. The word here is nimble. And I M B L E. We’re talking about nimble fingers. What does that mean? Are we talking about lazy fingers? Are we talking about awkward?

[00:24:18] No. We’re talking about practice and we’re talking about practicing scales, which might not sound exactly the way you imagined they would sound, or they’re not as fun, but there are definitely a way to make you faster and to help you develop those nimble fingers. Someone who is nimble, is able to move their fingers, hands or legs quickly and easily.

[00:24:42] And that’s exactly what you need when you want to play the piano. We can also use nimble for the mind. If you say that someone has a nimble mind, you mean they are clever and can think very quickly. So that was for nimble. Now let’s move on to talk about the next word. It was noon. And Jake still sat around in his robe and slippers while we got the house ready for our guest, his slaughter full behavior was beginning to get on everyone’s nerves.

[00:25:13] So obviously we’re not talking about something good. We’re not praising Jake for doing what he did. We’re talking about something bad. We’re talking about. A kind of behavior that is not going to endear you to anybody remember in deer. So slothful is our word S L O T H F U L Sloss full someone who is slothful like in the case of Jake here is lazy and unwilling to make an effort to work.

[00:25:41] And that is lawful. And now for our last word, from this group of words, I chose for you to talk about action and activity in English. That word is sprightly S P R I G H T L Y. Sprightly. It comes as no surprise that Marta was made captain of the cheerleading squad, her sprightly behavior and team loyalty are truly inspiring.

[00:26:09] So he, or maybe we’re just talking about the opposite of what Jake was like in the sentence before slothful sprightly different. We’re talking about her Marta was chosen to be the captain of the cheerleading squad. So we’re talking about a person who’s energetic. We’re talking about her sprightly behavior.

[00:26:27] So do you think sprightly has to do with being dull or motionless or even foolish? No. Sprightly is just the opposite. A sprightly person is lively and active, and that was exactly what Marta was like. And that is exactly what is needed for a captain of the cheerleading squad. You don’t want a boring person, Dover, motionless person.

[00:26:51] You need a sprightly person for this job. So these were the 10 words I wanted to share with you about. Action and activity in English. And now moving back to Dan, he’s going to tell you about something a little bit different, but again, we have another topic for you. So back to them. Thank you, Ben.

[00:27:10] Obviously those 10 words that you talked about are very useful. Whenever you want to talk about action and activity in English, and now we’ll move to something different. It is something technical, something a little bit linguistic, but it’s very useful for your vocabulary building efforts. And here, let me say that.

[00:27:27] When we talk about vocabulary building, what we’re trying here is not just like give you lists of vocabulary to learn. No, we’re trying to put that in context as much as possible. And we’re trying to show you different ways. And of course, using the exercises later, you will be able to use these words because that’s the important thing.

[00:27:47] The important thing of course is to be able to use as many. As possible of these words that you learn here or anywhere else, obviously. So what I’ve prepared for you today, and that’s going to be the last part of today’s episode and all the episodes that will come your way in the word power category. We started with a text section and we continued with a topic and some words that related to this topic and this last part.

[00:28:14] Is the technical part or the linguistic part. When we talk about, uh, fixes and roots fixes, obviously that can be prefixes that come at the beginning of words or suffixes that come at the end of the words today, we’re going to talk about a root or actually two, but they both mean the same thing. They both come from Latin and these roots are, are UPT or Rupt, an F R a G or frag.

[00:28:42] And both of these are routes that come from Latin and they mean broken. Now you will notice once you understand something like this, you will start to figure out the meaning of some words you come across when you see those roots in those words. And trust me, when you start to think about words this way.

[00:29:02] English words will be a lot easier than you think you will guess. A lot of words that you haven’t heard of before and 90% of the times you will be correct, but first let’s learn these roots. We remember we said these are Latin roots, but it doesn’t matter. You know, just, this is something, this is the part of linguistics that you don’t care about.

[00:29:23] They come from Latin, they come from Greek language. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that frack and re-upped. R U B, T and F R a G, mean broken. And now we will see in all the 10 words that I prepared for you, that we have something broken, maybe not literally broken, but you will see what I mean. We’ll start with the very first one.

[00:29:46] And that is bankrupt. Remember we said re-upped bankrupt. And when we talk about bankrupt, obviously we’re talking about something that is not right. Something that is broken. For example, television costs some movie theaters to become bankrupt, but most managed to survive and make even more money.

[00:30:05] Bankrupt, B a N K R U P T. Our root re-upped people or organizations that go bankrupt do not have enough money to pay their debts. They go bankrupt. That was our first word with this route. Our second word is corrupt. C O R R U P T. The same Rupt we have here. Let’s take a look at this example. The candidate vowed to put an end to the bribery and waste in the state’s corrupt system for hiring state workers.

[00:30:35] So there was a corrupt system and we have re-upped, something is broken, something is not right. And that’s right. Corrupt means exactly that someone who is corrupt behaves in a way that is morally wrong, especially by doing this honest or illegal things in return for money or power. And when we describe something or a system as corrupt, that means we have people who do that in that system.

[00:30:59] We need to find these people and we need to get them out or prosecute them or whatever action that is appropriate in this case. Anyway, so that was corrupt. Now the next word is disrupt. So we’re still using the same route here. Re-upped. Now let’s take a look at this example, the demonstrators tried to disrupt the meeting by shouting at the speaker and carrying a large banner down the aisle.

[00:31:24] So they tried to break the flow of something. They tried to disrupt and disrupt by the way is spelled D I S R U B T. Now if someone or something disrupts an event system or process, they cause difficulties that prevent it from continuing or operating in a normal way. So. There is your break here again, we have the same theme of being broken or to break things, to break the flow of things.

[00:31:55] And that is our words disrupt. And now for our next word erupt, and obviously the famous word that comes from it. Eruption E R U P T erupt. Let’s take a look at this example. Visitors tried to gather near the Geyser to view its hourly eruption, but the park ranger made them keep back to avoid injury from its hot steam.

[00:32:17] Erupt most famously for a volcano. When a volcano erupts, it throws out a lot of hot melted rock called lava as well as Ash steam. So we’re talking about some kind of breaking here and now we will move to the other route and that is frag, but it might not always be frag F R a G. It could be C as well, but it means just the same.

[00:32:42] And our word here is fracture F R a C T U R E fracture. Let’s take a look at this example, the x-ray showed I suffered a fracture in my left arm, but the cast should help the bone grow together after about six weeks. We’re talking about fracture here. A fracture is a slight crack or break in something, especially a bone that is exactly the meaning of the root fracture.

[00:33:09] And now for the next word I have for you, and that is fragile. F R a G. That is our frag here. N I L E fragile. Now let’s take a look at this example, the shopkeeper kept the fragile antique vase in a locked case. The slightest bump could cause it to shatter. Now, when we talk about fragile, maybe we’re not talking about something that is broken, but something that can be broken easily.

[00:33:37] So something that is fragile is easily broken or damaged. But fragile is a versatile word. We can use it for different contexts as well. And to be honest, I find these contexts interesting. So I will mention a couple of those. If you describe a situation as fragile, you mean that it is weak or uncertain and unlikely to be able to resist strong pressure or attack.

[00:34:02] So maybe it’s not just things they can be situations as well. Or we can use them to talk about people. If someone feels fragile, they feel weak. For example, because they are ill or have drunk too much alcohol. So we have fragile things. We have fragile situations and we have fragile people. Remember that all come from this word, fragile, frag I L E.

[00:34:29] Fragile. So that was our word. Let’s move to the next word. And that is fragment F R a G M E N T. Now, in the example that we have here using just a few fragments of the ancient pottery, the museum was able to create a drawing, showing what the entire object looked like. So fragments of something are obviously the pieces of this thing.

[00:34:54] A fragment of something is a small piece or part of it. Something that is broken. Obviously. Now we can use fragment as a verb as well, if something fragments or is  it breaks or separate into small pieces or parts. So we’re talking about breaking again and again, and again, it all comes from two routes, only frag, and re-upped now let’s move on.

[00:35:19] We have something that is close to frag, but it doesn’t have the G and that is frail. F R a I L, but it comes from the same root as well. And let’s take a look at our example here. After years of confinement and little food, the prisoners of war were so frail. They had to be carried to the waiting ambulances.

[00:35:40] So when we talk about someone who is frail, we’re talking about someone who’s not very strong or healthy. Something that is frail is easily broken or damaged. And we can say the same for people, but, you know, we don’t usually say they can be broken or damaged because they’re not things, but that is the meaning of frail.

[00:35:59] It is kind of close to fragile in a way. So that was frail as well and is also related to broken. And now for our next word, infringe I N F R I N G E infringe. Let’s take a look at the example, the lawyer argued that attacks on newspapers and magazines would infringe on the freedom of the press. So what does it mean to infringe?

[00:36:26] Well, we usually use that with laws and rules. If someone infringes a law or a rule. They break it or do something which disobeys it. So we’re talking about breaking the law here. We can use it in another context as well. If something infringes people’s rights, it interferes with these rights and does not allow people the freedom they are entitled to.

[00:36:50] So that brings us to the very last word for today’s episode. And that is. Rupture R U P T U R E rupture. So what is the meaning of rupture before we do that? Let’s take a look at the very last example we have for today’s episode, the cold temperature caused our water pipes to freeze. If they don’t thought soon, the ice will rupture them and damage the house, it will break them apart in pieces.

[00:37:18] Well, rupture is not a beautiful scene to look at anyway. That was a rupture. A rupture is a severe injury in which an internal part of your body tears or bursts open, especially the part between the bowels and the abdomen. Well, obviously this is not a very beautiful image to imagine, but a rupture happens like that in our sentence.

[00:37:40] We said that the pipes will rupture, the ice will rupture the pipes and damage the house. And that is what the meaning of rupture. It usually comes from the inside. Now the ice inside the pipe will rupture the pipes. So these are all the words we have for you for today. Ben and I would like to thank you very much for sticking around and remember, all these words are very useful for you to learn.

[00:38:07] And remember we have two topics and we have a story. So we have context and that is very important to learn vocabulary. Put the words you want to learn in context, even if you want to learn. From other sources, if you want to read on your own, if you want to look up words in the dictionary, the most important thing when you want to learn vocabulary is to try and put those words in context, group, the words together in topics like we’re doing here, that will help you learn a lot faster and will help you remember the words.

[00:38:40] And more importantly, it will help you make these words part of your active vocabulary bank, the words you use, not only the word, you understand the words you use in your speaking and writing. Don’t forget that you can find the transcript of this episode in the link I will provide in the description and you will find description as well, a link to Patreon, or you can find the exercises and the PDF worksheet full with a crossword puzzle, the word searches, the multiple choice and a lot of other activities, a lot of other useful activities.

[00:39:12] And that is of course, part of the premium option. If you’d like to get all these activities. Become a patron of English plus podcast and get all the good stuff that come with our daily episodes. This is Danny your host. Same. Thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcast.

[00:39:27] And I will see you next time.

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