is the end of the story. You know what to do, right? As always listen to this story every day. You can pause after each sentence, if you like, and repeat it after me. What will it do for you? It will certainly make your pronunciation better. It will make your understanding better. And it will certainly help you speak better than you are doing now. See you soon.
Story 1 The vocabulary lesson
Hi, this is Alex and this is the vocabulary lesson for «Harry the Hamster». This is the lesson where I am going to liberate you from the story. The lesson where I am going to give you that confidence and freedom you need in order to become a fantastic, confident and first rate English speaker. Let’s begin!
First let me begin by telling you just a few words about the story. I want you to know how I wrote the story. It was when I was flying from Athens, Greece to Alicante, Spain one summer. Actually, I was visiting my friends in Spain. On board the plane I was admiring the beauty of the sky and fantastic, marvelous and snow-white clouds. And suddenly a neat idea came to my mind. And I thought why not write a story about, say a hamster. Of course, I didn’t know what the story was going to be about exactly, but one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to write a story for you, my superstar English learners. And I have to be perfectly honest with you it took me an hour to write the story. And today, now I am extremely excited to share my story with you. My hope is that you will like the story and it’ll certainly help you speak English better then you are dong now. And of course, my hope is that this vocabulary lesson will help you a lot.
So let’s jump into the vocabulary lesson.
Our fist word for today is significant. It comes from the sentence: «Harry was a small, smart and significant hamster.» Significant means big, important and remarkable. Here significant means remarkable or unusual. I like the idea of unusual and outstanding, not like other hamsters. Harry the Hamster was not like other hamsters. He was remarkable. He was outstanding. He was unusual. Harry was significant.
Okay, next we have the word vivid. Vivid means strong, clear and bright. Harry the Hamster wants to have beautiful, fantastic and bright dreams. He wants to have vivid dreams. He wants to have very bright, very colorful and very clear dreams. Harry the hamster wants to have vivid dreams. I think you get the idea, right?
Okay, our next we have the word to examine. It’s a verb. You can see this word in the following sentence, «Many scientists examined him». Here to examine means to look at someone or something carefully as doctors do. They look at your body to check if you are healthy, right? In other words, they study you. That’s what many scientists do to Harry. They look at him carefully in order to find out the reason why he cannot fall asleep. Many scientists study him. Many scientists examine him.
Next we have the word to liberate. Actually, it is a verb. To liberate means to give someone freedom to do what they want. In other words, to liberate means to make someone free or to become free. As you remember from the story the woman says to Harry to liberate himself from the cage. In other words, she says to Harry, “Go and become a free hamster” She actually says, “You must liberate yourself from that cage. Go and live like a free hamster.” Be free. Do what you want to do and if you do this, if you become free, if you liberate yourself from that cage, then and only then you will you get what you want. You will have beautiful, fantastic and vivid dreams.
In this vocabulary lesson we also have one of my favourite expressions in English and what is it? It is smell the flowers, of course. What do people mean when they say to you «Smell the flowers»?
It actually means don’t worry about your future, stop it now, wake up. Wake up and look around and enjoy the moment. Smell the flowers. It is when you work really hard, a lot and you are stressed. You have to stop doing it. You have to take a break and enjoy life. Enjoy life as it is or smell the flowers. Don’t worry about the future. The future will take care of itself.
Oaky, our next expression is without a trace. Usually we use this expression with the verb to disappear. We often say, «She disappears without a trace or he disappears without a trace» It is when someone or something is gone completely, and you cannot see him or her or it. So the woman disappears completely and the hamster cannot see her. She’s gone. She disappears without a trace.
This is a very short vocabulary lesson. And that is why our final expression for today is to be in seventh heaven. When you are in seventh heaven it means you feel extremely happy. So Harry the hamster feels extremely happy. He is extremely happy because now he has fantastic, beautiful and vivid dreams. Harry is in seventh heaven.
This is the end of the vocabulary lesson for «Harry the Hamster». The vocabulary gives you a quick little lesson about some of the words and phrases you may not know. And it also liberates you from the story as I like to say. It certainly gives you that freedom you need to express yourself better and to feel more confident every time when you need to speak English. Moreover, it surely helps you to get automatic respect from people every time when you need to speak English.
Okay, I’ll see you in the mini-story lesson. Bye for now!
Story 1 The mini-story lesson
Hi! This is Alex. Welcome to the mini-story for «Harry the Hamster». You know what I am going to do, right? Yes, I’m going to ask the story. I want you to answer the questions fast and automatically. I want you to train your brain, teach your brain to answer very quickly. I don’t want you to translate from your language to English or from English to your language. Of course, you can answer with one or two words. It’s okay. Short answers are fine. Let’s go!
Harry was a small, smart and significant hamster.
What kind of hamster was Harry?
Right! Harry was small, smart and significant.
Where did Harry the hamster live?
Yes, you are absolutely right. He lived in a spacious, gorgeous and very comfortable cage.
Why was Harry significant?
The reason he was significant was that Harry never slept in his life. He couldn’t sleep. He never had dreams. No dreams for Harry.
What? Oh, my Lord! He never slept in his life. He never had dreams. No dreams for Harry. Poor Harry.
Did Harry the hamster want to have dreams?
Of course, he did. Harry the hamster wanted to have dreams.
He often said, «How much I want to have colorful, fantastic and vivid dreams! But I cannot sleep.»
What did he often say?
He often said, «How much I want to have colorful, fantastic and vivid dreams! But I cannot sleep.»
Did Harry the hamster want to have colorful, fantastic and vivid dreams a lot or a little?
A lot, very much. He often said, «How much I want to have colorful, fantastic and vivid dreams!»
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