E-cubed 751: PESKY

Today's E-cubed: PESKY: làm phiền, làm khó chịu, quấy rầy

What's that?
Boric acid.
What for?
Pesky bugs. I hate them!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to daily easy english expression. Today we have a wonderful word. It is pesky. PESKY. Oh, those pesky children. Those pesky animals. Those pesky... Oh, when it comes to pronunciation, those pesky 'TH' sound. Or those pesky 'L', 'R' sound. Yes. So what does pesky mean? Something that is pesky, it bothers you. It's difficult to operate, difficult to control, difficult to use, difficult to say, difficult to handle. It's difficult. This is the idea of pesky. And sometimes, you really hate especially pesky bugs. Oh man, bugs. I don't like bugs. And I live in the desert. And we have many many types of different bugs. Now some bugs don't really bother me. Uh, you know I can see the bugs. And whatever, I can kill it or move it. But some bugs are really disgusting, and I hate them, and to see them. I really don't. So, bugs in general bother me. They are pesky. Pesky bugs. That's a perfect example.

Now, some people don't like animals. Dogs for example. Especially little dogs like the chiwawa or the poodle. Oh, man. Shut your pesky dog. It bothers me. It makes me angry. This is something that is pesky. English pronuncitaion. Is English pronunciation, American English pronunciation, is it easy for you? What about the American 'R', 'RE', are you really happy with your pronunciation? Yeah. Sometimes the 'R' can be very pesky. Or maybe it's the 'TH' sound. Thousands  of.. Tens of thousands of deaths. Oh, th s together, really difficult. Those pesky clusters of s th. Oh, boy. Pesky. Annoying. They make you angry. They're difficult to do. They're difficult to say. They're difficult to control. Pesky. Let's check out a dialogue.

What's that?
Boric acid.
What for?
Pesky bugs. I hate them!

Pesky bugs. That's right. That's such a common example. Pesky bugs. Boric acid. Are you familiar with boric acid? Oh, boric acid is a really good stuff. If you have a cockroach problem, if you have a problem with ants, sometimes with other bugs. Some bugs it might not work. But cockroaches and ants, it's a good stuff. Boric acid. And it's relatively safe to have around the house. You know, if a child gets it, or if your pet gets it, it's not a big problem but they do take care of those pesky cockroaches.

Does anyone like cockroaches? Do you like cockroaches? I hate them. I've seen them where I live. And I've seen them outside sometimes like walking on the street. And I take a walk at night, and I see one walking toward me. It doesn't move. I have to get out of the way. Oh man, and can I hate cockroaches. I absolutely hate cockroaches. So just in case, those pesky cockroaches try to visit me in my house, I have prepared some boric acid in the powder form. And I will mix it with flour and powdered sugar to make a nice powder and if I need to, I will spray this powder around doors, in the kitchen, in the bathroom to make sure those pesky roaches die and never come back into my dome. Pesky bugs. I do not like bugs.

Pesky. Disgusting. Pesky pronunciation. A pesky person. Maybe you have a neighbor. Hey, what are you doing. Oh, I heard you making noises last night. Oh, did you have a party yesterday? Oh, you plants need watering. Oh, I clean up your newspapers yesterday. Oh, just leave me alone. Quit bothering me. Shut up. Pesky. People can be pesky. Bugs can be pesky. Work can be pesky. Your boss can be pesky. Give me some examples something that is pesky in your world. Okay? Television advertisements pesky.

Speaking about advertisements, remember only this week until Sunday, you can join DDM Lite and PIRF open. That is PIRF Open and DDM Lite for under $30. This is amazing. This week only. That goes until I don't know May 5th, whatever, Sunday, whatever that Sunday is May 5 I think 2015. Bumm, that's the end. So if you're interested, join. You can send me an email ddailydictationmembers@gmail.com. That's great. Right now, I'm doing a pesky advertisement. But hey, this is my business. Okay. That's it. Listen to the dialogue three more times. Please find somebody to practice the dialogue with. Today, short and easy. Have fun with it. And I'll see you again tomorrow. Bye bye.

E-cubed 750: to spruce up something

Today's E-cubed:  to spruce up something: tân trang, làm mới cái gì đó

Did you see Coach Shane's website?
Yeah. So?
The new one! He totally spruced it up~
Really? I'll have to check it out.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to E-cubed. Today we have a really good phrasal verb. It is to spruce up something. To spruce up something. Now this is actually a very old word, very old expression. And, what it means in modern English is to refurbish something or to take something old and make it new, make it fresh, make it look better. That's the idea. So, if you have an old wooden desk. And it doesn't look that good. If you sand it down and put new stain, bring a new color to it, maybe paint that desk. It's the same desk. But you clean it up and you paint it. Then you are sprucing up your desk. Okay?

So me, I've got this old body. I'm old. It's an old body. So, I spucing up my body by exercising and by slicing over my head. It's because I'm brucing up my body. You know, it's actually very painful. Uh, I'm trying to make my body look better, feel better, be healthier and stuff like that. To spruce up something. We can talk about our bodies. But usually, we talk about something in our home like a desk, or maybe a couch, some furnitures, or maybe your car. It can mean to clean up. So you need to spruce up your room. You need to clean up your room but also add something, a little bit of color, a little bit of style. It's a very useful word, to spruce up something. Check out the dialogue.

Did you see Coach Shane's website?
Yeah. So?
The new one! He totally spruced it up~
Really? I'll have to check it out.

Yes. We did. www.letsmasterenglish.com That's our website. But, we completely spruced it up. It looks much better. It's much more useful. All of the podcasts you can listen to right there, LME - Let's Master English, LME radio. All of my videos on Youtube, you can watch them right there, LME TV. You can check it out. All of my classes you can sign up right there. Uh but, we spruced up the site. And it's looking great. We're still getting feedback from a lot of you. Really great messages. We're looking at everything. We sincerily appreciate it.

So what about you? Do you have something that needs some sprucing up? Needs some refurbishment, need some cleaning, need some extra prettiness. Maybe your résumé. Uh huh. Do you have a résumé? In the UK, they say CV. If you have a resume, you might need to update. You might need to change things. Maybe you want to change the font, change the style. That idea is to spruce up your resume. If you have some furnitures in your home, an old desk or an old table, maybe it's an antique. It's really nice but doesn't look that good. Well, maybe you could spruce it up. Maybe you could send it to a company. And they'll redo the wood, or they'll change the outside, the upholstery. They'll spruce it up for you. It's a very nice verb, to spruce something up. And remember you can spruce yourself up, too.

Right now, perhaps your English, you're sprucing up your English by listening to daily easy english expression. And I thank you very much. Okay. I need to go rest. That's today's expression. I should be back tomorrow. But I might actually take a day off so that my body can feel fresh again. And thank you very much for watching. Practice the dialogue three more times. Please go check out our website letsmasterenglish.com and I'll see you soon. Thanks you guys. Bye bye.