Episode 79 English Listening Practise - Reading Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith (1 of 2)

On the 31st of October we celebrate Halloween in the UK. I was going to do some Halloween vocabulary, but that's a bit boring. So instead I'm going to read two parts from Terry Pratchett's book, Wintersmith. This book is part of a series of books that begins with the Wee Free Men, which introduces the main character, Tiffany Aching, a young (at that point 8 years old) witch. Wintersmith is the third book in the series. We are introduced to several other witches in this passage. The main character is Miss Treason, at 113 years old she is one of the oldest people on Discworld. You will also hear mentioned Mistress Weatherwax, who Tiffany thinks of as a very old person, but who Miss Treason describes as 'the girl Weatherwax'. And finally, a brief mention of Miss Tick. Miss Tick appeared in the very first novel, she travels around the world looking for young witches and getting them into training. She is a kind of teacher. In this passage we will be hearing about Miss Treason and her house. Tiffany is the first witch who has been brave enough to stay for very long. She is scared of Miss Treason, but at this point she is starting to notice some strange things (such as the lack of spiders) about the house and the witch. Tomorrow we will read a second passage from this book. We will learn more about what is going on behind the scenes in Miss Treason's house. Today's Vocabulary-More on YouTube Description Take the cake - idiom - 'We'll that just takes the cake!' 'She really does take the cake.' The Cambridge Dictionary describes this as being the worst or best of something. It can also mean something is surprising, annoying or in America, someone is the winner or best at something. Wall to wall (odd) - idiom - Miss Treason's house is described as being 'wall to wall odd'. This idiom means everything in an area or space. Borrowing - this word is specific to Discworld and the witch stories in Discworld. It describes a particular skill that only certain witches have (in fact we only meet 3-4 witches who can do it in the whole series). This is the skill of being able to sort of do telepathy with other animals. In many cases the witch has to lie down and her whole mind sees the world just like the animal she is borrowing. Terry is careful to point out that the animals don't feel anything and most of the witches reward their animals with food and care. However Miss Treason (being a very old and clever witch) has learned how to borrow very easily so that she can see and hear the world around her despite her own disabilities. Creepy - a very appropriate word for Halloween, this can describe a person, place or situation that makes you feel uncomfortable and in English we can say 'it makes your skin crawl'. Perch - a place where a bird can sit Stubby - short and often quite wide, can be used to describe people, fingers or things High threshold - a 'threshold' is the piece of wood across the bottom of a doorway. If a building has a 'high threshold' it means water can't get in, so this gives us the idea of strength. We have applied this to people as an idiom. So if we say 'she has a high pain threshold' for example, it means she can withstand (cope with) a lot of pain. In this case Tiffany has a pretty strong mind and will and so she is able to cope with Miss Treason's weird and scary ways better than other witches. Witch-finder - This is Miss Tick's job. She finds young witches and takes them to older witches for training. Hooked nose - the big and curved nose we traditionally see on witches. Scuttling - This describes a kind of movement, sort of how an insect or mouse moves. Liquorice - Also Licorice, this is a kind of candy, often black it has a very strong flavour. Billowing - The movement of a cloak or large piece of cloth, such as bedsheets or sails in the wind. Stutter - when we struggle to get a word out, this also describes a condition where people struggle to say a complete word and often get stuck on the first sound.