913. The Snowman ⛄️ (Learn English with a Short Story)
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Hello listeners, welcome back to Luke's English Podcast. How are you doing today? I hope you're doing fine. Today here it is a horrible, grey, cold, dark winter morning. So in a way the conditions are perfect for staying inside here in my podcasting room where it's nice and warm and cosy and I can just do another episode of this podcast for you to help you learn English. This time I'm

It's another episode of Learn English with a Short Story.

here on Luke's English Podcast. And as usual, I'm going to tell you a story and then use it to help you learn English. The way this will work is like this. First, I'll read the story to you, and I'm going to start that in just a moment. You can just listen, try to follow the lines of the story, try to understand what's happening. Then I'll explain it. I'll kind of summarize it in my own words, just to make sure that you've got the general meaning of what happened.

And after that, I will go through the story line by line, word by word, and I'll break things down and I'll explain lots of vocabulary for you. Maybe some bits of grammar, but I'll explain the specific bits of language that were used to tell you the story. And there's loads of vocabulary for you to learn in this story. If you want to practice your pronunciation, you could listen to the whole story again. You could go back and listen to me read the story and try to repeat the lines after me.

This time, I've got a creepy winter story for you. It's called The Snowman. A snowman, of course, is...

Something that children usually make when it snows. So the snow comes down and children would go out and they make snowballs and have snowball fights. And the other thing that children do is they make a snowman, right? Make a kind of a man made of snow. That's a snowman. So this story is called The Snowman. I found this story on a YouTube channel, actually. The channel is called Animated Horror Flicks.

And I thought it could be a good story to do on the podcast. So I asked the owner of the channel for permission to use it in an episode. And he said that he was very happy for me to do so, which is nice. So if you like this story, you might like the other stories on that channel. It's called Animated Horror Flicks on YouTube. You'll find a link in the description.

By the way, you can find the full text of this story that I'm going to read to you on the page for this episode on my website. You will also find my vocabulary notes there too. The link for that is also in the description. So let's begin. First of all, try to follow the events of the story and just decide what is going on. Okay, what's happening? What's going to happen next? What's going on in this story? Now,

I'm not sure if this is a true story or if it's a made-up story, right? I don't know if these things actually happened to the writer or if this is just fiction. I don't know, actually. I think it could be true, but I don't know for sure. And also, I don't think this is a supernatural story. I don't think the events in the story are supernatural, like ghostly or something like that. I don't think so, but...

But, you know, you can decide for yourself as you listen. So here we go. This is The Snowman. Let's get started. I was a struggling ghostwriter and I thought a break away from the city to spend time at a remote ski resort would be a good way to clear my head and help me get back on my feet. There weren't any other cabins around, so I was guaranteed a few weeks to reflect and enjoy the isolation.

At least that was the case until the final week of my stay, which made this Christmas truly unforgettable. It first started at night when I suddenly woke up. Initially, I didn't know if it was from something I'd heard or from a bad dream, but either way I felt compelled to look out of the window. That's when I noticed the snowman in the distance.

Back when I was a kid, I would have been delighted at the mere sight of a snowman. But that sense of childhood nostalgia was soon silenced by the realisation that I wasn't alone out there in the woods. The cabin where I was staying was the only one on this side of the valley, so it seemed like a long way to walk just to build a snowman. Despite the uncanny feeling,

I was still far too tired to give it much thought and managed to sleep through the rest of the night. The following morning, to no surprise, the snowman was still there. I couldn't quite put my finger on it right then, but I got this strange notion that something was different about it. I decided to carry on with my day and didn't think much of it until later that night when it happened again. I woke up suddenly for no apparent reason.

I don't remember having a bad dream, but I guess it's common not to remember our dreams, even the really bad ones. It felt like déjà vu, and I found myself once again gazing through the bedroom window. I could still see the snowman, even clearer now. I couldn't quite figure out why, but it gave me an odd sensation.

I also started to wonder why the snowman was facing towards the cabin, and why anyone would build a snowman all the way out here. There weren't any other cabins around for miles. I didn't sleep much after that, so the next morning I decided to head outside the cabin for a closer look. I looked around, but just as I expected, there was no trace of anyone.

although it was hard to be sure considering how poor the visibility was due to the weather. I chose to knock the snowman down just for good measure. It was already beginning to feel like some kind of bad omen. Maybe I was overreacting, maybe it was just some kids fooling around, but at least I wouldn't have to think about it anymore, or so I thought. The following night, things got even worse.

I woke up again, but this time I knew for sure it wasn't from a dream. It was a loud thud, like the sound of something hitting the window. I glanced through the window and was shocked to see the same snowman, identical to the day before. I remembered turning in quite late that night, and there was no sign of a snowman when I turned out the lights, so I was pretty sure it wasn't a kid's prank.

I mean, who would let their kids out this late to build a snowman? And what was that noise on the window? The last thing I wanted to do was go outside in the blistering cold. But I knew that if I waited until morning, any footprints would most likely be covered by another thick layer of snow. I ultimately got dressed, stepped outside and walked up to the snowman.

That's when I discovered a single set of very large footprints leading from and to the forest. I couldn't shake this feeling of being watched and that somehow I'd made things worse by destroying the last snowman. So I decided to leave it alone and quickly headed back to the cabin. The bitter cold stayed with me that night as I curled up in bed and tried my best to get warm.

But the prospect of getting any sleep soon came to an abrupt end with a noise on the glass. I recognised it instantly, the sound of a snowball hitting the window. I knew deep down that it could only mean one thing. Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink that night, and I left the cabin the very next day. I never knew his name or ever saw his face, but I came to know him as the snowman. Boo! Ha, got you.

Okay, so that was the snowman. Let me just try and summarise what happened. What did you expect? What were you expecting to happen? I don't know what you were expecting to happen. Were you expecting something...

Were you expecting some more action than that? It's more a kind of creepy story that describes a sort of atmosphere. You can see why I think it could be true, but I'm not sure. You can decide for yourself. And also, as I said before, I don't think it's a supernatural story, but I'm not sure. I actually read that story to my daughter. She's nearly seven now.

I mean, it's a slightly scary story, but she's okay. She enjoys creepy stories like that. And there wasn't anything really violent in it or anything. And her first reaction was that the snowman itself was alive. And the snowman kept coming to stand outside the cabin. And it was the snowman who was throwing snowballs at the guy's window at night.

I don't think that's what's going on, but it's possible, I suppose. I mean, it's some sort of haunted snowman or something. I don't know. I think probably instead someone is building this snowman.

And that's the disturbing thing. Who is doing this and where are they? Who are they and what's going on? So basically, just to summarise the story, did you get these details? Did you understand the main details of the story? So the narrator, the person who tells the story, is a writer, a struggling writer. So a writer who's probably finding it difficult to do their writing. Maybe he's got writer's block issues.

Writer's block is a thing that affects writers where they just can't come up with ideas. They sit in front of the computer ready to write more stuff and just ideas don't come. Writer's block. So they just stand. They sit there staring at a blank screen without ideas coming. They can't write.

This is writer's block. And I mean, it must be very difficult to write novels, to write stories, to write things. You need a lot of inspiration and motivation and stuff. And sometimes those ideas and things just don't come. And when you're in that state, it's called writer's block. So maybe the guy's got writer's block and he decides that he has to try and find a way of clearing his head. So he goes to stay...

at a remote ski resort in the mountains and he chooses to stay in a cabin which is on the far side of a valley where there are no other cabins right out on the edge of the resort there are no other people around it's totally isolated

so he can just enjoy being cut off from the rest of the world, get out of the city, and he'll be able to focus on his writing. He's hoping that this will be a way to fix his writer's block. So out he goes, and he spends a couple of weeks there at Christmastime, which sounds like quite a lonely thing to do.

doesn't spend time with his family. No, instead he's on his own in this cabin in a remote part of the forest, um, where I, I expect it snows every night. It's a ski resort. And, uh,

So the first week is okay, the second week things start to go a bit strange and one night he wakes up in the middle of the night, he's not quite sure why. He feels, for some reason, he feels drawn to the window. He has a look out of the window and there in the distance he can see a snowman, which is a little bit strange. It makes him realize that he's not alone in the forest, that there are other people not far away

Because there's a snowman that's been built. Okay. Bit weird. Something was strange about it. Something felt a bit off. The main thing was that he realised he wasn't alone. There must be other people around without him realising it. Then in the morning, he looked out the window. The snowman was still there, but a little bit clearer.

I wonder if the snowman appears to be getting closer. I get the impression that there's a sort of suggestion that this snowman is slowly getting closer to the cabin starts off in the distance. You can kind of only just see it and then it gets clearer and clearer. He, he remarks that, um, each time he sees the snowman, something is a bit different and he can see it more clearly. So it seems that the snowman is slowly getting closer to the cabin every time he sees it. Um,

Then the next night, you know, after he's seen it in the daytime, he kind of just ignores it. He just thinks, oh, it must be some kids or something who've made it. But then he goes to bed again. And the next night happens again. He wakes up. He's not quite sure why he's woken up. He thinks maybe I had a maybe he had a bad dream or something. He wakes up and again, he feels like he needs to look out the window. He looks out of the window again.

snowman is still there but he's it seems to be clearer again the suggestion is that maybe the snowman is closer to the cabin this time um i'm not sure quite when he uh maybe he wakes up because he's being woken up by the sound of something hitting the window he doesn't realize it at first

But that night, he's so disturbed by the snowman, but he doesn't really want to go outside to have a look around. So he waits until the next day. He goes out in order to sort of have a look around, see what's going on, see if he can see any signs of maybe who's done it, you know. And he looks around, but the weather is so bad, it's probably snowing quite heavily. He can't really see much.

He can't see any evidence of other people. If there were footprints in the snow, they would have been covered by another layer of snow already. So he doesn't see... He can't see any evidence of who's done this. But he's so kind of... He's disturbed by it enough that he knocks down the snowman. He just sort of, like, knocks it down and then goes back to the cabin. And then that night, it happens again. And he is...

Woken up by a sound. He doesn't quite know what the sound is. It's a kind of a thud. And he wakes up suddenly and again looks out of the window. The snowman is back. It's back again. So after he knocked it down, it's returned. It's the same snowman. It's back again. And it appears to be even closer to the cabin this time.

And he's this really freaks him out this time. And he really doesn't want to go outside the cabin in the middle of the night in the snow. But I think he feels so kind of disturbed by it that he chooses to go out and have a look. And all he can see is a set of footprints that go everywhere.

that lead to the forest and back again so you know looks like someone has come out of the forest to the place where the snowman is presumably built the snowman i mean the writer doesn't mention there being a lot of disturbance in the snow where the snow has been gathered together to make the snowman i mean i'm assuming that would be the case but that's not mentioned and

Anyway, there's a set of footprints that go from the forest to the snowman and back again. So it seems that someone has just come out of the forest and built this thing. Or maybe it's a haunted snowman that's walked out of the forest and decided to stand there and throw snowballs at the cabin. Just, you know, because why not? If you're a haunted snowman, I mean, I suppose that's the sort of thing you would do, isn't it?

Why would you just stay in the forest and just eat nuts and stuff? I don't know. You'd probably think, well, since I'm a haunted snowman, I should probably go and scare some people in cabins. I don't think that's the case, though. I think the idea is that someone has come out and built this snowman. Yeah.

And, yeah, I don't remember. Does he knock it down then? Again, I don't remember. But he is woken up again by the sound of a snowball hitting the window. He's certain about it. And he can't sleep the rest of the night. And it scares him so much that he just leaves. He leaves the cabin, goes back to the city. And clearly it's bothered him. He thinks about it a lot because in the end he names this guy the Snowman.

Presumably the person, whoever this was, that was kind of creeping around outside his cabin at night building this weird snowman and throwing snowballs. This person, he calls him the snowman. So for me, this is the sort of story which is supposed to be quite disturbing because a lot of things are unanswered.

rather than a story in which there's a lot of specific direct action. Instead, it's just one of those things that's supposed to make you wonder. I think it is quite creepy because if you can imagine being in that situation, I'm sure you would end up being quite disturbed. And I like the way the story is put together. It's efficiently told.

We can easily imagine how the storyteller felt in this situation. And it leaves us to imagine the explicit details and the answers to the mystery. Did you notice that the snowman seemed to get closer each time? I think the suggestion is that the narrator is not alone in this secluded part of the forest.

An unknown person kept coming out of the forest in the night to build this snowman, each time getting slightly closer to the cabin. This person also threw the snowballs at the window of the cabin. I'm assuming that this is the case, unless the snowman itself is actually somehow alive and doing these things independently, but that would give a supernatural edge to the story. Maybe you interpreted it that way, like my daughter did.

So what did you think? What was your reading of the story? I think these are the options in my mind. Option one is that there was a human person outside the cabin building the snowman each time and throwing snowballs at the window, or the snowman was actually alive and walked out of the forest in order to stand and stare at the cabin and occasionally throw snowballs at the window. Now, assuming that this has been done by a person during the night...

Who is this person and why are they doing it? And I think there are a few possibilities here too. So maybe it's just a prank. A prank is like a trick done as a joke, the sort of thing that, like a practical joke that people play on other people. So maybe this is just a prank, a kind of trick or joke, but it's not really very funny. It's more frightening really. Or is it some kind of threat that

Maybe it's a form of intimidation, a form of mental manipulation, kind of confusion. Maybe this person is making the writer feel scared for some reason. They're playing some sort of cruel game to manipulate him, maybe to harm him or to rob him or make him feel unwelcome for some reason. And maybe this person outside the cabin is somehow dangerous. What do you think?

Anyway, let's go through the story line by line now, and I'll teach you some vocabulary, looking at specific meanings, useful phrases, and how you can use them to describe other things as well. Okay, so let's do that.

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Give the gift of Scratchers from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Please play responsibly. Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim. So here we go, the Snowman Vocab Review.

So, I was a struggling ghostwriter and I thought a break away from the city to spend time at a remote ski resort would be a good way to clear my head and help me get back on my feet. So, we've got a struggling ghostwriter. A ghostwriter, we'll start with that. So, you know what a writer is, someone who writes books or something. A ghostwriter is...

This is a person who writes books for someone else, and then that someone else claims the credit for the book. Let's say you've got a celebrity who wants to write an autobiography. An autobiography is the story of their life written by that person. But this celebrity is not a particularly good writer. They might use a ghostwriter to actually write the book themselves.

They might use a ghostwriter to actually write the book for them. But then on the cover of the book, it's the celebrity's name that's written. And the ghostwriter's name is not written anywhere. So a ghostwriter is someone who sort of anonymously writes for someone else. And there's a lot of people who use ghostwriters. It's actually surprising the number of famous writers who use ghostwriters. Like someone like Dan Brown.

who wrote The Da Vinci Code. Apparently, he used a lot of ghost writers in the writing of that book. He didn't do it all on his own.

He got some other people to do it. And apparently plenty of other famous writers of novels use ghostwriters to do the actual writing. And it might be a collaboration. It might be that the person whose name is on the book kind of gives the ideas, gives the basic framework, gives the kind of the plot line details of the characters. They just give those details to the ghostwriter and the ghostwriter does the actual practical work of writing out the text themselves.

So ghostwriters, very commonly used. Someone who writes things for someone else, but their name isn't credited. So a struggling ghostwriter. Struggling means he was finding it hard. He was having difficulty writing. As I said, maybe he had writer's block problems.

And I thought a break away from the city to spend time at a remote ski resort would be a good way to clear my head. A remote ski resort. So remote meaning far away from other things. Right. Just far away from the city, far away from other people. That's remote. OK. A remote ski resort would be a good way to clear my head.

So sometimes if you're struggling, if you can't think of ideas, you can't focus, you can't concentrate, it's because there's too much stuff going on in your head. Maybe you're distracted by all of the things around you. If you're in a busy city, there's noise, there's distractions. So you need to clear your head. And we clear our heads in various ways. One of the

most common ways is to get away from it all, to go out into the countryside, to get away from everyone, to get away from everything. It could be a good way to clear your head, right? To get rid of all of those distractions, all that noise, that mental noise. So go to a remote ski resort to clear his head and help me get back on my feet.

So to get back on your feet, this is quite a nice idiom. It means if you're struggling and you're not able to do things as you normally do them, you need to be able to get back on your feet. So a bit like if you've been ill, I mean, literally, if you're sick, you have to stay in bed and you can't do anything because you're lying down.

but then you recover and then you're able to get back on your feet, which means that you're able to go out and do things again. That's literally get back on your feet, but we can use it sort of metaphorically as well to mean get back to a position where you're able to do things again. For example, if you're struggling with writer's block and you can't work and you're having a really difficult time, you need to maybe go away, clear your head and get back on your feet.

There weren't any other cabins around, so I was guaranteed a few weeks to reflect and enjoy the isolation. So to reflect is something that you do in your mind, right? If you reflect, it means think about things. Think about things more carefully. Think about things several times.

OK, to ponder things, to process things, to think about things. Reflect is something that happens with a mirror. OK, right. So if you look in a mirror, your image reflects off the mirror. Also, if you look in the surface of some still water, like a pond, your image is reflected off the surface of the water. Right. So if you reflect in your mind, it's kind of like you allow your thoughts to kind of

bounce back and you look and look again or think again about things, right? To reflect and enjoy the isolation. So we had the word remote, a remote cabin, right?

We've also got the word isolation here. Remote is an adjective. Remoteness is the noun. Isolation is a noun and isolated is the adjective. So just the difference between these two things. Remote meaning far away. Remoteness. Right. This is referring to something that is physically remote.

distant, physically far away from things or geographically far away from things or figuratively far away from things. OK, so we talk about a remote village in the mountains. An idea seems to be remote from reality. For example, the suggestion that this is a an alien snowman or like a haunted snowman.

That idea is quite remote from reality. Here's reality where there are no such things as haunted alien snowmen, as far as I'm aware. And the idea of a haunted snowman is quite far. It's quite remote from reality. Right. A remote cabin is one which is far away from civilization. Then an isolated cabin. So isolated just means disconnected or alone.

and not connected to other things. So they're very similar, but remote refers to physical distance, really, um, in a literal sense and sort of distance in a figurative sense. And isolated means not being connected or being alone. So there's that sense of loneliness or being alone and not being connected to other people. Um,

separate apart from others either intentionally or unintentionally and so isolated is often a bit more negative it's associated with loneliness whereas remote could be more positive because it sounds quite nice to be in a remote uh cabin in a remote part of the forest could be quite peaceful okay so anyway um

I was guaranteed a few weeks to reflect and enjoy the isolation. So here the writer is actually going to enjoy being isolated in this case. At least that was the case until the final week of my stay. So meaning that, you know, it was nice to be isolated and remote for a week until the final week, which made this Christmas truly unforgettable, but unforgettable in a negative way. Something that he remembered forever.

It first started at night when I suddenly woke up. Initially, I didn't know if it was from something I'd heard or from a bad dream. So it seems that it was another snowball hitting the window, but at this point he didn't know. And he wasn't aware if it was something he'd heard or if it was from a bad dream. It was probably the sound of a snowball hitting the window, to be fair.

Initially. So initially just means at first, right? It's just an adverb, right? It's an adverb, another way of saying at first. So you've got initially or at first. In the beginning is another way of doing it. Initially, I didn't know if it was from something I'd heard or from a bad dream, but either way, I felt compelled to look out of the window, to feel compelled to do something.

Right. It's normally feel compelled plus an infinitive. I felt compelled to look out of the window. I felt compelled to tell this story. OK, I felt compelled to write you an email. OK, if you feel compelled to do something, it means you feel a sudden kind of urgent motivation or a certain need suddenly to do something. For example, Luke, I was listening to your episode and I felt compelled to get in touch with you.

It's the sort of thing that my listeners might write to me. Luke, I've been listening to your podcast for a long time and today I felt compelled to write to you. I felt compelled to get in touch to tell you how truly thankful I am for everything you've done for learners of English around the world and how I would like to give you a knighthood this year. Yours sincerely, The King.

I'm just fantasizing there about King Charles suddenly feeling compelled to write to me in order to offer me a knighthood. Sir Luke Thompson. It's never going to happen. That's when I noticed the snowman in the distance. So he felt compelled to look out of the window. I don't know why, but I really feel like I'd like to look out the window at this moment, which can be a scary thing when you're in a cabin in the middle of the forest at night and you kind of

Hmm, not sure I want to do this, but I feel like I have to do it. And hello, there's a snowman in the distance. I don't remember seeing that before. Funny, that's funny, isn't it? Back when I was a kid, I would have been delighted at the mere sight of a snowman.

So the mere sight of a snowman, mere here. So the word mere is a bit like using the word just or only. It emphasises that something is small or unimportant in itself, but it still has a big effect, right? I would have been delighted at the mere sight of a snowman, meaning I would have been delighted just to see a snowman, right?

like only seeing one would have made me excited never mind like actually going up and playing with it or making it or something so just seeing a snowman would have made me delighted or just the sight of a snowman would have made me delighted the mere sight of a snowman would have made me delighted or simply seeing a snowman would have made me delighted all ways of saying more or less the same thing um

So, just smelling it makes me hungry. Another example. So, as an English teacher, I get nervous at the mere mention of the words observed lesson.

the mere mention of the words observed lesson. So if someone just says observed lesson, oh God, I start to get nervous because it makes me think of the days when I used to be observed when I was training to be a teacher and you'd get some sort of examiner or observer, maybe from Cambridge English that come and observe you and they'd watch everything you do and make notes about you and then, you know,

Judge everything you do as a teacher. So just the mere mention of the words observed lesson makes me nervous. Another example, I've always been scared of spiders. It's not actually true. I love spiders. Anyway, I've always been scared of spiders. The mere sight of one in the bath would make me run screaming from the building only to return with a flamethrower.

So just like, oh God, just only seeing one. It doesn't even have to jump on my face or anything. Just seeing it would make me run from the building and then come back. Just torch the entire building and entire house. Okay, so I would have been delighted as a kid at the mere sight of a snowman. So just seeing one would have made me delighted. But that sense of childhood nostalgia...

was soon silenced by the realisation that I wasn't alone out there in the woods. So he kind of, that quick moment of like, oh, a snowman. And he remembered and felt slightly nostalgic about his childhood. So when you feel nostalgic, it's when you have a sense of nostalgia, it's like when you look back at the past and you feel that nice warm feeling.

That's nostalgia. Oh, yeah, I remember when I was a kid. Yeah, I used to get really excited if I saw a snowman. But this sense of nostalgia was soon silenced. So stop. It was stopped by the realisation. Ding. Oh, hello. When he realised that I wasn't alone out there in the woods. So he opened the window or opened the curtains or whatever, had a look out. Oh, a snowman. Oh, so I suppose I'm not alone out here in the woods then.

There must be other people around or someone. Hmm. Okay. The cabin where I was staying was the only one on this side of the valley. So it seemed like a long way to walk just to build a snowman. So the cabin where I was staying was the only one on this side of the valley. This side of the valley. Now, you know what a valley is, right? You've got a mountain.

Two mountains. Between the mountains, you've got a valley and probably at the bottom of the valley, there's a river or something. So this is the valley. It's the space between two mountains or a part of where the land goes in, goes down, maybe to a river or road at the bottom.

The cabin where I was staying was the only one on this side of the valley. So valleys have sides, right? You've got this side and that side of the valley. Mountains also have sides. The sides of mountains are usually the broader, lower parts of the mountains. Mountains also have faces as well. And these are the upper parts of the mountain, the steep upper parts that you might climb with ropes and

and stuff to reach the summit of the mountain. A bit of mountain vocab for you there. The summit or peak of the mountain, that's the top that you try to get to if you're a mountain climber. Then you've got the mountain faces. These are the probably very steep parts that you need special equipment to climb up. And then you've got the sides of the mountain, which are the larger, lower areas. And then the valley as well, the two sides of a valley. Yeah, okay.

So despite the uncanny feeling, I was still far too tired to give it much thought and managed to sleep through the rest of the night. So despite the uncanny feeling. So what kind of feeling is this? What kind of feeling is an uncanny feeling? Well, uncanny is basically something that feels strange or mysterious or unsettling, something that makes you feel kind of disturbed, upset.

Often because it's strangely familiar or difficult to explain. So something uncanny, strange, because it's sort of familiar or difficult to explain. It could be either of those things. Okay. For example, imagine looking at a robot, like a really advanced robot that's running with like advanced AI. And the robot is designed to look like a human. And it looks a lot like a human, but it's not human.

you would say that's quite uncanny, right? It's strange, slightly disturbing because it looks so close to being human, but it's not. So that's an uncanny feeling. So you could say the robot's uncanny resemblance to a human made everyone uncomfortable, which is kind of the disturbing thing about these advanced robots is that there's something strangely familiar about them. Even those ones that walk on four legs, right?

You know the ones that walk on four legs and open doors and climb over piles of rocks and fire machine guns and stuff? You know those ones? There's something strangely... There's something uncanny about the legs, the way the legs move. They look a bit like animal legs or human legs sometimes, but it's a robot. It's a bit disturbing. They have an uncanny resemblance to animals sometimes.

Another example, the magician's trick, a trick by a magician. The magician's trick was so uncanny, no one could figure out how it was done. So just strange because it was difficult to explain. So in this case, in the story, it's a strange feeling because it's hard to explain the presence of the snowman. Something just feels a little bit off about it. Something's not quite right here. So despite the uncanny feeling, I was still far too tired to give it much thought.

and managed to sleep through the rest of the night. So to give it much thought, to give something thought. It's interesting because of course we say to think about something, as you know, but also you can give something thought. I was too tired to give it much thought, to give it a lot of thought. So that's just interesting to notice that we can say to give something thought rather than just say to think about it.

Right. And also to give it much thought. I didn't want to give it much thought. I was too tired to give it much thought, meaning I didn't want to think about it much.

OK, and those things are slightly different. I don't think about it much and I don't give it much thought. Those things are slightly different. I don't think about it much. Sounds a bit like you're saying I don't think about it very often. I don't think about it very regularly. I don't think about her very much. Could mean I don't think about her very regularly and I don't give her much thought. Means that I don't give her I don't think about her for a very long time.

I don't think about her very deeply. I don't give her much thought. They're similar, but you can see there's a slight nuance there between I don't think about her much, meaning very often, and I don't give her much thought means I just don't think about her deeply or for a very long time. Okay, so in this case, I was too tired to give it much thought. So he didn't think about it very deeply.

and managed to sleep through the rest of the night. So sleep all the way through without waking up. The following morning, to no surprise, the snowman was still there. All right, to no surprise is just another phrase that you could use instead of saying unsurprisingly. So you could say unsurprisingly. Unsurprisingly, the snowman was still there. Or it's the middle of winter, so unsurprisingly, it's cold and dark.

OK, the following morning, to no surprise, the snowman was still there. OK, so to no surprise, unsurprisingly, synonyms. Another example, I opened my podcast app on my phone and to my surprise,

I saw that a brand new episode of LEP had just been surprised. Wait a minute. Hold on a minute. To no surprise is unsurprisingly. To my surprise, you can also say as well, which means surprisingly. For example, I opened up my podcast app and to my surprise, I saw that a brand new episode of Luke's English Podcast had been published. Unsurprisingly, it was what? I don't know. You could finish that sentence.

Unsurprisingly, it was quite long or unsurprisingly, it was absolutely brilliant. A work of genius. Next, I couldn't quite put my finger on it right then, but I got this strange notion that something was different about it. Hmm. I couldn't put my finger on it. So put your finger on it means define, identify, recognize or explain something.

Just couldn't quite put my finger on it. So I couldn't put my finger on it. It means I couldn't really explain it. I couldn't define it. I couldn't identify or explain exactly what it was. In this case, the feeling I was having. Right. So you know that something is strange or wrong, but you just can't quite explain it. You can't quite put your finger on it. All right. Another example. There was a strange atmosphere in the room. It was like something was not quite right, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Another example, his face seemed strangely familiar, like I'd seen him before, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't put my finger on it. And then he shouted, stop poking me in the face with your finger. Oh, sorry.

Sorry, I met a man and his face seemed very familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on it, no matter how hard I tried. I just couldn't put my finger on it until he shouted at me. Stop poking me in the face with your finger, you idiot. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. You seem very familiar. I just can't put my finger on it. I know, get your finger away from my face. Obviously, we're not literally putting our finger on something. It's just an idiom.

I just can't put my finger on it. There's something strange about that. I just, I can't quite put my finger on it. And it's different to that expression when you can't think of the word. If you can't think of the word, like, no, what's that word? It's just, what's his name? What's his name? You know, the actor. It's, oh, he's in that, you know, he's in those films. You know, the one, the actor, the American one. Yeah. And the, you know,

That's what we would say. It's on the tip of my tongue. It's on the tip of my tongue. So that's different. That's when you can't quite remember the word for something. You'd say, oh, it's on the tip of my tongue. But this is, I can't quite put my finger on it means I can't quite explain it. Okay.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but I got this notion. I got this strange notion that something was different. A notion is a sense of something or an idea of something, right? I just got this strange sense. I got this strange idea that something was different about the snowman. I think the snowman was closer. I think that's the subtext. I decided to carry on with my day and didn't think much of it.

until later that night when it happened again. So we've got, I didn't think much of it, meaning I didn't think it was very important. I didn't think much of it. I don't think much of it. I don't think it's very important. Or even I don't think it's very interesting. So for example, what do you think of the new TV series? What do you think of the new, I don't know, what would it be? What did you think of that new Star Wars TV series?

I didn't think much of it to be honest, means I didn't think it was very good. I didn't think it was very interesting. So that's, I didn't think much of it. Let me just highlight that here.

I didn't think much of it, really. I didn't think it was very interesting or important. And I didn't think about it much. Remember that one? I didn't think about it much, meaning I didn't think about it very often or for very long. And I didn't give it much thought means I didn't think about it very deeply. OK, so just three different ways that we use the word think. Right. I didn't think much of it. Didn't like it.

I didn't think about it much, just didn't think about it very often. And I didn't give it much thought, didn't choose to think about it very deeply. Okay, in this case, didn't think much of it, didn't think it was very important until later that night when it happened again. And then he realized that there was something going on, something more serious. I woke up suddenly for no apparent reason.

For no apparent reason, this is quite a nice expression when you just can't really explain why something happened. There's no reason, no apparent reason, no obvious reason, no clear reason for something. You know, for example, he just hit that man in the face for no apparent reason. Why did you do that? He just did it for no apparent reason, right? Okay, so I woke up suddenly for no apparent reason, just woke up, no particular reason why.

Must have been another snowball on the window. I don't remember having a bad dream, but I guess it's common not to remember our dreams, even the really bad ones. It felt like déjà vu.

And I found myself once again gazing through the bedroom window. So déjà vu, this is French, but we use it in English. It's a common expression in English. And déjà vu describes a very specific feeling, a very strange feeling. It's an uncanny feeling that you've seen it all before. This seems so familiar, like I feel like I've lived these moments before.

which is really weird, isn't it? In the movie, The Matrix, that's described as being a glitch in The Matrix. But we do get deja vu. I mean, do you ever get that? It's a really weird feeling, like you maybe suddenly feel like a bit weird, like a bit tired, or like you're in a little bit of a dream or something, and just you think, wait a minute, I swear I've

I have lived this moment before. Every single little moment, every detail feels familiar. It must be some sort of little mental thing, like a neurological thing that causes us to feel that way, right? But it's certainly strange. Anyway, we call that specific thing déjà vu.

But also you can say it felt like deja vu. If something feels like deja vu, it just means like you feel like you're repeating something that's happened before. It feels like deja vu this. So, you know, any situation where something happens again, like, oh, I don't know. I don't know what it would be like. You're at work and the fire alarm goes off. It's like this happened last week. This is like deja vu. Just something that happens again.

you know, repeatedly you can, and it's sort of strange. You can say it feels like deja vu. So it felt like deja vu, like, huh, that's weird. This is exactly the same thing that happened before. And I found myself once again, gazing through the bedroom window to find yourself doing something. It's always find yourself doing

I found myself gazing through the window. I found myself walking down the street. I found myself watching the new Star Wars TV series.

If you find yourself doing something, we use this expression to explain or describe how you kind of do something impulsively. You just end up doing it. You don't even really realize or think about it. You just sort of impulsively, instinctively do it. And then you realize that you're doing it. Oh, you know, oh, I suppose I'm watching this.

I found myself watching. It was late at night. I found myself watching this old movie. You know, I just ended up watching it. I chose to watch it without even really realizing it. So it felt like deja vu. And I found myself once again gazing through the bedroom window. So he felt there was obviously some sort of like instinctive impulse to look through the window again. And then he realized, oh, oh, OK, I'm looking through the window.

I found myself looking through the window. Going back to déjà vu again, as I said, this is French. Déjà vu means basically, literally, word for word means seen before or seen already. Déjà means like already or before and vu is like seen. So it means seen it before. Okay, it felt like déjà vu and I found myself once again gazing through the bedroom window. Gazing meaning looking. I could still see the snowman even clearer now.

I couldn't quite figure out why, but it gave me an odd sensation. So couldn't quite, couldn't quite figure out why. So to figure something out means to work something out, to understand why. OK, it's normally in American English to figure something out, to work it out, to understand it, understand why. In British English, we tend to say to work something out.

I couldn't work out why this snowman kept appearing outside the window. I just couldn't work it out. I couldn't figure out why it was happening. Okay. And I couldn't quite figure out why is it means I could almost do it. I could almost do it. I could almost understand it, but I couldn't. I still couldn't. So it's like you're trying to understand it.

And you're just close to understanding it, but still not really understanding it. So I couldn't quite figure out why, but it gave me an odd sensation. So again, that uncanny feeling being described of seeing the snowman again and going, this feels really weird and not quite right. And I don't really know why.

So I couldn't quite figure out why, but it gave me an odd sensation. An odd sensation, a strange feeling, a weird feeling, a creepy feeling, an eerie, eerie feeling, eerie or an uncanny feeling or a bizarre feeling.

you can find all these notes and stuff, all the synonyms and things that I'm giving you and examples and things. You'll find those notes on the page for this episode on my website and

And you'll find a link in the description for that. How are you doing, listeners? You doing all right? A lot of vocab here for you to remember. Make sure that you do have a look at the vocab notes. Again, it can be a really important part of the process. And you might find also, I think what I'll do as well, because I'm so nice, you know, so nice and helpful.

What I'll do is I'll add some stuff also, maybe some little vocabulary memory exercises that you can do just to help you jog your memory, to help you recall a lot of the words and things that I'm going through here. So yeah, check out the website page for this. You'll find some stuff there to work with to help support you in your learning.

vocabulary acquisition with this episode. Let's keep going. So where were we? I also started to wonder why the snowman was facing towards the cabin and why anyone would build a snowman all the way out here. So to wonder, I started to wonder, that's wonder with an O, W-O-N-D-E-R, meaning kind of think.

Wander with an O means think. Wander with an A means walk around. But this is wander with an O, so it means think. I also started to wonder why the snowman was facing towards the cabin. So we do say wander Y plus ING, where you're trying to understand...

someone's actions or a situation. I was trying to wonder why, uh, I was trying to wonder, I was wondering why she wasn't speaking to me. I was wondering, I wondered why she was ignoring me. Why is she ignoring me? Why is she not talking to me? What have I done wrong? Um, or in this case, I started to wonder why the snowman was facing towards the cabin. So it's, um,

to wonder why, uh, plus, uh, it's actually plus present continuous, isn't it? Plus in continuous form, past continuous. I started to wonder why the snowman was facing towards the cabin. I wondered why she was ignoring me, you know? So to, uh, the, the snowman was facing towards the cabin basically means, uh, facing, facing in a direction, right? Pointing in that direction, uh,

a person can face in a certain direction. Like as a teacher, I might say, could you turn your chairs round so that you can face the whiteboard? That way you're not bending your neck, you know, try and turn round so you're facing the whiteboard. It'll make it easier for you to face in a direction, face towards the cabin, face away from the cabin, face towards the whiteboard, face towards the window, meaning be positioned in that direction.

There weren't any other cabins around for miles. To be around means to be in the area, of course. So there weren't any other cabins in the area. There weren't any other cabins around for miles. I didn't sleep much after that. So the next morning I decided to head outside the cabin for a closer look.

So, to head outside. Head here, obviously, normally this is a noun, like your head is part of your body, right? It should be part of your body. It should be connected to your body at all times. Can you just, if you just check, yeah, good, mine is still connected, just being, just to be sure. You never, you can never be too sure. Certainly when you're, you know, learning English, it's very important to make sure that your head is connected to your body.

Anyway, I decided to... So normally head is a noun, but here it's a verb, isn't it? To head outside. And it means to just to go, you know, to go in that direction. To head outside in this case. To head outside the cabin for a closer look at the snowman. So to head inside, to head outside, to head home, to head to the park, to head to school, to head to work, head to the shops, meaning go to these places. Yeah.

I looked around, but just as I expected, there was no trace of anyone. I looked around. Now, obviously we use the word look. We know what that means, but we often use it with different prepositions, usually different directions. You look up, look up at the sky.

Look down at the ground. Look for something. Where is it? Where is it? Where is my key? Where is it? Is it here? Is it here? I'm looking for my key. Has anyone seen my key? Look for something. To look into something would be to look inside something or look inside a situation. Like investigate. The police are looking into it. There's that old joke. Did you hear about the police?

What? Did you hear about the crime at the nudist colony? No, no, it was. Did you hear about the hole in the wall at the nudist colony? Someone put a hole in the wall at the nudist colony, but it's OK. The police are looking into it.

So a nudist colony. This is a random joke out of nowhere. I've told this joke on the podcast before. I've told most jokes on this podcast after nearly a thousand episodes. But so a nudist colony. This is a place where people go to be naked naked.

to be nude, right? I don't know if this is a thing in your country, but in some places, some people like to spend their time without their clothes on. It must be liberating and nice. I mean, I would find it pretty embarrassing, but that's probably the wrong way to think about it. But nudist colonies, this is where... These are private places, right?

where people can go and they just spend their time without their clothes on. I don't think they do any stuff. I don't think they're doing any sexual things, but they're just going around living their lives, maybe kind of, you know, drinking drinks and reading books and maybe playing a bit of tennis or something. And they're just not wearing any clothes. This is a nudist colony. So a specific private place with behind closed doors, maybe like a leisure club or a place in the countryside.

So did you hear about the hole in the wall of the nudist colony? A hole in the wall would be a thing that you would be able to, you'd be able to look through the hole in the wall to have a look inside the nudist colony to look at all the naked people. Did you hear about the hole in the wall of the nudist colony? Yeah, it's okay. The police are looking into it. So the police are investigating it. They're trying to work out who did it.

But also they are looking into it, meaning, yes, of course, they are looking into the hole at all the naked people. So anyway, to look into something can mean to investigate something, to look back, you know, to look back. You can literally look back, meaning look behind you, but you can look back in terms of the past, right?

you know, to think back. I was thinking back about my ex-girlfriend, you know. It's important not to look back. Don't look back. Just keep focused on the future or the present. Look forward, meaning obviously look in that direction, but also look forward in

in terms of the future, you can look forward to something or look forward to doing something, meaning anticipate it, think about something that's coming in the future, normally in a positive way. I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody at

Christmas. I'm really looking forward to my holiday. So that's like think about things in the future in a positive way. Look around. Have we had that already? Look around is kind of like look left, look right, look all around. I'm trying to find my friend. Have you seen my friend? He should be waiting here somewhere. I'm just looking around. Your head turns left and right. Look out. Look out. Watch out for that. Look out. Meaning kind of be aware.

So lots of different expressions with look, look up, look down, look forward, look into, look back, look forward, look around, look out. And then obviously even more complex idiomatic ones to look down on someone, meaning to consider them to be lower than you. You know, I look down on people who are what?

I look down on football fans. Such an unsophisticated sport. I prefer, you know, sophisticated literature. So to look down on someone, to consider them to be lower than you. To look up to someone would be to respect someone. Like, for example, I like to play music. I play drums.

Right. I've been playing drums for years and I love playing drums, but I have like my drum heroes who I really look up to. Recently, I've been watching videos of Steve Jordan. He's a fantastic drummer. These days, he drums with the Rolling Stones. He's their drummer.

and he's an excellent drummer, does these really good grooves. He's got a fantastic sense of time and feel. And I really look up to him as a drummer. I just really respect him. I think he's, you know, he's great. He's like my drumming guru at the moment. So look up to someone, look out for someone, look out for someone. Now we had look out, meaning be careful, look out, you know, like, I don't know, what would it be?

you're next to a field where people are playing cricket and the ball comes flying towards you. Look out, watch out. Okay. And to look out for someone can mean to sort of take care of someone. Okay. Like it's, listen, it's Billy's first day at school today. All right. So you're his older brother. Could you look out for him? Meaning kind of like keep an eye on him, take care of him and to look in on, look in on.

would be to kind of check someone. So like Billy's doing his homework in his bedroom. I'm just going to look in on him and you open the door. You all right, Billy? How's it going? You okay? Still doing it? All right, excellent. To check up on him, look in on him. Hmm, okay. Loads of different expressions just with the word look. Anyway, in this case, I looked around. So he's gone out into the snow and he's now looking around trying to see if there's anyone around. Are any kids playing around here or...

Or what? He's looking around. But just as I expected, there was no trace of anyone. So a trace is a trace of something would be something left behind that would indicate the presence of something.

So no trace of anyone. So leave no trace. Like this is a thing when you go in the countryside, when you go walking in the mountains, they say that you should leave no trace that you were there, meaning you shouldn't drop any litter. You should leave the place untouched, unaffected. So a trace of something is like something left behind that proves that you were there. OK, in this case, there was no trace of anyone. There were no footprints on the ground.

Nothing left to indicate that people have been there. There was no trace of anyone. Sometimes you see when you look at the ingredients on a packet of something, like I'm looking at a jar of coffee right now. They don't say this in coffee normally, but sometimes you say, be careful, it may contain traces of nuts. Traces of nuts. So this would mean tiny amounts of nut in.

that might be in the food. Maybe these are tiny amounts of nuts that were... Maybe nuts were in the factory when the food was being made and some small amounts of nut might have got into the food. So they're very, very small amounts. They're traces of...

So no trace of anyone, meaning no small indications that someone was there. Traces of nuts would mean very small amounts of nut. I looked around, but just as I expected, there was no trace of anyone.

Although it was hard to be sure, considering how poor the visibility was due to the weather. So the visibility was poor. Visibility is, you know, how clear the conditions are. And if you've got very poor visibility, it means you can't see. You just can't see things, normally because of weather conditions. So it might be if you're driving, imagine you're driving through a snowstorm and there's thick snow falling and the visibility is really bad.

You can't see more than a few meters in front of the car. Very poor visibility. So it's extremely dangerous to drive in those conditions with such poor visibility. Poor meaning bad, right? Low quality. So it was hard to be sure if anyone was around because of how poor the visibility was due to the weather. So presumably it was like snowing.

And so maybe there was a bit misty or something. And he couldn't really see very clearly around. So he wasn't sure, but it seemed that there was nobody there. I chose to knock the snowman down just for good measure. So to knock something down, right, meaning to kind of destroy it. So something that's a structure that's standing like a snowman or a building.

or a tree, it can be knocked down. That means made to fall down, right? So you knock down the snowman to knock a building down. The tree was knocked down by a car, right?

Yeah, to knock something down. So I chose to knock the snowman down just for good measure. So just for good measure, this means to add something extra. If you do something for good measure, you do something just for good measure, you do something extra, you add something extra just to make sure it's right. In this case...

Just to be, perhaps, just to make himself feel a little bit better. So he went out, had a look around, can't see anyone. Well, just to be sure, I will also knock the snowman down. Just to make myself feel a bit better, just for good measure, just an extra thing, just to make sure it's right.

Okay, so you do something just for good measure. Other examples in cooking, I added some salt for good measure. So I was cooking a nice broth and I just added some salt just for good measure, a little bit of salt just to make it right. And another one, I was writing an email, an important email.

And I checked the email one more time just for good measure before I sent it. So I wrote the email very carefully before I sent it. I think it's a good idea to just check it one more time just for good measure. Extra thing to do just to make sure it's right. OK, I checked the word again just for good measure. I repeated it again just for good measure. Do something one more time. Do something extra just to make sure it's right.

Okay, moving on. It was already beginning to feel like some kind of bad omen. The snowman felt like a bad omen. A bad omen.

is a sign that something bad or evil or maybe bad luck might happen. A bad omen indicates that something worse might happen. It's like a sign that something else is going to happen. A sign of bad luck coming, a sign of bad fortune, or a sign of something evil coming. So now this could be something superstitious, like seeing a black cat,

Or spilling salt, which is a superstition in English-speaking countries. If you spill salt, that's considered to be bad luck. Or that's a bad omen, like it means something bad is going to happen later. Or breaking a mirror, right? Smashing a mirror is considered to be bad luck. You get seven years of bad luck. So those things are all signs that bad luck is coming or worse luck is coming. These are bad omens.

Or a bad omen could just be a thing that happens which tells you that another bigger bad thing will follow. For example, driving to the job interview, the car broke down on the way. So the car breaking down on the way to the job interview was a bad omen, suggesting that maybe the interview was going to go badly as well. So it's this idea of a bad omen, O-M-E-N,

This is a way to express a sense of anxiety about upcoming events, that one thing might make you think that other bad things are going to happen. So the snowman was like some kind of bad omen, like some sign that evil things were afoot. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe it was just some kids fooling around. So to overreact is to sort of react or respond to something in a way that's too much to

Like your emotional or behavioral reaction is too extreme if you overreact. For example, someone does something that you don't like in a meeting at work and you throw your pen on the table and you storm out of the room. It's like, whoa, God, you know, you probably overreacted a little bit, especially since all that person did was take the last biscuit from the biscuit plate.

I can't believe you took the last biscuit! Right, that's enough! I'm out of here! Pfft, slam the door behind you. I only ate the last biscuit. It's a bit of an overreaction, isn't it? Well, he really does like biscuits. Those biscuits are very important to him. Still a bit of an overreaction, isn't it? Anyway, maybe I was overreacting. Like, knocking down the snowman was like a bit of an overreaction, maybe.

Maybe it was just some kids fooling around. So to fool around means to just do some stupid things just to have fun. In this case, building the snowman next to the cabin, maybe to make the guy feel a little bit scared, maybe throw snowballs at the window. It's the sort of thing that kids do. They fool around by throwing snowballs at windows and then running away. You know, it's the kind of thing that kids do. They fool around like that.

But at least I wouldn't have to think about it anymore. Knocking it down. At least I wouldn't have to think about it anymore. Or so I thought. So, or so I thought. We use this phrase at the end of a statement or sentence to show that what you believed to be true was in fact not true.

that you learned after that this wasn't the case or this turned out not to be true. So adding, or so I thought, this adds a twist or an element of surprise to what you're saying.

often implying that events happened differently to what was expected. So it's quite a nice little phrase to use in a story or when you're telling an anecdote. So everything was OK, or so I thought, meaning that then some other stuff happened that I didn't expect.

It's typically used in storytelling or conversations to set up a revelation or some surprise or an irony. For example, I locked the door before leaving the house, or so I thought. But when I came back, the door was wide open. Then I realized that aliens had broken into my house. Just another normal story, you know.

In this case, the speaker was mistaken in thinking the door was locked. I locked my door, or so I thought. It turned out that I'd left it open. I was finally going to have a relaxing evening in my apartment listening to Luke's English podcast, or so I thought, until my neighbour started blasting out incredibly loud and incredibly bad music.

So I thought I was going to have, you know, I was going to have. So instead of saying, I thought I was going to have a nice evening, but I didn't. It would be, I was going to have a nice evening, or so I thought. Then something happened. Okay, moving on. The following night, things got even worse. So the following night, the next night, the night after. You've got the following night, meaning the next night. You then, opposite to that would be the previous night or the night before that.

So, okay, the following night, the next night, the following day, the following week, the following month, the following year, the following lesson, the following episode, meaning the next one. Okay. I woke up again, but this time I knew for sure it wasn't from a dream.

It was a loud thud, like the sound of something hitting the window. So this word thud, which is a sort of an onomatopoeia, one of those words that sounds like the thing it describes. A thud is a low, heavy noise, like the sound of someone, like the sound of something hitting the window.

A low, heavy noise, like something soft and heavy hitting a surface, exactly like a snowball hitting your window when you're in a remote cabin in the middle of a forest, you know. Or maybe someone dropping a large book on the floor in an upstairs room, you know, that kind of sound. Yeah.

Uh, I don't know. Right. That's not a heavy book. Like if I just drop a dictionary on the table. Well, that's quite a loud thud, actually. Yeah. I don't know if that made a big noise for you or, you know, the sound of, you know, someone dropping a book or hitting a snowball or a body falling on the floor after being shot with a poison arrow by a ninja, you know.

That's the sort of reference you're like, I'm still not sure what the word thud means, Luke. Book hitting a table, snowball on a window, still not sure. A body hitting the ground after it's been hit by a poison arrow from a ninja. Right, now I know what thud means. Thank you. Okay.

I glanced through the window. So looked quickly. There's that word again. Glanced and gazed. These two words always seem to come up in every single short story I ever do on this podcast. I glanced through the window, looked out of it quickly. I gazed through the window, kind of stared for a long time.

Anyway, I glanced through the window and was shocked to see the same snowman identical to the day before. So just have a quick look out the window. Maybe he did a double take. Just have a look out the window. Snowman. Snowman? What's that doing here? I glanced through the window and was shocked to see the same snowman identical to the day before. Huh?

I remember turning in quite late that night. To turn in means to go to bed. I think I'm going to turn in. I've got a long day tomorrow. I'm going to turn in, meaning I'm going to go to bed. I remember turning in quite late that night and there was no sign of a snowman. So we've got no sign of a snowman. No, no snowman at all. Have a quick look out the window. Yeah, no snowman. No sign of a snowman. No, no, no trace of a snowman.

When I turned out the lights, so turn out the lights, just close the curtain. Yeah, there was no snowman out there. Was there? No, no, definitely not even a sign. No indication of a snowman at all.

So I was pretty sure it wasn't a kid's prank. So there's that word prank, again, like a trick that you would play on someone. In this case, building a sort of creepy snowman outside their window every night, getting a bit closer each time to freak someone out. Or other pranks would be like, you know, putting something on the floor so you fall over and break your neck and die. Ah, hilarious prank. Anyway, so...

There was no snowman when he went to bed and it was dark outside. So this, he was pretty sure it wasn't a kid's prank because kids wouldn't be outside after dark in the middle of the night. No parents would let their kids out at that time. Yeah, I mean, who would let their kids out this late to build a snowman?

Shall we have a look at let your kids out and leave? So let something out and leave something out. Let's have a quick look at the difference between those things. So to let your kids out versus leave your kids out. So to let and leave. It's worth pointing this out because in some languages, these two words are expressed by one word. Like in French, for example, let and leave. It's

It's just one word. But in English, we have two words for two different concepts. So to let something happen is to allow something to happen. And leave is the sense of going away and abandoning something. So to let them out would be allow them to go out of the house. Leave them out would be abandon them outside or not bring them inside. So, for example, I left the dog. I let the dog out.

meaning I open the door and allow the dog to go out. I left the dog out means I forgot to bring the dog back in. I sort of abandoned the dog outside. Also, you often find that let is followed by a noun and a base form of a verb. Let me listen. Let me do something. Let me tell you a story. And leave is often followed by a noun or pronoun. Leave me your keys. Leave me here.

So, let me do something, leave me something. Okay? But we also do say let something out and leave something out as well. We do do that. Little quiz for you, everyone. Is it let or is it leave? Okay? Is it let or is it leave? So, this one, me alone. Just me alone.

There is leave, right? Leave me alone, meaning abandon me or go away from me. Leave me alone. I'm trying to focus. How about this one? You can the book on the table. You can just the book on the table. You can leave the book on the table. Just sort of abandon it on the table. I've got this book for you. Yeah, you can just leave it on the table. That's fine. Another one. I think you should him go.

I think you should just hmm him go. I caught a fish. Isn't it fantastic? What shall I do with it? What shall I do with it? I think you should just, just, just let him go. Let him go back in the water. Another one. Don't me out of the game. I want to play. So this is like some people are playing a game and you're not included. Oh, don't me out. Don't leave me out.

Don't abandon me. Right. And another one. Don't forget to the dog out. Don't forget to the dog out. Don't forget to let the dog out. Yeah. So let meaning allow something to happen. Leave meaning leave something alone or abandon something. OK, so in this case, who would let their kids out this late to build a snowman?

What parents would say if the kids are like, so it's, you know, 12.30 at night on a freezing night out here in this remote part of a forest. We're just going to go out and build a snowman. Okay. Yeah, sure. Out you go. Make sure you come back before 3 a.m. No. So it's not some kids. It's not kids playing a prank. And what was that noise on the window?

The last thing I wanted to do was go outside in the blistering cold. The blistering cold, extreme cold, the biting cold, the freezing cold. We use that expression to talk about the weather, the temperature outside. The blistering cold, meaning extreme cold.

All right, blisters are little spots that appear on your skin in certain conditions. Normally, if you've got a new pair of shoes and you walk around for the day in a new pair of shoes, you get blisters on your feet, right? Blistering, you get normally the blistering heat, so hot that it gives you blisters. In this case, it's the blistering cold. I don't know if cold can actually give you blisters, but anyway, you get the idea. It's just a way of saying extreme cold.

The last thing I wanted to do, meaning I didn't want to, go outside in the blistering cold. But I knew that if I waited until morning, any footprints...

would most likely be covered by another thick layer of snow. Footprints are these impressions or marks on the ground from people's feet. So you get footprints in the snow, footprints in the mud, okay? Footprints on the ground. The mark of someone's foot where they've been walking.

I knew that if I waited until morning, any footprints would most likely be covered by another thick layer of slow. Slow? No, of snow. So most likely meaning probably, like very probably. They would very probably be covered by another thick layer of snow. So likely means probably, right? And likelihood is probability. What's the likelihood of it being some kids?

I think the likelihood is quite low, right? It's not likely to be kids doing this. Okay. Hmm. All right. Next. I ultimately got dressed, stepped outside and walked up to the snowman. Ultimately here means at the end of a long process.

So this means that he thought about it a lot or struggled to make a decision. And in the end, he chose to get dressed and step outside. I do like the way the story is written because there are these little moments

details that make you realise that there is a lot going on. So I ultimately got dressed, stepped outside and walked up to the snowman without saying I sat and thought about it again and again and again and I couldn't quite decide. Without saying that, we just get, I ultimately got dressed, which suggests that

that there was a process going on where he struggled to make a decision. And in the end, he chose to get dressed and to step outside. Ultimately and eventually is similar. Eventually is similar, but different. So eventually means after a long time and ultimately means at the end of a long process. You see, so we waited and waited at the airport and then eventually the flight was announced after a long time.

But ultimately, it means after a long series of things have happened or at the end of a long process. We complained to the manager, so we had a bad time in a restaurant. Okay, there was a slug or a worm in my food. And I said to the waiter, excuse me, what's this worm doing in my food? And the waiter said, looks like, what's this worm doing in my soup? Looks like he's swimming, sir. What?

I think I'll have to complain to the manager. This is unacceptable. So we complained to the waiter. Then we spoke to the manager. Then the manager spoke to the chef. And ultimately, they decided that they would give us a free meal. Okay. Another noodle soup for you, sir. Sorry, what? This is no laughing matter. Anyway, so ultimately, after we complained to this, this, this, ultimately, they gave us a refund, you know. So anyway, I ultimately got dressed and

Stepped outside and walked up to the snowman. That's when I discovered a single set of very large footprints. Very large ones. So some big bloke, not a child, some, probably some big man. It's a bit scary, isn't it? Like some...

from some horror film. This could be just the beginning of a horror film. And it's like, at that point, I decided to investigate. So I got my boots on and my coat, and I did the really stupid thing that people do in horror films. And I went out in the middle of the night with a torch, and I investigated the forest. And sure enough, there was a woodcutter's cabin there.

with a crazy woodcutter with lots of axes and he chopped me up and I died and that's the end of the story and I'm dead now. And now, you know, they're making a new film about it coming soon to a cinema near you from Friday. The Snowman. Anyway...

So that's when I discovered a large set of very large footprints leading from and to the forest. So leading, if something leads from somewhere or leads to somewhere, it means it goes in that direction. For example, the path leads to the top of the hill. All roads lead to Rome, which is a famous saying.

We left a trail of stones which led us back through the forest. Lead, lead, lead. This river leads all the way through the centre of the city. Okay. I couldn't shake this feeling of being watched. If you can't shake a feeling, it means you have this feeling, you have this sense that something is happening and you just can't get rid of it. You can't make it go away. It's to shake a feeling of something happening.

I couldn't shake this feeling of being watched. OK, I couldn't shake this feeling of dread. I couldn't shake this feeling of excitement. Why would you want to shake a feeling of excitement? I don't know. So normally you would shake a negative thing, a negative feeling. I couldn't I just couldn't shake this feeling of loneliness. I couldn't shake this feeling of being watched, which is the passive form, isn't it?

I was being watched. I couldn't shake this feeling of being watched. I couldn't shake this feeling that someone was watching me. So I decided to leave it alone and quickly headed back to the cabin. So there's that word headed again, meaning went back to the cabin. The bitter cold stayed with me. So we've got bitter cold, blistering cold, freezing cold, describing weather. The bitter cold stayed with me that night as I curled up in bed. I curled up in bed.

Curled up means you get into a nice cosy position. You probably bring your legs up to your chest. You kind of curl means you go into a rounded position. It's what you do in bed. You curl up in bed, especially if it's cold, or you curl up on the sofa with a nice book. Get into a nice, comfortable, cosy position.

But the prospect of getting any sleep soon came to an abrupt end with a noise on the glass. The prospect of doing something, the prospect of getting any sleep. This is the idea or possibility of something in the future. And often something you feel excited, nervous or bothered by. The prospect of doing something. For example, the prospect of... We would say the prospect of doing something...

excites me or worries me or intrigues me or fills me with joy or fills me with dread. The prospect of speaking in front of my boss tomorrow fills me with dread. Oh, God, I've got to speak. I've got to do a presentation in front of my boss and the rest of the team tomorrow. The prospect of doing it just fills me with fills me with nerves.

or the prospect of going to London next month really excites me. I can't wait. I'm really looking forward to it. Okay. So the prospect of doing something, the prospect of listening to this new episode is really exciting. You know, it's the sort of thing that,

You know, when you've got something nice coming up, the prospect of doing it is really great or the prospect of doing that is bad. So, for example, I heard a noise in the middle of the night and realised I had to go outside to investigate. But the prospect of going outside in the cold weather was not nice. In this case, the prospect of getting any sleep is.

came to an abrupt end with a noise on the glass. So if something comes to an abrupt end, it means it ends suddenly. So the idea of getting any sleep stopped suddenly. The prospect of getting any sleep stopped suddenly. And notice that we get sleep. We don't just sleep, but you get sleep. If you get sleep, it means often that it's... You're talking about sleeping in a situation when it's difficult to sleep. So...

I didn't get any sleep last night. I didn't obtain or manage to have any. I didn't get any sleep last night. Or I only got three hours sleep last night and I'm trying to get some sleep here. I'm going to go and lie down to try to get some sleep. So we often talk about getting sleep. We don't just talk about sleeping.

Right? I'm gonna lie down to sleep for a while. I'm gonna lie down to try to sleep for a while. I'm gonna lie down to try to get some sleep. Mm-hmm. The prospect of getting any sleep came to an abrupt end, a sudden end, with a noise on the glass. I recognized it instantly, the sound of a snowball hitting the window. Snowball is, of course, a ball of snow. I knew deep down that it could only mean one thing.

I knew deep down that it could only mean one thing, that alien ghosts had possessed a snowman built by children, and that snowman was now terrorising me, and I had no choice but to write a screenplay for a really exciting new Hollywood film called The Snowman. No, that's not what it meant. I knew deep down that it could only mean one thing, that...

Someone was throwing snowballs at my window. So if you know something deep down, it means you know it deep inside yourself, but perhaps in the front of your mind, you don't really want to admit it.

So knowing something deep down or feeling something deep down is a gut feeling that you might not realize or might not act on. You know it, but you don't necessarily do anything about it in that moment. You just live with this deep, instinctive, intuitive feeling about something. I knew deep down. OK, for example, if you're talking about a relationship with someone and you it's the end of the relationship.

I knew deep down that our relationship was over, but I carried on pretending for another year. So I knew, even though I knew deep down that I didn't love her anymore, we stayed together for another year because I didn't have the courage to break up with her. Another example, I smiled and nodded. Like, everything all right? Yeah, yeah, everything's fine, yeah. I smiled and nodded, but deep down, I knew something was wrong.

Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Yeah. I knew deep down that the job was not right for me, but I continued doing it anyway because that's what my parents expected me to do. So I got a new job in a bank and my parents were delighted and I started the job and I thought, oh, God, I hate this. I cannot stand this. It all just feels wrong.

But I'm going to keep doing it because that's what my parents and everyone else expects me to do. But I knew deep down it wasn't right for me. But I did it anyway. I knew deep down it was wrong, but I couldn't stop myself. Right. So this can be used for positive things as well. Like, for example, I knew deep down that I had found the perfect place to live. Right. It could be for positive things, but it's often used in negative contexts for some reason. Yeah. OK.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep a wink that night. Needless to say, we use this to mean I didn't say this, I didn't need to say this because it was obvious. Or I don't need to say this because it's obvious, but I'm saying it anyway. It's a bit like saying, of course. Of course, I didn't sleep a wink that night. Or I don't need to say it, but I didn't sleep a wink that night. Or needless to say, obviously,

I didn't sleep a wink that night. If you didn't sleep a wink, this is another expression about sleeping, of course. If you don't sleep a wink, it means you don't sleep at all. No sleep at all.

All right. So a few different expressions about sleeping. We've got to sleep. Obviously, I slept well last night to get some sleep. When we're talking about difficulty sleeping or when sleeping is something you're trying to obtain or achieve. I only got three hours sleep last night. It took me ages to get to sleep or I'm going to try to get some sleep. Or finally, I managed to get a really good night's sleep last night. I feel much better.

And then I didn't sleep a wink. I didn't sleep at all. Not even one single wink. A wink is when one of your eyes closes and opens quickly. Didn't sleep a wink last night. And then he left the cabin very early the next day. I never knew his name or ever saw his face, but I came to know him as the snowman.

So I came to know him as the snowman, to come to know someone as something. This suggests that he gradually, gradually became familiar with this person, not because he met him again and again, I think, but because he thought about this a lot afterwards. And in his mind, after reflecting on this and thinking about it a lot, in the end, he

He came up with this name, calling him the snowman, this mysterious person that was out there doing weird things outside the cabin. Either the snowman itself or the person who apparently kept building it and then throwing snowballs at his window. I never knew his face or ever... I never knew his name or ever saw his face, but I came to know him as the snowman.

What did he want? Why was he doing that? Maybe he's just like, do you want to come and play snowballs with me? Maybe that's, look, I built you a snowman. I don't think it was as sweet or as innocent as that, but who knows? It's the kind of unknown aspect of this that's sort of creepy and interesting, isn't it? I think so. So there you go. That was the end of the story.

And so I'm always curious to get your comments. So what do you think about the story? Who was the snowman? Why were they doing it? What was your interpretation of it? Were you like my daughter? Did you think that it was the snowman itself that was walking around and throwing snowballs? Or is it someone else who's done it? What's going on? Do you think it's a true story or not? I don't know.

But leave your comments under the episode. Don't forget to visit the page for this episode on my website where you'll find all of the vocab notes plus the full text of the story. Plus, I expect some exercises that you can use to help you practice using the vocabulary to help you remember it and stuff like that as well. And a reminder to check out animatedhorrorflix.com.

on YouTube for plenty of other short stories like this. Thanks again to the owner of that channel for letting me use this story in this episode. On the channel, Animated Horror Flicks, link in the description. There are lots of other creepy stories there. They are short, I think always less than 10 minutes each time. They're read out in British English with animations too.

like cartoon animations and the author used to be an english teacher apparently i emailed him to ask for permission he replied saying actually yes i used to be an english teacher as well so i would be delighted for you to use the story in your episode on your podcast so yeah uh

short, creepy stories in British English with animations. I think it should be good content for fans of my podcast. So you can check them out. Okay. That's the end of the episode. Thank you so much for listening, uh, and watching. And I'll speak to you next time. I hope you're doing okay out there in podcast land. Well done for getting all the way through to the end of this episode without sort of freezing into some sort of frozen snowman or something like that. Um,

Hope you're having a nice winter, that you're keeping yourself warm. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere when you listen to this, or indeed if it's just summer or warm weather,

because you're listening to this later, then good for you. I hope you're nice and toasty and warm and that you're not too hot, that you're keeping cool. Basically, everyone out there, I hope you are currently experiencing, you know, the optimal temperature and weather conditions for you. And if you're not, then, you know, good luck out there. Okay. All right. That's the end of this. Speak to you in the next episode.

season's greetings and all the rest of it. And I'll speak to you soon. But for now, it's time to say goodbye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information, visit teachaluke.co.uk.

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