Hi there. This is Harry and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry,
where we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language.
You might just be preparing for those proficiency exams. You might be preparing for a job interview,
or simply want to improve your business English or your conversational English.
Well, you've come to the right place would be very happy to help you.
Okay. So back to the lesson today. So it's an
advanced English lesson and we're looking at advanced motion verbs.
What are those? Advanced motion verbs. Well, they are verbs connected with motion, movement,
motion and movement. So I've got 12 on my list today, so I'm going to go through
them. I'm going to explain them, give you an example. Hopefully you'll understand them.
Hopefully you'll be able to use them. Hopefully you'll be able to introduce them into your speech.
And again, if you don't understand and you need more information, I'll give you the address at
the end of this particular lesson and you can write to me and I'll give you some more examples.
Okay, back to the lesson. So here we go, number one. Soar. When something soars,
it goes up really, really quickly.
Halloween or some people will celebrate at the end of the year with fireworks. And when they set a
rocket for the fireworks, it will soar up into the sky, meaning it will go very, very quickly
If they launch a satellite or some new space rocket from NASA, then it will
soar up into the sky very, very quickly. Unfortunately, at the moment, because of
inflation, prices are soaring in our supermarkets. Price of gas, price of different fuels are soaring
all of the time. They are going up really, really quickly. So to soar means to rise quickly.
Next hurtle and just be careful with the pronunciation hurtle and the spelling
H-U-R-T-L-E When something hurtle, it's usually out of control. So when we were
talking about rockets, when when the rocket soars up into the sky, then the
rocket disengages from port and the bottom of the rocket hurtles towards the ocean and
it just falls into the ocean. So it hurtles somewhere out of control or
there's an avalanche of snow or rocks. They come sliding down the side of the
mountain. They hurtle toward the villages below. And there's a hope that people would
be able to escape and get out of the way of the rockfalls or the the avalanche of snow.
So when something comes hurtling towards you, it's moving very, very quickly and very,
very fast. If you're into sci fi, I'm not really into science fiction and you're looking at all
these crazy things that that happen out in space when pieces of rock and meteors come hurtling into
the atmosphere and hurtling towards Earth. They're not quite sure where they're going to land.
Often they fall into the sea and never seen again, so they'd be watching them
and monitoring their progress as these pieces of rock come hurtling towards us. So out of control,
very, very fast and very, very hard to avoid them to hurtle toward you.
Zoom and whiz, while zoom is used in a different way. Now
we use it as a communication platform, but
when something zooms and whizzes, it goes really, really quick. These
shooting stars whiz across the atmosphere, whizz across the sky. If you've ever been
fortunate enough to witness one or something zooms towards you,
you can get this impression of something moving it 200 kilometres an hour.
Zoom. We also use the zoom lens on the camera to get a very, very close
look at something zoom. So to zoom in on something means to get really up close
and see all the particular details. So all about motion and all about movement.
Roll across. Well, this can be a little more leisurely.
We put a ball on the floor and we push it.
It will roll a
across the floor. So it's a round ball. It will roll. Yeah. Or if it's a glass,
you put it on the floor. It might roll across the floor for a few minutes. Or
if you happen to be opening the bag of peas and they spill on the floor,
They roll across the floor in all different directions. So when something rolls,
it moves. Yeah, that's it. And if it's if it's round,
then it will keep rolling until you stop it. Okay, so to roll across.
If you go out on a skateboard, it will roll across the pavement when you put your foot
down and you push it. So to roll something moving, okay, but not necessarily at a very high speed.
Next plunge. Well, at the beginning we had soar. Plunge is the opposite. So soar going
up and up very quickly, plunge to go down, down just as quickly. So prices plunged
this week. And the gas market, when people realised that they weren't using as much gas,
so prices have plunged. When there's no demand for a particular product,
the prices will plunge as interest rates rise. Then properties are no longer so attractive,
so the prices may plunge and you might be able to pick up a bargain or two. Okay. If there's an
oversupply of fruit in the market or an oversupply of milk in the market, the price for those
particular products may plunge and therefore you should be able to get things much more cheaply.
So to plunge is to go down very, very,
very quickly. Okay, Plunge. If you jump off the side of a
rock into the water, you plunge down deep into the water to go down quickly plunge.
I'd just like you to consider if you do like the lesson,
please like the video and subscribe to a challenge because it really, really helps.
Whirl And we often use the preposition around to whirl around, you know,
when you open the tap in your sink, the water goes into the sink and
then it whirls around till it goes down the plughole and okay. And if you happen to be
In the other part of the world
in Sydney, Australia instead of London. It will whirl around in the opposite direction if
you watch it. Okay, so to whirl around or you sit down and you watch your washing machine,
when you switch it on the drum in the middle of the washing machine whirl around, when the washing
machine is going at full speed and all your clothes get washed and hopefully they come out
Clean and also a little bit dry. Okay,
so to whirl around or if you take your kids to the funfair and they get on one of these
games and they stand on it and then you push them around, you world them around really,
really quickly, and sometimes they can get a little bit dizzy. So if you turn
around very quickly, circles circle, after circle after circle, you can whirl around.
So to whirl around means to go round in circles really, really quickly.
Whoosh. This is a real sound as well as a motion. But if you're standing in a train
station and there's a fast train approaching and it's not going to stop at this particular station,
then whoosh is the sound you'll hear as the train comes through the station at a very, very high
speed. And you have to be very careful, you know, standing too close to the edge of the platform.
So whoosh is the motion and whoosh is the sound that that train,
particularly the high speed trains, would make as it passes through your station,
which you could feel the air being sucked behind it.Whoosh. Okay.
Clump. Is it a slower motion clump clump. You can imagine the
Picture if you saw that movie of Lord of the Rings.
The third part at the very end of the movie, when the trees uproot themselves
and they take part in the big war, and then you can see the trees,
the sort of pull the roots out of the ground really, really slowly. And then they clump,
clump, slump along the ground, and you can feel the vibration as you're watching the movie.
So that's what clumping is, very heavy steps like an elephant. An elephant will clump across the
ground. It's not running it really high speed, hopefully because the human bid to stop them,
but they clump big weight underneath the foot, clump, clump, some clump. So something really
heavy. Imagine if you were on the surface of the moon and you're wearing these big moon boots.
You have to lift up the feet because of gravity.
And then you put down the foot, clump, clump, clump.
Okay. Lumber. So lumber is
we have to make sure we don't
get confused here because lumber is actually a word for wood. The lumber,
the big piles of lumber that you cut, the trees that you cut down, and you make them
into planks put to lumber as a motion means to move in a ungainly or unfashionable way.
I earlier mentioned about the elephant. Okay, so you can also use the word to lumber along
like an elephant or a big fat heavy bear. And when the bears are getting ready to hibernate
in the winter, they put on a huge amount of weight. You know, they double or triple their
body weight very, very quickly. They feeding off fish and berries and anything they can get.
So when they're at the full weight, they will lumber along. So you can have this
imagination of big, heavy animal clumping and lumbering along in the forest, a case of two
lumber in a ungainly on fashionable way big heavy footsteps bump, bump, bump. To lumber.
And then we have slouch. Well, slouch is a interesting motion. I haven't heard
the word for a long time. Okay, But my parents used to tell me,
Don't slouch over your food means you're sitting down like this and your dish is underneath.
You sit back and put your shoulders back. Don't slouch. You'll end up with round shoulders. All
of you sitting back, lying in the sofa with your legs stretched out in front
of you. They'll also tell you, Don't slouch, sit up straight. It's not good posture. It's
not good for your weight to look or to walk. So slouching is a way of moving,
a way of sitting in a slightly uncomfortable, messy and not such a presentable way.
Okay, so when people want you to sit with your shoulders back and then
sit like a soldier. Yeah. So you shouldn't slouch. Don't slouch over your desk because
you'll get a pain in your back, you'll get a pain in your neck. You'll end up with
all sorts of problems about mobility. Okay, So don't slouch, okay? Don't slouch on the couch.
So not to be lying in an ungainly way on your sofa,
not to be sitting in an ungainly way at your desk to slouch.
Sweep. Well, a sweeping motion is something that is very quick and covers everything.
we often sweep the floor so we take all the dirt and the dust and whatever's on the floor,
we sweep it up. So you can imagine this
Words sweep, which takes everything in front of it. Okay, so the wind swept through the
valley. So you have this picture in your mind of strong winds and the trees bending as the
wind was blowing or the wind and rain swept over the town. So everybody got soaked. So you're out
walking and this thunderstorm started and then the rain swept through the streets very, very quickly.
And when you got home, you were completely soaked, completely drenched. So to sweep,
it's a big sweeping motion to take everything in front of you. Okay.
But there's a nice way to describe the hills, low hills, where they're covered in trees. You
can hear the description of the trees swept right from the top of the hill to the bottom,
through the valley, down to the ocean, to sweep across everything.
So as you looked up at the hills, all you could see were the tops of green trees, okay, to sweep.
And then finally scramble. Okay. When you scramble,
you're trying hard to to do something, for example, to scramble over rocks.
So we're down on the beach and there's lots of rocks and you're trying to get up to the
top of the hill. You have to scramble over the rocks. You
have to climb very carefully over the rocks.
They may be wet, they may be slippery, but you scramble over them and you
reach the top. So to scramble means to to climb or to run, but not in a very, very
organised way. But you're going from rock to rock to find the best foothold and to
grab something with your hands, pull yourself up and climb over or scramble over the rocks.
Okay. So when the kids are playing in the on the beach,
they scramble over the rocks in the sand dunes. Okay. So to try and get to a better location,
a better view, to play their game, to scramble.
Okay, So these are all words about motion. Let me just go through them one more time to
saw something going up really, really quickly. Hurtle hurtled towards you when the the train
is out of control or the the meteor is heading for earth. It's hurtling towards.
earth and out outer space. Zoom and whiz. Whizzed by when very, very quickly. Zoom
the speed of the motorbike as it passed you by on the street to roll across a little slower.
The ball rolls across the floor or I spilled the bag
of peas and they rolled across the kitchen floor,
plunge. The opposite of saucer prices plunged because there's too much fruit
on the market and not everybody's buying it. So prices fell dramatically. They plunged.
Whirl like the washing machine. The washing machine world, the drum of the
washing machine whirls around and your clothes are and then they come out dry.
Whoosh. the sound as the train comes through the station at 200 kilometres an hour. An hour, one of
these new super fast trains whoosh clump the sound of that big heavy elephant coming through the
forest. Clump, clump, clump, lumber. Yeah, that's the the bear which has been feeding off all of the
berries and all of the fish during the early autumn months, getting ready for hibernation.
So it lumbers across the forest floor.
Slouch when you're sitting over your soup yet tired. You just got out of bed. You want to go
to school, you're slouching over your breakfast or you're slouched over your desk because you've been
working seven, eight, 9 hours without a break. So somebody would tell you not to slouch, sit up
straight, otherwise you'll get rounded, shoulders sweep to sweep everything in front of you.
The road sweeps, the trees sweep across the side of the mountain. The wind swept
through the village to sweep and finally scramble to scramble over the rocks to climb
over those rocks that are near the beach and attempt to get up to higher ground scramble.
Okay, so all words, advanced English words connected with
motion. Try to use some of them, try to practice them.
If you want to contact me, you can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com Always happy
to hear from you. Always happy to give you some extra and additional examples if you need them.
I'm always pleased when you watch so this is how you're saying goodbye to next time. Thanks a lot.