This story is about a scarecrow competition in an Australian country town.
We'll look at some shortened words and idioms such as 'down in the dumps'.
Tonight's competition is basically to try to get some scarecrows for the harvest festival
which is usually held on a Easter Sat'day.
Last year we lost a few to vandals and a few people stealing them so we decided to have
a competition to have the best scarecrow.
What we'll do tonight is at 5 o'clock we're gunna go round and pick all the scarecrows
up from outside people's houses.
We've got a double decker bus to do that and we're gunna try not to damage them and we're
gunna get them all back down to the local community club at Cadell and we'll put 'em
up all round the buildings and what we'll do tonight is at 5 o'clock we're gunna go
round.
He has a strong accent and speaks quickly.
Some words have lost syllables.
Listen for when the harvest festival is held.
Tonight's competition is basically to try to get some scarecrows for the harvest festival
which is usually held on a Easter Sat'day.
Instead of saying Easter Saturday, he says:
Easter Sat'day
And instead of saying going to, he says gunna
and for them he says 'm.
Listen:
What we'll do tonight is at 5 o'clock we're gunna go round and pick all the scarecrows
up from outside people's houses.
We've got a double decker bus to do that and we're gunna try not to damage them and we're
gunna get them all back to the local community club at Cadell and we'll put 'em up all round
the buildings and the 3 judges will then have a look at all the scarecrows.
They're going to pick all the scarecrows up.
To pick up here means to go somewhere and collect them.
So why is the town having a scarecrow competition?
It's good for Cadell as any event that we try to organise because we're only a small
town.
We only have one store, one community club.
We don't have too many sporting clubs so it's a good chance for the actual people of Cadell
to get together as one and celebrate an event and it gives people a feeling of pride about
their community.
As I said the drought's really affected the area so people are down, down in the dumps,
so if we can get a bit of happiness and a bit of spirit back in their lives for a couple
of weeks making colourful scarecrows all the better.
It's a chance to get together and celebrate.
The drought - the lack of rain for a long time has made people feel 'down in the dumps'
- it's made them feel sad.
They're making scarecrows and what else?
And also the kids are dressing up as scarecrows.
They're 'dressing up' as scarecrows.
To dress up is to wear a costume or special clothes.
And also the kids are dressing up as scarecrows.
And we've got first and second place for them in the scarecrows.
But the whole community's got behind it and there's some really incredible scarecrows.
It's the talk of the town.
The community's 'got behind it' - this means to support it or be involved and interested.
The talk of the town is something that everyone's talking about.
The whole community's got behind it and there's some really incredible scarecrows.
It's the talk of the town.
So we've seen that Saturday can be pronounced Sat'day,
that to pick up is to collect in a vehicle
and that down in the dumps means feeling sad.
We'll finish with the winning scarecrow: Thanks everyone for coming down tonight to
the scarecrow competition.
We only expected probably 10 to 15 scarecrows - I think at the last count was 42.
Yay.
Well done, mate, excellent job.
Everyone put your hands together for Bill please.
OK now for the first prize, it is the pirate.
Well done.
A bit shocked actually but very proud.
Very proud.
I've got no idea what to do with it now.