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📚 Vocabulary
5 new words Learn new words with real examples and audio.
Podcast: Health & Body
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📝 Podcast Transcript
Hello everyone, and welcome to Word Kitchen, the show where we cook up new English words and serve them in real conversations. I'm Maya.
And I'm Lena. Hi, Maya. Hi, everyone. Today we have five words about health and the body. When you feel sick, these are the words you need.
That's right. So our five words are cough, fever, headache, sore, and rest. Let's start with cough. A cough is that short strong sound when air comes out of your mouth fast. Lena, have you ever had a really bad cough?
Oh yes, last winter. I had a bad cough for a whole week. Every time I tried to talk, I started to cough, and then I could not stop. It was terrible in meetings.
That's awful. I think everyone knows that feeling. When I have a cough, I drink warm tea with honey. What do you do when you have a cough?
Warm tea too, and I always cover my mouth when I cough. Nobody likes a cough in a small room. My teacher once said a good rule is, if you have a cough, stay home and rest. And that brings us to our next word, rest. To rest means to stop work and let your body get better.
Yes, rest is so important. When I was a child, my mother always said, if you are sick, you must rest. No school, no playing outside. Just rest in bed, drink water, and sleep. I hated it then, but now I know she was right.
I agree. Now, when I feel sick, I rest for a day or two, and I feel much better. The doctor says your body needs rest to fight the illness. So if you have a cough, rest helps. And rest is free medicine, right?
Free medicine, I love that. Our third word is fever. A fever means your body is too hot. You feel warm and sick at the same time. Lena, how do you know when you have a fever?
I feel cold and hot at the same time, and my head feels heavy. Last year I had a fever of one hundred and one degrees. I stayed in bed all day. When the fever went down, I felt like a new person.
One hundred and one is a high fever. My sister had a fever last month too. She called the doctor, and the doctor said, drink a lot of water and rest. A fever can be scary, but usually rest and water help a lot.
And if the fever does not go away after two or three days, you should see a doctor. That's the rule in my family. A fever is your body's way of fighting, but a long fever needs a doctor.
Good advice. The fourth word is headache. A headache is pain in your head. Lena, do you get headaches?
Sometimes, yes. When I work too long at the computer, I get a headache. And when I don't drink enough water, I get a headache too. For a small headache, I close my eyes and rest for twenty minutes.
That works for me too. A bad headache is worse. My friend Sara gets a terrible headache every spring. For her headache, the doctor gave her special medicine. She says when the headache starts, she goes to a dark quiet room.
A dark quiet room sounds perfect for a headache. Water, rest, and quiet. Those three things help almost every headache.
True. And our last word is sore. Sore means painful, like when a part of your body hurts after you use it a lot, or when you are sick. My favorite example is a sore throat.
Oh, a sore throat is the worst. When my throat is sore, it hurts to drink, it hurts to eat, and it hurts to talk. Warm tea helps a sore throat, and honey helps too.
Yes. And after sports, my legs are sore the next day. When my legs are sore, I walk slowly and drink a lot of water. A sore body means you worked hard, right?
That's a nice way to see it. So let's review. A cough is that fast sound from your mouth. A fever is when your body is too hot. A headache is pain in your head. Sore means painful, like a sore throat. And rest means to stop and let your body get better.
Perfect review. And remember, if you have a cough or a fever, the best thing is to rest. A headache and a sore throat also get better with rest. Rest really is free medicine.
Before we go, one quick story. Last month my brother had a cough and a fever. He did not want to rest. He went to work, and his headache got worse. Then his throat was sore too. Finally he stayed home, and he rested for three days. Now he is fine.
Three days of rest and he is fine. Listen to your body, everyone. Thank you for joining Word Kitchen today. We hope these words help you the next time you feel sick.
See you next time. Stay healthy, and don't forget to rest.
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The Doctor Says Rest
1. Last Monday I woke up with a bad cough.
2. My throat was sore, and my head hurt a little.
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📝Grammar: The Passive (is/are + past participle)
The passive puts the action first, not the person. Use it when the person is not important or not known. We make the passive with **is** or **are** + **the past participle**. The past participle often ends in -ed, like cleaned or washed. Compare the two forms. Active: The nurse checks the boy. Passive: The boy **is checked** by the nurse. The boy is now the subject of the sentence. Use **by** only when you want to say who did the action. We often leave it out: Warm tea **is made** for a sore throat.
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