This episode’s vocabulary
Fits the bill
idiom — to be suitable for a particular purpose. → If you're looking for a challenging hike, this trail fits the bill perfectly.
Read up on
phrasal verb — to get information on a particular subject by reading a lot about it. → I need to read up on the company before my interview tomorrow.
Remotely close
adverb phrase — not even close; far from a certain level or standard. → No other candidate's experience was remotely close to yours.
Partial to
adjective phrase — having a liking for something. → I'm partial to watching documentaries on the weekend.
Handy
adjective — useful or convenient. → Knowing a bit of history is handy for pub quizzes.
Obscure
adjective — not known to many people; not well-known. → He's an expert in obscure 18th-century poetry.
A wealth of knowledge
collocation — a very large amount of information or knowledge about something. → My grandfather is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to gardening.
Call upon
phrasal verb — to use a particular quality or skill that you have. → She had to call upon her creativity to solve the complex problem.
Vivid imagination
collocation — the ability to form very clear and detailed mental images. → With his vivid imagination, he could easily picture what life was like in ancient Rome.
Visualize
verb — to form a mental image of something; to imagine. → I try to visualize success before a big presentation.
Questions and answers
Describe a person who learns history and loves history. You should say who this person is, how they learn history, why they love history, and explain how you feel about him or her.
To be honest, the closest person I can think of that fits the bill here is actually me. To explain a little bit more about why that is, I'm one of the few people in my family or friends group that studied history at university, and the only one who regularly reads about it in various ways or engages with it in various ways. I've been reading up on different periods and topics for over three decades now, ever since my dad brought home a set of books on human history from the ancient to modern periods. And no one else I know has shown anything remotely close to that level of exposure and dedication, or if they have, then they've yet to mention it. So, when it comes to how I study history, it's most often in book format, but I'm also partial to the occasional article or documentary from time to time. And it's always fun to see, hear, or read about how people in the past solved or caused various problems or made discoveries. Not only can we learn how to avoid repeating our mistakes, but also it's very handy if you're in a pub quiz and you get a question about something very obscure. People tend to be pretty impressed with that kind of thing. Which brings me to why I love the subject so much. There's literally a history of everything from battles and warfare across history to how various scientific discoveries were made or how they happened at different times in history. For example, some species of animals and plants have actually been discovered multiple times because of poor communication and misunderstandings over how they were recorded. I also have a pretty vivid imagination. So I can easily visualize dramatic scenes from history that I've seen described, like what it was like on the Eastern Front in World War Two, or what it was like to live in Victorian London. As for how I feel about myself, well, obviously, I'm very happy to have discovered this particular hobby. It's made my life more interesting and given me a wealth of knowledge to call upon to help people, especially if we're on the same pub quiz team.