This episode’s vocabulary
Sole
noun — the bottom part of the foot that touches the ground when you stand or walk, or the bottom part of a shoe that touches the ground, usually not including the heel.
Palm
noun — the inside part of your hand from your wrist to the base of your fingers.
Paw
noun — the foot of an animal that has claws or nails, such as a cat, dog, or bear.
Bow tie
noun — a special type of tie (= a strip of cloth put around a collar) in the shape of a bow, worn especially by men on formal occasions.
To embroider
verb — to decorate cloth or clothing with patterns or pictures consisting of stitches that are sewn directly onto the material.
To manipulate
verb — to control something using the hands.
Stuffed animal
noun — a toy animal made from cloth and filled with a soft material so that it is pleasant to hold.
Rough-and-tumble
adj. — very competitive and failing to pay attention to rules.
Questions and answers
Rory now is going to describe a toy he got in his childhood. He is going to say when he had this toy, who gave this toy to him, what it was like and how he felt about the toy. Rory, are you ready?
Yes.
Okay, off you go! Off you pop!
Well, I have a teddy bear that was given to me when I was much younger by my parents. Though, at the time I was told it was a gift from the tooth fairy after one of my milk teeth fell out. I still have him actually, he sits on top of my wardrobe with other keepsakes that I've built up from over the years. Come to think of it, I have quite the collection of bears know that, now I'm thinking about it in greater depth. Anyway, I remember waking up one day, decades ago, and there was this bear in my bed. I suppose at the time, I was so small that by comparison that seemed much bigger, perhaps a third the size of me. These days, it's a lot smaller. Of course, because I've grown up. It's just a sort of standard teddy bear for the most part. It's got light brown fur, white soles and palm areas where the paws would be on a regular bear. The only things that make it stand out are, well, first of all, it's got a big red velvet bow tie and it has the name embroidered on one of the, well, one of the soles of the feet. It's the left one I think. Other than that it's got glass eyes, which I think are quite common and the ears are sewn on. And so is the tail. The legs are movable, though they haven't been manipulated into a position other than sitting for quite some time now because he's just resting on the top of my wardrobe. I remember being very surprised at the time, though, back then we used to get money from the tooth fairy. So of course that makes sense. He has grown on me though, and I wouldn't be without him, even if it's just sitting on top of my wardrobe with all the other stuffed animals. If anything, it's nice, they can all keep each other company. I'm rather surprised they've all lasted so long to be honest, given my rather rough-and-tumble childhood. But there you go. If they last nearly 30 years, I'll be very impressed. And I'll still be happy to see them.
So do you still have this toy?
Yeah, he sits on top of my wardrobe.
Thank you, Rory! That was lovely! -