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BEC : Value - Vocabulary

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson. Let’s get started.

Our first phrase ‘hit it on the head’. You hit it on the head. That means you got it right.

It means you said the right thing or you said the main point. You said the correct thing.

Next word is ‘commodity’. We discussed the meaning of this in the conversation.

Commodity is a basic material. That’s probably the more general use of the word is it’s a basic material. It could be something like gold or silver or aluminum. It could be a certain kind of food like corn, wheat, soy beans. Those are all commodities. They tend to have the same price. It doesn’t matter who’s selling them or whatever. They’re just basic commodities. They’re basic things with no added value.

‘Flares’ - We’re talking about like a flare on a ring. Sometimes it’s used with cars. A car has flares. It’s kind of like little, small wings. It’s a little thing that looks like a small wing coming off of it. It’s a design kind of feature. It has another meaning when we’re talking about fire, but in this case we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about something that looks like a small, little wing that kind of comes off of a car. Not commonly used with cars, but that’s what it means.

‘GPS system’ - GPS means global positioning satellite. So a GPS system is like a little computer you use in your car. It tells you where you are and gives you directions.

‘Soft innovations’ - We talked about that in the conversation. Again, an innovation is a big improvement and a soft innovation is a big improvement that is cheap or easy to do or even free.

‘To pick up’, obviously has a few meanings. The direct meaning you probably know already, but in this cast to pick up a skill means to learn it. So you can say oh, you picked that up well. It means you learned it well. It’s kind of an informal way to say learn - to pick up.

‘A double-edged sword’ - It means a situation that has two sides to it. It’s not just a clear, direct situation. It has maybe a good side and a bad side or it has one affect and also a different affect. So the other side of the sword, we also say the other side of the coin. In this same example, it means the other point or the other outcome or the other characteristic of the situation. It’s kind of like saying on one hand this is good, on the other hand it’s bad. There are two sides to it. So we can call that a double-edged sword or we can say there are two sides to every coin. That’s another idiom that expressed a similar idea.

‘To go above and beyond’ means to do more than is necessary, to do more than is required. This is a generally positive phrase. So you can say wow, he went above and beyond in his job. It means he did much more than the basic requirements.

‘To stand out’ –To stand out means to be different; to get attention for being different.

The opposite is to blend in. ‘To blend in’ means to be the same as everyone else around you or to be the same everything else around you so that you’re not noticeable.

So, to stand out means to be noticeable, very noticeable. You can say she really stands out. She’s very noticeable.

‘To play it safe’, just means to be conservative. It means to avoid risk.

‘Following the herd’, finally. Following the herd means conforming. It means doing what everyone else is doing.

And that’s it. That’s the end of our vocabulary list. Listen to this several times, one time every day for seven to 14 days. Completely master this vocabulary and completely master all the other audios before you move to the next one.

See you again, bye-bye.

The End.