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Hi, there, guys. I thought I'd better dress up and put my glasses on today because I have
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decided to enter politics. Today's class, we're doing political collocations. "Collocations"
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-- what a long, funny word. What does it mean? Well, "co" generally means "with", and "location"
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is a place. So "with place". Political word that go together. So "enter", you often find
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with politics or center management or a new thing. Okay? "Enter politics." "Today, I decided
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to enter politics." Great? Got it? "To enter politics." Obviously, you can form this verb.
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"He entered politics when he was 17." So we can have the past, "he entered". Or you can
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have the future, "He will" -- you probably wouldn't say "enter", though. You'd probably
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say "get into". "He will probably get into politics when he's older." Okay? "He will"
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-- blah, blah, blah. So "enter", present and past, generally.
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Now, "to hold" -- "hold". "I'm holding a pen." You can also "hold" a general election. It
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means organize, make sure there is a general election, okay? So David Cameron will hold
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a general election next year or the year after. I should know. I don't. "To hold a general
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election." So often, we're going to use that with the future tense, "will hold".
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Or you could do it with the past tense. "A general election was held in 1992." So, "A general
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election was held." Okay? So you've got an irregular verb there.
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Now, "to stand for something". If you want to become an important person, you need to
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stand for positions of authority and importance. "To stand for the presidency." Yeah, I'm standing
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here right now, but you can "stand" for a position. So "to stand" for the presidency,
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if you're in North America. Or in the UK, we might say "stand for the position of prime
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minister". But normally, you would get voted. People are going to say, "You, you, you."
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Okay? You don't normally put yourself forward for the prime minister position.
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"To launch a campaign." I'm launching a rocket into space, okay? I'm beating the Russians.
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I'm beating the Americans. Benjamin, EngVid, launching a space rocket. Okay? But we can
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also use "launch" with a "campaign". Notice the funny spelling, the -aign, but it's pronounced
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"cam-pain". Okay? One of those words where the spelling doesn't look like the sound of
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the word. "To launch a campaign", a campaign. So I might put posters up all over London
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saying -- I wouldn't do this, okay, because I'm not, you know, an idiot, but, "Vote for
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Boris Johnson." Okay? I put a campaign. "Everyone, do this. Do this." It's a campaign. I want
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people in London to do this. A campaign. I want them to take action. I really wouldn't
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do that. No.
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"To win an election", okay? You "win" or "lose" an election. The labor party might win the
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next general election in the UK. That's my little prediction. Have a little bet on me.
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"To win an election", right? Okay? Win or lose it. You don't -- in football, we talk
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about winning or losing or drawing. You don't really draw an election, unless you're David
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Cameron, in which case you sort of have a bit of a partnership with Nick Clegg. Okay.
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"To serve four years as" -- of course, the number doesn't have to be four. It could be
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seven. So you could say, "I served for several years on a committee." Okay? So this is just
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a number that you put in and then what it is that you did. So, "I served five years
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as a trivia quiz host in London." Okay? I'm serving. It's an act of giving.
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I'm cutting up my meat for my dinner. But you can also "cut the crime rate". Yeah? If
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you're in an inner city ghetto, you need the crime rate to be cut so there are fewer muggings.
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Yeah? "Cut crime" -- yeah, this is bad activity. "Rate" -- how often it happens. If you cut
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it, it happens less. "To cut the crime rate."
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Now, I might want to leave politics. Yeah? We talk about "leaving" -- exiting. You wouldn't
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say, "I exit politics." "I leave politics to pursue" -- that's a lovely word. Let's
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get that up on the board. "To pursue" -- to do something else. Right? Good. Try and use
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this word. It's one of my favourites.
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Now, an "economic boom". That's a time when -- I don't know if you do, sort of, stocks
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and shares. I don't because I don't have any money. But it's when the charts sort of go
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up and down. Okay? So an "economic boom" is when you're going up. Yeah? An "economic boom".
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You can have depressions and all those kinds of things. I'm not an economist, though, so
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don't quote me. An "economic boom". Okay, my collocations -- two words that go together,
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just not in 2013.
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"A proud achievement", okay? So our noun would be "pride", yeah? And when I want to use "pride"
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as an adjective, I would say "proud", okay? A "proud achievement". This is my noun here.
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An "achievement" is when you do something good.
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So why don't you go and achieve something good and get ten out of ten in your little
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quiz now, okay? You'll find it on www.engvid.com. You're very welcome to subscribe to my YouTube
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channel and find all sorts of weird videos about learning English. And if you want to
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soar like a bird to the top of the English mountain, then get in touch with me via
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Exquisite English with the link here. Well done. I hope you've learned to communicate smoothly and
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effectively in the arena of politics. Enter politics. Hold a general election, and get
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voted in. Stand up for the presidency, for a position you want to get. Launch the campaign.
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Win an election. Serve for years and years until you become grey. Cut the crime rate,
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and then leave politics to pursue another dream, an economic boom. Make sure that achievement
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happens, guys. See you next time.