This is the normal speed lesson for this week's listening fluency listening lesson.

At the end of this lesson, I'm going to be explaining some of the vocabulary.

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Okay, today we heard three stories.

Some of these stories may be new to you.

All three of them are related to common English expressions we use today

but are hundreds of years old.

If this is the first time to hear some of these stories, you're not alone.

Many native English speakers don't even know these stories

but use these expressions frequently.

Okay, let's look at two of them: 'fall on deaf ears' and 'turn a blind eye'.

These two are related.

They both describe situations where something is being ignored.

But the way you use them is a little bit different.

Let's look at the first one.

The first one, 'fall on deaf ears'.

A couple examples might be if, imagine a woman wants some time off work.

So she asks her boss, "Can I have some extra time off work?

My family is sick and I need to take care of them."

And the boss says, "No," and ignores that request.

Her request falls on deaf ears.

Her explanation of why she needs time off falls on deaf ears.

Another example might be a man who suggests to his boss

that the company needs to improve their customer service

and the boss ignores this suggestion.

His suggestion to improve the customer service falls on deaf ears.

So that's 'falls on deaf ears'.

Let's look at the other one, 'to turn a blind eye'.

In the story we heard Admiral Nelson was ordered by his superior to run from a fight.

And literally, he turned a blind eye.

He put the telescope to his blind eye and he said, "I see no signal."

So he ignored the request to run from the fight,

but the important point is he pretended not to see it.

So that's the main difference with 'turn a blind eye'.

It's not just to ignore, but it's also to pretend not to see.

So let's look at a couple more examples.

Another example might be a company president's son works for the company.

And the president's son is making many mistakes at work,

but the manager ignores these mistakes.

He turns a blind eye to the president's son's mistakes

because he knows one day, the son will become the president.

He turns a blind eye. He ignores his mistakes.

Another example might be a woman who owns a fruit store

and she sees a homeless man stealing some fruit.

And she turns a blind eye to his stealing because she knows he's hungry.

She ignores him stealing. She turns a blind eye.

And the third expression we used was 'to throw the baby out with the bathwater'.

So to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' means

to throw away the good things with the bad things.

An example of that might be if you had a plan

and you decided that that plan was no good

and you threw that plan out and you said, "I need to start over."

But maybe there are some good points in the plan that you should keep.

So for example, maybe you're planning a trip to Europe.

And you say,"I want to visit France and Spain and Germany in three weeks.

I want to spend one week in each country."

Now, you might think, "Hmm. One week in each country. Maybe that's not a good idea.

Maybe that's not enough time to really get to know the country,

get to know the culture.

You know, this plan is no good. I should not take this trip."

Now, somebody might say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Maybe you can save parts of this plan.

Maybe you can go to France and Germany, and spend 10 days each.

Spend more time in each and leave Spain for another trip."

So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Maybe parts of your plan are good and you don't need to start over.

Okay, so that's the three expressions.

'Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater',

'turn a blind eye',

and 'fall on deaf ears'.

So try using one of these expressions in the comments

and I'll get back to you and let you know if you're using it correctly.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed these lessons

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Okay, bye-bye.