The twist
Okay … the word I’d like to share with you today is “twist.” Literally twist is to rotate something around. Like, you twist off the top of a bottle of water, for example. The way I used it was as a noun. Here’s what I said: In a nice twist, the artifacts discovered during the subway excavation are actually on display in the subway. It’s a twist because you would expect that these items would be displayed in a museum, right? Usually a rare piece of artwork or artifact from long ago in history would go to a museum. The twist is that they are actually going to be on display in the subway, so riders can enjoy them on their daily commutes. That’s a nice twist; it’s a nice outcome that you probably weren’t expecting.
You might tell your friends that you’re listening to a podcast in English. And the twist is that the narration is a little bit slower than normal speech, so you can understand it better. That’s the twist here—it’s the thing that you’re not expecting.
I just did a Google search and found a really good example. The article said that in Michigan, there are two identical twin sisters both running for open seats on the county’s Board of Commissioners—like the board of directors for the county that they live in. The twist here is that the sisters are running for different political parties and have different proposals. You’re probably expecting the two identical twin sisters to be the same political party, but the twist is that they are not.
One of the most popular movies this summer is called The Kissing Booth. But here’s the twist: it wasn’t ever released in theaters. It was a movie that came out on Netflix and skipped the theaters. Going to the movies is a popular activity in the summer, so you would think one of the summer’s most popular movies would be showing in theaters. But the twist here is that Netflix decided to skip the theaters and release it directly on its streaming platform—just like what they do with TV series.
That’s all for today’s episode. JR and I thank you for being with us each and every Monday and Thursday. The next episode will come out on Monday and we’ll be talking about hitting your musical peak. When do you stop discovering music and just listen to what you know? Researchers think they have the answer, and we’ll be talking about that on Monday. Thanks again for being with us and have a fantastic weekend.
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