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Hey there, this is Alison from HJ English.

Today I wanted to talk with you about this week's episode of "English Unraveled: The Brilliant". This week's quote was by an American poet named T.S. Eliot, and reads, "We shall not cease from exploration, and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time." I will discuss some common pronunciation problems, and then I'll share my interpretation of the quotation.

First, the word "exploration" was tricky for a lot of people. Exploration has four syllables, and the emphasis is on the first syllable, "ex": "EX-ploration". It is important to make the consonant sounds, like the "x" sound, the "p" sound and the "r" sound strong and clear so that you are actually pronouncing 4 syllables: "EX-plo-ra-tion". Also, the vowel sounds in the word are all different, so they need to sound very different: "Ehks-ploh-ray-shun".

Second, strong consonant sounds on the ends of words seem to be a common problem in every episode. In this week's quotation, focus on the words "not", "end", "arrive" and "time". If there is no strong consonant sound on the ends of these words, it is difficult to tell where the word ends and the next one begins. Putting strong consonant sounds on the ends of your words is a very important habit.

Finally, many of you were "stumped" by the quote and didn't quite understand what it meant. I have a story from my life that might help. When I was a little girl, I lived in the countryside and I really didn't like it. All of my friends lived in town and playing with my friends was always far more interesting than learning about the nature around me. As I got older, I had the same feelings about my school, my state and the United States in general. I wanted to live in a big city and I was positive that other countries and other cultures would suit me better than the rural, conservative, isolated place I came from. But over the past four years, I have seen many places and experienced many different cultures. And although I've learned about and now love many places, like India, England, Germany and now China, I've also learned a lot about my home too. Now, every time I go home, I find new things to love about that "boring" place where I grew up. That place I couldn't wait to leave has become my paradise.

I think that's what T.S. Eliot was talking about. I think that when you leave your home and experience something new, it changes who you are and how you see the world. So when you return to your home, or something you experienced in the past, it's like you're seeing it with new eyes--or as T.S. Eliot says, seeing it for the first time.