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The English we speak from the BBC.

Hello everyone, I'm Lee. Welcome to the English we speak. With me today is

Neil. Hello everyone. Hi Neil you look very happy today. What are you up to?

I'm quite excited about my website, Great Minds Shake Hands.com.

I've been designing it for months and it's nearly complete.

Wow, I like the sound of it. I didn't know you could design websites, Neil.

Well, it's for fun, really. My website will be a public site where people can share ideas,

you know, like-minded people. I want to launch it next week but first I must test the

water test the water test what water does your website depend on water I'm very very confused. No Lee, to test the water means to

test the idea. Try it out, see if it works. I see. Test the water is the

phrase for the English we speak today.

Let's hear some examples of how people use it.

Have you started on your new book?

Yes, I've written three chapters, and I've sent it to the publishers to test the water.

Oh, what perfume are you wearing? It's lovely.

Ah, thanks. It's just a sample the company sent me. They are testing the water to see if people like it.

How is your Shakespeare project going?

It's early days, we're still testing the water. Well good

luck with it. Thanks. So Neil how much testing have you done? Have you got good

feedback? Well my wife loves it but most other people say they

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