FREE DAILY ENGLISH LESSONS!
In time, these lessons and "stubs" will be migrated to the Buzzwords site.
Until then, consider them historical.


Mini-Lessons from Monday, Jan. 9, 2012

These Mini-Lessons are posted on Twitter, and in China on Weibo, throughout the day. You can follow them there!

To get the most from them, you should try to use them in sentences, or discuss them with friends. Writing something on Twitter or Weibo is a great way to practice!
  • Tip: Ask for help. Say "What do you call that thing…?" or "Do you know a word that means…?" This is also communication!
  • Proverb: You can't teach an old dog new tricks: If someone has an old habit, it's hard to get him or her to change.
  • Academic Vocabulary: deny: Say that something is not true. "You cannot deny that the Beatles are one of the greatest rock groups of all time."
  • Literature: Minotaur: A half-man, half-bull monster. It was hidden in the Labyrinth; Theseus killed it and escaped the maze.
  • Art: Salvador Dali: 20th-century Spanish painter. His surrealist paintings showed dream-like images, including melting clocks.
  • Slang: What gives? : "Tell me something." May give the feeling that something bad is happening. "Hey, why did you hit me? What gives?"
  • Geography: Painted Desert: A large area of desert in northeastern Arizona, USA, where the sandstone rocks show many different colors.

NOTES:
  1. Academic Vocabulary is the Academic Word List from Oxford University Press. This is "a list of words that you are likely to meet if you study at an English-speaking university."
  2. The Proverb, and the Literature, Art, and Geography words are from lists in the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. I wrote the definitions and examples myself.
  3. The Tip and Slang words are from my own lists, and I wrote the definitions and examples myself.

This lesson is ©2012 by James Baquet. You may share this work freely. Teachers may use it in the classroom, as long as students are told the source (URL). You may not publish this material or sell it. Please write to me if you have any questions about "fair use"

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave me a message; I can't wait to hear from you!