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 Saturday, Jan. 21, 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: Read classics. Buy simple versions of great books and READ. Click on any "classics" here for examples: http://plrcatalogue.pearson.com/
  • Proverb: A good man is hard to find: Most people won't do what must be done. The ones who do their best are rare.
  • Academic Vocabulary: rational: Sensible, reasonable. "We should be rational about how we spend our money."
  • Literature: phoenix: A bird from myths that burns itself to death once in 500 years, and rises again from the ashes.
  • Art: amateur: someone who does something for enjoyment or "love," not money. "Though not a professional, the amateur artist was very good."
  • Slang: Huh?: "What?" "Pardon?" Also used when surprised. A: "We won the game!" B: "Huh? That's unbelievable!"
  • Geography: Rio Grande: Meaning "big river," the river that divides the US from Mexico along most of the border.

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!