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 Sunday, Jan. 8, 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!
  • Science: Carl Linnaeus: (1707-1778) Swedish scientist, made system of giving plants and animals two Latin names, like humans as "homo sapiens."
  • Language Study: oxymoron: (means "strong-weak"), a figure of speech using opposite ideas, like zombies being called "the living dead."
  • Business: multinational corporation: A business that can sell stocks (corporation), and that sells or manufactures in two or more countries.
  • Literature: Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell's novel about a future society where the government ("Big Brother") controls people's thoughts.
  • New Words: trophy wife: a beautiful woman married to an older man, proving he has enough money or success to "win" such a woman.
  • Slang: Come on! : Used many ways. For encouragement, like "Come on! Let's go!" Or for doubt, like "Oh, come on! I don't believe you!"
  • Modern History: fin de siècle: "end of the century" in French, refers to negative mood in European art and literature at the end of the 19th century.

NOTES:
  1. Except for the Slang words, all the words in these Mini-Lessons came from lists either on the Oxford University Press site or in the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. I wrote the definitions and examples myself.
  2. The Slang words are from my own list, 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"

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