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 Thursday, Feb. 16, 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: global positioning system: or GPS, system of satellites used to find out where something (you, your car) is on earth.
  • Language Study: fallacy: an error of logic, or a mistake in facts, like believing that the sun goes around the earth, or thinking 2 + 2 = 5.
  • Business: John Maynard Keynes: (1883-1946) British economist. "Keynesian economics" recommends large government spending to help slow economies.
  • Literature: Rudyard Kipling: (1865-1936) English author (born in India) of adventure stories, many set in Asia, including "The Jungle Book."
  • New Words: mani-pedi: beauty treatment of hands (manicure) and feet (pedicure), includes trimming and polishing of fingernails and toenails.
  • Slang: Howdy: a cowboy's way to say "hello." A: "Howdy, pardner!" B: "Well, howdy yourself there, Tex!"
  • Modern History: The Blue and the Gray: two sides of American Civil War (1861-1865). Blue = North, Yankees, Union. Gray = South, Rebels, Confederacy.

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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