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


Mini-Lessons from Thursday, Feb. 2, 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: Move beyond communication to respect. "Broken English" may do the job, but proper English makes people think you're SMART!
  • Proverb: Every cloud has a silver lining: Whatever problem (cloud) you have, you can always find something good in it (a silver lining).
  • Academic Vocabulary: hierarchy: listing of people from highest to lowest. "The CEO is at the top of the corporate hierarchy."
  • Literature: Cinderella: poor girl in a fairy tale, with bad step-mother and -sisters. Meets a prince, loses a shoe, marries the prince.
  • Art: opera: a musical drama with singing; famous ones include Carmen, The Barber of Seville, and the works of Richard Wagner.
  • Slang: to growl: to speak to someone in an angry way. "My boss is always growling at us, but he's actually very nice."
  • Geography: Africa: 2nd-largest continent (after Asia); NOT a country. South of Europe, between Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

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"

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