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 Wednesday, Feb. 1, 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: electrocardiograph: ECG or EKG; machine that checks electricity of the heart, to see if it's healthy. Printout is "electrocardiogram."
  • Language Study: question mark: the "?" used at the end of written questions, as in "What's your name?" or "Are you from Spain?"
  • Business: Treasury: department in a government that controls a country's money. May issue "Treasury bills" (T-bills), similar to stocks.
  • Literature: Tiny Tim: Bob Cratchit's small crippled son in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" (1843). Famous line: "God bless us, every one."
  • New Words: helicopter parent: a parent too involved in his or her child's life. "Let your kid make mistakes. Don't be such a helicopter parent!"
  • Slang: out-of-control: wild; also, rude or badly behaved. "Mike was out-of-control at our party last night, so we had to ask him to leave."
  • Modern History: Richard E. Byrd: (1888-1957) explorer, US Navy admiral, first to reach the South Pole and (maybe) the North Pole by air.

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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