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: garbage in, garbage out: or "GIGO," the idea that bad input to a computer gives bad results--you can't blame the computer!
- Language Study: ordinal: regarding the order of something; ordinal numbers are first, second, third, etc. (One, two, three are "cardinal.")
- Business: windfall: an unexpected payment or other benefit. Named for the idea of fruit falling from a tree by surprise when the wind blows.
- Literature: Victor Hugo: (1802-1885) popular French author, wrote "Les Miserables" and "Hunchback of Notre-Dame."
- New Words: ginormous: very big; "giant" + "enormous." "I can't go out this weekend; I have to go to the office and finish a ginormous project."
- Slang: something sucks: something is really bad. A: "How's your tennis game?" B: "Well, my forehand is OK, but my backhand sucks!"
- Modern History: Battle of Trafalgar: Oct. 1805 sea battle; British Admiral Nelson with 27 ships beat 33 French/Spanish ships, became a national hero.
NOTES:
- 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.
- 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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