Mini-Lessons from Saturday, Apr. 7, 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: proteins: one of three types of molecules found in plants and animals (others are fats and carbohydrates). Found in all living cells.
  
• Language Study: taboo: word or action not permitted by society. Swearing, marrying close relatives, some kinds of sex, eating some foods may be taboo.
  
• Business: division of labor: cutting a job into small parts, with one worker or team assigned to each part, as in factories, for more efficiency.
  
• Literature: anthropomorphism: showing a non-human thing as human: a lonely tree, an angry God, a talking rabbit (in a cartoon).
  
• New Words: unfollow: stop being connected to someone on a social networking site like FaceBook or Twitter. Also "unfriend."
  
• Slang: What's going on?: "What's happening?" Sometimes used to mean "How are you?" A: "What's going on?" B: "Not much. How are you?"
  
• Modern History: British Empire: lands belonging to the UK, once largest empire in history; controlled 1/5 of the world's people and 1/4 of its area.
  

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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.

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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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