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 Sunday, Apr. 22, 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: iceberg: a large piece of ice floating in the sea. As most of it is underwater, what we see is the "tip of the iceberg."
  • Language Study: conditional: a sentence with "if" and "then": "If it rains, (then) I won't go." May be untrue: "If I were a bird, (then) I would fly."
  • Business: International Monetary Fund: or "IMF," a fund (collection of money) started by richer countries to lend money to developing countries.
  • Literature: Marcus Aurelius: (121-180) Roman emperor and philosopher; wrote the "Meditations" on how to live a good life.
  • New Words: personal shopper: someone hired to do one's shopping. "I've been busy since I started my new job, so I hired a personal shopper."
  • Slang: See ya around: "See you later." A: "Bye! Take it easy." B: "Thanks! See ya around."
  • Modern History: French Revolution: 1789 rebellion of French people against their king, when old-fashioned ideas were suddenly replaced by new ones.

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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