Mini-Lessons from Thursday, Apr. 26, 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: Use a picture dictionary. If you look at a picture and say the word in English, you'll stop "translating" and start "speaking."
  
• Proverb: The best things in life are free: Money can't buy happiness. "I love walking in the woods; 'The best things in life are free.'"
  
• Academic Vocabulary: discriminate: see a difference; also, treat people differently. "It's illegal to discriminate against women at work."
  
• Literature: Midas: king in a Greek myth who asked that everything he touched would turn to gold. He died because he couldn't eat.
  
• Art: mausoleum: a building built to bury and honor a dead person; first one, for King Mausolus, was one of Seven Wonders of Ancient World.
  
• Slang: between a rock and a hard place: having two bad choices. "I hate to study, but I can't fail. I'm between a rock and a hard place!"
  
• Geography: Aleutian Islands: chain of over 300 small islands, most in Alaska (US) but some in Russia; line between Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean.
  

---

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."

---