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: Read graded novels. Maybe you can't read the 704 pages of Moby Dick; but one simple version is only 48 pages! Simple vocabulary, too.
- Proverb: Nothing ventured, nothing gained: Winning requires risk. "I'll invest in that company, because 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.'"
- Academic Vocabulary: objective: goal; something that you are trying to do. "The objective of this meeting is to choose a new CEO."
- Literature: Delphic oracle: a woman priest at the temple of Apollo in Delphi who could supposedly tell the future.
- Art: ethnography: area of cultural anthropology attempts to understand the meanings of things important to a particular society or culture.
- Slang: talk something out: discuss until the problem is solved. "He said no at first, but after we talked it out, he said yes."
- Geography: Alexandria: 2nd-largest city of Egypt, on Mediterranean coast. Founded 331 BC by Alexander the Great; Lighthouse was one of 7 Wonders.
NOTES:
- 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."
- 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.
- 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."
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