Let's English

Write an essay discussing which types of present is best to receive, giving reasons in support of your answer. 

Breaking down the language barrier? A look at Esperanto We are supposed to live in a 'globalised' world, or so we are increasingly taught in school. Many of us share elements of a globalised culture, at least, perhaps watching Japanese movies, listening to K-pop, or eating Indian food. Why is it, then, that so man of us tussle with the basics of global communication in this age of instant messaging, email and video conferencing? English may certainly be the (self-appointed) lingua franca of the globalised world, with millions of students struggling daily to learn its phrasal verbs and idioms. But English is the mother tongue of only a relatively small percentage of the global population, so wouldn't it be easier if we all spoke a simpler language? Perhaps what is needed is an international language. What is interesting is that, over a hundred years ago, a Dr Ludwig Zamenhof published a book about a new language that he had developed, with the intention of providi...

You see this announcement in a leisure magazine: We are looking for articles which encourage young people to take up an unusual leisure activiy. Your article should outline the activity, describe one or two of your own experiences of doing the activity and explain how you think young people can benefit from doing this activity. Write your article

Booking travel and holidays A scheduled flight  is a normal, regular flight; a charter flight  is a special flight taking a group of people, usually to the same holiday destination. Apex  fares normally have to be booked a fixed number of days in advance and they offer value for money . Budget  fares are usually cheaper but may have restrictions  (e.g. you can only travel on certain days) and are usually non-refundable  (you can't get your money back) or if you cancel, you may have to pay a cancellation fee . Some tickets allow a stopover  (you may stay somewhere overnight before continuing to your destination). All- in packages  normally include accomodation and transfers (e.g. a bus or coach to and from your hotel). Sea travel is normally on a ferry, and the journey is called a crossing, but you can have a holiday on the sea if you go on a cruise . For some people a luxury cruise is the holiday of a lifetime  (one you will always r...

1. Join the following pairs of sentences using a Relative Pronoun. The new director is very popular. She gets on well with everyone. The beach is very quiet. We always go to it. I went to see the film Titanic . I enjoyed it very much. Our cat is called William. We've had him for five years. It was 1998. I met her for the first time. The house is the biggest in the village. The doctor lives there. George speaks Spanish. His wife is from Argentina. The winters are very cold. I enjoy them. 2. Fill each of the blanks with one suitable word. Wasn't there some German or Czech author beginning with a K in ________ novels individuals got lost in bureaucratic mazes? We are blessed with good health, for _____ we should all be grateful. Anything _________ you want you can have. Anyone ________ wants to help should leave their contribution in this box. Much ________ has been said will soon be forgotten. We bought six loaves of bread for the party, half of _______...

Read the text below and use the words given in brackets to form a word that fits in the gap. A famous photographer The ________ (DIE) of photographer Bob Willoughby was announced earlier this year. In 1953, a then relatively ________(KNOW) film actress going by the name of Audrey Hepburn arrived back in Hollywood after making the film Roman Holiday . After a tiring day of ________(PUBLIC) shots for the film that would earn her an Oscar, she retired to a studio car where one more photograph was taken to capture her elfin beauty. Now that picture is being offered up for sale in a limited _________(EDIT) by the estate of the man who took it - Bob Willoughby, whose candid yet _______(GLAMOUR) images of generations of Hollywood starts made him the photographer of __________ (CHOOSE)  for the big studios. The extent to which the ________(DENY) charms of Hepburn retain their appeal was _________ (LINE) last month when all 1.000 copies of a book cataloguing Willoughby's pict...

Cold Weather In Scandinavia, the chilly  days of autumn soon change to the cold days of winter. The first frosts  arrive and the roads become icy. Rain becomes sleet  and then snow, at first turning to slush  in the streets, but soon settling , with severe bizzards  and snowdrifts  in the far north. Freezing weather often continues in the far north until May or even June, when the ground starts to thaw  and the ice melts  again. 1. Try to guess the meaning of the previous bold words related with the cold weather. Warm/ Hot weather The atmosphere in the room was close. It's stifling in here! Open some windows quick! The weather was very humid  today. Even though it's still May, it's scorching  outside. It's boiling  today; I wish the office had air conditioning. The weather in France is mild . We had a heatwave  last month. 2. Try to guess the meaning of the previous bold words related with warm a...

1. Finish each of the following sentences in such a way that it is as similar in meaning as possible to the sentence before it. I've never had to work all through the night before. This is_____________________________________________ Most of us became salesmen when we left university. Most of us have______________________________________  Our current manager started working here ten years ago. Our current manager has_________________________________ I haven't heard from Sarah for a couple of months. The last____________________________________________  I used to find computers difficult before I started taking these lessons. Since________________________________________________ Michael Owen is the best player I've seen so far in this competition. I've yet_______________________________________________ 2. Tick the sentences that are correct. Correct those that are not. Do you think Vicky's always known the truth about us? That...

Homestyles A squat is an empty building where people start living without the owner's permission. A hovel  is a very poor, irty house or flat in a bad condition. A pied à terre  is a small flat or house in a city owned or rented by people in addition to their main home and used when they are visiting the city. A penthouse  is a luxury flat at the top of a building. Council housing  is provided by the state for people who cannot afford to buy their own home. High-rise flats are flats in a tall, modern building with a lot of floors. A granny flat  is a set of rooms for an elderly person, connected to a relative's house. Modern Lifestyle Today many people want to get out of the rat race  and live a less stressful or less conventional lifestyle. Feng Shui: a Chinese philosophy which states that the position of buildings and the arrangement of objects in the home affects the health and well-being of people living there. Minimalism: a style...

Obligation There's no bus service, so I have to walk to work. I really must  get a bicycle to avoid it. The company is obliged  to give a refund if the tour is cancelled. You will be liable  to pay tax if you work. The bank robbers forced  him at gunpoint to open the safe. We had no choice/ alternative but  to sell our home; we owed the bank $100.000. The death sentence is mandatory  for drug-smuggling in some countries. Was sport compulsory/ obligatory  at your school? No, it was optional  at mine. I am exempt  from tax as I'm a student.  You don't need to/ don't have to/ needn't wash up; we've got a dishwasher. 1. Try to guess the meaning of the previous words in bold and in which situations you have to use them. Need The grass needs  cutting. This plant is  in need of water. The miners dies through a lack of oxygen. There is a shortage of doctors. There's a need for  more discussion on...

Jay Z & Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" Yeah Yeah, I'm up at Brooklyn, now I'm down in Tribeca _________ next to DeNiro, but I'll be hood forever I'm the new Sinatra and since I made it here I can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me ___________ I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicanos Right there up on Broadway, brought me ________ to that McDonald's Took it to my stash spot: 560 State Street Catch me in the __________ like the Simmons whippin' pastry Cruising down 8th Street, off-white Lexus ___________ so slow, but B.K. is from Texas Now I'm up at Bed-Stuy, home of that boy Biggie Now I live on billboard and I brought my boys with me Say what up to Ty Ty, still sippin' Mai Tais Sittin' courtside Knicks and Nets give me _________ fives Nigga I be spiked out, I can trip a referee Tell by my attitude that I most definitely from In New York Concrete jungle where ____________ are made of There...

8 Hidden Secrets In The Mona Lisa Write or tell the 8 hidden secrets in the Mona Lisa and explain them (why is this say?)

Think on one word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences. The old maths teacher always used to ________ us a lot of homework. The judge's decision _______ a precedent for similar cases. I hoped I've managed to ________ your mind. I can't see the _______ of going so far for such a short time. There was a _______ of excitement in the theatre as the curtain rose. You are in no ________ obliged to do what she has asked you to do.   If you move along a little there'll be enough _______ at the table for us all. You work is getting better but there is still ________ for improvement. There's a fitting ________ over there if you want to try anything on.  I didn't find the _______ of the film totally convincing, did you' The science teacher asked the class to ________ the results of their experiment on a graph.  The police claim to have uncovered a ________ to break into Parliament. Restaurants often use ________ li...

History of Doughnuts Fried dough has been made all around the world. Dutch settlers who brought apple and cream pies, cookies and cobbler to the New World also introduced doughnuts. Their doughnuts were called olykoeks, or oily cakes – sweet dough balls fried in pork fat. Early doughnuts were often filled with apples, prunes or raisins. The name “doughnut” may refer to the nuts put in the middle of the dough ball to prevent an uncooked center or possibly to “dough knots” – another popular shape for the olykoeks. Today, “doughnut” and “donut” are used interchangeably. There are three stories about why doughnuts have holes in the center. In 1847, Elizabeth Gregory was known for making a very fine olykoek with a hint of nutmeg and a filling of hazelnuts or walnuts. Her son, Hanson Crockett Gregory was a 16 year-old sailor who invented the doughnut hole. One story says that on June 22, 1847, Captain Gregory’s ship hit a sudden storm. He impaled the doughnut as a spoke on th...

DEATH NOTE "Light Meets Ryuk" How does Ryuk define dreams? What can they do in the dream? How can do they control this kind of situations? Which is the second thing he has to write? Who is Ryuk? What does the girl think he can do?

Before listening: What do you know about Hugh Hefner? What do you know about Marilyn Monroe? And about their relationship? Let's listen!  Hugh Hefner on Marilyn Monroe    Complete the following text from the video with the correct words: Reporter:  Do you think you would have dated her? Hugh Hefner: I ________ have loved to you know I'm a sucker for bronze and she is the ultimate _________. R: The man behind Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner, ___________ some personal details about his fascination for legendary icon Marilyn Monroe. H.H: My favourite movie _________ question is "Some like it ______".    R: Do you feel like you missed ________ by not being able to have her _________ in your home? H.H: Oh, yes. ___________ yes. R: If you could  have ______ her here in your home, what ________ you have done here? H.H: Well, I certainly would have ________ her how much she mentioned me and means to me too.  

Complete the following text with the correct number below: "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown Harvard symbologist  Robert Langdon  is invited to give a lecture at the  United States Capitol , at the invitation apparently from his mentor, a  33rd degree   Mason  named Peter Solomon, A_____. Solomon has also asked him to bring a small, sealed package which he had entrusted to Langdon years earlier. When Langdon arrives at the Capitol, however, he learns that the invitation he received was not from Solomon, but from Solomon's kidnapper,  Mal'akh  posing as Solomon's assistant, who has left Solomon's severed right hand in the middle of the  Capitol Rotunda  in a recreation of the  Hand of Mysteries . Mal'akh then contacts Langdon, charging him with finding both the Mason's Pyramid, B_____. Langdon met Trent Anderson, head of the Capitol police, and Inoue Sato, the head of the  CIA 's Office of Security. Sato claims that Mal...

Four climbers who succeeded in climbing the world's highest mountain write about how they felt when they reached the summit. How I felt on conquering Everest  A. Roddy Makenzie It has occasionally been claimed that people climb for the smell of it. Air at very high altitude smells completely different. When I reached the South Summit, I was suffering from a lack of Spanish olives. I was preoccupied with thoughts of a tin of them sitting in my tent at base camp. This was the result of a very intense dream about olives that was interrupted by the alarm summoning me to our summit attempt. At the South Summit, the view of the main summit fascinated me from a mountaineering point of view and all dreaming of olives evaporated. On the summit, I felt a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. It seemed to me that the curvature of the Earth was apparent, and I spent some time trying to think of a means to test if this was a real observation or an illusion. Many people on the Indian su...

A Very Bad Day I’d been looking for a new job for a while, as I really hated my present one. I didn’t get on very well with my boss and I found the job really boring, so it was definitely time for a change. I had seen an advert in the local paper for a job that sounded absolutely perfect for me. I had to have it! I spent a long time on my CV and wrote a really convincing covering letter.  You can guess what happened…  On the day of the interview I overslept! I must have forgotten to set my alarm the night before. I jumped out of bed, quickly put some clothes on and rushed out the door but I was never going to make it in time. If only I’d set my alarm, I would’ve been on time! I would normally take the bus but, as I was running late, I decided the tube might be quicker. I ran down the escalators and jumped onto the train, just as the doors were closing. I breathed a sigh of relief – I might just make it after all. After a couple of minutes I noticed that other pe...

Complete the text with the appropriate form of the verb in brackets. It can be Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect Simple, Past Simple or Past Continuos. Child Employment in Victorian Britain In Victorian London, mud larks were children who (search of)_______________ valuable bits and pieces on the shores of the River Thames. They (not do)________________ this from boats, but (wait)_______________ until the tide (go)_______________ out, and then (crawl)_______________ ahout in the river mud looking for anything valuable. Henry Mayhew, a Victorian writer, (interview)_______________ 'mud lark' in his book about poor working people in London in the 1850's. 'My family is Irish though I was born in London. My father (work)_______________ at London Docks. He is a strong-bodied mand of 34. I (go)________________ to school with my brothers for about three years and (learn)________________ reading and writing and arithmetic. One of my brothers (be)______...