Reading English Books Together

The Rubicon is now a small shallow river in northeastern Italy. Yet many centuries ago it marked a boundary between Julius Caesar, govenor of Gaul, and Julius Caesar, the Emperor of Rome.  Read our story to find out how one of the most important decisions in world history was made. You will also learn the link between the words Rubicon, ruby and rubric. In his 2005 song ‘Streets of Love’ the British rock musician Mick Jagger sings:  ‘You're awful bright, you're awful smart  I must admit you broke my heart  The awful truth is really sad I must admit I was awful bad While lovers laugh and music plays I stumble by and I hide my pain The lights are lit, the moon is gone I think I've CROSSED THE RUBICON…’ The final line ‘I think I’ve crossed the Rubicon’ might not be clear to you if you do not know the story of the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar starting the three-year civil war that eventually transformed the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

Suppose someone has harmed you, what will you do: start plotting revenge or forgive and forget? Jonathan Swift decided to have revenge on John Patridge by publicly announcing that the stars predict the latter's death on 29.03.1708. Everybody started waiting for it. How did it all end? Read our story to find it out and to learn the three proverbs about revenge and forgiveness. Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels, was ordained as a priest at the age of 27 and all his adult life safeguarded the interests of the Anglican Church and engaged in its daily duties.  Having learnt that John Partridge, an influential astrologer, treated the Church of England with disrespect in his astrological almanac, Jonathan Swift decided to discredit his name in revenge.  At the beginning of 1708 he published ‘Predictions for the Year 1708’ adopting the pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff. The front page of the book stated its purpose – to prevent people from being deceived by ‘vulgar...

How often have you asked yourself:  Which is correct: to look up a new word or to look a new word up?  Is it right to say 'It's a new story. I made up it.'? Read our post below to find the answers to your questions. 'Look up' and 'make up' are examples of phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and one or two particles and are always used as alternatives to ordinary verbs. For example, a. to carry on = to continue b. to build up = to increase c. to work out = to solve d. to look for =to search The problem arises when you need to use them with an object: to build up confidence, to look for an explanation or to work out a problem. When can you put the object in the middle? It depends on whether the phrasal verb is separable or inseparable.  For example, you open your dictionary and read 'to work SOMETHING out', which means that 'work out' can be separated, it is separable. You can say: to work out a problem or to wo...