Reading English Books Together

Suppose you are stuck in a dead-end and boring job but you have done it for years and you can’t really imagine your life without having a friendly chat with your colleagues and going through your regular work routine. On the one hand, you are yearning for changes, but on the other hand, it is hard to leave behind something that has been part of your life for such a long time. How would you go about deciding whether to stay or to hand in notice? Why not flip a coin: heads or tails? If it comes up heads, you will quit. If it comes up tails, you will stay and put off taking this life-changing decision till next year. Which side of the coin is heads and which is tails? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work it out. Most coins have a side that shows the head of some prominent person. For example, all British coins have had a profile of the current monarch’s head since the 17th century and the most outstanding US presidents have been selected by Congress to appear on Ameri

Look at the short sentences below. Can you say which of them are US English and which of them are British English? 1. She has her own private airplane. 2. I live in a block of flats. 3. Just get in line and wait your turn like everybody else. 4. I can't find my keys. Did you see them anywhere? 5. Which team are losing? 6. Why don't you take a rest now? 7. They needn't come to school today. American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843) was a pioneer in giving American English a status distinct from that of British English. He  was driven by the idea of creating a dictionary that would fully reflect the language of a new nation and a new country. To achieve this goal he eliminated words which were of no use to Americans and included those which were unique to the country.  Noah Webster, US lexicographer  He was also convinced that English spelling rules were confusing and supported Benjamin Franklin’s idea that “people spell best who do not kn

  Do a short quiz before you read.  1. What is Covent Garden?      a.  a square in London's West End   b. an oprera house  c. both of them  d. neither of them 2. Covent Garden is one of London's main tourist attractions. How many visitors does it receive annually?     a. 4 million        b. 14 million           c. 44 million  3. When we think of Covent Garden, it brings to mind the word piazza. What does it stand for? a. an Italian square   b. an Italian road    c. an Italian opera genre 4. What did Covent Garden use to be before it became an urban area? a. a garden near the place where nuns lived  b. a garden near the palace 5. Which famous play does Covent Garden feature in?  a. Oscar Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband'  b. Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion  c. William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' Read our text to find out the right answers to your questions.    Charles Dickens wrote: ' What inexhaustible food for speculation, do the stre

HISTORY OF ART: Vincent Van Gogh.  Sunflowers. Interest in Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' was whipped up when in 1987 the Japanese fire-insurance company Yasuda paid $39.9 million for the painting below. Those curious as to what was remarkable about the painting that fetched such a hefty price found out that it was one of a series of sunflower paintings done by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh in the period from August to September 1888.   Van Gogh painted the Sunflowers series in a mood of sunny optimism when he was waiting for the arrival of the avant-garde painter, Paul Gaugin. They had rented a studio in Arles, in southern France and were planning to work together. The sunflowers were meant to be a sign of friendship and welcome. Van Gogh hoped that Gaugin would lead a community of artists that would be established in Arles - The Studio of the South. Van Gogh was contemptuous of the art trade and thought that artists could best fulfil their potential if they did

Did you know that well over 2 billion copies of Agatha Christie's books are sold every year across the globe? No matter how ingenuous and relevant modern crime fiction authors try to be, none of them has been able to match Dame Agatha's massive popularity. Read our post below to discover why her books have timeless appeal. ‘Reading Christie is like being taken for a pleasant garden tour by a gardener who really loves flowers and wants you to love them, too’, wrote James Zemboy, the author of ‘The Detective Novels Of Agatha Christie: A Reader's Guide’. It seems inconceivable that reading a murder mystery book could be compared to walking in a lovely garden but it can and there are a few reasons for it. First of all, Agatha Christie avoided violence. She wrote: ‘I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest’. In her books you will never see a murder actually happen. Under no circumstances do her amateur sleuths, Poirot or Miss Marple, threaten anyone with

Did you know that ... a. Agatha Christie never went to school or to college b. Agatha Christie's mother didn't want to teach her to read and Agatha had learnt it herself by the age of 5 c. Agatha Christie began writing crime novels because her elder sister challenged her to do it Read our post below to learn these and other facts about Agatha Christie Agatha Christie, the famous English detective novelist, was a very modest person and each time she was asked about the secret of her unprecedented popularity, she said that people liked her books but who could say why… So unconvinced was Agatha Christie of her literary talent that she prophesized: ‘Once I’ve been dead ten years I am sure nobody will ever have heard of me’. She couldn’t have been more wrong. She died in 1976 and now 41 years after her death she is still the world’s most read author outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have been translated into about 100 languages and according to The Index Tr

Winston Churchill once said: ‘Never give in . Never give in . Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in , except to convictions of honour and good sense...’ We hope you don’t give in in your pursuit of excellence in English. And if you are firm in your intentions, you should learn to use phrasal verbs because in many cases phrasal verbs are the commonest way of communicating meaning and if you opt for a non-phrasal alternative, you will not sound natural.  For example, which alternative best fits the sentences below? 1. My parents and I don't a.  get on  b.   have a friendly relationship .   2. I have decided to a.  put off b. delay going shopping till next week. 3. ' a.  Cheer up b. try to be happier ,' he said. 'It can't be that bad.' What is the difference between the ordinary verb and the phrasal verb ? The phrasal verb consists of a verb and one or two particles.  For example:          give i

Do the quiz. Only one of the following facts about George Washington is false. Which one? 1. You can see George Washington’s face on every US one-dollar bill. 2. Washington's Birthday is a United States federal holiday. 3. George Washington was a well–travelled man for his time having visited more than 15 countries including France, Egypt, Spain and Turkey. 4. George Washington was the only U.S. President who did not occupy the White House.   Read more about George Washington, who was the first and the second US President and is known as ‘The Father of His Country’.   Despite having got only an elementary school education, George Washington succeeded in making a truly brilliant career as a general, a president and a planter. At 21 he was sworn in as a major in the Virginia militia, an armed force whose main goal was to resist invasions and to enforce the laws of the colony. At 23 he was made colonel . When the American War of Independence broke out, the comma