Reading English Books Together

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 ...

Did you know that if you decide to embark on a military career and enlist as a soldier you will be doing a job that comes third on the list of the worst jobs compiled by American researchers in 2014*?  Yet, Prince Harry, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, who did 10 years of full-time military service, including two stints on the front lines of Afghanistan, does not regret joining the armed forces. In 2015 he announced that he was resigning but added that he felt deep gratitude: ‘I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had the chance to do some very challenging jobs and have met many fantastic people in the process. ...The experiences I have had over the last 10 years will stay with me for the rest of my life." Prince Harry  By the way, what military rank does Harry have? He is Captain Harry Wales. It is higher than lieutenant [lefˈtenənt] but below major. The system of military ranks is one of the oldest hierarchies in the world and the word ‘rank’ is believed to de...

When do you change -f into -ves in the plural form? What is the plural of belief and what is the plural of wife?  Read our post below to find it out. First do a short vocabulary test. Choose the right answer: Easy questions: 1. What is the English word for ‘a young cow’? a. a calf b. a lamb c. a kid d. a foal 2. What is the English word for someone who steals money or valuable things from you? a. a hijacker b. a blackmailer c. a bribee d. a thief 3. If you have a strong feeling that something exists or is true, it is your … a. fantasy b. whim c. belief d. intention Difficult questions: 4. After farmers have reaped wheat or rye, they bind the cut plants in bundles. One of these bundles is called... a. a sheaf b. a scythe c. a rake d. a haystack 5. What do you call in English a piece of cloth you use to blow your nose with? a. a sponge b. a handkerchief c. a napkin d. a duster 6. What is the English word for a small fairy-tale creature with pointed ears that has ma...

Which is correct: The President Obama or President Obama? Lionel Messi, a first-class foorball player or  Lionel Messi, the first-class foorball player ? The writer Joanne Rowling or W riter Joanne Rowling?  Read our post to find it out.              Have you ever heard of George Bernard Shaw, THE IRISH PLAYWRIGHT? He wrote more than 50 plays including ‘Pygmalion’ and is the only man in history to be awarded both the Nobel Prize and an Oscar. Besides, he had a reputation for being a wit. Anecdotes abound featuring Shaw responding in an amusing and clever way to all sorts of situations he found himself in. Here are some of them: ANECDOTE 1 THE DANCER Isadora Duncan once wrote to George Bernard Shaw suggesting that they should have a child together: “Think of it!” she remarked. “With my body and your brains, what a wonder it would be.” “Yes,” Shaw replied. “But what if it had my body and your brains?” ISADORA DUNCAN ANECDO...

December is coming and we thought: Why not tell you a story that happened to the world renowned crime fiction writer one December evening?  Here it is: On the evening of the third of December in 1926 Agatha Christie left her house in Berkshire. Her car was later found abandoned but there was no sign of the famous novelist.  Her disappearance was shrouded in mystery and for 11 days the whole nation was gripped by the question: ‘What has happened to Agatha Christie?’  Agatha Christie in 1926 The police as well as volunteers had been searching high and low until a banjo player with the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate recognized Agatha Christie among the hotel guests and alerted the police. It came out that all this time Agatha Christie had been staying in the hotel under the assumed name of Theresa Neele. Till the end of her life Agatha Christie didn’t say a word about her flight from home on December evening leaving her biographers to wonder what had prompted her to...

‘It is better to hitch your wagon to a star than to wander aimlessly through life.’ The sentence contains one of the most popular English sayings which comes to mind whenever we think about being ambitious and aspiring to achieve more. ‘Hitch your wagon to a star’, we say to someone encouraging him to be brave and to set optimistic goals. But what is the origin of this saying? In 1870 Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American lecturer, poet and essayist, published his essay ‘Civilization’ in which he wrote that a civilized man will move on to accomplish more and more complex tasks and he will use the powers of nature to solve problems at hand: ‘Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor, to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might of the elements. The forces of steam, gravity, galvanism, light, magnets, wind, fire, serve us day by day, and cost us nothing. Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-...

Sometimes the name of a real person becomes the name of a thing, a place or an invention. The person gets forgotten but his name enters our day-to-day vocabulary describing something we cannot really do without. Who, for example, remembers James Thomas Brudenell, seventh Earl of Cardigan? Yet, when winter comes, most of us like to wear woolen knitted jackets that the seventh Earl of Cardigan designed and made popular. Whose names brought the words 'boycott' and 'hooligan' into existence? Read our post to find it out. Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was an estate manager running the lands of Lord Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. His reponsibilities included collecting rent from the farmers who worked Lord Erne's land. He showed no mercy for those farmers who had no money to pay rent because of bad harvests. He was not to be persuaded to reduce rent payments or let them pay later. His only response to them was: If you cannot pay, give up the land.  As a result...