Reading English Books Together

Our world seems to be biased in favour of extroverts, those active, sociable people radiating confidence and energy. At work they easily take on leadership roles and actively engage in a host of activities. In their free time extroverts are brilliant conversationalists, the life and soul of any party and tireless generators of exciting ideas about where to go and what to do. We tend to admire extroverts and seek their friendship. What idioms and phrases do we use to describe extraverts? They are LIVE WIRES, which means they are lively and full of energy. They  have A BUBBLY PERSONALITY, which means they are always happy, friendly and eager to do things. They  WEAR THEIR HEART ON THEIR SLEEVE, which means they act the way they feel. Our world seems to be biased in favour of extroverts, those active, sociable people radiating confidence and energy. At work they easily take on leadership roles and actively engage in a host of activities. ...

When someone brings up the topic of entrepreneurship, the conversation veers towards Steve Jobs with his ambition to make technology user-friendly and accessible to anyone or to Harland Sanders, the founder of KFC, who made chicken a favourite choice for those eager to have a snack. Yet, few people remember the name of the creator of such beautiful things as you can see in the pictures below. The pictures show the products of the company Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, commonly known as Wedgwood.  Here are 5 amazing facts about its founder - Josiah Wedgwood. FACT 1  He transformed the way pottery was produced in Britain and was one of the first entrepreneurs to benefit from mass industrial production. FACT 2  He relied on science and once carried out 411 scientific experiments to discover a way to produce a perfect ceramic surface for his products. FACT 3  The bone china his company produced was so successfully competing with the original p...

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 ...

  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 y...

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 ...