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In this issue...
1 - April Fool's Day 2 - Quiz 3 - New Words from the Vocab Club 4 - Punctuation 5 - Adjectives 6 - Eponyms 7 - Quiz Answers --------------- From the front of EnglishPractice.com, you will notice links to new culture lessons. These are important lessons if you want to speak and survive in the world of English. This week's topics: (i) Understanding Jokes (ii) Swearing (iii) Visiting Your Doctor Again, these are important parts of English. Please see the homepage of EnglishPractice.com for links. 1 - April Fool's Day -------------------- Saturday, April 1st is April Fool's Day. This is that special day of the year when you should play a joke on someone! Children's favorites are to put salt in the sugar bowl for Dad's morning coffee or put chalk on a desk chair at school so the teacher gets a white backside! Play a joke on someone and have a funny day! But remember, if you play a joke after 12 noon, YOU are the April Fool! 2 - Quiz -------- What word finishes the sentence? Answers in section 6. a) The head of a university department is a (principal/dean). b) The leader of an orchestra is a (conductor/director). c) The commander of an army is a (general/chief). d) The boss of a museum is a (manager/curator). e) The leader of a meeting is a (captain/chairperson). 3 - New Words From The Vocab Club --------------------------------- Our Daily Vocab Club has learned seven new words this week. Here are the seven new words: brilliant = intelligent (adjective) ego = opinion of yourself (noun) foresight = knowledge of the future (noun) census = official count (noun) garish = brightly colored (adjective) destiny = fate (noun) hamper = to slow down, impede (verb) 4 - Punctuation --------------- Punctuation is an important part of written English. It helps to express emotion, intonation and ideas clearly in a written sentence. Some common punctuation marks and their names: , = comma ; = semicolon : = colon . = period, full stop ! = exclamation mark ? = question mark - = hyphen or dash "" = quotation marks ' = apostrophe Some uncommon marks: & = ampersand, meaning 'and' @ = at, meaning 'at' * = asterisk, meaning a references will follow () = parentheses, used to include information not important to the main idea [] = brackets, used to include information not important to the main idea {} = brace, used to enclose two or more lines 5 - Adjectives -------------- Adjectives have three forms; the base form, the comparative form, and the superlative form. The comparative is used to compare two things and can be formed by adding an ending to the base adjective (pretty = prettier) or by placing 'more' in front of the base word. The superlative form is used to compare three or more things, or all things (He is the best in the world!). The superlative is formed by adding an ending (pretty = prettiest) or placing 'most' in front of the base word. The superlative always takes 'the'. Words of one or two syllables are usually changed to the comparative or superlative by adding endings. For example: loud - louder - the loudest happy - happier - the happiest Words of more than two syllables are usually changed to the comparative or superlative by adding 'more' or 'most'. For example: experienced - more experienced - the most experienced beautiful - more beautiful - the most beautiful There are several irregular adjectives, but there are five main ones to know: good - better - best bad - worse - worst far - farther, further - farthest, furthest little - less - least many, much - more - most 6 - Eponyms ----------- Eponyms are words that are derived from the names of people. Most of the days of the week are eponyms, except for Sunday and Monday. Tuesday - Tuesday comes from an Old English word 'Tyr'. Tyr was the Anglo-Saxon god of war and the sky. Wednesday - Again, this word is Old English. Wednesday is a form of Woden's day. Woden or Odin was the Norse god of wisdom, culture and war. Thursday - Thor's day. Thor was the Norse god of thunder. Friday - Friday was named after the Norse goddess Frigga, the goddess of married love. In legend, Frigga was jealous that Wednesday and Thursday were named after her husband Woden, and son Thor, and demanded a day to be named after her to appease her! Saturday - Of course, Saturday was named after a god, but SURPRISE! it is not a Norse god. It was named after a Roman god, Saturn, the god of agriculture. 7 - Quiz Answers ---------------- Here are the answers from section 1: a) dean b) conductor c) general d) curator e) chairperson |