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Capital da Bolivia e ...?

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Dancing Expresions

"Dancar no ar" e estar muito feliz.

Jane esta dancando no ar desde que se apaixonou por Bob.

Dancar num ritmo diferente e mudar o comportamento depois de um acontecimento na vida.

Joe mudou seu comportamento depois que ganhou na loteria.

"Fora de compasso" significa nao estar ciente de alguma coisa.

David esta por fora da ultima moda.

These Questions Could be Yours !

Raise and Rise

The verb raise means to lift something to a higher position. You use raise when you are or someone is lifting something so, for example, I can say: I can raise my coffee cup, means I lift it up into the air in a higher position. In a meeting I would say: Would all those in favor please raise their hands?
I also could give a piece of advice: You should never raise a hand to a child or a woman.
We also use that verb raise when we are talking about what parents do to help their children when they are growing up. Parents raise children means they take care of children as they grow older.
We can also use raise with the following ideas:
The government plan to raise taxes.
I had to raise my voice to make myself heard over the noise.
The discussion has raised many important issues.
I want to raise two questions with you.
I need to raise some cash.
I will ask my boss a raise.
The verb to rise means that you get up; you are getting up, getting higher so I say: I rise at 7 am every morning, meaning that I get up; I leave my bed at 7 am.
We can also say that the sun rises in the morning and it sets at night. The balloon rose gently into the air.
We can also use the verb rise for the water: In a river during the spring the river rises and it means that there are more water so it goes up, it rises too much and floods the land around. In Egypt the Nile floods the land around and that’s because it rises at a certain time of the year.
We can also use rise with the following ideas:
We had a sudden temperature rise.
We had a 5% rise in inflation last year.


What is the difference between "must", "have to" and "got to"?

Well, actually all of this means the same thing. If I say: I must go, it means that is necessary that I go; I have an obligation to go. If I say: I have to go I’m saying the same thing; it’s necessary, there’s an obligation.
The expression "I got to go" is informal. You can also say: "I have got to go" and here there’s a small difference because using these informal expressions we might be expressing certain urgency or much necessity.
So you can say: "I have to leave now", "I must leave now" or in informal way: "I got to leave now" meaning the same thing.
I just would say that "must" is a little bit more formal; someone who wants to sound a little more educated might use "must" instead of "have to" or "got to", but they are perfectly acceptable.


What is the difference between "Yet" and "Still"?

Well, let’s see a question: Is he here yet? Is he here still? What is the difference?
When you say: Is he here yet, you are saying maybe he is not here right now. You are expecting here to be here so: Is he here yet means he wasn’t here before and you are asking if he is here now.
When you say: Is he here still, you are saying that this person was here, he was here and you were expecting him to leave so if someone says: Are you still here, what they are really saying is: why haven’t you left yet? You are here but I don’t expect you to be here. Perhaps I was hoping that you would not be here.
So "yet" means the person was not there but you were expecting them to be there and "still" means the person is there and you were expecting them to leave.


What the expression "wash down" means?

Wash down means to drink something after eating something so if I had a sandwich and after I drank a glass of beer, I washed the sandwich down with a glass of beer. So wash down means to drink but we use it when we are talking about eating something before.

I’m going to eat a piece of fish and I’m going to wash it down with a glass of water or usually with some alcoholic drink like wine, beer or that sort of thing. First you eat and then you drink.


What is the meaning of the word "Hype"?

Hype is when something is continually advertised and discussed in newspaper, television, etc. Hype means that people are talking about and something is very popular. There has been a lot of hype around the movie 2012, meaning that everybody is talking about it.
Lately, people are talking about the I-Pod and there’s a lot of hype about it meaning that’s a lot of publicity around it, a lot of advertisements. In general hype means that it’s very popular and everyone is talking about it and that’s supposed to be very good and it could be a movie, a car, an actor, everything could have hype.


What is the meaning of the expression "No brainer"?

Well, no brainer means that you don’t have to think about what you should do because it’s obvious. You don’t need to use your brain because the answer is obvious. We use the expression "no brainer" when we are talking about an action that has to be taken, for example, let’s suppose that it’s raining so I got my umbrella so I would not get wet. It’s no brainer; I don’t have to think about it because it’s obvious.
You can use this expression just in the negative so you can’t use "it’s brainer" in opposite to "no brainer".


What is the meaning of the word "Pimp"?

Well, pimp has different meanings and as a noun a pimp is a man who has women who work for him as prostitutes; women that sell themselves for sexual purposes. A pimp is a man who controls and finds customers for the prostitutes, he is a man that organizes and takes part of the money from the women so he’s sort of like their boss and, of course, that’s not something you want your son to grow up and be. Most parents I think. Nevertheless, in US the figure of a pimp usually is someone who dresses with a lot of fancy clothing, a big hat and drives a very big car that has a lot of very expensive things added to it.
As a verb, to pimp also has many different meanings but one of them is very well known because of a television program called: "Pimp my Ride" so to pimp you ride or to pimp your car means that you make your car looks better, looks nicer by putting many expensive things on the outside of your car.


The uses of the word "Rather"

We have a couple of different uses of rather; one of them is "would rather". In the sentence: I would rather go to the park than to the beach, here would rather is expressing a preference for one thing over the other. I also could say: I would prefer to go to the park than to the beach. So would rather and would prefer have the same meaning. If I say: I would prefer not to go, or I would rather not go, those are the same.
"Rather than" is similar; I want the ice-cream rather than the piece of pie, meaning I want this one instead of the other one.
"Rather" meaning very much: I rather prefer ice-cream, meaning I very much prefer ice-cream.
"Rather" as a small amount: It’s rather cold today, isn’t it? Rather here means that the weather is not so cold today.


Differences between "In" and "Into"

Well, you can say that you are in the house walking into the kitchen or into the living room.
Let’s say that I’m going in the house and being inside it, I’m going into the kitchen. Where am I? I am in the house walking into the kitchen and later I’m going into the room to watch TV.
You can also say into meaning that you are interested in something, for example, if I say that I am into classical music, I am saying that I am interested in classical music.


The meanings of the word "Indeed"

There are a couple of uses for the word indeed. One is the idea that something is really, truly, or actually. For example, I can say: He is indeed here, or he is really here, or he is truly here. He is actually here. They are all the same thing.
Another use of indeed is when you agree with someone. Someone says: It’s cold out today, and you answer: indeed it is.
You can also use the word indeed instead of using the word in fact: someone says: It’s very cold today and you may answer: indeed, it’s freezing instead of saying in fact it is freezing.


What is "Mail-in Rebate"?

When you buy something that has a rebate that means that you will have some money back after doing your purchase so rebate is when a company gives you money back after you buy something.
After your purchase, the company gives you some money back if you mail-in the receipt of your purchase; of course, the company has to be offering a rebate for you to do so.
Most of the things that you buy don’t have a rebate but it is one way that companies discovered to sell more things, so if they want to sell, for example, more TV sets, they may offer a rebate for you to buy one and after you buy it you must send to the company an email with a copy of the receipt attached in order to have some money back.


What’s the difference between "On time" and "In time"?

On time means that you are on schedule; you are arriving at a place at the time you said you are going to be there.
The train is supposed to arrive at the station at 7 o’clock. If it arrives on time, it arrives at 7 o’clock and if it arrives after 7 it’s not on time; it’s late.
In time is when you have a deadline, you have a certain limit of time and you need something done before that limit, for example, you need to give your boss a report by 6 o’clock this afternoon and if you give it to him at 5:30, you give to him in time, before the deadline.


The uses of "Going to" and “will"

Well, when do we use going to and when do we use will? What’s the difference between them?
Well, both forms are about the future; something that will happen; something that will happen or something that is going to happen in the future; could be a day, an hour, and a year from now. The differences are not really in meaning. I could say: I’m going to go or I will go. I would say that going to is a little more informal and a little more common.
I’m going to talk about. I will talk about. "Will" here a little more formal perhaps. Will you go? Yes, I will go. That’s something you might read in a novel but you also hear people use will in talking about something that will happen in the future. There will be rain tomorrow. There’s going to be rain tomorrow. Either one is possible.
There are some cases that "will" is more common, but they are very similar in terms of the amount the people use them.


Wage and Salary

Wage is when you work for a company and you are paid by the hour.
Salary is when the company pays you not by the hour but usually by the year and so they say: Well, we are going give you $30 thousand dollars a year but you may have to work a lot of hours for that and if you work more hours you don’t get paid more money for that. Maybe you do overtime but you will not get paid for the extra hours.
A typical American worker works for the hour in a week but if you are on a salary you sometimes will work more than that.
We usually talk about the distinction between types of work; a couple of expressions is "white collar" and "blue collar". A blue collar worker is someone who works in a manual type of job and it’s paid by the hour and they have a wage. A manual job is where you have to use your hands so if you are a painter of walls, or you do the cleaning, you are a blue collar worker.
A white collar worker or a white collar job is when you work in an office like a lawyer or maybe as a doctor or a university professor and you have a salary.


What’s the difference between "Afraid" and "Frightened"?

Well, in most cases afraid is a little less serious, dramatic so you can say: I’m afraid of flying or I’m afraid of going into the water, the ocean water because there may be a shark there so it means that you have some fear. We also use "I’m afraid" for: I’m afraid I can’t go, meaning that you are sorry but you can’t go; it won’t be possible.
Frightened is usually when you are very afraid, very scared, you have a lot of fear often with something that happened suddenly. I heard a noise outside my window and it frightened me. I got scared and it’s much more dramatic, it’s a more intense feeling.


What is the meaning of the words "Even" and "Odd"?

Well, even is used for numbers and numbers that you can divide by two so 2, 4, 6, 8, 156, and so forth, they are all called even numbers. Odd numbers are numbers like 1, 3, 5, 7, 269, and so forth, they are all odd numbers.
The words odd and even have other meanings; even is used sometimes to mean that things are the same, are equal so, for example, if you do something wrong to someone they may be mad or angry at you and they might want to do something wrong to you so they will try to get even, to have revenge. Thus, if I try to hurt someone who has hurt me and I do that I may say: now we are even; I have hurt you like you have hurt me.
We also use even as an adverb and it’s used to provide emphasis or to point out something that is very strange, unusual or surprising: even the girls want to watch the baseball game; even my father wants to go to the opera and normally he wouldn’t go to the opera, it’s surprising he wants to go.
Odd also means that something is strange. I can say this is very odd, he is very odd, meaning he’s weird, strange.
Odd sometimes can also mean something difficult like in the expression: against all odds. Let’s suppose that it’s raining a lot and you decide to go out. No one would go out in such rainy day, but you, against all odds, decide to go out even you know that it will be very difficult and unpleasant.

LET'S TALK ABOUT ...

Let’s talk about … Wasting Time at Work!

In a recent survey of employees in the US they asked them how much time they waste at work that’s, how much time they spend not doing what they are supposed to be doing, relaxing or killing the time.
Well, the responses were very interesting. They found that 37% of the time that people spent at work was wasted according to their own reports. One of the things the people do, of course, is look at email and answer personal emails. They also spent a lot of time looking at different websites.
There was another study that found that one out of every four that is 25% of American workers look at a blog every day. As you probably know a blog is some sort of website where people post; put on their website their own personal comments or articles.
This however is not just a problem in the US in an article that I was reading they said that in a survey in 9 different countries they found that about 1/3 of the time during the working hours people said that they were not really working.


Let’s talk about … California!

California is famous in the US and in many parts of the world as being the home of Hollywood.
Hollywood is where movies are made there in Los Angeles, but Hollywood is an actual neighborhood in Los Angeles; it’s a part of the city of L.A. There isn’t a separate city called Hollywood, it’s just part of the largest city of L.A. However when people talk about Hollywood they are talking about the movie industry and television business.
California is also famous for its beaches. The most famous beach is probably Venice Beach, Venice like the city in Italy.
The third thing California is famous for other people who don’t live in California is that they think California people are a little strange, a little weird, and a little different.
California is made up of people from other states, not people who were born there and lived there their whole life; there are many migrants from other parts of the US, people who migrated, and there are many immigrants from all over the world. California has the reputation of being a little strange, being involved in different type of things like interesting and exotic religions, physical activities and so on.
There’s an old expression that says that California is the land of fruits and nuts, but fruits and nuts as a reference to some strange, weird people because there if you say that a person is a fruit or a nut you are saying that he are a little strange. That’s the reputation that California has.


Let’s talk about … Proverbs!

Proverb is a famous saying that people use usually in order to express a certain opinion a suggestion or advice that you give someone and every language has its own proverbs that people use. They are sayings that are old and everyone knows what they mean.
Let’s see the meaning of the well known proverb "To kill two birds with one stone". The idea is that we have a stone in order to kill a bird so to kill two birds with one stone means that you are trying to do more than one thing at the same time. Suppose that I need to get gasoline for my car and I also need to buy milk. Well, there’s a gas station, a place that sells gasoline, close to my house and it has what we would call a mini-mart; a little store where they sell very basic kind of food, milk and often alcohol, beer and so forth. Well I decided to kill two birds with one stone and I’m going to go to the gas station and fill up my gasoline tank and I’m going to go to the mini-mart and buy some milk so by doing one thing, going to the gas station, I’m able to accomplish two goals that I have.
Another expression is "The early bird gets the worm". Worms are usually small maybe one or two inches usually brown or black and they crawl on the ground and they are things that birds eat. Birds eat worms and it means that the person, who gets up early or arrives to a place early, will get the best selection of whatever is available. So if there’s a store that’s selling, for example, I-Pods very cheap and you want to get an I-Pod you better go to the store early in the day because the early bird gets the worm, meaning the person who goes early, will get the best selection or the best items that are available.
There are lots of others well known proverbs like: "Better late than never", "Necessity is the mother of invention", "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" and so forth.


Let’s talk about … Interjections!

Interjections are words like "geez", "aha" and they express some sort of strong emotion.
We can say Geez!, Man!, Whoa!, if I am really surprised with something.
If we make a mistake or if we do something wrong but not serious we say: Oops!
When we are reacting to something we don’t like, something that’s bad, ugly or negative we say: Ugh!
When we want to scare someone we say: Boo! We say that word boo and we are supposed to scare someone.
Aha! is what you say when you find a solution to solve a problem that you were working on it. Aha! I have the solution. We can also use that word when we are talking to someone and we think they are not telling the truth and so when we ask them questions and they finally tell us the truth we may say: Aha! Now I understand.
The word duh! is used when we want to say that something is obvious.
Oh-oh! You say oh-oh!; When something goes wrong, when someone makes a mistake. It’s a sign that something bad has happened.
Ouch! You say ouch when you hurt yourself; you may cut yourself or hit your hand against the table accidentally and you hurt.
Whew! You make that sound when you are relieved; when something bad was going to happen but it doesn’t happen so you say whew as a relief.
Brr! You say it when you are cold.
D’oh! It’s said when you feel stupid, for example, you can say: I forgot to turn it on. D’oh!
It’s something you say when you do something stupid or something wrong and what you did was not very smart or intelligent.


Let’s talk about … Minnesota!

Minnesota is located in a very north part of the US right in the middle that is called upper mid west and it’s on the border of Canada, the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Minnesota is known for a couple of things in the US, probably one of the most famous things is that people have a very distinctive accent. There’s a movie called Fargo and it’s actually about people in Minnesota. Fargo is a city in North Dakota next to Minnesota.
The people of Minnesota have a very distinctive accent it’s usually with a lot of long "oooos". People say: Minnesooota yah, you betcha! You betcha! is an expression that you hear and people associate or relate to Minnesota. You betcha! Means you bet you, that sometimes means yes. For example if someone says: It’s raining out! You say: You betcha!
So that’s one thing that Minnesota is famous for but it’s famous for other things. The singer Bob Dylan was born and raised in Minnesota.
Minnesota is in the North so it’s very cold and it has a lot of snow and people associate Minnesota with cold weather sports such as hockey. Many of the members of Olympic hockey team come from Minnesota.


Let’s talk about … Spring Break!

Spring break is the same as spring vacation and in public and private schools, elementary schools, high schools and universities usually take at least one and sometimes two weeks of vacation. Usually one week for most schools and this a very popular time for families and for students to travel somewhere.
There has developed in the US the tradition of spring break especially for high school and college students and they usually go to somewhere warm like a beach and quite honestly they do a lot of party; they do a lot of drinking, dancing and things that go with that and it’s been something of a problem in some places because the high school students and college students will get sometimes very rowdy making a lot of noise yelling , screaming and many of the places where these students go for spring break sometimes have problems with the police.
Typically the spring break is related to Easter and passes over seasons and some of the popular places where students like to go are Florida, Orlando, Miami, and Daytona Beach or Palm Beach where they like to rest sitting on the sun getting a tan. There are other places they like to go, as for example, California going to San Diego and sometimes even to Los Angeles. They also like to go to some resorts in Mexico like Cancun, Acapulco. Mexico is very popular for students because in Mexico you only have to be 18 years old to drink alcohol legally instead of being 21like in the US so if the student likes to drink and they usually do, Mexico is the best to have fun.


Let’s talk about … The Movie Rating System!

In US there is an association called MPAA that is supposed to tell people who want to go see the movie, what kind of movie and what age this movie is appropriated for.
The rating system uses letters to classify movies and it begins with G for general and a G rated movie is a movie that anyone can go see; it’s ok for children, for adults, no problems any age can go see these movies so cartoons, for example, are usually G rated.
The next rating is PG and PG stands for Parental Guidance. Here the parents should be careful about taking especially young children to this movie.
The next is PG 13 and it’s a movie that anyone under thirteen should see because it may cause a problem so parents should think very carefully about weather taking their children to see it. There are maybe sexual content in the movie, there are maybe very violent or some vulgar or dirty language, those are sort of things that would give a movie a PG 13.
The next rating is an R and R is for restricted. This means that anyone under the age 18 needs to have a parent or an adult to go with them because R rated movie is the most violent, the most mature scenes and ideas and language.
The next rating which is Unseen 17, no one under eighteen can go see these movies even if their parents are with them and says it’s ok and these are movies that there are strong sexual or violent scenes; they are not pornographic movies that are rated as X rated movies, but people are nude and you have to be 18 to go and see those movies. In US if you are 18 you are considered an adult and you can drive, you can vote but you can’t drink alcohol.


Let’s talk about … The State of Illinois!

Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, is famous for several things. The most important thing that Illinois is known for is the city of Chicago which is one of the largest cities in the USA. It is located in the very north part of the state and it’s actually located by a big lake called Lake Michigan. There are five lakes that are called the Great lakes between Canada and USA.
Chicago is called the windy city because of the breeze coming from Lake Michigan and is also famous for its food particularly for the barbecued ribs, the beef ribs and the pork ribs are really delicious.

Private

Let's go swimming...

You must face the music! Assuma a responsabilidade!

Encare a musica, significa assumir a responsabilidade por alguma coisa.

Tom teve que assumir a responsabilidade por dirigir rapido demais.
Nos dizemos musica para os nossos ouvidos quando ouvimos boas noticias.
Os resultados soaram como musica para os ouvidos de Susan.

Money que e good nois num have !

Na giria inglesa ha muitas palavras para dinheiro tal como "bread" and "dough".

Um dolar americano e chamado de "buck".
No Canada eles chamam um dolar de "loonie".
No Reino Unido eles chamam um pound de "quid".

Mas nao importa qual a palavra que voce use para dinheiro. EU NAO TENHO NENHUM!

Muito legal este video . Voce concorda ?

Let's watch this video! It's nice!

The Funny Parrot

These Questions Could Be Yours!

Raise and Rise

The verb raise means to lift something to a higher position. You use raise when you are or someone is lifting something so, for example, I can say: I can raise my coffee cup, means I lift it up into the air in a higher position. In a meeting I would say: Would all those in favor please raise their hands?

I also could give a piece of advice: You should never raise a hand to a child or a woman.
We also use that verb raise when we are talking about what parents do to help their children when they are growing up. Parents raise children means they take care of children as they grow older.

We can also use raise with the following ideas:

The government plan to raise taxes.
I had to raise my voice to make myself heard over the noise.
The discussion has raised many important issues.
I want to raise two questions with you.
I need to raise some cash.
I will ask my boss a raise.

The verb to rise means that you get up; you are getting up, getting higher so I say: I rise at 7 am every morning, meaning that I get up; I leave my bed at 7 am.
We can also say that the sun rises in the morning and it sets at night. The balloon rose gently into the air.

We can also use the verb rise for the water: In a river during the spring the river rises and it means that there are more water so it goes up, it rises too much and floods the land around. In Egypt the Nile floods the land around and that’s because it rises at a certain time of the year.

We can also use rise with the following ideas:

We had a sudden temperature rise.
We had a 5% rise in inflation last year.


What is the difference between "must", "have to" and "got to"?

Well, actually all of this means the same thing. If I say: I must go, it means that is necessary that I go; I have an obligation to go. If I say: I have to go I’m saying the same thing; it’s necessary, there’s an obligation.

The expression "I got to go" is informal. You can also say: "I have got to go" and here there’s a small difference because using these informal expressions we might be expressing certain urgency or much necessity.

So you can say: "I have to leave now", "I must leave now" or in informal way: "I got to leave now" meaning the same thing.

I just would say that "must" is a little bit more formal; someone who wants to sound a little more educated might use "must" instead of "have to" or "got to", but they are both perfectly acceptable.

LET'S TALK ABOUT ...

Let’s talk about … Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day is not an official holiday, but if you buy a calendar in the United States and you look at February 2 you will probably see the word Groundhog Day. It’s an annual holiday celebrated in the US and Canada.

Groundhog Day is an old tradition about in predicting the weather. According to folklore, if a groundhog comes out from its hole on this day fails to see its shadow that means that winter will end soon. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will retreat into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks.

There is actually a movie, a kind of comedy, that’s called "Groundhog Day". It’s a very funny movie about a weatherman who wakes up and everyday is February 2, that’s he finds himself repeating the same day over and over again, he goes to the day, he falls asleep and when he wakes up, again is the same day. It’s a very good movie.

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Let’s talk about … Baby boomers!

Baby Boomer, Generation Ex, Generation Why…

What generation do you belong to?
In the United States the term baby boomer refers to those who were born after World War II, between 1946 and 1964 that would include people like me.

After World War II there was a large increase in the number of children born, there was a baby boom. This generation, this group of people born in the same time is now in their forties, fifties, and more and more becoming in their sixties.

The baby boomer generation is getting older in the United States. I’m getting older. The generation born after 1946 is getting older.

There are other names that are given to different generations depending on when they were born. My generation born after the middle 60’s is called the baby boomer. People born after 1964, between 1965 and 1979 are called generation ex. They are the post baby boomers, and after generation ex, people born in the eighties and nineties are called generation why.

I guess the next generation will be called generation z, I don’t know … but and you? What generation do you belong to? Would you like to belong to another generation? Would you like to be a baby boomer like me?



Let’s talk about … Movies!

I love to watch movies. One of my favorite movies is King Kong. King Kong is what we call a blockbuster. Blockbuster is a movie that sells a lot of tickets and is very, very popular.

It’s a long movie, a little more than three hours long. The movie is about the legendary creature called King Kong. The word Kong doesn’t mean anything in English, of course there is the city Hong Kong, but the movie actually takes place in New York City.



Let’s talk about … New Year’s resolutions!

It’s very popular during the time around the first of January to talk about New Year’s resolutions. A resolution is a promise that you make to change something about the way you are living your life and I came across a list of the top ten most popular New Year’s resolutions in the United States and I thought I would read some of those to you.

The first one is “to spend more time with friends and family”. A recent poll found that more than 50% of Americans vow to appreciate their loved ones.

Number two resolution was “to be fit”. To be fit or in fitness, means that you are healthy, that you exercise, that you do things good for your body. You may say you are in good shape.

Number three is to lose weight. There was a survey that found that 55% of adults in the States weights too much, are overweight. Being fit, being healthy is very important.

Well, so these are the top three resolutions and you can compare these ones with yours. If you want to know about the others resolutions you can access the web site http://www.about.com/ and check them.



Let’s talk about … Ear buds!

I have a little technology news I want to tell you about. It’s about the ear buds that we use in iPods, MP3 players and other devices.

According to the doctors many people are having problems with their hearing and the reason is because of the iPods and MP3 players. A popular way of listening music by the ear buds, the little things you put into your ears.

Before we always used to have a headphone that covered our entire ears but the earphone that we use nowadays just go inside our ears and the result is that we are listening to music more loudly and so that can damage our hearing.
So that’s something you want to be careful about your ear buds.



Let’s talk about … Smoking ban!

In many cities in the United States, in many states, there are entire smoking laws. In California, for example, it’s illegal to smoke inside a restaurant. In fact it’s illegal to smoke even inside a bar. So you can’t go to a bar and have a drink and smoke. The idea is that when someone else is smoking and if you are standing next them you could inhale, that is, to breathe in that smoke that is called second-hand smoke.

Second-hand smoke means you get from someone else; you are not the person smoking but you are standing next to the smoker.

Well there are a lot of controversial, of course, because people who smoke don’t like the new law very much and in many different states and cities are passing new laws about smoking, so if you come to the States you maybe will be surprised to find out that there’s no smoking in many restaurants and even bars in some states. In airplanes, of course, there are no smoking areas so if you fly from Los Angeles to Chicago you can’t smoke or anywhere else. If you smoke in these places you can get a ticket, that’s you will have to pay money if you are smoking in a restaurant or in a bar.

Let’s talk about … Teenagers drivers!

In the United States, in many states you can start driving when you are 16 years old but in almost states, the legal age is eighteen.

In California a new law took effect on the first of the year . On the first of January teenagers between 16 and 18 years old now is allowed to drive under certain conditions, for example, you cannot drive after 11 pm. at night till 5 am in the morning. So you would be given a ticket or perhaps even arrested if you were a teenager and you were driving during those hours.

So that’s a new law taking place in Los Angeles, California and the idea is to try to prevent cars accidents with young drivers that according to the statistics have more car accidents .

Let’s talk about … brunch!

People in the States like to go to brunch on the weekends. Brunch is a combination of two words: breakfast and lunch so brunch comes somewhere late in the morning or early in the afternoon.

Brunch is a very popular thing on the weekends, especially on Sundays. Many restaurants have a special menu for brunch and you can sometimes eat all you can eat, meaning you pay one price and you eat all the food that you want. It’s very popular the idea of having brunch on Sundays late in the morning or early in the afternoon.

Let’s talk about … Medical systems in the US!

Every country has a different medical system and many countries like Brazil has a system that’s called Socialized Medicine where most of all medical care, like hospitals, doctors, medicines is paid for by the government.

In the US they don’t have a system like that. They have a mostly private system, which means that they have to pay for their help insurance.

Sometimes the company you work for will pay for your help insurance but if you work for yourself you have to pay for your own help insurance and it’s a bit expensive, for example, in California it costs about $400 a month and, of course, some people can’t afford it.

There are some government medical care programs. The most popular is called Medicare and it’s mostly for people who are over the age of 65, that we call the elderly.

Another big program they have is called Medicaid and it’s for low income people. This Medicaid program is just for anyone who is poor; it’s particularly for children under the age of 18 as well as for women who are pregnant.



Let’s talk about … Television channels in the US!

There are lots of television stations, television channels in the United States.
First of all I should tell you that there’s a difference between a channel and a station. A station is located in each city and there are individual companies that own stations. For example, in Los Angeles there are probably fifteen or twenty television stations. They are sometimes called broadcast stations and anyone with an antenna on the top of their roof can listen to these televisions stations and there are thousands of television stations in the US.

A television channel is usually a network where many stations get together from different cities and start a channel which is a big national company that makes television programs. For example, the ABC, the American Broadcast Company, is one of the major television channels or television network in the USA.

There are five all private major large networks in the US and we know them usually by their letters: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and WB. The FOX and WB are a little smaller than the other three channels.

There are, of course, other ways to get television including cable television and you can also get television from satellite and there are two large satellite television companies. One of them is called Dish TV and the other is Direct TV.

Let’s talk about … Spelling bees!

Spelling bee is a spelling contest and spelling contests are very popular in American schools.
The spelling bee is a contest where the students are asked to spell a word in English and then they have to stand in front of a microphone and spell the words. So, for example, they may say the word “priorities”, and the student has to stand in front of a microphone and spell the word. If they get it wrong then they are out of the game, out of the contest.

These contests are very popular in almost every school usually in junior high and high school students are part of the spelling bees. There are even national competitions for spelling.

Of course English spelling can be very difficult because unlike some languages where the sound of the word is how you spell the word, in English that isn’t always true, in fact, many times this is not true.

Spelling, the ability to spell, is mostly related to how much you read; people who read more spell better so it’s really a kind of reading test.

Let’s talk about … The reality program called "The Apprentice"!

The Apprentice is a very popular television program in US. It’s a reality program, where people are real people, not actors.

Well, if we are talking about The Apprentice you are talking about Donald Trump who is a very famous and important person in the US. He’s a real estate magnate and besides he owns lots of properties, including the Trump Towers in New York City, and of course, he has the television program called The Apprentice. In this reality program people are competing like in a game and the goal is to win a one year job with Donald Trump and to become his apprentice.

In Brazil there is a similar reality program with a relative success called "O Aprendiz".

Let’s talk about … The School System in the US!

Most American children go to public schools in the US and schools are usually divided into three parts: the first six grades and sometimes seven grades beginning with the kindergarten, that is mainly the first year of school, for children aged 5. That first six years is called elementary school or sometimes is called grade school.

After those six years in many schools you go to a different school, a different building called middle school that’s usually grades as seven and eight or six, seven and eight and nine, it depends on the school, but usually a middle school is a six, seven and eight.

Sometimes in different places they call middle school a junior high. So every school, every city is different in the United States, but most of them have this middle school or junior high school for six, seven, eight grades.

Then after you finish middle school or junior high you go to high school also called sometimes senior high and it’s a nine, ten, eleven, twelve grades.

Let’s talk about … Religion in the US!

Most Americans if you ask them in a survey if they are religious they will say that they believe in some sort of god in terms of religion. A very high percentage of Americans identify themselves as religious.

About 75% of those who are religious call themselves Christians and about 13% have no religion at all and the rest of the percentage is a very small different religions.

The 75% of those who are religious, about 25% percent are called Catholics. These are Christians who believe in Roman Catholic Church with the Pope in Vatican, in Italy. That’s the single largest Christian church in the US.

The other 50% of the population that is Christian are that we call Protestants. These are churches that began with Martin Luther in Germany in the sixteenth century; these are churches that began in protest to problems in the Catholic Church at that time. There are many, maybe hundreds churches in these category. In the US the largest is the Baptist Church which is particularly popular in the southern part of the US in States like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, etc.

So in overall Americans consider themselves very religious but, of course, just because you say you are religious that doesn’t mean you necessarily are doing the right thing; that’s another issue.

Let’s talk about … Spam!

Spam is actually the name of a type of food that is very popular in some places but it’s also however considered by many people as being a not very good food. It’s a type of meat sold in metal containers, made mostly from pork.

Nowadays we also use the word spam to call an unwanted email, usually advertisements. So people who don’t like spam and there are many, for some reason, started to use the word spam on the internet to describe an email that you don’t want and that you didn’t ask for.

A spam is usually sent for someone who is selling something or it’s a part of a scheme that is trying to get money from you, to cheat you in order to steal your money. It’s a very common kind of email nowadays so if you get a message from someone asking you money to help people of Nigeria, for example, you should know that it is not a real email; it’s a fraud, it’s a spam and the better thing to do is to delete it.

Let’s talk about … Valentine’s Day!

In the US Valentine’s Day is on the 14 February and it’s the day you give a Valentine card to someone you have a romantic relationship with or would like to have a romantic relationship with. This is the day in US and in many other countries that we celebrate giving to our boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or husband traditional gifts like cards, red roses or some other kind of flowers, ties, shirts, chocolate, stuffed animals like a bear but the most popular gift would be a jewelry, things like a ring or earrings or maybe something you wear around your neck like a pendant.

Learn By Heart !

Hi there !

I am Teacher Val .

I´ve been teaching English for a long time, since 1998 and here in my blog I´m posting some questions and answers that we discuss in class . I hope that these questions and answers can be useful for you , becasuse I know that ...

These Questions Could be yours!!!

Why sometimes we say "a" book and sometimes we say "ei" book?

Well, often when we speak more slowly, we may say "ei" book, but when we speak in a faster speed or even in a normal speed we probably would say "a" book.

What does the expression "Oh my goodness!" mean?

When someone says "Oh my goodness", that’s when they are expressing surprise with something that has happened. Usually something bad has happened. So for example, you say to your wife: I had a car accident. I hit my car against a wall, and she would say: Oh my goodness!

The expression "Oh my goodness" is a polite sort of an informal way of expressing surprise.
Some people, of course, express surprise by using a bad word that you usually listen in movies or in a play.

What does the expression "Against all odds" mean?

The expression against all odds means with great difficulty. When something is very difficult to do and yet you do it anyway, you can say you’re doing it against all odds. When you are able to do something that no one else thought you could do because it’s very difficult.

Let’s say that it’s very cold and it’s raining a lot outside and the wind is blowing very hard and you decide you are going to go running. Well, that may be possible, but it would be very difficult to do and if you do it anyway, you are doing it against all odds.

What does the expression "At this point" mean?

Well, that’s something you say very often in a conversation. Someone says: I think that at this point we should go to the store.
When you are talking about, when you are planning something and you are thinking in doing something different you can use this expression. For example, I go to the store and I’m looking for a clock and I can’t find the clock and I go to this store and I go to that store and finally I decide to try another way to buy the clock. So I say, well at this point I’m just going to order the clock on the internet. I tried other things and now I’m going to do this.

What is the difference between a dove and a pigeon?

Well, a dove is a small white bird and it’s a type of pigeon, but when people use the word pigeon they are usually talking about a bigger bird usually one that we found in a park.

Pigeons are very popular in American parks and people feed them with little pieces of bread.
Technically a dove is a type of pigeon so you could call a dove a pigeon but people usually use the word dove for a small white type of pigeon.

When do I say "Do you get it"and when do I say "Did you get it"?

Well, first of all “to get it” here means “to understand”. So “do you get it” means “do you understand”. We usually use that expression when we are explaining something to someone and after we have done it we say: “do you get it?”
Did you get it, in the past tense, refers to weather you understood something in the past so, for example, you go to a college classroom and you hear the professor talking about a subject and after class you go to your friend who was there and you say: I didn’t understand what the professor was saying. Did you get?
So, one is used in the present when the things are happening or just happened and the other is used for the past tense.


What is the correct form of the sentence: He talks as if he knows everything or He talks as if he knew everything?

Well, technically the most correct answer would be: “as if he knew (past tense) everything”, and not: “as if he knows (present tense) everything”. However, in common conversation the difference is no longer important for many people, so you will hear people say: “He talks as if he knows everything.”
The language is changing overtime and that is becoming more acceptable.


What is the difference between the words policy and politics?

Policy can mean any rule or regulation that an organization has. Policy can also be your plan, your program to fix some problem; so for example, the government has a policy on the environment (I hope). What they are going to do to help the environment.

Politics is anything related to the way the government or an organization works. Usually when we talk about politics in government we are talking about people trying to get elected, for example to become president, to become a member of the congress, that’s all part of politics.


What is the difference between the words pretty and quite?

Well, if I say that someone is pretty good I mean that he’s good… a little good, he’s ok but if I say that he’s quite good I mean that he’s very good.
So someone who is pretty good is not as good as someone who’s quite good.

What is the difference between the words "effect" and "affect"?

Effect is a noun and refers to the result of something, for example, if I hit you in the nose with my hand or my fist, the effect will be perhaps you’ll have blood coming out of your nose. You might also hit me back so that’s effect.
Affect is a verb and means to change or to make a difference, for example, the news affected me, meaning it has changed me, made difference for me.

Good and well.

Good is an adjective, so if you describe a pizza you can say: it’s a good pizza.
Well is an adverb, so you can say: he drives very well.
Normally when someone asks how you feel, you can say: I feel good or I feel well because sometimes well is an adjective.

What is the difference between the words: "amazing" and "awesome"?

Amazing is something we usually use for somewhat surprising accomplishment, for example, you see a young child and he runs very fast, faster than an adult. Well, that would be amazing, it would be very surprising.

We also use the expression amazing just to mean really, really good sometimes. So I can say: that was an amazing movie. It means you really liked it.
Amazing can also be used in a negative way; someone says to you: my friend didn’t call me back last night. That’s amazing! Here it means more surprise. It’s very surprising that he didn’t call you back.

Awesome is usually nowadays just used to mean great or wonderful. So it can be used in the same way as amazing when you mean it’s very, very good. So you can say that it is an awesome movie meaning the same as amazing or great movie.

What is the difference between "got" and "have got"?

Sometimes, have got and got mean the same thing such as: I have a pen. I got a pen or I have got a pen we probably would say.

Differences between "I have had" and "I had had".

Well, when we say I have had we are talking about something that happened in the past, so I can say: I have had many cups of coffee today.

When I say: I had had, we use that when we are talking about something else going on in a past, so for example I can say: When my wife arrived home last night I had had three cups of coffee. Here, we are talking about the past in the past.

What does the expression “Jump across the pond” mean?

Well, the word pond is a small body of water. A body of water can be large or small. Large like an ocean or small like a lake. A pond is even smaller than a lake and you usually can see across it or walk around it.

The expression jump across the pond, actually refers to someone going from the United States to Great Britain, for example, from New York to London, so you can say: I’m going to jump across the pond, and the pond here is a sort of aj oke because we are taking about the Atlantic Ocean which of course is not a small body of water, but that is an expression that people use about going to England or going to other countries in Europe.