On fire

Can you be on fire without any flames?

source http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p078j101

Extensive Reading in English for Absolute Beginners #14 - The Ocean

Lesson Audio Download MP3 Dialog Download MP3

source https://www.englishclass101.com/lesson/extensive-reading-in-english-for-absolute-beginners-14-the-ocean/

Lesson 35: Let’s Make Dinner!

Summary In this lesson, Anna and Marsha are planning a dinner party. But Anna comes home from the store with some unusual foods for dinner. Speaking In this video, learn about using measure words, like "jar of" and "bag of." Pronunciation Use this video to learn about the reduced pronunciation of the word "of" before measure words. Conversation   Anna: Hi there! Washington, D.C. has many fun places to eat. But, sometimes it's more fun to cook. In fact, tonight Marsha and I are cooking for friends. Well, she is cooking. I am doing the shopping. (phone rings) It’s Marsha. Hi, Marsha. Marsha: Hi, Anna. Do you have the shopping list? Anna: Yes, I told you: I have the shopping list. Can you hear it? Marsha: Okay, good. I hear the list. Anna, please buy all the ingredients on the list. Anna: Yes, Marsha, I will. Marsha: And do not spend too much time shopping. Anna: No, Marsha, I won’t. See you later. Anna: Sometimes, Marsha worries too much. I love shopping! And, I did not spend too much money. Oh, no! But I did spend too much time! I have to return home now! Marsha: Anna, what took you so long? Our guests will be here soon! Anna: Don’t worry, Marsha. I bought everything on the list. Marsha: Let me see. You bought a bunch of bananas, a box of pancake mix, a bag of coffee … Anna, this is all wrong! Anna: What do you mean wrong? I bought a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread … no, wait … two loaves of bread. Marsha: Anna, these are the wrong ingredients! Anna: These ingredients are all on the list! I took this list from the counter. Marsha: Anna, this is the shopping list for breakfast. I said, take the shopping list - on the refrigerator - for dinner! Anna: Marsha, there was no shopping list - on the refrigerator - for dinner! Marsha: Oh no! It’s on the floor!! Anna/Marsha: Ahh!!! Ahh!!! Marsha: What are we going to do? Anna: When do our guests arrive? Marsha: They arrive in 30 minutes! Anna: I can fix this. Do you trust me? Marsha: Do I have to? Anna: Yes. (The story continues next week) Writing Do you like shopping for food? What do you like to make for a dinner with guests? Write to us by email or in the Comments section. Click on the image below to download the Activity Sheet and practice talking about foods and measure words.​ Learning Strategy Learning Strategies are the thoughts and actions that help make learning easier or more effective. The learning strategy for this lesson is Cooperate.  When we work together to meet a goal we are cooperating.  In this lesson, Anna and Marsha are planning a dinner party. They cooperate to share the work. Anna says, "In fact, tonight Marsha and I are cooking for friends. Well, she is cooking. I am doing the shopping.​" We can also cooperate by practicing English language skills with a friend or classmate. How do you use this cooperating strategy in your study of English? Write to us about it in the Comments section or send us an email. Teachers, see the Lesson Plan  for more details on teaching this strategy. Quiz Listen to short videos and test your listening skills with this quiz. ______________________________________________________________ New Words banana - n. a long curved fruit with a thick peel that is yellow when it is ripe bought - v. past tense of buy: to get (something) by paying money for it box - n. a container that is made of a hard material (such as wood, metal, or cardboard) and that usually has four straight sides bread - n. a baked food made from a mixture of flour and water bunch - n. a group of things of the same kind that are held or tied together or that grow together counter - n. a long, flat surface on which food is prepared in a kitchen floor - n. the   part of a room on which you stand ingredient - n. one of the things that are used to make a food or product jar - n. a glass container that has a wide opening and usually a lid loaf - n. an amount of bread that has been baked in a long, round, or square shape (plural: loaves) mix - n. a dry mixture of ingredients that is sold in one package and used for making something (such as a type of food) pancake - n. a thin, flat, round cake that is made by cooking batter on both sides in a frying pan or on a hot surface peanut butter - n. a creamy food made from peanuts shopping list - n. a list of things to be bought at a shop or store told - v. past tense of tell: to give information to (someone) by speaking or writing trust - v. to believe that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, or effective ______________________________________________________________ Free Materials   Download the VOA Learning English Word Book for a dictionary of the words we use on this website. Each Let's Learn English lesson has an Activity Sheet for extra practice on your own or in the classroom. In this lesson, you can use it to practice talking about foods and measure words. For Teachers ​ See the Lesson Plan for this lesson for ideas and more teaching resources.Send us an email if you have comments on this course or questions. Grammar focus: Partitives (measure words); Count/Non-count Nouns (review) Topics: Giving reasons for concern Learning Strategy: Cooperate Speaking & Pronunciation Focus: Reduced​ “of” before consonants and vowels (in partitives)   ____________________________________________________________ Now it's your turn. Send us an email or write to us in the Comments section below or on our Facebook page to let us know what you think of this lesson.

source https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/lets-learn-english-lesson-35-lets-make-dinner/3571922.html

English Easy Practice Course Review

English easy practice course just as the name suggests is a way to learn the English language easily and fast, they offer a number of courses from the basic level …

source https://www.gr8english.com/real-english-lessons/english-easy-practice-course-review.html

Short Form Yes, No Questions

  Hello! Do you have a minute? …because I want to tell you something about yes/no questions. As you may know, a yes/no question is a question in which the expected answer is either “yes” or “no.” I just used one such question when I asked, “Do you have a minute?” But in the real world, native English speakers might not always form questions fully when they speak to you. Instead, they might say something like, “You have a minute?” or even “Got a minute?” Short questions like these are common in informal situations, especially in spoken English. For example, “Got a Minute?” has been used as a name for website columns and radio shows on issues from health to career choices to saving money. In addition, “Got a Minute” was the name of a word game in the 1970s. We see and hear shortened questions everywhere – such as in music, movies and advertisements. A well-known example is the “Got Milk?” advertising campaign, which was launched in the 1990s and ran for 20 years. In the ad, famous actors, fashion models and musicians promoted the drinking of milk. Today, I will show you how to shorten yes/no questions. Ready? Good -- because you just heard another example. And it was probably easy to guess the meaning is: Are you ready? Forming yes/no questions On an earlier program, we talked about how to form standard yes/no questions. Knowing this first will help you understand how to shorten them. So here’s a quick refresher: We form most yes/no questions this way: Auxiliary Verb + Subject + Main Verb For example: Do you have a minute? Here, the word “do” is the auxiliary verb, followed by the subject “you” and the main verb “have.” Auxiliary verbs are often called “helping verbs.” We use them with main verbs to do things like help form questions and verb tenses. Most standard yes/no questions begin with “do,” “be” or “have.” But in other yes/no questions, “be” is the main verb and there is no auxiliary. We form them like this: Be + Subject For example: Are you ready? Here, “be” is the main verb, followed by the subject “you.” When we shorten yes/no questions, we usually do it in one of two ways: drop the auxiliary / be (or) drop the auxiliary / be and the subject. Drop Auxiliary Let’s first talk about dropping the auxiliary verb. In informal situations, it is often unnecessary to use the auxiliary verbs “do,” “be” or “have” at the start of yes/no questions. Listen to this example: We’ve been walking for an hour. Oh. You getting tired? Yes, and my feet hurt. Here, the auxiliary “be” was dropped from the start of the question “You getting tired?” The standard question would be “Are you getting tired?” Here is another example: The internet is not working. The cable company call yet? A crew is supposed to be here by 3 this afternoon. No, I haven’t heard the phone. Here, the auxiliary verb “do” was dropped from the start of the question, “The cable company call yet?” The standard question would be, “Did the cable company call yet?” Drop Auxiliary & Subject We can make even shorter yes/no questions by dropping both the auxiliary verb and the subject. However, we can only drop the subject when the subject is “you.” Listen to another version of the earlier conversation, this time without the auxiliary verb or subject “you”: We’ve been walking for an hour. Oh. Getting tired? Yes, and my feet hurt. Let me now return to something I talked about at the start of the program. You remember the questions “Got milk?” and “Got a minute?” They both start yes/no questions with the word “Got.” Such questions come from this standard form: Do + you + have... To shorten questions that begin with the words “Do you have…?” we often drop the auxiliary verb “do” and the subject “you.” But we take a third step: We change the main verb “have” to “got.” So, you get questions like, “Got a pen?,” Got the time?” and the ones you heard earlier: “Got a minute?” “Got Milk?” Drop Be OK, let’s now move to the verb “be.” Earlier, I told you that sometimes “be” in yes/no questions acts as the main verb, not an auxiliary. In questions where the main verb is “be” and it is present tense, we can often drop the “be” verb. In this next exchange, the main verb “be” has been dropped from the question: My presentation is tomorrow. You nervous? No, I feel great! Again, the main verb “be” was dropped. The standard question would be, “Are you nervous?” Drop Be & Subject And, finally, we will look at the shortest possible form: one-word yes/no questions. We usually make them from a specific three-word structure: Are + you + adjective Two examples are the questions “Are you ready?” and “Are you nervous?” To shorten questions like these, we drop “be” and the subject “you.” Here’s the last exchange again, this time with both “be” and the subject “you” dropped:   My presentation is tomorrow. Nervous? No, I feel great!   Final thoughts By now, you might be wondering: What if the yes/no question begins with another auxiliary verb, like “will” or “would,” or a modal auxiliary, like “should” or “might”? These verbs express tenses or meanings that are lost when they are removed. So avoid shortening such questions. Well, it looks like I needed more than a minute of your time. Got another minute? If so, try the practice on our website: learningenglish.voanews.com! I’m Alice Bryant.   Alice Bryant wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Practice Now, you try it!  Give the full standard question form for these shortened yes/no questions: Need more time? Going to class now? Got any ideas? You been there before? Hungry? Want to come with us? Next, shorten these standard yes/no questions by dropping the auxiliary or the verb “be.” For some, you can also drop the subject. Have you ever been to D.C.? Are you coming with us? Does she speak Spanish? Did you see the movie? Are you finished? Has the class ended yet? _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story informal – adj. not suited for serious or official speech and writing column – n. an article that appears regularly and that is written by a specific writer or deals with a specific subject promote – v. to make people aware of something, such as a new product, through advertising guess – v. to give an answer about something when you do not know much or anything about it standard – adj. accepted and used by most of the educated speakers and writers of a language tense – n. a form of a verb that is used to show when an action happened conversation – n. an informal talk involving two people or a small group of people cable – n. the wiring system that provides internet access, phone services and television channels   specific – adj. special or particular modal – n. a verb that is usually used with another verb to express possibility, necessity, and permission

source https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/short-form-yes-no-questions/4898081.html

English Vocab Builder #13 - Weather

Learn English with EnglishClass101.com! Our English vocabulary lists are listener favorites, and now we’ve made it even better! In each lesson, you’ll hear the English words and phrases from the English vocabulary lists. Join us for English Vocab Builder! In this lesson, you’ll learn words and phrases about the Weather. Click [...]

source https://www.englishclass101.com/lesson/english-vocab-builder-13-weather/

Evolution and anxiety

Has anxiety been good for humans?

source http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0782sq2