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Smile - its newsletter time! 170
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John Finley
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Jul 27, 2008 12:37 PDT
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John Finley's Learn English newsletter
Monday 28 July 2008 © 2008 Issue No. 170
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Contents:
1. Welcome
2. Test
3. Idiom
4. Useful Link
5. Jokes
6. Test Answers
7. Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
8. That's all folks
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1. Welcome
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Hi
Last time I mentioned that some of my tomatoes were
starting to turn red. Well, last week we started eating
the first cherry tomatoes and yesterday started eating
the first big tomatoes.
Ben is enjoying going outside and picking tomatoes when
he wants. We have 15 plants in total (5 or 6 varieties)
and hope that in the next few weeks we'll be flooded with
tomatoes.
I helped pollinate the first female courgette flower on
Sunday morning and with luck we'll have our first courgette
next week.
Homegrown food is really tasty and interesting.
I want to be a gardener!
Now, on with the show
;-)
john
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2. Test
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Can you count?
I'm sure you can, but I'd just like to check.
Please read the following sentence and count how
many times the letter F appears in the sentence.
# - #
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT
OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY
COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE
OF YEARS
# - #
When you've counted the Fs go to the end of the
newsletter to check your answer.
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3. Idiom
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#-# to be not your cup of tea #-#
If something isn't your cup of tea then you don't
like it. It's often used with 'really' which acts as
a softener.
- It's not my cup of tea = I don't like it
- It's not really my cup of tea = I don't like it very much
"David, would you like to go ice-skating tomorrow
evening with me?" asked Mary.
"To be honest, Mary, ice-skating's not really my cup
of tea. Would you like to go to the cinema instead?"
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4. Useful Link
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One of the subpages on my website Portal4Austria has links
for English learners. These include great links to sections
on the BBC Learning English website, to ESL Cafe Forums, and more.
See what you think at:
<A HREF="http://www.portal4austria.com/englischlernen.htm">
http://www.portal4austria.com/englischlernen.htm
</A>
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5. Jokes
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Here's a true quote to start the week with:
- - -
Lady Astor to Winston Churchill:
"Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink."
Winston Churchill to Lady Astor:
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
(Lady Astor was a Member of Parliament early in
the 1900s. She was the first female MP in the UK.)
- - -
That's a very good example of the 2nd conditional:
( if + past simple, + would = hypothetical or unreal)
See - grammar can be funny!
#-#-# http://www.angelfire.com/on/topfen #-#-#
A strong young man at the construction site was
bragging (if you say to others how good you are at
something, then you're bragging) that he was the
strongest. He especially made fun of one of the older men.
After several minutes, the older worker had had
enough. "Why don't you put your money where
your mouth is," he said. "I will bet you a week's
wages that I can move something in a wheelbarrow
over to the other side of the building site that you
won't be able to wheel back."
The young man laughed and said, "You're on, old
man! I'm much stronger than you. Let's see what
you can wheel over there that I can't wheel back."
The old man reached out and grabbed the wheel-
barrow by the handles. Then, nodding to the
young man, he said, "All right, get in."
#-#-# http://www.angelfire.com/on/topfen #-#-#
A man phoned a cake shop and asked, "Could I
order a birthday cake for my wife please?"
"Certainly, sir" replied the baker. "Would you
like me to write a message on the cake?"
The man thought for a couple of seconds and then
said, "Could you write 'You are not getting older.
You are just getting better' on the cake, please?"
The baker asked the man, "How would you like me
to arrange the message on the cake, sir?"
The man replied, "Just put 'You are not getting older'
at the top, and 'You are just getting better' at the
bottom."
The next day the baker delivered the cake directly
to the woman at her birthday party. She opened
the box and was not happy to read the message,
"You are not getting older at the top.
You are just getting better at the bottom."
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6. Test answers
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Okay, how many did Fs you count?
+
Three?
+
If you did, that's how many I counted when
I did this exercise.
+
Sadly, I was wrong. There are more than three
Fs in the sentence. Read the sentence again
and see if you can see them all.
+
Hopefully your answer is six. Yes, there are a
total of six Fs in the sentence. If you don't
believe it, go back and look at the sentence
very carefully.
If you found six the first time, well done!
The reason is that the mind doesn't recognise
short words like "of" as being very important
and so doesn't notice them too much. (Well,
that's what someone told me!)
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7. Subscribe/Unsubscribe details
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To subscribe (for example, if a friend wants to get
the newsletter, or if you would like to get it from
a different email address), send a blank email to:
<a href ="mailto: learnenglis-@topica.com">
learnenglis-@topica.com
</a>
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to:
<a href ="mailto: learnenglish-@topica.com">
learnenglish-@topica.com
</a>
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8. That's all folks!
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That's all for a couple of weeks.
Don't forget, if you enjoy reading the newsletter
and find it useful, please tell others about it.
;-)
john
<a href="mailto:topfe-@yahoo.com">
topfe-@yahoo.com
</a>
You can read all previous issues of the newsletter at:
<A HREF="http://www.topica.com/lists/learnenglish/read">
http://www.topica.com/lists/learnenglish/read
</A>
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