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Sound Portraits
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The Tower Tipsheet
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Feb 15, 2003 05:17 PST
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THE TOWER TIPSHEET
February 15, 2003
#410
Published by:
The Tower of English
http://towerofenglish.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
-Today's Cool Website
-Today's Vocabulary Lesson
-Today's Idiom
-Today's Grammar Lesson
-Today's Joke
-Today's Tongue Twister
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TODAY'S COOL WEBSITE
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-SOUND PORTRAITS-
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http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/
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Level: Upper-Intermediate/Advanced
This site is a great place to practice your listening. You'll find lots
of very interesting radio docmentaries here. You'll learn about American
culture and meet some very interesting people.
To listen to a program, just click on the title or picture. (You'll need
the RealOne Player.) If you click on IN-PRINT at the top of the page,
you'll find lots of interesting newspaper and magazine articles that are
related to the radio shows.
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TODAY'S VOCABULARY LESSON
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-DYING-
DYING is what happens when someone is near death:
-"My grandmother is DYING from a serious disease."
But DYING can also be used in a much different way. It can mean that you
are very eager to do something.
-"I'm DYING to see that new movie. I heard that it's really great!"
You could also say, "I CAN'T WAIT to see that new movie."
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TODAY'S IDIOM
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-CHEW THE FAT-
This idiom doesn't have anything to do with eating. But it does have to
do with moving your mouth! If you CHEW THE FAT, you have a casual chat
with someone.
"I CHEWED THE FAT with my old friend for many hours yesterday."
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TODAY'S GRAMMAR LESSON
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-AUXILIARY VERBS-
Auxiliary verbs (sometimes called "helping verbs") are words that are
used with the main verb to make verb phrases. There are 23 auxiliary
verbs. They are divided into these 5 groups:
Group 1: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been
Group 2: has, have, had
Group 3: do, does, did
Group 4: shall, will, should, would
Group 5: may, might, must, can, could
Here are some examples of auxiliary verbs in sentences:
-He IS PLAYING tennis.
(IS is the auxiliary verb. PLAYING is the main verb.)
-They MIGHT BE DRIVING to New York.
(MIGHT and BE are auxiliary verbs. DRIVING is the main verb.)
-I WILL TURN OFF the TV soon.
(WILL is the auxiliary verb. TURN OFF is the main verb.)
HINT: The last verb in a verb phrase is always the main verb.
Sometimes an auxiliary verb can be used as a main verb. Here are some
examples:
-She IS a student.
-I DID the assignment.
Find a short reading assignment. Underline all the auxiliary verbs.
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TODAY'S JOKE
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-A SMART DOG-
A man went to visit a friend and was amazed to find him playing chess
with his dog. He watched the game in astonishment for a while. "I can
hardly believe my eyes!" he exclaimed. "That's the smartest dog I've
ever seen."
"No, he's not so smart," the friend replied. "I've beaten him three
games out of five."
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TODAY'S TONGUE TWISTER
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Practice your pronunciation with this tongue twister:
A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
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ESL JOB HOTLINE
Looking for an ESL job? Sign up for the ESL Job Hotline
from ESL Classifieds (http://eslclassifieds.com) and get
the latest job listings sent directly to your email inbox!
To subscribe, just send a blank email to:
esljobhotlin-@topica.com
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The Tower Tipsheet is a free email newsletter from The Tower of English.
It is published on the 1st and 15th of each month.
If you enjoy getting the Tower Tipsheet, please tell your friends about
it, or send this email to them! Also, feel free to pass the word to your
favorite mailing list or newsgroup.
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To sign up for the Tower Tipsheet, just send
a blank email to:
towertipshee-@topica.com
Read past issues at the Tipsheet Archive:
http://www.topica.com/lists/towertipsheet/read
***********************************************
For information or to recommend a site, please contact:
Douglas DeLong
ddel-@oka.urban.ne.jp
This material may not be copied in any form without written
permission of the author.
Copyright Tower of English 1999-2003.
All Rights Reserved
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