Dec 11, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: cut your teeth I usually try and avoid central London at this time of year. Streets like Tottenham Court Road are jam-packed at the best of times, but in the run-up to Christmas, they start to resemble the ninth circle of hell! Desperate dead-eyed shoppers elbow their way past each other, frantically searching for bargains; the pavements are […]
Dec 6, 2017 Chunks, Intermediate word of the day Intermediate word of the day: agenda Today’s word is agenda. The main meaning of agenda is a list of all the things that need to be discussed and considered at a meeting – or all the things that need to be done or considered in general. Anyone who works in an office or works for a company that holds regular meetings […]
Dec 3, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: all the trimmings If there’s one thing I’ve learned over twenty years of teaching foreign students here in the UK it’s that English food is misunderstood and much-maligned. The usual comments I’ve heard revolve around the idea that there’s no such thing as English food; it simply doesn’t exist! Students point to the fact that so few restaurants […]
Nov 29, 2017 Chunks, Intermediate word of the day Intermediate word of the day: restore When you restore something, you make it good again or make it exist again after a time when it was bad, damaged or not in use. So you can restore an old building or an old machine. You can restore public confidence, or restore calm or peace or restore order. Doctors might also restore someone’s […]
Nov 26, 2017 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: smash it Every now and then, a phrase comes along that makes you feel really old. I’m not talking about things like the use of the adjective bare, which you hear teenagers and young adults using all the time on the streets of London. In case you’re wondering, by the way, in sentences like I was bare […]