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Britons spent £2.4bn on unwanted Christmas presents this year

By This Is Money Reporter

Last updated at 8:18 AM on 26th December 2011

Over the festive season, £2.4billion is spent on unwanted Christmas presents, a new survey suggests. One in five Britons said mothers were the worst culprits for giving inappropriate gifts, followed by mothers-in-law (18 per cent) and aunts (16 per cent).

A survey of 2,000 people for online classifieds website Gumtree.com found that every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas, each worth £48.41 on average. A third of unwanted gifts end up gathering dust in the loft or the back of a cupboard, 15 per cent are given away to someone else, and 2 per cent are binned. But half of Britons are too polite to express their true feelings about undesired presents and will thank the giver enthusiastically, according to the survey.

Just 10 per cent of people will admit they do not want the gift and ask for a receipt, and only 4 per cent will be completely honest about what they think of the offering. Hamish Stone, from Gumtree.com, said: ‘From our research it’s clear that despite many people’s best efforts, homes across the UK are going to be cluttered with lots of unwanted Christmas presents this year. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2078516/Britons-spent-2-4bn-unwanted-Christmas-presents-year.html#ixzz1hfr3OtJp

Some language remarks: Please note the beautiful example of the Future Perfect Passive "Every adult will have been given two presents ..." Actually this is the first time I have come across such a structure. Look for two more passive forms in the text.
culprit: a person who has committed a crime
loft: a space under the roof used for storing things
clottered with: crowded with
binned: something that ends up in the rubbish bin

Have You ever been given a present that you didn't like? What did you do with it?

Britons spent £2.4bn on unwanted Christmas presents this year

By This Is Money Reporter

Last updated at 8:18 AM on 26th December 2011

Over the festive season, £2.4billion is spent on unwanted Christmas presents, a new survey suggests.

One in five Britons said mothers were the worst culprits for giving inappropriate gifts, followed by mothers-in-law (18 per cent) and aunts (16 per cent).

Unwanted: Every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas

A survey of 2,000 people for online classifieds website Gumtree.com found that every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas, each worth £48.41 on average.

A third of unwanted gifts end up gathering dust in the loft or the back of a cupboard, 15 per cent are given away to someone else, and 2 per cent are binned.

But half of Britons are too polite to express their true feelings about undesired presents and will thank the giver enthusiastically, according to the survey.

Just 10 per cent of people will admit they do not want the gift and ask for a receipt, and only 4 per cent will be completely honest about what they think of the offering.

Hamish Stone, from Gumtree.com, said: ‘From our research it’s clear that despite many people’s best efforts, homes across the UK are going to be cluttered with lots of unwanted Christmas presents this year.


Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2078516/Britons-spent-2-4bn-unwanted-Christmas-presents-year.html#ixzz1hfr3OtJp

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Well, this one is not fun

2-yr-old Houston girl Lia Vega calls grandma to save mom Larissa Taylor's life - What's On Shenzhen

2-yr-old Houston girl Lia Vega calls grandma to save mom Larissa Taylor's life - What's On Shenzhen

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In this article article you can watch a video of the royal wedding and read the text of the vows.

Palindrome sentences

Read them backwards:

Do geese see God?

Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?/
Was it a car or a cat I saw?

Murder for a jar of red rum

Too bad - I hid a boot.

Dear beginners

Do this online task and check your answers.
Present Simple vs Present Continuous, by Anastasia_p
Find this and other present simple exercises at English Exercises.org

Dissatisfied customer

Bad Service, Great Food! - The funniest videos clips are here

"Confirm only people you know"

Bread and butter pudding

Simple, fast and delicious! Even for beginner cooks.

Find the recipe here.
How clever I am! I would never have thought that I am able to make and post such a google document!

Cat-lift! - Funny Videos at Videobash

This video has absolutely nothing to do with English, but it's so extraordinary - I've never heard of such a device. And the website looks amusing as well!
Cat-lift! - Funny Videos at Videobash 

April Fools' Day

Listen to this recording and give short answers to the following questions:
1 How old is this holiday?
2 What did ancient nations celebrate on this day?
3 Which nation started to celebrate New Year on January 1st?
4 What happened to those people who didn't accept this change?
5 Which TV channel enjoys playing tricks on the viewers?
6 Which famous English landmark was declared to undergo significant changes?
7 What will happen - according to a TV channel - if you jump in the air at 9.47 this day?
8 What was the biggest success at Burger King's on this day in 1998?
Here are some fool quotes:
"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time." (Abraham Lincoln)
"A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes." (Bruce Willis)
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise knows himself to be a fool." (Shakespeare)

The Common European Framework? We don't need bureaucrats to tell us what to teach! | Oxford University Press

I find this article extremely interesting. I agreed with it before I even came across it. We cannot teach as we think we should because we are restricted by exam regulations coming from ignorant bodies somewhere "out".
The Common European Framework? We don't need bureaucrats to tell us what to teach! Oxford University Press

April Fool's Day

April 1st is approaching, here are some fool quotes:
"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time." (Abraham Lincoln)
"A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes." (Bruce Willis)
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise knows himself to be a fool." (Shakespeare)

The loudest cat in the world

Click on this link to watch and listen to Smokey purr.

Match the decibels with what they refer to. A) 20 B) 65 C) 70 D) 92

i) an average cat's voice
ii) a washing machine
iii) Smokey's purr
iiii) Smokey's purr from 6.5 feet's distance
True or false?
Smokey is unfriendly.
It purrs as loudly as a truck engine.
It doesn't annoy its owners.
The Guiness Book of Records had a category for the loudest cat.

Check this article for the correct answers. http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979157842

Geogreetings

Click here, it's fun. Wanna try?

Football Rivalry. Listening task from BBC 6 Minute English.
Click on this link.