07 February 2012
26 December 2011
Here's an article from thisismoney.co.uk
Britons spent £2.4bn on unwanted Christmas presents this year
By This Is Money ReporterLast 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.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
07 December 2011
02 December 2011
26 October 2011
08 October 2011
15 September 2011
04 September 2011
14 May 2011
30 April 2011
Palindrome sentences
Read them backwards:
Do geese see God?
Do geese see God?Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?/
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
Murder for a jar of red rum
Too bad - I hid a boot.
12 April 2011
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
Present Simple vs Present Continuous, by Anastasia_p
Find this and other present simple exercises at English Exercises.org
08 April 2011
03 April 2011
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!
01 April 2011
Cat-lift! - Funny Videos at Videobash
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)
31 March 2011
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
The Common European Framework? We don't need bureaucrats to tell us what to teach! Oxford University Press
29 March 2011
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)
"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)
25 March 2011
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
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
18 March 2011
18 February 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)