The environment. Vocabulary

Droughts, floods, hurricanes, typhoons... While these natural disasters have always happened in the world, there is no doubt that they are becoming more and more frequent these days. The world is warming up and this is having an effect in the climate. Can this be blamed just on nature or is it man-made? There is a great deal of controversy among scientists about this issue, but it's not for me to go into it today. Instead, what I would like to look at in depth is the vocabulary about climate change and the environment.

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In order to learn the vocabulary related to the environment, let's have a look at this presentation:


Let's see some words and expressions that need further explanation:

• Biodiversity is the variety of plants and animals that can be found in a geographical region. This variety needs to be preserved, as these organisms depend on one another to survive.
• Our development will be sustainable if we can cover our present needs without putting at risk the ability of future generations to do the same. That is, we shouldn't use up all the resources today because we are not leaving enough resources for our children and grand-children.
• If we don't want to cause any harm to nature, we should be carbon neutral, that is, we shouldn't throw carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or, in any case, try to compensate it by recycing, planting trees or giving money so that other people can do that for ourselves. In that way, we would be offsetting our carbon footprint.

Reduce your carbon footprint
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Though it's true that industries are greatly responsible for polluting the environment, we are not too small or unimportant to fight pollution. There's a saying in English: "Every little helps". Have you ever thought about what you can do to help the environment? In this video there are a few ideas. After watching it, you can do the comprehension questions below.

Finally, here are some exercises:
Choose the correct option.
Match the words and the definitions.
Reading comprehension.
"Save tropical rainforests". Choose the right option to fill in the gaps.
A complete exercise about global warming.

Music vocabulary

Today we are going to have a look at words related to music, not from the point of view of the musician but from that of the listener. In the next presentation, we'll revise the musical instruments, types of music, musicians and equipment needed to listen to music, as well as adjectives related to sounds and a few idioms that will be very useful for the learner of English.

Let's look deeper into the adjectives for sounds, as I think they need further explanation:
Sounds can be loud (strongly audible) or soft (quiet and pleasant to listen to). Synonyms for loud are: earsplitting (extremely loud), deafening (so loud that you can hear nothing else because it makes you deaf!), piercing (loud and unpleasant) or shrill (high and unpleasant).

Ear-splitting sound
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Synonyms for soft are: quiet (making very little or no noise), muffled (not easy to hear because it is blocked), inaudible (difficult to hear).
According to the pitch, a sound can be high-pitched (like the cry of a baby) or low-pitched (like a tigers growl)
Sounds can also be lively or energetic if they fill you with energy, or soothing, calm and relaxing if they make you less nervous.
Finally, they can be melodious or tuneful if they are pleasant to listen to, or tuneless, if they are unpleasant, catchy if they are pleasing and easily remembered or bland if they are uninteresting.
Let's see some examples:

• He lowered his voice so much that it was almost inaudible.
• We coud hear muffled voices from the next room.
• The noise of the machine was deafening.
• I love listening to soothing music when I come back home from work.
• "Call me maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen is a catchy song.

In the following presentation there are several questions. See how many you can answer correctly. 

Did you pass that test?

Finally, let's listen to this song about music by Abba.

Gerund or infinitive?

When a verb is complemented by another verb, the second one can be:

•  a gerund (as we saw in a previous post): I enjoy listening to classical music.
•  a to-infinitive: He wants to stay, but I want him to go.
•  a bare infinitive (that is, without to): Let me go. 

In order to know which verbs are followed by a gerund or an infinitive (with or without to) you have to learn the lists of verbs by heart. However, there is something that can be of help: most verbs are followed by the to-infinitive, so if you learn the verbs followed by the gerund and those followed by the infinitive without to (which are just a few), you can be pretty sure that the rest of the verbs will be followed by a to-infinitive.

Gerund or infinitive? That is the question!

To make matters more complicated, there is a small group of verbs that can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive. Some of them show a change of meaning when taking one or the other, while others don't change their meanings at all. Let's see them:

Same meaning: attempt, can't bear, begin, continue, intend, propose, start. Examples: We start working at 8 in the morning. We start to work at 8 in the morning.

Love, hate and prefer are followed by the to-infinitive or the gerund without much difference in meaning. However, the infinitive is preferably used when we refer to one particular occasion. When would precedes these verbs, the to-infinitive is always used: I'd love to go, but unfortunately I can't.

Love and hate
Image by Alex Hillman

Same meaning but different use:

• Allow, advise, forbid and permit are followed by a gerund when there is no personal object. Otherwise, they are followed by a to-infinitive: I advised seeing a doctor. I advised him to see a doctor.

Different meaning:

• With remember and forget, the gerund refers to things that happened earlier, whereas the infinitive refers to what must be done: I remember posting the letter (that is, "I can remember that I have posted the letter") Please, remember to post the letter (that is, "you have to post the letter") 
• Stop + gerund means "to stop the activity you are doing" or "to break a habit": She stopped eating chocolate last year. Stop + to-infinitive  means "to make a pause in order to do something else": She stopped to eat some chocolate. (meaning that she stopped what she was doing in order to do something else).
• Regret + gerund means "to be sorry for what has happened": I regret telling her my secret. Regret + to-infinitive means "to be sorry for what is going to be said": I regret to tell you that we have offered the job to somebody else.
• Like + gerund means "to enjoy". I like reading adventure books. Like + to-infinitive means "to have a preference for" I like to know the facts before forming an opinion, or even "want" I didn't like to say no. Please, note that the infinitive must be used after would like: I'd like to tell you that...
• Try + gerund means "to make an experiment": I tried using the new method, but it didn't work. Try + to-infinitive means "to make an effort": He tried to pass his university entry exam.
• Go on + gerund means "to continue with the same action": Mary went on reading the letter. Go on + to-infinitive means "to start something new". He first talked about the problem, then went on to discuss the solution".
• See, watch and hear followed by the gerund imply that we observe part of the action, but when they are followed by the bare infinitive they suggest that the action is observed completely, from beginning to end: When I looked out of the window I saw him crossing the street. I saw him get out of the car, cross the street and go into the supermarket. Notice that in the second example we mean that the actions that are seen are complete.

I saw the Simpsons crossing the street.
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Now you can try to do this exercise:


Fancy another exercise? Try this one.

Still not tired? You can practise with this gap-fill exercise. Yet more?

The Christmas Tree

In a previous post, I wrote about Santa Claus being a symbol of Christmas all over the world. Another such symbol is the Christmas tree, but it's not something that has existed for a long time. In fact, it is quite recent, compared to the two thousand years or so of Christianity.
A Christmas tree is usually a fir, a spruce or, in general, an evergreen tree  with a characteristic conical shape, which is decorated with lights, baubles and other objects, and which can be kept inside or outside the home.

The Disney Christmas Tree
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The origin of the Christmas tree can be found in pre-Christian central Europe, when people used to take branches of evergreen plants, including mistletoe and holly inside their homes around the winter solstice to keep bad spirits away. As with many other customs, the arrival of Christianity meant that many of these pagan customs merged and mingled with those of the new religion.

Mistletoe berries	Holly

During the Middle Ages, people used to enact a religious play on Christmas Eve. In this play, a fir with apples and wafers on its branches symbolised the paradise tree from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Even after these plays ceased to be enacted, people continued associating the paradise tree and Christmas.

It was in 18th century Protestant Germany where Christmas trees became popular, and from there they spread to other countries in Europe, taken by the nobility. One of the first descriptions of a Christmas tree in literature is in Goethe's "Werther" (1774). It was Queen Victoria, in the 19th century, who introduced the Christmas tree in Britain, as her mother and husband were both German and brought the tradition with them into the country.

Queen Victoria's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle
Image adapted for Godey's lady's Book
in Wikipedia

In America, German immigrants had brought the tradition of the Christmas tree, but it didn't really catch up until the image of Queen Victoria's tree was published in a popular magazine of the 1850s called Godey's Lady's Book. (See picture above). By the 1860s the Christmas trees could be found in thousands of homes and cities in America.

Some Catholic people didn't like this tradition, as it was seen as a pagan custom, and they preferred to set up a Nativity scene, but after Pope Paul VI decided to put up a Christmas Tree in the Vatican, even the most reluctant Catholics gave up and now they have both in their homes.

Christmas tree and Nativity scene at the Vatican
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Today, thanks to globalization, Christmas trees can be seen all over the world, and even people who are not Christian like to put one up in their homes. However, in some cities in America, they are trying to change its name to "Holiday tree", so as to deprive it of its religious connotations.

Now we can learn a few words related to the Christmas tree in the following presentation:

In this video you can hear a short history of the Christmas tree and then do the comprehension exercises.

 Fancy doing some quizzes? Revise the vocabulary of Christmas in this game, or try this Christmas Trivia.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas!

Glitterfy.com - Christmas Glitter Graphics

Family words and idioms

A family is a group of people related to each other by blood or marriage. There are several types of family:

• The nuclear family consists of only the parents and their children.
• The extended family is formed by parents, children, uncles and aunts, grandparents, etc.
• In a one-parent or single-parent family there is only one parent living with the chidren, either because they are divorced or because they have decided to raise their children single-handedly.

Nuclear family	Extended family	single-parent family

Let's see the most common family words in English in the following presentation:

Other words related to the family:

• A relative is someone who belongs to your family. Relatives can either be close or distant: She inherited the money from a distant relative she had never met. 
• Relation is another way to say "relative", especially in spoken English. A blood relation is someone who is related to you by birth, not by marriage. 
• Your next of kin is your closest relative: My brother is listed as my next of kin on all my emergency forms.
• Kinsman is an old-fashioned word to say "relative", but also, by extension, a person of the same nationality or ethnic group: She may marry her late husband's brother or some other kinsman of his.
• Ancestors or forefathers (notice that you cannot say foreparents) are the people from whom you are descended.
• Descendants are the relatives of a person or group of people who are born many years after them: He claims to be a direct descendant of Napoleon.
• Folks (usually plural) is an informal word meaning your family, especially your parents: I'll go home this Christmas to see my folks.

There are many idioms related to the family. Let's see a few of them in the following presentation:

You can see more family idioms in the BBC World Service page.
Exercises:

• Play hangman with the descriptions of members of the family.
• Family tree exercise.
• Family idioms exercise.

That's all folks!
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Four years old!

It's now four years since I started writing this blog and, to celebrate the anniversary, I always publish a presentation with the "cartoons of the week" of the last year. Most of these cartoons have been chosen because they are witty puns (I love puns!), but others are here to commemorate important events like the terrible typhoon that hit the Phillipines a couple of weeks ago.
The blogs and webpages that I usually visit for inspiration with the cartoons are the following:

• Wronghands, by John Atkinson
• So much pun
• Hi, I'm Liz, by Liz Climo
• Cartoon movement

I hope you like them too!


Finally, I would like to thank all the readers who have left comments on the entries and in general all the people who visit this blog. This is for you!

Thank you cake from Truly Amazing Cakes

Idiomatic pairs of adjectives

There are many idioms formed by two words joined by the conjunction and. You can have:

• adjective and adjective: high and dry
• noun and noun: body and soul
• verb and verb: wait and see
• adverb and adverb: here and there
• preposition and preposition (usually identical pairs): on and on.
• two words of different categories joined by "and": by and large (preposition and adjective), home and dry (noun and adjective).

Today, we are going to deal with "adjective and adjective" idioms. They are usually two adjectives with similar meanings that reinforce the idea given by each of them. As in other idioms, the order of the elements cannot be changed: You can say "alive and kicking", but "kicking and alive" is not possible.

Let's see some of them:

• Alive and kicking (also alive and well): Well and healthy, active. It is disappointing to see that racism is still alive and kicking.
• Safe and sound: unharmed and healthy after going through a difficult situation: We drove along a narrow, winding road, but we arrived home safe and sound. 
• Cut and dried: decided and determined beforehand, lacking freshness and spontaneity, decided in a way that cannot be changed: When it comes to the music industry, there is no cut and dried formula for success.

Cut and dried
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• Hale and hearty: healthy and strong: He didn't look as hale and hearty as his wife, but for a man in his late fifties, he looked good.
• Bright and breezy: cheerful and full of energy: Maggy is always bright and breezy in the mornings. 
• Fair and square: honestly and according to the rules: The Socialist Party won the election fair and square. In a direct way that is easy to understand: I told him fair and square to go away.
• spick and span: neat and clean: Mary's house is always spick and span. She's so houseproud!

Spik'n'span
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• Free and easy: relaxed: Life is never going to be as free and easy as it used to be when we were young.
• Sick and tired: annoyed or fed up with someone or something to the point of losing one's temper: I'm sick and tired of wasting my time at long, poinless meetings.
• Meek and mild: quiet, gentle, and always ready to do what other people want them to do, without expressing their own opinions. "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild" is a christian hymn. 
• Short and sweet: dealt with very quickly, to the point: We haven't got much time, so I'll keep it short and sweet.
• First and foremost: most important. First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for coming. (Sometimes we leave the most important thing till the end, in which case, we use "last but not least")
• Black and white: having no colours except black, white and shades of grey: A black and white film / photograph / television. The expression "in black ad white" means "in writing" or "in print": I never thought they'd put it in black and white on the front page.
• High and dry: stranded, in a difficult situation, without help or money: When we were about to catch the bus, the driver set off and left us high and dry.

Now you can check what you have learned by doing this exercise:

Many of these idioms can be heard in songs. Here are a few:

Alive and kicking by Simple Minds

Sick and tired by Anastacia

High and dry by The Rolling Stones or Radiohead, and also in the song "Water of love", by Dire Straights.

Safe and sound by Capital Cities or by Taylor Swift:

Do you know any other song in which any of these idioms can be heard? 

Edit: an anonymous reader suggested "That's me", by Abba, in which you can hear the idiom mild and meek.