never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

New York City isn't a city that can easily be ignored even by the most demanding visitor. Located on the east coast of the United States with a population of over ten million people, it is the destination of thousands of visitors who come every year to experience the excitement of one of the busiest cities in the world.
The streets of New York are incredibly noisy, with the sounds of car horns beeping, people shouting and police car sirens wailing. Amazingly tall skyscrapers rise up everywhere.
The most exciting thing about New York is how much there is to see and do there. For sightseers there is the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park, while lovers of culture can visit the theatres of Broadway or some of the city's hundreds of art galleries. Alternatively, if you are a sports fan you can even catch a game of baseball at Yankee Stadium. The night life in New York is equally brilliant, with a wide variety of restaurants, bars and nightclubs to choose from.
New York is a lively and exciting city to visit with something for everyone, and is recommended to anyone seeking fun, variety and adventure. 

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

With well over 600,000 words, English has a larger vocabulary than any other language – but many of these words have been 'borrowed' from other languages.
English has German and French roots, so a lot of its vocabulary is similar to words in these language. Many words have been formed from Latin and ancient Greek, especially for new inventions, such as television and helicopter.
Words from hundreds of other languages have been taken into English, too, often with slight changes in their spelling and pronunciation. Of course, other languages sometimes borrow English words in return.
The following is just a small selection of 'English' words and the languages they came from:
 - tea (Chinese)                  - coffee (Turkish, from Arabic)
- pizza (Italian)                   - potato (native American)
- robot (Czech)                  - rodeo (Spanish)
- caravan (Persian)            - commando (Afrikaans)
- kayak (Eskimo)                - boomerang (Aus. Aborigine).

Rucci (Learning_English) все записи автора

The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms like fried bacon.
Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions.
What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France.
"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

"Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel.

More

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One of these amazing, but useless facts is false. Do you know which one?

Answer

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

As for me... it's interesting... 
 Rule one
Life is not fair; get used to it.

 Rule two
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule three
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.

Rule four
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

Rule five
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

Rule six
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule seven
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rainforest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try “delousing” the closet in your own room.

Rule eight
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule nine
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Клаудия-не-Шифер (Learning_English) все записи автора

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The wearing of a wedding ring is one of the oldest and most universal customs of mankind. The tradition goes back so far that no one can really tell how it first began.
The fact that the ring is a circle may be one reason why it began to be used. The circle is a symbol of completeness. In connection with marriage, it represents the rounding out of the life of a person. We can see how a man without a wife, or a woman without a husband, could have been considered incomplete people. When they are married they make a complete unit, which the circle of the ring symbolizes.
Some people believe the wedding ring really started as a bracelet that was placed on woman who were captured in primitive times. Gradually the circular bracelet on the arm or leg, which indicated that she was the property of one man in the tribe, was changed to a ring on the finger.
We know also that primitive man believed in magic. He used to weave a cord and tie it around the waist of the woman he wanted. He believed that with this ceremony her spirit entered his body and she was his forever. The wedding ring may have started this way.
 Why is the ring worn on the fourth finger? The ancient Greeks believed that a certain vein passed from this finger directly to the heart. But probably the real reason is that we use this finger least of all the fingers, so it’s more convenient to wear an ornament on it!

Vocabulary

Japanese-Girl (Learning_English) все записи автора

The city has also rediscovered its river. The area between the South Bank Arts Centre, which includes the National Theatre, and Tower Bridge, has been brought back to life and the city has found a new heart along the forgotten riverside. As you walk eastwards along the river from Westminster, you will discover that old ware-houses have been transformed into galleries, shops and clubs.
Across the river from London Bridge is ‘’The City of London’’, the financial district of the capital. The City has its own historic delights such as the 15th century Guildhall and churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The best way to explore the City is on foot. For instance, you can "walk through the ages", starting from Fournier Street and ending at the modern Lloyd's building on Lime Street. Remember, however, that in London you are never far away from the past; the old-fashioned red telephone boxes are becoming popular again and many London pubs - where a visitor might ask for a pint of bitter - have been restored to their original Victorian beauty.
But the capital is not a historical theme park. It is a lively and exciting metropolis which is well-known for its popular culture, music, clubs, street fashion, and visual arts. Today, many of its wide variety of restaurants claim to be as good as in any other European capitals.
Much of London's energy and originality is now centred in Soho, the city's liveliest and most bohemian area, squeezed in between the department stores of Oxford Street and the bookshops of Charing Cross Road. Soho, once considered one of the dirtiest and most dangerous parts of London, was cleaned up in the early 1980's. Today, with its gurgling cappuccino machines and pavement cafes, it has become a meeting place for all kinds of people from all over the world, whatever the hour of day or night.
So, even if you are new to the city, you don't have to try hard in order to experience the real London. Despite its heavy traffic and shaking underground railway, it is still one of the world's greatest and most cosmopolitan cities.

CupOfTea (Learning_English) все записи автора

Some songs have clear lyrics, some songs have completely unintelligible lyrics, but in some songs it is also easy to hear one thing when they actually sing something else. These misheard lyrics are called "mondegreens", after the term was coined in 1954. Sylvia Wright wrote an article about an old Scottish ballad she had misheard as a child.

The lyrics sounded like:

They had slain the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

It sounded like a song about a Lord and Lady who were killed, but in reality, the words are actually:

They had slain the Earl of Murray,
And laid him on the green.

next mondegreens