Sunday, September 28, 2008

Wild and Wacky Squirrels

When my husband first came to America from the Soviet Union, I was living in Manhattan. On his first morning there, he decided to go for a walk in Central Park. He got lost, and his pleas for help in very limited English were met by people hightailing it away from the sounds of his distress. Finally, he happened upon a Ukrainian American, who recognized his accent and set him on the right path.

When he arrived at the place where I worked, he was very excited not only because he had managed to get back, but also because he had seen so many squirrels along the way. I was a bit confounded by his excitement over the squirrels until he explained that there weren't many squirrels left in his country because people had hunted and eaten most of them. Though squirrels feature prominently in many Russian children's books, it seems that children rarely have the opportunity to see them in person.

Well, this weekend I was nearly driven to hunting them myself. Our neighborhood squirrels seem to have gone crazy. In the front of the house, they have been hiding in our bushes eating berries. Next door they have eaten my neighbors' only pumpkin and all the figs on their fig tree. All of that is normal, but on Saturday one squirrel decided he wanted to come into my house. First, he jumped on my back screen door. I heard him and thought it was my cat, so I nearly let him in! Luckily, I took a good look and realized that it wasn't Sassy. Next, he climbed up on the dining room window ledge, where the cats usually sit, but as the screen had fallen out a little while earlier, he couldn't gnaw at it, and the window was tightly shut. When I banged on the window to chase him from there, he jumped across the back stoop and up to the screen of my kitchen window, but lost his grip because his front paws ended up on the outer glass pane. Finally, he ran away. I sent Mr. Paws out to chase him, but my spoiled cat wasn't too happy with me because of the nasty weather.

What caused the squirrel's mad behavior? I can't be sure, but I was making chocolate chip cookies at the time.

Vocabulary
hightail (it) (verb, idiom --"it" does not refer to anything)-- get away as fast as you can (refers to what some animals, such as rabbits, do when they run away)
distress (noun)-- anxiety, suffering (distressing -- adjective, distress - verb)
to be confounded by (verb+past participle) -- to be confused or puzzled by
prominently (adverb)-- widely known (prominent-- adjective)
take a good look (idiom)-- to view carefully
stoop (noun)-- steps in front or back of your house, mostly used in New York (origin: Dutch)
(stoop -- verb meaning to bend over)

1. The Statue of Liberty stands _____________ in New York Harbor.
2. After the car accident, Karl was in ______________.
3. When Sue came home and saw that her house had been broken into, she __________________________ around to see if anything had been stolen.
4. As I sat on the front _________, the squirrels came up to me looking for food.
5. When the cat came, the squirrels, ______________________ away from me.
6. The cat ___________________ the behavior of the squirrels because he just wanted to play.

Grammar Point:

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sunday Evening

Sunday evening is my favorite time of the weekend. After a busy Saturday, church on Sunday morning, an afternoon of cooking and baking, our Sunday afternoon movie on DVD (Today's film was The Last of the Mohicans), and a fine Sunday dinner, I look forward to Sunday evening, when I can relax, read, watch Masterpiece Theater, and blog.

This evening, instead of Masterpiece Theatre, I am watching the annual Emmy Awards, which honors the best accomplishments in television. I am terribly disappointed that the inimitable Michael Emerson, an actor on the program Lost, did not win the Best Supporting Actor Award. He plays the most sinister villain since Peter Lorre in M and is unequaled in his ability to give his role as Ben Linus depth, pathos, and enough ambiguity to make viewers wonder if he really is the evil man he seems to be. Award or not, he will doubtlessly be nominated again, and even if he is not, he will long be remembered for his performance on Lost.

I think watching television on Sunday evening is a good diversion because I can escape reality by getting involved in the mysteries or literary dramas, but on the Emmy Awards tonight everyone seems to want to bring us back to the political realities of an election year. If I wanted that, I'd watch the news.

Vocabulary
Sunday dinner (noun) -- Traditionally, a special weekly family meal with meat on Sunday afternoon or early evening
inimitable (adjective) -- impossible to emulate (from the word imitate)
sinister (adjective) -- threatening evil
pathos (noun)-- a quality that arouses pity
ambiguity (noun) -- a doubtful meaning
nominate (verb) -- to propose as a candidate for an award

Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word:

1. The house was dark and creepy;its atmosphere was _______________.
2. Even though the orphan had commited a crime, there was a certain _________ about him that made us feel sorry for him.
3. Many American families look forward to ___________ _____________, when they gather around the table to tals to each other and enjoy good food.
4. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was ______________ for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
5. There is no one like him. He is ________________.
6. It was hard to tell if the speaker was sincere because there was ___________ in his voice.

TV Shows: Masterpiece Theater, Lost, Emmy Awards
Fims: The Last of the Mohicans, M

Grammar Point: Using Adjectives
Adjectives modify nouns. That means that they change and refine the meanings of the nouns. They make your writing more interesting.
For example, it is much more interesting to read about a "sinister villain" than just a "villain," and about the "inimitable Michael Emerson" than just Michael Emerson.
Now you try it: Think of an actor you like. What adjectives can you use to describe him or her?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Welcome!

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my ESL Blogspot! I hope you will enjoy your visit.

I developed an interest in blogging when one of my classmates in my Applied Linguistics doctoral program told me about his blog on LiveJournal. I started my own personal blog there too, but I don't set aside enough time to post entries, so there isn't much on my blog. My classmate writes about his move with his wife to New Zealand, where they are experiencing a pleasant geographical and cultural adjustment to life there.

Lately, I have been thinking about blogging as a way of reflecting on the disseratation process, which I am just starting. I have to write 80,000 words, including three studies, each of which has to be published. It is a challenging task, but I am looking forward to it. In fact, it is hard to think of anything else.

Grammar class has begun, so my students will be blogging with me. Perhaps everyone will fancy it. In any case, I am modeling the blog assignment for them, so they will have a basic example to follow.

Vocabulary

develop (verb + particle "in") an interest (article & noun) in - become interested in
Applied Linguistics (noun) - the study of linguistics as it applies to another field, typically education
blog (noun or verb) - web log, an online journal
post (verb)- to put on a website or blog
challenging (adjective) - difficult
fancy (verb) - like

Place Name

New Zealand - island country

Vocabulary words are in italics.
Place names are in bold.

Vocabulary Cloze Practice
Fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word.

1. I __________ chocolate because it is delicious.

2. Every day we _________________ entries on our Google _______________, our online journal.

3. The mother of the young basketball player _________________ ____ ________ in basketball.

4. Winning a gold medal in the Olympics is _____________________.

5. ____________ ___________________ is a field of study that involves language and teaching.

Grammar: List the verbs from the first paragraph. Which verbs are in the past tense? How do you know? When do you use the past tense?