ESL Blogspot
On this blogspot,I will be available to answer your questions, give you assignments to improve your English grammar, and help you learn.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Tobay Beach LIVE
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Thursday, September 17, 2020
My Family Tree Research
Top photo: My family's home in Ridgewood, Queens, in 1901 (on the corner of Myrtle and Decatur, formerly Smith St.)
One of my most beloved hobbies is family tree research. I have always been interested in my family's story, especially on my father's mother's side (my paternal grandmother). I have become the family's unofficial historian, and, happily, my cousin's daughter Natalie, who is in her 30s, has also taken genealogy up as a hobby now. While I dabble in it, she documents everything officially. That is no doubt because she is an actual history teacher. Together, we have been able to trace our family to the 6th century AD in England, Scotland, and France.
Vocabulary
hobby/hobbies (noun) -- what people do in their free time for fun
family tree research (noun) -- study of family history
paternal (adjective) -- belonging to father
official/unofficial (adjective) -- formal/informal
officially (adverb) -- formally
taken up (phrasal verb) -- started to do
genealogy (noun) -- the study and tracing of family history
dabble (verb) -- take part in something in a casual way
trace (verb) -- find or look for along a path
Vocabulary Exercise: Matching
1. taken up a. not formally
2. genealogy b. father's
3. trace c. began to
4. unofficially d. look for/find
5.dabble e. interests
6. hobbies f. research into family history
7. paternal g. take part not in a serious way
Grammar Point
The present tense and the present perfect tense are used in the passage.
The present tense is either the base form of the verb or the base form +-s. Examples are:
I dabble
she documents
The singular pronouns he/she/it are followed by the simple form + -s.
The present perfect tense is the helping verb has/have is followed by the past participle of the verb.
I have been I have become
We have been
Grammar Assignment
Write 4-5 sentences about one of your hobbies. Use both the present and the present perfect tenses.
Explore verbs here.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
My Hobbies
Starting a crocheting project |
Crocheted lace trim and embroidered initial K |
Sewing the cuff of my blouse |
My very first quilting project |
My thimbles |
Vocabulary
spare time (idiom) -- free time
hobbies (noun) -- interesting and creative things to do when you are not working
embroidery (noun) -- creating pictures, words and so on with a needle and thread
needle (noun) -- a sharp, pointy metal object for sewing
thread (noun) -- a long piece of cotton, nylon, wool, or silk used for sewing
thimble (noun) -- a small metal cap that protects your finger when you sew
in pursuit of (prepositional phrase) -- in order to, for this purpose
Royal School of Needlework (proper noun) -- a special school for learning about embroidery
London (proper noun) -- the capital of Great Britain
crocheting (noun) [crochet-verb] -- making something with a hook and yarn
Our Anju with her crocheted yellow blankie |
1. When sewing or doing ___________, I need a ___________, __________, and ___________.
2. I like when I am not working. In my _________ _________, I can practice my ____________ for fun and to create new things.
3. When I lived in _____________, I attended the __________ ___________ ___ ___________ to learn about working with gold threads.
4. In __________ of improving my ______________ , I make small cat blankets.
Grammar: Common and Proper Nouns
Some of the nouns in the entry are common nouns and others are proper nouns. Common nouns are written in lower case letters, whereas proper nouns are in upper case. Write five sentences in which you use both a common noun and a proper noun, Be sure to use the correct capitalization. For example, in the following sentence, you should capitalize the city Paris and the first word of the sentence: my sister lived in paris for a year. -- My sister lived in Paris for a year.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Bad Television, Good Television, and the Difference between Them
Monday, September 10, 2018
My Fair Lady: Dialects, Phonetics, and an Extreme Linguist
This summer I went to the Broadway musical My Fair Lady. As you may know, it is the story of a Eliza Doolittle, a young woman who speaks in a Cockney dialect but wants to learn how to speak in a form of standard British English called Received Pronunciation. A linguist named Henry Higgins finds her on the streets of London and boasts that he could make a fine lady out of her by changing the way she speaks and acts.
Harry Hadden-Paton and Lauren Ambrose, playing Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle
[Photo from the Lincoln Center Beaumont Theater https://www.lct.org/shows/my-fair-lady/]
Eliza wants to change her position in life from selling flowers on the street to owning her own flower shop. To do that, she believes that she must learn to speak better. Therefore, she asks Professor Higgins to help her. In the photo, we can see that Professor Higgins is trying to teach Eliza to change her accent. To make a long story short, Eliza succeeds in changing her accent with the professor's grueling exercises and unpleasant bossiness, but it takes her longer to find happiness. A young man named Freddy loves her, and we see her leave with him. Henry Higgins is sad when she leaves, but she returns to him only to say goodbye.
So of all the Broadway shows, I went to see the one about a linguist!
Vocabulary:
Broadway musical (noun) - a show on Broadway in NY that involves singing and dancing
Cockney dialect (noun) - a type of English spoken in London's East End, a poor area
Received Pronunciation (RP) ( noun) -- the type of English that Queen Elizabeth II speaks
linguist (noun) -- a scientist that studies language
boasts (verb) -- brags, talks about himself as if he is very important and can do anything he wants
to make a long story short (idiom) -- to tell something briefly/quickly, summarize
grueling (adjective) -- very difficult, very hard to do
bossiness (noun) -- telling someone what to do
Vocabulary Exercise:
Fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word.
1. The trip to Manhattan was very difficult or ______________ through the snow and ice. But we had tickets to see a wonderful _________________ with lots of singing and dancing.
2. My teacher is a ______________ She studies types of English such as __________________ and ____________________.
3. There is a man at work who thinks he is great and important. He always ____________ about how great he is. Other workers dislike his ________________ when he tells them what to do.
4. ________________, I will only tell you a quick summary of the events.
Grammar Point: The verbs in the entry above are mostly in the third person form in the present tense. This is formed by adding an -s to the base form of the verb after he/she/it:
want--wants (Eliza wants)
ask-- asks (She asks)
succeed-- succeeds (Eliza succeeds)
Grammar/Writing Exercise: Write a 5-sentence paragraph about a television show that you like. All your sentences should be in the present tense. Be sure to use the third person form where needed.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Queens, Queens Everywhere (and not the county in NY)
Lately there has been a spate of television series about queens. The first one I watched in its entirety was Reign, the highly imaginative and historically inaccurate show about Mary, Queen of Scots, one of my favorite historical figures. If viewers can get past its faults, which are many, they might be able to empathize with the ill-fated teen queen and her even more ill-fated young husband largely because of the endearing performances by Adelaide Kaine (herself a real-life descendant of Mary) and Toby Regbo. The second series I started last year is Victoria on PBS's Masterpiece Theater. This series has outstanding performances and amazingly fine sets, but I am not much interested in her life, so I don't always watch it and am a bit behind in its second season. The third one, which I am binge-watching on Netflix, is about the current queen, Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II, who has been the queen since before I was born. This show is also beautifully done with a stunning performance by Claire Foy as Elizabeth. Why there are three highly popular series about queens right now is a mystery to me, but I hope to continue enjoying them. God save the Queens!
Vocabulary
spate (noun) -- a large number
imaginative (adj.) -- creative
inaccurate (adj.) -- not right or exact
empathize (verb) -- understand and share feelings
ill-fated (adj.) -- unlucky
endearing (adj.) -- lovable, cute
descendant (noun) -- a person that comes from a certain ancestor
outstanding (adj.) -- excellent
amazingly (adv.) -- surprisingly
binge-watch (verb) --view many episodes of a TV series all at once
stunning (adj.) -- attractive, remarkable
Vocabulary Exercise
Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word.
I am a _________________ of two famous ancestors, King Malcolm III and Queen Margaret of Scotland.
She was an excellent or _____________ queen. The people, who loved her, found her to be ____________. For her _______________ (remarkable) qualities, the Church respects her as a saint. King Malcolm was ___________ old for a warrior, who was in many wars, but he met his __________ (unlucky) end when he was killed at the age of 62. Shakespeare, England's most ______________ writer, tells about Malcolm in the play Macbeth, which may be ___________ or not correct about some of the details of Malcolm's life. If Netflix ever makes a show about my ancestors King Malcolm III and Queen Margaret, I will ____________ until I have finished every episode. But for now, I am watching a ____________ of episodes of The Vikings, in which I can ___________ with another of my ancestors, King Alfred of England, who had to fight the violent Vikings to protect his people.
Grammar Point: Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives: Adjectives are words that describe nouns, while adverbs can describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
For example, in the sentence, "The very beautiful English actress Claire Foy plays the role of Queen Elizabeth II splendidly," very and splendidly are adverbs and beautiful is an adjective.
Write three complete sentences about the queens in my entry and their photos. Use at least two adjectives and one adverb from the vocabulary list in each sentence.
Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II
Want to watch Victoria? Click on this link.