When you say an email address:
Remember that @ is pronounced ‘at’ and . is pronounced ‘dot’: reservations@beachhotelbern.com is ‘reservations at beach hotel bern dot com’.
Sometimes there is a . in the person’s name: jeffery.amherst@britishcouncil.org is ‘jeffery dot amherst at british council dot org’.
_ in an email address is called ‘underscore’: teaching_ job@english_academy.com is ‘teaching underscore job at English underscore academy dot com’.
About four months ago, our governor, here in one of the southernmost states in Brazil, ordered a lockdown. The Coronavirus COVID-19 nightmare was just reaching this part of the world.
Since then, we have been learning many words, expressions, idioms, in order to be able to speak about the virus, herd immunity, safety measures, our new routines, work from home, remote learning, emotional responses… Videos, songs, poems, jokes, which refer to the pandemic, that inform, entertain or motivate us.
Scroll down andreaalthoff.com.br, if you want to review them.
The pandemic came, and apparently is at its peak now, or not… There’s a lot of controversy about it.
We were placed on lockdown one more time about a week ago, but it was already lifted. So, Blumenau is not in lockdown anymore.
“When major decisions must be made amid high scientific uncertainty, as is the case with Covid-19, we can’t afford to silence or demonize professionals with different views. Even worse, we can’t allow questions of science, medicine, and public health to become captives of politics. Misinformation about Covid-19 is abundant and today, more than ever, we need vigorous academic debate.
Since Covid-19 first emerged at the end of 2019, thousands of scientists have been working to answer fundamental questions. How lethal is it? How many people have already had it? If so, are they now immune? What drugs can fight it? What can societies do to slow it? What happens when we relax our public health interventions? Can we develop a vaccine to stop it?
Scientists agree that it will take 18 months or longer to develop a vaccine. Even for cloth masks, we see arguments on both sides.
Some believe that nations which instituted social distancing but with fewer lockdown restrictions, are pursuing the wisest course — at least for that country — while others favor the strictest lockdown measures possible. We think it is important to hear, consider, and debate these views without hostility.”
So, here we are! What do you think about all this? How do you feel about it?
This text contains excerpts from the article https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/27/hear-scientists-different-views-covid-19-dont-attack-them/, which were selected with the solely purpose of providing a basis for class discussion, through vocabulary learning and practice of an issue we’re all experiencing. A couple of more difficult words were replaced by more easier ones, to facilitate understanding.
No estudo do inglês, o ditado popular ver para crer precisa ser substituído por ouvir para crer.
Em primeiro lugar, a interpretação fonética da ortografia em inglês apresenta diferenças em relação ao português.
Em segundo lugar, e mais importante, a correlação entre ortografia e pronúncia em inglês é notoriamente irregular. Isso quer dizer que, o mesmo grafema (letra) não corresponde sempre ao mesmo fonema (som), isto é, não tem sempre a mesma interpretação, a mesma pronúncia.
Para aqueles que não têm contato frequente com a língua falada, com a forma oral do inglês, a interferência da ortografia na pronúncia das palavras pode ser nociva e persistente.
A pronúncia do sufixo “_ed”, indicador de passado nos verbos regulares do inglês, é um problema muito comum para brasileiros. O problema é agravado pelas três pronúncias que o sufixo “_ed” pode assumir.
A seguir, dois excelentes vídeos, que juntos elucidam e ilustram a correta pronúncia.
With special thanks to my student Afonso for sharing this last video with us.
There are many occasions when condolences are needed due to a death. There are also several ways of expressing condolence. You can send flowers, a gift, or a sympathy message.
The word “condolence” comes from the Latin “condolere,” meaning “to suffer together.” Sometimes the dictionary lists the word “pity” as a synonym, but “comfort,” “commiseration,” “sympathy,” and “consolation” are better synonyms. It really means acknowledging a loss, showing sympathy, and empathizing with someone.
A dear student’s brother has recently passed away. The whole family is going through a hard time.
It’s times like these when we cling to those glimmers of hope and promise that we find amidst all the sorrow and pain.
And here is what I feel like offering to her… A poem from Henry van Dyke
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me — not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”
And that is dying…
Since the Coronavirus disease oubreak, we have been learning many words, expressions, idioms, in order to be able to speak about the virus, herd immunity, safety measures, our new routines, work from home, remote learning, emotional responses… Videos, songs, poems, jokes, which refer to the pandemic, that inform, entertain or motivate us.
Four months of Blog posts, which would result in an extensive list if I added the links here. So scroll down andreaalthoff.com.br, to view them.
So now I want to show you a few more useful phrasal verbs, a verb and expressions, all in context, through this beautiful, inspiring message.
This sentence is used when a person is annoyed very much, that he or she cannot mentally, emotionally, or physically deal with or adjust to something or someone anymore.
Check also I can’t bear it.
Portuguese learners like to say that there isn’t a word for “saudades” in English. But there’s not really accurate. The truth is, that there isn’t a noun that is used the same way as the Portuguese noun.
However, miss, a verb, in the context of the video, means to feel sad because you do not have something or cannot do something you had or did before:
I miss the car, but the bus system is good.
Aside from that, miss verb, means to feel sad because someone you love is not with you:
She missed her family badly.
“And I think to myself…”
That’s a verb + preposition. Think of/about is used to ask someone for their opinion: What do you think of your new school?
To die – use this when you want to avoid saying the word ‘die’. Check the Blog post for more.
To come successfully to the end of an unpleasant experience or period of time, or to help someone do this:
I know we’re going to get through the pandemic.
Check this video for get through in context.
If time goes by, it passes:
Things will get easier as time goes by.
To make someone feel unhappy and tired:
His lack of social life was beginning to get him down.
