March 2021

Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #210 (Part 2): Intermediate and Advanced English Vocabulary (through Gaskell’s ‘North and South’)

Here we continue the story of Margaret Hale on her return to her parents’ country home in Helstone (a fictional village, probably based in Hampshire, England). … 📗 # FROM GASKELL’S NORTH AND SOUTH And walk Margaret did, in spite of the weather. She was so happy out of doors, at her father’s side, that […]

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #210 (Part 1): Intermediate and Advanced English Vocabulary (through Gaskell’s ‘North and South’)

As an intermediate or advanced level student of English, it can be hard to learn new vocabulary without understanding how to use them correctly in a sentence. For that reason, students are often encouraged to read more and more, but that in itself can become an overwhelming experience without the right kind of support from

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Lesson #209: ‘Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening’: Reading aloud in English (and enjoying poetry at a new pace)

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING Whose woods these are I think I know.    His house is in the village though;    He will not see me stopping here    To watch his woods fill up with snow.    My little horse must think it queer    To stop without a farmhouse near    Between the woods and frozen

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Lesson #208: “Don’t go frightening the princess”: Ten English Verbs ending with -en

In last Monday’s Lesson we looked at adjective groups based on their endings; we saw how they were different from verb forms that look similar. In today’s Lesson we are going to also look at verbs ending with -en, many of which are created from adjectives. ✏️ 👉 For this reason, some of them will

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #207 (Part 2): Adjectives that end with -ed and -ing in English (through Bronte’s ‘Villette’)

In this second part of our Lesson on adjectives, we are going to focus on adjectives ending with -ing in English (for adjectives ending with -ed, check Part 1 of our Lesson). … 📝 #4 ADJECTIVES ENDING WITH -ing 📘 ‘It seems as if I had been pioneered invisibly, as if some dissolving force had

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #207 (Part 1): Adjectives that end with -ed and -ing in English (through Bronte’s ‘Villette’)

If you have ever tried to describe someone you know, or an experience you have had, or something that you like, you will have almost certainly used some adjectives. Adjectives in English often end with similar endings – ‘-al’, ‘-ous’, ‘-ful’, ‘-ed’, and ‘-ing’ being some of the most common. In today’s Lesson we are

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Lesson #206: Understanding, Identifying, and Using Relative Adverb Clauses in Writing

📗 “I have broken where I should have bent; and have mused and brooded, when my spirit should have mixed with all God’s great creation. The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother. I have turned from the world, and I pay the penalty.” – Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841)

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #205 (Part 2): Understanding ‘Used To’ vs ‘Be Used To’ (with examples from Austen’s ‘Emma’)

Welcome to Part 2 of our Lesson, where we will focus on understanding ‘be used to’ and what makes it uniquely different from ‘used to’ constructions (covered in Part 1 of this Lesson). … 📝 ‘BE USED TO’ Be (conjugate the verb) + Used To + Gerund OR Noun ✍️ This construction expresses a state

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #205 (Part 1): Understanding ‘Used To’ vs ‘Be Used To’ (with examples from Austen’s ‘Emma’)

‘Used to’ or ‘be used to’? 🤔 At first glance it might seem that both of these expressions are the same, but they are not! They imply (help us to understand something without actually saying it directly) two different things. Today’s Lesson will help to clarify the differences between them, with examples taken from another

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Lesson #204: Considering Coleridge’s poem ‘Desire’ from 3 different perspectives

📜 Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame; It is the reflex of our earthly frame, That takes its meaning from the nobler part, And but translates the language of the heart. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge This very short but thoughtful poem is our text for today’s poetry-based Lesson (you may have noticed

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Lesson #203: ‘Still sweeter flowers opening by the wayside’: A reading comprehension exercise with vocabulary from ‘Jane Eyre’

📚 I have been re-reading my favourite classic, Jane Eyre (1847), and discovered anew (again) one of the beautifully descriptive passages on springtime in this book. It makes for a perfect reading comprehension exercise for this time of the year! In this Lesson I have included a vocabulary list to help you better understand Bronte’s

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Mini-Lesson Monday, Lesson #202 (Part 2): The Differences Between ‘If’ and ‘When’, through Sewell’s ‘Black Beauty’

We are outlining the usages and differences between the conjunctions ‘if’ and ‘when’ in today’s Lesson, with the help of Anna Sewell’s influential Black Beauty. Not only did Sewell espouse (promoted) animal welfare through it, but the public’s response to it helped to introduce new anti-cruelty legislation in Britain and the U.S.A. – as such,

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