Common English Vocabulary and Phrases: A Comprehensive List

**People’s Appearance**

Succeed: Outcome, effect. Success: Success. Subservience: Servility, submissiveness. Gash: Gash. Stark: Stark, austere. Feisty: Determined, wrestler. Hitch: Complicated. Notorious: Known, infamous. Role: Part (in a play, film). Resemblance: Similarity. Bangles: Bangle, bracelet. Trashy: Bratty, filthy, bad. Charts: Charts, chart, table, map. Pay Off: To cancel, settle. Achievement: Achievement, success. Uncanny: Weird, strange.

Cuff: Fist. Lanky: Ungainly. Tucker: Pleated,

Read More

Understanding English Phonetics: Sounds, Stress, and Intonation

Phonetics: The Study of Speech Sounds

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics focused on the study of speech sounds. It examines how these sounds are produced, heard, and their various properties, without considering their meaning or order. This field is closely related to phonology, which studies how sounds function within a language, and semiotics, which examines symbols. In English, all vowel sounds and the consonants /v/, /z/, /m/, and /n/ are voiced. The vocal folds convert air from the lungs into

Read More

Antonio’s First Trip to New York: A Memorable Journey

Introduction

1. Why hadn’t Antonio visited New York before?

Antonio’s family moved to Spain just before his 12th birthday, and he never got the opportunity to visit New York.

Chapter 1: First Impressions of the City

1. Why is it difficult to talk about a real New Yorker?

Since the city was founded, people from different races and cultures have come to New York seeking a better life. It has always had a mixture of cultures and religions.

2. How did passing through Times Square affect Antonio and why?

He

Read More

Literary Devices and Character Analysis in Literature

Key Literary Devices

  • Allegory: A long story with an underlying moral meaning different from the surface meaning; an extended metaphor.
  • Alliteration: Repetition of initial speech sounds of words.
  • Allusion: An indirect or passing reference.
  • Anecdote: A short, amusing, or interesting story about a real incident or person.
  • Irony: The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite.
  • Metaphor: A comparison without the use of “like” or “as”.
  • Oxymoron: A figure of speech that
Read More

The Flophouse: A Tale of Tenement Life, Love, and Rivalry

The Flophouse

A hardworking man, eager to acquire wealth, becomes increasingly obsessed with it. He gets into a rivalry with his new neighbor, Miranda, over land. They both crave to build a tenement with houses and tubs for valets. John envies his neighbor. Henry, a medical student, comes to live at Miranda’s home to finish his studies. In this house, besides slaves and his family, lives a gentleman parasite, Botelho, a former employee. D. Estela, Miranda’s wife, flirts with Henry, but they are eventually

Read More

Truths and Fallacies: A Collection of Diverse Topics

Fashion Fallacies

  1. a) FALSE for airline travel, better choices…
  2. b) Tent-shaped dresses TRUE… really slim
  3. 3. To climb up b) overweight c) clutch d) fashion
  4. 4. a) Not too soft, would not slide off shoulder b) be worn c) wearing d) provided

Dreams

  1. 1) TRUE friend in a dream to May… out to be true.
  2. b) FALSE a middle-aged man… glamorous girlfriends.
  3. 3. a) twisted b) quarrel c) turn out d) tiny
  4. 4. a) do / do b) created / which are c) who / that d) are / does

The Blue Planet

  1. 2. a) True. “As long ago… all
Read More