Wednesday, November 25, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth and small vocabulary mini lesson

Hi - Today we watched an Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore. For those who have not seen this movie, I really recommend renting it, it is a classic documentary film about global warming. I have probably seen it at least 10 times and each time I see it, I learn something new!

At the end of today, we discussed the meanings of a few words and idiomatic expressions and here they are:
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- The word volition is a high register word for the word will.

Volition = will - these are nouns

Ex.: She left of her own volition. She left because she wanted to.

Common expression using the word "will": When there is a will, there is a way! This means, if you really want to do something (you have the will to do it) you will find a way to make it happen! I love this expression especially because it reminds me of my mom who said it a lot!
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- That doesn’t cut it.

Verbal phrases:

To cut it – to make the grade – to pass inspection

If something doesn’t cut it, it means that it’s not good enough.

Ex. The food at the restaurant didn’t really cut it for me. It wasn’t good enough for me.

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-to step up to the plate

baseball reference, we saw the design of the baseball field, often called the baseball diamond. The batter steps up to the plate to bat, so he's ready for action!

In figurative language we use the expression, to step up to the plate, to mean, to move into a position where one is ready to do a task.

For ex. It's time for Tom to step up to the plate and take on his share of work.
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It’s important to connect the dots –

To make sense of things – logical conclusions - If I connect the dots I begin to see patterns and make some deductions.

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I hope this is helpful for you.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Don't forget to read an article, or a short story over the break - be ready to tell us something about it. Next, you will write a summary about what you have read.

Till Monday ;)

5 comments:

  1. Thank you~
    This posting makes me more clear.

    Happy Thanks giving day!

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  2. You are so welcome Soomin - I can do this more often - that way you have access to notes online! Happy Thanksgiving to you - I give thanks for having you as a student! ;-)

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  3. this is good, i didn't go to school but i didn't miss everything. thank you so much Denise for posting this. I learned the whole bunch.

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  4. Good, I think we can do this more often, I would be happy to type up some of these mini lessons in class and then post them for everyone!

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