Learning English

present perfect questions 3

thethinker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:40:18 GMT

Have you ever talked to a famous person?
- Who was the person?
- How long did you talk?
- What did you talk about?
Have you ever thought of something funny and started laughing out loud in the presence of others?
Have you ever guessed someone's age wrong (younger or older)? How did the person respond?
Have you ever laughed until tears came from your eyes?
Have you ever seen a car accident?
Have you ever called your school's principal?
Have you ever had an electricity blackout while taking a shower?
Have you ever sung in public?
Have you ever walked into a lamppost?
Have you ever saved a piece of chewed chewing gum and started chewing it again later?
Have you ever called a women sir or a Man "ma'am?"

http://iteslj.org/

present perfect questions 2

thethinker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:39:18 GMT

Have you ever fallen down the stairs?
Have you ever forgotten your mother's birthday?
Have you ever gone mountain climbing?
Have you ever gone skiing?
Have you ever gone surfing?
Have you ever had a Deja Vu experience?
Have you ever met a celebrity?
Have you ever raised your hand to answer a question, then forgot what you were going to say?
Have you ever ridden a horse?
Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?
Have you ever slept in a tent?

http://iteslj.org/

present perfect questions

thethinker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:35:18 GMT

Have you ever appreciated a sunset?
- Were you alone or with someone special?
Have you ever been in a fist fight?
Have you ever broken a bone?
Have you ever changed your appearance a lot in a short time? (For example, hair style, hair color or weight)
Have you ever cheated on an exam?
Have you ever cried in public and embarrassed yourself?
- Have you ever cried for no reason and felt good because of it?
Have you ever eaten in a restaurant and realized you have no money with you?
Have you ever eaten frog legs?
Have you ever fallen asleep and forgotten where you were?
Have you ever fallen asleep while taking a bath?

http://iteslj.org/

Mardi Gras

thethinker — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:41:45 GMT

Mardi Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Carnival, annual festival marking the final day before the Christian fast of Lent, a 40-day period of self-denial and abstinence from merrymaking. Mardi Gras is the last opportunity for revelry and indulgence in food and drink before the temperance of Lent. The term Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday.”

The date of Mardi Gras varies from year to year, always falling between February 3 and March 9. Although Mardi Gras refers to a specific day, the term often encompasses a much longer period of celebrations leading up to Mardi Gras Day. The Carnival season is marked by spectacular parades featuring floats, pageants, elaborate costumes, masked balls, and dancing in the streets.

Some scholars have noted similarities between modern Mardi Gras celebrations and Lupercalia, a fertility festival held each February in ancient Rome. However, modern Carnival traditions developed in Europe during the Middle Ages (5th century to the 15th century) as part of the ritual calendar of the Roman Catholic Church.

Today pre-Lenten Carnivals are celebrated predominantly in Roman Catholic communities in Europe and the Americas. Cities famous for their celebrations include Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. New Orleans, Louisiana, holds the most famous Mardi Gras celebration in the United States. Residents of New Orleans have been celebrating Mardi Gras since the 18th century. Mobile, Alabama, has a lesser known but equally historic Mardi Gras tradition. Mardi Gras is informally observed in many North American cities, usually invoking the spirit of the New Orleans festivities.

Not all Mardi Gras celebrations take place in urban areas. Distinctive Mardi Gras traditions are also maintained by the Cajuns, an ethnic group that derives its culture from French Canadian refugees who settled in southwestern Louisiana during the 18th century. In rural Cajun communities, costumed revelers on horseback ride from house to house begging for ingredients to make gumbo, a thick, strongly flavored soup. Other members of the community await the riders and make preparations for a party. Around sunset, the riders make a dramatic entrance, present the crowd with the gumbo ingredients they have gathered, and join the party.

History of Mardi Gras in New Orleans

During the 18th century, many wealthy Louisiana families would leave their rural plantations to spend the winter months in New Orleans, where they held lavish parties and masked balls. The first written reference to Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans appears in a 1781 report of the Spanish government, which then controlled Louisiana. The report addressed problems that might arise from allowing slaves to wear masks at the winter festivities. The United States took control of Louisiana in 1803, and the New Orleans city council banned all masked entertainment three years later. Enforcement of the law appears to have been erratic. By the mid-1820s masks and costumes were again legal. The first documented Mardi Gras parade took place in 1837, and the parade soon became an annual tradition. However, outbursts of violence at the parades gave the festivities a bad name.

In 1857 a group calling itself The Mystik Krewe of Comus staged the first modern Mardi Gras parade, a torchlit nighttime procession of floats illustrating themes from classical mythology and literature. Following the American Civil War (1861-1865), many new krewes soon began offering additional parades and balls. The Krewe of Rex, organized in 1872, pioneered many innovations that became defining features of New Orleans Mardi Gras. Rex established the tradition of crowning a King of Carnival, selected the Carnival colors, and adopted the song “If Ever I Cease to Love” as a Mardi Gras anthem.

Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mardi Gras became increasingly important to New Orleans. The festivities attracted visitors, generated income for local merchants, and added to the city’s mystique. The first African American Mardi Gras organization was established in 1894. An all-women group was founded two years later. By the late 1960s, however, many people began to worry that Mardi Gras was in decline. Critics of the parades felt that Mardi Gras had become old-fashioned, and they claimed that the exclusivity of the traditional krewes deterred the lucrative tourist trade. In 1968 the newly formed Krewe of Bacchus staged a parade featuring huge floats and led by an out-of-town celebrity. Other organizations soon followed suit, inaugurating the era of so-called super-krewes.

In 1992 the New Orleans city council passed a law prohibiting racial discrimination in groups that sponsored parades using city streets. The law required krewes to provide evidence to the council that they did not discriminate on the basis of race in selecting their membership. Many of the oldest and most prestigious krewes, which had traditionally shrouded their membership policies in secrecy, refused to comply with the law and ceased to parade. Nonetheless, Mardi Gras continues to attract tourists to New Orleans from around the world. Today Mardi Gras draws more than 3 million people to parades and generates approximately $1 billion for the local economy.

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personal dictionary

thethinker — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:53:18 GMT

سلام

از قدیم الایام همگی یادمونه که هر فردی که زبان می خوند رو با یه دفتر لغت که همیشه به همراهش بود می شد شناسایی کرد !

این دفتر لغت به این صورت بود که چند ستون داشت که توی یه ستون کلمه رو به زبان انگلیسی می نوشتن و توی ستون مقابل اون معنی فارسی کلمه رو .

حالا اصلاْ نمی خوام راجع به خوبی ها و بدی های این روش صحبت کنم ولی یه ایده ی خوبی رو برای همین دفتر لغت جدیداْ یاد گرفتم که گفتم خوبه که از اون استفاده کنید . مطئناْ روش خوبیه .

حالا این روش چیه ؟

توی این دفتر لغت یا به اصطلاح قلمبه تر! دیکشنری شخصی چند تا ستون وجود داره .

ستون اول که داخل اون کلمه ی مورد نظر را به انگلیسی می نویسید.

ستون دوم که توی اون مشخص می کنی که این کلمه فعله صفته اسمه یا ...

ستون سوم برای نوشتن یک جمله ی مثال با استفاده از اون کلمه است یعنی چی ؟ یعنی اینکه با استفاده از اون لغت یه جمله بسازید و توی ستون سوم بنویسید .

مثال (جملات مثال از دیکشنری oxford elementary learner's می باشند؟.)

My father was angry with me when I got home late.	Adj.	angry
The ship sailed along the coast.	V.	sail

حالا شاید بگید که خوب حالا این دفتر لغت چه فایده ایی داره ؟ باید بگم که اولاْ یاد میگیرید که اون کلمه رو توی یه جمله به صورت صحیح به کار برید و صرفاْ مثل قدیم یه معنی خشک و خالی از لغت رو یاد نمی گیرید. بعدشم یاد میگیرید که این کلمه چه نقشی در جمله داره اسمه صفته چیه که این خودش به یادگیری صحیح لغات جدید کمک میکنه .

برای اینکه یاد بگیرید که با استفاده از لغت موردنظر جملات صحیح بسازید می تونید از راهنمایی های معلم زبان تون یا مثال هایی که توی یه دیکشنری تک زبانه (یعنی انگلیسی به انگلیسی ) است استفاده کنید .

موفق باشید

EX7:Present perfect

thethinker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:13:18 GMT

EX6: Modifiers

thethinker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:12:36 GMT

EX5: Simple past

thethinker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:10:53 GMT

EX4: Adverbs of frequency

thethinker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:08:18 GMT

EX3: Quantifiers

thethinker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:18 GMT

Fill in the gaps with one of the following quantifiers:

Quantifiers

Much, many, lots of, a lot of, little, most, a little, little, a few, few

1. It seems to me that we've had ………… assignments in English this term.

2. How……………… material can we be expected to read in one week?

3…………….books are not in the library.

4. I've had……….. headaches already because of stress.

5. But it does him…………good when the whole system goes down.

6. Our yard looks awful this summer. There are too ………. weeds.

7. I didn't use …………. fertilizer last spring and that has made a difference.

8. Also, I've paid…………attention to how ……….rain we've had.

9. I'm afraid it's rained…… times this summer, and the grass is turning brown and dying.

10………….. people know as much about computers as Tomas does.

11. It didn't seem to do my lawn………….good.

12. ……….advice you get from experts doesn't seem to help.

13. ………….of my neighbors ignore their grass, and they have better lawns this year.

14. They say…………… knowledge is a bad thing.

A FEW , A GREAT DEAL ,A LITTLE , A LOT , A LOT OF , A MAJORITY OF, ENOUGH, MANY, MUCH OF , PLENTY, SEVERAL OF , SOME

1. I'm having ……………of trouble passing my driving exam.

2. ………….. the movies were rated PG.

3. …………….. information proved to be outdated.

4. ……………We're close to the project deadline, but there is still …………… time left.

5. Although there are…………….. Brilliant students in this state -- thousands, even, only…………. will choose to remain in the state after graduation.

6. We were able to destroy…………. the parasites with our antigen, but of them survived to cause trouble.

7. ……….. a student has passed through these doors.

8. Although …………….of the lawn is open to the sun, there are ………….. Of shade trees to make it comfortable.

9. I think he drank ………. wine last night.

10. …………..the evidence was taken from the police safe last night.

much, many

a. I've had……….. headaches already because of stress.

b. ………….. Depression can be attributed to being overworked.

C. ……….. books are not in the library.

http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar