All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. (As You Like It) William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a prolific … Continue reading…
In the previous post, we talked about the process of officially adding new words to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, a process that can take years, even though many new words enter the common spoken language every day as a natural … Continue reading…
Every year, new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the definitive reference for English vocabulary for over a century. These words might be slang terms that have become commonly used, additional definitions for existing words, or entirely … Continue reading…
Studying new vocabulary isn’t just about memorizing lists of definitions, it’s about learning how to recognize and understand words depending on their context in a sentence. Many of the exams that contain English comprehension tests will ask you to read … Continue reading…
It’s commonly held that talking about the weather is what you do in really dull conversations, when you can’t think of anything else to say but feel like you have to keep the conversation going. Whether you’re in an elevator … Continue reading…
One of the things that marks a native speaker of a language is their ability to use idioms. An idiom is a figure of speech, one whose meaning in the context of a conversation may have little relationship to the … Continue reading…
For a thousand years, the center of Western civilization was Rome. At one point, the Roman Empire stretched from the British Isles to northern Egypt, and all roads truly led to Rome, connecting peoples of many cultures and languages under … Continue reading…
People find the legal profession attractive for many reasons: the chance to help people, an interest in law and governance, or a wish to be part of the judicial system and promote fair and equitable enforcement of rules and regulations. … Continue reading…
As we mentioned in the last post, the computer and technology industry continues to develop at a rapid pace. The changes that have occurred since the first room-sized vacuum-tube-powered calculating machines of the 1950s are almost impossible to imagine. An … Continue reading…
Ever since the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing has been a large part of the global economy. From the 18th-century cotton mills in Manchester to the 19th-century steel foundries in Michigan, the silicon chip production lines in 20th-century California and the 21st-century … Continue reading…