In recent years, many places in England have had no snow at all. But this year, the snow stretches from Lands End (in the far south west of England) to John O’Groats (in the far north east of Scotland).
This winter they could ski from Lands End to John O’Groats, but it is so cold that I strongly advise them to wear clothes this time.
Chúc các bạn học tiếng Anh tốt .
This page gives a simple explanation of common money words (financial terminology) and banking. After reading it, there’s a link to a quiz to check your understanding.
Luyện tập tiếng Anh bằng cách trả lời các câu đố vui …
Look at the sentences below and say whether they are true or false. Tip: back up your answers with evidence, for example, the average temperature in °F or °C for each world city:
2. In March it is normally hotter in Berlin than in Canberra.
3. In July it is normally colder in Buenos Aires than in London.
4. In May it is normally colder in Riyadh than in Bern.
5. In September it is normally hotter in Abu Dhabi than in Rome.
6. In July it is normally colder in Taipei than in Lima.
7. In January it is normally colder in Montreal than in Cape Town.
8. In May it is normally colder in Madrid than in Amsterdam.
9. In November it is normally hotter in Colombo than in Toronto.
10. In September it is normally colder in Beijing than in New Delhi.
11. In March it is normally colder in Paris than in Wellington.
12. In May it is normally hotter in Ottawa than in Kuwait City.
13. In July it is normally hotter in Cairo than in Mexico City.
14. In November it is normally colder in Brasilia than in Nairobi.
15. In March it is normally hotter in Lusaka than in Algiers.
16. In July it is normally hotter in Belgrade than in Karachi.
17. In November it is normally colder in Accra than in Miami.
18. In September it is normally colder in Tokyo than in Stockholm.
19. In May it is normally hotter in Edinburgh than in Athens.
20. In September it is normally hotter in Kuwait City than in Melbourne.
Good luck!
A man is driving through the countryside when he sees a sign that reads "Pigs for sale, next left". Curiosity got the better of him and he turned into the farm.
The farmer greets him at the gate and asks him which pig he wants. The man, having no experience of buying pigs simply points at one and asks "how much is that one?".
The farmer grabs the pig's tail between his teeth, lifts the pig off the floor and says "£200" Slightly confused, the man says :
"thats a bit expensive, how about that one" and points at another pig.
Again the father picks up the pig by the tail between his teeth and says "that ones heavier, so it'll be about £250".
"Heavier?" said the man, "am i supposed to believe you are weighing them"
"Yes said the farmer, that’s how you weigh pigs, everybody knows that, ask my daughter"
The man turns to his daughter and sure enough she says "that’s how you weigh pigs". By this point the man is sure he is being conned, and is about to leave when the farmer says,
"hang on, I'll prove that this is how you weigh pigs, ask my wife". To which his daughter added "Oh, you can't ask her, she's weighing the postman".
Guess post from Matthew J. Franck about Corporate Income Tax
While everyone is quite rightly outraged by the abuses of the IRS in singling out conservative group for audits, intrusive inquiries, and endless delays on approval of their tax-exempt status, it has occurred to me that there is one simple solution to the problem that would not require nearly as much reform of the politically corrupt agency.
Get rid of the corporate income tax.
As David Rivkin and Lee Casey explained at the Wall Street Journal the other day:
The IRS crackdown on tax-exemption approvals for conservative groups was directed at nonprofit social-welfare groups, often called 501(c)(4)s after the Internal Revenue Code section granting them tax-exempt status. Such groups do not have to disclose their donors and are exempt from most taxation, although donations to them generally aren’t tax deductible.
Social-welfare organizations are permitted to engage in a range of political activities promoting their causes or beliefs, so long as these activities aren’t their “primary purpose.” This has been generally understood to mean that they must spend less than 50% of their total resources on political activities.
The IRS had little interest in 501(c)(4) political activities until the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform. That law barred dedicated political-advocacy groups from soliciting and spending soft money—funds that aren’t subject to tight federal campaign-contribution limits and are used for issue advocacy and party-building. . . .
Yet McCain-Feingold had the unintended effect of making 501(c)(4) political activities far more important than they had been, since the law’s ban on soft money doesn’t apply to such groups. . . .
So the entire hang-up in the IRS bureaucracy was whether groups claiming 501(c)(4) status could deservedly claim that designation. Did they devote the majority of their resources to non-political (educational or social) activities? How to determine which activities were political? And so on, and so on. The law is a veritable invitation to bureaucratic abuse, if one is inclined to succumb to such temptations.
But the point of claiming the status is so that your incorporated 501(c)(4) “social welfare organization” doesn’t have to pay corporate income taxes on the money it raises. If there were no corporate income tax in the first place, the issue simply wouldn’t arise.
It would, of course, be a nice bonus that eliminating the corporate income tax (which many economists believe is a deeply stupid form of taxation anyway) would give a nice boost to the economy. As one also learned in the Journal this week, America’s high corporate tax rate leads to all sorts of nonsense that intelligent lawyers and accountants have to cope with as creatively as they can. If we suddenly had the world’s lowest corporate rate–zero–in the world’s largest economy, imagine the effects.
So just get rid of it. No more corporate income tax, no more worries about which corporations have to pay it, and no more proctologic exams from the IRS about what degree of “politics” people are engaged in under the corporate form.
The only question that would remain is whose donors get the charitable tax deduction now allowed under section 501(c)(3). I would extend it to any nonprofit–even to the two great political parties–and eliminate the “Johnson amendment” barring 501(c)(3) entities from engaging in lobbying and electoral politics. That’s of dubious constitutionality anyway, especially as applied to the question of “pulpit politics” in churches.
Nghe “Câu chuyện đồ chơi” bài học Anh văn từ Australia Network
We'll look at the expression 'by far', the phrasal verb 'move on', and a common irregular past tense.
We love it I think Yeah Something we have a passion for both of us, both collecting and meeting collectors and promoting the hobby as a hobby. We're the biggest toy show in the southern hemisphere by far. We usually get around 24oo people over the two days. There's 328 tables today. Each year I always vow like a month earlier "that's it, this is the last one" I've just, it's too much. As soon as when I walked into the hall by "Ah, this is great! This is super." There's always items you hope to see. You're looking for that ultimate one that you haven't got or the ones you don't have but you don't always think you'll find it but you hope you do.
It's the biggest toy show in the Southern hemisphere 'by far'. 'By far' means by a long way or to a large degree. It's much bigger than any other toy show in the southern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere is Australia, New Zealand, some parts of Africa and South America, and Antarctica. It sounds more impressive than just saying the biggest in Australia.
And what are people looking for at the biggest toy show in the southern hemisphere?
As kids you rip it open, you play with it. To find something mint in the box still attached very rare. And that's why the price - $600, but , there's people with that sort of money to spend and it just keeps going up every year.
Something mint in the box. Here, mint means in perfect condition. The collectors want a toy that has not been taken out of the box and played with. Or they want something that completes a collection:
So there's probably a hundred or 200 figures that I'm just still looking for. I saw 'em here last year and I missed 'em, I said to the guy "I'll think about it, I'll come back" and when I came back they were gone. So , found 'em this year, which was good.
Notice that he uses the future tense form of 'come':
I said to the guy "I'll think about it, I'll come back"
And then the irregular past tense, came:
and when I came back they were gone.
Now listen for 'move on':
I got a first one given to me from my Auntie and it started from there. We used to just go to markets and fairs and stuff and it grew into this obsession and I've got more under the desk and it's just ponies everywhere. Just the enjoyment that it brought me I just want people to sot of have the same. Yeah, I just decided to move on.
She's decided to 'move on'. She is now interested in other things.
Why has she moved on?
I've got real horses and they're more important to me now. I'm not fussed. I'm happy to let them go.
She's 'moved on' to real horses. And she's 'not fussed' about selling the toy horses - this means she's not upset about it.
So we've seen that came is the past tense of come, that mint can mean 'in perfect condition' and that by far means by a large amount.
We'll finish with the expression 'thrill of the hunt' which means the excitement of searching for something you really want:
Collecting is very addictive. So you never stop. It's the thrill of the hunt knowing that you're looking for something that you'd like to find and then suddenly finding it and then the pride of ownership of that item that you have spent a lot of time looking for, wanting to find and finding it.
Tyler Fernengel showing off his crazy BMX skills that will most likely get you killed if you try them.
Chào các bạn!
Hôm nay chúng ta nghe về Gwendolyn Brooks , nhà thơ Mỹ gốc Phi đầu tiên đoạt giải Pulitzer , 1 giải thưởng danh giá về văn chương của Mỹ .
http://www.fileduty.com/download/512/se-pia-gwendolyn-brooks-03june12.mp3
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I’m Shirley Griffith.
SARA LONG: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of award-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She had more than twenty books published. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America.
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