F2F Class Notes 19th May (Peter)

Corrections (original – corrected)

I work all day as usually – I worked all day as usual

I will do a Yoga class – I will go to a yoga class

Vocabulary 词汇

Cloth/fabric –noun, a sheet of material used to make clothing or cloth goods

Ex. Many people believe that an effective way to reduce white pollution is to use cloth bags at the grocery store.

Personalize – verb, to make something special for your person

Ex. I always personalize my work folders so that I can tell them apart from my coworkers’.

Accessible – adjective, easy to access

Ex. China’s government considers accessible education to be very important

Priority – noun, something relatively important

Ex. Even though studying is very important, my health is the top priority.

Prioritize – verb, to make something more important than other things

Ex. After hearing that my math teacher was going to give everyone a high grade, I decided to prioritize studying for my other exams.

Professor – noun, a teacher in a university, 教授

Ex. Some professors are very good teachers because they love what they do.

Social Media – noun, websites and applications used for communication between people

Ex. Many older people think that the younger generation is addicted to social media.

Firewall – noun, a program designed to block access to certain things on a computer

Ex. Much of the world uses the phrase “the Great Firewall of China” to refer to the Chinese government’s control of public internet.

Thrift Shop – noun, a store that sells used goods, usually clothing

Ex. People living on a budget often shop at Thrift Shops so they can save money.

Waterproof – adjective, unable to be destroyed by water

Ex. I bought my mother a waterproof phone case because she often drops her phone in the pool.

Child-Proof – adjective or verb*, unable to be destroyed by children

Ex. New parents usually child-proof their home before their child is born.

*Note: this is an example of creating a verb. In spoken English, many speakers create new verbs from words that are usually nouns or adjectives. For example, some speakers may say “please off the lights” instead of “please turn the lights off” even though the word off is usually an adjective.

Expressions 成语

The phrase “nine to five” is used to talk about the workday. For example, instead of saying “I worked all day as usual,” you could “just the usual nine to five.”

The expression “it was fun while it lasted” is used to describe a situation that was fun and has ended. Usually, the speaker is not upset that this situation has ended.

Ex. On graduation day, some of the students are sad to be leaving college, but others simply say it was fun while it lasted.”

The expression “hit or miss” is used to describe a situation that will either be good or bad; there is no middle. For example, most college students agree that a professor is either great or horrible. Therefore, choosing a professor is a hit or miss, because no professor is just okay, the professor will either be wonderful or terrible. In this expression, the word hit means 中 and the word miss means 歪.

Another example of the word hit is in the expression “he hit the nail on the head” (他说中了).