F2F Class Notes 26 June (Peter)

Vocabulary

Diorama – a model

Pigment – a solid, usually a powder, which can give a liquid color. Usually used to make paints.

Cliché – overdone, predictable, overused (noun or an adjective)

Imply – to say something without words, to hint at (the difference between “hint” and “imply” is that “hint” has a positive connotation, and people usually “imply” something unpleasant)

Bend – to curve something previously straight

Bend over – to lower oneself to the ground, usually to pick something up

Euphemism – a phrase created to make something sound less intense

Ex. I have to go number 2. (I have to poop)

Ex. My grandfather passed away. (My grandfather died)

Euphemize – to make something sound less intense

Phrases

The phrase beat around the bush simply means to imply, or not directly say what one means.

Ex. Just say what you mean, stop beating around the bush.

To bend over backwards means to try and do something very difficult, or impossible.

Ex. We want your business and will bend over backwards to keep it.

Having a bone to pick with someone, or having beef with someone means to be on bad terms.

Ex. I have a bone to pick with you after what you did last week = I’m upset at what you did last week, we have to talk. (“Bone to pick” sounds a little playful)

Ex. Can we talk about what happened last week? I don’t want to have beef. = we really need to talk before either one of us is seriously upset. (The phrase “having beef” doesn’t sound as playful)

Pronunciation

Diorama (die-or-AH-ma, technically four syllables but often pronounced with three

Original:

My wife and I visited the Shanghai nature museum with her family yesterday. It is an amazing experience to see the evolution of the biology and animals in earth. There are a lot of models of various dinosaur and ancient sea livings with the same original size. The most attractive one is the part of Cambrian Period. We don’t know why so much species appeared suddenly altogether and

Someone says that it’s the masterpiece of the Aliens as they want to make some experiments in earth, observe the process and one day, they will come back and finish the experiment. It is an interesting thinking, which recalled me that lots of aliens look like the ancient livings and insects in some scientific film. We never know what we will evolve to be. May be we will be the model in the museum in future.

Edited:

My wife and I visited the Shanghai nature museum with her family yesterday. It was an amazing experience to see the biological evolution of animals on earth. There are a lot of models of various dinosaurs and ancient sea creatures with the same original size. The most attractive exhibit was the Cambrian Period. We didn’t know why so many species appeared suddenly altogether and some people say that it was Aliens experimenting on earth who are still observing the process and one day, they will come back and finish the experiment. It is an interesting thought, which reminded me that lots of aliens look like ancient creatures and insects in some Sci-fi (science fiction) film. We never know what we will evolve to be. Maybe we will be models in museums in the future.