Online Class Notes (Mike)

Covid variants

Vocabulary

procrastinate: delayed until tomorrow, put off until the future
pro “forward”
crastinus “belonging to tomorrow,”
cras “tomorrow,” a word of unknown origin.

pro-: forward, forth, toward the front 向前的
ex: proceed: to push things forward 向前推进

back (v) support
The whole team is backing him.

small talk = chit chat 闲聊

isolate (v) – isolation (n) 隔离，疏离，远离，孤立
He was isolated by his classmates.
His classmates were isolating him.

quarantine (n/v) 隔离

break out (v)
Covid may have broke out in WH in 2020.

outbreak (n) 爆发
There was a Covid outbreak in SH 3 days ago.

relative (adj.) 相对的
related (adj.)

variant (n) 变异株
Omicron is the latest Covid variant.

prevalent (adj.) 流行性的 – prevalence (n)
The prevalence of Omicron is high.
Delta is less prevalent than Omicron.

star (v) 主演
The movie stars Daniel Craig.

come out
the movie came out 2 months ago.

screen (v)
They will be screening some classic movies next month.

mediocre (adj.) 平庸的，寻常的

Pronunciation

cheat
chit

I want to back.
I want to go back.
I want to return to my hometown.

I want to improve my daily conversation skills.

be afraid of
My family was afraid/worried that I won’t be able to go back to SZ.

fear
I fear spiders.

Covid can not make me die, it is just a big sickness.
Covid is not fatal, it will be just like a severe cold.

I don’t know how many Covid variants there are. 

primary concern

He has a good shape body.
He is a muscular/fit/athletic man.

His action scenes are cool.
martial arts 武术
The fighting scenes in this movie is eye-catching/attention-grabbing. 

Native English speakers don’t always use these simple words.

There is nothing surprising/exciting about the plot.

The term Soap opera is composed of the words soap + opera and its origin is not so old. The radio-theater from the 1930’s and television from the 1950’s in the US, popularized melodramatic dramas portraying everyday domestic situations. Those American television programs were (as they are still today) predominantly were aired after lunch, and were aimed primarily at the female audience.

It is necessary to understand that at the time the cosmetics industry did not have the same variety of supposedly beauty products such as shampoos, conditioners, tip repairers, rinse, ointments, moisturizing creams and liquids, exfoliants, antioxidants, anti-wrinkles, revitalizers, rejuvenating, etc.

The products that at the time explored the idea of ​​providing beauty, both to the skin and to the hair, were simply soaps.

If we accept the fact that much of the female audience is attracted to melodramas, and that this same audience is concerned with aesthetic beauty and is easily influenced by the idea of ​​acquiring it, we will easily understand why TV melodramas were often sponsored by brands of soap, giving rise to the term soap opera.