Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Show 795 Wednesday 16 July


Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.

Do you know the difference between room and a room?

You probably know what a room is right?

a part of a building enclosed by walls, floor, and ceiling

For example: This room gets a lot of sunshine.
It doesn’t actually. None of the rooms in this place get any sunshine.

Another example, an angry parent might say to a child: Go to your room!

But room also means space.

space viewed in terms of its capacity to accommodate content or allow action

Here are some examples:
Is there enough room for me in the car?
There’s room for one more person at the table.

And here’s an example using both meanings:
Do you have room for a desk in your room?



click here

The site I recommend today is called Real English.
It’s a really good site for studying English – so go and check it out if you haven’t already.
They have a lot of videos interviewing people in the street – so it’s great, because they’re not actors, and it’s not scripted, so it’s really natural English.

And they interview people from many different countries which is really good because it means that you get a good variety of accents and dialects.

Another great thing is that the videos are organized really well, so if you’re looking for a particular thing to study or teach, then it’s really easy to find.

One example is lesson 51 which is looking at the difference between have done and did, which is something that a lot of people have difficulty with.
So go and check out their website – and they also have a channel on YouTube.



STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today, a Japanese woman who was caught vandalizing a church in Italy flew back to Italy to apologise.

In February, a 19-year-old Japanese woman graffitied a famous church in Italy.
The vandalism was caught on film and was widely reported in the Japanese media.
The 19-year-old fashion student from Gifu University then flew back to Italy to apologize. She also gave the church 600 Euros.

And that was Stick News for Wednesday 16th of July.
Kia Ora.



Word of the Day

Today’s word is: vandalize.

This word can be spelt -ize or -ise

v.
to damage sth, especially public property, deliberately and for no good reason



conversations with sarah
#491 What did you do yesterday?

Step 1: Repeat Bob’s lines.
Step 2: Read Bob’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Sarah What have you been doing today?

Bob I’ve been following my wife around shopping all morning.

Sarah What did you do yesterday?

Bob I sat around watching TV. I didn’t do very much at all.



note
In today’s news I said the woman’s age twice – this is a mistake. I only needed to say it once.