Show 1305 Wednesday 15 September
Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
Are you ever unsure of when to use commas?
It can be confusing. I get confused myself sometimes and have to go and look it up.
If you were talking to your grandmother and you wanted to suggest to her that you start eating, which sentence would you choose? With or without a comma?
Would you say: Let's eat, grandma!
Or: Let's eat grandma!
You need a comma there. If you don’t use a comma, then the meaning changes and you must be talking to someone else, suggesting that you eat your grandmother, which isn’t very nice.
I saw this example in a newsletter from Oxford University Press that I’m subscribed to.
And they have a good page explaining comma use.
One rule to remember is that: Commas are used to separate a part of a sentence that is an optional ‘aside’ and not part of the main statement.
So if you can take out that part and the meaning of the sentence doesn’t change, then you can use commas.
This is an example they use: Cynthia’s daughter, Sarah, is a midwife.
So Cynthia has one daughter, her name is Sarah, and she’s a midwife.
If you took out Sarah the meaning would still be the same.
Cynthia’s daughter is a midwife.
But if you take out the commas the meaning of the sentence changes:
Cynthia’s daughter Sarah is a midwife.
This means that Cynthia has more than one daughter. And the daughter whose name is Sarah is a midwife.
click here
Today’s site is called Beers for Books.
Beers for Books is a fundraising idea to raise money for a non-profit organization called Room to Read which helps educate children in developing countries by doing stuff like building schools and libraries and publishing books.
So, with Beers for Books, people organize an event at a local bar or restaurant and for every drink that’s sold, the bar donates a certain amount of money, like a hundred yen or a dollar, to the organization Room to Read.
Beers for Books started in Japan and has now moved to a few other countries, like America. For example, there’s an event coming up in San Francisco on the 28th of September.
I think it’s a great idea. So if you’d like to go to an event, or organize one in your area, go and check out their site: www.beersforbooks.org.
STICK NEWS
Kia ora in Stick News today Barack Obama has written a children’s book.
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States.
He’s also an author.
His next book is due out in November.
It’s a children’s book called Of The I Sing.
And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 15th of September.
Kia ora.
Oh please don’t go-we’ll eat you up-we love you so!
PSST! Wrong script, Mr President.
And the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album goes to … Barack Obama!
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
Obama?! EEEEEEK! I have to have it!
What’s it about?
Dunno …
Click!
Mummy! Obama spelt the wrong!
Word of the Day
Today’s word is thee.
Thee means you.
archaic or dialect form of you, as the singular object of a verb or preposition
So it can only be the object, not the subject.
For example: You are beautiful.
You is the subject so you couldn’t say: Thee are beautiful.
But with, I love you, you is the object, so you could change that to I love thee - although you probably wouldn’t say these days.
So the title of Obama’s book, Of Thee I Sing, means: Of You I Sing.
The books about 13 Americans that he admires, so I guess the sing means celebrate, as in sing someone’s praises.
conversations with sarah
#836 What’s that one about hope?
Step 1: Repeat David’s lines.
Step 2: Read David’s lines and talk to Sarah.
David Have you read any of Obama’s books?
Sarah No.
David What’s that one about hope?
Sarah The Audacity Of Hope.
David Yeah, that’s it. What does audacity mean?
Sarah It means … um … hang on, I’ll just look it up. Brave but rude or shocking behaviour.
David So hope is brave but shocking?
Sarah Yeah, I guess that’s what he’s saying.
links
Beers for Books - Twitter
Barack Obama reading Where The Wild Things Are:
music
click here start
artist: #NarNaoud#
album: Green Vision
track: Oriental Standing
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site
cws start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
Did you notice a mistake in this script? Please leave us a comment and tell us! We really appreciate people pointing out our mistakes.Thank you.
artist: #NarNaoud#
album: Green Vision
track: Oriental Standing
from: Gironde, France
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site
cws start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
qa bgm
artist: TSF
album: Mystic Opus
track: Sunny Day
from:
Toulouse, France
Have you translated this script - or part of it - into your language for English practice and published it on your blog? Please leave a comment and a link so other people can read your translation. Thank you.
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