Mike and Molly- Boat

Vocabulary

SHE- Mike continually refers to the boat as “she.”  This old tradition is thought to stem from the fact that in the Romance languages, the word for "ship" is always in the feminine. For this reason, Mediterranean sailors always referred to their ship as "she", and the practice was adopted over the centuries by their English-speaking counterparts.

Arm floaties- plastic flotation devices usually used by children who can’t swim.

Crew- the people who work on the boat

Sea do re-do- he is referring to the boat because they are fixing it up.

See someone in a completely different light- see someone with a new perspective.

Hemorrhoids- a swollen vein or veins in the region of the rectum often caused by long periods of sitting, which is the case for Mike as he sits for long periods of time with Carl in their squad (police) car.

Playing along- doing what you think someone wants you to do to make them happy

Bear in mind- don’t forget

Talked it up- spoke well about it

Harpoon- a long spear like weapon used to catch fish or whales

Hunk a junk- something worthless

B.S. spiel- an elaborate story that is untrue

That sucker swallowed it hook, line, and sinker- that foolish person believe it

A tickle- a little amount of money

Cheesed off- angry

Questions

1.     Carl asks if he can’t just wear what?

2.     Ship rules say every passenger has to have their own what?

3.     What is Mike’s excuse for not having to wear a lifevest?

4.     What has the boat shown Mike?

5.     Who is Mike happy to call his captain?

6.     Carl says it’s about time Mike found someone else to look up to and that he’s done what all these years in his own quiet way?

7.     What does Mike say is the only thing Carl has ever given him?

8.     Mike believes that Vince sees him like a what?

9.     Mike thinks he can do what by playing along?

10. What does Mike tell Carl to bear in mind?

11. When Mike opens the garage door and the boat isn’t there what does Carl tell him to do?

12. What happened to the boat?

13. Vince tells the mailman a story about the boat.  What does Vince say he does with the boat?

14. What did it look like when the mailman took the boat away with his tiny little jeep?

15. Mike is upset Vince sold the boat and Mike says that he’s a bigger what than the mailman?

16. Carl takes Vince’s money and says it’s for what?

English Online

The Twenty-first Century classroom is no longer in front of a dusty blackboard, but behind a crisp, clean, high definition computer screen.

The advantages are innumerous. 

Globalization is occurring in all aspects of life, and communication is the key to success.  The international language is English, and the race to learn it is on.  However with busy lives, hectic schedules, and rising gas prices, language schools may not be the answer. 

A wealth of information is now at our fingertips, the internet a portal to vast resources, and instant connections.

Skype has fast become the most popular VoIP software around the world, with over 100 million users, and is an excellent teaching tool.  VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol, and simply means communication through the spoken word using the internet.  Other VoIP software programs include Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and TeamSpeak.   

Along with being able to talk to people for free, the option of seeing them using video is also offered.  There is a text box, which can be used to type in information while simultaneously speaking or teaching.  The benefit of this over teaching in person is that weaknesses can be identified and addressed instantly by the teacher.  In the case where a student is having difficulty in a certain area, such as properly using the present simple tense, the teacher can send links to online resources that they can go over together during the lesson, and can also be referred to later by the student on his/her own.  Other free resources online include dialogues, idiom exercises, TOEFL preparation, and even current event articles, with practice exercises following.  Breaking News ESL is an excellent resource, with recent news stories written for speakers of English as a second language.  Topics of interest hold the student’s (and teacher’s) interest, new vocabulary is learned, and sentence structure improved.  Conversation flows easily, providing the learner with the opportunity of having a real life discussion with a native speaker, and pronunciation issues can also be addressed by the teacher as needed.  Utilizing the text box for this, words can be written down (often while the student is speaking without him or her knowing so as not to interrupt the dialogue) and then sent to the student.  For example, if a student is having difficulty pronouncing the word “thorough” the teacher can type the word in the text box, along with a phonetic spelling (not necessarily using the phonetic alphabet as not everyone is familiar with this) “thur- o” and then go over the word with the student, practicing it together.  The student then has the word saved in his text box for future reference, and can practice the word for the following week. 

Writing can be worked on as well, as files can be sent via the text box, and corrections can be made and explained during the lesson, providing the student with conversation and structural instruction simultaneously.  And as the teacher identifies repetitive mistakes or problem patterns in the writing, links to work on these areas can be sent to the student providing him/her with innumerous resources instantly.  No more time is wasted hunting through bookshelves, or making photocopies. 

International conference calls are now commonplace in the boardroom, and most often made in English as the global economy expands, and foreign markets merge.  Skype becomes more than just a convenient, effective teaching tool for the executive, but a common source of communication at work and school. 

Most companies have their own VoIP system they use for conference calls, however Skype also provides this feature, and it’s free for all Skype users, making group lessons online possible as well. 

Talk and Write is a free software program provided by Skype for business and education.  Providing a mutually shared white board and meeting room, it enables users to communicate instantaneously, as they can write in the same space at the same time, point out certain areas on the screen, highlight texts, and erase annotations. 

Payments for lessons can be made using Paypal, bank transfers, or other methods as agreed upon by the student and teacher.  Teachers should be experienced professionals, and native speakers.  A fifteen minute free trial lesson is often offered to make sure students are comfortable with their new teacher.  If lessons are being offered at a very low cost, the buyer should be wary.  However, people living in large cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong may be surprised at how much less the cost for an online lesson is, when doing comparative shopping with local language schools, which can run up to twice the amount of an online lesson.

Convenient, effective, and efficient, online lessons with the right teacher can be an enjoyable and lucrative experience for anyone wanting to get a head start in the global race of international communication. 

Rebecca Wolbach Silva
http://www.blogger.com/goog_449582381