Live and Learn English with Jean Lee

As well aware, the year of 2020 is the year of the rat, the first animal in the Chinese Zodiac. Let us check interesting facts about the murine friend! Fill in the given blanks below. (source from https://www.terminix.com/blog/education/facts-about-rats/    &  http://www.havahart.com/rat-facts#behavior & https://pets.amerikanki.com/11-interesting-facts-about-mice-and-rats/ )    1.    Rats are very _____________, giving birth to about 6 to 10 pups, 3-6 times per year.    2.    _______________in nature, rats generally emerge at dusk to do most of their activity and feeding throughout the night.    3.    A rat’s _________________ never stop growing.    4.    Among the U.S. cities, ____________ tops the list of the most rat-infested and ________________ was second, followed by Washington, D.C.    5.    Rats enjoy socializin...

This week, let us try the fun word puzzle (that was aired on NPR Weekend On-Air Challenge, January 12 th , 2020). Every answer is a compound word in which the vowel sound in each half is a short "a"— as in "grassland" or "madcap" – which is called an “ash” sound   / æ/   in American English.      1.    Father's father      2.    Item in a levee      3.    Slang term for someone who talks, talks, talks      4.    Symbol in a tweet      5.    Sudden remembrance of something past      6.    Carrying case with straps that's worn over the shoulders      7.    Pancake         8.    Game of 21      9.    Low-growing weed that can quickly take over a lawn    ...

This week, I would like to present the first weekend puzzle from NPR (National Public Radio). These puzzle questions might lack validity for EFL students whose learning settings are not the US ground, because the theme for the questions this week is brand names you find in American grocery store. Let us just give it a try though for fun. Here we go! Every answer is the brand name of a food or beverage that you might buy at the grocery store.        1.    Preserves — Consists of a word meaning "lollipops" around the letter M    2.    Soup — Conceals the word OGRES in consecutive letters    3.    Breakfast cereal — Is an anagram of WHITE SEA    4.    Baking goods — Is an anagram of RUBY LIPS + L    5.    Cookies — Spelled backward, is a two-word phrase meaning "betting   everything"    6...