Let's have fun with a challenging, spooky quiz!

 

     1.   What is a cryptid? ______

a.   an ancient hole in the ground

b.   a puzzle that’s impossible to solve without knowledge about animals

c.   an animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated

 

     2.   Which one of the following choices is the definition of "cryptozoology"?

a.   The cultivation and production of edible crops or of animals for food; agriculture; farming

b.   The science or branch of biology dealing with extinct animals

c.   The study of evidence tending to substantiate the existence of, or the search for, creatures whose reported existence is unproved, as the Abominable Snowman or the Loch Ness monster

 

     3.   A "leshy" is a male forest spirit that protects animals but also kidnaps young women, he is missing eyebrows, eyelashes, and his right ear; in which mythology might you find him?

a.   Slavic Mythology

b.   Gaelic Folklore

c.   Greek Mythology

 

     4.   The Brazillian equivalent to bigfoot has one eye and a vertical mouth on its stomach, what is this creature known as?

a.   Beco

b.   Joabim

c.   Mapinguari

 

     5.   This Algonquian legend tells of a cannibalistic creature that is part zombie, part ape, and even a little wolf ... what might its name be?

a.   Wendigo

b.   Chupacabra

c.   Lycan

 

     6.   You've heard of the Chupacabra, the infamous blood-sucking monster from Mexico and other Latin American countries, but what does this name actually mean?

a.   Goat-Sucker

b.   A spin-off of Chewbacca

c.   Blood-eater

 

     7.   If you were born and raised in Australia, what might you call your local Bigfoot?

a.   Yowie

b.   Sasquatch

c.   Neighbor

 

     8.   This twisted creature from the Philippines is something of a mix between a vampire and a werewolf, can you name it?

a.   Atreyu

b.   Asura

c.   Aswang

 

     9.   The name Sasquatch comes from native Halkomelem, a Salishan language, what does it mean?

a.   Wild-Man

b.   Big-Foot

c.   Scary-Beast

 

     10.               The real name of this creature is "metoh-kangmi," or "man-bear snow-     man," but somewhere in the translation this creature got stuck with "The    Abominable Snowman"; what is this creature’s shorter catchy name?

a.   Yeti

b.   Wampa

c.   Snowy

 

Answer keys

     1.  c   

     2.  c

     3.  a

     4.  c

     5.  a

     6.  a

     7.  a

     8.  c

     9.  a

    10.  a

*Source: dictionary.com

Looking back on my English Classes

 What I have learned from my students in EFL/ ESL classes

by Jean Lee

 

I still remember the first day of my ESL teaching. I was full of passion, anticipation, and dreams of helping my students reach their common goal of improving English. I was a firm believer or a naïve educator who expected each and every student (waiting for me to show up in the classroom) to welcome the moment of being singled out to speak up about their thoughts and feelings of the day and the reason to learn English with an innocent smile on their faces. As I stepped inside the classroom, the noise among the students stopped right away. There was no such thing as willingness to greet in high note or eagerness to become vocal about anything in store for them in class. JUST SO QUIET. I mean TOO QUIET for me to imagine if I’d be able to make them open up their mouths or even their minds in that class. Throughout my teaching years, I’d come to learn how to approach my students on day one and lead them to become more self-empowered students in the end.

 

First off, I should not have overwhelmed them by talking too much too soon. I needed to give them some time to process words coming out of my mouth, even if it might have felt “forever” to wait for their responses. Looking back, it was not my students that felt nervous on the first day of my class. I was the one who was like a racehorse wearing a blinder to stay focused all the time, spraying all the vocab and grammar points to be crammed into their heads.

 

Secondly, I should have known that most students would not be thrilled but rather feel quite uncomfortable by being handpicked to answer personal questions, especially when they are all strangers to one another on day one. I should have asked them first to interview one another at their own pace without worrying about the possible embarrassing moments of making mistakes in front of the whole class. Most of my students preferred such pair works or a group activities before the dreadful time of individual presentations.

 

Another important lesson that I’d learned was that I had to strike a good balance between a friendly chimer and a patient listener. Quite oftentimes, I was feeling awkward with somewhat lengthy silence between my questions and students’ the responses. It was hard to resist the urge to fill the unexpected tranquility by saying something instead of waiting for students to organize their thoughts before saying them out loud. However, I don’t mean that teachers are supposed to keep their mouths shut all the time while waiting for students’ responses. Finding the right moment and frequency to chime in with them was a challenging task for me.

 

Last, but not least at all, I should have been more cautious about lowering students’ affective filter when we brought up culturally sensitive or personal issues in class. Even if reading random news articles or tales from textbook might be a boring part of a communicative language class, teachers need to know that quite a lot of students feel more comfortable talking about the world outside rather than showing or describing their personal backgrounds or stories. I looked back if there happened to be some moments that offended my students for some reason or other. If so, shame on me.

 

As an English language educator, I always feel grateful for all my students who taught me how to become a better guiding light for them.

 

 

Here’s a little piece of 5-7-5 Haiku by me.

 

I am a teacher.

But I am a learner, too.

So happy as both.

SPANISH to ENGLISH: Time to play the Word Puzzle (from NPR- aired on October 25th, 2020)

This last Sunday’s NPR on-air challenge of word puzzle was changing the Spanish words into English words by rearranging letters. You are given five-letter words in Spanish. For each one, rearrange the letters to spell a common, uncapitalized word in English.

Example: CESTA (basket) --> CASTE

 

    1.   TODOS (all or every)

 

    2.   TRUCO (trick)

 

    3.   BANCO (bank)

 

    4.   ARROZ (rice)

 

    5.   CINCO (five)

 

    6.   JABON (soap)

 

    7.   TORRE (tower)

 

    8.   PECHO (chest)

 

    9. HUESO (bone)

 

    10. ODIAR (to hate)

 

 

Answer Keys

    1.  stood

    2.  court

    3.  bacon

    4.  razor

    5.  conic

    6.  banjo

    7.  retro

    8.  epoch

    9.  house

    10.  Radio

*Picture Source: https://blog.parlam.com/best-english-to-spanish-translators/ 

Complete the Compound Words! (Sunday Word Puzzle from NPR, aired on October 18, 2020)

Time to play the puzzle (created by Will Shortz) from this last week's NPR Sunday On-air challenge! Let us complete the following compound words!

 

(picture source: https://inspiration.design/posts/573221-why-skip-website-spot-illustration-pbj-insights) 

The theme of this puzzle is P, B & J. I'm going to give you three words starting with the letters P, B and J. You give me a fourth word that can follow each of mine to complete a compound word or a familiar two-word phrase.

 

Example: Parking, Back, Job --> LOT (parking lot, back lot, job lot)

 

Starting with three-letter answers:

 

1. Penalty, Boom, Juke

 

2. Power, Buzz, Jig

 

3. Present, Birth, Judgment

 

4. Pill, Bed, Jitter

 

 

Now four-letter answers:

 

5. Perp, Board, Jay

 

6. Paddle, Basket, Jump

 

7. Parting, Big, Jell-O

 

8. Plymouth, Bed, Jailhouse

 

Some five-letter answers:

 

9. Pogo, Broom, Joy

 

10. Pocket, Butter, Jack

 

11. Passion, Bearing, Juicy

 

Finally a six-letter answer:

 

12. Pickled, Bell, Jalapeno

 

Answer Keys

    1.  box

 

    2.  saw

 

    3.  day

 

    4.  bug

 

    5.  walk

 

    6.  ball

 

    7.  shot

 

    8.  rock

 

    9.  stick

 

    10.  knife

 

    11.  fruit

 

    12.  pepper

Idiomatic Expressions to Describe People

 What type of person are you? What kind of person seems right up your alley? Let’s check out some fun expressions in English that describe people’s personality.

  

    1.   a card.:   Someone is a bit funny/ somewhat eccentric or strange/ entertaining/ quick-witted.

 

    2.   a dark horse: someone who reveals little about his or her activities, especially one who has unexpected talents or abilities

 

    3.   a good egg/ a bad egg: a nice person or a nasty person

 

    4.    a good laugh: a fun or amusing person to be around

 

    5.   thick as a plank: somebody who is more than stupid or dumb

 

    6.   a social butterfly: someone who is VERY social and easygoing; can be either a male or a female. Usually these people don’t belong to a particular group, but rather jump from one group to another. They are somewhat accepted in all of them, but do not really have any deep friendship connections in any of them.

 

    7.   a tearaway: a reckless/ irresponsible/ somewhat dangerous person

 

 

Time to practice!

1.   Josh is a bit of a ________________.    He just dances in a shopping mall whenever he feels excited.

 

2.   Conner is a good ____________ in my office. Everybody wants to be around him, because he’s got what it takes to amuse people.

 

 

3.   Anthony is not the sharpest tool in the drawer! I can’t trust his capability at all in any projects. He is simply ____________ as a plank.

 

4.   Little have I heard that Joe used to be such a social ________________ back in his college days! His old friends said he was busy mingling with people from other Frats every weekend.  He’d also been a lead vocalist in a rock band. What a dark ___________!

 

5.   Aaron is such a good _________ who’s always willing to pick up daily mails and even mow the lawn while their neighbor is away on a short trip.

 

6.   My mom is not quite impressed by my choice of friends. She thinks all my friends are a bad case of ______________.

 

 

Answer Keys  

    1.  card

    2.  laugh

    3.  thick

    4.  butterfly, horse

    5.  egg

    6.  tearaway

     image source: https://drshveatamishra.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/an-introduction-with-personality/ 

This last weekend's Word Puzzle from NPR (aired on October 11, 2020)

Time to play this last Sunday’s on-air challenge of word puzzle by Will Shortz from NPR! Every answer today is a word or phrase in which the only consonants are P and R — repeated as often as necessary. The other letters are all vowels. Let us play the following easy peasy puzzle!

 

Example: More mature, as fruit --> RIPER

 

1. What beats rock but loses to scissors in a children's game

2. Musician with a flute

3. Partner of salt

4. Fix, as an appliance

5. Brand of bottled water

6. Open grassland, as in Kansas and Nebraska

7. Like reasoning by theoretical deduction (2 words)

8. Come into view again

 

Answer Keys

    1.   paper

    2.   piper

    3.   pepper

    4.   repair

    5.   Perrier

    6.   prairie    

    7. a priori

    8.   reappear

P    picture source: https://cargocollective.com/awool/P-R-WEDDING 

)

Test your own grammar in sentences: Rise or Raise?

Check out your grammar capability! Choose the right one:  RISE or RAISE?

(source from English Grammar Quizzes: level V)

 

    1.   In ancient Rome, the peasants ___ up against the Emperor many times.

    a.  raise   b. raised   c. rose                 

 

     2.   He is an early ___ but he hates to stay up late.

         a.   riser     b. roser   c. raiser

 

     3.   Gradually the beanstalk ___ higher and higher until it reached the sky.

         a.   rise     b. rose    c. raise

 

 

     4.   To taste good, bread must ___ properly.

         a.   rise    b. be raised   c. raise

 

     5.   He had ___ flowers every year until this year. Now he grows only vegetables.

         a.   risen   b. raised   c. rised

  

     6. The flag ___ every morning at 6:00 a.m. until yesterday.

         a.   raised     b. was rised     c. was raised

 

     7.   The temperature has ___ all day long.

         a.   rose   b. risen   c. raised

 

     8.   Higher inflation usually ___ prices.

         a.   raised   b. raises   c. rises

 

     9.   The army ___ its flag over the island.

          a.   rised   b. raised   c. rose

 

     10.  The sun ___ at 6:30 this morning and it was a beautiful sunrise.

           a.   raises   b. rose   c. rises

 

     11.   The government ___ interest rates for three years until yesterday.

            a.   had not raised    b. had not rose   c. had not risen

 

     12.     At the meeting the committee ___ six questions.

a.   rose   b. raised   c. rise

 

answer keys 

    1.  rose

    2.  riser

    3.  rose

    4.  rise

    5.  raised

    6.  was raised

    7. risen

    8.  raises

    9.  raised

    10.  rose

    11. had not raised

    12. raised