Live and Learn English with Jean Lee

  Ode to Our New Year of 2025 by Jean J. Lee   Let your bright inner light shine Wake up and stay woke from dark torpor Prayers for those in pain are yours and mine Heart-wrenching memories will stay where they were It will be all right to find yourself supine As long as you occasionally become a weekend warrior Pat on your back and be on cloud nine The wintry chill would rather feel like warmer When upslopes batter your spirits down, just say you’ll be fine As you feel connected to your strength, curveballs are no longer a torture Laugh out loud or give a smile so divine The moon rabbits would greet you back in your dreams with rice cake from their mortar Blessing is another word for fine The bitter past was only a blessing in disguise ‘cause your new year will be a perfect restorer

The Republic of Korea has been suffering in the midst of the totally unexpected political turmoil since December 3 rd when the president Yoon declared Martial Law out of the blue. Martial Law is imposed by the military during violent civil unrest. In this case that occurred in South Korea, there had been no emergency situation at all. This devastating and clueless incident had been secretly orchestrated by Yoon and his followers in the grand scheme of getting rid of the opposition parties as well as blocking the investigation of thousands of illegal acts. Even after Yoon’s impeachment motion was passed at the national assembly, a lot of red tapes and obstacles have still been in the way of the final decision to oust him. Today, we are filling in the blanks of a bit of the news reports from BBC and AP news with the right words that would make sense of each given sentence.       1.    Yoon has defended his decision to impose martial law, and after his im___...

Every answer today involves a Christmas carol or a popular Christmas song.       1.    Rearrange the letters of TINSEL to spell a word. Then rearrange the letters of THING to spell a word. The two words together are the title of a Christmas carol. What is it?     2.    Take the phrase "He Threw Rings." Change one letter in each word to get the first three words of a popular Christmas carol.     3.    The leading newspaper in Nebraska is the Omaha World-Herald. What Christmas carol has "World" in its title? What Christmas carol has "Herald" in its title?     4.    The refrain of what popular Christmas song consists of only two-letter words?     5.    Name two colors that come before "Christmas" in Billboard top 40 song titles.         Answer Keys     1.   SILENT NIGHT     2.   WE THREE KINGS    ...

  Which English words come to your mind to describe the year of 2024? It depends on what you see or focus on the most throughout this year. Some might think of “POLIRIZATION” among people while some other might say “RESILIENCE”. Let us go over a couple of frequently used or newly coined expressions that we came across in this past year.       1.   demure Since a famous American TikToker Jools used the phrase “very demure, very mindful” in her video postings, this word has gone viral. It means “modest, unassuming, shy, mindful of how you present yourself, considerate of others”         2.   brainrot (or brain rot) the effects of spending too much time scrolling or consuming low-quality content on social media on your brain. In other words, it is supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be triv...

For years I've been playing a "License Plate Game" when I've been with someone in a car. To play, you need to be in a state where most of the license plates have three letters —which many do. One of you calls out a set of letters from a nearby car. The object is to think of the shortest common, uncapitalized word that contains those letters in left-to-right order — not necessarily consecutively. Let's say the letters on a plate are NFT. Someone might call out BENEFIT, in seven letters.   But that can be beaten by INFANT, in six letters. That in turn can be beaten by NIFTY, in five. In today's puzzle, I'll give you some sets of three letters. For each one, add two letters anywhere to complete a common, uncapitalized five-letter word.       1.   VCR     2.   GTO     3.   CNN     4.   CIA     5.   NSA     6.   PGA     7.   HMO     8.   RBI ...

  Here and Elsewhere by   Jean J. Lee   How many times have you been all ears to your inner voice? How hard have you ever tried to love yourself and others? How close have you been to the person you want to be? How serious or how silly have you been in your lifetime? How often, if any, have you been willing to forgive someone? How much hardihood have you had to step up and let yourself heard? How long has it taken you to process and figure out deaths of your loved ones? How many days have you happened to shine from within when there was no light from the outside? How ardently and dearly would you be remembered when you leave? How excited will your afterlife be on the other side, you believe? Let it shine, let it shout, and let it sing here so that you’d be so proud with no doubt elsewhere.  

It is natural to become physically weaker as one ages. However, it is possible to stay younger and healthier than your physical age by what you eat at your table every day. More and more medical research and studies have shown the medicinal properties and benefits of herbs and healthy diet. As of this new year of 2024, let us stay healthy by looking into a variety of herbs one by one, their nutrition facts, and healthy diet so that we are able to lead a life with more confidence and constantly get ourselves back on track with aplomb even if we happen to deviate from the optimal state of health.   # 27. FIG   Fig fruit (Ficus carica L.) is indigenous to western Asia. In the Middle East and Mediterranean regions figs symbolize 1. _______________ (meaning ‘long life’) and have been consumed since ancient times.   Figs have been called a "fruit without a 2. _____________" because they don’t display an outward bloom. Figs do however produce hundreds of tiny edibl...

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday. I've brought a short game of Categories based on the word CYBER. For each category I give, name something in it starting with each of the letters C-Y-B-E-R. E.g., If the category were "Two-Syllable Girls' Names," you might say C onnie, Y vette, B etty, E llen, and R achel. Any answer that works is OK, and you can give the answers in any order.       1.     Colors     2.     Garden Vegetables     3.     Mammals with Three-Letter Names     4.     Popular Websites       Answer Keys    1.     C yan, Y ellow, B lue, E bony, and R ed    2.     C arrots, Y ams, B eets, E ggplants, and R adishes     3.     C at, Y ak, B at, E lk, and R at    4.     C hat GPT, Y ahoo, B ing, E bay, and R eddit

Every answer today is the name of a famous person in which the first two letters of the first name are the same as the last two letters of the last name. I'll give you the repeated letters and categories of the people. You tell me who they are.   Ex. GE, Oscar winner for Best Actress  -->  Ge raldine Pa ge (winner for the 1985 movie "The Trip to Bountiful")        1.   RO, Oscar winner for Best Actor (in "Raging Bull")     2.   SA, Seven-time M.L.B. All-Star (primarily with the Chicago Cubs)     3.   EL, Writer and Peace Nobelist (author of "Night" and other works on the Holocaust)     4.   MA, Former White House daughter     5.   AN, Woman who taught Helen Keller     6.   [one name:] BA, queen consort in the Bible (wife of David, mother of Solomon)     7.   LO, Comic actor of old Hollywood (partner of Bud Abbott)   Answer Key...

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. What comes to your mind when you think about this national holiday? Some might say the day is all about family, watching football, and savoring a special spread of festive foods. Why don’t we celebrate this holiday with its own unique set of vocabulary words that can be used to describe everything from the foods on the table to the celebratory festivities?       1.    The word “____________” took place in the 1200s, and it comes from the Latin bonitās, meaning “goodness.” Its synonym “abundance” is a central theme of the modern Thanksgiving celebration.       2.    The word “______________” is interchangeably used with stuffing. This word has become a popular alternative to the word stuffing during the Victorian era. Today, ________________ or stuffing are both acceptable terms for the popular seasoned breadcrumb side dish.       3.    A “___________________” ...