Paris Olympic Games; Then and Now
Test your number skills with these 20 questions about numbers in Sport.
Numbers can be a difficult part of learning a new language.
New learners often confuse “hundreds” and “thousands”, “fifteen” and “fifty”, “half past six” with “six and a half hours” etc etc etc.
The only way to improve your number skills is with practice.
Start by learning important numbers for you: your age, your address, your phone number.
Then practice well known expressions such as “fifty-fifty”, “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”.
Test your number skills: numbers in sport Try this quiz to consolidate your number
skills while learning fun facts about different sports.
The How to Understand Thanksgiving Quiz
The last Thursday in November is a major celebration day in the USA, it is a national holiday and a time for friends and family to get together.
You have surely heard of Thanksgiving, it is often portrayed in American movies and TV series, but do you really understand why it’s so important to Americans.
Try this 20 question step by step quiz which will give the answers to all your questions.
The quiz of course covers the FACTS of the events, but before doing the quiz it is important to note that the Thanksgiving celebration is not universally accepted and is indeed quite controversial.
For many Americans Thanksgiving is a special holiday and a precious time spent with friends and family.
However, for others, the celebration is deeply controversial – as Thanksgiving has a contentious history that goes far beyond when the first feast was held.
For many Thanksgiving is considered to be a “national day of mourning to be viewed as terrible time when colonists wiped out Native Americans and their culture. They feel that this period of history is “white-washed”- which leads many Americans to ignore the holiday.
Many Native Americans see Thanksgiving as an embellished view of “Pilgrims and Natives looking past their differences” to break bread together. Critics of the Thanksgiving myth protest that young children in American schools are taught about Thanksgiving in school in a totally unrealistic way which ignores the harsh reality of the bloody conflict between the colonists and the Native Americans.
For several decades now, the militant group, the United American Indians of New England (UAINE), has staged demonstrations in Plymouth each Thanksgiving their intention being to awaken the country to the darker side of Plymouth.
So although Thanksgiving may be a celebration of people coming together, that is not the whole story when it comes to the history of the day.
So while doing the quiz it’s important to bear in mind the debate between “the heroic Pilgrim fathers” and the “day of national shame”.
The How to Understand Thanksgiving Quiz Have you heard about Thanksgiving but have never really understood what the
fuss is about ? The 20 questions in this step by step quiz will help you to
appreciate why Americans go crazy on the last Thursday of November every
year.
First of all, what are Phrasal Verbs? They are verbs whose meaning changes when a preposition is added. For example, let’s take the verb “Take”, which has many different meaning depending on the preposition; to take off (for a plane, for clothes), to take on (to hire someone.) to take in (the reduce the size of clothes), take out (to remove).
Ok, so do you really need to learn this. The short answer is yes, especially if you’re working with native English speakers. But what is the best way to remember these verbs?
In this podcast we give some tips and focus in particular on phrasal verbs which are frequently used in meetings.
The first point is ….. do not be afraid of phrasal verbs, they may seem strange to you, but they can be very helpful and they are an essential part of the language.
The best way to learn phrasal verbs is to see them in context.
So think of your context. Is it a meeting? Is it shopping? Is it at the airport? Is it in a restaurant?
Try to notice phrasal verbs when you’re in these particular contexts. It’s extremely difficult (if not impossible) to learn these verbs from a list in a book. Always visualise yourself in the context.
And in this podcast you’ll notice that you don’t need to learn many of them.
Start small and build on them.
Football will be in the news for a month during the World Cup 2026.
Are you able to talk “footy”? Do you know the football jargon that we hear around us in the bars? Take the opportunity this month to go to bars and start up a conversation with other people about the football matches, it’s a great way to improve your English!
In this podcast Sue puts Chris on the spot when she asks him to explain frequent football words and expressions. You’ll hear that they’re not big fans of football but they’ll make the effort for language learning 🙂
Give yourself a pat on the back when you understand what these words mean;
To kick off / The coin toss /
A goalie / to save a goal / to mark a player
To score a hattrick
A foul / a tackle / to get booked / to be sent off/ to get a red card
A peno / a penalty shootout
To park the bus
Extra time vs Injury time
…. and the language of TV football commentators
It’s a game of 2 halves
To put the game to bed
What a beauty !
They’re on the back foot
He’s bottled it
It’s an open goal / It’s an own goal
That’s a blatant handball !
“Football’s coming home” 🙂
Then test your memory with this Flash Quiz.
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Listen to the podcast here.
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