I was talking about greetings with a group of students last week and after class, this article on the ABC News website attracted my attention. An eleven-hour handshake! Those guys must be really good friends!
There were some interesting words and phrases in the article, too. The first one that caught my eye is when the author mentions ‘breaking a record‘. Here are a few ‘record‘ collocations:
- break a record – to do better than the existing record
- smash a record – to break a record by a large margin
- set a record – to do better than the existing record or to create a new record for doing something.
- record holder – the person who sets a new record
The next interesting word is when Mr Tsonis is quoted as saying:
We got a but gushy
‘Gushy‘ is when a person is in a highly emotional state and expresses those emotions by speaking a lot or crying.
In the next paragraph, it is mentioned that Hulk Hogan left his autograph in the visitor’s book. An ‘autograph‘ is when a person (usually famous) signs his name on a piece of paper.
The last piece of vocabulary I would like to look at is in the following paragraph where Mr Tsonis is quoted as saying:
That really buoyed the spirits for a couple of hours,
A buoy, is a floating marker used on the ocean and the expression ‘buoy the spirits‘ or ‘lift the spirits‘ means to make someone happier.
What’s the most common greeting in your country?
Today’s photo is by Mike Johnson.