Have you ever dreamt of winning the lottery? I certainly have! That’s why I was so interested in this article on the BBC News website yesterday. There’s a great word in the title: Huge Italy jackpot still not won A ‘jackpot‘ is the biggest prize offered in a competition or lottery. We often use it …
I was very interested to read about Nissan’s new electric car in this article in the Guardian earlier this month. I like the idea of electric cars because they are clean and also very quiet. There were some really interesting words and expressions in this article right from the beginning: Sunderland in running to make …
There’s something I find exciting about hidden treasure and I’m sure a lot of people share the same feeling. Maybe that’s why computer games like ‘Tomb Raider’ and movies like the ‘Indiana Jones’ series are so popular all over the world. This article caught my attention over the weekend because of its links to hidden …
After my post on fears and phobias last month, a few people asked me if there was a specific name for the fear of scorpions. Scorpions belong to the arachnid family of animals so ‘arachnophobia’ would cover the fear of them and spiders, too. This started me thinking about what the most common phobias are …
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a man who died by drowning in chocolate. There was another unusual death in this article on the BBC website a few days ago. The article mentions that the lady was a ‘shopaholic‘. A ‘shopaholic’ is someone who is addicted to shopping. We often use the suffix ‘-holic’ to …
I mentioned the word ‘netbook’ in a post last week about Windows 7. Here it is in the BBC news again with a really detailled descriptions of the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of netbooks. The first expression that caught my eye in this article was in the fifth paragraph: The firm’s Eee PC …
I saw a great word in the news today mentioned in this article in the Telegraph. ‘Gazumping‘ (also spelled ‘gadzumping’) is when a potential house-buyer has agreed on a price with the seller and put down a deposit, then someone else offers the seller more and ends up buying the house instead of the original …
This article on Reuters.com caught my attention today. I thought it was an interesting way to deal with a tricky problem and couldn’t imagine many other world leaders coming up with such a solution. There is some interesting vocabulary in the third paragraph: prompting an outcry from police groups and a resulting media blitz. A …