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Showing posts with the label CEF English Language Level C1

What is Lent?

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Lent is the word Christians use to describe the forty days leading up to  Easter .

What is the shortest complete sentence in English?

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There are two main candidates for the shortest sentence in the English language. 

What does Kabuki mean? How is this term used in politics?

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Kabuki  theatre is a stylised Japanese dance-drama tradition. Its origins date back to the early 17th century, when it rapidly grew in popularity Initially it was performed by both sexes, causing unease about public morals in official circles. The association between female actors and prostitution lead to a shogunate ruling in 1625. Since then the female parts are all played by males.  Key characteristics of  Kabuki  include  operatic plot lines, masks and heavy make-up. Shouting at other actors is encouraged, but though are common elements pantomime the tone is more delicate. As Louis Levene puts it: a great onnagata (a male actor playing a female role) will transcend the conventions and carry you away to the floating world. Modern versions Kotohira kabuki theatre The kabuki Bayreuth is the town of Kotohira, in Shikoku province. Local geisha funded the building of a kabuki theatre there in 1835 and fans pay £100 for tickets to the annual festival every spring.  Leading actors are

Why does the USA not have an official language?

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US states where English is an official language.  Light blue is where there are two official languages (Louisiana - French & English, New Mexico - Spanish & English, Hawaii - Hawaiian & English) 58 countries have English as an official language. Surprisingly, the list does not include either the UK or the USA. In the United States this was a conscious decision of the Founding Fathers . They believed that an official language would be divisive and undemocratic in a multi-lingual country.  Around 30% of the 18th century population of the USA was German or Dutch speaking. There were also many other linguistic minorities: 18 languages were spoken on Manhattan Island [New York City] as early as 1646. The Dutch, Flemish, Walloons, French, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Poles, Bohemians, Portuguese, and Italians were among the settlement’s early inhabitants.  Vincent N. Parrillo, Diversity in America , 2008 An extended version of this post is  here  (

Why do we say 'Good' Friday?

It may seem odd that Christians call their day  of greatest sorrow   Good Friday .  The confusion arises from how we perceive the word 'Good'. Here it is used in the archaic sense of 'holy' or momentous. Good Friday, called  Feria VI in  Parasceve  in the  Roman Missal ,  he hagia kai megale paraskeue  (the  Holy  and Great Friday) in the  Greek Liturgy ,  Holy Friday  in Romance Languages,  Charfreitag  (Sorrowful Friday) in  German , is the  English  designation of Friday in  Holy Week     source In other words,  Good marks the uniqueness of the Passion . It affirms the centrality of the crucifixion and resurrection to the Christian faith. Short essay :  Where does the word Easter come from? Passover? Good Friday?

Where does the word Easter come from?

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The word Easter is not in the New Testament. Nor does it feature in most translations of the Bible into vernacular languages.  Isn't Easter  linked to Passover? There is no direct linguistic link in English  between the  words  Easter  and   Passover .  This contrasts with the convention in Romance languages. Pâques, in French, covers both  Easter  and Passover . In Spanish,  Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the most common phrase used to describe the festival. So where does the word  Easter come from?      Scholars agree that Easter  has pre-Christian roots. Beyond that there is little consensus. According to the great Anglo-Saxon scholar the  Venerable Bede , the Old English word eastre came from Eostre, "a goddess associated with spring."   April was called Eosturmonath  ("Easter-month") because in pagan times the month was dedicated to Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring.   The Canadian Oxford Dictionary suggests a link to the Germanic goddess

What is 'concept creep'?

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What is Esperanto? And why did it irritate George Orwell?

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Polish linguist and pacifist, L.L. Zamenhof invented Esperanto ('hope) which he believed could be an international lingua franca or second language. Because it had no irregular verbs and phonetic spelling esperanto was a 'perfect' language . It also had no associations with a particular nationality or country. George Orwell's aunt was an early proponent of Esperanto - see comments below . When he went to stay with her in Paris, she insisted on speaking this new language when he was hoping to practise his French.  The political element of Esperanto particularly disturbed Orwell. The attempt to control and direct language was in his view a central feature of totalitarianism. Newspeak - the language Orwell created for his dystopian novel, 1984, is clearly a variant on Esperanto. More on Esperanto here English Language 100 FAQ   -  only £1.99

Where does the word meme come from?

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Where does the word Halloween come from?

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Photo by  freestocks.org  on  Unsplash Halloween or All-Hallows-Eve takes place on the night of 31 October in anticipation of All-Hallows-Day (1st November) . It has emerged from a combination of Christian and pagan traditions. Etymology Hallow is the old English word for saint. Halloween is a Scottish variation dating back to the 1700s. The 'een' suffix is a contraction of 'evening'. 'Hallowed evening' or 'holy evening' was later understood to mean eve or 'night before' as with Christmas Eve  All Hallows Day is now called All-Saints-Day in the Catholic calendar. It commemorates Christian martyrs   All Souls Day follows on 2 November. On All Souls Day Catholics pray for the 'souls of the (faithful) departed'. Photo by  Tony J  on  Unsplash Halloween FAQ - brief history of Halloween customs - free 3 min read Halloween often features in Victorian ghost stories. Read and/or listen to E. Nesbit’s ‘Man-Made-in

Where does the word baseball come from?

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The earliest reference to baseball comes in a diary entry of a Surrey solicitor, William Bray.

What does inside baseball mean?

Inside baseball  is a term popular with political and media analysts.

Where does the word OK come from?

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The word OK entered American English in the 19th century and is now one of the most popular in the language. But there is little agreement as to its origins.

Where does the word pundit come from?

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From the Hindi/Sanskrit word 'pandit'. 

What is a smoking gun? Where does the phrase come from?

A smoking gun is piece of incontrovertible incriminating evidence. 

Most popular word in English?

It has only two letters but is arguably 'America's greatest word'.  

Should Elvis have been 'shaken up"?

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shake  up 1.  To  upset  by or as if by a  physical   jolt  or  shock:   was   badly   shaken  up by  the   accident.   Source Freedictionary.com

What is a Republican? And a Democrat?

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There are only two major political parties in the US; the Republicans & the Democrats. A representative from one or other party has won every presidential election since 1852. Why the names Republican and Democrat?   This gets very confusing!  The Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton   was opposed by Thomas Jefferson who formed an opposition party in 1792. Jefferson's  party developed into the Democratic-Republican Party (1798). This was the forerunner of the modern Democratic Party . The  modern Republican Party was founded in the 1850s and  key features included opposition to slavery and a support base in the northern states. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, while the pro-slavery southern states were largely Democrat. Where do they stand today?   Registered voters in 2004 Broadly speaking, the Democratic Party is left-of-center and the Republican Party right-of-center. The American electorate is divided into these two camps. On one side are the Democrat

What are phrasal verbs? Why are they difficult to learn?

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What is a descriptivist? And a prescriptivist?

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Listen to this short description of two key words in linguistics: descriptivist and prescriptivist .