Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks with the following words. There may be more than one right answer.
as a result of despite even so in order to whereas
1. ___ ensure everything goes to plan, please read all instructions carefully.
2. ___ recent cutbacks, Marketing and Sales will be merged into one department.
3. Mary and Jeff feel we need to reduce personnel expenses, ___ I believe we should take more people on!
4. I agree with you about that; ___, I’m not going to approve it.
5. Valerie sent the report out, ___ my strict instructions not to.
Both of these expressions are used when someone has done far, far more than was required of them. Have a look at the following examples: – Sergeant McCrosky received a medal for Service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty for saving that drowning girl last week. – Melanie in customer service really […]
Remember, these phrasal verbs are not “make + particle” but rather units, so learn them as such! Put these verbs in the correct sentence, conjugated as necessary. You may want to look these words up in a dictionary, as they may have secondary meanings! (Just like in that sentence: “look up” isn’t just “turn your […]
– Imagine you have to give a presentation on a topic you’re fairly familiar with, but still haven’t prepared for. If you have to go in right now, without your notes or PowerPoint slides, and give it, we would say that you have to wing it. This means to just jump in and do what needs to be done even if you haven’t prepared for it.
“In case” may seem familiar to Spanish speakers, but it’s not what it seems at first glance. In fact, we need to look at more of the phrase to be sure we know what we’re talking about.
By this, I mean we need to see if there’s an “of”, i.e., “in case of”. This phrase can be translated into Spanish, no problem.
In case of fire, break glass.
The barbeque will be outside. In case of rain, the auditorium can be used as a back-up location.
But, without that “of”, “in case” means “if something should happen”:
You shouldn’t light that match, in case you start a fire.
We’ve prepared the auditorium in case it rains during the barbeque.
Put the correct particle into the blanks below. There’s one extra.
Go!
To make this easier, we’re going to break all these words into two groups: 1. Despite and in spite of are prepositions, meaning that they must be followed by nouns or verbs in the gerund. Despite having studied, Peter just couldn’t pass the exam. Kelly couldn’t get into the disco in spite of knowing the […]
This idiom expresses the idea that in order to know something’s true value or to really know what something is like, you have to try it out first. Sometimes, the corrupted phrase “The proof is in the pudding” is used. You can use either, though the title one is recommended. Yolanda: Oooh, you made pudding! […]