Category: Vocabulary (Page 1 of 2)

This TV program is big. People of all ages watch it. I’ve watched it.  But do we really have such a thing as an American idol? Do we want to? 

What is an idol, anyway?

An idol is something that is a representation of a god, and it is also worshiped.  People bow to idols, as if bowing to honor a god.

Then there is the word “idol” as in Hollywood.  Many stars of stage and screen are called “idols.” People look up to them as representing something virtuous. They idolize them.

Do we look up to the American idol singing stars this way?  Do you?

Personally, I think the word is a bit too strong for what the musicians and artists are representing.   They may sing well but that doesn’t mean that they are more virtuous as people or that we should bow down to them as if they were deities.

What do you think?

When people move and emigrate to a new land, they often lose track of their ancestry.  Records are lost, memories are lost.  When the older generation dies, there is often nobody left to tell the story of their ancestry to the younger generation.

In the United States, websites abound that specialize in doing ancestral searches.   One of the biggest websites is ancestry.com.  Americans can’t get enough of searching for their ancestors. They want to do their family tree. They want to know who their long-lost relatives are. Sometimes they’ll have a family reunion and meet, for the first time, long-l0st relatives.

Who are my ancestors? Where did my ancestors come from? Do I have living relatives who I don’t know exist?

These are some of the questions that Americans ask themselves.

Americans whose ancestors arrived in the United States between 1892 and 1924  use sites such as Ellisisland.org to help them identify their ancestors and to learn about their backgrounds. Ellis Island opened on January 1, 1892 as a port of migration for millions, and closed as a port of mass migration in 1924, when the government began to heavily restrict immigration into the United States.

What do you know about your ancestors?  Are you interested in doing an ancestral search?  Are you interested in learning more about your family tree?

How, and why, have memories gotten lost?

***

For an additional reading comprehension activity about Ellis Island, click on this link.

Are you having trouble expressing your computer-literate self in English?  One summer my husband and I traveled to Spain and found our hotel internet to be down.  So we went to some of the public internet sites that abound.  I had so much difficulty knowing how to navigate my way around the keyboard. The language on the keys was different.  Even the keyboard was different from the American keyboard: keys were in different places than I was accustomed to!

So let’s take a look at the English language keyboard used here in the United States and let’s learn what everything is.  We’ll begin with the left side of the keyboard.

The top left key that says “Esc” is for “ESCAPE“. You use this key to escape from any bad situations. Be careful, because this might close any programs that you have running. We use this word “escape” as a noun (he planned his escape), as an adjective (the escape route), and as a verb (he escaped).

On the left, you have the “Tab” key. The “tab” key moves a certain number of predetermined spaces to the right each time you hit, or click, it. We use this as a verb (to tab over to a certain point).

Beneath that, you have the “Caps Lock” key. “Caps” stands for “capitals” and it locks the capital letters into place.

Beneath that, you have the “Shift” key.  Pressing this alternates your letters between small letters and capital letters (small letters and “caps”) and alternates the number row between the numerals and the symbols (such as the numeral 2 and the symbol @, or the numeral 8 and the symbol *). “Shift” is also a verb: You shift between capital letters and small letters.

Beneath the “Shift” key you have the “Control” key. You use the Control key together with another key to perform some function that you desire. For example, if you select some text or an image, then press the Control key and the “C” key together, you will COPY the text you have selected onto your notepad, which you can then paste onto something else.

Below is a review of the vocabulary used in this blog post:

Now I’ll list our vocabulary:

(to be) down
(to) escape
(to) close a program
(to) run/(to) have running
(to) tab/(to) tab over to…
(to) lock
caps/capital letters
(to) shift
(to) alternate

So that’s PART 1 of today’s lesson, Navigating the Computer Keyboard in English!

We will complete the keyboard in subsequent lessons.