Obama: "Four more years"

Barack Obama Wins Second Term
VOXY/AP | 7th November, 2012

WASHINGTON -

His lease renewed in trying economic times, President Barack Obama claimed a second term from an incredibly divided electorate and immediately braced for daunting challenges and progress that comes only in fits and starts.

"We have fought our way back and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America, the best is yet to come," Obama said.

The same voters who gave Obama four more years in office also elected a divided Congress, sticking with the dynamic that has made it so hard for the president to advance his agenda. Democrats retained control of the Senate; Republicans kept their House majority.

The vanquished Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, tried to set a more conciliatory tone on the way off the stage.

"At a time like this, we can't risk partisan bickering," Romney said after a campaign filled with it. "Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work."

The highlighted words are the most difficult ones, and they are in some way related to politics.

• fits and starts: with irregular bursts of activity
• yet to come: it will occur soon, it hasn't happened yet
• partisan bickering: arguments of supporters of a party

BARACK'S OBAMA VICTORY SPEECH

Order of adjectives

There are rules about the order we put adjectives before a noun.

Adjectives which say what we think or fell about something or how we judge it usually come beofre descriptive adjectives.

Although this order isn't completely fixed, we usually put descriptive adjectives in the following order:

Bonfire Night: 5th of November

On the night of Novemeber 5th, throughout Britain, there is a commemoration of the capture of Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament (where the Big Ben is) in London. People celebrate it with fireworks, bonfires and burning a dummy of Guy.
For 400 years, since 1605, bonfires have burned on Novemeber 5th to mark the failed Gunpowder Plot.
Watch this video with subtitles to know more about the history:

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Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween it's one of America's favourite holidays, but what's the real story behind the tricks and treats of Halloween? Find out watching this video
"Bet You Didn't Know: Halloween"



Check some Halloween jokes for laughing out loud!
My favourite one is "What do birds do in Halloween? Go trick or tweeting" :D

Hurricane Sandy: more than 10 deaths reported, flooding in New York andNew Jersey

Follow hurricane Sandy in English on the BBC page  by cliking this link! 
Latest updates from BBC News US: liveo video with spoken commentaries on the latest updates.

'Frankenstorm': 

Worse Than Sum of Its Parts

VOXY/AP | 29th October, 2012

 

Hurricane Sandy, dubbed "Frankenstorm", is expected to bring a "life-threatening" surge flood to the mid-Atlantic coast, including Long Island Sound and New York Harbour. 
Photo: Nasa/Getty Images

WASHINGTON- The storm that is threatening 60 million Americans in the eastern third of the nation with high winds, drenching rains, extreme tides, flooding and probably snow is much more than just an ordinary weather system. It's a freakish and unprecedented monster.

How did it get that way?

Start with Sandy, an ordinary late summer hurricane from the tropics, moving north up the East Coast. Bring in a high pressure ridge of air that blocks the hurricane's normal out-to-sea path and steers it west toward land.

Add a wintry cold front moving in from the west that helps pull Sandy inland and mix in a blast of Arctic air from the north for one big collision.

Do all that and you get a stitched-together weather monster expected to unleash its power over 800 miles, with predictions in some areas of 12 inches of rain, 2 feet of snow and sustained 40- to 50 mph winds.

On Thursday, NOAA forecaster Jim Cisco called it "Frankenstorm", an allusion to Mary Shelley's gothic creature of synthesized elements.

Cisco and others have called this storm unprecedented.

Reading and vocabulary questions, (register in Voxy, it's free and safe) and click the link to know the meaning of these highlighted vocabulary words, to listen to their pronunciation, and for some online comprehenion questions. Memory game: practise matching these words to their meanings using memory cards.

PHRASE

To be 'in the eye of the storm'. If someone is 'in the eye of the storm' it means that they are in the centre of a disagreement.

For example:

 -Greece is in the eye of the storm which has gathered over the world economy and is threatening to tear the eurozone apart. 

 -Our teacher is making us sit our exams again. Johnny was caught in the eye of the storm after he boasted about cheating. 

Don't confuse it with

Another phrase based on meteorology is 'lull before the storm'. That means a quiet time before one of intense activity.

The shop assistants took advantage of the lull before the storm and tidied up the hat display. They knew the moment the doors opened they would be flooded with bargain-hunters.

Interesting fact

Although this phrase is used to describe being at the centre of a problem or dispute, the real 'eye' of a storm is very calm. The eye - a circular area in the middle of a hurricane, which can be up to 65km in diameter - is characterized by light winds and clear skies, which last for a short period before the strong winds, rain and thunder return.

The importance of pronunciation

This video  shows how important it is to pronounce correctly, emphasizing the difference between short and long vowels to avoid misunderstandings! Lol

Here you have the pronunciation of all the phonetic symbols of English. Learn them as this will help you when looking up words in the dicionary

Collocations with 'take'