If you were asked to describe to us about your village or city
what 5 adjectives would you list to give us a vivd description of it?
Archive for the ‘Languages’ Category
English Skills Tester
December 9, 2018For Practice
1. Which of the following are amphibians?
(a) frogs (b) salamanders (c) toads (d) lizards
2. Which of the following are not reptiles?
(a) lizards (b) snakes (c) frogs (d) crocodiles
3. Which of the following do not conduct electricity?
(a) wood (b) glass (c) air (d) all of these
4. Which of the following is not a synonym of orbit?
(a) rotation (b) circuit (c) revolution (d) all are synonyms
5. By studying prehistoric animals scientists can tell us about________ they looked like.
(a) that (b) what (c) whether (d) who
6. Tuition has increased greatly.
(a) hardly at all (b) by leaps and bounds
(c) rather steadily (d) little by little
7. Last year the amount of oil produced _______ dropped.
(a) increasingly (b) gradually (c) weakly (d) a bit
8. The enrolment for the course is almost _________.
(a) increased (b) full (c) less (d) empty
Re: Droits de scolarité & Un appel à frais virés
July 12, 2012Lately we have all been hearing much talk about post-secondary students clamoring for a freeze on school fees and even going so far as demanding zero tuition. The French term for right, “droit” which is contained in “droits de scolarité,” meaning school fees, implies that tuition bestows the right to an education. Should these students have the right to a free education or at least have their fees frozen? Hold that thought until their next boycott of classes.
“Droits” as in “droits d’auteur” acknowledges the author’s right to financial compensation proportionate to the number of copies of his/her work that are sold. In the case of writers, they would like their copyright laws reinforced to better protect their rights.
A collect telephone call or “un appel à frais virés” occurs when the receiver accepts the costs. When asking someone if he/she will accept these charges, the question to ask is, “Assumerez-vous les frais?” but not “les charges” since the French term “charge” means load. For example, workload translates as “charge de travail”.
BSO (auteur)
Published in the Spring (May-June) 2012 Newsletter of:
The Quebec
Provincial Association
of Retired School
Educators
Planning Ahead
January 8, 2012A. In the year 2020:
1. Do you hope to be on Easy Street?
2. Will society be the way it is today?
B. By the year 2020:
1. Do you hope to have hit the Lotto jackpot?
2. (a) Will you have packed your bags and moved away?
(b) Why or why not?
(c) If so, where will you have moved to?
3. Will you have been doing the same job
for a long time?
4. Will certain jobs no longer exist?
Un peu de grammaire française
November 22, 2011Exemple: “Excepté livraison locale”
You’ve seen this phrase many times on traffic signs but have you ever
wondered why “excepté” in this instance does not agree with “livraison” which is
a feminine noun, while “locale” does, hence the “e” added at the end of
“locale” but not “excepté”.
The grammatical rule here is that there is no agreement when as a preposition “excepté” appears before a noun like in the above illustration. Therefore, it remains unchanged in that phrase.
Generally speaking the term “traffic light” does not allude to anything having to do with fire. Yet the French term “feu
de circulation” (meaning “traffic lights”) contains the word “feu” which translates as “fire” in English. In fact, it was around the year 1188 that “feu” came to mean origin of light in French. (http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/feu)
And so the association ensued between “light” and “feu”.
Interestingly enough, “I’m getting off at the next light” translates as “Je débarquerai au prochain feu” and not “lumière,” (http://66.46.185.79/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?t1=1&id=2529), which also means “light” but refers to the kind that brightens a room for instance.
B.S.O. (auteur)
Autumn Newsletter (October & November) 2011 of
The Quebec
Provincial Association
of Retired School
Educators
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