On our sister site Rich Reads, there's a great exercise for fire idioms. Scroll down to Learn English Online (Newest Links) for the link "Fire Idioms".
More idioms
Take a look at English idioms using hot and English idioms using cold for some more idioms to do with temperature.
Extra exercise
Put the words into the gaps below to make common expressions.
blaze
burning
ice
fire
red
spark
a ——– desire
——– hot
as cold as ——–
a bright ——–
a roaring ——–
a ——– of glory
The travel and tourism industry employs many people in different roles. Decide which categories the following jobs come into: hotel staff, restaurant staff, transport staff, or tourist industry staff.
baggage handler
barman
cabin crew
captain
chambermaid
chef
guide
holiday rep
maitre d'
receptionist
pilot
porter
travel agent
waiter
waitress
Here's a question from a site visitor:
Find some words beginning with vowels but which have consonant sounds (i.e. European) and words beginning with consonants but which have vowel sounds (such as hour).
How many can you find?
Hundreds of thousands of travellers have been left stranded (= unable to go anywhere) because ash from the Icelandic volcano eruption is preventing aeroplanes from travelling.
The British government has drawn up plans to evacuate (= bring home) passengers trapped ( = unable to move) in airports and hotels around Europe.
Do you have any "travellers tales" (stories from your travels) about travel disruption?
Bored at work or at school? Here's a quick vocabulary challenge for you.
How many words do you know can go with "Easter"?
Here's an obvious one:
Easter egg
Over to you…
Are there pairs of English words which cause you confusion, such as effect and affect, historic and historical, or check and control?
Do you memorise a list, or put words into themes to learn? How do you practise new words and phrases?
I'd love to hear what works best for you!
There are many things I love about England. People are generally kind, thoughtful and polite; London is exciting. multi-cultural and great for shopping; and the countryside is beautiful – occasionally dramatic but often soothing.
If you had to describe your country in three words or phrases, how would you do it? Feel free to use any combination of adjectives, nouns or verbs – unleash your English vocabulary here!
I think reading iin English is a great way to improve vocabulary and writing skills. But it can be very frustrating to have to keep looking in a dictionary because you don't understand all the words. Of course, you don't always need to know every word, and often you can guess the meaning of the word from the context, but it's sometimes difficult to know what word you need to look up, and what word you can "ignore".
What do you do when you read? Do you look up every word, or only those you're sure are important to understand?
There's been a lot of tweeting about the millionth English word just announced, but a BBC article questions whether the new word is the millionth.
The article points out that the exact size of English vocabulary is impossible to quantify. If you count every technical term, there are more than a million words. If you don't count "specialist slang" there are perhaps three quarters of a million words.
And the millionth English word is…? (Hint: it's internet-related!)
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