Anxious or Eager?

Depending on how you feel, you may be anxious or eager for school to start.

To some people, "anxious" has more of a negative connotation than "eager." You're eager for school to start if you're looking forward to it. You're anxious for school to start if you feel nauseous every time you think about it.

"Anxious" comes from the same root as "anxiety." If you can remember that, you can remember that "anxious" isn't a good thing.

"Anxious" is evolving, though. The distinction between "anxious" and "eager" was much stronger in the seventeenth century. Today, many people use the words interchangeably.

• I'm eager to see my best friend again. (standard)
• I'm anxious to see the school bully. (standard)
• I'm anxious to get our new puppy. (acceptable, but sometimes disputed)

A life changing experience

SARAH:   Are you sure you're alright?

MARK:     Yeah.

SARAH:   I heard you talking to yourself.

MARK:     Yeah.

SARAH:   Mark, I'm glad we came to the desert.

Hypocrite

This is really an amazing word in spoken English.  When you say the word, the sound is like “Hipp 0h krit”

Anyway, a “hypocrite” is a person who tells someone never to do something but then they do it themselves.  It’s a terrible quality.

For example, if a father tells his son to never smoke, but he’s a smoker, then the father is ahypocrite.

The 50 most important English proverbs

Every culture has a collection of wise sayings that offer advice about how to live your life. These sayings are called "proverbs". It's good to know the really common English proverbs because you hear them come up in conversation all the time. Sometimes people say the entire proverb to give advice to a friend. More often, someone will say just part of a proverb like this: You know what they say: when the going gets tough...

The 25 Most Famous Movie Quotes

This is a list of the most well-known movie quotes in American culture. You should definitely learn and memorize these quotes. Not only are they useful as English sentences to practice; they're also useful because English speakers quote them all the time! It's common for someone to drop a famous movie quote in the middle of a conversation. Each quote has a YouTube clip   to go along with it. Click the video or the link to watch it.

     1.   “Houston, we have a problem.” (Apollo 13)

People quote this line when there's a big problem.

The Olympic Games in Britain

The 7-year build up to the Olympic Games in London has not been easy. Since the news in 2005 that we would be hosting the Games, there has been a global financial crash and a long recession.

Reagan tells jokes about Soviet Union