Talk and Speak

These verbs have very similar meanings, but they are not always interchangeable.

•   Talk is a more general term
•   Speak is used for formal speeches and where a person in authority is    addressing an audience

Choose the correct verb talk or speak to complete the sentences

1. Seigfried ....... English very well.

2. The headmaster is ....... to all the parents this evening.

3. The Queen ....... to the nation on christmas day.

4. We hadn't met for over 10 years so we spent the whole night .......!

5. Remember to ....... up in your oral exam so that the examiner can hear you.

6. Right, 'any other business', can we ....... about the news sales strategy?

Take and Have

Choose the correct verb - take or have - to complete the sentences

1. It  ....... years of practice to speak a language fluently.

2. Counselling usually ....... a positive effect on sufferers of depression.

3. You have no right to say that, I ....... exception to your comments!

4. I'm sorry she's not in, can I ....... a message?

5. Dan, can I ....... a quick word with you?

6. Shall we ....... something to eat?

7. I'd like you to ....... part in tomorrow's meeting.

8. I can't get this table to work can you ....... a go?

Self Development Tips

As long as you are still alive, you are capable of changing and growing. You can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be. Listen to some positive thoughts on how to continue your self development and then apply them in your own life. 
1. Accept personal responsibility for your own growth; no one can do it for you.  What you do today will determine your readiness for tomorrow.
2. Take time every day to do something for yourself.

Top 10 Rare & Amusing Insults

#1: Cockalorum

Definition: a boastful and self-important person; a strutting little fellow

About the word:

If cockalorum suggests a crowing cock, that's because cockalorum probably comes from kockeloeren – an obsolete Dutch dialect verb meaning "to crow."

Top 10 Words for Unusual Colors

#1: Vermilion

Color:  Vivid reddish orange

About the Word: 

Spanish painter Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (who painted in the late 1700s and early 1800s) was so fond of this vibrant color that vermilion also became known as goya.

Recommended event: Russian Week in London, at MacDougall’s

    Every year towards the end of May the three great London art auction houses that deal in Russian art hold their main annual sales. It is known as Russian Week. 

  MacDougall’s because  is the only one that advertises viewings in Moscow of the works on sale (and in Kiev, where there are, apparently, almost as many billionaires per head of the population as here). They will be auctioning many fine paintings, including Ivan Ivanovsky’s depiction of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, one of the many he painted of the city on the water. It is reproduced to the left of this photograph of two people looking at this amazing work—even more striking, of course, in real life than in the catalogue in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral art annexe.

The Idiom Connection

http://www.idiomconnection.com/
http://www.native-english.ru/expressions
http://www.idiomconnection.com/aquiz.html#A