Image of The Day

Quote of The Day

"The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office."
- Robert Frost was an American poet.

Teaching Tips & Ideas

TO BE AS "TER"

The Verb To Have (Ter) in Portuguese is widely used, appearing in terms of our everyday life and often assuming an idiomatic role. The Verb To Have, which would be its equivalent in English, has a more restricted use, not appearing too much in idiomatic forms. The Verb To Be, on the other hand, covers in English a large area of significance, appearing in many expressions of our everyday life, similar to the Verb To Be (Ser) in Portuguese. Therefore the verb To Have corresponds to the verb To Be, in the examples below: H.C.

Quantos anos você tem? - How old are you?
Você tem certeza? - Are you sure?
Você tem razão. - You are right.
Não tenho medo de cachorro. - I'm not afraid of dogs.
O que é que tem de errado? - What's wrong?
Não foi culpa minha. - It wasn't my fault.
Tivemos sorte. - We were lucky.
Tenha cuidado. - Be careful.
Tenho pena deles (sinto por eles). - I'm sorry for them.
Não tenho condições de trabalhar. - I'm not able to work. / I can't work.
Ela tem vergonha de falar Inglês. - She's too shy to speak English.
Você tem que ter paciência. - You must be patient.
Ele tem jeito para línguas. - He's good at languages.
Um canteiro de fumo tem 2 metros de largura por 25 de comprimento. - A tobacco seedbed is 2 meters wide and 25 meters long.

Laughter's the Best Medicine

No Worries

Abe and Esther are flying to Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Suddenly, over the public address system, the Captain announces, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning and we will attempt an emergency landing. Luckily, I see an uncharted island below us and we should be able to land on the beach. However, the odds are that we may never be rescued and will have to live on the island for the rest of our lives!"

Thanks to the skill of the pilot and the flight crew, the plane lands safely on the island. An hour later Abe turns to his wife and asks,

"Esther, did we pay our $5,000 PBS pledge check yet?"

"No, sweetheart," she responds.

Abe, still shaken from the crash landing, then asks, "Esther, did we pay our American Express card yet?"

"Oh, no! I'm sorry. I forgot to send the check," she says.

"One last thing, Esther. Did you remember to send checks for the Visa and MasterCard this month?" he asks.

"Oh, forgive me, Abie," begged Esther. "I didn't send that one, either."

Abe grabs her and gives her the biggest kiss in 40 years. Esther pulls away and asks him, "What was that for?"

Abe answers, "They'll find us!"

Word of The Day

Underbid

Function: verb (with object)

Inflected forms:

underbids; underbid; underbidding

Meaning: to offer to do work for less money than (another person or group)
to bid less than (someone else)
E.G.

We were underbid by another company (another company offered to do a job for less money than we did) and we lost the contract.

A Christmas Tale

Hugo Caldas

Due to the fact that I virtually lived from 7 to 12 years of age, aboard a small Piper Cub flown by my father, stories about airmen and aircrafts are particularly fascinating to me. Below, is the report of a Christmas Tale the way I was told. Please note that until WW2 we knew perfectly well who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. Nowadays, unfortunately ... H.C.

That morning of December 24, 1943, Charles Brown, 21 years, was the pilot of the Flying Fortress, Boeing B-17 with the 379th Bomber Group based at Kimbolton, England. His B-17 was called "Ye Olde Pub" and was in terrible and very poor condition, after being repeatedly hit by flak and fighters during a difficult task of bombing a factory in Bremen, Germany. The compass, and the radio, were damaged and the plane completely disoriented, was flying dangerously deeper over the German territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton. Of the ten crew members seven were seriously injured, himself bleeding, a splinter stuck in his left shoulder.

After flying over an enemy air base, Charlie Brown was trying to bring his agonizing bomber back to base. He felt his heart freeze when he looked through the right window and saw a Messerschmitt 109 fighter, armed to the teeth, flying dangerously close to what remained of his Flying Fortress.

The pilot of the German fighter, Franz Stigler was ordered to take off and shoot down what was left of the B-17. When approaching the four-engine, the German pilot could not believe his eyes. He had never seen an aircraft in such a bad state. The tail of the aircraft and the rear section were severely damaged, there was almost nothing left. He could see that the tail gunner was wounded. The striker had his remains scattered all over the fuselage. The nose of the aircraft was crushed, and there were holes everywhere. A complete destruction.

Well armed, Franz flew to the side of the Flying Fortress and stared at Charlie Brown's eyes that terrified fought to keep in the air his destroyed and blood-stained plane. It seemed incredible that so shattered the B-17 remained flying. Brown did everything to reach the coasts of England some 250 miles away.

Realizing that the Americans had not the slightest idea of where they were going, the German pilot began swaying his wings indicating that he, Charlie Brown, should turn 180 degrees. This was done and Franz flew to the side, and escorted the bomber to the North Sea, towards the base in England. Then suddenly he saluted Charlie Brown and returned to the continent.

When Franz landed, he filled in the forms of practice stating there he had overthrown the B-17 at sea. He never told the truth to anyone. On arrival at the Base, Charlie Brown and his crew brought the truth in the report, but received orders not to comment on the incident.

Over 40 years have passed and Charlie Brown could not forget the incident and wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who had saved his crew. The episode of the German pilot who refused to attack the opponent injured, still chasing him. Brown remained on the firm intention of finding the pilot that had helped him to reach the remote base. Franz, in turn, never talked about the adventure, even in the post-war meetings.

Fate made them to meet themselves on a gathering of Group 379th in the U.S. in 1989, along with five other crew members of the B-17. Brown wrote numerous letters to German military sources, but had little or no success. Finally, a small note in the journal of the Luftwaffe veterans exhibited a response from Franz Stigler, the 28 air victories ace. He was finally discovered. He was that merciful angel in Germany that fateful December 24, Christmas Eve of 1943.

46 years of waiting, but Charles Brown in 1989, after an exchanging of letters, found the mysterious man of the Me 109. Stigler spoke about details common to the two airmen and left not the slightest doubt about his identity. In his first letter to Brown, Stigler writes:

- "After all these years, I still imagine what happened to the B-17."

- "We all survived by little, said Brown. But why didn't you destroy your helpless prey?"

- "I had no heart to destroy those brave men, Stigler said. I flew alongside them for a long time. They desperately tried to return to base, and I would allow them to do so. I could not have thrown them. "

The war ends and Stigler emigrated to Canada and lived near Vancouver, British Columbia.

- "He almost broke my ribs, so strong was the hug, said Brown."

Thenceforward the two visited each other frequently and appeared together on military events in the United States and Canada. In the Air Force Ball in Miami in 1995, the two received several honors.

Our heroes are weary:

Franz Stigler passed away on March 22, 2008, with 92 years of age. Cel Charles Brown died last November 23rd at the age of 86.

The above story had happened because Franz Stigler declined to fire his weapons that day on December 24, 1943. It was a memorable act of gallantry in wartimes.

hucaldas@gmail.com
hugocaldas.blogspot.com

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."
Albert Einstein

LAUGHTER'S THE BEST MEDICINE

Never Ever Trust A Women With Money

When John found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a woman to enjoy it with. So one evening he went to a singles bar where he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.

“I may look like just an ordinary man,” he said as he walked up to her “but in just a week or two, my father will die, and I’ll inherit 20 million dollars.”

Impressed, the woman went home with him that evening and, three days later, she became his stepmother.

Teaching Tips & Ideas

Longest Words



1. The longest word in standard English dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at 45 letters long.

2. The longest English word that does not contain the letter 'e' is floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters.

3. Cabbaged and fabaceae, each 8 letters long, are the longest words that can be played on a musical instrument.

4. Aegilops, 8 letters long, is the longest word with its letters arranged in alphabetical order.

5. Spoonfed, 9 letters long, is the longest word with its letters arranged in reverse alphabetical order.

6. CIMICIC and CIMICID, each 7 letters long, are the longest words that are exclusively made up of Roman numerals when written in upper case. Among words consisting of only Roman numeral letters, the "highest scoring" are MIMIC (2,102) and IMMIX (2,012).

7. Overnumerousnesses, 18 letters long, is the longest word that consists of only letters that lack ascenders, descenders and dots in lower case.

8. Lighttight and hillypilly, each 10 letters long, are the longest words consisting only of letters with ascenders, descenders and dots in lower case.

9. Tittifill, 9 letters long, is the longest word consisting only of letters with ascenders or dots in lower case.

10. Honorificabilitudinitatibus, 27 letters long, is the longest word consisting strictly of alternating consonants and vowels.

11. Dermatoglyphics, misconjugatedly and uncopyrightable , each 15 letters long, are the longest words in which no letter appears more than once.

12. Unprosperousness, 16 letters long, is the longest word in which each letter occurs at least twice.

13. Esophagographers, 16 letter long, is the longest word in which each of its letters occurs twice.

14. Diescret - discreet is the longest homophonic anagram (2 similarly pronounced words that are spelled differently but sound the same and are composed of the same letters).

15. Redivider is the longest common palindromic word ( a word reading the same backwards and forwards).

16. The longest words that are reverse images of each other are stressed and desserts .