Learning English

The big, bad wolf!
How do you think the story will end?

A) The wolf eats Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood for dinner
B) The wolf is killed  
C) Grandma jumps out of the wardrobe and saves Little Red Riding Hood
D) Something else 

To do

Watch the video and find out which option is correct. And listen out for four more uses of cut.

영상보고 엑티비티를 하세요

To do

So, the correct answer was D) Something else. The wolf is chased away and Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood are safe. Grandma even meets a handsome man!

Now lets practise the different uses of cut. Have a go at this quiz.

Over to you

We asked you to tell us a story using as many of the phrases with cut as possible:

• cut out 
• to cut a long story short 
• cut (someone) short 
• shortcut 
• cut to the chase
• cut down
• woodcutter
• cut (someone/something) up 
• cutbacks 

Your Stories:

Zahid Hussain Khan, Pakistan

"Due to recent cutbacks in lately approved government budget, many people have to cut out expensive food from outside. Labour class, specially woodcutters, find it difficult to survive on such low wages. Due to recent tax on wood labour, It is expected that they will stop cutting down trees. To cut a long story short, for the poor it has become difficult to survive. A study shows that many of them take shortcuts to earn big amount through illicit means is reason for increasing crime rate." My colleague explained the after effects of the budget.

"I don’t agree with this argument" I cut him short before he completes. Cutting to the chase, he continued "I think government will have to take back the decision of tax imposition on woodcutters". I agreed and said "If the divide between rich & poor keep increasing, the poor will cut the rich up for the money".

___________________

Utku Doğru, Turkey

I and my parents go to village to steer clear of the excessive hot weather every summer. Also, this rural area’s air is much cleaner than city. There aren’t too many cars like city. So you’re far away from the exhaust fume and noise pollution. We set off our journey in the morning. It’s the best way to get there taking the shortcut. It’s definitely save our time. We can arrive there early than usual. The road is encircled by trees. While I was driving woodcutters catched my attention. They were cutting down trees. Initially,I wondered why they were doing it but I didn’t go over.

At last,we arrived our home. We were all were hungry. My father cut chicken up and fried it for dinner. It was so delicious. During the dinner I wanted to talked about politics,up-to-date issues and so on but my parents cut me short. Obviously,they wanted to keep their mind relax for a while on holiday. After the dinner,my mother offered me my favourite dessert but I told her that I’ve cut on [BBC Learning English says: cut down on or cut out] desserts recently to stay fit. At the end, I was so tired and went my bed a bit early. I was out like a light. The following day, I get up early to go for a walk. I run into some indigenous and asked them about trees which were cut down. Appearently, they didn’t have much time. So they cut to the chase and told that in the pursuit of wind tribunes.’Village’s been short of electricity supply’ they added. I wished there would be an another way to generate electricity for village. I felt sorry about trees. But they told me there was nothing to do with it.

Let’s cut a long story short after holiday when I started to my university. I decided to attend afforestation club.I  got involved some nice projects. I supported planting trees and protect our environment. In addition to, I learned the ways of making cutbacks of using electricity. Eventually, I was so happy about being a part of this team. I hope everything goes very well for us and our environment.

___________________

Bernard Kamau

It was april this year during rain season as usual when a bough fell over our house's roof at night which cut our sleep short.
To cut the story short then in the morning my father sent me to call a man in the next village whom is a woodcutter.
Then i took a short cut which went through the small forest which diving up two villages. While i was on my way in the forest i saw two people cutting up firewood the branches of the tree they had cut down.

But i cut to the chase and went to the woodcutter's home. As we were coming back along with woodcutter i imagined what if those loggers cut down all trees in our village's forest and answer was certainly there would be no enough rain which would cause water cut backs in this region because we entirely depend on rain water. After we  have come back ,woodcutter asked my father "you should have cut this bough the very moment it has came over the house roof"

And finally he advised my father to cut out any bough grow toward the top of house roof.

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Mario from Italy

Last week my brother-in-law came to my house for dinner. We started eating after he explained to me a shortcut that he had travelled to get to my house. Our TV was on and the news bulletin after reporting on cutbacks by the government in public spending, started reporting on the environmental problem of deforestation, showing images of woodcutters cutting down trees. Since my brother-in-law is a bit of an environmentalist, he began to talk about any environmental issue and continued throughout the dinner. Just while I was cutting my tasty steak up, he said that we should cut out meat because of greenhouse gas emissions. I didn’t want to be rude and cut him short but I wished he would cut a long story short. He definitely didn’t have a gift for cutting to the chase. Anyway, as they say, you can choose your friends but not your family. 

Next

That's the end of Session 4. In session 5, Tim's in the pronunciation workshop, talking about law, order and the intrusive 'r'. Don't miss it!