Red sky at night and more multi-word verbs
Hello Marcos!
Are you getting ready to celebrate Easter? Does your home town of Fortaleza have any special Easter traditions?
For some useful Easter-related vocabulary, here’s a crossword from the BBC LE site:
Easter crossword
On Easter Day (tomorrow) we’re going to my Mum and Dad’s house for a special lunch. My Mum has made an Easter cake which I will try and take a picture of before it gets eaten!
I’m hoping for some nice weather so that we can sit in the garden (possibly while eating cake...). It’s been raining on-and-off all week in York, with temperatures of about 10 degrees centigrade. Tonight there was a reddish sunset, which you can see here in this short video made by my special assistant, Clara (aged 12):
Red sky at night
Staying with the theme of multi-word verbs, I have written down Clara’s actual words in the video and then re-written the paragraph using as many multi-word verbs (MWVs) as I could think of. The verbs are shown in bold, but where the particles should be, I have left a gap. Can you guess what the missing particles are??? I’ve listed them in random order at the end (some of them are used more than once). I’ll give you the answers in my next post…. Your prize should be an Easter egg, but then you would have to come to York to pick it up – which would make it an expensive prize!
Clara’s words:
Don’t know if you’ll be able to see it clearly on the camera, but there are spots of red in the sky and sometimes people say, “if there’s red sky at night, it’s shepherd’s delight” which means it’s gonna be nice weather tomorrow because it’s ‘shepherd’s delight’ and a shepherd, erm, would like nice weather because when he takes his sheep out he doesn’t want it to be raining, or anything*. If it’s red sky in the morning, it’s ‘shepherd’s warning’ which just means that it’s not gonna be nice weather erm for the day. I’ll try and (pause…) we don’t get this a lot, but it’s…
With added MWVs:
I don’t know if the camera will pick this ____, but you might be able to make ____ some spots of red in the sky. A traditional saying in English is, “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”, which means that we can look ____ ____ nice weather tomorrow if the sunset is reddish in colour. The saying continues, “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, which means that we are going to have to put ____ ____ rain. I suppose that shepherds need to look ____ ____ bad weather because they can’t let their sheep ____ to graze if it might pour ____. I’ll try and pick ____ the reddest part of the clouds (pause…) we don’t get this a lot, but it’s…
The missing particles are: to up forward out with for down
OK…good luck and talk to you again soon!
Rachel
* another example of ‘vague language’; useful when you would like to continue a list (perhaps to avoid a pause), but don’t have anything specific to say, or when you prefer to make a general point (perhaps because general points are easier for listeners to agree with).
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P.S. here are a couple of comments on the comments…..
Bahirlake570 (from Ethiopia) – it’s true that books are expensive,,,,have you tried reading online? Project Gutenberg has books in about 60 different languages. When I checked the electronic books published in English, there were 76 authors from Aanrud to Adams and then I stopped counting! There must be thousands of complete books in Englsih here which you can read online, or download and read later, or print. I tried downloading the audio-books (in MP3 format) too, which worked fine.
Project Gutenberg
Mauricio (from Brazil) asked about the flooding in our back garden. I’m afraid that Clara was exaggerating when she made a ‘waist high’ gesture in her video! York is very low-lying and parts of it (including the lowest part of our back garden) flood regularly, but usually only by a centimetre or two.
The red sky tonight, from our back garden:
Comments
Hi Rachel! What a wonderful sky! Even though it´s Autumn here in Brazil the temperatures are around 28°C. I´d like that the weather change a bit so we could have a fresher Easter with colder temperatures. Anyway, I´ll have a go in the homework: 1-up; 2-for; 3-foward to; 4-up with; 5-out for; 6-out; 7- down; 8-up. Happy Easter! Ana Paula.
Hi Rachel, I read the word "centigrade" as it is different as I usually used "celsius", they seem as the same as each other?! It makes me think about one thing: Why we cannot use the same measurement of temperature or others in the world?" It would be easier for the communication. you are very smart to persuade clara as a model of Yorkshire English speaker, and she preformed well of telling about your gardens. without a pause as a kid. In Taiwan, children almost could not do it well, or don't even want to do it. As a parent, no matter kids' perfoment are good or bad, that is the delighted thing as the aparent as me want to do which I haven't got it til now.Even I were not you, I still feel a strong attachment of Clara's orientation of your gardens. Kid could leant many things from it, it is the most important thing in the world. salute you and Clara. Best wishes, and may you and your family have a wonderful and sweet Easter.(we don't have Eastera in Taiwan except at the English cram school), James.
I read " It takes two to tango." on the English leaning edition of the Taiwanese newspaper. We said " One palm makes no sound, two palms do." in Chinese(We speak Chinese in Taiwan), they are different kinds of expressiionss which reach to the same meaning. We don't have the tango thing like western world in our ancient time, that why our ancestor used the stuff "palm" instead of "tango" to describe the meaning though. Best wishes, James.
Hello Rachel, the video was really good. You have a wonderful assistant. I read somewhere that these beautiful afternoon skies we get nowadays are a consequence of the air polution worldwide. If it's true, at least something good comes out of it. I was amazed to read that the temperature there is 10 degrees centigrade. Here we never have temperatures as low as that. It must be cold, isn't it? Easter tradition here is to hide chocolate eggs around the house to let children go for it. They have a lot of fun. Happy Easter Rachel and thanks for your nice words!!!
Hello,Racheland hapy EASTER.I feel like nozy and i want to try with this test. I don’t know if the camera will pick this _UP___, but you might be able to make _OUT___ some spots of red in the sky. A traditional saying in English is, “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”, which means that we can look FORWORD TO nice weather tomorrow if the sunset is reddish in colour. The saying continues, “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, which means that we are going to have to put _UP___ _WITH___ rain. I suppose that shepherds need to look _OUT___ _FOR___ bad weather because they can’t let their sheep _OUT___ to graze if it might pour _DOWN___. I’ll try and pick __UP__ the reddest part of the clouds (pause…) we don’t get this a lot, but it’s…. Thank you for correcting this.
Hello Rachel, Thank you very much for 'Project Gutenberg' address. I’ve been looking for something like that for a long time. Also thank you for Clara’s actual words: I wasn’t able to understand everything she said. I did the exercise you gave us. It wasn’t too easy for me, but I did my best to do it, and that’s my answer: I don’t know if the camera will pick this out, but you might be able to make up some spots of red in the sky. A traditional saying in English is, “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”, which means that we can look forward to nice weather tomorrow if the sunset is reddish in colour. The saying continues, “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, which means that we are going to have to put up with rain. I suppose that shepherds need to look out for bad weather because they can’t let their sheep out to graze if it might pour down. I’ll try and pick up the reddest part of the clouds ... we don’t get this a lot, but it’s... Best wishes to you and your family.
Hello, again It's a long time that I haven't written anything; I have been soooo busy. Anyway, the picture of the red sky y very nice. I was trying to fill the gaps but I don't know if the answers are correct, so I am waiting for your answer. Thanks a lot. That's it for now
Hi Rachel, how went your Easter Day lunch? Rain? In your latitude it's usual, even the change of weather. Here we have got 'cats and dogs' for a while some days. Please give my sincere congratulations to your fantastic assistants. Clara is making a good job. GREAT Clara, go on. Here you are my solution to your MWV's challenge. I don’t know if the camera will pick this _up___, but you might be able to make __out__ some spots of red in the sky. A traditional saying in English is, “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”, which means that we can look __up__ __forward__ nice weather tomorrow if the sunset is reddish in colour. The saying continues, “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, which means that we are going to have to put _up___ __with__ rain. I suppose that shepherds need to look __out__ __for__ bad weather because they can’t let their sheep __out__ to graze if it might pour __out__. I’ll try and pick __out__ the reddest part of the clouds (pause…) we don’t get this a lot, but it’s… I hope to be right. See you, Toni.
Dear Rachel, how are you doing? Here are my answers for the homework: pick up; make up; look forward to; put up for; look out for; pour down; let out; pick out. I have no idea if one of them is correct, so hope you’ll show down the right answers…No one else can help me out!
Hi Rachel and Clara! I reckon you must give Clara some pocket money for the good jobs. Her voice sounds more confident than the first episode and she splendidly recorded it without scripts. I think she is a dark horse of 'Britain's got a talent’. If Clara looks for an agency i might be the one.(thank you, Clara) I will have a go at the challenge and here I go. I don’t know if the camera will pick this up, but you might be able to make out some spots of red in the sky. A traditional saying in English is, “red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”, which means that we can look forward a nice weather tomorrow if the sunset is reddish in colour. The saying continues, “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, which means that we are going to have to put up with rain. I suppose that shepherds need to look out for bad weather because they can’t let their sheep out to graze if it might pour down. I’ll try and pick to the reddest part of the clouds (pause…) we don’t get this a lot, but it’s… phew! done and dust and I am ready to face the music.Thank you,Rachel
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