AT A RESTAURANT

common expressions: at a restaurant

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. Did your New Year resolutions make our top ten list?

1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends

Recent polls conducted by General Nutrition Centers, Quicken, and others shows that more than 50% of Americans vow to appreciate loved ones and spend more time with family and friends this year. Make plans to meet up with friends for an evening of comaraderie at a restaurant or take the family to one of those popular places for family fun. Work shouldn't always come first!

2. Fit in Fitness

The evidence is in for fitness. Regular exercise has been associated with more health benefits than anything else known to man. Studies show that it reduces the risk of some cancers, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure, and even improves arthritis. In short, exercise keeps you healthy and makes you look and feel better. Why not make this the time to start getting in shape for one of those popular sports centers? 

3. Tame the Bulge

Over 66 percent of adult Americans are considered overweight or obese by recent studies, so it is not surprising to find that weight loss is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions. Setting reasonable goals and staying focused are the two most important factors in sticking with a weight loss program, and the key to success for those millions of Americans who made a New Year's commitment to shed extra pounds. 

4. Quit Smoking

If you have resolved to make this the year that you stamp out your smoking habit, over-the-counter availability of nicotine replacement therapy now provides easier access to proven quit-smoking aids. Even if you've tried to quit before and failed, don't let it get you down. On average, smokers try about four times before they quit for good. Start enjoying the rest of your smoke-free life! Even Allegheny County is trying to go smoke-free, and it's taken them a few tries as well. Locally, there are a variety of free support services, hotlines and smoking cessation classes to help you kick the smoking habit. 

5. Enjoy Life More

Given the hectic, stressful lifestyles of millions of Americans, it is no wonder that "enjoying life more" has become a popular resolution in recent years. It's an important step to a happier and healthier you! Consider one of your city's healing centers for products designed to bring balance to your body, mind and soul. Or just get out and try something new! Take up a new hobby or try your hand at skiing. Go to a theater performance, or head to the local. Your city offers a wealth of artistic and recreational activities to meet just about anyone's wishes. 

6. Quit Drinking

While many people use the New Year as an incentive to finally stop drinking, most are not equipped to make such a drastic lifestyle change all at once. Many heavy drinkers fail to quit cold turkey but do much better when they taper gradually, or even learn to moderate their drinking. If you have decided that you want to stop drinking, there is a world of help and support available. There are also a number of treatment-based programs, as well as support groups for families of alcoholics. 

7. Get Out of Debt

Was money a big source of stress in your life last year? Join the millions of Americans who have resolved to spend this year getting a handle on their finances. It's a promise that will repay itself many times over in the year ahead. 

8. Learn Something New

Have you vowed to make this year the year to learn something new? Perhaps you are considering a career change, want to learn a new language, or just how to fix your computer? Whether you take a course or read a book, you'll find education to be one of the easiest, most motivating New Year's resolutions to keep. The Community College of Allegheny County offers a wide variety of "lifelong learning" courses, and local YMCA's offer great recreational training for beginners of all ages. Most local colleges and universities offer distance and adult education programs. Or if the arts are more your thing, places such as a local center for arts and crafts will be the right option for you.

9. Help Others

A popular, non-selfish New Year's resolution, volunteerism can take many forms. Whether you choose to spend time helping out at your local library, mentoring a child, or building a house, there are many nonprofit volunteer organizations that could really use your help. The local Cares organization makes it easy by connecting volunteers with projects to fit practically any schedule. Or if your time is really in short supply, maybe you can at least find it in you to donate the furniture, clothing and other household items that you no longer need, rather than leaving them out by the curb to fill up our landfills. 

10. Get Organized

On just about every New Year resolution top ten list, organization can be a very reasonable goal. Whether you want your home organized enough that you can invite someone over on a whim, or your office organized enough that you can find the stapler when you need it, these tips and resources should get you started on the way to a more organized life. It is pretty sure that your city has quite a few professional orgainzers who can help you reduce the clutter in your life and find peace in your home.

NOW... IT'S YOUR TURN! 

What are your resolutions for this new year? Write a short list of your 5 top New Year's Resolutions giving reasons why you have chosen such ones.

•  Ask your parents about theirs , are they different from Americans ones?

HALLOWEEN...EASY VOCABULARY

EASY VOCABULARY

BACK TO SCHOOL: IT'S TIME TO BE AWESOME!!

 

It's time to come back to school!! Let's watch this amazing video which has some messages which should be the basis of our back-to-school period! which is your favourite?

And if you like this video....have a look at Kid President webpage!

/http://kidpresident.com/

YOU'VE GOT TO FIND WHAT YOU LOVE

ISN'T SEPTEMBER THE HARDEST MONTH OF THE YEAR?

What is the word that best defines this month for you?

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

WHY WERE SOME WOMEN CONSIDERED WITCHES?

17 Signs That You'd Qualify as a Witch in 1692

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Leah Beckmann

filed under: History, Lists

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Discover whether you are guilty of maleficium and/or would have been accused of practicing witchcraft according to the laws and evidence used during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.

1. YOU ARE FEMALE

Are you a woman of any kind? If so, you are probably one of the devil’s many hellbrides. Since the medieval period, “an aspect of the female has been associated with the witch.” For thousands of years, people have believed women to be more susceptible to sins than men, and sinning is a clear indication of devil worship. In Salem, 13 women and five men were convicted of practicing witchcraft, though historically the numbers dramatically favor accused women over men.

2. YOU ARE POOR/CANNOT SUPPORT YOURSELF FINANCIALLY

The poor, homeless, and those forced to rely on the community for support were among the most vulnerable and often accused of witchcraft. Sarah Good, hanged in 1692, was extremely disliked and distrusted by neighbors because she wandered from house to house begging for food.

3. YOU ARE RICH/FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT

If you’re a grown woman living this life without any additional support, you probably also have a jar of eye of newt in your pantry. Any indication that a woman could live without the help or supervision of a man raised alarm. She would likely have been isolated from the community—until, of course, she was arrested and put on trial. Between 1620 and 1725, women without brothers or sons to share their inheritance comprised 89 percent of the women executed for witchcraft in New England.

4. YOU HAVE ONE OR MORE FEMALE FRIENDS

A note to all popular teens and the cast of Sex and the City: A group of women congregating without a male chaperone was deemed a “coven meeting to worship the Devil.” Ladies be communing with flirty cosmos and the devil.

5. YOU HAVE HAD AN ARGUMENT WITH ONE OR MORE OF YOUR FEMALE FRIENDS

Infamous witchfinders like Matthew Hopkins and John Searne inspired such terror in the community that it didn’t take long for women to accuse other women of witchcraft as a way of deflecting their own indictments. According to author Elizabeth Reis, “women were more likely than men to be convinced of this complicity with the devil, and given such convictions about themselves, they could more easily imagine that other women were equally damned.”

Take the case of Rachel Clinton: “Women of worth and quality accused [her] of hunching them with her elbow” when she walked by them at church. Rachel, herself a former woman of “worth and quality,” had a mentally disturbed mother and a late-in-life marriage that caused her to slip to the bottom rung of the class system. Add to that some finger-wagging biddies screaming about an elbow jab and, double double toil and trouble, Rebecca was convicted of witchcraft.

6. YOU HAVE HAD AN ARGUMENT OR DISAGREEMENT WITH SOMEONE

The important thing to remember is that anyone could accuse anyone. And they did. If you found yourself accused of practicing witchcraft of any kind by any kind of person, you might as well have been seen flying naked over the moon on a broomstick made out of a cursed lover’s ears.

7. YOU ARE VERY OLD

Older women, both married and unmarried, were extremely susceptible to accusations. Rebecca Nurse was a 70-year-old invalid when she was accused by disputing neighbors. At 71, she became the oldest woman tried, convicted, and put to death for being a witch.

8. YOU ARE VERY YOUNG

Dorothy Goode was only 4 years old when she confessed to being a witch (simultaneously implicating her mother, Sarah, who was hanged in 1692). Dorothy was imprisoned for nine months before her release. The experience left her permanently insane.

9. YOU ARE A MIDWIFE

Put simply by writer Joel Southern, a midwife’s “age, social and marital status, autonomy, pagan influences, secret knowledge of herbs and most importantly, the vilification of her profession as unclean and demeaning served to demonize the midwife. In short, the midwife represented everything the Church feared.”

10. YOU ARE MARRIED WITH TOO MANY CHILDREN

You have an unnaturally fertile womb that can only be the result of a dark magic. Add to that a young couple nearby having a difficult time conceiving, and you are almost certainly stealing would-be babies from them. Because you are a witch.

11. YOU ARE MARRIED WITH TOO FEW (OR NO) CHILDREN

The devil cursed your unholy womb with infertility. Plus, if your neighbors and their six children are suffering in any way, they almost certainly believe the jealous crone living next to them has hexed their home.

12. YOU HAVE EXHIBITED “STUBBORN,” “STRANGE,” OR “FORWARD BEHAVIOR"

Let loose any kind of sass or backtalk and ye be a witch, probably. Again, in the trial of Rachel Clinton, her accusers solidified the case against her with the following: “Did she not show the character of an embittered, meddlesome, demanding woman—perhaps in short, the character of a witch? Did she not scold, rail, threaten and fight?”

13. YOU HAVE A MOLE, BIRTHMARK, OR THIRD NIPPLE

Any of these found on the body could be interpreted as the Devil’s mark. This is also where the witch’s familiar—usually a dog, cat, or snake—would attach itself to her to drink her blood. The accused were completely rid of their body hair until some kind of marking was found. Now imagine a tiny puppy guzzling from Marilyn Monroe’s beauty mark.

14. BUTTER OR MILK HAS SPOILED IN YOUR FRIDGE

Several testimonials during the Salem Trials mention spoiled dairy products in connection with the accused. Be honest about the condition of your fridge before you continue.

15. YOU HAVE HAD SEX OUT OF WEDLOCK

Throw yourself directly into a blue hellfire if this one applies to you. In 1651, Alice Lake of Dorchester was tried as a witch for having “played the harlot, and being with Child.” Her guilt was so intense that she eventually confessed to convening with the devil “through the commission of her sin.” She was hanged that same year.

16. YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO PREDICT THE IDENTITY OF YOUR FUTURE HUSBAND

Ever daydreamed about your soulmate? Written his name in cursive in your notebook? Then, like Tituba, a slave woman living in Salem, your activities could be construed as witchcraft. Tituba encouraged young girls to predict the identities of their future husbands and became the first woman in Salem accused of practicing the craft. And thanks to dreamy succubi like you, she won’t be the last.

17. YOU HAVE BROKEN VIRTUALLY ANY RULE IN THE BIBLE AND THUS ENTERED INTO A PACT WITH THE DEVIL

Here are a handful of rules the Puritans observed. Breaking any could lead to a witchcraft accusation:
-The strict observance of Sabbath, "the training day of military discipline.” This includes no fire, no trading, no traveling, and something called “new showbread In the holy place.” That last one is punishable by death.
-No adultery
-No leading people to other Gods by prophecy or dreams
-No getting raped
-No planting more than one type of seed in a field
-No touching a pig carcass
-No wearing clothing made of more than one kind of cloth or fabric
-No round haircuts
-No braided hair
-And definitely no suffering a witch to live

Did you do any of these things? Then congratulations, you are guilty of practicing witchcraft. You are hellbound, and will likely be hanged, burned, or left to rot in a filthy prison until you die. May the dark shadows cloak you in their wretched embrace. Hail Satan.

All images courtesy of Thinkstock unless otherwise noted.

By the British Council

Superstitions

 

Do you get nervous when a black cat walks in front of you? Do you avoid walking under ladders? If you broke a mirror would you expect to get 7 years' bad luck?

If the answer is 'yes' to any of these questions then you are clearly a superstitious person.

ShowInstructions

Superstitions can be defined as, "irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown" (Collins English Dictionary)

They cause us to act in strange ways, believe in odd things and leave us unable to explain the reasons why.

Many superstitions may seem silly, even stupid to us today, but they continue to influence our behaviour and many people would argue that there are in fact some very good reasons for avoiding black cats and walking around ladders.

Common Superstitions Explained

In most cases, the reasons behind common superstitions can be traced back to medieval or even ancient times. They are quite often even more peculiar than the beliefs they attempt to explain.

Black cats are the source of literally hundreds of unlucky superstitions. It's a sign of bad luck if they walk in front of you. It's unlucky to step on their tails. They even bring bad luck into a house if they sneeze inside!

This unfortunate connection with misfortune dates back to the Middle Ages when they became associated with witches and were thought to harbour evil spirits.

There are very practical reasons for thinking twice before walking under a ladder, but a more mysterious explanation can be traced back to ancient Egypt. The early Egyptians believed that the shape of the Pyramids had a special power. It was considered very bad luck to break the 'power' of this shape and that's exactly what walking under a ladder would do!

In Roman times people had the habit of looking at their reflections in pools of water. Some believed that these reflections were in fact 'glimpses of the soul'. Any disruption to the water, such as a stone being thrown into the pool, would bring bad luck to the person looking in. This superstition lives on with the fear of bad luck from breaking a mirror.

Group Superstitions

Certain groups of people involved with dangerous or unpredictable activities tend to be very superstitious indeed.

Actors: There are lots of Do's and Don'ts to be followed backstage in the theatre.

One of the biggest Don'ts concerns the name of Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. If anyone says the name backstage then the cast will have all sorts of unlucky problems and the show will certainly fail. Also, actors never wish each other, 'good luck' before a performance as it might have the opposite effect. It's safer to tell an actor heading for the stage to, 'break a leg'!

Sailors: Long, dangerous journeys on wild and unpredictable oceans have made sailors very aware of lucky and unlucky signs. Bad luck is caused by stepping on board a ship with your left foot, starting a cruise on Friday and throwing stones into the sea. Good luck will follow a ship if there are dolphins swimming nearby or there is a naked woman on board! Think about the figureheads on old sailing boats with a naked woman at the front, calming the seas.

Athletes: The great Michael Jordan wore his old college shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls uniform for an extra bit of good fortune on the court and Tiger Woods favours wearing the colour red on Sundays for similarly superstitious reasons. Amateur golfers can have a successful day on the course if they start their round with odd numbered clubs and don't use balls with numbers higher than 4! It's also lucky to set out on a rainy day, but definitely not okay to borrow your partners umbrella.

Football players don't let the side down and have numerous eccentricities of their own. West Hams' ex-player Paolo Di Canio always puts his shinpads on his left leg first. Steven Gerrard and the Liverpool players like to touch the, 'This is Anfield' sign in the tunnel on their way to the pitch, but nothing tops Chelsea's ex-player Eidur Gudjohnsen, who goes to the loo just after the warm up, kisses his shirt twice (for two goals) and says a prayer thanking God for his health and the health of his teammates as he runs onto the field!

Global Superstitions

Finally, here are a few curious beliefs from around the world.

If you don't cover your bald head it will start raining - Afghanistan.

If you shave your head on a Saturday, you will be in perpetual debt - Africa.

You'll 'cut off' fortune if you use scissors on New Year's Day - China.

You shouldn't wash your hair the day before an exam - Russia.

If you go to the bathroom in the night with no clothes on, insects will fall on you – Japan.