How to become an airline pilot

Commercial pilot Andrew Mitchell tells how he made his high flying dreams a reality. Andrew is a captain with a commercial airline, who got his job as a result of his excellent education. He won the JN Somers scholarship from the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (Gapan) in 2001 and has been flying…

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Christmas terms and meanings

FIRST OF ALL, CLICK ON THE YOUTUBE VIDEO AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO ENJOY SOME WINTER MUSIC WHILST YOU WORK!   A lot of Christmas vocabulary can be used with or without the word ‘Christmas’ in front of it. For example we can talk about ‘Christmas crackers’ or just ‘crackers’: a cracker :…

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The legend of the Giant’s Causeway

Since the 18th century The Giants Causeway has often been described as ‘The Eighth Wonder Of The World’ and once you have visited the site you will quickly see why. The area consists of an estimated 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns, which were formed during a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago. Strangely, the Causeway is…

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King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur is an important figure in the mythology of Great Britain, where he appears as the ideal of kingship in both war and peace. There is disagreement about whether Arthur, or a model for him, ever actually existed. The LegendIn one version Arthur obtains the throne by pulling a sword, Excalibur, from a stone…

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Idioms based on police and crime

  behind bars in prison   cat burglar skillful thief who breaks into places without disturbing people or setting off alarms     on the case dealing with a problem or issue   serve time to be in prison   on the run avoiding arrest and in hiding from the police a steal something costing…

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An unusual hobby?

Gardening, as a hobby, is very popular throughout the world, and would not really be considered as ‘unusual’. But what if you felt so strongly about strips of land you believed were neglected and could be put to better use rather than being left unloved and unlovely, that you wanted to take action?…..Then, perhaps, you…

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Idioms based on character and appearance

two-faced someone who will say one thing to your face and another when you are not there high and mighty behaving in a pompous or arrogant manner a cry-baby very emotional, cries too easily skinny as a rake very thin   as cold as ice a person who shows no emotion as mad as a…

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Oh those Brits!!!

As societies, we humans love to compare ourselves with other similar societies. What we often fail to notice is that whilst we are assessing others, they are assessing us! Do they perceive us the way that we perceive ourselves?? There is only one way to find out. We asked a selection of people of various…

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Rhyming Slang

Rhyming Slang Rhyming slang was devised hundreds of years ago in London by the Cockney market traders who, by using their own ‘language’, were free to openly speak to one another whilst those around them could not understand what they were saying!   The phrases are derived from taking an expression which rhymes with a…

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