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A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.
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Once you are a member, don't forget to check the calendar(s) for session times. Sessions are held on different platforms, so be sure to find out where the session will take place:-
Speaking Practice
LEN English sessions:-
http://www.learnenglish.de/calendar/learnenglishcalendar.html
Listening Practice 24/7
English radio playlists on Discord.
English Book Club - Nicholas Nickleby
Teach
Your TeacherHomePosts: 10,057 mod
The book we are reading together at the moment is Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens.
You can download the copy we are reading from here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/967
You can listen to the book for fun, or in preparation for the session here: https://librivox.org/nicholas-nickleby-by-charles-dickens/
(The English Book Club meets every Monday on our Discord Server. You are welcome to come and read, or listen, but be warned, we read the whole book.)
You can download the copy we are reading from here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/967
You can listen to the book for fun, or in preparation for the session here: https://librivox.org/nicholas-nickleby-by-charles-dickens/
(The English Book Club meets every Monday on our Discord Server. You are welcome to come and read, or listen, but be warned, we read the whole book.)
14
Comments
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gg150A2mCAuPMWidldgC0clnMQfgDSDs_1lstGSn_TY/edit#
April - preparation - butcher - lowest - avarice - considerate - incapable - sundry
Elinor - thawing
"big ‘un.”
Hermine - ludicrous - provincial - learned in the law - meditated - whoever (not however) - ignorance (to ignore) - purposely - credulous ˈkrɛdjʊləs incredulous - allow - virtues - fictitious - oftenest - munificent
ignore - ɪɡˈnɔː
ignorance: ˈɪɡn(ə)r(ə)ns
Reem - latitudes - climates - upon - arithmetical - easily - extricate ˈɛkstrɪkeɪt - requested - forward - communication - patronage - accession - desire - offer - blameless - agreeable - impetuous - temper - lifted - nature - Devonshire - Nickleby - worthy - being - aspire - fortune - wedded - old flame - play
"There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire..."
Shiny - likened - fluctuated (stress) - vision - wore - Mrs. (not Miss) - executed
Nadia - purchased - produce (not to produce) - affluence (stress) - recitals - felony (stress) - envied (from envy) - soliloquies - usurer - arithmetic əˈrɪθmətɪk
‘two-pence ˈtʌp(ə)ns for every half-penny ˈheɪpni/’
ready-reckoners
Chapter 1 - Page 19
In like manner, did young Ralph Nickleby avoid all those minute and intricate
calculations of odd days, which nobody who has worked sums in simple-interest
can fail to have found most embarrassing,
Elinor - strive - living (not leaving) -
Well done - minute
-------------------------
Nadia - merchant (hard ch) - spacious - passage - pen - bushy - precincts - pipes
"They were concerned to find that his reason went astray after this"
---------------------
Hermine - nobody (no) - opined (not pinned) - mixture - patent (not patient) - benevolent - countenance - particularly pəˈtɪkjʊləli genial - dozen (not doze)
-----------------------
Aza - Nickleby - fir tree - chancing(not changing) - presented (to present not a present) - cadaverous - suit of clothes - contrived - peculiar - triumphed - determine (not mine) - numerous - peculiarities
‘perhaps it is.’
-----------------------------------------
Shiny - respecting - stationary - familiarly - hounds - borrowed - paralysis
"bring them with you." (no stress on them)
Chapter 2 -
The kind-hearted gentleman omitted to add that Newman Noggs, being utterly
destitute, served him for rather less than the usual wages of a boy of thirteen; and
likewise failed to mention in his hasty chronicle,
‘Mine was no common loss!’ said Mrs. Nickleby, applying her handkerchief to her eyes.
‘It was no uncommon loss, ma’am,’ returned Ralph, as he coolly unbuttoned his spencer. ‘Husbands die every day, ma’am, and wives too.’
‘And brothers also, sir,’ said Nicholas, with a glance of indignation.
‘Yes, sir, and puppies, and pug-dogs likewise,’ replied his uncle, taking a chair.
Reem - omitted - destitute - served - wages - mention - hasty (from haste) - chronicle (hard c) - eccentric - taciturnity - desirable - out of doors - cabriolet - forgot (past of forget) - Bishopsgate - being (not began) - tacking (not taking) - gigantic - announcements - public meeting - precisely - petitioning Parliament- sums - duly - considerable - briskly - progress (not process) - dived into a suite of apartments (not suit)
United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company
---------------------------------
Shiny - hackney - feverish - bows (they were bowing to each other) - desperate - separate (adj not to separate) -
observed - diversions - various - emanating - quiet - tingling - ingenious
--------------------------------
Elinor - liquors ˈlɪkəz - of every description (not in)
---------------------------------
Hermine - seconded the resolution (to second ˈsɛk(ə)nd/ something) expediency - inestimable - periods - warmth - wholly - honourable (silent h) - appalling - all classes - patent boots - grievous
---------------------------------
Nadia - poured - various - petition - guineas - zealous - possess - pursued - pausing (not posing)
He is dead.
" a cordial farewell"
(Nowadays do not say "Scotch".)
--------------------------------
Chapter 3 - Page 34
Children alive?’ inquired Noggs, stepping up to him.‘Why, that’s the very thing,’ replied Mr. Nickleby, as though his thoughts were about them at that moment. ‘They are both alive.’‘Both!’ repeated Newman Noggs, in a low voice.‘And the widow, too,’ added Mr. Nickleby, ‘and all three in London, confound them; all three here, Newman.
Reem - Noggs - face (not voice) - twisted (t) - paralysis - grief - walked (silent e) - ingenuity - uttered - darted - slunk - the Strand - letter (not litter) - ascertain - private - thoroughfare - gilt - screwed (silent e) - portraits - naval - attached - flourishing - sabre - fore-shortened - elegantly - border
as though his thoughts
Apil allow - recommend - extravagances -
‘I happen to know that she is, ma’am' (that not what)
Elinor - little - ingenuous (ingenious)
Hermine - mutual (not moo) - unceremoniously - delicately - prudence - dismal - recollections -veracious
Have you ever done anything, sir?
Shiny - quietly - haughtily - newspaper (stress) - Academy (not like academic) - languages - geometry - arithmetic - trigonometry - daily
Nadia - overpowered - dilate - buoyancy - deprive
Eh! uncle?’
Next session - Chapter 4
April - emblazoned - scarcely - apparition /apəˈrɪʃ(ə)n/ - upturned (not churned) - particular (/pəˈtɪkjʊlə/ not like part) - St James - convenient toothpicks - boot -glares
---------
Shiny - Sepulchre ˈsɛp(ə)lkə - legibly - prejudice (not justice) - villainous - scholastic - fitted (-tt-) - dread - sneeze - exclaimed
"puckered up"
How old is two or three and fifty?
"boxed his ears"
---------
Xirana - screwed (not skewered) - Yorkshire - sobbed (silent e) - gesture - rubbed (silent e) - alternately - at this juncture - scoundrel - schoolmaster (hard ch) - youthful -heart - leaving - rehearsal of his advertisement - advertised - small-boned - inclined - Guineas - rejoined - persuasive
boarded, clothed, booked, washed, furnished
---------
Hermine - proposition - Taunton - exchanged - sombre - countenance
--------------------------------
‘Oh! Is that it?’ said the schoolmaster. ‘That explains it at once. I was
wondering what the devil you were going to send them to Yorkshire for. Ha! ha!
Oh, I understand now.’
April - pursued - comprehend (h) - advertisement - nephew - bowed - proprietor
---------------------
Nadia - said - contortions - Dotheboys - incomprehensible
--------------
eagerly - half-a-dozen (not doze) - growled
clerk klɑː(r)k / klɝːk
---------------------
Elinor pupils ˈpjuːp(ə)lz - won’t
If you please,’ said Squeers.
--------------------------
Hermine - scrutiny - peculiar - upon which (not with) - on the contrary (not Mary Mary quite contrary) - sanguine ˈsaŋɡwɪn - uncouth - prudent - extraordinary - auspices - mournfully
--------------------------
Shiny - feigned - lad (not lady) - papers - miniature - expected - living - measure - endeavour
Needs must, you know, when somebody drives.
------------------------------------
Chapter 5
Well, I am very sorry for it; that’s all I can say,’ said Miss La Creevy; ‘as
much on your mother’s and sister’s account as on yours. Your sister is a very
pretty young lady, Mr. Nickleby, and that is an additional reason why she should
have somebody to protect her.
Elinor - opportunity - dismissed - Conquer (silent u)
Hermine - expectation - voraciously -
Shiny - greatcoat (not great coat) - inquiry (not query) - Nicholas’s sister - proprietor - pummelled - peculiarly (not particularly)
"Breakfast! Bah!"
Taghried - rejoined (silent e) - Noggs - upon - consequently - Islington - baker - guineas - pedagogue (ˈpɛdəɡɒɡ) - paternal
eh?’
"they’ll be safer in case of their going to sleep; eh?"
Nikola - word (not ward) - thrashing - feminine - fastened (silent e) - blows (not blouse) - carried - air (not ear) - read (past tense) - stared (not started)
"encomiums" a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly.
-------------------
So the day wore on. At Eton Slocomb there was a good coach dinner, of
which the box, the four front outsides, the one inside, Nicholas, the goodtempered
man, and Mr. Squeers, partook;
Hermine - fastidious (not facetious) - chariot - reticule (not ridicule) - rapid (not rabid) - turned in (not on) - warmth - Grantham / Newark - flinging - Occurrence
----------------
gables - archer - winged (not whinged) - towards (not forward) - obstacles -saluted - mossy - tresses (not dresses) - precious - trifling - bubbles (not bumbles)
Elinor -
Shiny - shame - fastidious - lady (long a) - inquiries - passes (not paces) - prematurely - good-nature
Nadia - condescended - contemptuously - propriety - brow - nature
------------------------------
‘“See here,” said the friar, taking the frame from her hand, “an intricate
winding of gaudy colours, without purpose or object, unless it be that one day it
is destined for some vain ornament, to minister to the pride of your frail and
giddy sex.
Hermine - intricate - gaudy - destined - accomplished (c) - hastening (silent t) - love (luv) - thoughts - rapidly - towards - shall (a) - virtue - pious
thy young brow
April - prayer (prer) - monk (mʌŋk) - sisters - nature - hastening into - shone - frequently (not to frequent) - stealth (not like steal) - brought
Shiny - boughs (not bows) - ravages - brought - fragments - fiery - to deliberate --
Elinor - little - deliberately (dɪˈlɪb.ər.ət.li)
-----------------------------
THE BARON OF GROGZWIG
‘The Baron Von Koeldwethout, of Grogzwig in Germany,
Bon appetite
Elinor - venerable (-le) - little (-le)
Lincoln green
April - frowned - imperial - preoccupied - demolished - proffered - hastened - eternal - alas
Shiny - roared - such (not much) - castle -
as bold as brass
Nidhi - bear - debt - domestics - measure - hideous - bloodshot - jagged (voiced e)
Mark - daunted - lustreless - ready - proceedings (not processing) - said - exclaimed - expostulated - sighed - thoroughly
-----------------
‘“Why, certainly,” said Von Koeldwethout, “nothing is too bad to be
retrieved.”
‘“Except empty coffers,” cried the genius.
‘“Well; but they may be one day filled again,” said the baron.
Saving creetur...
Elinor - Quit (t)
April - hue - chaise
Hermine - shut (soft sh) - picturesque - great-coat - obstinacy
? with her hair in papers ?
Shiny - observe - feigned - pretty (not like petty) - recollect - steak - abstractedly
‘Oh! it’s you, is it?’
Contety - exclaimed - heartily - asserted - cruelty - unintentionally - clothes - consequence - stowed (not like stout) - tumbler - ghost (not host) - close up (not like to close)
MHoz - where (not were) - they know where I live
? ‘what an extraordinary hand!’ ?
----------------------
Excuse errors. I should forget how to wear a whole coat now. I have forgotten
all my old ways. My spelling may have gone with them.