Accomplish/accomplishment is a synonym for achieve/achievement. When you reach or obtain a goal, a dream or an objective, it is an accomplishment. Don't get confused with the false cognate (in Spanish and Portuguese) "realize".
1. Most parents would agree that their biggest accomplishment in life is raising their children. We sacrifice and pour a lot of love, time and effort into our children's lives.
2. Do you have any accomplishments that you're proud of? Sometimes, for me, just getting out of bed in the morning is an accomplishment.
3. If someone has achieved great things in their professional life or elsewhere, we can say that they are accomplished. Who is the most accomplished person that you personally know?
4. When someone reaches a milestone, that in itself is an achievement. A milestone is defined as, "a significant event in one's life or project." In karate, every time you change the color belt and go up a level, it is a milestone. In one's life, here are some general milestones: graduating from high school or university, your first job, getting married, your first wedding anniversary, having children…
5. I wonder why we usually congratulate people when it is their birthday... as if it were a huge achievement. All we have to do is survive another year to hear somebody say, "congratulations!"
Although expect, hope and wait share the same verb form in Portuguese (esperar), they are distinct words in English. Expect has to do with expectations (expectativas). Hope has to do with “esperança”.To wait is to “aguardar”.
1. When you expect something to happen, you are sure or convinced that is will happen: I expect it to be hot in Fortaleza all year round.
2. You can also expect something that you have determined as a condition, a rule or an agreement, or something that is considered common courtesy: I expect my students to contact me if they can’t arrive to class.
3. Do you expect good customer service in your city when you go out? Do you expect to be treated professionally, or have you lowered your expectations?
4. When you expect something to happen “automatically”, we can also say that you take it for granted (tomar por garantido): We take 24-hour access to the internet for granted… so when the internet is down, most people feel like a “fish out of water”.
If you are going to do something “come hell or high water”, you are absolutely determined to do it no matter what difficulties or obstacles you face. Another way to express the same thing is, “come rain or shine”.
1. Do you stick to your New Year’s Resolutions or lifestyle changes come hell or high water, or do you sometimes give up easily?
2. What will you sacrifice sleep for so that you can finish something come rain or shine? For me I will stay up late to finish a season of my favorite TV series.
3. Do you pay all of your bills on time come hell or high water, or is it normally not that urgent?
4. If someone says, “I will ___ if it’s the last thing I do!”, it means that neither rain nor shine, hell nor high water will stop them from accomplishing their goal.
5. Most kinds of deadlines need to be met come rain or shine. What deadlines do you currently have?
If you do something at the last minute, you are doing it just before the deadline or before the time it needs to be ready. You leave something until the last moment.
1. Were/ are you someone who left/ leaves studying for exams until the last minute? Of course, why study now when we still have tomorrow, right!?
2. Do women leave things until the last minute more commonly than men, or is it that they are only ready until the last minute?
3. I am not surprised when students send me compositions at the last minute just before coming to class, even though I will most likely not have the time to revise them until after the class.
4. When you need to cancel an event or outing with a friend (or even an English class), do you wait until the last minute to call them, or do you try to let them know ahead of time?
5. Do you sleep until the last possible minute, or do you wake up a little earlier and give yourself ample time to get ready for work… or a little bit of a leeway (flexibility) with the traffic?
The “acid test” is the definitive, absolute or sure test which establishes the value or worth of something. It originally comes from the use of nitric acid to test gold.
1. What is the acid test to determine who the “best” soccer player in the world is? Is it recognition by fans around the world, the number of goals scored, world cup titles under their belt or by some other means?
2. How do you know if someone is really a true friend? Is there an acid test? Is it those people who leave comments or poke you on Facebook?
3. The Cambridge CPE exam is by far the most difficult English proficiency test. If you pass it, your English is almost as good as a Native Speaker’s. In other words it is the acid test for your level of English. Out in the real world, the acid test is whether or not you can get a job where you need to speak English all day.
4. When I want to research about movies to watch, in general, the acid test for me is the rating a movie gets on imdb.com (the internet movie data base). If a movie gets at least a 7 then I consider it worth watching.
2nd conditional: generally, it is an unreal possibility or dream. We're talking hypothetically about the future. The grammar: If + past simple + would
1. Beyoncé sings: "If I were a boy, even just for a day, I'd roll out of bed in the morning, and throw on what I wanted and go..." What would you do differently if you were a member of the opposite sex?
2. If I were born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I might not/ would not be as hard-working as I am now.
3. My mother always used to tell me that money did not grow on trees. If it did, every tree would look like it does in winter… after the fall/ autumn.
4. If I were born in the Northeast of Brazil, I would probably be crazy about soccer, eat "Panelada" and listen to "Forro" music.
5. If I had more than 24 hours a day, I would take up a new hobby every week.
6. I would eat a cockroach ONLY if I were paid at least $5,000 to do so. What is your price?
7. If I had bigger biceps I would wear a tank top in public. I'm working on it!
If something is trending on twitter, it is a topic that is being talked about the most. It could be any news or story that is popular at the moment.
A trend simply reflects what seems to be going around at any given time. It could reflect fashion, pop-culture, entertainment… or even the stock market.
1. If you would like to know what's happening right now on Twitter, there are many ways to find out: one way is to visit the profile, "What's Trending" (@WhatsTrending). If you go to trendsmap.com, you can see what's trending in your area right now.
2. Absolutely anything that is trending at the moment will no doubt be passed around on Facebook. Popular things, whether they are funny videos or serious political stories go viral overnight.
3. Have you heard of "Zite"? It is an app that collects the best of all topics from around the Internet: from magazines, newspapers, authors, blogs and videos on any topic that is currently trending. It is available on the App Store (iOS), Google play and Amazon Appstore (for Android), as well as on the Windows Phone Store. It will curate your news content according to your interests.
4. What is currently trending in your area of interest, whether it be sports, technology, productivity, health, etc?
5. If you have no idea what's trending at the moment, Google it! Go to Google and type in, "What's trending right now?"... or, "Trending topics." Some of your top results will be for Yahoo! News, Pinterest, Twitter, The Huffington post, TechCrunch, etc.
If something is beyond you, it is impossible or difficult to understand or deal with. It may also express a hint of frustration/ exasperation at the same time. Also, a concept may be difficult to grasp.
1. It is beyond me how many people are not interested in being involved in their children’s' lives. They are missing out on some of life's best moments.
2. Theoretical physics is totally beyond me. I think you need to be an academic to understand Stephen Hawking’s' articles.
3. Why Brazilians have to pay so much tax - especially import tax, is beyond me. Is there any way to justify electronics in Brazil costing at least double the price they do in the US? Are import taxes high in your country?
4. I can't for the life of me understand how someone can take another person's life, simply because they want something that the other person has. It's beyond me.
5. To contemplate the infinite past is totally mind-boggling… It is absolutely beyond me. Time always existed, and there was never a beginning. There was always existence.
