I remember when the internet became available in the 1990's. It was a revolution! It was, as they say, 'the next big thing'(1). Since then, different applications and social media have given us access(2) to huge amounts of information, ideas, and connections with people. One that I discovered recently was Pinterest. My mother had told me about it a year ago, but I didn't pay any attention until a couple of weeks ago. It is a collection of information, projects, photographs, and videos that you can select and collect. Selecting something that you like is called 'pinning' it. You pin what you have found onto what is called a board. It is just like in an office, when you pin a poster onto a notice board(3). You name your board, and you pin more items. My boards are: 'gardening', 'recipes', and 'fun projects'. Every day I add more pins to my boards. Two days ago I used one of the recipes: tender, juicy, barbecued chicken. I followed the instructions, and it turned out wonderfully tender. Later, my husband was shocked when he asked me what I was looking at on my phone, "Oh, I'm on Pinterest," I replied. "I'm looking at how to build a brick wall." "You're looking at 'how to build a brick wall'?" he repeated with a look of horror on his face. He probably imagines that he'll come home, and there'll be a big, brick wall in the middle of the lounge. Well, of course there won't be. It'll be for the garden, and maybe I'll grow some ivy on it. Let me check; there must be some pins about that.
1. 'The next big thing' is a phrase we use when a discovery or invention has taken place. It is one that will have a huge impact on our lives, such as the internet.
a. Probiotics are the new big thing in health.
b. Space exploration is the new big thing in travel.
c. Collaboration is the new big thing in politics.
2. 'Access' is a useful word taken from the verb 'to access'. We use it literally and figuratively. It means to be given a way, a path, an open door.
a. If you go through the gate, you will access the company office.
b. They accessed all of my personal information that was stored on my computer.
c. We accessed the files and found what we needed.
3. 'Board' is usually any rectangular or square piece of wood, cardboard, or similar material. You can put something on it, under it, use it in construction, or in crafts. There are multiple ways to use a board.
a. I stuck the new health pamphlet on the notice board.
b. He put a long, wooden board from one tree to the other and walked along it.
c. Let's use those old boards to fix the play house roof.
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Chelan is a town here in Washington State that is famous for its huge lake. Its a forty five minute drive from where we live, and about 500 ft higher. To get to Chelan, we travel right along the Columbia river, and then wind up through some steep hills, before dropping down towards the lake. Many of these hills are wild, and still covered in snow. Last weekend I went up with my husband to one of these places, called Bear Mountain. As my husband is a hunter, he wanted to put out some apples and salt blocks for the deer. So, we loaded up(1) our little four wheeler, and headed up a dirt track. I drove while my husband looked around for deer, but for a while, there was no sign of them. What we did see was lots and lots of snow. It was like a Christmas scene from a chocolate box. We found the group of trees where we needed to dump(2) the apples and salt, and headed back. Well, that was the plan. We tried to head back. What we hadn't realized was that we had parked in deep snow. We were stuck. We tried reversing. That didn't work. We tried going to the left, and we tried going to the right. We pushed, and we pulled. By now, my husband was using some interesting words for the snow.
So, we sat and thought about our situation. I looked around for a solution. The snow was so soft and deep, and underneath, near the ground, it was compact and icy. The wheels just kept on slipping. What were we going to do? "That's it!" I said, "Let's put twigs under the wheels." There were large, dry bushes all around near the trees. So we snapped lots of twigs(3) and stuffed them under the wheels. It worked! The wheels turned without slipping, and we were able to get out of our deep, white trap. We drove back, slipping here and there, and getting sucked into deep patches of snow, but we managed to get back to our truck. As we left, the sun came out, and the snow shone brightly. I remembered hearing that the Eskimos have 50 words for snow. I'm not sure if that's true, but I certainly heard about ten to fifteen unusual words from my husband about it on our trip. As we came down the mountain, we laughed about getting stuck, and both decided that the only word we needed for the snow, at that point, was 'magnificent'.
1. 'To load up' is a verb that we often use, meaning to put or pack items onto a vehicle. It is a general verb that can be used with many different products: food, furniture, rocks, soil, supplies, or anything really. We also use it figuratively, especially to express filling a plate with food. Often you can miss out the 'up'.
a. We loaded up the truck with soil for our back garden project.
b. You can load up your plate with food; we have plenty.
c. We loaded our car with our neighbor's boxes to help him move to his new house.
2. 'To dump' is a verb that means several things: to throw away, to unload, and to finish a relationship.
a. Just dump that old bicycle. Its broken, so get rid of it.
b. We drove the truck full of soil to the back garden and dumped the soil.
c. She dumped her boyfriend after only one week!
3. 'We snapped lots of twigs'. Here 'to snap' means 'to break'; it is a verb that describes the sound of breaking something thin and wooden. So it is perfect to use with 'twig' which is a small branch.
a. I snapped my fingers and my dog stopped running and sat down.
b. I snapped off the extra twigs from the bottom of the tree.
c. He fell off the roof and snapped his wrist!
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Click the link for the Android app
