The face that launched a thousand ships

Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy in the 1967 movie Dr. Faustus.

“The face that launched a thousand ships” is a reference to the mythological figure Helen of Troy. Her abduction by Paris was said to be the reason for a fleet of a thousand ships to be launched into battle, initiating the Trojan Wars.

Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus

More phrases, saying and idioms.

spelunking

 

 

US: the sport or practice of exploring or studying caves —called also caving.

Her hobbies include hiking, biking, and spelunking.

They love to go spelunking.

CEP A2 23.11.10

Here you have some adjectives of  character and personality,

Happy Thanksgiving:

Avanzado 1 08.11.10

English (especially British English) is not spelt phonetically.  All languages have synonyms (words with unrelated spelling and pronunciation but the same meaning) and words with multiple meanings. However English has an exceptional disparity between spelling and pronunciation. Homophones are words with the same pronunciation but different meaning and spelling like mussel and muscle, both From Latin mūsculus (“mussel or muscle”), literally “little mouse”.

Here you have a list of homophones in British English. And this is a homophones quiz.

HW for Wednesday:

Revise and Check Unit 1 pgs. 18 &19

Handout 1C present perfect simple and continuous

HW for Monday:

Reading  handout: Living in the valley

Use of English handout: Problems for actors

Writing assignment 02. Use  handout 16-biography.

A few hints on writing compositions

Avanzado 1 03.11.10

Two knock! knock! jokes:

Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Vampire!
Vampire who?
Vampire state building!

Knock! Knock!
Who’s there?
Justin.
Justin who?
Justin time for my dinner.

Here is one in a series of BBC videos about The Gunpowder Plot. You can watch all of them on youtube.

HW:

Reading  handout: Extract from a novel

Use of English handout: Everyone’s an artist

Send by email the answer to one of the questions you were asked in class (one paragraph)