Past Simple In Queen’s Xmas Speech 2012

The Queen’s Xmas message was full of Past Simple Irregular & Regular verbs. There are other past tenses as well as passive sentences, but here we will just concentrate on the past tense.

Watch the video and read the transcript (below the video, if necessary) and look out for…
1) Regular verbs (add an -ed ending to the infinitive of the verb);
2) Irregular verbs (there is no rule for these type – you have to learn them).

In the comment box, write your own sentences using these regular and irregular verbs.



Follow the full text here.

Further reading:
The Telegraph : Queen's Christmas speech: monarch humbled by Jubilee crowds.
CBC News : Queen's Christmas message urges serving others.
The Guardian : Queen's Christmas speech to be broadcast in 3D.

Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness

Please share, what is happiness for you?

English of the Net

...So, I was out surfing the Web (spending time using the Internet). You know, lurking (being in an interactive environment without writing anything) in a MUD (Multi-user dungeon, where many people gather to play games, have discussions, study and so on) and , reading my favorite ezines (similar to a magazine an ezine is "published" on the Internet. One of my favorites is Hotwired, and I met this grrrl (a female user of the Internet) in a chat room (an at-the-moment area where you can speak with other Internet users ). We both blabbed (talked) away, talking about her homepage (a person's private page on the Internet) and how many hits (visits by other Web users) it got. The next thing you know, this newbie (someone new to the Internet) logs on (enter the chat area) and starts to ask us questions like "What's the difference between a server (the computer that provides the space for homepages and other Internet addresses) and a provider (the service that provides the connection from your home to the Internet)?", "Do I have to pay for shareware (software available on the Internet for download and free use for a limited time before buying)?" and "Are you really there, or are you a bot (a kind of software that performs a certain task on a Network)?". It was OK for awhile, as I am into Netiquette (being polite on the Net) and all that. Luckily, he hit the road (left) and we could continue our gab (discussion).
Anyway, we started talking about download times (the time it takes to get something from the Net onto your computer) and bandwidth (the amount of data a connection is able to transfer). She said she thought that things would never change. It just took so long for something to trickle (to flow slowly, usually used with water) through her modem (the hardware used to connect to the Net). I told her that one of the frustrating things about the Net was when I got into VRML (a three dimensional kind of Internet page) and it was such a bandwidth hog (a page or program that requires a lot of data to be downloaded before use) that I went to sleep just waiting for it to pop-up (appear) on my tube (computer monitor or screen)...
( from About.com )