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George: What's your name?

Mary: My name is Mary. What's your name?

George: My name is George. Where are you from, Mary?

Mary: I am from Chicago. Where are you from, George?

George: I am from New York.

Mary: Oh, I love to see New York. It's one of the most interesting cities in the world.

George: Why not drop a line when you have a chance to come to New York?

Mary: Sure. I'll do that.

George: Here is my telephone number.

Mary: That's great. I will call you. Here is my number if you come to Chicago.

Questions:

1. How old are you?
2. Where are you from?
3. What's your education?
4. What do you do for a living?
5. What's your marital status?
6. What are your interests?
7. Do you have a hobby?
8. Do you travel?
9. Which countries did you travel to?
10. What'd you think about these countries' cultures?

Answers:

1. My name is Mary.
2. I am twenty-four years old .
3. I'm from the United States. I live in Chicago.
4. I'm a college graduate. I studied software engineering in college.
5. I work for Microsoft as a software engineer.
6. I'm married. I have two children, one boy and girl.
7. I enjoy dancing, meeting new people, and traveling.
8. I have two hobbies: I write. I write short stories. I play tennis in my spare time.
9. Yes, I do. I travel in the United States, Europe and Africa.
10. Well, the more I travel the more I see this: there are different ways of living our lives, surviving it and enjoying it. Africa is a definite wonder.

Vocabulary:

enjoy: transitive verb. To take pleasure of doing certain things. For example: "I enjoy going to the movies." "I enjoy dancing."

marital status: compound noun. The condition of either being married or unmarried; or being single, widow or widower

interests: plural noun. The activities we like to do in this lesson

hobby: noun. An activity we engage in for pleasure and learn skills necessary for it. Don't interchange "hobby" with "interest". The difference between "having an interest" and "having a hobby" is that an interest doesn't always necessitate great effort or skills to execute it proficiently, but a hobby does. In addition, we spend time regularly on our hobbies and a hobby can become a career if we start making a living out of it. For example, cooking, writing poetry, painting, and playing sports can be all hobbies if we don't make a living out of them but do them for pleasure. On the other hand, we may have an interest in cooking, writing poetry, painting or sports without necessarily doing them regularly with proficiency.

Examples:

A: "I am a doctor but also write poetry."

B: "I'm also interested in poetry but not good at it. I read lots of poetry, though."

'A' has a hobby that is to write poetry. 'B' has an interest in poetry; 'B' reads poetry.

C: "My daughter plays tennis every weekend."

D: "Playing tennis is a great hobby. When did she begin to play it?"

C: "Ever since she finished elementary school."

C' daughter must be good at playing tennis, which is her hobby.

spare time: compound noun. Free time. For example: "I have plenty of spare time now. I work only 3 days a week."

Well: Exclamation. It shows some hesitation to answer a question. For example:

A: "Do you like the United States?

B: " Well, I like certain things about the US but not everything."

This answer suggests a hesitation to say a direct "No, I don't like the US".

definite: adjective. Without question, certainly

wonder: noun. It means extra ordinary in this lesson.

survive: transitive verb. To be able to continue living. For example: "I have lost my job. But I still survive. My wife has good job."

to be from: prepositional use of the helping verb "be". To be born and lived in a country up to the present.

to be married: to be in marriage: For example: "I am married for six years; He is married to a Japanese woman."

the more I travel, the more I see: comparative adverb clause in a complex sentence. It is used to emphasize a relationship between two ideas. The more ...., the more.. Use a complete sentence or a phrase between the two more.

For example: "The more I read this book, the more I learn about computers." "The more education, the more opportunity for a better job."The more practice, the more improvement you will make in your English."

surviving life: the gerund form of the verb "survive". Capable of doing well in life. Life brings us challenges. if we survive life, that means we are fine, doing ok; we stay alive.

enjoying life: the gerund form of the verb "enjoy". Taking pleasure out of your life.

think of: prepositional verb. To have certain opinion of things, places and people. For example: "What do you think of your new boss? This sentence means: "What is your opinion of your new boss?" "What do yo think of the Iraq War?" "What do you think of President George Bush?"

Why not: Informal way of suggesting an idea of doing something. For example: "Why not go to the beach today? It is hot today." "Why not take a course in computers?" These sentences mean:" I recommend going to the beach." "I recommend you take a course in computers."

Idioms:

drop a line: write a note. Example: Drop a line when you get a chance. This sentence means: Write to me when you have a chance.

Pronunciation:

What's: What is. The pronunciation of "what is" in spoken English. See the pronunciation video lesson on WH

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