English Recordings

A．Stay positive.
B．I'm trying. But it's very hard.
A．Live each day as if it were your last.

Concentration appears to play an important role in human happiness. This is just my own recent perception as I have yet to study about that in scientific references. In fact, I have been so interested, but because of daily affairs, there is not enough time to research. However, these days I find that my life style should be changed, because I have been feeling so depressed. Quite incidentally, I got a recorded seminar from a friends describing the role of concentration in life as well as some exercises to boost the performance of mentality in order to increase concentration.
I will explain about that in my next posts.

Minimal Pairs /e/ and /eɪ/
Below are lists of words that vary only by one having the vowel sound /e/and the other the vowel sound /eɪ/. You can use this to practice the sounds or as a list of words to be careful to pronounce properly.
/e/ is a short single sound that is pronounced without your mouth moving, whereas /eɪ/ is a diphthong (a merging of two sounds) and your mouth gets smaller as you are making the sound.
• Best based*
• edge* age
• fell fail
• let late
• men main*
• met mate*
• pen pain
• pent* paint
• pled* played
• rest raced
• sell sale
• set sate*
• sex sakes*
• special spatial*
• test taste
• west waist
• beck* bake
• bell bail*
• bet bait*
• chess chase
• debt date
• fem* fame
• gel jail
• led laid
• lens lanes
• shell shale*
• tell tale
• tent taint*
• trend trained
• wedge* wage
• X aches
• Bled blade
• breast braced
• fed fade
• fez* phase
• fret freight
• hell hail
• less lace*
• mess mace*
• phlegm* flame
• red raid
• sent saint
• shed shade
• sped spade
• tread trade
• wed wade
• wreck rake
• betted bated
• dell dale
• den deign
• fen feign
• fend feigned
• fleck flake
• fled flayed
• heck hake
• hex hakes
• ken cane
• lest laced
• pest paste
• rend rained
• stead stayed
• vend veined
• wend waned

Award, Beard, Board, Chard, Chord, Fiord, Gourd, Guard, Heard, Hoard, Laird, Liard,, Shard, Sherd, Sward, Sword, Third, Weird, Bard, Bird, Card, Cord, Curd, Fard, Ford, Gird, Hard, Herd, Lard, Lord, Nerd, Pard, Sard, Sord, Surd, Ward, Word, Yard, Abhor,, Actor, Arbor, Ardor, Armor, Color, Cruor, Decor, Dolor, Donor, Error, Favor, Fetor, Floor, Fluor, Furor, Gator, Honor, Humor, Ichor, Juror, Labor, Major, Manor, Mayor, Minor, Motor, Payor, Prior, Razor, Rigor, Rotor, Rumor, Sapor, Savor, Senor, Sopor, Spoor, Sudor, Tabor, Tenor, Tumor, Tutor, Valor, Vapor, Vigor, Visor, Boor, Door, Moor, Odor, Poor

talk what ever you want

In the past, in urban areas, men went to work but women stayed home to carry out housework. On the basis of both our culture and our religion it was better for women to stay home to handle family affairs. Nowadays, many women work outside of house same as men. It can be positive, including assisting the family economically, offering more self-importance and independence, preventing depression, and providing more options for marriage.
Today, in the technology era family members' needs have changed. They want more modern appliances, possibilities and welfare. In most families, a man can't afford to supply it .In order to satisfy their needs and overcome economic problems caused by inflation, both man and woman try to work outside the home. As a result, the woman’s income can improve the family to have a better life and guarantee their happiness and success.
When a woman works outside the home, she feels more useful and active both for home and for society. The working environment gives her more social involvement resulting in enhanced senses of self- importance, self – esteem and independence. When she can have her own income she doesn't need to appeal to others, especially her husband, to satisfy her financial needs.
Nowadays, unfortunately a housewife work is not considered as highly as one employed outside the home. Her function and usefulness is ignored. A woman working at home considers herself as a servant. Washing, cleaning and cooking chores at home makes her tired, both physically and mentally. She is financially dependent to on her husband too. All these factors make a woman feel depressed. So, if she goes out to work, to be active and useful in society may decrease her depression.

basket maker - mixed bag
best man - mixed blessing
cat burglar - mixed marriage
------------------------
bad pain - good cook
blood bank - good morning
blood bath - grand master
____________________

action planning iron man
American plan on me
brown paper one pair

_______________

bad girl - hard cash
bird call - hard copy
closed game - hard core

____________

action group - open court
common good - roman calendar
common ground - roman candle

_____________

bus shelter -- nice yacht
dress shop - space shuttle
nice shoes

______________

cheese shop - where's yours?
rose show
these sheep

________

bath salts - earth science
bath seat - fifth set
birth certificate - fourth season

Find the characters!
1) Alice runs after him. Who is he?
2) he has a large smile and big yellow eyes. Who is he?
3) He says : "It's tea-time!". Who is he?
4) She wants to play croquet. Who is she?
5) She finds a key and opens a door. Who is she?
6) He's got a watch and he says "I'm late! I'm late!" Who is he?
7) They're brothers. who are they?
8) He asks Alice : "Who are you?" Who is he?
9) She drinks the bottle and she gets smaller and smaller. Who is she?
10) She wants her roses red. Who is she?
11) They're painting the Queen's roses red. Who are they?
12) She meets mad people in Wonderland. Who is she?

The characters

Alice's sister
Alice
The Cheshire Cat
The Queen of Hearts
The Mad Hatter
The Caterpillar
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
The doorknob
The White Rabbit
The Playing Cards
The King

The places
The Rabbit's hole
Wonderland
The Pool of Tears
The Forest
At the Mad Hatter's Tea Time Party
The Royal Garden
The Queen's croquet ground

A．Look at him! He's so fast.
B．He's the fastest runner in our high school.
A．Really? He's quite an athlete.