English Recordings

The former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87
following a stroke.

Her spokesman Lord Bell said: "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol
Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully
following a stroke this morning."

Baroness Thatcher, who was was the leader of the British Conservative Party,
served as prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

She was the first woman to hold the post.

Baroness Thatcher, who was born Margaret Roberts, became the Conservative
MP for Finchley in north London in 1959. She retired from the House of
Commons in 1992.

She won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

Baroness Thatcher's government privatised several state-owned industries. She
was also in power when the UK went to war with Argentina over the Falkland
Islands in 1982.

British schools

All children in England must start school at the age of five. Pupils go to Primary School until they are eleven years old and then to a Secondary School. They can leave school at the age of sixteen. There are three terms in an English school – fall spring, and summer. The summer term finishes about the twentieth of July and the fall term starts early in September. British school-children have a shorter summer holiday than children in Hungary.
Sports and games are very important in British schools. A lot of secondary schools in Britain have a gymnasium, swimming-pool and playing fields.
Most British school-children learn to play a game at school. They spend about half a day a week on sport and games. They usually play games on Wednesday afternoons or on Saturday mornings. As you know, British children are always free on Saturdays, but the pupils who are in the school teams even go to school on Saturdays to play against other schools.

Mae Jemison was born in Alabama. Mae knew she wanted to be a scientist when sh grew up.
Mae studied very hard in college and became a doctor. She went to Africa because she wanted to help sick people there.
Later, Mae became an astronaut. She had to learn many things before she could go into space.

In India, in the time of legend, there lived a king with many wives but not one child. Morning and evening for eighteen years, he faced the fire on the sacred altar and prayed for the gift of children.

Finally, a shining goddess rose from the flames.

“I am Savitri, child of the Sun. By your prayers, you have won a daughter.”

Within a year, a daughter came to the king and his favorite wife. He named her Savitri, after the goddess.

Beauty and intelligence were the princess Savitri’s, and eyes that shone like the sun. So splendid was she, people thought she herself was a goddess. Yet, when the time came for her to marry, no man asked for her.

Her father told her, “Weak men turn away from radiance like yours. Go out and find a man worthy of you. Then I will arrange the marriage.”

In the board meeting, my vice president always request to record the native speaker's voice so that he can practice the speech by repeating the native speaker. Whenever I have a board meeting, it's a little bit difficult to ask my foreign friends to help the voice recording. But I'll use this from now on.
Thank you so much to find this website!!!

A mazing Thailand 3
The laundry service
The laundry service is including room charge.
Three items are free per day.
During the second day of my stay, I requested to have two shirts and trousers (a pair of pants) cleaned.
They sent back my clothes in the evening, and I was surprised to see them cleaned so fast.
However, there were four items!
In addition to the two shirts and pants, there was a tightly ironed and folded handkerchief wrapped in cellophane.
After reading the check, the price was written 55 THB for the handkerchief.

I couldn’t read Thai letters, so I handed the paper to my wife.
She said” It looks they wrote the date of the handkerchief’s to be carried over to tomorrow.”
I was so embarrassed that I requested two items to be serviced the next day.

When I checked out of the hotel, I found all the laundry services were totally free including the charge for a handkerchief.

A mazing Thailand 2
The daily fruits
On the third day of my stay in the hotel they forgot to deliver my room's daily fruits.
My room is on seventh floor and the club room is just upstairs.
So I went to 8th floor and asked a staff to make someone to send fruits to my room.
I saw him calling to another section and got back to my room.
The fruits didn’t arrived even after thirty minutes passed.
So I went up to the club room again and told the situation and asked,” Can I bring those fruits for the club room to my room by myself?”
He said,” Sure, sure, that OK.”
I took a dishful of fruits and went down with it.

Late at night, my room chime rang.
The club staff was standing in front of the room holding daily fruits.
He said,” No one can enter your room while the- don’t- disturb- signal is turning on.”
He looked a little bit unsatisfied.

I found my wife turned on the “don’t disturb button when I first went out of the room.
So they couldn’t deliver fruits for thirty minutes.
But why was it this late hour?
The staff was the same person I talked and he knew I took fruits out of the club room.
A mazing Thailand.

A mazing Thailand 1
The hotel limousine won’t come!
I arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport 30 minutes earlier than expected.
The promised time was 5 p.m. at meeting point on level three.
I had requested a transportation service from the airport to the D T Pattya on the hotel internet home page a few days ago.
I expected that someone would be waiting holding a piece of cardboard with my name written and having the hotel’s name listed on it.
But no one appeared there by the time I’ve arrived . Therefore I continued to wait and wait for another 30 minutes.
During that time when I was waiting, I called twice to the hotel by using a public phone near the meeting point.
The first call was around 5 and they told me to wait there. At around five thirty, they said “there is no reservation from you!”
What a disaster!
I happened to find a staff from D T Thai at the meeting point 5 and showed my hotel voucher including the limousine service.
She rearranged another car service but it wasn’t the hotel’s Nissan Teana which was written on the internet page.
I asked her” I placed an order for limousine service, didn’t you get it?”
She didn’t answer my question and said” wait for five minutes.”
But I said to myself “This is Thailand, not in Japan and I have to rectify this issue by getting transportation”.
It was 7:20 when I reached the hotel, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to drink a cocktail at the lounge which closes at 7:30.
Anyway I got some foods and alcohol and checked in safely.
When I entered the room, I got a phone call from the staff and she said “how do you prefer to pay for your transportation fee? cash now or room in charge?”
If you chose the room in charge, 17% service charge and tax will be added.”
I wanted to say” the boucher we received in the mail from the hotel stated that it is 3000THB NET for the transportation.
If I recall correctly, wasn’t it your fault that the limousine didn’t come in the first place?”
But I said to myself again,” This is Thailand!” and I told her that I’ll go up the 8th floor and pay it with cash right now”.

1. She has been stepping out on her husband for over a year.
2. Can you step in for me at the meeting?
3. A volunteer has stepped forward to help.
4. I’m stepping aside.
5. You stepped on my toes.
6. He was old and stuck at home.
7. The car is still sticking in the traffic jam.
8. My sword will stick a hole in your shield.
9. Stick up your hand! Stick ‘em up!
10. They have continued to stand out against the government.
11. Please stand him off!
12. Please hold him off!
13. Why can kids never stand still for more than a minute? Stand still!
14. I’d love to stand around and dream.
15. I hate the way my mom stands over me during homework.
16. You screwed around all the day!
17. There is a spot. Soak it up!
18. My dad would chew me out!
19. I love that Friday night when I may just chew the fat with you over the cup of coffee.
20. Bob coughed so hard he tossed his blanket off.
21. He tossed off the rest of the beer.
22. He hardly ever flies off the handle.
23. John dug in and passed the test quickly.
24. Breakfast is ready. Dig in.
25. The plane cracked up in the sudden storm.
26. I guess he’s actually cracked up.
27. That joke cracked everyone up.
28. Mary cracked up when Jim walked in wearing his funny clothes.
29. He's cracking jokes all over.
30. Why are you so cozing him up?
31. Some students play up to their professors to get good grades.
32. You are able to play music at sight.
33. He's capable of playing all the tunes by ear.
34. He's a hard opponent to beat, but at least he plays fair.
35. He played me false and had deceived my expectations.
36. The top teams in each group play off six games.
37. You pissed me off!
38. The politician passed off the hard question.
39. They passed me off this bull shit like a something really good.
40. A new problem popped up.

--(Apral 13, 2013)How are you all? Are you having a nice Saturday? I'm checking my entry from yesterday again. It's an entry in English written on my phone, and two of my friends corrected it. However I'm not sure about the difference between them. Please check and let me know which is more natural in English. Thank you for reading. ---(Apral 12, 2013)---
I came home from school,
= I came back home from school,
ate three snacks (Fruit and Nuts), and read this morning's paper.
I feel tired now, but I have to go out again for a funeral.
== I feel a little bit tired now, but I have to go out again to offer my condolences.
,because my friend's father passed away yesterday.
By the way, in the newspaper, there are articles about North Korea(a missile launching) and about PSY's new album, "Gentleman."
= on the newspaper newspaper there is the news about North Korea(a missile launching) and PSY's new album" Gentleman".

It seems that most of the Koreans are interested in PSY's new album than in North Korea's missile launching.
= It seems that most Koreans are more interested in PSY's new album than in North Korea's missile launching.