EPISODE 86
LEVEL A1.2/A2.1

 

READING COMPREHENSION 

 

HAPPINESS

’Tom! Hi! I haven’t seen you for ages! I heard you and Sally had a baby!? When was the happy event (= the birth of a child)?’
’Oh, man, it was on 1st February… It was the happiest day of my life! When I saw my sweet little girl for the first time, I just cried with joy (= cry because you are happy)… We named her Pearl. She’s a really cheerful child (= having a very positive character), she almost never cries. When she was 5 weeks old, she started to smile (= move the ends of your mouth up to show that you are happy) and yesterday I was telling Sally a joke (= a short funny story) and Pearl started to laugh (= when you smile a lot and make sounds because something is very funny)!’
’I can see you’re a happy dad. And how’s Sally doing?’
’Oh, she’s in seventh heaven (= an idiom meaning very very happy)!’

 

More contexts for the new words: 

  • She smiled at me 
  • This was a really bad joke. It wasn’t funny. 

 

EXERCISE 1 

Match the expressions to their definitions.

  1. in seventh heaven
  2. to laugh
  3. to smile
  4. a joke
  5. to cry with joy
  6. cheerful

a) a funny story
b) extremely happy
c) positive
d) to cry out of happiness
e) to make a happy noise
f) to move the corners of your mouth upwards

 

EXERCISE 2 

Match the question halves, then answer the questions.

  1. When was the last time you cried a. with joy?
  2. Which food makes you feel in seventh b. laugh at it?
  3. If a joke is not funny, do you still c. heaven?

 

ENGLISH IN USE  

Let’s look at how to write and read dates.

You write:
It was on 1st February.

But you read:
It was on the first of February.

More examples:
5th October – the fifth of October
19/06 – the nineteenth of June
Mar 23 – the twenty-third of March

 

IDIOM CLOSE-UP 

 

A/ Why are you in such a hurry?
B/ I want to get to the pub before the HAPPY HOUR finishes.

A happy hour is a short period of time when drinks in a bar cost less than usual, usually in the early evening.

 

PHRASAL VERBS CLOSE-UP

 

  1. If you LAUGH something OFF (or AWAY), you joke about it in order to show that you think it is not important or serious.

They just laughed off the rumours that they are getting divorced.
Sue tried to laugh off their remarks, but I could see she was hurt.

 

  1. When you PERK UP, you begin to feel happier.

Jill perked up when she heard the news.
What can I do to perk you up?

 

EXERCISE 3 

Rewrite the sentences keeping the same meaning and using the word in capitals. 

 

  1. Chocolate always makes me happy.
    [PERKS] ……………………………………………………………………………….
  1. He makes fun of all the problems.
    [OFF] ……………………………………………………………………………….
  1. Drinks are cheaper between 5 and 6 pm.
    [HOUR] ……………………………………………………………………………….

 

 

NEWS

YOUR CORE VALUES

We all want to be happy, and yet – when asked directly – very few of us actually say that they are happy. What makes people happy? Psychologists agree that the main factor is living in accordance with your core values. The problem, however, is that very few people take the time to discover their values. We often repeat what everyone says – that the most important things in life are our health, family and financial independence. But is this really true? Maybe your main value in life is friendship? Or beauty? Fame? Excitement?

Discovering your number one value may take some time and require lots of soul-searching, but it is really worth it. After that, you will never have problems making life choices – you will simply choose the things that bring you closer to your value.

 

GLOSSARY 

in accordance with – following
core – main
soul-searching – thinking

 

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>>Answers

KEY TO EXERCISES  

Ex.1

  1. b
  2. e
  3. f
  4. a
  5. d
  6. c

 

Ex.2

  1. a
  2. c
  3. b

 

Ex.3 

  1. Chocolate always perks me up.
  2. He laughs off all the problems.
  3. Happy hour is between 5 and 6 pm.

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