Irysha offers you a link with "War and Peace" by Tolstoy in Russian, English, Italian and Spanish:

http://magister.msk.ru/library/tolstoy/wp/wp00.htm

I've  received the link from Jelllyjam

[700x311]

What was the best present that you've ever been given?
Or maybe, it was a surprise from your friends for some holiday that you remember best of all? The surprise that  cheered you up and made you feel much better?

Настроение сейчас - super

I don't know if we'll manage to succeed with this game as a lot of people are required to make it interesting, still... we can try... It was really interesting to do at a lesson of English with Upper-Intermediate or Advanced groups.

So... There exists such a group of puzzles, which is based on an invented situation - unusual situation (mostly connected with death ;)). Such puzzles are solved through a dialogue between the quizmaster who sets the puzzle (me, in this case) and the solvers who try to figure out the answer. The puzzles generally do not contain sufficient information to deduce the solution. So a key part of the process is asking questions. The questions can receive three possible answers - yes, no or irrelevant. That means that only general questions can be asked or you may offer your solution.

The aim is to find the most suitable solution to the offered situation. In fact, various solutions are possible. But the best answer is the one, on hearing which you want to kick yourself for not working it out!

I'm sure you've heard some of these puzzles before. Like, The Man Who Hanged Himself. Here it is:
Not far from Madrid, there is a large wooden barn. The barn is completely empty except for a dead man hanging from the middle of the central rafter. The rope around his neck is ten feet long and his feet are three feet off the ground. The nearest wall is 20 feet away from the man. It is not possible to climb up the walls or along the rafters. The man hanged himself. How did he do it?

This puzzle was told in one of Marinina's books, if I'm not mistaken. The answer is - he climbed onto the ice cube, which has melted later.

So, now that you know the type of the puzzles I'm offering, I'll give you my favourite puzzle...



A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people there. They were all naked and all looked as they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognised. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know?

Why did you decide to connect your life with foreign languages?

I'd like to share my links. They help a lot if I don't know the way to write something.

Firstly, this is an on-line dictionary.
http://lingvo.yandex.ru/
I like it for the option of looking up the word in other dictionaries (links below) and in several languages...

Here is the site, where you can type in the phrase and see if it's used that way by native-speakers.
www.google.co.uk
If the site doesn't offer the phrase, word combination offered by you, try to find a synonym... ;)

And here is the site, where you can ask any question about grammar, spelling, linguistics (though not all of the answers are professional, but you may find a lot of new things!)
http://info.study.ru/

As we started discussing marriage (common-law, but marriage ;)) and that's a hot topic among girls, let's talk about the ceremony. Like...

Do you think it should be among the two of you or a big party?
If you have got married already, what was your wedding like? Was there anything you'd have changed if you could? What do you recall?

If you are not married yet, what would you prefer your wedding to be like?


Share your dreams and experience... :)

Мышка-Машка invites you to take part in the game for idioms:

http://www.eoiweb.com/EFL/snakes_and_ladders/snakes_and_ladders.htm

All my life since I’d realized that I was a girl I dreamed about my Prince-Charming… I imagined that he, of course, would come one day and say: “Oh! My dear Princess! My only love! Please, be my wife and mother of my children!”  So that was my dream. I won’t mistake, if I say, that all the girls want the same… until they are grown up.
First of all, there is a lack of Prince-Charmings… Secondly men now are afraid of everything, especially to loose their fredom.  They usually loose their consciousness after words "Marry me". They don’t want any responsibility, don’t want any children, any wife, but still they want to have a girlfriend and have regular sex.
What choice is left to girls? They instinctively look for a man, who will be a father and a husband, as they need someone to take care of. So they agree to wait until HE will be ready to marry her, and sometimes she waits forever. After 4-5 years of living in unregistered marriage she asks about “maybe”, but the answer is “What’s wrong?  What do you need it for? We’ve lived happily for 5 years, don’t spoil everything now…” Or one day he realizes that nothing prevents him from leaving and falling in love with someone else.

What’s your attitude to unregistered marriage? Why do you think it is possible and is it good or bad?
If it is good for you: Do you wish to live all your life being just a girlfriend? And what about time, when you become not attractive any more?

©  Веселинка_малопопка

What is your favourite film and why do you like it most of all?

What do you think about split personality?
Is it illness or our talking to ourselves and dealing doubly is split personality either?

Have you ever been to any foreign country? Tell us about your trips. What did you like the most? And what disappointed you?
And if you've never been to any foreign country, tell us where you'd like to go.

I'd like to make a suggestion. Dear permanent readers and friends, could you tell the world about yourself, I mean, compose a story about yourself and why you like foreign languages and e-mail it to me on jellyjam at yandex dot ru.
I just want to organize here a section about members)

Thank you.

”Hemp” What a fine word.. A package in a pocket and a pipette in a drugstore heat my soul... Perfect. And how do you concern to this amusing piece? I’m writing the letter. … promised a week ago, probably,  I ‘m at the office, has raked a little with papers, & my life has become more free, but not easier. Since morning all is unpleasant up to horror - translation of hours affects, I can not get used in any way, and weather, glory to the Allah, became warmer, but the rain … … the ice, from above on which  one meter of dirty water, and the joyful drivers valiantly passing on the most tasty pools, pour over passers-by this water. In general it is all like that. To all other, the most unpleasant-it somewhere to go in such weather- with public transport, tired faces of people, all around grey with white … .So I’m smoking … . cigarettes and not only them, I feel  bad. Has particularly started in the autumn, all after Hemp is  just fine, improbable sensations, bright paints, flavoring perception becomes aggravated up to impossibility … But.. Something is wrong.. Frightens this joyful feeling & my attitude to everything is so pleasant…. To me the girl-friend has told … " you as the child who is for the first time in the city have left on her own.. I am frightened with the expression on your face.. Gather.. "

& your attitude to this stuff?

A month ago I listened to the tape recording and there was an interview with a woman who had decided to keep to a diet.
The diet was very strange but effective. The woman was allowed to eat everything, even the roast chicken, but no any proteins (or carbohydrates, I don't remember).
Well, there is a question: why was she keeping to that diet? And there is the answer: she just wanted to fit in her grandmother's wedding dress. They had a tradition (her mother got married in that dress too).
And at the end of the interview the interviewer asked her if she would keep to that diet further. And she answered that she wouldn't. She said that she loved herself and her food too much.

When my husband heard about it, he said that she was a bitch (sorry!), 'cause she didn't think about her husband and his feelings, and lost weight not for him but for the dress, for fitting in it, and she loved her food more than her husband.

So, and what is YOUR opinion?

For our last examination in English we had some topics to discuss and one of them was "Public Health Service In Russia". Of course, those who had this examination question complained a lot about the medicine in our country: about the incompetence of the doctors, about their attitude to the patients and so on.
Well, once I had a terrible stomach-ache so I thought I was poisoned with a (I'm sorry, I don't know how to say 'глазированный сырок') which I'd bought earlier that day.
So I sent for a doctor. Well, as a result, she prescribed me some powders and some very strong antibiotics. They were expensive as well.
Of course, I didn't go to the chemist's 'cause I was ill, so I asked my husband to buy me those medicines. He bought just the powders.
It turned out that those antibiotics were so strong that he feared for my life. Actually, if I had taken them I would have recovered from them longer than from the illness.
The doctor just din't like my high temperature so she decided to treat me such a way.

And what can YOU say about the Public Health Service in Russia?

Our beloved teacher of English (who was in America just a pilot and had nothing to do with teaching English at a university) used to kick us out of the class after the bell by saying: GETA HELL OUTA HERE YOU LAZY SLUGS!!!
I really miss him now :))

Ladies and gentlemen!

I would like to tell you that in this community you are suggested to correct mistakes of those who are friends of the community.
And friends of the community in their turn are suggested to correct your mistakes.

I mean that "Thoughts in English" was created not only for talking but for improvement of our skills. So if you don't like it, it's not our fault, we've warned you about it.

And be aware of  misprints, please, 'cause sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the misprint and the real mistake.
Thank you!

Yesterday when we had English classes we talked about advantages and disadvantages of living in the city and in the country.
Of course, we talked about some modern conveniences, air and water pollution and so on.
But I thought that many people who live in the city want to go to the country for the rest of their life because they suppose country life to be carefree and have a lot of advantages. Of course, they don't realise that in fact there are many problems.
But why don't we like our life in the city?
One day I read some story about the girl who hated her life in the city. And I realised that some of her thoughts are mine thoughts.
The city controls us and rules us. It was the sense of the story.
And it's just so. You must work to be fed and clothed. You can't enjoy stars in the sky for you can't see them because of the pollution. You can't spend much time with your new lover because it's too late and you need not to miss your train (if you go home by metro). And there are much more reasons to hate living in the city...

But what do YOU think of this?

Today we open this blog as a community for those who like foreign languages and want to discuss different topics in English.
The community is closed and only friends can add new posts.
But at the same time the community is open for your comments.

This community is not only for your thoughts but also for the improvement of your grammar skills and spelling.
So join us!

P.S.  You should write only in English.