Basic English

EDITOR’S INTRO

WHY ARE YOU LEARNING ENGLISH? TO GET A BETTER JOB,

GRAFFITI

I NEVER USED TO BE ABLE TO FINISH ANYTHING BUT

Little Jokes

Match each joke beginning (1 to 6) with its corresponding

DR FINGERS’ GRAMMAR CLINIC

MIGHT, PASSIVES, POSSESSIVES

QUIZ COULD YOU BE A GOOD TEACHER?

Are you patient and understanding? Do you have the ability to teach others? Do our quiz and find out whether you could be a good teacher or not. Analysis on page 38

Taking a taxi

Learn the kind of English you need for social occasions

FUNNY PRODUCT LABELS

Here’s another part in our series on funny product labels

16 JOKES TO HELP YOU START A CONVERSATION IN ENGLISH!

Some jokes are so bad they’re actually funny. Like the

16 JOKES TO HELP YOU START A CONVERSATION IN ENGLISH! EXERCISES

Now you understand the jokes, these exercises will help you remember them so you can use them in conversations!

ALI G

If you haven’t heard of Ali G, Bruno or Borat, then where have you been for the last few years? These three giants of TV comedy are the creation of British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen. Cohen was the star of a TV series and two major films. Let’s meet Cohen’s three fantastic comedy creations

BORAT

An interviewer from Kazakhstan

BRUNO

A gay interviewer from Austria

BORAT: THE MOVIE

Sasha Baron Cohen’s film stars Borat and is called Borat:

Crank Call

Telephone conversations to help improve your listening skills. Here are

USEFUL ADVICE

Learn how to entertain yourself with these fun activities

Trivia Matching

See if you can do this matching exercise. Look at

Weird Trivia

This is another part in our mini-series on strange facts. Whoever thought the world was so awesome?

PARENTAL ADVICE

Here’s another part in our mini-series on things your parents used to say to you as a child. Do you recognise any of these expressions?

VOCABULARYCRIME

Learn some useful words and expressions related to crime

TYPICAL DIALOGUESTHEFT

Listen to this dialogue and learn some useful vocabulary and expressions. This month: The stolen briefcase

Crime Words

See if you can identify the word. Then, try to find the words in the Wordsearch. Good luck! (Read the vocabulary page 24/25 before doing this.)

Story Time

The Loving Husband A man and his holiday to Jerusalem

British bar chat

The consortium Richard Rogers Partnership has won a prize for the design of the new terminal at Barajas airport in Madrid. The prize money was 20,000. It is the first time the firm has won the award. The judges were impressed with the roof. The judges included architects Ian Ritchie and Stefan Behnisch, and the editor of The Architects’ Journal, Isabel Allen

The Potato

Learn lots of fascinating things about the potato

DICTIONARY OF SLANG

Here we’ve got some examples of how to say things in different situations

Fluency Practice

English language speed and fluency practice to help you improve your speaking

BUSINESS ENGLISH

USEFUL BUSINESS EXPRESSIONS -WORK