05 January 2010

Cartoon : Welcome to Hell

The Other Coast

to hurl

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This verb means to throw something with a lot of force. For example, after a good wet snow, children like to hurl snowballs at each other. In rugby or American football, when a player tries to knock down or tackle a player from the opposing team, he will hurl himself against his opponent.

Not only can you hurl objects or yourself, but in you can also hurl abuse, arguments, insults, accusations, etc. at someone. In this sense, to hurl means to shout at someone in an angry way.

In a very common idiomatic expression, we also hurl when we are sick. In other words, you vomit!! Perhaps some of you drank to much celebrating the New Year and you hurled afterwards?

 

 
bottomless pit

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This is a large hole in the ground which doesn’t appear to have a bottom. Biblically, it is also another term for hell.

Did you have a cousin or uncle at the Christmas dinner table who had such a huge appetite that he never stopped eating? Did you wonder where he was able to put all that food? It is very common in English to call him a bottomless pit! When I  was a teenager, some people thought I was a bottomless pit because I never seemed to get enough to eat.

     
soul

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This is that part of you that thinks and feels. It is that part of you that exists after the death of your body.

We also use the term to mean a person. For example, if you promise not to tell a secret, you might say, “I won’t tell a soul!” The other day I went to the cinema to see an independent film and there wasn’t a soul there. In another example of this use: on 11 September 2001, 2,973 souls lost their lives as victims of terrorist attacks on the United States.

     
being

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This word is both countable and uncountable. As a countable noun, a being is just another word for a person or an individual. It can also mean a living or fantastic creature. In Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film ET, the extraterrestrial was a being from outer space! A being also refers to a spirit or a god. Some indigenous peoples believed that supernatural beings lived all around them.

As an uncountable noun, your being is the deepest and most essential part of your character. It’s your identity, your personality or your very nature. Certain political ideas or beliefs shock me to the very core of my being. The core of my being describes the most important part of my character, the part that is least likely to change.

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