Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / May 2005

My comments are promoted by the heading "Apocalypse Then" in the BBC
Homepage of a feature article on the history of the Vietnam War 30 years on.
According to my Collins Cobuild dictionary, "The apocalypse is the total
destruction and end of the world".  And I remember "Apocalypse ...

"if I were any better, I would be twins"
Could anyone tell me why "twins" is used in this expression?
thank you for your help in advance.

Maybe someone can help with this:
I often use web-based word scramble generators to make EFL exercises
from a vocabulary list. Now I wonder if there is anything on line that
can generate a list of all the words that can be made from a given set

I am an American whose company has just been acquired by a UK-based
company, and a large part of my current job is to "translate" our
marketing materials from UK English into US English, and vice versa. At
the moment I'm interested in understanding the distinctions in meaning

I'm from Croatia, and I'm looking for a english term that is used as the
"opposite" of play-off.
So, in a league, play-off is a final contest between the best teams, say
four of them with the best results so far. But, there is also another

I want to write a letter to Mr. Brown who works for cabinet XYZ, in USA.
I want the envelope is open from him, only.
Can I write something like "CONFIDENTIAL" next the address, to improve the
chances?

Just wondering about the usage of "loan" as a verb.
The bank gave us a loan.
I learned that this is the correct way to say this. But then I've seen
"loaned" as well when I searched on google.

One of the most important developments going on in our time  -  perhaps
the most important one  -  is that the age of the mechanical world view
is now entering its decline.  Many people now understand that something
is up.  We are in a curious position now, a kind of twilight ...

"the teacher has been changed" means that the old teacher left, and a new
teacher comes.
But what does "the teacher has been changed many times" actually mean?
Sentence like "the plan has been changed many times" is easy to understand.

"It IS possible to cut last year's expenses by 10% percent."
My question is that how can you go back to cut (last year's expenses)
when last year has passed, and of course, the expenses have been used up.
I was told that this sentence in fact means that

I met a Greek yesterday who insisted that in the UK, no one drinks
their Scotch "neat." The term is American in origin. All Britons say
"straight" when they order whisk(e)y unadulterated by ice or mixers.
Now, my Greek acquaintance was wrong regarding word origins, and is,

Occasionally I go to Project Gutenberg ( http://www.gutenberg.org ) for
public domain books that have been digitized and made available for
downloading. I thought it might be interesting to examine them using text
analysis software that would give me an idea of the difficulty ...

THIS INFORMATION ABOUT A NEW BOOK
ON ENGLISH USAGE MIGHT BE OF INTEREST
TO TAKABOUTEDUCATION.COM MEMBERS:
What's so special about

This post is addressed to upper-level language learners and language
teachers. It may not make much sense to those of you who have not
studied formal grammar intensively.
*     *     *

Which is the correct usage: "off of" or "off"
"My mom was let off of the jury." or "My mom was let off the jury."
"He jumped off the chair." or "He jumped off of the chair."
Is there an occasion where both of these constructs could be correct?