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HIGHEST FREQUENCY ENGLISH WORDS EARLY-ON … SET THREE (Lessons 45 – ##)
     
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Lesson 45

  
Maria, Teddy, Abraham, unexpected, Virginia, January, Lincoln, policeman, decade, demonstrate, household, impress, fist, pleasant, leadership, easily, instructions, maintain, accomplish, frankly, careful, wrestling, facing, whine, complained, anyhow, problems, regularly, organize, supplies, rubber, gloves, patients, recover, oxygen, breathe, fifteen, graduate, growth, participate, naturally, somewhat, suffered, attack, scratch, straightforward, shoulders, adults, happiness, hesitated, sailor, boats, branch, civilization, length, qualify, sweetheart, cabinet, Senate, radiant, objective, research, poverty, remains, erase, stamp, nowhere, miracle, invited, speech, infant, lizard, camera, period, barked, cowboy, dusty, expedition, jungle, elephant, palace, kingdom, festival, galaxy, hawk, skull, seventh, ignorant, railroad, rising, target, lamb, onion, berries
   

Eve hadn’t seen her grandchildren – Maria, Teddy, and Abraham – in over a year. She got an unexpected chance to take a week off from work, and she flew to Virginia in January to stay with her daughter, Summer, and her husband, Lincoln. The three grandchildren all lived near their parents, so the parents’ house was a good place for them all to get together.

Lincoln was a policeman, and he had been in that job for about a decade. His favorite thing to do was to go to a school and go class-to-class to demonstrate to the kids how important the police are in helping to keep things calm and peaceful around the town. He wanted every single household to feel safe.

Lincoln would always impress the students, and sometimes a school visit could even be funny. One time, a kid asked him, “Have you ever had to beat up a bad guy and hit him in the face with your fist?”

Lincoln replied in a pleasant voice, “That’s a fair question. It so happens that the leadership in our police office doesn’t like for us to get rough with anyone. Almost always, we can talk with someone who is angry or mean, and we can calm them down easily. Our instructions are to always maintain a peaceful situation, and we can usually accomplish that.”

“But frankly, we do still have to stay on our guard and be careful. Every once in a while, there might be a little wrestling with someone who you’re facing who will continue to stay upset. Anyhow, that’s just part of the job, so I don’t whine about that, and I’ve never complained about it.”

Lincoln has always been very proud of his work. His wife, Summer, is also very proud of what she does. She is a nurse at the town hospital. She has to do lots of different things. She helps to organize and maintain needed supplies, such as rubber gloves and the like. She helps patients who are having to recover from surgery. She helps folks who have to get set up with oxygen to help them breathe more easily. And sometimes she works in the emergency room.

Summer knew at the age of fifteen that she wanted to be a nurse. And she loves her job so much that she has even taken some classes in graduate school. She thinks that when you choose a field to work in, you should always show growth in your knowledge base throughout your whole career! That’s why you’ll see her participate in any training classes that the hospital might offer.

Naturally, a day at her work could be somewhat boring, but other days could be crazy. One time, a woman came in who had suffered from an attack by a large dog. There was a large bite on her leg – it looked like a long, deep scratch – and though the doctor said that it would be pretty straightforward to get it cleaned up, it still took him quite a while to do it. It was on hard days like that that Summer felt like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Well, anyhow, the high point of the trip for Eve was to catch up with her grandchildren. All three of them were “young adults,” each of them at a different stage in their college career. Here are some talks that they had with their grandma.

TEDDY:

Eve said, “Well, Teddy, have you decided yet what kind of career might bring you happiness?”

He hesitated, but then he answered, “I’m thinking about being a sailor in the United States Navy. I love everything about boats – and about being on the water – so that’s the best branch of the military for me to serve in. And I think that it’s important work. There’s so much hate all over the world right now, and I like the idea of being part of a group of people who help to maintain a peaceful world.”

“We’ve got to try to keep world civilization in good shape, right? And I would stay in the Navy for a good length of time, working my way up to leadership responsibility. I just hope that I can qualify to get in!”

Eve said, “Sweetheart, they’d be crazy to not take you, with everything that you’ve accomplished in your life at such a young age. Maybe one day you’ll be a Cabinet Secretary working for the president!”

Teddy laughed and said, “Or maybe one day I’ll run for the United States Senate!”

MARIA:

Eve said, “Maria, dear, you look absolutely radiant! Things must be going well in your life. Do you have a career objective yet?”

Maria replied, “Yes, I think that I do. I’ve been studying and doing a lot of research about poverty, and I feel bad for people who find themselves in that state of being. It seems like it’s one of those problems that just remains impossible to fix, and I feel like we’re going nowhere toward making things better. I just wish that we could erase it from the planet. We need to find a way to stamp it out!”

Eve agreed. “You’re so right. Of course, it would take a miracle to make the problem go away. How might you help?”

Maria explained, “Well, I’ve been invited to join a group that’s trying to make a difference. In fact, I’m making a speech next week to some rich people who share our thoughts – and who might give us money to put together a local project to help people by having us teach them how to dig out of their situation.”

Eve said, “That is SO wonderful. I very much hope that you can be successful!”

ABRAHAM:

As you might have noticed by now, both Teddy and Maria are very serious young people who care about their fellow humans. But Abraham has always been less serious – and more carefree – ever since he was an infant. You’ll find that he likes to joke around a lot. You’re about to experience a good example of this.

Eve finally had some time alone with Abraham. She just began with a simple, “Well Abraham, what’s new with you?”

He replied, “Well, let’s see. Yeah, I just got a new pet lizard. It’s great. I named him Henry. Here’s a photo of him that I took with my phone camera.”

Though Eve did smile when she looked at it, she finally exclaimed, “Oh my, that’s just awful! You’ve always got to be different, don’t you? Couldn’t you just be normal, and get a cat or a dog?”

Abraham had a big grin on his face, and he replied, “Absolutely not! I’ve got to be out-of-the-box, period! That’s my brand, you know!”

Eve shook her head and asked, “Do you have any ideas for your dream job?”

Abraham barked, “Yes, indeed!” I first thought about being a cowboy, where I could ride a horse on a dusty path all day. But then I decided that I could do WAY better than that. So, I want to go halfway around the world and set up an expedition in the jungle. I will ride on an elephant, find a good place to stay, build a huge palace, set up a small kingdom, and I’ll have a big festival there once a month. You won’t be able to have as much fun anywhere else in the galaxy as you’ll be able to in my little kingdom!”

Eve looked him in the eye – like a hawk – and she said, “Now Abraham, do you think that I don’t have a brain inside my skull? Ever since your seventh birthday – I remember what you did with me that day like it was just yesterday – you’ve pulled this kind of story on me. I am no longer ignorant about how you like to trick me, and I know that what you just said to me is a complete joke. What are you REALLY thinking about doing?”

Abraham gave Eve a wink, and he said, “Okay, seriously, in business school, I have found the railroad field to be quite interesting. There are only four big ones in the United States, demand is rising for them – I mean, they have more business than they can handle – and I think that it’s going to be a good field to be a part of in the future. So, that’s my target plan. I want to get a good job with a railroad company.”

Eve said, “Now that’s better! It’s nice to see you demonstrate some unexpected common sense instead of looking at life like it’s just one big joke. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll accomplish a lot in your career, after all!”

With that, Eve gave Abraham a big hug, and they were heading off to the kitchen, where Summer was making a delicious dinner with a leg of lamb, onion rings, and berries with home-made ice cream for dessert.

Eve fell to sleep that night with very proud thoughts about all three of her grandchildren!

   
    
piled, maximum, moisture, newspapers, dictionary, geography

After the household of kids piled into the back seat of the small car, it was almost difficult to breathe. The adults in the front seat opened each window, and air poured into the car.

The maximum number of folks that this railroad car can hold is sixty people.

Dad sat down at the breakfast table and barked, “Why is there moisture on my morning newspapers?”

Mary, let’s go to Target and buy you a new dictionary and other supplies for the next school year.

Dad complained, “I didn’t research the geography of this area very well. I was ignorant of how long it takes to get from one place to another! That has caused some problems with an expedition or two that I wanted to go on during our holiday here. We may have to scratch one or both of them off of our list, and I am somewhat upset about that. Anyhow, it is what it is, and we’ll just have to make the best of things.”

Our teacher said, “Class, here are the instructions for your homework for the weekend, and they are very straightforward. Write a paper about what you did on your various summer vacations. That will demonstrate to me how well each of you can write. Keep it to a maximum length of three pages long. So, here’s your objective as you get set up. Organize your thoughts well and impress me with how well you write. Oh, and don’t whine about the work!”

When my young son and I are in the ocean, he loves for me to pick him up so that he can sit on my shoulders. Naturally, he was somewhat scared the first couple of times that we tried that, but now he can’t get enough of it. One of our best days was when there were a bunch of boats nearby with many different colors. He got a kick out of that!

I need a rubber band to put around these old dusty newspapers that are in this cabinet. I know that I have a lot of stuff like this piled up in the attic and the basement, and one day soon I’ll organize it, with the objective being to throw out at least half of it. I think that I can accomplish that quite easily.

Our school wrestling team has been invited to participate in a big tournament in Virginia this coming January. This was an unexpected, pleasant surprise for all of us, and the team is quite excited about the opportunity. Right now, we’re being careful to regularly practice hard, because we know that we’ll be facing some really tough schools. We hope to come back from there and impress everyone here with how we did.

With our tremendous final attack against the enemy, our country won the war. To celebrate, the Queen put on a gigantic festival for the people. While there, she gave a speech and said that she wanted to build the biggest palace in all of Europe to show that we were a great country!

Our boss hit his fist on the table and said that our target for next year will be to double the growth rate in our branch of the company. After the meeting was over, frankly, most of us complained, saying that it would take a miracle to pull that off. We are wrestling with how we could make that possible, but we fear that the target remains out of reach.

While I was walking around the neighborhood today, at the household four homes down from us, I saw the Hawk family get out of their car with a new infant. Naturally, I knew that their new child would bring them much happiness!

The dog barked at a lizard that was on the porch, but he didn’t try to attack it.

How can your sister Virginia graduate from high school when she’s only fifteen? Frankly, it must take a miracle to be that super-smart!

In a pleasant voice, the teacher said, “Now remember, when you write your paper, be careful and make sure that you put a period at the end of each sentence.

Price hesitated, looked around, and then he said, “With all of this wind, it’s too dusty out here for me to use my expensive new camera.”

This is the seventh day without having stopped that we’ve had rain! With all of this moisture – and with the geography of the land on the east side of the river being a miles-wide plain – I fear that we’re going to have a terrible flood. I’ve heard that the water is already rising.

I looked in the cabinet where we keep all of our paper supplies and the like, and I could find only one stamp. I need fifteen of them to mail these letters. I guess it’s time for a little expedition to the post office.

The two newspapers in our city want for people to suggest a good name for the new baby elephant at our zoo, and I want to participate in that contest.

A person could freeze going out into that crazy cold weather. I’ll go nowhere unless I’m wearing my gloves. I didn’t remember to put them on yesterday, and oh my, I suffered terribly because of it.

It’s normal for an infant to whine when they are hungry or thirsty. It’s been that way since the dawn of civilization.

The Senate passed their seventh bill of the year yesterday.

“How long will it take for Grandpa to recover from his heart attack?” “Well, it often takes quite a period of time to get back to feeling normal.”

We had dinner at an all-you-can-eat restaurant last night, and I just piled onion rings onto my plate!

“Why did that young girl stamp her foot on the ground?” “I heard the adults near her talking, and it’s because she wasn’t invited to a birthday party that she wanted to go to.”

I regularly go on a date with my sweetheart every weekend. But we couldn’t do that in January because there was too much snow out there to be safe while driving.

I got a great shot of an elephant today with my new camera.

That sentence is not very neat, is it? I need to erase it and write it over again.

I had three patients at the hospital today who needed oxygen.

Have you ever heard the saying “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?”

Don’t you ever wonder if there’s another human-like civilization somewhere else in our galaxy?

Doc, I don’t know what I did to myself, but I hurt my hand pretty badly. I have a lot of pain when I try to ball my hand up into a fist. I’ve suffered from this for about a week.

“Mom, if I go into the woods and pick lots of berries, will you please make a pie with them?” “Of course I will, sweetheart!”

Dad gave me a little speech today about my future career choice. He said, “Son, when you grow up, graduate from college, and get a job in the business world, you’re going to find out that it’s a jungle out there!

I asked my parents what it would take to qualify to become a policeman. The first thing that they told me was that you have to be really fit.

You don’t want to trip and fall on this sidewalk with all of the ice on it; you might hurt your skull if you hit your head on the ground!

Wow, look at the big shoulders on that sailor who is standing between those two boats! He must be really strong!

You know, I haven’t seen a good cowboy movie in a least a decade.

I can hold my breath for only about a minute. Then I need to breathe and get oxygen back into my body!

When I run for Senate, I’ll talk a lot about how I want to start a war on poverty!

I hesitated to use that word until I looked it up in the dictionary. I didn’t want to use it the wrong way and have people think that I’m ignorant.

What are you doing by the front door? Get this into your skull: my instructions are that you’re going nowhere until you finish your homework!

Would you please scratch me in the middle of my back? I can’t get my hand to reach that spot.

I hope to see some growth with this little rubber plant by the end of the summer.

You should probably erase that thought from your head. It remains to be seen whether you’re going to get to go to ANY party – any time soon – until you get a good grade in math! 

There are some big berries on that branch.

I’m facing what will be a really hard geography test on Monday.

It was a radiant scene with the sun all shiny on the beautiful blue lake. It brought me much happiness to see that.

I’m not gonna touch that lizard until I put some gloves on!

I just saw a hawk pick up a mouse and fly away with it.

I heard the sailor say, “Please don’t put any onion on my burger. It just doesn’t agree with my stomach.”

My favorite movie when I was a kid was “The Jungle Book.”

I wonder what the length of that rope is that the cowboy has in his hand.

Oh please, when is that kid going to stop singing “Mary Had A Little Lamb?”

The dictionary says that the word “straightforward” means “very clear and easy to understand.”

The leadership in that country will probably stay in power for at least another decade.

The story in this movie is about a kingdom in a far away galaxy. A palace is under attack by an evil alien creature.

The maximum loan that you can qualify for is ten-thousand dollars.

We saw a policeman at the festival today. I believe that he was there to make sure that no one would get out of line.

We couldn’t live on another planet if it didn’t have enough oxygen.

I don’t feel any moisture in the soil of this house plant, so I’d better water it right away.

I have a nasty cold, and I hope that I recover from it quickly.

I tried to explain poverty to my young child, and I said that it meant that you didn’t have enough money to live a very pleasant life. I know that’s very simple, but she’s only four years old, after all.

The hospital nurse said, “I just took lunch to all of the patients on the second floor.”

I said to my dear wife, “Honey, you look absolutely radiant, and you’ll be the most beautiful woman at the party tonight.”

The research is very clear, and it says that eating lots of junk food is not good for you!

Check out that view! The sun has just started to come up above the ocean, and it’s a gorgeous deep orange color.

Did you have any problems finding our house? There are a couple of one way turns that mess a lot of people up.

I go to the gym regularly on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The bread will have finished rising in about an hour, and then I’ll put it in the oven to bake.

       
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Lesson 46

   
Scott, Jackson, tropical, temperature, degrees, youngest, smoothly, choices, decisions, overwhelm, survived, somehow, remarkable, vacation, crying, starting, Paris, pupils, frightened, rational, reluctant, level, towards, horizon, thick, mysterious, unfortunately, adventure, position, comfortable, peace, sunrise, freezing, headed, hoped, community, houses, concept, structures, forgot, safely, fifty, bang, flat, tank, clothing, arrested, brief, criminal, character, prisoner, description, colorful, grief, strict, teaching, fired, inevitable, suggestion, practitioner, spirit, powerful, personality, sales, technology, representative, industry, wealthy, musician, nationality, French, grandmother, France, witch, wished, battle, warrior, rise, crack, grill, mostly, percent, harmful, legal, forty

It’s college summer break for Scott Jackson and his friends. And it’s hot – very hot – so hot that it feels like they’re in a tropical country with a temperature of a hundred degrees!

Scott is the youngest brother of three in the Jackson family. His first year at college had gone smoothly, and he’d made good choices and smart decisions for someone who was away from home on his own for the very first time.

In school, he’d worked hard – though he’d never quite let the homework overwhelm him – and he had survived one tough test after another. Somehow – and he thought that this was remarkable – he got a good grade on all of them. One thing was for sure. He was ready for a vacation from school work!

This afternoon, Scott had gone to the local park to walk his dog. At one point on the path – in a quiet part of the park – he saw a young man his age standing by a tree. As he got close to the tree, he noticed that the person was crying.

He didn’t want to embarrass the poor guy, so he was going to keep clear of him. But as he was starting to turn around to walk away, he realized that this was a friend from college. His name was Drew Paris.

He walked over to Drew and said, “Hey man, are you all right?” He looked at Drew in the face, and his pupils were huge. He was so upset that he seemed almost frightened, and he didn’t seem very rational, either. He just kept on crying, and he was obviously reluctant to talk.

After a couple of minutes, Scott said, “Look Drew, when you’re down on your luck, the best thing that you can do is to talk it out with a friend. You can level with me, and I won’t tell anyone about it.”

Drew looked towards the horizon and just stared off into space for about a minute. Scott watched Drew scratch his thick red hair for a few seconds. Then, finally, his mysterious secret came out.

Drew said, “Look Scott, I don’t care about you telling anyone about this. The whole world is going to know about this soon, anyway – and they may already know about it now. This morning, I unfortunately had the kind of adventure that no one wants to experience. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve never put myself into a position like this before.”

Scott said, “Wow, Drew. What in the world happened?”

Drew began to tell his tale. “Well, the air doesn’t move around well in our house, and when it’s this hot outside, my bedroom just doesn’t cool down nearly enough. So, last night, I was not sleeping well at all. I hoped that I’d finally fall into a deep sleep, but I just never got comfortable enough for that to happen.”

“Since I just couldn’t get any peace, I gave up and got out of bed just before sunrise. I decided that I’d go for a long drive in my car, turn the air on, and get it as close to freezing in there as I could.”

“I headed out of the driveway, and I hoped that I could find an interesting neighborhood or two that I’d never been in before – near our own community – to check out big houses. And I was, indeed, successful with my little concept for entertainment. I was finally cool from the ice cold air coming out of the vents, and I saw some amazing structures. Really neat homes!”

“Well, after a while, I kind of forgot what I was doing. No one was up yet, so there were no people or cars on the road yet. It turns out that – without being aware of it – I had stopped driving safely. I found out later that I’d been going at least fifty miles an hour – in a large but quiet neighborhood.”

“So, then, out of the blue, BANG! A tire blew out on me! I’d never had that happen to me before. I’ve had a flat tire before, but I’ve never had one blowing up on me. I just couldn’t handle my tank of a car at that speed, and before I knew it, I was up over the sidewalk, and I ended up running into a big tree. That was BANG number two!”

Scott exclaimed, “Man, Drew, that’s just awful!”

Drew said, “Wait till you hear how much worse it gets! So, next, here’s a good news / bad news thing that occurred. When I hit the tree, the air-bag in the car went off. Other than my clothing looking pretty beat-up, I was fine, and I wasn’t hurt, which is the good news. But I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t get out of the car. Then, to my surprise, within just ninety seconds, someone showed up to help me get out.”

Scott asked, “Seriously? How was someone there so fast? You said that no one was up yet.”

Drew explained, “Well now, here’s the bad news. The person outside my car was a cop! He’d been parking just up the road in order to take a break, and I hadn’t noticed him. He saw the whole thing! He’s the person who told me that I’d been going AT LEAST fifty miles an hour on a twenty mile an hour street. And since I wasn’t hurt at all from the crash, he arrested me right on the spot! He gave me a brief speech about my driving like a crazy person. Then he took me in. I was actually in jail, man! A criminal with low character! A prisoner – all locked up!”

“So, at this point, someone had to put up money to get me out. I called home and got my mom. I thought that my dad would come get me, but it was my mom who showed up. When she told my dad about this, her description of him was that he started to yell out more colorful language than she’d ever heard from him. He was so angry that she thought it best that he didn’t drive over to the jail!”

Scott replied, “Ouch! Good grief, Drew. So, I’m curious, what are your parents like, and how do you think they’ll handle all of this?”

Drew said, “Both of them have always been strict, and they’ve always expected a lot out of me, Chase, and Mark. They’re always teaching us about things that we need to do to become successful adults. And any time that we made mistakes growing up, they’d both get all fired up, and the inevitable suggestion always poured out about how we should never do that again.”

“My mom has a great career as a nurse practitioner. And though she’s strict, she does have a kind spirit, and she can even be quite humorous sometimes. But Dad! Oh my God! He’s got what I’d call a tough and powerful personality. He’s always got to accomplish something. He’s got a huge job; he’s the vice-president of sales at an important technology company. And he’s very well thought of as a representative for his industry. He even had to answer questions before Congress one time. Anyway, I have to admit that his work has made him pretty wealthy.”

“But it’s not just his work where he’s got to be good. He’s also an accomplished musician. He didn’t actually grow up in the States. His nationality is French, and he got really good music training over there. In fact, my grandmother still lives in Paris, France. She’s as tough as he is – or more so!”

“To tell you the truth, I’ve never really liked her much. In fact, I call her the old witch. I’ve always wished that I could have a more positive feeling about her. But every time that we talk, it’s like she’s trying to get into some kind of battle with me, when I have no wish to be some kind of warrior getting into a fight with her. She’s the same with Chase and Mark – always trying to get a rise out of the three of us, or to see one of us crack under her thumb. But somehow, Mom gets along great with her. Go figure!”

“So, back to this morning, I was ready for the inevitable before I opened the front door. And sure enough, there was Dad, starting to grill me before both of my feet were inside the house. The first thing that he did was hit his fist on the coffee table. That was BANG number three for the day. And then, our talk was mostly about him, not me – yeah, it was ninety-five percent about him! It was like my bad adventure was harmful to him, and not to me. You know: “What will the neighborhood think? What will the community think? What will our family friends think? What will the people at my job think?”

“As for what happens to me, look, I’m guilty. What I did was wrong, and I’m not going to try to get out of it. Dad will get good legal help for me, and I think that the judge will be very fair, since this is the first trouble like this that I’ve ever gotten into. But when I’m in that court, I’m going to say that I’m guilty. And I hope that that will be a show of good character.”

“So, one thing is for sure when this is all over with. Long before I’m forty years old, I will tell my own children about my terrible adventure today, and I’ll grill into them that you can’t EVER day-dream when you’re driving a car! All it takes is one or two seconds to be hit with a dangerous surprise, and you need to be ready to take action to keep yourself safe!”

      
   
   
platform, organization, proposed, touching, sides, settlement, satisfactory, violence, stocking, package, theory, trespassing, pyramid, row, rhythm

Our Party now has a powerful new platform. Our organization proposed it to a group of a thousand voters – touching people from the far right to the far left, that is from all sides of politics – and eighty percent of those folks said that they liked what they heard!

The judge tried hard to bring this legal battle to a close, and he did a great job. Both sides agreed that the final settlement was satisfactory for everyone.

The great warrior did not actually like violence, and he would always try to get through a problem without a fight.

When I went downstairs on Christmas morning, my stocking was very full. When I took everything out of it, there was a small, flat package that I found to be quite interesting. My theory was that it was going to be my best present of the season. And boy was I right; it was a fifty-dollar bill!

You’d better be very careful. If that witch sees you trespassing on her land, she’ll catch you and turn you into a lizard.

In the mysterious adventure story that I just read, the thieves who headed deep into a pyramid to rob it never came out alive!

Our teacher said, “Everyone please line up in a straight row, and then we’ll head towards the lunch room. I hear that they’re going to serve some tasty tropical juice today as one of your drink choices.”

We had a musician come to our school today who taught us how important rhythm is to a song. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take a turn at trying to play the drums.

I’m going to bring lots of comfortable, colorful clothing with us on our vacation. Of course, I’ll also bring a jacket for any day where the temperature is a few degrees too cool.

My uncle runs a training organization that helps people to find a good new job. Since you just got fired from your work place, my suggestion is that you check his business out. This piece of paper is a description of their business concept, and they work hard to help you find a number of possible job choices.

I’m sorry, but unfortunately our French restaurant doesn’t allow you to wear a tank top inside, and we have to be strict about that. The folks who eat here are mostly wealthy, and they like to dress up in fine clothing. But we can seat you outside at a comfortable place at the bar by the grill, if that would be satisfactory for you. You’ll have a remarkable view, because the sun is headed down towards the horizon, and it should set in about forty minutes.

When Jackson plays the drums, it’s amazing how good his rhythm is. I hoped that somehow this past summer he could be teaching me lessons about how to play the drums, but he didn’t have time to.

All of the pupils in my class proposed that we go on a field trip to the new museum. They gave me a good description of what’s there to see and how it will be good for our community to have it here. I was in a position to say “yes,” and I did, because I loved their suggestion. Saying “yes” was one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. Going there turned out to be a powerful experience, and all of us learned a lot.

That witch is a practitioner of very mysterious dark magic, and she has an evil personality. All who have made her mad at them have wished that they had never met her. She can overwhelm anyone with her power, and it’s inevitable that anyone will lose a battle with her. She’s not frightened about doing violence to others, and some who have had a fight with her have not survived!

The temperature dropped quickly this afternoon as a cold front came in, and it’s now well below freezing, now around twenty degrees.

I hear that they’re going to level all of the old beat-up houses on Main Street between Third and Fourth Street. They’re doing that in order to build a building that will house an organization that’s working for world peace. They are sick of all of the violence that’s going on around the world.

A pyramid in the Middle East is one of the most amazing structures that’s ever been built.

I need to check the weather on the Internet to see what time the sun will rise tomorrow morning. I want to get a photograph of a colorful sunrise just as a small bit of the sun shows up above the horizon. I’ve picked out a good position on top of the big hill in the park, and that’s where I’ll set up to take the shot.

“I saw your kids crying at school today. Why?” “My children are all in grief because their grandmother passed away yesterday. We had wished that she would have survived a heart attack that she had last week, but it was just too much for her. The good news is that she was in pain for just a very brief time.”

Our sales have hit a new high level for three days in a row. Our theory for this is that our new product is now very competitive, thanks to our use of a new technology.

That criminal who got arrested yesterday was in jail for just a brief period of time. Did you hear that he is of a different nationality?

“I’m going to climb up that tall platform and dive into the water from there.” “Okay, but make sure that you do it safely!”

When I was on vacation in France, I noticed that the people there like it when Americans try to use French instead of English, even if they get it wrong. For instance, I forgot how to say “I need to visit a rest room.” They just smiled and showed me which way to go.

Walk safely and don’t trip over that big crack in the sidewalk. To fall down and break something would be harmful to your health!

When I row the boat on the lake, there’s a nice, calm rhythm as the boat will rise just a little bit and then fall just a little bit.

She is the youngest representative to Congress that our state has ever had. She’s quite a remarkable person.

Somehow the dog got a hold of my Christmas stocking and ate some chocolate that was in it. Isn’t that harmful to dogs?

Dad, I have a neat concept for what I want to do when I’m an adult. I want to be a part of the first settlement on Mars. We can build some cool structures to live in. And one of them can look like a pyramid!

Before the game, the coach got all forty of us on the team really fired up about playing tough in the game. When we started to yell, “We’re gonna win!” over and over again, she said, “Now that’s the spirit that I’m looking for!”

The criminal was reluctant to come out of hiding, because he thought that he would be found and arrested. But he’d been freezing for days, and he wondered how long he could stand that.

Pam, it was touching to see how well you were able to calm down the baby.

A lot of people in that technology industry have become very wealthy.

Our grandmother said, “I forgot the name of that great musician. But he was of a different nationality, and he has a hard name to remember.”

I’m going to swim around, but I’ll stay close to all four sides of the pool.

When she proposed that we jump the fence to go check out the horses, I said, “No way! That would be trespassing!”

I love being on vacation! I woke up this morning to a gorgeous tropical sunrise and felt so much at peace.

We’re in trouble. The back right tire is going flat, and the gas tank is almost empty.

When I saw our son touching that package, I said, “Don’t pick that up! It can break very easily!”

I smiled as I watched Mom smoothly cut me a thick slice of cake.

That is a rational theory that you have. Let’s figure out how to test it.

Let’s leave a crack in the door. That way I can hear if the baby is crying in the middle of the night.

This piece of pie is mostly made of crust, and it’s not filled with enough fruit!

Both sides were not being rational. So, they were a long way from having a good path toward a legal settlement.

I asked the manager at the grocery store if they were stocking any new kinds of food this week that I might like to try. He said, “Yes, indeed. We have some wonderful candy that I ship in from Paris, France every once in a while. Let me get you a package so that you can check it out!”

I hear that sales on new homes are up ten percent over last year.

We need to build some kind of platform here on which the president can give her speech.

The teacher said, “My pupils gave me a lot of grief today about all of the homework that I gave them to do over the weekend. I don’t want to overwhelm them, but it’s really important that they learn this stuff!”

I’m not trespassing on his land. He’s got a gun!

This tasty ice cream is so thick!

I’m the representative from our church to the big meeting about how we have too much violence in this city.

There are so many feet of snow out there that I feel like I’m a prisoner in my own house!

In science class today, our teacher taught us what a theory is.

I’ll get out of jail tomorrow and no longer be a prisoner.

In this part of town, you’ll find a different industry factory one after another.

I didn’t like the main character in that book. He was mean and stupid.

One of the most difficult decisions that I’ve ever had to make was which college to go to.

What?! You aren’t frightened of that little cat are you?

Which one of the houses that we have looked at do you like the most?

She has the perfect personality to be in a sales position at our company.

My college experience has made me want to become a health care practitioner.

I am reluctant to try that, because food like this has made me sick before.

I’m afraid that this work that you’ve done is just not satisfactory. You need to do a better job!

I think that our party went very smoothly. How about you?

I just can’t seem to get into the holiday spirit this year.

You’d better get in here! The show is starting in just three minutes.

I’m going to be teaching a science class this year instead of a math class.

That warrior has never lost a battle.

She is the youngest of my children.

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Lesson 47

   
abandon, acknowledge, agent, amount, architect, average, bandit, beasts, blame, burst, cactus, canyon, cattle, clay, daily, decrease, determined, elaborate, elementary, exceptional, fashion, flock, formerly, gentlemen, gossip, grand, habits, heroes, hopped, increase, inquired, jealousy, laboratory, literature, mammal, marvel, medicine, nations, nerve, nineteen, occupy, outline, overcome, paddle, parrot, payment, persuade, pirates, poison, property, qualities, railway, rarely, reaching, reaction, recognized, reindeer, resolution, resulted, roughly, sacrifice, schedule, scissors, scold, seats, settled, shadows, shock, slipper, sooner, spartan, squash, stiff, strictly, substance, sunflower, taxes, teachers, tendency, tenth, thrown, torture, tranquil, transportation, understanding, unmarried, update, valentine, veggies, victory, vulnerable, whiskers, widespread, wildlife, wisdom, wreck

I decided that I had to acknowledge my biggest fear and finally try to face it – and to overcome it, once and for all. So, I made a resolution. I would make a big sacrifice and use transportation – for the first time ever – that would probably be daily torture for me. Up to this point in my life, an airplane was fine. A car was great. Going by railway was absolutely fair game. But going on a ship?! NO WAY! You see, I’m scared of the water. I’ve never had any nerve for the ocean and for the open seas. No amount of money could persuade me to get onto a ship!
   
But I was determined to have a nice vacation and visit a number of different nations on the same trip. So, I inquired about grand ships. Such a ship would have to be as big as a city, with 8,000 people or more on it. If it was that big, then it just couldn’t sink! That was my theory – and my hope! Therefore, I took a lot of time studying the trip literature from a brand new update, and I made my choice. It was, indeed, an exceptional ship.
   
Their company called it “The MAGIC of the Seas.” Good name. Better than a bunch of other names that they could have picked to remind me of my fear. Like “The BASEMENT of the Seas.” Or “The CEMETERY of the Seas” (or its sister ship, “The DESERTED of the Seas”). How about “The ACCIDENT of the Seas?” Or The DANGEROUS of the Seas?” Maybe “The EMERGENCY of the Seas” or “The JUNK of the Seas.” This is the kind of thinking that my poor brain went through as I thought of some ship that couldn’t stay above water. You get the picture.

Now, after all of this really positive thinking (yeah, right!) on my part, I had to do everything that I could to decrease my fear while I was on this big thing that could take on lots of water and sink fast. So, I decided to book a spartan room on a low floor, in the center of the boat – and with no window, of course! I didn’t want to see that big hundred foot wave when it was coming at us to wreck the ship!
   
And when I went to book the trip, I could handle the amount of money that it would cost me, a payment of roughly nineteen-hundred dollars, before taxes. That price was including all of the food, which was a pleasant surprise to me. If I was going to die, at least I wouldn’t die hungry!
   
The time came, and there I was next to the boat – about to get on it as soon as someone stuck a gun into my back and said, “Get on board now! Move it, or else!” But there I was, looking up at this gigantic city-on-the-water in front of me, and I had to admit that this wasn’t your average boat! It was, in fact, an elaborate work of genius. I had to marvel at it, and I would have liked to have met its clever architect!
   
So, at that point, I swallowed hard and hopped onto the ship. I was in an early group to board, and I headed straight to occupy my room, which would be my own little piece of property for a week – that is, a week of torture that would probably feel more like a year to me!

As I went into the room, I said to myself, “Yep. Pretty plain. But you get what you pay for.” There was an artificial sunflower in a cheap vase. And there was one painting on the wall. It was of a colorful parrot sitting on a cactus, with a big canyon behind it. By the way, I would find out later that I’d see lots of wildlife in much of the art that was around the ship. I’d see beasts of all kinds. There was even a painting of Santa and his reindeer that I saw, but they were on a tropical island at a wild party. Nice touch!
   
I got all of my stuff put up, and I was now well-settled in my room. There had been only one very small problem. I had my left slipper with me, but I forgot to pack my right one. If that would turn out to be my worst problem, then I could live with that!
   
I now looked at the door, and I had to scold myself. I’ll let you know that I have this tendency to talk to myself out-loud, and I said, “Ted, you can’t sit in here for a whole week. You’re a big rat in a laboratory called a ship – that you’re crazy scared of – so be a rat and persuade yourself to let the experiment on yourself begin. Get out there and see what might happen!” So, I burst out of my room ready to test what kind of reaction I’d have to this crazy new transportation experience.
   
The first thing that I noticed was that people were now coming on board like cattle – or maybe like a huge flock of birds. Rarely had I ever seen such a mad crowd of humans in such a small space. This was nothing like a tranquil time for any worker on this ship! If someone had been really mean and would have yelled, “FIRE,” it would have thrown out a shock wave that would have resulted in widespread panic! I’m glad that this didn’t happen, of course!

Anyway, later – no sooner than all of the people were on board – the ship finally set sail. I recognized that the ship would increase its speed quickly. The captain was ready to move! As soon as we were out into the open sea, I got really stiff. There was no turning back now! This was a big test for me.
   
One of my ship habits is that I wouldn’t get close to the edge of the big boat, and I found my way up to a bar on the tenth floor, where I sat as far from a window as I could. I had a glass of wine, and I’ll acknowledge that this helped me to calm down a bit.
   
Then, at dinner, I also sat far from a window, and I had a tasty dish from Asia, which had been cooking in a clay pot. There were also some healthy veggies with lots of squash, my favorite. All-in-all, it was quite a satisfactory meal, and I had to admit to myself that things were feeling like “so far, so good” at this point, and that it was now time for bed.
   
I shut my eyes – happy that I was in pretty good shape – and I started to count cattle until I was asleep. But no sooner than I was asleep, I had this horrible dream. The captain had yelled over the loud-speakers, “ABANDON SHIP! Pirates have taken over the ship, and they’re going to try to kill you if you don’t get off of here. They’re going to wreck the ship!”
    
I jumped up out of the bed and was quickly reaching for a pair of scissors that I had thought to pack. That wouldn’t be much to fight with, but it was better than nothing. Then I ran out into the hallway, and my reaction was to be ready to move faster than I ever had before!

Well, no one was there in the hall. No running. No crying. It was as quiet as a mouse and as tranquil as a still lake. Out-loud, I had to scold myself yet again, saying, “Ted, you are an exceptional fool! It’s elementary why there’s no mad crowd and no panic here. You were just having a bad dream!” I felt pretty stupid, but I then decided to not blame myself too badly, because the dream was, indeed, quite real. In fact, it was probably pretty rational for me to act the way that I did.
   
I went back into the room – a little worse for wear and tear – and I was determined to sleep well. I had some medicine with me that I rarely took, but it would always make me sleep like a baby. It did the trick this time, and for the rest of the night, I had a peaceful rest.
  
The next morning I looked at the ship schedule, and when I went to breakfast, I looked for seats – you know where … far from a window – and I settled into a nice spot. I had no problem being by myself on this vacation. I formerly had a wife, but that didn’t work out. I was now unmarried again, and having gotten more wisdom about women during our lousy couple of years together, I was more than happy to stay single for quite some time into the future! I was feeling quite vulnerable after that bad experience, and I wasn’t going to open myself up to have another woman embarrass me, in any way, any time soon! If any young lady came up to me and asked, “Will you be my valentine, Ted?” I’d say, “Absolutely not. Please squash that thought immediately!”

So, after my tenth or so bite of food, I asked myself, “Ted, what’s the best way to occupy your daily time for a week?” I wrote down a little outline of ideas, and I decided that I would fashion an act where I’d imagine that I was a secret agent. I would look for gossip and jealousy. I would look for a bandit who might steal jewels. I would look for a wife with awful qualities, who complained all the time, and who always yelled at her husband because he just couldn’t make her happy. Maybe he would try to kill her with poison!
   
I put together a little schedule for where I’d check people out at different times of the day, and my habits took me to places where I could hide in the shadows. I even bought some fancy new clothes to give myself more of a fashion look for strong men. I didn’t want to look like just the average guy on the ship, so the payment was well worth it!
   
Now look! I want you to have a clear understanding about my little act. This was strictly for fun, and it was to help me keep my mind off of the fact that I was in the middle of the deep ocean – just waiting for the ship to start to sink – and for me to then soon find myself alone in a tiny life-boat with a paddle in my hands! And my little act was really working to keep my head clear! It was doing a grand job of helping me overcome my fear by helping my mind think about something elaborate.
   
But somewhat early during the week – very much to my surprise – my little act actually turned serious! I had been watching some gentlemen who were friends, and each one of them had an accent that made it seem like they were from three different nations. I had this really bad feeling about one of them. He looked like someone who would never pay his taxes, and I don’t like people who aren’t honest! He even looked creepy, having long whiskers like a cat or a fox. Could it be possible that he was a real bandit?

As I got up the nerve to carefully keep my eyes on him, here’s what I noticed him doing. He kept talking with a group of young elementary school teachers who were on board to have a party week. I had to marvel at how friendly he was trying to be with them. It just didn’t seem to be normal, as his conversation with them seemed kind of over the top. At one point, I heard him telling them that he was a famous architect. This seemed to me to be an exceptional lie, and I didn’t believe it for a second!
   
Then all of the teachers – other than one of them – headed back toward their rooms. “Mr. Valentine” – as I decided to name the creepy guy – was still sitting with this one innocent, vulnerable young adult. I was in the shadows – where no one could even see my outline from where he was – looking at all of this. Then all of a sudden, I saw, with shock, that while she was looking away for a second, he put a drop or two of some substance into her glass! Oh, he’d had a lot of practice doing that! I was lucky that I even caught it, since he was so smooth and quick about it! Was it poison, or was he trying to just make her sleepy in order to steal something from her?
   
Well, within a couple of minutes, things became all too clear, and I recognized exactly what he was doing. I immediately thought, “The nerve of this guy!” The young lady was now looking somewhat dizzy, and I saw the monster reaching his foot out to pull her bag over to himself. She had no idea what he was doing. And then I saw his hand come out of her bag with cash – a large amount of cash! He quickly put it away into his coat.

So, here I was, now REALLY a secret agent, and I was determined to have him caught! My mind and my body knew that it was now time to abandon my hiding place. My reaction to this scene was instant, and no sooner than I had seen the money, I hopped up and burst out from behind the cactus where I was hiding.
   
I yelled at the top of my voice, “CRIMINAL!” and I pointed right at him. He was stiff – and in shock – for a few seconds. He looked one way, and then another, and then off he ran. A worker on the ship was near this, and he saw what was going on and caught up with the bad guy quickly, because Mr. Valentine was as large as a huge ocean mammal, and he couldn’t move very fast.
    
I was there to help out in a few more seconds, and as the worker and I were wrestling Valentine to the ground – with my right hand holding onto his long whiskers! – the money burst out from his coat and was now spread out all across the floor. The two of us had overcome the bandit, and the flying money made it clear that he was guilty.

An officer from the ship arrived at the scene quickly, and a number of men took the bandit off to lock him up. I – and my new friend, the ship worker – now got to tell our story. And the next day, the captain inquired about what had gone on with the vulnerable teacher – but only after the doctor on the ship knew that the drug was out of her system so that she was clear-headed again. It was obvious to all that it was her money, and the whole scene was even caught on video camera, making things quite lock-tight. Valentine was done for. 
   
Within a few hours, I then learned something funny about a ship! News gets around fast, and this resulted in widespread gossip about how my worker friend and I had now become grand heroes!
   
So, here’s my final update about my exciting ocean experience. Because of the substance that had been put into that glass, the teacher couldn’t remember anything about what had happened. She wanted to meet me and thank me for what I’d done, so we had some coffee together. Not only was I happy to elaborate about our little victory over Mr. Creepy Valentine, but I couldn’t help but acknowledge in my mind how beautiful she was. It also turned out that we had a lot of things in common.
   
In fact, when the trip was over, she and I found out that we lived in the same city! We got to know each other, took things slowly and carefully, and by the time that we finally got married – on a ship, of course! – we had a really strong understanding about each other, which has resulted in great happiness for both of us for more than a decade now! And oh, by the way, every Halloween when I go out for trick-or-treat time with our two young children, I always make sure that I dress up like a secret agent!

    
   
   
immigrants, legislature, moss, simultaneous
   

The legislature is having trouble getting enough people to vote “yes” on the new bill. Too many people don’t agree with the latest update of the resolution to decrease taxes, and they need to persuade nineteen more people to change their vote to “yes.” The president is trying to scold those who are holding out, but it doesn’t look like this will be settled any time soon. They might have to abandon this bill and start over again with a new outline.

I feel like a wreck since I had to paddle the boat in such rough water today. It was torture, and I need some medicine so that my body doesn’t ache so badly. I like being in a boat much more when the water is tranquil!

When we inquired  about the school system in the new town where we would move to, we were told that for our third-grade  daughter, Moss Elementary School was the best one to go to.

My grandfather had a good career working for the local railway.

I’m going to cook the veggies for dinner tonight in sunflower oil. I think that this oil has a tendency to make the food taste better. This is one of the habits that I picked up when I was in cooking school roughly nineteen years ago.

This literature tells a great story about the Spartan way of life in ancient history. Their lives were strictly about building their own powerful army.

It was both her wisdom and her very long hours of practice that finally brought her to victory in her tenth chess tournament.

The scientists spent much time in the laboratory working towards making a powerful new medicine that would probably turn them into heroes if they were successful.

In the next math problem, I need you to find the average of this list of numbers that is on the board. I know that some of you have a tendency to try to do this too quickly. I’m one of those teachers who thinks that you should take your time and then check your answer.

The architect said, “If we keep the cost too low on this building, we will sacrifice quality. I need to have a clear understanding with you! We are not going to do that with a building on my property.”

One of the many great qualities of my wife is that she has a great fashion sense. And I even knew that when we were formerly unmarried.

People from many nations will flock to this football tournament. I wonder which team will fight their way to victory.

There is a lot of jealousy between those two gentlemen. Each one of them wants to have more money than the other one!

We recognized many different kinds of wildlife while we were on our hike today.

I had almost thrown up after I had eaten some veggies that were very much not to my taste!

Please schedule that meeting to last for roughly one hour.

Many immigrants to the United States became heroes in the history of our country, and many of them had to make a great sacrifice to come here.

My New Years’ resolution is to strictly stay away from eating animal fat.

For many people, the number one marvel of nature in the United States is the Grand Canyon. Some five million people flock there to see it every year!

I love seeing a new baby learn to parrot a human face, especially when the child begins to learn to smile a lot.

I saw two gentlemen stop a cab and tell him that they needed transportation to a new restaurant that they were going to try out.

The moss garden that we went to had one green color after another.

Over the last decade, we have seen a large increase in the number of immigrants who are coming to our State. The legislature is talking about trying to decrease that number over the next few years.

One should never cut the whiskers on a cat, no matter how long they might get. Cats need them to stay safe when they move around.

The company said that their new product would come to market at a simultaneous time in a number of different countries.

They haven’t thrown a big party in many years, and the gossip is that they’re going to have a big Christmas party this year.

These scissors just aren’t sharp enough to cut this.

When we go to that movie, let’s see if we can get some really good seats.

Angry beasts came out of the shadows of the jungle and began to attack the pirates who were on the beach, and widespread panic occurred as the men tried to get back to their ship.

The mad scientist was in his laboratory trying to make a very dangerous poison. The evil man wanted the substance to kill someone almost immediately.

It can be difficult to grow grass well in clay soil. That soil has certain qualities that make you work hard to get your yard looking great. But if you want your property to look as good as that of anyone else in the neighborhood, you’ll have to figure out how to do it!

I rarely cook squash, but when I do, I like to grill it.

A rush of cattle came out of the canyon towards us, and the beasts looked like they might just run over all of us!

It has never made sense to me why any ocean creature that’s a mammal would have to live in the water. What a pain it must be to have to keep coming up all the time reaching for air!

When the immigrants hopped off of their boat in a new land, they got down on their knees and began to pray.

Honey, do you know where my right slipper is? Do you think that the dog might have run off with it?

What was that sound? Did Santa and his reindeer just land on our roof?

Here’s a little wisdom for you from all of my years as a sailor. When you row a boat, you want to make sure that you don’t drop the paddle into the water!

Don’t blame me if you touch the needle of a cactus and you get hurt by it!

My good friend Clay is thinking about running for a seat in the legislature. He’s unmarried – without the responsibility of having a family yet – so he could put a lot of time into the job.

Check out those good seats over there. I hope that no one will occupy them before we can get to them.

Can you hand me the scissors so that I can cut off this little piece of cloth on my slipper?

The warrior lived a very spartan life, using all of his time to make himself one of the best soldiers in the world. No one could beat him in battle!

After I filled my car with gas, I made my payment and realized that there had been a stiff price increase since the last time that I had bought gas.

Because of the yellow color of the fur of our new kitten, we named her “Sunflower.”

It was a tough winter, and it was a daily challenge for the local wildlife to find anything to eat.

I wonder if any of those pirates have a parrot for a pet.

The kids really liked their field trip to the railway museum today.

Our zoo formerly had a reindeer, but it now lives way up north with Santa.

Why is there so much moss in that part of our back yard?

You can blame jealousy on many a friend who has become an enemy of the person who they used to like!

While reaching high up for a book in the literature area of our library, I pulled a couple of muscles in my back.

When I heard the loud sound, I saw a simultaneous flash of light.

Every mammal has these three things in common. First, they have hair or fur. Second, they have three middle ear bones. And third, the young feed on milk from their mother.

Each of the two of them were surprised to hear a simultaneous “you’ve got mail” on each computer on their kitchen table.

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Lesson 48

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Lesson 49

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   
   

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Click on this link to go to:

HIGHEST FREQUENCY ENGLISH WORDS EARLY-ON … SET FOUR (Lessons ## – ##)
   
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