Asking questions properly in English

Lots of students have trouble asking questions in English. Here's an exercise to help you.

The most important thing to remember is that after a question word or phrase you need a VERB.

Why did he choose to take a bus to Cleveland? NOT: Why he choose....

What kind of ring did he buy? NOT: What kind of ring he buy? 

REMEMBER: you use 'does' 'did' with a verb and 'is'/'are'/'was'/'were' with an adjective.

Are you angry?  Is he smart? Was he happy to receive the gift? What is he angry about? 



I am not feeling well.

What's wrong with you? Why aren't you feeling well?

I don't want to eat that salad.

Why don't you want to eat that salad?

Joe was very angry today.

Why was Joe very angry today?

Bob won't be coming in to work today.

Why won't Bob be coming in to work today?

I need help.

How can I help you? What kind of help do you need?

I was so irritated yesterday.

Why were you so irritated yesterday?

Ralph died.

How did he die?

Did you hear about what happened in Memphis this morning?

What happened in Memphis this morning?

I hurt my elbow.

How did you hurt your elbow?

Jane went on vacation.

Where did she go on vacation? When will she be back?

My dog ran away but someone found him and brought him back.

Who found your dog?

I was late for work today.

Why were you late?

I had a strange dream last night.

What did you dream?

I became angry and tried to hit Joe in the face.

Why did you become so angry?

My brother is getting a divorce.

Why is he getting a divorce?

I'm going to move to Brooklyn soon.

When will you move to Brooklyn?

Did you hear about Bob?

What happened to Bob?

I'm so jealous of Bob.

Why are you so jealous of Bob?

I earned a lot of money last week.

How did you earn a lot of money last week?

My boss sucks!

Why does your boss suck?

I threw your pen away.

Why did you throw my pen away?

The government is corrupt.

How is the government corrupt? Why do you say that?

That company is in a new city now.

In which city are they located? Where are they now?

I had such a great time last night.

What did you do? How did you have a great time?

The restaurant we both liked moved to a new location.

Why did it move to a new location?

We need economic reform in this country.

What kind of reform do we need?

I'm sad.

Why are you sad?

I was able to fix my cell phone.

How did you fix it?

I will never fly on that airline again!

Why not? What happened on that airline?

I think that airline is racist.

Why do you say that?

That sandwich is bad for your health.

Why is it bad for my health?

Joe is sick.

What's wrong with him? Why is he sick?

I need to go back to Chicago for a few weeks.

Why do you have to do that?

I need a vacation.

Why do you need a vacation?

You should I visit Chicago.

Why should I visit Chicago?

I finally fixed my car.

What was wrong with it? How did you fix it?

I yelled at my friend.

Why did you yell at your friend?

I saw a great movie.

Why was it great? Which movie did you see?

My favorite restaurant is closing.

Why is it closing?

Don't use the number 7 subway line this weekend.

What's wrong with it?  Why not?

You should vote for a third party candidate.

Why should I vote for a third party candidate.

Joe moved.

Where did he move to?

One way to prove climate change to Trump - a melting iceberg in his image

Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, does not believe that humanity has been harmfully affecting the Earth's climate (weather patterns).

In America, he is the type of person who is called a "climate denier". To deny something is to say that you don't believe something. 

In fact, Donald Trump has blamed the idea of global warming on China, saying that China wants the world to believe that businesses and factories are harming the earth so that United States businesses will stop producing so many goods around the world. (Virtually no intelligent people believe Trump's 'conspiracy theory' about China). 

A group in Finland is trying to raise (gather/collect) $500,000 to have an artist carve a giant image of Trump on an iceberg near the North Pole so that Trump, himself, can watch his image melt as a result of global warming.

A very creative and peaceful response to a climate denier!!!!!

Article about this situation:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-ice-sculpture-iceberg-climate-change-project-trumpmore-melting-arctic-a8331886.html

Vocabulary from the article:

to carve something into something - to use a sharp object to cut into an object so as to form a new image from the original object

The Arctic - this is the very cold region to the north of Earth; the Antarctic is the area to the south. Antarctica is an actual continent. There are seven continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, Antarctica and Australia. The Arctic or the North Pole is not a continent, it is just a huge area of frozen water. 

a stunt - an action done to create publicity. Publicity means attention from television news shows, newspapers, the internet, social media etc. So a stunt is something that might be done to get everybody's attention.

to spearhead something - if you spearhead something, you are the leader - you are the first to do something, just as the tip of a spear enters a target first. A spear is a long, sharp weapon that can be thrown through the air.

the initiative - an initiative is a project or an endeavor, something someone or some group is going to do to reach some kind of goal.

they have dubbed the effort - they are calling the effort; to dub something as something is to give it a name or title

Trumpmore - there is a famous mountain in America called Mount Rushmore which has the faces of four US presidents carved into it.

to ponder - to think about, to wonder about

Mr. Trump has previously whether climate change exists - this is a mistake by the editor of this article. It should be: Mr. Trump has previously questioned whether climate change exists

non-competitive - he feels that the USA and other countries are competing with each other or fighting against each other to see who can make the most products. He feels the USA is currently winning and making more products than any other country. So he believes that other countries have created the idea of global warming to try to stop US owned factories from making as many things as they are making.

in the Oval Office - the name of the office where the US president spends most of his time. It is shaped like an oval - like an egg.

to sue someone - to take someone to court to stop them from doing something or to get money from them

greenhouse gas emissions guidelines - the EPA or Environmental Protection Agency is a government agency in the USA which sets up rules or guidelines trying to limit the amount of 'greenhouse gases' that can be sent into the air by factories. Greenhouse gases are gases that get stuck in the atmosphere (the air surrounding the Earth) and cause heat from sunlight to get trapped in the atmosphere. So the guy Trump appointed to run the EPA once tried to stop the EPA from setting up rules to save the atmosphere from greenhouse gases.

poised - to be poised to do something means to be ready to do something

offshore drilling - this means drilling for oil in the oceans off the coast of the United States. This is very dangerous as accidents can happen and pollute the water. Trump believes in offshore oil drilling.

to be off limits - if something is off limits, it is prohibited, someone should not go there or do anything there

to muse about something - to think or ponder about something

prominent - if something stands out from other things, it is prominent. So the presidents on Mount Rushmore were four of the most famous presidents of that time.

a rally - a gathering of supporters where they hear speeches and feel good about an issue or person

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush is running for president of Iraq

So one of my students said, "Hey, look at what he did with just his shoes! Imagine what he'll be able to do with an entire government!"

The article:

https://nypost.com/2018/05/01/iraqi-journalist-who-hurled-shoe-at-bush-is-running-for-president/

Vocabulary from the article:

flung - fling, flung, flung (to throw)

to run for office - we use the verb 'to run' if someone is trying to win a political position through the electoral system

chucked - another term for to throw is to chuck something at someone. It is more of a slang term.

launched - another term for thrown.

to brain someone - to hit someone in the head (again, this is a type of slang term)

widows - women whose husbands have died

orphans - children lacking parents (children without parents)

to be tackled - to be attacked and taken down to the ground

nimbly - skillfully

Bush cracked at the time - another verb for to 'tell' a joke is to 'crack' a joke

a ceremonial official - not much power

sovereignty - independence

the provisions of the constitution - what the constitution says should be done

alas - unfortunately 

The African American guys arrested at the Philadelphia Starbucks tell their side of the story

Two African American guys went to a Starbucks to meet a guy with whom they were working on a business project. They did not bother to buy anything. One of them tried to use the bathroom and was told he could not do so unless he bought something first. The manager then told the guys they could not sit and wait without buying anything. They would not buy anything and they would not leave.

So the manager of the Starbucks called the police and the police told the men they had to buy something or leave. They did not do either thing - they told the police they were waiting for someone.

The police arrested the men, but later (after 8 hours) released them.

Starbucks fired the manager and apologized. They are going to provide a training program to teach all of their staff members how not to discriminate against people at Starbucks. (prejudice is an attitude, something a person feels; discrimination is action taken against people because of prejudice)

The Philadelphia Police Department (this happened in Philadelphia) claims that the police did the right thing. If you walk into a coffee shop, you have to buy something, you cannot use the space for free.

How do you feel about this?

An article:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/men-arrested-starbucks-business-meeting-hoping-change-lives/story?id=54578217

Vocabulary:

to be arrested: this is when the police take a person into custody (they take a person to the police station because they believe he/she has committed a crime)

to be accused of something: when someone says you have done something wrong

trespassing - going some place you were not allowed to go (often this means you entered onto land that doesn't belong to you - here it means they entered a restaurant and didn't buy anything)

an entrepreneur - a business person, someone who wants to get involved in a business activity

a barista - at Starbucks, the people behind the counter are called baristas

to decline - to say 'no'

real estate - property

ultimately - finally

to handcuff someone - to put a metal device around a person's two wrists so that he cannot fight

escorted them - led them, removed them from the store

a squad car - a police car

the charges they were facing - the accusations against them, what they were accused of, what they supposedly had done wrong

the charges were dropped - the police said, "OK, we are removing any accusations against you, you may go."

prompted protests - caused protests

a protest - when a group of people come together publicly to complain about something they feel is wrong

minding their own business - not bothering any one

their Miranda rights - whenever anyone in America is arrested, the police have to tell the person his/her rights - "You have the right to remain silent, you don't have to say anything, you also have the right to get a lawyer immediately..." Miranda was a person who was arrested but he wasn't told his rights and he complained about this. So now there is a la named after him requiring the police to tell every arrested person what his/her rights are.

defiant trespassing - you are someplace you shouldn't be and you won't leave (you are defiant - you say "No! I won't do that!")

a video testimonial - a video statement

candidly - completely honestly

to spot something - to see something, to realize something

unconscious bias - bias means prejudice; unconscious bias means you are not even aware that you are acting because you are prejudiced against certain people

reprehensible - very, very wrong, disgustingly wrong

subsequently - later, afterwards

A Lyft driver abandoned a pilot mid-ride due to the low price of a fare

So what would you have done? 

Let's say you are a Lyft driver and you pick a guy up and start driving him to the airport. After a few minutes you realize you are going to travel an hour and only make $6. Well, you picked the guy up and started driving him, so you have to finish your job, correct?

Well, one Lyft driver didn't see things that way. He just stopped his car and forced an airline pilot out in the middle of nowhere. The pilot was late for his flight due to this. 

Thankfully the pilot recorded enough of this exchange to prove what really happened.

So, obviously, if you pick a guy up, you have to finish the job, correct? If the fare is too little for you, do not pick the guy up. 

But, whose fault is this ultimately? 

The article:
http://kfor.com/2018/04/08/pilot-says-lyft-driver-kicked-him-out-after-realizing-airport-was-just-a-6-trip/

Vocabulary:

to kick someone out of some place - to force the person to leave

to drop someone off at a place - to drive a person somewhere

a random spot - not a chosen spot, just any spot, a spot decided on arbitrarily or randomly or not due to a rational or deliberate choice

a tight schedule - he did not have much extra time, a schedule that does not give you much extra time

abruptly - suddenly

to be worth it - super useful: It wasn't worth it for him to....It wasn't worth it for me to... It was worth it to go to the beach today because it was free and I was able to relax.

a ride hailing app - to hail a cab, or to hail a car is to literally wave on the sidewalk to get the driver's attention so that you can use his service. So a ride-hailing app is an app that helps you get a car ride without actually 'hailing' a cab on the street.

initial - first

to feel frustrated - to feel as if there is no solution to a problem or that you are in a bad situation and all the choices suck

his rank - the fact that he was an airline pilot

gunning it - that means he started driving the car super fast to get the ride over with as soon as possible

running stop signs - not stopping for stop signs

whipped out his cell phone - he pulled out his cell phone quickly

things were going downhill - things were getting worse

incredulous - if someone is incredulous he has a hard time believing something is happening

citing - indicating, pointing to

what transpired - what happened

a form letter - a letter that a company sends to everyone or to a certain group of people

Lula has been arrested

Lula was the president of Brasil from 2003 to the end of 2010. During those years 29 million people were assisted into the middle class through government programs and educational initiatives. He did amazing things with the Brasilian economy and helped his entire country to a better life. Barack Obama once said, "I love this guy!" and Tony Blair called Lula one of the most remarkable leaders of our age. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-11458409

So Lula decided to run for the office of presidency again. Now he has been arrested. He was charged with (accused of) illegally accepting a million dollar piece of property he has never lived in and for which there is zero proof that he accepted.

Basically, Lula seems to be an innocent man who helped millions of people, and he is probably now the victim of dirty politics. Certain folks in Brasil did not want Lula to run again, and so they threw him in jail.

In the following article you can read how his own supporters tried to stop him from surrendering to the police.

An article about his arrest: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/brazils-lula-creates-standoff-defiance-prison-order-54301463


Vocabulary from the article:

tense - scary, threatening, causing one to be afraid

a showdown - when two people or groups face each other in some type of conflict, a confrontation

to be in custody - the police has taken control of him and have taken away his freedom

capping - ending

intense - strong

underscored - highlighted, revealed, strongly showed

raw emotions - emotions that people can't control, that just come out strongly

the incarceration of - throwing a person into jail

engulfed by - literally: eaten by, surrounded by, overcome by

corruption - acting in a dishonest manner, not acting properly in regard to one's position so that money is stolen or jobs are not done properly

a conviction - to be found guilty

to be holed up in - to be hiding safely in

clashes - fights

scores - a score is a dozen people (12)

a whirlwind of events - a lot of events going by quickly

a petition - a document asking for something

to appeal his conviction - he was found guilty by a lower court but he 'appealed' to a higher court (asked the higher court) to overturn or get rid of the guilty verdict (conviction). He wanted to remain free while the higher court considered the appeal. The lower court would not allow him to remain free.

Car Wash cases - many instances of corruption have been investigated in Brasil and the whole group of cases or incidents are being called 'the car wash cases'. I am not sure why.

an arrest warrant - a document giving the police the authority to arrest a person; such a warrant is usually given by a judge

a 12 year sentence - a sentence is a period of time a person must remain in prison

to hunker down - to establish oneself more firmly in a place. e.g. I need to hunker down and study for this test!  or: You are experiencing a lot of bad luck lately, but don't worry, hunker down and things will get better.

improbable - unlikely, not expected

prosecutors - lawyers for the government who try to throw people in jail

to take refuge - to go to a safe place

trajectory - his path to the top, a trajectory is the path that a rocket or some other objecttakes as it rises (and sometimes falls)

allegations - complaints

trading favors - giving something to get something

to be upheld - to be confirmed, to be found to be right

colossal - huge, gigantic

a fall from grace - to go from a great, amazing place to a lousy, bad, rotten place

against steep odds - despite huge chances against him; to do something against the odds means few people have done it before. e,g. I come from a poor and working-class family and against steep (difficult) odds I was able to go to an Ivy League school.  Odds are chances of success. If you are definitely going to win something, you have 1-1 odds. If you are probably not going to be able to do something, but there is still a chance, your odds might be 50-1 or 100-1 or if you really will have a hard time doing something 1,000 - 1 etc.

a booming economy - an economy that kept increasing

abject - hopeless

hardscrabble - something difficult, something requiring struggle to survive

to rise through the ranks - to start at the bottom of an organization and to keep getting higher and higher jobs

a union - an organization of workers 

a strike - when workers refuse to work until they receive a better salary or working conditions

to be polarized - most people are on one side or the other (we have a North Pole and a South Pole)

to be behind bars - to be in jail

detractors - people against someone or something

impunity - to do something wrong and to get away with it

to disqualify someone - to make it impossible for a person to do something because he/she is not "qualified" or does not meet the standards or criteria

to be ensnared - to be caught

a scandal - a situation in which famous or powerful people have been exposed or revealed to have been doing something wrong

the elite - the very famous, the very powerful, the few people who have become well-known

an illegal scheme - an illegal plan to make money secretly

a cartel - an illegal organization

to dole out - to hand out, to deliver

inflated - larger than normal

a kickback - I help you make money and you send some of this money to me.  e.g. You own a construction company and I have power in government. We need to hire a construction company to build a road. So, I tell you, give me an inflated figure for the construction of this road. I will make sure the government pays you this amount. You then kick some of that money back to me. 

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Feel free to contact me with comments or questions at djg51qu@gmail.com

Hungary's Two-Tailed Dog Party - Can They Save the World? I think so.

The sticker says: Look into my eyes, you will vote for us!

The Two-Tailed Dog Party of Hungary may be the greatest political party or political movement of all time. Please read the following article about them. If they gain power, they will distribute free beer and try to negotiate free trade agreements with alien civilizations (in other parts of the universe). They will take children to school in helicopters, and not in school buses. 

Yes, they are out-of-the-box thinkers. (They are also being very satirical - to be satirical means to make fun of or to laugh at an "important" or famous person or institution. Their campaign seems satirical in origin - they are laughing at evil political parties and politics in general, I believe.) 

(A political "party" is a political group that usually represents a particular belief system. The two-tailed dogs seem to be very open-minded and liberal.)

The article:

http://www.newsweek.com/hungarys-joke-party-dead-serious-about-election-875196

Vocabulary from the article:

a joke party - a political party that was created as a joke, initially, even though they are now, apparently, seriously running candidates for election. (notice: to run for election)

to be dead serious - to be really serious, to be super serious

to draw penises - a penis is the male sexual organ

ballot papers - the slips of paper used to vote in an election

a referendum - this is a special type of election in which the people of a country decide an important issue

European Union migration quotas - a quota is a number that has to be reached. So the EU wanted to establish a quota for each member country of how many refugees or migrants each country had to accept. Hungary's very conservative leader - Orban - did not want to accept the idea of a quota or many migrants. So he held a referendum hoping the people would support him and say "No" to a quota established by the EU.

to cast a vote - to submit a vote

to be deemed invalid - apparently 6.2 million people drew penises on their ballots and these were not considered to be real votes. If something is invalid, it is not legitimate, not to be accepted as real.

the poll - the referendum

grassroots - coming from the people, coming from the bottom up

to be offensive - this means some people are embarrassed by something or upset or shocked by it.

a euphemism for male genitalia - a 'nice' word for the male penis (so if a person doesn't want to say 'penis' in Hungary, I guess that person says 'tail').

dubious - doubtful, not real

to claim expense refunds - I think this means that if a party gets at least 500 votes for each of its candidates, the government pays them the amount of money they spent (or claimed to spend) running in the election. So the fake parties might be falsely claiming and receiving expenses if 500 people accidentally or stupidly vote for their candidates.

to perpetrate something - to cause something harmful or criminal

deemed - considered

a range - a wide variety of things

gorilla-guerrilla - a gorilla is a large ape, a guerrilla is a secret fighter

eternal life - life without end, no death

campaigning - running for office

perks - extra benefits of a job

a departure from clucking - clucking is a sound that chickens make. "Cluck cluck cluck!" He departed from clucking - he stopped clucking and moved to human speech.

spurring them into action - causing them to become more active; to spur something is to speed something up and make it happen faster

enhancing - making it better; so this party tries to take care of issues and matters the government neglects (doesn't pay attention to)

why did the chicken crossed the road? - should be: why did the chicken cross the road? This is an old joke. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.

opposition parties - political parties that are trying to take over from the powerful, well-established parties

to rally behind someone or something - to come together for someone or something

a rival - a competitor, someone you are working against

undecided voters - people who cannot make up their minds