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TOEIC Practice Question of the Week
"You can recognize this bird by its character pattern of colors." Find the mistake. A. recognize B. by its C. character D. pattern 「この鳥は独特の色の模様で区別できます。」...
It’s a Blue Flower! Pair Colors with Nouns in Happy Valley. 青い花だ！ハッピーバレーで色と名詞のペアを作りましょう。
With this week's video, we use the colors, objects and phrases we've been studying to make simple sentences. 今週の動画では今まで勉強してきた色、物、フレーズを使って簡単な文を作ります。 Classroom Tip This is an extension of the "It’s a" chant and builds upon the Unit 2 language "It’s a flower. It’s red."...
Trivia of the Week: Corpse Flower
The titan arum plant is also called "corpse flower" because it smells like a dead animal that is rotting. It shares this quality with the Rafflesia, and they both grow in Sumatra, but they are different plants. This month many people gathered to see a corpse flower...
Idiom of the Week: Picture Perfect
"She made sure the room was picture perfect before the party." Something that is picture perfect looks exactly right. No detail is overlooked. Perhaps it's called "picture perfect" because it looks too perfect to be real, more like something from a picture....
Word of the Week: Carry
"He was carrying a suitcase." "She picked up the cat and carried him out of the kitchen." "Carry" can be similar to "hold", but to carry something, you have to move while holding it. You can still say, "I saw him standing there. He was carrying a gun!" because he had...
Picture of the Week: Reflection
September marks the beginning of fall. The trees and the sky reflected in the water are very beautiful. Have you seen any leaves changing color yet?...
Phrase of the Week: Wanna Bet?
"There's no way you can climb that tree." "Wanna bet?" "Wanna" is a slurred-together version of "want to". More correctly, the phrase would be "Do you want to bet?" But the less formal version is more easily understood as indicating disagreement. You say something,...
TOEIC Practice Question of the Week
"Doctors were unable to ______ the cause of his symptoms." Fill in the blank. A. detriment B. determine C. undermine D. foresee 「医者たちは彼の症状の原因を突き止めることはできなかった。」 「突き止める」という意味の単語を空欄で埋めたいのですが、Aは名詞なのでアウトです。Dは「予知する」、Cは「こっそり邪魔をする」なので残るBが正解です。「決定する」という意味もあります。 Do more TOEIC...
It’s a video! Practice a basic word pairing with Kinka in Happy Valley! ビデオだ！ハッピーバレーでキンカと一緒に基本の単語のペアを練習しましょう！
"It's a" can be a difficult word combination for young children to master, but it's very common in English. Get some practice with it and have fun at the same time with this week's video! 「It's a」は、小さい子供には難しい単語のコンビネーションですが、英語ではよく使います。今週の動画で楽しみながら練習しましょう！ Classroom Tip...
Trivia of the Week: Laughter is the Best Medicine
"Laughter is the best medicine" is a saying about how laughing can help you heal. Positive emotions seem to help people heal faster. However, when studying the healing powers of positive emotions, we should try to tell the difference between people healing better...
Idiom of the Week: Tinker
"Did you add that function to our website?" "No, I still need to tinker with it until it works right." "My sister loves to take machines apart and tinker with them." Tinkering is building or rebuilding something, usually a machine. A professional tinkerer could be a...
Word of the Week: Hold
"A man appeared in the door, and he was holding a gun!" "Hold my bag while I buy my ticket." "Can I hold the baby?" "The cat doesn't like to be held." To hold something is to keep it in your hand or hands. You can have something without holding it, if it belongs to...
Picture of the Week: Snow Cone
Snow cones, or shaved ice, make a great treat for hot weather. Even though they are sometimes called "snow cones", they don't have edible cones like ice cream cones. Sometimes they come in bowls, and other times they have paper cones. かき氷（Snow cone、shaved...
Phrase of the Week: By The Way
"The concert was great. By the way, I saw your cousin at the store. I didn't know she was in town." "This author is very famous. I've read all his books, by the way." "By the way" is a phrase we use to introduce a new topic ("I saw your cousin") or add some additional...
TOEIC Practice Question of the Week
"Unfortunately your application has been ejected, but you are encouraged to apply again in the future." Find the mistake. A. Unfortunately B. application C. ejected D. apply 「残念ながら今回の申請は却下されましたが、また次回にお申し込み下さい。」...
Join Happy Valley’s Kinka and Pinka in the kitchen for a fruit snack! ハッピーバレーのキンカとピンカと一緒に台所で果物のおやつ！
Fruit is not only a healthy snack, it's also colorful and fun! Please enjoy this week's video. 果物はヘルシーなおやつだけでなく、カラフルで楽しいですね！今週の動画を楽しんでください。 Classroom Tip Storytime 5 is a chance to introduce the language students will focus on in this unit, including: "How are you?"...
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9月1日～10月11日までオータムキャンペーン実施中です！ 入会金 通常大人・高校生10,000円、中学生9,000円、キッズ8,000円ですがキャンペーン中にご入会の方は無料となります。 この秋に英会話はじめてみませんか？ 少人数制なのでキャンペーン中の無料体験レッスンは混み合います。お早めのご予約を勧めいたします。 表示価格は税別価格です。...
Trivia of the Week: Smart Crows
Crows have shown that they can solve a puzzle in which they must drop rocks into a container of water so that a piece of food floating on the surface moves into reach. They are very smart birds. They have also shown an ability to remember human's faces. One study says...
Idiom of the Week: Across the Board
"The employees' salaries were increased across the board." This means that all the employees got a raise. The board in "across the board" was originally a board displaying the odds for betting on horse races. The term "across the board" included the case of the horse...
Word of the Week: Full
"I'm sorry. The restaurant is full." "I can't eat any more. I'm full." "The abandoned house was full of spiders and rats." If something is full, all the space inside it is occupied and nothing/no one else can enter. If it is full of something, it contains a lot of...
