Your English Course: Your Journey to the Next Level

From the story you know that Jim defeats the dragon. To defeat simply means to win against someone in a fight, war, or competition. In our case, Jim wins against the dragon in a fight. He defeats the dragon. Jim kills the dragon. The dragon is dead.

Okay, we move on and we see the word to tempt.

The sentence says that the witch tries to tempt Jim. Here to tempt means to make someone want to have or do something, especially something that is unnecessary or wrong. Simply to say, the witch is trying to make Jim not fight against evil things. She wants Jim to give up. She wants Jim to stop fighting. That is why she says, “Lay down your sward and shield and study war no more”. What the witch is saying is that don’t fight, put your weapon down. Don’t fight and never practice fighting against evil.

And then she says, “Eat the bread of idleness” which actually means relax and don’t worry about your future. Just don’t think about it. Just do what other people do. Eat, drink, dance and sleep. In other words, don’t fight against evil simply because it is powerful and you cannot win. Just accept it as a truth and keep on living. Of course, you understand that it is not what Jim wants and needs to do in order to get what he wants. Jim doesn’t want to give up and he doesn’t listen to the witch. He doesn’t put his sword down and shield. No, not Jim. He resists the temptation and rescues the Brother Focus.

So next we have the verb to rescue. Here rescue means he helps the Brother Focus get out of dangerous, harmful and unpleasant situation. Jim takes the Brother Focus away from the witch. Now the Brother Focus is free again, because Jim rescues him.

Are you still with me? Are you still here? I hope you are still listening to me. I am saying that because our next word is the final one. And what is that word? Right! Contribute to. This is, by the way, one of my favourite words in English and I deliberately use this word in my course so that you remember it better. Repetition is the mother of skill. So the sentence says, “Each of them contributes to Jim a very important element”. As you may already guess, to contribute simply means to give or to help. The sisters and the brother gives Jim something very important. Each of them gives Jim something that Jim cannot become successful. Each of them contributes to Jim a very important element. Without them Jim cannot fix his pronunciation. I am talking about: care, attention and concentration. All of these three elements help Jim success faster and finally under the watchful eyes of the master start speaking English with fantastic pronunciation.

Okay, my superstar English learners this is the end of the vocabulary lesson for the story “A Heavy Accent”. I would like to leave you today with the message which is? Right! No one can succeed alone. We all need people to succeed. See you in the mini-story lesson. Have a wonderful day!

Hello, this is Alex. I am super excited that you continue learning English with me. Welcome to our mini- story for “A Heavy Accent” In this lesson, I am going to ask a lot of questions, and I am going to answer them. Your job is to listen to the questions and answer them with me or after me. You should be in the process. If you don’t understand the question immediately, the answer will help you to get the idea. You should practice your English by answering simple questions. This is one of the best ways to improve your grammar, to better your pronunciation, and to perfect your speaking skills. Let’s get started!

Jimmy was a boy of 16 years of age. His family moved from America to China. He had a serious problem. When Jimmy spoke Chinese nobody understood him, because Jimmy had a heavy accent.

How old was Jimmy when his family moved to China?