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The moon in English language

The noun ‘moon’ is thought to derive from the Proto-Indo-European mēnsis, meaning ‘month’. The moon’s waxing and waning have made it a symbol of time, change, and repetitive cycles around the world, such as the cycle of birth and death.

The moon has been personified in various myths and legends from across the world, such [more…]

Colossus Competition Solutions – UK Issue 373

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Big Competition Solutions – UK Issue 368

Shakespeare & flowers

Although Shakespeare wrote his plays over 400 years ago, in some ways the world he wrote about has hardly dated. For instance, the plants he referred to in his plays are the same ones we’re familiar with today.

In his Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon tells Puck to squeeze the juice of a flower onto the [more…]

Punctuation

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.

Where would we be without punctuation? If we didn’t have any, the sentence

“Charles the First walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off”

would leave you wondering. Instead the sentence should [more…]

Colossus Competition Solutions – UK Issue 372

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