New York City Sucks, But Youll Still

Wanna Come Here: An English Reading,

Vocabulary and Idiom-Building
(Survival) Guide For Students Who Want
To Know The TRUTH About The Big Apple
Intro by Suzy
1) The English schools suck but you can stay in the USA with an F1 visa.
2) An important tomb at an urban crossroads
3) Bed Bugs
4) They are not magicians, they are Jewish?
5) Please dont give money to beggars
6) Ticket Blitz
7) Why the hell is Bloomberg the Mayor?
8) Yellow Fever
9) I almost killed my language exchange partner
10) Historic Stuff - NYC's rise to power
11) An Army of Blond Lesbians? Developing my gaydar.
12) Immigration policy, get your victim visa!
13) See New York and die
14) Subway stories
15) 9/11/01: from tragedy to disillusion
16) Who is on the money?
17) My volunteer activity at a homeless shelter
18) I went to a sex club
19) From beatnik to hippy to punk to hipster? Welcome to Williamsburg
20) Police scandals: Diallo, Luima, Bell
21) Diversity my ass: Crown Heights, Brooklyn
22) Finding a place
23) A few historical New Yorkers you should know
24) I bought a gun to get my photo ID card

How to use this book:

This book is written completely in English. Once you learn

English grammar, the only way to really master English is to
leave your native language for periods of time and jump
completely into English. This book helps you do that in a fun,
supportive and interesting way.
By the way, Suzy is my alter-ego (my other self). Im Daniel
Gauss, a guy who came to New York City to study at Teachers
College Columbia University and who has taught and tutored here.
So Suzys stories are partly based on my experiences and partly
on experiences my students have told me.
1. There are 23 reading passages. First, read through a passage
and try to understand as much as you can.
2. Then, go to the section where some selected words are
defined. Some definitions are funny and some teach you about
U.S. or New York City culture/history. Look through these words
and definitions and try to understand and perhaps memorize the
words you do not know. Try to put the new words on index cards
with their definitions so you can review them. This really
helps!
3. After you have looked through the definitions and have
understood or memorized the new words, try to read the passage
again. The second time you will understand the passage better
and will remember more new words.
4. Then, try to do the fill-in-the-blank exercises after each
passage. These are fun. These will help you really learn new
vocabulary words. Your "passive" vocabulary (words you can
understand when you hear or see them) often becomes your
"active" vocabulary (words you can use to express yourself).
5. Finally, look at the grammar review section. This section
deals with common grammar mistakes that almost all new English
students make. It will be very helpful.

Please enjoy this book or I will be sad.

Introduction from Suzy

You can learn the good stuff about New York City elsewhere. I want to tell you the nasty, rotten
stuff. Maybe it's something about my personality. Maybe Im a cynic. Or maybe I'm a do-gooder
and I don't want you to be fooled about what exists over here before you come here. In fact, if you
read this book,
youll get a sense of what a New Yorker really is or can be, and if you actually
come here, after reading this book, you will feel more like a New Yorker than a clueless bug-eyed
tourist. You will come here with open eyes, but not bug-eyes.
What makes a real New Yorker? I think knowledge and experience make a real New Yorker. You are a
real New Yorker when you really begin to understand this place (the good stuff and the bad stuff) and
start experiencing things you cant experience in any other city (the good stuff and the bad stuff). Lots of
people seem to be proud to have been born in New York City, but they are not necessarily real New
Yorkers. Real New Yorkers often come from other places.
Immigrants used to come to America expecting to make money very quickly or to get well-paying jobs
and they were often treated like crap or garbage by the European folks who got here first. And,
instead of writing back home and saying, "Dont make the same mistake I made! They treat
immigrants like crap here!" people were too embarrassed and would write back home and say, "Wow!
What a great country! There is money to be made all over the place! I am so glad I came here!"
Basically, people would just lie in order to cover up the fact that they had made a bad decision. That
meant that more people would come over and have bad experiences and then write nice things about
their experiences. A whole cycle of this nonsense occurred.
Well, I wont do that. I have integrity. There are rotten things about New York City which you should
know about. REALLY rotten things. There are some nasty, ugly, mean-spirited people here. There are
people who live for nothing but money and their own personal comfort here. Selfishness
abounds. There is wide-spread, incredible poverty. The Census Bureau estimates that 20% of
New Yorkers live in poverty. New York also has the widest income gap in the country. The top 20%
of New Yorkers make 40 times the amount of money as the bottom 20%. There are also 43,000
homeless people who are living in New York City shelters. There are another 2,000 living on the
streets. Almost every day someone begs me for money as I walk to work. People even beg for money
on the subway. Beggars are everywhere in Manhattan.
Part of the problem is rent. About 30% of New Yorkers pay over 50% of their salaries (the money they
make) for rent. For some poorer New Yorkers, this means that after they pay for rent, their phone bill,
their transportation costs etc., they only have about $5 per day left for food. About 1.8 million people in
New York City receive food stamps (this means they receive money from the government to receive
free food from supermarkets). There are about 8.2 million New Yorkers, so almost 22% of New Yorkers
are getting free food. The average amount a person receives, however, is only about $150 per month
which isnt much - but it probably keeps some people from starving to death. Lots of Manhattan
churches hand out free food as well and have soup kitchens, so very hungry people often go there.
New York City currently has a billionaire mayor who has, basically, ignored the poor and homeless,
but who thinks he has done a wonderful job. His agenda seems to have been to make life impossible
for the poor so that they would have to move out of the city. There are, however, some people who are
too poor to even move out. There are neighborhoods where you'd be crazy to go. Some inner city
young people carry concealed guns and sometimes people get shot by stray bullets. There is massive
corruption in the state government, a system of transportation that would be an embarrassment in a
third world country and a police department that seems to have one scandal after another. Its true
that New York City is the most diverse city in the world (there are people from over 250 countries here),
but the different ethnicities and races seem to shun each other here.

So theres a lot to tell you about, my friend. Let me start by complaining about the language schools
here. I'll then complain about everything I can think of complaining about. I'll also throw in some good
stuff about New York City, and some suggestions as to how you can survive here. But this ESL book is
primarily meant to give you some extra words (vocabulary development helps fluency) and to entertain
you with the cold, hard truth about the "greatest" city in the world. More than anything, I want you to
be ready when you get here. I want you to be empowered here because this place can be rough. If
you know a few things ahead of time that other people aren't telling you, you'll be safer and have a
better experience here.

Definitions of highlighted words:

stuff this is a much used word in the American vocabulary. Its singular but means a collection of
things. For instance, if you want to go shopping you might say you need to buy a bunch of stuff. "A
bunch" is a collection of something, like a bunch of bananas. The closest synonym to stuff would be
things. You can learn the good things about New York City elsewhere. I dont need any more stuff in
my living room. I like learning stuff about nature. Give me more of that stuff on that plate its
tasty! Be careful, though. Many foreign students sometimes pluralize this word, but there is no such
word as "stuffs": only stuff.
elsewhere another source, another place, somewhere else.
nasty, rotten a nasty attitude is a mean, not nice, aggressive and negative attitude. If you ask a
sales clerk a question and she says, Dont bother me. thats a nasty attitude. "To bother" a person
means to annoy or irritate the person. Rotten means something bad. If you leave an apple lying around
for several days it will become rotten. Any food left lying around too long will become rotten. You will
probably feel disgusted looking at a rotten piece of fruit. Sometimes you ask a person how he/she feels
and the person will say, I feel rotten. That means they are not feeling good at all. If somebody acts in
a rotten way, you will feel disgusted by them. By the way, attitude is a good vocabulary word. Many
foreign students mistakenly use the word "mind. They might say, "I don't like the American mind about
guns." What they mean is, "I don't like the American attitude about guns." If a person is kind of nasty,
we can also say that he or she has a "bad attitude.
a personality - a person's personality is made up of all of the psychological characteristics of a
person. Sometimes there are certain characteristics that stand out more than others so a person might
be described as having a pleasant personality, or a negative, bad or nasty personality. An American
might say, "He has such a bad personality. He's always critical and negative." I have a sweet
personality. Really! Well, I wish I did. I think I used to have a sweet personality before I came here.
a cynic someone who tends to always see the negative side of things. If you are like this you are a
cynical person or a cynic. The word cynic comes from an ancient Greek word for a group of philosophers
who tried to remove themselves from Greek society in order to criticize it. They kind of lived like
homeless people or Buddhist monks. These philosophers never seemed to see anything positive about
their society. They always focused on the negative.
a do-gooder a do-gooder is someone who does good things for others. The high-level version of this
word is altruist. This word comes from the Latin word alter for other. If you are an altruist you
care about other people more than you care about yourself. Ego means I in Latin. An egoist is
someone who cares about himself or herself more than others. If you are an egoist you can also be
called egocentric. You can also be called self-centered or selfish.

to be fooled to be deceived, to be tricked, to expect one thing and then to be surprised with
something else (usually negative). A fool is basically a clown someone that others laugh at.
over here many foreign students say in here. No, you are now over here. I used to live in
Moscow but I have been over here for 5 years now. Over here. Please practice this because it drives me
crazy when people say, Ive been in here for 5 years. Over here. Please! Please? Pretty please?
clueless a clue is what a detective or investigator looks for to solve a crime. A clue is a hint or some
type of evidence that points to something else. A lot of Americans use the term clueless for people
who are kind of ignorant or who just dont know what they should know. You can also be clueless if you
simply dont know something about a subject. I had never been to an Ethiopean restaurant, so I was
clueless about how to eat the food without any utensils (in Ethiopean restaurants you have to eat the
food with your fingers, using thin slices of bread to scoop up (pick up) the beef or chicken a utensil is a
knife, fork or spoon).
to be bug-eyed bugs, or insects, often have huge eyes. When I say a bug-eyed tourist I mean a
tourist who is overly impressed by New York Citys surface or impressionsas if the tourist is walking
around with huge eyes just looking at tourist attractions and other stuff he/she is supposed to or
expected to look at, without really having experiences or understanding things.
to treat s/o like crap to treat someone like means to act toward them in a certain way. I have
been treated well by Americans since I came over here. If someone treats another person like crap, he
treats that person badly. Crap means poop. Poop. The stuff that comes out of your butt when you sit
on the toilet. Ok? Poop, crap. Actually, crap is the more polite word for shit. Your butt is what you sit
on. The polite term for ass is butt. Be careful because to treat can also mean to pay for someone.
i.e. Let me treat you to dinner tonight. If you have been treated badly by someone, you might also say
I was treated like garbage by him!
folks is a term that lots of people are using for people these days. Some folks think that this
economic crisis was caused by irresponsible bankers. There are some folks who like to travel, but I enjoy
reading and staying in New York City. I disagree with the folks who think we need to build more prisons
and I agree with the folks who suggest we should economically develop our cities to prevent crime.
to make a mistake please be aware that the verb you use with mistake is to make. i.e. I made a
mistake when I got off the subway in Brooklyn instead of Flushing.
to lie to cover up s/t to say something not true to try to hide something. Politicians usually try to
cover up various wrong things that they have done. In American history President Nixon tried to cover
up the Watergate scandal, in which he illegally and secretly recorded conversations of his political
enemies in the Watergate Hotel. President Reagan tried to cover up the Iran-Contra scandal, in which
he illegally sold weapons to Iran through a group in South America called The Contras. "in which" is
used a lot in English: I was involved in an activity in which I made a lot of money. Speaking of
scandals, Bill Clinton tried to cover up the fact that he had sex with Monica Lewinsky. "the fact that" is
used a lot in English. I don't like the fact that he has a nasty temper (he becomes angry easily). People
were upset by the fact that the Congress raised taxes again. "the fact that" serves the function of an
object which is explained afterwards in the sentence.
a cycle a complete process that then begins again. We use a vicious cycle to mean negative actions
that continue each other. For instance, revenge leads to a vicious cycle. Hatred leads to a vicious cycle
of hatred in that person A hates B and B returns the hatred so that A then hates B even more and B

then hates A more etc. "In that" is also used alot - it kind of means: "because" or "for the
reason that." There is also something called a benevolent cycle or a good cycle. If a company pays
its workers well then the workers work harder and the company makes more money and can pay the
workers more and they work even harder; this is a benevolent cycle.
integrity a sense of extreme honesty. Integrity is a non-countable noun. It is hard to find a politician
with integrity these days in New York; they are all corrupt and dishonest.
mean-spirited having a mean or nasty spirit or attitude. Attitude is a good vocabulary word to know
it can be used a lot. If someone is mean-spirited they do not act in a kindly way. It is as if they are
motivated by an evil or mean spirit (ghost or demon).
to abound if something abounds it is all over the place. It spreads rapidly. This word isnt used
much; dont worry about it. Racism abounded in the South in the past, but now things are better there.
wide-spread all over the place. It has spread to many parts of a place. The swine flu is not as widespread as people thought it might be. AIDS has become wide-spread in parts of Africa.
living in poverty being very, very poor. In America you are considered to be living below the poverty
line if you make less than about $12,000 per year. If you are in a family of 4 and all the people in your
family make under about $24,000 per year, all of you are living in poverty.
The Census Bureau This is a government agency whose job is to collect (compile) statistics, primarily
about the population of the USA. The population of the USA is taken every 10 years (1980, 1990, 2000,
2010 etc.).
wide, wider, widest the opposite of wide is narrow. If something is the widest it is the largest.
an income gap a gap is a space between something. An income gap would be the difference
between rich and poor people. Income is the money you make. The average salary of people in the top
20% in NY City is about $400,000. The average salary for the bottom 20% of New Yorkers is about
$10,000. I think theres something wrong about this.
a shelter a building owned by the city where homeless people can go to get some food and to get
some sleep. Many homeless people say the shelter system in New York City is dirty and dangerous.
to beg to ask for something as a type of gift or act of kindness or charity.
food stamps Now a days a person gets a card from the government that looks like a debit card.
When the person buys food, he/she runs the debit card through a machine at the supermarket counter
and money is deducted from the card. In the old days people were literally given stamps worth a
certain amount of money. Yes, like the stamps you put on letters. So even though people use electronic
cards, the cards are still called food stamps.
to starve to go without food for too long. Sometimes starving is used in a humorous way. Yes!
Lets go to dinner! Im starving!
a soup kitchen this is a place, usually at a church or synagogue (where Jewish people worship),
where they cook free meals for homeless and/or hungry people. I dont know why these places are

called soup kitchens because they serve much more than soup. I have done volunteer work at a
church called Holy Apostles in Manhattan where they serve thousands of people a year. Its heartbreaking to see all the sad, hungry people. People often dont talk to each other, they just look down at
their food, eat and leave. I think they are often deeply embarrassed (at least that is what I have seen).
a billionaire mayor - a billionaire has 1 billion dollars or more. 1 billion is this: 1,000,000,000. A
mayor is the leader of a city. The current Mayor of New York is the wealthiest person in the city with
over 15 billion dollars. It is no coincidence (no accident) that the wealthiest person is mayor here.
to ignore - to not pay attention to, to overlook, to disregard.
an agenda a plan, a goal.
You'd be crazy to go there - to be crazy means to be mentally ill, or insane. To be crazy to go
someplace means that a normal, rational (logical) person would not go there because if he/she were to
go to that place, he/she would not be safe.
inner city I dont know who created this term, but inner city usually means bad neighborhood or
bad area. An inner city young person lives in a bad, dangerous place. Lots of poor, young New Yorkers
live in dangerous places and they become changed for the worse by their experiences there.
concealed hidden. In America everyone who does not have a serious criminal record and who is over
a certain age may buy a gun. It is illegal in most states, however, to carry a concealed gun. Believe it or
not, there are some places in America where you can carry a concealed gun (Texas, for instance).
stray something is stray when it goes someplace it wasnt supposed to go. A stray bullet is a bullet
that goes in a wrong direction or someplace the shooter of the gun didnt want it to go. Recently, a 90
year old woman was sitting in her apartment in the Bronx and a stray bullet from a gun went through her
window and killed her. Members of teenage street gangs had been shooting at each other. A stray dog
is a dog that is lost or no longer has a home. There used to be a rock and roll group in the USA called
The Stray Cats (the lost cats).
massive corruption massive means a huge amount. Corruption is dishonesty and wrongdoing. Political corruption means secret or hidden or covered-up wrong-doing on the part of
politicians. Corruption literally means rottenness.
a third-world country - During the Cold War period of history (1945 - 1989), a third-world country was
any country that wasn't an ally (friend) of the United States or Russia. So small, developing countries
were called third-world countries, and they are called this even to this day.
a scandal when it becomes public knowledge that someone famous or in power or in a situation of
responsibility has been doing something embarrassing or wrong. A scandal is when knowledge of wrongdoing goes public.
diverse - not the same, different. The opposite word would be "homogeneous." That is pronounced "ho
MAGE in us" not "ho mo JEAN ee us." A homogeneous city would be a city that has, basically, the same
race or ethnicity of people - basically everyone looks similar in a homogeneous city.

ethnicities an ethnic group is not a racial group. If you were born in Korea, your race is Asian but
your ethnicity is Korean. America is made up of many different ethnic groups: German, Irish, Polish,
Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Latino etc. The original European folks who came here were white, English (also
called Anglo Saxon) and Protestant (a different Christian grouping from Catholic). So if a person in
America is a WASP, he/she comes from this original type of immigrant to America: White Anglo Saxon
Protestant. Believe it or not, WASPs do not make up the largest ethnic group in America. Currently
German-Americans are the largest grouping (17%), followed by Latinos. The number of Latinos in
America is increasing rapidly, however, and so this group will soon become the most populous. However,
lots of Asians have been coming over as immigrants and this group represents the most highly educated
group of immigrants to ever come to America.
to shun to avoid, to stay away from.
to throw in to include.
to be or feel empowered to feel as if you have the capacity or the power to be able to do
something.
rough the opposite of smooth. In this case rough means difficult.

Grammar Stuff Common Mistakes If statements

Heres where Im going to deal with common mistakes foreign students make. For instance, if you want
to speak English, you are going to have to use if statements a lot.
Take a look at that last sentence. Thats a simple conditional statement. You have the present tense in
the first part and the future in the second part. But, please notice, instead of you will have to use I
wrote you are going to have to use Americans dont use the word will a lot. They use going to
more often.
However, will is still used a lot in the conditional so feel free to use it that way if you want to. As you
get more familiar with English and get some experience with it, you can begin using going to more
often.
Lets take a quick look at the three big ways that the conditional is used. 90% of the time youll use one
of these three sentence structures. Learn this thoroughly please! It is so useful.
The simple conditional. Present tense and future tense. I would guess that 75% of the time you use
the conditional, you can use the simple conditional. If you drink too much soda you are going to get
fat. Or: If you drink too much soda you will get fat. Drink is in the present tense and going to get
fat or will get fat is in the future tense.
If we drive to Jersey we are going to pick up Bob (or: we will pick up Bob). If Joe eats much more he is
going to get sick (or: will get sick).
The unreal conditional. Past tense and would. If Bob ate pork, he would get sick. If I wrote this
down, it wouldn't get lost.

But, there is also a way to use the unreal conditional with the verb "were." If Bob were to eat pork he
would get sick. If I were to write this down it wouldn't get lost. So it would involve: were + to + a verb.
Why "were"? In English we still have the "subjunctive" rule in regard to unreal situations using the word
"if." This rule states that if you use "if" in the unreal conditional, you should use "were" instead of "was."
Most Americans dont even know this. Only 25% of Americans go to college.
This is supposed to help people realize that the situation is unreal. You will often, however, hear many
Americans say, "If I was in his place I would not go home." But it's better to follow the subjunctive rule
and use "were" instead of was: If I were in his place I would not go home. If I were not tired I would
walk over to your house. If he were not to drive, he would have to walk. The subjunctive rule seems to
be dying in the English language. Because too many Americans are too uneducated to understand it? I
didnt say that! Who said that?!
All of this is about a hypothetical or theoretical or non-real situation something that hasnt happened
but someone is thinking of doing it and thinking of the consequences of doing it. This is a type of
situation which might or might not happen.
"If I drank soda, I would get fat." More instances of the other way to convey the unreal conditional: If I
were to drink soda I would get fat. If I were to drive to Jersey I would pick up Bob. If Joe were to eat
pork he would get sick.
Do you want the truth? Educated Americans seem to use were to and uneducated Americans seem to
use the past tense. Thats how it seems to me. Actually, here's the real truth: most Americans don't even
know how to use conditionals correctly. Even journalists mess up the conditional in their newspapers.
One important rule of thumb (brief rule): never follow an "if" immediately with a "will" or "would". You
will never say: "If I would" or If I will Never in a million years. Never in a zillion years. This is an
impossible structure, but Americans use it anyway. Please don't follow their example.
Past unreal (or whatever the hell they call it). Basically, if you have to use if and it refers to
something in the past, you use this weird structure. If I had driven into Jersey I would have picked up
Bob. So this type of if statement is about a hypothetical situation that might have happened in the
past. If Bob had eaten the old stale food he would have gotten sick. If I had drunk a lot of soda I would
have become fat.
So it is: had + p.p. ----- would have + p.p. Its so easy.
Oh my God! I cant believe it when foreign students make mistakes with if statements! If you use if,
90% of the time you are only going to have THREE sentence structure choices. So, people, PLEASE,
pretty please! Please stop for just a second and determine which of the three structures you will need to
use when you use if. These if statements are so easy but so many foreign students make mistakes
when they use if! Every time you are about to use "if" please catch yourself and think, just
briefly: Present + will? Past + would? Had + p.p. + would have + p.p?
Oh! I almost forgot. You dont always have to use will or going to or "would in the second part of
an if statement. You can use other modals like can or should or might. i.e. If you go to Astoria
you can buy some good Greek groceries. If I had known about the sale, I might have bought some
clothes from there. But the structure is the same. Please nail down these conditionals; they are
essential. "To nail down" means to really master or understand something. You hit a nail with a

hammer. If you nail something down using a hammer and nail, that object cannot move any
more. Please be aware, however, that the type of nail you can hit with a hammer is different from the
type of nail on your fingers.

15 essential vocab words fill-in-the-blanks

For all fill-in-the-blank activities, the verbs can be used in all tenses and the nouns can
be plural.
a cynic, nasty, stray, clueless, corruption, ethnicity, personality, to shun, a
scandal, concealed, to ignore, integrity, rough, an agenda, a shelter
When talking about the different types of ____________ in America, you can say that America is either a
melting pot or a salad bowl. According to the melting pot concept, people from different cultures come
here and after a couple generations become typical Americans. According to the salad bowl concept,
people come here and maintain their own cultural identities for generations, becoming part of a cultural
mixture.
Although many business leaders in America have donated huge sums of money to charities, a
___________ might argue that the donations are not from the heart but are meant to make the
business leaders look more human than they really are.
Many newcomers to New York City are shocked by the __________ attitude that many MTA (subway)
workers have; if you ask them a question they often answer rudely or just ignore you.
Even though the United States Constitution allows Americans to own guns, these guns must never be
carried in a ___________ manner. In fact, the guns are not supposed to be carried at all they are for
home protection.
Everyone was relieved to hear that the teenage girl in the Bronx, who had been hit by a _________
bullet from an illegal gun, was going to live.
If you are going to come to New York City for a short time, you need to establish an efficient
_____________. There are so many things to see and do, that unless you plan carefully, you will not see
and do everything.
When I first got here I was so ____________ about the subway system. One day I was trying to get to
Williamsburg Brooklyn and wound up in Harlem.
The most obvious type of political _____________ involves politicians taking bribes (money given to a
politician illegally to influence a political decision).
One of the biggest ____________ in New York history involved Governor Eliot Spitzer (a governor is the
leader of the State of New Yorkthe Mayor is the leader of the City of New York). Spitzer was visiting
various prostitutes during the period of time he was Governor, and he was forced to resign when this was
discovered by the FBI. (The FBI is the police department of the United States of America its much
more powerful than city police departments. Federal Bureau of Investigation).

My neighbor recently told me that unless you make about $40,000 a year in New York City, your life will
be kind of ___________ here. I am not sure, though. I think how easy or difficult your life here is, will
depend on how much you have to pay for rent.
When the young man asked me for spare (extra) change (coins) because he was homeless, I strongly
encouraged him to enter a New York City _____________. Even though I have heard they might not be
completely safe, I felt that a social worker at such a place might be able to help him.
I was really surprised to find out that sales clerks in department stores, in New York City, have such nice
______________. In Paris and some other European cities the clerks do not treat the buyers with much
respect or kindness, but in New York the clerks will smile and chat and talk to you about your purchase.
A person coming to America who wants to avoid getting fat needs to _________ all the tasty bagels and
fried foods which are everywhere in this city.
Visitors from Asia are often shocked by the fact that New Yorkers walking down the street just
____________ traffic lights and walk signals. Basically, if a car is not coming, a New Yorker will cross the
street regardless of the traffic sign or walk signal.
Very few people would argue that Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was a man of immense ___________. He
fought against corruption in New York City government and ended many organized crime groups in the
city. Few subsequent (following) mayors were, however, as honest or competent.
Answers: Ethnicities, cynic, nasty, concealed, stray, agenda, clueless, corruption, scandals,
rough, shelter, personalities, shun, ignore, integrity,

Chapter 1: The schools suck but I got an F-1 Visa

You may call me Suzy. Thats my American name for Susana (Im from a Spanish-speaking country
originally). Susana sounded too exotic for the Americans I began working with after I finished graduate
school here, so people in the office just started calling me Suzy. Actually, they used to try to call me
Susana, but they pronounced the middle syllable sound strangely the sound seemed to come out of
their noses instead of their mouths, and that sounded worse than Suzy. So Im stuck with Suzy while I
live here. Thats ok, it kind of sounds sexy in a WASPy way: Suuuuuuuuuu zeeeeeeeeeeeee.
In a country that nominally claims to value diversity, the foreigner seems to only really be valued when
he/she speaks English very well and acts like an American. In America the foreigners who keep their
foreign names and dont master English usually work at companies operated by people from their own
countries. So every foreigner here faces a dilemma: become reborn as a WASP and prosper, or keep
your name and culture and get marginalized (pushed off to the side of society).
Lots of people seem to think I have become a WASP. You can judge for yourself as you read this book.
Personally, I think an intelligent foreigner can lead a double-life here: on the surface you can speak and
act like a WASP, but underneath you can still be a proud member of your own culture. It takes
intelligence, but its possible. Its a game you can play with Americans. Peek-a-boo! Now Im a WASP,
now Im a Latina/Asian/European etc. They call this game diversity here.

Like many foreign students from all over the world, I thought that coming to New York City and attending
a language school would help me to really nail-down the English language. Actually, first my agency
in my home town (to whom I paid a fortune) sent me to a language school in Oklahoma before I
started my graduate program. They told me that studying in a city where there are not that many
Spanish-speakers would help me to interact more with native-speakers and force me to speak English.
The problem? Almost my entire class was Korean. @_@ Lots of Koreans come to America. Thats OK,
though, because I learned a lot about Korea. I ate kimchi and dukboki (spicy Korean foods) every night
and learned some Korean. And I started to get fat! So I figured that if I were going to speak with
Koreans all the time and potentially get fat, Id do it in New York City. And, any way, my Oklahoma
language school sucked. How was I supposed to know, however, that most, if not all, language schools
seem to suck?!!!
Generally, based on what Ive seen and heard, the English language schools in New York City suck.
They really suck. They suck a lot. Maybe Im wrong and I just havent heard of any good ones; who
knows. Most folks who come here dont know about the quality of the schools when they come
here. They think they are really going to improve their English. Sorry. I gotta tell you the truth. Within
about a week or so, after the shock wears off, students realize they have been had and just kind of
settle in. They accept the inevitable. Their priorities change. They start out thinking: Man, Im
really going to improve my English here! but they wind up thinking: Shit. Well, at least Im in New
York City. I can enjoy myself.
An ESL students priorities often change from learning English to enjoying the greatest city in the world
with the most diverse population in the world. They enjoy the shopping, the theater, the restaurants and
the museums and the overall strange atmosphere they enjoy the freedom here. Lots of foreign women
tell me that they can relax here they dont have to be super skinny. They can eat what they want.
Everybody who comes over here seems to like this place.
Well, this is a nice consolation, but, damn it, English is important these days. Oh, another good
thing about New York City despite the shitty, lousy schools at least you can potentially make a little
money here if you want to. Alot of my foreign friends try to get some type of under-the-table job
here where they are paid in cash (you dont have to pay taxes then).
Most restaurants seem to hire people illegally. This seems to be common knowledge here. Bloomberg
this short, old, ugly, mean guy with a nasally voice who has zillions of dollars and is the mayor
seems to think illegal immigrants and illegal jobs are good for business. At least thats the conclusion Ive
derived. Welcome to America, a nation of justice and laws. The argument seems to be that if
Americans worked at restaurants they would have to be paid more and restaurant meal prices would
rise/increase. That would kill or destroy tourism. So Bloomberg feels it is better to make immigrants
work for a very low salary to keep meal prices at restaurants down. Keep them down? Ha ha ha! The
prices here are crazy! The prices for meals at restaurants are often very expensive! Basically the
restaurant owners can make even more money with illegal workers.
I knew, for instance, a Japanese girl who got a job as a waitress at an upscale Japanese restaurant in
SoHo. The owner paid her $8/hr. And (!) she and her fellow waitresses were NOT allowed to keep
their tips! So if four people sat together and ate at the restaurant, the bill would usually come to around
$200, and they would leave a tip of at least $40 thinking it would go to the waitress. No, the owner
would take that and give the waitress $8/hr. Back to the shitty schools, maybe Ill write about shitty
restaurants later.
I think that there are some folks who know that the schools here suck. These are the folks who pick the
cheapest schools. In fact, I think there are some schools that exist primarily to give out the F1 visa to

students who just want to spend more than 90 days in New York City. I once attended a business school
that also had a very small English school in which there were only 60 students enrolled, but only four
students ever showed up for the English school. (Notice, you have to use in which or where here
instead of that.)
Of course, that was totally illegal, but this IS New York. Stuff happens here that might surprise you. I
mean, a recent Governor of the state was visiting prostitutes, journalists must have known this, but
nobody did anything for a long time. Finally the FBI did something and he had to resign. Was he
thrown in jail? No. Now he has his own television show. Welcome to America.
At this school, however, when the inspector from NYSED (The New York State Education Department)
would drop by, THEN all 60 students would have to show up and it would look like a real school. The
next day, only four students would show up again. America. This is why so many people wanna come
here. Working for NYSED has to be the easiest job in the world. How can I get a job at
NYSED? Actually, they'd fire me because I would actually try to do something to make the schools
better.
In any case, this type of place is called a "ghost" school. You know what a ghost is: it is supposedly the
spirit left over from a person after he/she dies. A ghost is something not real, just as these schools are
not real. I know of at least one ghost school in Queens. They keep two sets of records - one for NYSED
and one for their students, to keep track of the payments. The school falsifies (puts false information
into) attendance records. A lady from Japan that I knew felt she needed to take personal tutoring
lessons to learn English, so she paid this ghost school $90 per week to falsify her attendance and give
her an F-1 visa, while she worked under-the-table as a house-cleaner and took lessons from her
tutor. There has to be a better system than this. Hello, NYSED? Get off your asses and do some work!
At the ghost school that I mentioned above (not knowing that it was a ghost school when I joined) my
ESL teacher would always take us to Central Park for lessons because he was addicted to smoking. If
you are addicted to something, you cant stop doing it. He was a chain-smoker. He could smoke at
Central Park while we conducted our lessons. I hate cigarette smoke. Frankly, the guy disgusted me.
He would always prepare the lessons ten minutes before class by photocopying something from some
type of text book. It was sad that he took such a perfunctory approach to teaching us.
Oh! Are you looking for a good under-the-table job? I recently heard of one. There are some people
who enroll at real ESL schools, but then hire surrogates to take their classes for them. I couldnt
believe it either. I am not sure exactly how they do this, but a couple of my foreign buddies told me
they are sure this is happening. One of them was offered this type of job but she had too much integrity
and turned it down. Apparently you have to kind of look like the person you are taking the classes for
and use that persons ID to get into the school. Then you just pretend to be that person. The real
student then gets an under-the-table job and makes a lot of money tax free while the surrogate also gets
paid and learns English. Im guessing Bloomberg would think this is good for business.
One of my friends went to an ESL school where (you could also use the relative pronoun "in which" here)
all you had to do was "swipe" your ID card. This automatically registered you as having "attended" the
school that day. So one student would go in with three or four ID cards and swipe all of her friends in
for the day and then leave during a break. Of course, schools are supposed to have strict attendance
policies because the 9/11/2001 terrorists all had F1 visas. As if terrorists cant swipe! Nice rules and
regulations America. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that many immigrants use the ESL schools as
ways to stick around America for long periods of time. This is one reason why so many of the schools
suck, because they become a type of F1 visa ghost-school system. And, basically, it looks as if many of
the ESL schools welcome this and there's really nobody in NYC or the government who seems to really
care. They "look the other way." I have discovered there's lots of "looking the other way" in
America.
This is one of the reasons why terrorists were able to fly airplanes into the World Trade

Center buildings. Too much looking the other way causes lots of harm, obviously. Its a lesson that
wasnt learned here.
But even the ESL schools that don't exist as ways to get the F1 visa often seem to kind of suck. I have
to be honest with you. I have yet to hear one foreign student tell me that he/she was really, really
happy with his/her language school. There was always some kind of problem. Again, maybe I just hang
around cynics I might be wrong. And, you might ask: Why do the ESL schools suck so badly? Well, I
have some theories.
I learned a lot of grammar back home. They emphasized grammar and vocabulary because there was a
shortage of English teachers who speak native-English. Essentially, the NYC language schools seem to
suck because I have yet to even hear of one that provides great language practice. Period. I gotta be
honest. I knew a foreign girl who came here and immediately found a boyfriend who spoke English. She
had worked in Tokyo in a hostess bar so she had some experience dealing with men. Her fluency
improved so much! Dont think I didn't think about doing that! :P Interesting proposal: sex for
English. Can I be that slutty? Well, English is important :P And what happens in America stays in
America. How did my English get to be so good? Ha ha ha. I bet you wanna know :P But seriously,
my point is that if you come to America to learn English, be prepared to step out of your comfort
zone and meet Americans. Too many students come here and just associate with people of their own
ethnicity.
I did hear about a couple language schools where you only get about three to five students in a room at
one time and they charge you an arm and a leg for this, and the instructor does ask you to speak
alot, but, damn it, how the hell is a person going to speak fluently unless someone corrects his/her
mistakes?! Some instructors do and some dont. (Thats also a problem with native-speaking boyfriends.
Many American guys basically want sex, sports and food. Getting them to correct your English is
tough. OK, I never exchanged sex for English. Ha ha ha. What do you think I am, a ho?). In order
to really speak fluent English it is necessary to get someone who will catch your mistakes, correct them,
and write something down so that you can review your mistakes later and practice correct English
sentences on your own.
Many of these ESL instructors (as I later learned) only make $13.33 to $18 per hour. Thats pretty
low. High-level vocabulary time: Thats a paltry salary, baby. Because they were making so little, they
took what might be called a perfunctory (they were not enthusiastic) approach to teaching. They always
did something in class, but they werent very enthusiastic about teaching. I heard from someone that at
this type of school the instructors ask lots of questions but do not always correct grammar mistakes. A
friend of mine attending this type of school told me that one of her instructors would keep checking her
cell phone or send text messages out using her blackberry during class. What a fucking waste of
time.
So if they paid these teachers more, they might be better teachers. So why are these instructors paid
so little? It seems that becoming a licensed ESL teacher is the easiest thing in the world. I checked into
this and found out that very few classes are required to become an ESL teacher if a person has at least a
BA. Just ask your ESL instructor what he/she studied in college. Many will say, theology, philosophy,
business, literature, economics etc. I think that most of the ESL teachers gravitate toward this
profession because they either cant decide what they want to do with their lives or they failed at
something (or more than just one thing).
There are, of course, the famous and not so famous universities that offer classes, and of all the ESL
schools, I have heard some good things about these places and I had an OK experience at one. At least
at these schools they give you tons of work. At the very least, you learn stuff about American history
or culture. They give you lots of writing assignments and they make you study vocabulary. They tend to

take things seriously. Still, I gotta be honest, even the students who go to these schools tend to bitch
and moan that they are not really learning how to speak English.
Again, all of this looks really nice: lots of homework, some writing, lots of high-level vocabulary words
and all that shit. But the classes generally have 15 20 or more students and virtually no speaking
practice. Same old shit. It looks impressive, but you go back home still speaking broken-ass
English. Well, I guess at least you can say, I studied ESL at an American University.
So this is why, in part, Im writing this book. Maybe if somebody speaks up, the schools will get better. I
cant give you speaking practice (get an American boyfriend/girlfriend! Thats your homework!), but I can
give you some stuff that will be really useful in terms of vocabulary and idioms. The better your
vocabulary, the better your fluency will be. And, again, I want to warn you about stuff here. Ill try to
tell you a bit about New York City since you, like everyone else, probably want to come here. So by the
time you get here to experience your own lousy ESL school, youll know a lot and youll see how right I
was!

Suzy's Advice:
Unfortunately, I dont have much more advice. There used to be a place in New York City called The
International Center. All of the teachers in the classes were volunteers - which is not necessarily a
good thing since they were not "real" teachers - but they were conscientious people who wanted to
help foreign students to learn English. I mean, lets be honest, ESL teachers are not real teachers
either. The real benefit, from what I could tell, was that you could drop by there any time they were
open and find other foreign students with whom to speak English. They had a cafeteria and you could
drop by and sit down with someone and just start talking - that's what everyone was there for.
Ideally, however, you want someone who is a native speaker to help you - someone who can correct
your mistakes and maybe take notes for you that you can review later. If you get a tutor, tell
him/her that this is what you want. Your tutor should ask you questions, you should answer them
and the tutor should correct your mistakes. You'll make progress speaking English this way if you pay
attention to your mistakes and try to correct them. The more speaking you do the better your fluency
will become, obviously. You also need to boost (increase) your vocabulary. Use this book!
Here is Suzys great formula for success in anything: Desire + Confidence + Focus = Success. If you
really want to learn something, and you believe you can learn it and you really focus on what you want to
learn, you will learn. You have to want to learn this language. You have to really want to learn English!
At the International Center people were able to speak English with non-native speakers who were not
able to correct mistakes. Heres where the controversy starts. Some experts think that if you are
going to speak broken English, you shouldnt speak it at all. They argue that the more you speak
broken English the more you reinforce your usual mistakes and the worse your English will ultimately
be. Essentially, they argue that you will just keep your mistakes forever. But I think that continually
speaking English can be helpful; I think it's better than nothing and probably better than sitting in a
school and reviewing grammar. And, it can be fun for you and your foreign friends to try to catch each
others mistakes, if you can use your foreign friends from your school.
So I would say (take my advice or leave it) that if you want to come to the USA for just 3 months to
work on your English, don't bother enrolling in a school. Come on a tourist visa. In fact, you dont
even need a visa now if you are from some country that is currently a friend of the USA. Find an
inexpensive place to stay (somewhere in Queens? There are five parts or boroughs to New York City:
Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island) and find an inexpensive tutor. Just type:
English tutor New York into a search engine. Please be careful of a site called www.craigslist.org,

however. Basically craigslist has become a site where people love to cheat and steal money fromother
people. The people who work at craigslist dont seem to care. It looks as if people sell stolen goods on
this site and a few people who have met strangers from this site were murdered (they have sections
where you can meet people). Im not joking. I have to be honest. Just be careful. Some foreign
students that I know have told me that they have met 5 or 6 tutors from this site and that they were all
terrible. Often a tutor will quote one price, then show up and ask for more money. Basically, craigslist is
bad news. Many foreign students use craigslist to meet language exchange partners. If you do this,
please, please, please meet the stranger in a public place. Meet your tutor in a public place too and get
a feel for him/her (try to determine whether he/she is good for you). Then, always meet your tutor in a
public place. Ive heard that many people use craigslist to find housing in New York you are free to try
it but I have heard that people have lost money by doing this as well.
By the way, don't pay your tutor more than $30/hr. An English tutor is not like a math tutor. Students
make improvements in their English relatively slowly. To be brutally honest, even the best language
tutor is NOT worth more than $30/hr. Even with the best tutor your progress is going to take some time
- that's how it goes, unfortunately. Anyone who wants to charge you $40 or $50/hr. is not worth it
and probably cares more about making money than he does about your welfare. Hey, I'm Suzy, I gotta
be honest. There are some tutors who think that if you can afford to come to the states you must be
rich. F uck them! Find someone reasonable. Then, take control of your tutoring. Come in with topics
for conversation and tell your tutor what you want to talk about. Read articles and ask the tutor to
question you about them. Be pro-active - take control of your English progress! Nobody cares about
you as much as you do! :P But I care about you too! Thats one of the reasons I wrote this book.

Definitions of terms:
to suck - is an essential verb in New York City. Bush sucked. Taxes suck. My new boyfriend sucks
because he is so cheap. The subway system in New York City sucks. If something sucks, it's bad. Really
bad. This used to be a dirty word or a vulgar word a few years ago, but now it is used widely, even in
some newspapers. Many students make mistakes using it, however. You cannot say: It is sucks. You
can say: It sucks. It sucked. It used to suck. Its going to suck. I think the expression "It sucks!" comes
from the older expression: "It stinks!" In the old days if someone didn't like something he would say, "It
stinks!" Somehow this changed to "It sucks!"
may vs. can - can means to be able to and may means to have permission to. May I come
in? May I borrow your pencil? You may come in. You may feel free to use my pencil. Many Americans
confuse may and might. Lots of Americans really speak terrible English. You have to use may to
indicate permission; "may" or might is used to indicate something hypothetical or something that
possibly will happen. We may/might be able to arrive on Tuesday. May we stay with you if we do arrive
then? Many foreign students use "maybe" instead of "may" or "might. Stop using maybe so
much!!!! Maybe we can go to the club tonight if it doesn't rainnodon't overuse maybetry: We might
be able to go to the club tonight if it doesn't rain.
used to try, used to trying If you did something for a while in the past and then stopped, you have
to use used to in English. I used to live in Wisconsin, before I moved to Texas. I used to drink a lot of
soda, but I stopped in order to lose weight. Used to + ____ing is different. I am used to drinking
green tea every morning when I wake up. I am used to taking the MTA, so it doesnt bother me if it is
dirty or unreliable. I was used to going to work at 9am, but then my schedule changed. See the
difference?

exotic strange, foreign, weird to those Americans who like things nice and simple and plain.
to be stuck with something you cant get rid of something, cant stop something from happening,
you have to keep something. For instance, My neighbor gave me a stray cat and my children like it, so
even though I want to throw it back out into the street, I guess I am stuck with it.
a WASP, WASPy a WASP is a White Anglo Saxon Protestant. Anglo Saxon is a fancy term for a
person whose ancestors came from England. A protestant is a non-Catholic Christian. WASP culture is
the dominant culture of America. WASPy would be the adjective form.
nominally if somebody does something nominally, they say something but in reality what they are
talking about does not exist. i.e. Nominally, North Korea is a democratic republic. In reality, it is a
country ruled by a crazy dictator (a dictator is one person who controls a whole country). Nominally, the
United States supports freedom around the world, but during the protests in Egypt, the US Government
did not demand that the dictator immediately resign from office.
to value s/t to like something, to appreciate something.
a dilemma this is when a person faces two choices and both of them suck.
to prosper to do very well, to succeed.
marginalized to be marginalized means to be pushed off to the side. The margins of a piece of paper
are to the sides of the paper. If you marginalized in a society, nobody important cares about you.
a double-life - this is when you live one type of normal life, on the surface, but you also pursue another
type of secret life. Before homosexuality became acceptable in America, many gay and lesbian folks lived
double-lives. They acted straight at work but met at various gay-bars and activities on the weekends.
peek-a-boo: this is a game adults play with babies. The adult hides his/her face behind his/her hands
and then reveals his/her face saying Peek-a-boo! to the baby. Babies laugh hysterically when adults
do this. I really dont know what the hell peek-a-boo means. Hysterical when you completely lose
control.
to nail down means to master something completely. You literally nail a carpet to the floor to keep it in
place. A nail is a long, pointed iron thing that is hammered, with a hammer. Many English words have
literal and figurative meanings. To nail something literally is shown here: How do you like my
new mirror? I am going to nail it to the wall now. Figuratively: Man, it would take me 10 years to nail
down the Chinese language. A figurative meaning is a more symbolic or abstract meaning. You also have
finger nails and toe nails but they are, obviously, different from the nails used with a hammer.
a fortune literally, a fortune is a huge amount of money that a person owns. Figuratively, a fortune
means a high price or a high cost.
to force me to do something be aware that Americans use the term force a lot. I was forced to
stay home this weekend because of the rain. Dont try to force me to go to the party. to help me is
also useful and is also confused with to force me. Being in New York helped me to learn about life in
an American city. If you have no choice and its kind of a negative meaning, use force. If something
beneficial is the result, use help.

I figured to figure means to determine or to think or to judge. I figured that he was going to be late;
he always is. I figured that my subway would not arrive on time, that is why I walked here.
generally - This means, in general so it refers to something that usually happens or happens
predictably. Generally, I wake up at 7am. Generally, I dont like Hollywood films. Generally, the MTA
runs badly. Try some of your own examples.
I gotta youll sometimes hear an American use this contraction. I gotta be honest or I gotta tell you
somethinggotta means got to or have to. I have to be honest. The most common use of gotta is in
the phrase: I gotta hand it to you That means I have to admit that you did something good. I gotta
hand it to you, your English has really improved.
after the shock wears off - To wear off means that something no longer has the effect it used to
have. After the drugs wore off, I was in pain again. The effect of the sleeping pill will last a long time; it
usually only wears off after 8 hours. In this case, after a person is shocked or surprised, the shock wears
off or diminishes and is replaced by apathy (no feeling whatsoever). The person simply doesnt care any
more.
they have been had - to be had means to be deceived or fooled and usually cheated. I paid them
$100 for the 3 hour tour and then realized I had been had! Other tours only charge $30.
If you are cheated, and theyll try to cheat you here, you have been had.
to settle in - means to start to feel comfortable somewhere. I moved in to my new apartment three
weeks ago but only now have I begun to settle in.
inevitable it has to happen or it had to happen, there was no avoiding it.
Man! this is an exclamation like Wow! or Shit! or Oh fuck! It seems that this exclamation started
in the 60s and 70s among young drug users. Examples of how it might be used now: Man, I am
tired. Oh man, that coat is expensive!
to wind up doing something (wind, wound, wound) - means that you intended to do something
but did something worse instead. I intended to go to Philly this weekend but wound up staying at
home. Wound up is the past tense. She wanted to get her PhD but wound up settling for a Masters. If
you try to steal something you will wind up in jail.
Shit! is a dirty word. It is an expletive. You say "shit" when you are angry. "Shit" of course, is,
basically, poop. It is the solid waste material you flush down the toilet. "Piss" is the liquid stuff you flush
down the toilet. That's a dirty word too. If you are angry in America you can say you are "pissed
off." I am so pissed off with the fucking MTA! It's the worst transportation system in the world. North
Korea really pisses me off! Bush pissed me off when he invaded Iraq. You hear pissed off a lot in
American conversations and even sometimes on the radio. Do you think I use too many dirty words?
Jesus Christ! Dont be such a judgmental asshole! You need to know this shit!
priorities - your primary or most important goals.
skinny the opposite of fat, very thin.
consolation - something that gives you comfort. In many competitions there is a consolation
prize. You dont win first, but you did well enough to get something and so they give it to you so you
dont feel too bad. Reading mystery novels is a consolation to me on days when my students have been

mean to me. One consolation of being a teacher is that you get the summers off. After my best friend left
New York City, it was a consolation that I still had some good friends who cared about me.
Damn it! - is an exclamation in English. If something doesnt go as you planned, you might exclaim:
Damn it! Its nicer than saying Fuck it! or Fuck!
these days is often used in English. What are you doing these days? These days I have been
sleeping alot. You seem to have alot of free time these days.
shitty, lousy if you feel shitty, you dont feel very good. Same thing with the word lousy. If your
day hasnt been going well you might say, What a lousy day I have had today. Or What a shitty day I
have had today. Shitty is a dirty word though.
an under-the-table job - is a job that is not reported to the government. Therefore, neither the
business nor the employee has to pay taxes. Its called under-the-table because the money between
employer and employee is exchanged secretly, as if passed under a table. Believe it or not, the Mayors
Office of New York City seems to condone (approve of) under-the-table jobs because people who work
illegally seem to help certain businesses make more money. These people do not, however, pay income
taxes, so, basically, it seems that the Mayors Office of New York City doesnt think everyone needs to
pay income taxes. Welcome to America! This happens primarily in the restaurant industry. So the
question is, is it right to hardly pay some people any money so that relatively wealthy people can eat nice
dinners and restaurants can make a lot of money? We are being fair to immigrants by doing this?
nasally if you have a nasally voice you sound as if you have a cold or a flu. A nasally sounding voice is
somewhat high-pitched (like a soprano in the opera) but it sounds terrible as if the person is speaking
through his/her nose.
zillions this is a good example of hyperbole (pronounced hi per boh lee). Hyperbole is overexaggeration. Numerically, we have ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, trillionswhen
you say zillions you mean a huge amount of something. There is no such number as a zillion. It is
an expression that means a lot. Actually it often means too much.
the mayor he is the leader of an American city. Or, he/she is supposed to be the leader of a city.
Some mayors, however, dont seem to do anything good. Do I mean Bloomberg? Ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah.
to derive if you derive a meaning from a work of art you get a meaning. To derive something means
to get something.
upscale an upscale restaurant is an expensive restaurant. The opposite of upscale would be
affordable.
fellow a fellow waitress means a colleague, or another waitress. A fellow teacher is someone who,
like you, teaches. Fellow usually refers to a guy, but when the word is used in this manner, it means
another person who has the same job as you.
a tip - this is a little extra money that you are supposed to leave for a waiter/waitress or cab driver or
hair-cutter, after you pay your bill. A normal tip is usually about 15% and a good tip is usually about
20%. Basically you have to pay a tip because restaurant owners are not ethical human beings and do
not want to pay their wait staff a fair salary. So they make you pay the staff. I gotta be honest.
Restaurant owners are, basically, cheap bastards who openly break the law. If I owned a restaurant, I

wouldnt pay human beings $2/hr., which is what most restaurant owners in New York City pay.
The Governor runs the state - he's in charge of the state of New York. So the Governor is like the
president of a state. There are 50 states in the USA and so there are 50 governors. George Bush used
to be the Governor of Texas. New York City is run by the Mayor. New York City is just a very small part
of New York State. Most people who come to New York City from other countries do not know much
about the other cities in New York State, but the state is huge. Eliot Spitzer was the Governor who was
caught visiting prostitutes.
a prostitute is a woman who sells her body to men for sexual pleasure. Other terms for prostitute are
hooker or whore or ho.
The FBI - is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Often if there is political corruption in a state, the
federal or national government in Washington D.C. will have to do something about it because the state
itself might be so corrupt that it cant or wont do anything. The FBI is the police department for the
United States of America. In 2001 they were not doing their jobs and allowed terrorists to fly airplanes
into buildings in New York City.
to resign this means to quit ones job.
to be thrown in jail - this is the idiom that is most used. We don't say he was "put" in jail, he was
thrown in jail. Or you could say that he was imprisoned.
an inspector this is a person who works for the city or the state and who inspects or looks into how
agencies or institutions licensed by the city or state are operating. Basically, most inspectors dont seem
to care about their jobs in New York City.
to drop by this means to come over to a persons place informally.
would in this case I want to point out that would can often mean used to in English.
to fire s/o the opposite is to hire s/o. To fire an employee means to get rid of the employee. Believe
it or not, in America, an employer can fire an employee for almost any reason, or no reason whatsoever.
The only reason for which he/she cant fire an employee would be discrimination. You cant fire a
person because of his/her race, ethnicity, religion, age etc. An employer could get sued for that (taken
to court).
to keep track of to follow, to make records of.
Get off your ass! this means, Dont be lazy! Stop sitting, get up, and DO SOMETHING! For example,
a wife might say to her husband, Youve been sitting in front of the TV all weekend. Get off your ass
and help me clean this apartment! This is a dirty expression only to be used with people you know or
people you dont like. Come on Bloomberg, get off your ass and do something to help the poor and
homeless!
a chain-smoker someone who smokes one cigarette after another.
perfunctory if someone does something in a perfunctory way, he/she does something out of a sense
of duty and not out of a sense of passion or enthusiasm.

a surrogate a replacement, a substitute, someone who stands in for someone else.

a buddy a friend
to swipe this is the motion that a person makes when he/she runs a card through a type of device to
register something. For example, in order to get into the New York City public transportation system you
have to swipe your metrocard.
strict a strict teacher is a teacher who follows the rules without any exceptions and who does not
tolerate anyone doing anything against the rules. A strict teacher usually uses many punishments and
demands absolute obedience. So basically, a strict teacher is an asshole. Whats an asshole? Literally,
your asshole is the hole out of which shit falls, according to the rules of gravity, into your toilet
bowl. Figuratively, an asshole is a person who is an asshole.
As if terrorists cant swipe? this is a good example of sarcasm. A sarcastic statement is a
statement meant to make fun of someone or something or some policy. Of course terrorists can swipe
so this statement mocks or makes fun of the policy in America which, on the surface, seems to have
created strict rules against terrorists using F1 visas to harm Americans, while also allowing people to
openly violate these rules.
to stick around to stay in a place for a while. For example, Sammy, why dont you stick around after
class. We are all going to chat in the cafeteria.
to look the other way this means that someone knows something wrong is occurring or will occur or
has occurred but they are not going to do anything about it.
a theory a theory is a guess as to why something occurs or happens.
a shortage this means a lack of something or not enough of something. For instance, there is a
nursing shortage in America these days; this is why many nurses from Asia are coming to America to
work.
a hostess bar - this is a type of bar in Japan where businessmen go after work to drink and chat with
attractive young women. The women are especially nice to the men because that's what the guys want
and the girls make money by getting the guys to drink as much liquor as the guys can. By the way,
"booze" is a slang term for liquor which you hear every once in a while.
a slut / slutty basically a slut is a woman who has lots of sex with lots of different guys. If you are
slutty you have sex with lots of different guys. Thats cool though! Im not saying thats wrong! If you
dress slutty you dress like a woman who likes having sex with lots of guys. But not all women who dress
slutty are slutty. In America you have the right to dress slutty without being slutty. Guys are used to it.
What happens in America stays in America there is an expression: What happens in Vegas stays
in Vegas, which means that you are welcome to go the Las Vegas and do all kinds of crazy things and
nobody will ever know about it.
I bet if you bet with someone you wager a certain amount of money that something will or wont
happen. i.e. I bet you $5 that the New York Yankees will win this baseball game. So if the person
accepts your bet, and if the Yankees win, you will receive $5 from him. If they lose, you pay him $5. To

say I bet means you are pretty sure something is going to happen. If it looks as if it is going to rain,
you might say, "I bet it is going to rain."
to step out of your comfort zone - your "comfort zone" is your easy and safe way of doing things. To
step out of your comfort zone is to take action that is a little more risky than what you are used to.
an arm and a leg - means very expensive. That car cost him an arm and a leg. My student loans are
costing me an arm and a leg.
how the hell - is often used for emphasis at the beginning of a sentence, but a stranger will be
offended if you use this with him/her. It can be used with friends and family however, although it can
still seem harsh. How the hell would I know where Milwaukee is? How the hell did my socks get in the
refrigerator!?
sex for English I have never heard of this happening. :P
a ho a prostitute. Short for whore.
to catch mistakes to realize that someone has made a mistake or mistakes.
pretty low pretty usually means attractive but it can also mean substantially kind of or
moderately. How much does it hurt? It hurts pretty bad. It was a pretty bad movie, I really didnt like
it. The book is pretty long, but worth reading.
paltry very low, a very small amount.
What a fucking waste of time! a waste of time is when time is not used productively. Fucking can
be used as an adjective. What a fucking asshole he is! What a fucking loser! What a fucking idiot! You
might want to practice these expressions you might need them here in New York City.
a BA - is a Bachelors Degree. You get a BA after about 4 years of university or college study. You get
an MA usually after 2 years of further study. You can get a PhD after a few more years of study.
to gravitate to to move toward something slowly as if being pulled by gravity.
tons of work - means lots of work. This is an example of hyperbole in the English language or over
exaggeration. A ton weighs 2000 lbs. That teacher gives tons of homework.
they tend to bitch and moan - is a dirty, vulgar way to say that they are complaining or tend to
complain. Tourists tend to bitch and moan about how bad the MTA is.
shit - in this case means stuff.
broken-ass English - just means broken English or English that is not spoken very fluently.
a volunteer someone who does not accept money for a job he/she does.
not necessarily you hear this expression relatively frequently. Although he is fat, he is not
necessarily in bad health. Although she is dressed slutty, she is not necessarily a slut. Although he is a

Republican, he is not necessarily against Obamas policies. So "not necessarily" would mean it doesnt
mean what it seems to mean.
conscientious this comes from the word conscience which is the little voice inside of some of us
which tells us what is right and what is wrong. It is pronounced con shinsh. A conscientious person is a
person who really tries to do his/her best. Con she en shush.
If you get a tutor, tell him this is what you want this shows that there are exceptions to the if
rules I stated earlier. In this case we see the present tense and then the imperative mood a command:
tell him this is what you want.
a controversy - is a hot issue. It is an issue people are going to disagree about and which they may
argue about in a heated manner.
to reinforce - means to make stronger. In the field of psychology there are two types of
reinforcements: positive and negative. A positive reinforcement is when you reward someone for
something good he/she has done and a negative reinforcement is when you punish a person for
something bad he/she has done. If you reward a person, you will positively reinforce a certain action
and the person will probably do it again.
Take my advice or leave it this is an idiom which means you are free to accept or reject my advice.
Dont bother doing s/t dont waste your time doing something, dont make the effort to do
something, it is not worth it.
super cheap very, very cheap. Super sometimes means very.
relatively means compared to something else, something appears to be either large or small, high or
low, loud or soft etc.
brutally brutally honest means being honest to the point or degree that a person might feel upset or
emotionally hurt. To be brutal is to be cruel or harsh or especially mean.
to be worth it or not worth it any action requires an effort. Some actions are worth the effort and
some actions should not be taken because they are not worth the effort. i.e. It would take two hours
for us to travel to Philly; is such a long trip worth it? Yes, there is a lot to do in Philly so the trip will be
worth it. I have never been to Staten Island; would it be worth it to go there? No, theres really nothing
good in Staten Island, so its not worth it to go there. Is it worth it to get an F1 visa just to stay in
America for several months? It depends on whether the school will require you to show up for classes.
Fuck them! this means I hate them and I dont care what happens to them! Lets ignore them, they
are assholes! This is very dirty.
to be pro-active this means not to be passive, to take action, to be active.

Grammar Stuff: How to use recommend and suggest correctly

Many foreign students totally use the verbs to recommend and to suggest incorrectly. A student will
often say: He recommended me to go to the Metropolitan Museum. No! No! No! Never use an object
pronoun after recommended or suggested. It sounds TERRIBLE to a native English speaker. Really
terrible!
There are two ways to use to recommend: 1) He recommended the Metropolitan Museum to me. Or
2) He recommended that I should go to the Metropolitan Museum.
So it is: Subject + recommended + object + to + object pronoun
Or
Subject + recommended + that + object pronoun + should + infinitive verb etc.
Examples: I recommended that he should try the sushi at that Japanese restaurant. We suggested that
they should try to get home by midnight because the bus stops running at that time.
recommended thatshould suggested thatshould
If you just remember that recommended or suggested can always be followed by that and then should
you will never go wrong. He recommended that my friend should visit Northern Avenue in Flushing if
he wants to get good Korean food. I recommended that he should go to the Bronx Zoo on Wednesday
because it is free day there. They suggested that we should avoid going to certain areas of the Bronx
because they have been neglected by city hall and are very dangerous.
You can also ask: Can you please recommend a place where I can find a reasonably priced Korean
restaurant? (Here recommend is followed by a direct object)
Would you recommend that I should eat at this restaurant? Did he recommend that you should go to the
Film Forum to see the Hitchcock films?

More Grammar Stuff: Never mind! Vs. Dont worry!

Lots of foreign students make this mistake. Never mind! is actually kind of a rude statement if not used
properly. Most of the time, foreigners really mean the nicer expression: Dont worry!
If someone is running late and she texts you, and you text back, Never mind! that person, if she is a
native speaker, might think you are telling her that you are upset and you should not bother coming.
What you need to say is, Dont worry! Please take your time!
How do you use never mind? Very carefully. Mi might tell Bob that she needs his help. But by the
time Bob arrives, Mi has already finished what she has been doing. She can then say, Oh, Bob, never
mind. I was able to finish this by myself.
You use Dont worry! when you want a person to relax. You use Never mind! when you want a
person to forget something.

15 Essential vocab words fill-in-the-blanks

a fortune, inevitable, a consolation, to resign, perfunctory, to trek, paltry, conscientious, a
controversy, upscale, to reinforce, lousy, a tip, to derive, a surrogate,
Mark Twain jokingly said that only two things are really _____________: death and taxes. Nobody in
America can avoid either of them.
Bob usually had a good sense of humor and was usually pretty upbeat (optimistic, happy, cheerful). He
was feeling so ___________ because of his flu, however, that he seemed like a different and more angry
person.
Every person who looks at a work of abstract art (non-pictorial art) will probably ____________ a
different interpretation or meaning of the piece.
Bob was so angry at the restaurant. Bob thought the service had sucked and didnt want to leave
_____________, but the waiter added it to the bill automatically!
It now seems to cost a ____________ to go to an American university. American parents will have to
begin saving more money to pay such exorbitant (high) tuition fees.
Although I live in Woodside, Queens, which is pretty far from Manhattan, I like to ___________ into
Manhattans Chelsea neighborhood on Thursday nights to see new art work at gallery openings.
I am having a hard time determining what makes an _____________ restaurant and an affordable one
different. We went to an expensive Korean BBQ restaurant, but the food tasted like garbage, but we
later went to an affordable Korean BBQ on 32nd Street and the food tasted delicious!
A bad or even average teacher just takes a __________ approach to teaching. A good or great teacher
goes beyond the basics of what he/she is expected to do and does so much more.
Modern medical technology is so bizarre (strange)! Loren couldnt have a baby naturally, so doctors took
an egg from her and a sperm cell from her husband and combined them in a laboratory. Then they
placed an ad on craigslist.org to find a ___________ mother a mother who would carry the fertilized
egg until it turned into a baby. They paid the substitute mother to carry the unborn child and when she
gave birth, she gave the baby to Loren and her husband.
Although Margaret did not get the job promotion (advancement) that she sought, her supervisor gave
her an excellent job performance review, so that was some type of ______________.
Richard Nixon was the only president of the United States who was forced to __________ from
office. He was forced to leave early because of various types of political corruption that had occurred
under his supervision.
When picking up new vocabulary words, making flash cards and reviewing them helps because it forces a
student to constantly _____________ what he/she has previously learned.

Dan took the job as a tutor for the Asian pop group, even though he was offered a __________ salary,
because he thought it would be an interesting experience. But it was a nightmare!
The death penalty remains a huge ____________: although some argue that capital punishment
(execution) deters (frightens people away from) murder and other violent crime, statistics show that
societies with the death penalty become more violent.
When choosing a good staff (staff is never plural its uncountable), some human resource professionals
look for highly intelligent candidates, while others look for people who are very ______________ and
always want to do their best and act honestly.
Answers: inevitable, lousy, derive, a tip, fortune, trek, upscale, perfunctory, surrogate,
consolation, resign, reinforce, paltry, controversy, conscientious

2. An important tomb at an urban crossroads

One day I stumbled across history. I was just wandering around lower Manhattan and came to one of
the most beautiful churches in New York City: Trinity Church. Around the church is a cemetery - a
really old cemetery, or at least old for an American city. There were graves with tombstones from the
1600s and 1700s there. While wandering through this area I saw a name that I recognized: Alexander
Hamilton. Yeah, the guy on the American $10 bill. I went home and did some research and I was
blown away by what I learned. Basically, I learned an amazing story and now the tomb of Alexander
Hamilton is one of my favorite places in New York City. Let me tell you about it.
The tomb of Alexander Hamilton is located in the cemetery of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. In
order to experience the full effect of this historical monument, you need to think of the tomb in its
larger urban and neighborhood context. It is not so much the tomb itself that can make you pause
in wonder, but the combination of such a humble structure, for such a great American, located in a
relatively ancient cemetery in bustling Lower Manhattan, near the World Trade Center site, Wall Street
and next to Trinity Church. The combination of these factors makes this a monument that can
stimulate immense reflection on history, economics, politics, New York City, fate and, of course, ones
own human mortality.
Basically Hamilton was the guy who came up with the idea of The United States of America. Im serious.
Yes, this guy was huge. Really huge. Hey, they don't just put anyone on the $10 bill over here. After
The Revolutionary War, in which the original 13 American colonies/states forced England to grant
them independence, not many people felt that forming one country was that important. Hamilton,
however, worked hard to convince all 13 states that they needed to form one nation, with a capitol in
Washington D.C., and he established a banking system that would help business and industry to
flourish. Basically, this was the guy who gave the USA its economic blueprint - he was the visionary
behind the United States. Without his efforts, who knows what would have happened after the
revolution. So this guy was huge. He was right up there with Washington, Jefferson, Franklin...maybe he
was more important than all of them. Some historians think he was more important than all these guys.
He never became president only because he was born outside of the United States in Jamaica.
Why, then, is he so obscure? Because of the way he died. It's like the USA has to cover up its
greatest visionary because of the huge scandal in which he was involved. Essentially, in 1804, the Vice
President of the United States, Aaron Burr, shot Hamilton in a duel. That's right, Hamilton was shot
(with a gun) by the Vice President of the USA. Burr was the Vice President to President Thomas

Jefferson and Jefferson and Hamilton HATED each other. Basically Jefferson believed the USA should
stay agricultural - a farming nation - and that each state should be stronger than the central (or federal)
government. Jefferson liked ancient history and believed the USA should try to become like ancient
Rome. Hamilton looked to the future and Hamilton believed in one strong central government, big,
exciting cities and the development of industry and commerce. The controversy between Hamilton and
Jefferson led to this duel.
So one fine morning, in New Jersey, Hamilton and Burr stood a certain number of feet away from each
other, each man had a gun, and each man was to shoot at the other because of the hatred that had
been generated between them because of their differing ideologies. There was one problem. Before
the duel Hamilton decided that he was too moral to shoot at Burr. So when it came time for shots to be
fired, Hamilton deliberately fired his bullet (from his gun) over Burr's head. Burr misinterpreted this
gesture and fired directly at Hamilton, killing him. Hamilton was killed and Burr's life was ruined. He
had to leave the world of politics and, believe it or not, he moved to the western part of the continent
(the continent of North America there are seven continents) and tried to set up (establish) his own
country! Nobody wanted to live in Burr's new country, however.
Hamilton is buried in the cemetery at Trinity Church. Trinity is located at the intersection of Broadway
and Wall Street and is one of the most historic and beautiful churches in the city. Indeed, until 1908,
the spire of Trinity Church was the tallest structure in the entire city. The church is a rich, chocolate,
dark brown color with ornate and complex stained glass windows. The church is in contrast to the drab
gray of the surrounding buildings, with their numerous clear windows rising one row after the other until
a flat roof. The churchs huge spire reaching and diminishing toward the heavens contradicts the
square symmetry of the neighborhood. It is a building out of place and out of time. Indeed, Trinity
was built before Wall Street became the banking capitol of the world. Trinity represents a pre-venture
capital (before venture capital) New York City. Trinity represents New York City before it got crazy rich.
I can still remember the first time I came across the cemetery next to the church. It was unbelievable to
me that a cemetery with graves from the 1600s would be located in the middle of the Wall Street
area. The cemetery is, however, beautiful! Each spring flowers blossom and the grass is
immaculately mowed. In winter the cemetery looks dignified, stark, magnificent. It is a significant
presence, drawing ones attention as one races toward his/her job or to a nearby store. I have always
loved seeing the lunch-time crowd sitting and eating their lunches on benches in the cemetery among the
power-brokers of the 1600s and 1700s!
The gravestones (these include the name, date-of-birth and date-of-death of the person buried) are
clearly ancient, some are tipped over, some are cracked. Some have strange, eerie skulls with angel
wings on them. I am always hit (affected) by the reality of their lives. You begin to realize that this is
history but that this is also personal: these were vital, living, compassionate, proud and successful
New Yorkers. I often calculate how long each person lived and feel sad for those who died young. As
one follows a winding path, one sees a progression of such gravestones from the 1600s to the early
1800s.
Among these graves one suddenly comes to an odd white structure, somewhat pyramidal, somewhat
square. If you look closely, you might see flowers or coins or other knickknacks that people have
placed on the structure. I suppose that many people are surprised to see the name Alexander
Hamilton. Some might even realize he is on the $10 bill. Some really good observers might even notice
that his wifes grave and his sons grave are also close by.
What is absolutely striking to me is that Hamilton was huge in American history, and his tomb is not
even in the center of the cemetery. In fact, there are nicer tombs, grander (larger, more magnificent)
tombs in the cemetery. Dominating the cemetery, in fact, is a giant green statue of some type of judge
who simply could not have done anything near what Hamilton did in the formation of the United States.

The location of Hamiltons tomb, to me, however, has always been highly symbolic. In fact, burying
Hamilton at the intersection of Broadway (the main artery of Manhattan) and Wall Street (the hub of
the financial world) always seemed especially fitting to me because Hamilton was one of the key figures
involved in the economic and social development of both New York City and the United States. New York
City has literally grown and developed around his nearly anonymous tomb. But the relative anonymity
of his tomb, its location in the cemetery, its shape, all this seems fitting.
Why? Hamilton was an American who loved his country more than anything and he lies at the center of
the worlds economy: secure, not ostentatious. Hamilton lies here in humility - clearly, his tomb
attracts attention, but it is not gaudy like that of the green judge almost as if declaring that the
experiment he helped to launch was destined to succeed, and that he was just one of the many now
obscure heroes who acted from pure love and who requires no great thanks or praise.

Definitions of terms
a tomb This word is pronounced: toom. This is a structure, usually made of concrete or stone, in
which a corpse (a dead body) is laid in a cemetery. It is usually, if not always, above ground. A
cemetery is a place where there are many graves and tombs. A grave is usually a hole which has been
dug into the ground, into which a coffin is placed and then covered with dirt. A coffin is usually a
wooden box in which a dead body is placed. If a person chooses to have his body burned instead of
buried, that process is called cremation. To bury a body is to put it in a coffin and then to place it in a
grave in a cemetery.
urban the opposite of rural. An urban environment is a city environment.
a crossroads literally a place where two major roads cross: figuratively or symbolically a crossroads is
a place in ones life when one must make critical decisions about ones future.
to stumble across to find accidentally. To stumble literally means to nearly trip (fall) while you are
walking.
a cemetery this is a place where the dead are buried; the area into which many dead bodies are
placed in the ground (six feet underground to be exact - about 2 meters).
a grave is an individual place in a cemetery where a dead body is placed. A grave is 6 feet deep.
a tombstone or gravestone this is the stone that is placed above a grave to give the dead persons
name and birth date and date of death.
to be blown away means to be really surprised and impressed.
a monument - is a type of structure, often in stone, meant to represent an achievement or a person
who achieved something.

neighborhood students seem to confuse neighborhood with neighbor. A neighbor is someone who
lives close to you. A neighborhood is the area in which you live. In New York City, SoHo is a
neighborhood, Chelsea is a neighborhood, Chinatown is a neighborhood etc.
the context the context of any situation would be the factors making up that situation within which
you would find details. Sometimes it is easy to understand the meaning of a word by looking at its
context.
to pause to temporarily stop.
humble the opposite of arrogant. A humble person does not act as if he/she is special or great, even
if he/she is special or great.
ancient very old.
bustling very busy with activity
to stimulate to cause, to activate, to provoke.
a reflection a prolonged or sustained amount of thought about something.
fate what has been determined for a person by a higher power or God. Fate is usually something bad
while destiny is usually something good.
mortality the fact that we are all going to die some day. The limited condition of our lives. Some
religious people believe that after death we will experience immortality. Ha ha ha. Who knows?!
The Revolutionary War This war was fought from about 1775 to about 1781. Basically England had
colonized North America and was trying to use the colonies to make money. The colonization had begun
in 1608 and by 1775 many people in these colonies felt that they were different from people in England.
They demanded more rights and especially opposed being taxed by England to support a mother country
in which they had no political power or representation. It was a miracle that the people in America won
the war, because England had the most powerful military in the world at that time. It helped that
France, Spain and Holland helped the Americans, as well as other European individuals who believed in
freedom.
to grant someone something to give someone something.
to flourish to do extraordinarily well, to spread, to prosper.
a blueprint before any building can be built there should be blueprints of what the building will look
like to guide the builders. So a blueprint for anything is a design to be followed to create something.
a visionary someone who can form a vision of a future development or situation.
obscure not well known.
to cover something up to hide something, to make sure nobody learns about something.

a scandal the results of a negative situation when people begin spreading news or rumors of the
negative situation. When a politician is caught cheating on his wife, that leads to a big scandal in the
newspapers.
Vice President As well as the president of the United States there is a Vice President. Basically his job
is easy. He is there to take over the job if the president dies or gets killed.
a duel this was when two men would take guns, stand a certain distance away from each other and
then shoot at each other upon some signal. A duel was usually the result of some insult or offense.
commerce business.
an ideology a belief system concerning some aspect of behavior or social life.
to be moral to be good, to be conscientious, to be concerned with doing good things.
deliberately not accidentally, something chosen to be done.
a gesture a movement, usually of the hand and arm but more broadly any action meant to signal
something to another person.
to ruin s/t to destroy something, to mess up something, to screw up something.
to be buried to be placed in the ground and covered with dirt.
an intersection the place where two roads or streets cross.
the spire this is the part of the church that stands out the most it is usually quite long and usually
diminishes to a point at the very tip. There is often a crucifix (+) at the top of a spire.
ornate fancy, detailed.
drab plain, boring, gray.
diminishing slowly disappearing. After I took the aspirin my backache slowly diminished to nothing.
symmetrical having equal proportions on both sides.
out of place, out of time - the building doesn't seem to belong where it is or at this current time; the
building looks different from what surrounds it and it seems to belong to a different era
venture capitalism an aspect of capitalism in which money is provided for a project based on the
guess (venture) that the project will make lots of money. Capital means money.
to blossom to bloom, to develop, to reach fruition, full development.
immaculate pure, clean, white.

to mow to cut grass.

stark plain, bleak, having no details, standing out.
as one races as one runs.
a power-broker one who makes important decisions, one who decides significant issues.
to tip over to push something so that it is not upright but not completely fallen over.
eerie creepy, scary, sinister.
vital full of life.
compassionate capable of feeling sadness or sorrow for others, having a fellow feeling for others.
winding not straight, curving. This word has a long i sound. Weyeding.
odd strange.
pyramidal shaped like a pyramid, those huge things in Egypt in which dead pharaohs were placed.
a knickknack a little thing, maybe a souvenir.
striking something is striking if it stands out, really noticeable.
a judge this is a person who works for the state and who sits in a courtroom and hears legal cases.
He might determine whether a person is guilty or not guilty or he might determine whether one
person owes another person money.
symbolic if a thing is symbolic, it represents a higher idea or ideal. A tree can symbolize a type of
bridge between the earth and God. A horse can symbolize the concept of inner movement or transition.
an artery this is something connected to the heart that takes blood away from the heart; figuratively it
can mean a road or river or canal or anything that carries many people or things.
a hub an area that attracts a lot of people or traffic, a place that draws much activity.
to be fitting to be appropriate.
anonymous not knowing a persons name.
secure safe.
ostentatious showy, flashy, gaudy.

humility the personal quality of being simple, not arrogant, acting as if one is simple even if one is
special or great.
gaudy showy, flashy, ostentatious.
to launch s/t to get something started, to begin something.

Grammar stuff: tell vs. say

The distinction between these two verbs really seems to drive foreign students nuts. Nuts means
crazy. Nobody knows how nuts came to mean crazy. The difference between to tell and to say is so
easy however. And, you can often use these words interchangeably. He told me that I should go to the
Met Museum. He said that I should go to the Met Museum. Do you see one of the big differences
between how these verbs are used?
You use tell when you can follow it with an object pronoun or other object. Tell me the latest news
from Hong Kong! Can you please tell me where the nearest bathroom is? I tried to tell her that going
to that neighborhood might be dangerous.
To say does not take this direct object pronoun. What did he say about coming to Philadelphia
tomorrow? I remember that you once said to me that you were born in Berlin. You can also say: You
once told me that you were born in Berlin. He said that Bob was coming along with us for the ride.
Often times youll use say when you are quoting or kind of quoting someone. A quote is something like
this: Bob said, I will go on vacation soon. A quote is surrounded by quotation marks. Did you once say
that Bob is gay? I want to know what she said about me. But you could also have said, Did you once
tell me that Bob is gay? I want to know what she told you about me.
By the way, tell can also mean "determine" or see. This is very confusing for foreign students. I can
tell that it is raining outside because you came in all wet. I could tell that he was angry because he was
not smiling as usual. I think I have a few gray hairs, can you tell? I can tell that you are in a good mood
today. Practice a little! Please.

11 essential vocab words. Fill-in-the-blanks

to stumble, a cemetery, humble, to stimulate, fate, mortality, to flourish, obscure, a scandal,
commerce, moral
Very few tourists expect to find an ancient ___________ in lower Manhattan an area known for its
liveliness.
It is almost every immigrants dream to come to America, start a family and to ___________
economically so that ones children can receive an American education.
Macbeth, by Shakespeare, is, in part, a play about __________; do we have free will and can we shape
our futures or are our futures determined ahead of time as Macbeths seemed to be?

Because there is such a large crack in the sidewalk many people are tripping over it and
____________. I am afraid that someone will fall and hurt himself.
When normal, everyday people meet celebrities they are often surprised by how ___________ they
are. They often expect to meet difficult and arrogant stars or divas.
Researchers have determined that it is essential to _____________ a babys senses, mind and curiosity
from the very start in order to ensure (make sure) that the child will develop a sharp intellect.
The presence of the cemetery near Wall Street should stimulate even the greedy and aggressive bankers
to think about their own _____________ and whether the lives they have chosen are as meaningful as
they could be.
Even though Alexander Hamilton remains __________ to most Americans, historians consider him to be
one of the most important of Americas founding fathers.
Does a politician need to be _____________? Although Bill Clinton certainly violated many ethical
principles as president, many people still think he did a good job.
One group of economists believes that the USA can best change the world and spread democratic values
through _____________. They point out that when a country develops a strong business class, it tends
to become more democratic.
Recent New York State Governors seem to have suffered from many strange __________. One involved
Governor Spitzer, who was paying to have sex with prostitutes, while another involved his successor,
Governor Patterson, who seems to have tried to cover up illegal activity among his staff.

Answers: cemetery, flourish, fate, stumbling, humble, stimulate, mortality, obscure, moral,
commerce, scandals,

11 more essential vocab words from this chapter

deliberately, to ruin, drab, to diminish, immaculate, vital, compassionate, a knickknack, a
hub, anonymous, to launch
One of the most ___________ or lively neighborhoods of New York City is Flushing, Queens. There are
numerous Korean and Chinese markets and the streets are often crowded with people who are out
shopping.
Many young and talented actors come to New York City in order to try to __________ an acting career,
but many find that there are only so many opportunities available and many talented actors will never
achieve stardom (celebrity status).

Although the fat man did not _____________ bump into Bob on the subway, Bob was still offended and
felt that the fat guy should have been more careful.
We all expected to have a good time at the annual (yearly) Halloween parade, but the whole event was
_____________ by the rain; nobody had a good time.
The director of the charitable organization was so grateful to receive an _____________ donation of
$50,000. Although he didnt know who the donor was, he wished that good things might happen for that
person.
Even though this winter had been especially cold and wet, it did not ___________the amount of joy and
pleasure that Jeongyon had: she tried to do something new every day she was here and had a
memorable time.
Times Square remains the ________ of Manhattan; virtually every tourist wants to go there and even
New Yorkers find themselves attracted to this area at times.
Although the tomb of Alexander Hamilton seems ___________ and unremarkable, it contains the remains
of one of the greatest Americans ever.
There are a number of .99 stores (ninety-nine cent stores) in Manhattan where you can buy all kinds of
_____________: from souvenir cups, to toiletries, to various items that might be needed by a tourist.
No politician seems to have an _____________ reputation in New York City or State; every elected
official seems to be less than pure.
I was surprised to see a church in the Bronx which is run by the nuns (women in the Catholic Church who
serve a religious function) who follow the teachings and life of Mother Teresa. This church stands as a
______________ presence in a part of New York City where the government does not seem to show
much concern for the people.

Answers: vital, launch, deliberately, ruined, anonymous, diminish, hub, drab, knick-knacks,
immaculate, compassionate

3. Bed bugs: sneaky, blood-sucking creatures of the night

I woke up one morning and I was itching like a maniac. I looked down at my arms and legs and there
were several little red bumps that looked like mosquito bites. Man! I hate mosquitoes. The only
problem? I had slept the night before with my windows closed. How the hell could mosquitoes have
gotten into my room?
So my host family gave me some hydrocortizone for the itching and I shrugged it off.

A couple mornings later, however, there were more red marks that looked like mosquito bites! So I
started wearing long sleeve shirts to bed and long pants and I kept keeping my window closed. But
every couple of days there would be fresh bite marks!
So I was sitting at a cafe with my language exchange partner and he saw some of the marks on my arms
and said: Oh, oh. You got bed bugs. Just by looking at the bite marks he knew what they were. I was
almost afraid to ask what a bed bug is, because I could imagine what a bed bug might be, but I asked:
Whats a bed bug?
Well, essentially, these are teeney weeney little insects that are kind of heart-shaped and reddishbrown. They can grow to about 2 to 3 millimeters. They live off of human blood! Thats right folks, they
are disgusting little vampire-like creatures that exist solely on human blood. God damn them!
Apparently they are very flat-shaped and can hide easily, sometimes in the seams on a bed, sometimes
between the mattress and the springs, sometimes in between the folds of a blanket etc. These
things are all over New York City. People have sued hotels because of these creatures using a highlevel word again, they are freaking UBIQUITOUS! (Freaking is a nice word to take the place of the
word fucking.)
Heres how they operate: These lazy little fuckers just lie around in various crevices or seams until
about an hour before dawn. I guess it turns out that, on the average, this is the time when most people
sleep the deepest. This is one reason why you dont wake up when they start crawling on you.
They have two sharp tubes that they stick into your skin. These freaking things are clever. One tube
shoots a substance into your blood that stops your blood from drying (an anti-coagulant). Your blood
has a tendency to dry when it is exposed to the air, so this anti-coagulant allows this freaking bug to
drink up as much of your blood as he/she wants to. Mosquitoes do the same thing. That first bed bug
tube also shoots in a substance, at the same time, which works as a pain-killer (an analgesic). So this is
why you dont feel pain while its sucking blood. The other tube, of course, is used to suck your blood.
Rotten, lousy devious creatures!
Another problem: they can go about a year without eating. So if you have them, they are like little insect
terrorist cells just hanging out and waiting to attack. So you have to be like George Bush and you have
to get rough with the little fuckers. If you find a bed bug, show no mercy to these things! If you find
a bed bug, squish it. Squish the goddamn thing as if your life depended on it!
But dont worry. Amazingly, these little fuckers dont spread any diseases. Nobody knows
why. Theoretically they should be spreading all kinds of diseases all over the place. But no, nada,
nothing. It seems they eat when they need to molt (shed their skin to grow larger) but, as I wrote, if
they have to they can lie dormant for up to a year. So thats why you have to pretty much take your
fucking bed apart and spray every goddamn nook and cranny with a special type of insecticide called:
bed bug buster.
Also, I am pretty sure that something called Boric Acid works as well. Because there are so many
cockroaches in New York City, Boric Acid is sold in many 99 cent shops for $1. It comes in a container
that looks like a yellow ketchup bottle and it is a type of powder. In another apartment where I lived I
found some bedbugs and just squirted this powder all over the place and pretty soon they were all gone.
Boric Acid causes the insect to dehydrate (the insect loses water from inside its body). Basically Boric
Acid kills any type of bug. If a bug walks through it, the laws of physics take over and the bug dies of
dehydration. Boric Acid is not an insecticide. In another chapter I write about how I did a lot of
volunteer work at a homeless shelter (a place to help homeless people) and that place had roaches.

After I bought and spread Boric Acid around, however, the roaches disappeared.
Back to my story though. So Bob my language exchange partner told me I had bedbugs and he told me
to go home and look for them. As soon as I picked the mattress up from the springs I could see them
just lying there. And, I dont want to gross you out, but they shit all over the place. You see the
goddamn bugs and then you see their little traces of brown bug shit lying around them. When my host
family saw the bugs and the bug shit they just decided to trash the entire bed and springs. In fact, it
turned out that more than one bed in the house had these things and so they trashed a couple bed
sets. Then they totally fumigated each room with a strong insecticide. I spent one night sleeping at a
friends house so that this could be done. We didnt know about Boric Acid at that time. I would say,
forget about fumigation, just spread Boric Acid around.
Now, thankfully, I can sleep more comfortably, but I often wonder whether Ill wake up with those marks
again. I once knew a lady who literally moved from one place to another because she was being bitten
terribly by bed bugs. She and I were close enough friends that she literally showed me her butt cheeks
(your butt is what you sit onyour butt has two cheeks, just as your face has two cheeks).
She had little red marks all over her ass! Maybe 20 marks on each butt cheek. And she had a nice
round, firm ass too! But it looked disgusting with all the red marks on it. So I went to a department
store and bought cocoa butter because I had heard that cocoa butter cream helps get rid of
blemishes and other skin problems. She then begged me to rub the cocoa butter into the skin of her
ass. She told me she couldnt have sex with any guys until these marks disappeared and she was
starting to get horny. OMG! What else could I do?! So I gave her a good cocoa butter ass massage to
try to help her get rid of the bed bug marks! Maybe she just liked people rubbing her ass! I dont know!
But, in any case, I also bought her some Boric Acid so I wouldnt have to rub her ass in the future.

Definitions of terms
sneaky a person or animal is sneaky if it takes a type of hidden or secret action. A sneaky person
does not want people to know what he/she is doing. A high-level form of this word is clandestine
spies engage in clandestine activities. It is pronounced clan DES tin. To sneak into a place means to go
into a place secretly, without the owner or the authorities knowing.
blood-sucking the process of removing blood through a type of suction activity. You suck things with
your mouth. Bed bugs have a type of needle that they use to suck blood from humans.
a creature some type of animal whether it is an insect, reptile, mammal etc.
like a maniac if a person suffers from manic depression, he/she feels very happy or euphoric
(extremely happy) during the mania phase and extremely down or sad during the depressive stage. A
maniac is a person suffering from mania. So if you do something like a maniac you do it with an
extraordinary passion. To do something like a maniac usually means to do something aggressively and
against your will.
a mosquito a type of flying insect that sucks blood from humans and animals. You see these insects
a lot in the summer. They often spread diseases like malaria. God damn them!
hydrocortisone this is a type of medication that comes in a lotion or salve form. If you rub this on a
mosquito bite or other area that itches, the itch usually diminishes or goes away completely.

I shrugged it off to shrug is to lift your shoulders up and down. In America to shrug means I dont
know or I dont care. To shrug something off means to stop worrying about something.
teeney weeney really really small.
a vampire a blood-sucking undead human being in myth and legend and among various New York
City roommates you might encounter. Joking. Actually most vampires in New York are landlords (building
owners who charge rent).
God damn them! God damn it! very useful curse words. If you are angry about something, lets
say you just missed your subway, you might say, God damn it! If you are angry at a person you might
say (to another person) God damn him! I loaned Bob my umbrella and he broke it, God damn him!
Literally this means that you hope God will send Bob to hell after he dies.
a seam this is a crease in a bed; an area between pieces of the material of the bed. If you look at
your shirt, youll see seams that connect the sleeve to the body of the shirt. Any area where sewing has
to occur and where a little fold might be created. Im sorry if this definition sucks. You need to know
what a seam is, however, because we sometimes use the word seamless. If something happens
seamlessly, it happens smoothly or easily. In America there is usually a seamless transition (movement)
from one president to another.
a mattress/ springs bedding in America usually consists of springs and a mattress. The springs are
often literally a type of rectangular structure made of metal springs which is held above the floor by a
metal structure. The mattress or soft part that you sleep on is placed on the springs.
to sue someone this is when you hire a lawyer and take another person to court in order to try to win
money from the other person. So people have sued hotels because they claim the hotels should have
done a better job of making sure there were no bed bugs.
ubiquitous everywhere. This comes from a Latin word.
a crevice this is a little gap or a little opening, usually longer than wider.
the dawn when the sun begins to rise; the opposite is dusk, when the sun begins to fall.
clever smart, crafty, skillful and creative.
devious not straight-forward, sneaky, deceptive.
a terrorist cell a small group of terrorists who live in the same city and associate with each
other. They live as if they are normal, average members of a society until they receive their orders to
kill.
to get rough with someone to become violent with the person.
little fuckers this is an insulting term. Yes fucker can be used as a noun. i.e. I cant stand that
ignorant fucker! What a lousy fucker he was he stole my seat on the bus. The challenge for the visitor
to America is to learn how to use the various usages of fuck, fucking, fucker etc. To fuck is a verb. So

if you are reading pornography youll see this verb a lot. Amy fucked five men last summer. Bob fucked
7 women while he was at college. So it can be used to indicate sexual intercourse engaged in by either a
man or a woman. Fucking is an adjective that fucking idiot! Im so glad Suzy wrote a good ESL book
because those other fucking books can be so boring!
to squish something to push on something until it is crushed. If you squish a bug underneath your
foot you should see the insides of the bug come exploding outwards!
nada the Spanish word for nothing.
to be dormant to be sleeping or to be inactive temporarily. When people catch AIDs, the virus is
usually dormant for a number of years before it becomes active and kills a person.
a nook and cranny any type of crevice; or small, longish opening.
an insecticide a spray or liquid or powder used to kill bugs and insects
a cockroach you might have to do a web search to see what this type of insect looks like. Its a very
common bug in American cities. Its brown and has antennae and is pretty creepy looking. If something
is creepy it kind of makes you feel scared and disgusted.
to gross you out to make you feel sick by showing or telling you something disgusting.
to trash something to destroy something or throw it out
to fumigate to spread fumes from a spray or smoke throughout an area
a blemish this is anything like a pimple or other mark (other than a birth mark or mole) that can be
seen on your skin. Usually a blemish is pinkish or red.
to beg someone to do something to ask someone to do you a favor as an act of mercy or charity.
to be horny to desperately want to have sex.

Grammar Stuff: should vs. have to

Oh my God! This drives me crazy. There is such a huge difference between should and have to that
I honestly dont know why so many foreign students in America make mistakes using these terms.
If you should do something, it would be a good idea to do something, or it would be right to do
something. If you really have no choice in the matter, then you have to do something.
He did not know whether he should stay in New York City longer or travel around the country.

In America every citizen should vote in every political election but in Australia every citizen has to vote
in every election or he/she will be punished.
I have to go back to my language school by Thursday if I want to fill out my transfer papers.
I should have gone to sleep earlier last night because I am so tired now. (It would have been a good
idea to do that.)
They have to take the number 1 train if they want to get off at the Canal Street stop.
A young person should make every effort to take advantage of every learning activity in school.

10 essential vocab words

Sneaky, to shrug, teeney weeney, ubiquitous, devious, to squish, dormant, to fumigate, a
blemish, horny
Back home in Seoul, Minjung had a spacious (large, lots of space) apartment, but for more money her
studio in New York was ____________ - it was almost like a large closet (space in a room where clothes
are hung)!
Ivanne felt like a real New Yorker when she was able to __________ her first cockroach (a ugly brown
type of insect that crawls on the floor at night) under her high-heeled shoe.
Every subway rider should be aware of pickpockets (criminals who try to steal wallets on crowded
subways) who are quite ___________ and able to remove wallets without men being aware of this.
Naoko thought that Peter had really loved her, but he turned out to just be a _____________ guy who
tries to go out with and have sex with as many women as he can.
After a recent subway bombing in Europe, the police seemed ____________ in New York City you saw
them virtually everywhere.
People are so used to the bad service provided by the MTA (the subway system) that all they do is
_________ when it becomes apparent that a train will be late or delayed.
Many upscale hotels in New York City have been forced to __________ many of their rooms in an
attempt to eliminate the rooms of bedbugs.
The HIV-AIDS virus is especially sneaky because it remains __________ for many years, so that a person
does not usually even know that he/she has it.
The guys who sell the bagels and pretzels and hotdogs on street corners in Manhattan can be quite
_________; if they think that you are a tourist, they will try to charge you more than they will a New
Yorker.

Isabella wanted to look perfect for her date with Jorge, but when she woke up she noticed she had a
pinkish _____________ on her chin, that looked a little bit like a pimple. (Teenagers usually get
pimpleslittle red bumps on their facial skin.)
Answers: teeney weeney, squish, devious or sneaky, horny, ubiquitous, shrug, fumigate,
dormant, devious or sneaky, blemish

Chapter 4: They are not magicians, they are Jewish folks

You're going to see them and you're going to wonder who the heck they are. Every foreign student
goes through this so let me tell you right off the bat. There is no escaping seeing them, especially if
you live in certain parts of Brooklyn. The guys are the most recognizable. The older guys have big,
bushy white beards, wear black fedora hats and dark blue or black jackets regardless of how hot the
weather is. They also have long, and I mean really long, sideburns that curl and dangle from the sides
of their heads.
My Japanese friend Naoko and I were chatting in a Starbucks and when one of these guys passed by she
asked me: "Who the heck are these guys in the black coats and old fashioned hats with the big bushy
beards and long curly sideburns?" I asked her, "Who do you think they are?" After some time she
responded, "Are they circus magicians? I can't understand why there are so many circus magicians in
New York City!" No, Naoko, these are Jewish folks, but a special type of Jewish folk. Let me explain.
Basically, you've got three types of Jewish folks in the USA. World-wide there are about 13 million Jews
and about 6 million live in the USA. The three types of Jews are broken down into 3 basic
groups: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews.
Orthodox Jews believe that at one time in history God gave the leader Moses various holy texts. These
texts make up a big chunk of the Bible. So, basically, orthodox Jews believe that God wrote the
Bible. So they follow all the stuff written in the Bible closely. The guys with the black hats are orthodox
Jews and they wear the long sideburns because apparently somewhere in the Bible it says guys shouldn't
shave the sides of their heads.
But its a little more complex than that. In New York you'll see, basically, two types of orthodox
Jews. The guys are always more easily recognized. One type of orthodox Jewish guy will wear a little
round cap on the top of his head. This is called a yah-mah-kah (but it's spelled yarmulka). From what a
Jewish guy told me, in the old days, folks believed that God was in the sky and looking down at
people. So the guys wear this because they don't want God to see the tops of their heads; that would be
disrespectful. A Shanghainese girlfriend of mine who is kind of a smartass once said, "Oh, if they wear
the hats so God can see them, why don't they write: 'Hello God!' or 'Hey, do you really exist?' on the tops
of their yarmulkas." Ha ha ha - not funny. This is somebody's religion goddamn it!
I dont know whether what the Jewish guy told me was true or not, though. Why dont the women wear
yarmulkas? Someone else, however, told me that some orthodox women do cover their heads by
wearing wigs (a wig is a covering of hair that can be worn over your normal hair.) Oh! I was also told
that orthodox Jewish folks dont even use the term God they use the term Hashem, which means the
Name instead of the term God.
Then there are the really, really orthodox Jewish folks and those guys wear the black hats, coats, beards
and sideburns. They are called Hasidic Jews. I think of them as super orthodox. Basically, their version

of Judaism began in Eastern Europe in the 1700s, primarily in Poland and Ukraine. From what I can
understand, there were groups of Jewish folks who wanted a deeper religious experience and greater
connection to God. These folks became the Hasidic Jews. They developed a whole new approach to
Judaism involving more physical action and more emotion during prayer and a belief that God could be
experienced through nature. They valued emotion more than reason and avoided a type of asceticism
that pervades many religions. This was meant as a religion for the real world. This was a religion in
which a person could derive meaning every single day in his/her life without avoiding life. It was
meant to be a deeper engagement with life, as it exists, so that people could have a deeper connection
to God.
Why do you see these guys in NYC and not Houston? I don't know. What I do know is that the nazis
(God damn them, the lousy scum!) really hated these folks. They really tried to wipe all of them out
in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. So there are about 500,000 Hasidic Jews in the world and a
big chunk of them live in Brooklyn. Go to Williamsburg and you'll see them. The guys are dressed the
way guys used to dress in Europe around the time that their religion was formed and all orthodox Jewish
women are expected to wear skirts or dresses that go below their knees and they should or even have
to wear sleeves that go below their elbows.
Now, I wouldnt be a good cynic if I didnt point out that this community has been causing a little
controversy lately. For instance, it looks as if some sexual abuse has occurred in the Hasidic
community in New York, and it might have been covered up by the community to avoid a scandal or to
avoid investigations of Hasidic Jews by people outside of their community. Some young men, for
instance, have claimed that they were molested while taking ritualistic baths called mikvahs. Whats
even more shocking is that there are claims in the newspapers that victims might have been punished
by members of the community (in some way) if they had come forward to complain outside of the
community. Whats even more shocking than this is that the Brooklyn DA (the lawyer who prosecutes
those accused of crimes), might have helped in the cover up. There are so many Hasidic Jews who can
vote, it looks as if this politician did not want to offend the whole community and lose votes. He denies
this, of course. Heres some other stuff that isnt quite as bad, but still pretty bad:
A few Hasidic rabbis seem to have been doing something a bit weird after circumcising male children.
From what Ive read in the newspapers, some of these rabbis sucked the blood from the cut penis.
Why? I dont care why. I refuse to even do research about this one. In the papers they said these
rabbis claimed there was some reason to do this. I never read about anyone sucking blood from penises
in the Bible, however, so I dont know and I dont care how anyone might justify this. Apparently a baby
caught a disease from a rabbi who sucked blood from that babys penis and a judge has ordered this
practice to stop.
There was also a story about how men in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn put signs up throughout their
neighborhood reminding women that if they see a man walking in their direction they should step aside
for him to pass by more easily. I know this isnt as shocking as sucking blood from a babys penis, but I
suddenly remembered this. Yes, this is an example of sexism; sexism is when men act as if women are
inferior to men or sexism is the belief that women do not have as many rights as men. Racism is when a
person from one racial group (for instance white people) thinks that people from another group are not
as good or do not deserve the same rights.
You know, I guess lots of religions have some problems the Catholic Church has had chronic problems
with pedophile priests and it looks as if the Catholic Church in America has covered up a lot of abuses
and paid a lot of hush-money to victims (people who were hurt). Some people refuse to donate to
the Church now because they are afraid their donation will be used as future hush-money. These
scandals are so terrible because many people have sincere religious beliefs and want to be able to trust
their children with sincere religious figures who are super moral and great role models. Its depressing

that some religious leaders do such terrible things and even more depressing that others cover this
behavior up. In all honesty, whenever my friends in NY City hear about the Catholic Church, one of them
always makes some kind of joke about it. Thats very sad. The Catholic Church has kind of become the
source of jokes in America these days. Well, they can blame themselves.
Now back to my gossip about Hasidic and orthodox Jewish folks. There was this huge story in 2011
about an orthodox guy (he seemed to have psychological and cognitive problems a very low IQ) who
kidnapped an 8 year old child, took him home, killed him, and chopped his body up so he could place
it in a suitcase and throw it out without being caught.
Apparently the child was lost and looking for directions home from a summer school. The Hasidic child
unluckily asked this orthodox guy for help after all, he was wearing a yarmulke so the kid felt he could
trust him. So the guy took the kid into his car but instead of taking the kid to the kids home, as he had
promised, he drove the kid to a wedding he had been invited to in another neighborhood (area). Now
heres the weird situation. This odd (strange), not very bright guy shows up to a wedding with an
unknown kid, and nobody says anything?
How about: Whos the kid? Or: Where the hell did you get that kid from? Or: You freaking nut!
Take that kid home to his parents now! Or: What is that kids mothers phone number so we can call
her!? I dont understand this. The papers didnt seem to make a big deal out of this because I dont
think they wanted to seem anti-othodox or anti-Hasidic, but I think this question needed to be asked.
Did people know at the wedding that he had kidnapped this kid? What the hell kind of excuse could he
have given to people? Who knows. Maybe I shouldnt judge the people at the wedding, but, in light of
what happened, I think a lot of people wish someone had asked some questions about this kid at the
wedding.
So basically, this was a guy with serious psychological and cognitive problems who then left the wedding
and took this kid back to his apartment. Apparently he was kind of lonely (as well as mentally ill) and
saw the kid as a potential friend. But the Hasidic community is very tightly knit and literally thousands
of Hasidic Jews took to the streets looking for this child when the parents reported the child missing to
the police. When this guy learned of the search (on television), he panicked and killed the child. He did
not want to be arrested as a kidnapper. So he killed the child, cut the boy up and tried to hide the
body in a suitcase (which he dropped off in a garbage can in another neighborhood).
So Im thinking, if anyone at the wedding had asked a few obvious questions and had taken some
necessary action, the child might still be alive. Yes? No? I mean I know everyone is preoccupied
during a wedding, but lots of people must have seen this little boy with this strange guy.
The man was apprehended only because the police luckily were able to find videotape from a stores
outside surveillance camera that had accidentally recorded the boy talking to the guy and entering
his car. They caught a glimpse of his license plate number on this tape. Had this not been caught
on tape, this guy might not have been caught. But the people at the wedding saw the boy and knew the
guy didnt have a child. Didnt they? Didnt they later see the missing child reports on TV?
In any case, Im confused by all of this. The guy got a 40-year prison sentence because he agreed to
plead guilty before any trial had to take place. This was, basically, a plea deal. The boys family did
not want to go through the process of a trial because they did not want to see this story in the news
again and again during the trial. It would have been too painful. In any case, theres some recent
information and gossip about orthodox and Hasidic Jewish folks from the papers here. Again, lots of
religions have problems. When I first wrote this chapter I had nothing but good stuff to say about
Hasidic folks. Lately, however, Ive seen this stuff in the papers and felt I had to put it down here.

The other types of Jewish folks? Reform Jews are much more liberal. They don't think the Bible was
written by God. They acknowledge that people created the Bible throughout differing periods of
time. You usually don't see reform Jews wearing yarmulkas etc. Conservative Jews developed because
there were some Jewish people who didn't like either the orthodox or the reform approaches. Basically,
conservative Jews think that people wrote the Bible but were inspired by God. This is what Ive been
able to figure out. You can do some reading on this religion if you wanna. I just want to explain who
the guys with the coats, curly sideburns and hats are so you dont think they work at a circus when you
see them.
Ah! So then you might ask, What the heck is kosher food? I see all these kosher delis all over the
place? Well, it looks as if the Bible distinguishes between clean animals which can be eaten and unclean
animals that God would like people to avoid eating. So kosher food is considered clean food by Jewish
folks. For some reason just about any type of fish is considered clean. Pigs are not considered clean
and so orthodox Jews avoid pork. It looks as if the laws also forbid meat and milk to be combined in a
meal. So orthodox Jews won't eat a sausage pizza or a cheeseburger. Also, orthodox Jews are not
supposed to consume any type of blood. This is due to the ancient belief that a life force is contained
in the blood. Therefore, when animals are slaughtered, there is a special person who does this and this
person literally cuts the throat of the animal so that it has to bleed to death - thereby the meat is
drained of blood. Animal rights activists are kind of pissed about this. Orthodox Jews say it's a
humane way to kill animals, but I'm not so sure about that. Who knows.
New York City has to be the most diverse place on the planet and you'll see signs and symbols of
probably every religion on Earth here. For instance, Catholics have a holiday in which a priest smears
ashes (from a burnt plant) on a person's forehead one day a year to remind everyone of his/her
mortality. This day is called Ash Wednesday. Naoko was also perplexed (confused) by this. She said,
"Who are these people with the black "x" es on their foreheads?" Again I asked her who she thought
they were and she responded, "I think they all support the same athletic team. The Mets? The
Yankees?" No Naoko, they are Catholics celebrating the beginning of a 40 day period of sacrifice
leading to the holiday of Easter, when they believe that Jesus rose from the dead. You'll see lots of
differing types of outfits (clothing) to signify membership in differing religions in New York City. This city
has everything.

Definitions of terms
a magician - often works in a circus he does magic tricks.
and reappear.

He often makes things seem to disappear

Who the heck heck is a softer or nicer form of the word hell. Who the hell is he? Or, who the
heck is he? You can use the hell or the heck to provide extra emphasis to the question Who is
he? So if a person really wants to express a strong emotion attached to a question, the hell or the
heck is used. Who the hell does he think he is? What the hell happened to my car? Who the heck ate
the sandwich that I had in the fridge? Why the hell didnt he tell me he was coming this afternoon? It is
kind of impolite or harsh/rude to say this. You only say this when you are angry.
right off the bat immediately. I am guessing the bat refers to a baseball bat the long, wooden
club that is used by a baseball batter to try to hit a baseball. So if something comes right off the bat, or
you see something right off the bat, it is fresh or immediate.

bushy gray beards if something is bushy it is fluffy, like a bush in a garden or like clouds. A beard is
a type of hair that is grown from a persons chin. So a bushy white beard is a fluffy, or big chunk of gray
hair growing from a guys chin.
a fedora hat this is an old fashioned hat that you might have seen in some old Hollywood
movies. Old Hollywood detectives often wore fedora hats.
sideburns this is hair that grows down the side of a mans face. In the 1860s there was an American
General named General Burnsides who had long hair growing down the sides of his face. So because
there wasnt a name for this type of hair they turned his name around and called the hair: sideburns.
a text any written document.
a big chunk a chunk is a piece of something.
to shave this is the process of using some type of razor to remove the hair from ones face or, in the
case of some women, from their legs and underarms.
a smartass this is someone who likes cracking (making) jokes or is often very sarcastic. This is a
somewhat vulgar term.
Goddamn it! This is the most common dirty expletive statement. If you are angry or if something
doesnt go the way you wanted it to, you might say or yell: Goddamn it! This is kind of dirty/vulgar.
asceticism this is a practice, often among very religious people, of trying to avoid various forms of
pleasure. An ascetic is the opposite of a hedonist. A hedonist loves and pursues pleasure. I recently
learned that the Russian Orthodox religion values asceticism. Many people who are devoted to this
religion will fast (go without food) for many days during the course of the year.
to pervade to be found completely throughout some type of system. If something is pervasive it is all
over the place. Asian people pervade the neighborhood of Flushing New York. Illegal immigrants are
pervasive in the New York City restaurant industry.
to derive meaning from to get some type of meaning or deeper understanding from something.
a nazi this type of person belonged to a hate-filled political party in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. I
think we all know what a nazi was.
scum dirt. Dirt mixed with bacteria and other germs. Scum is something you might find in a sewer.
Whats a sewer? Thats where the water from your toilet goes when you flush your toilet. If you call a
person a piece of scum you are saying that that person is really bad; worse than an asshole. You
piece of asshole scum! might be a good thing to say to such a person. Yes, when Americans are REALLY
angry they combine dirty words: You mother-fucking, asshole, son-of-a-bitch! would be an example.
to wipe them out to completely eliminate them.
The Holocaust this is what Jewish folks call the attempt by the Nazis to wipe out all the Jews in
Europe.

should is used here but "have to" could also have been used.
sexual abuse Abuse is a non-countable noun. Abuse is when one or more people cause harm to
another person. Sexual abuse is when one person harms another sexually or to get sexual pleasure. To
abuse is the verb form it is pronounced differently from the noun abuse.
to cover s/t up to try to hide something that happened.
to molest to harm or abuse someone sexually.
a ritual a procedure that is done, often in a religious situation or context.
shocking, to shock s/o if something is shocking you are surprised by how wrong something is. @_@
The DA The District Attorney. This is the person who represents the people in courtrooms against
those who are criminals. He/she is actually in charge of (the supervisor of) a huge office of lawyers (they
work for the people) who go to court to try to convict people who have committed crimes. If a person is
convicted of a crime, he/she is found guilty of committing that crime.
to come forward and complain to come forward means to show yourself or to say something
instead of remaining silent. To complain Ive been complaining about a lot of things that I dont like
about NY City. When you complain, you state something is wrong.
to prosecute this is what lawyers for the people (the state) try to do in criminal court trials. A trial is
the process in which a judge or jury (usually 12 citizens) tries to determine whether a person committed
a crime or not. The lawyers for the people/state (prosecutors) try to show the judge or jury that the
person being tried is guilty. So they prosecute this person. The person on trial also will have a
lawyer. This lawyer will try to defend the person who has been accused of being guilty. He is the
defense attorney. In America, if you are too poor to be able to afford an attorney, the state is supposed
to give you one. Unfortunately, Ive heard that often the attorney a poor person gets usually sucks and
doesnt work that hard to defend the person. Its common knowledge in America that the more money
you have, the better the attorney you can get. There are many stories about wealthy people who are
obviously guilty, but who have expensive lawyers, and who are found not-guilty.
to accuse s/o of s/t to claim that someone did something wrong.
to deny to say something didnt happen.
weird strange.
to circumcise this is actually a common medical procedure in America after a male child is born.
Basically they cut off a piece of skin that surrounds the head of the childs penis (his sexual organ).
There have been newspaper reports saying that circumcision is actually good for a guys future health
and there are other studies that say it really doesnt matter whether a baby is circumcised or not. In the
Jewish religion all male babies have to be circumcised for some type of religious reason. Ok, sorry again
for my cynical, sarcastic attitude, but if God didnt want the chunk of skin on a guys penis, and he needs
it to be cut off, why did He put it there in the first place!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! What if God really wants this
chunk of skin on the penis!!!! OMG!!!!!!

a penis the guys sexual thingee. A mans sexual organ. A womans sexual organ is called the
vagina. There are slang or dirty words for penis and vagina as well. A guys penis can be called a
cock or a dick or a prick. I once heard the term dinger used for the male penis, which I thought
sounded funny. The vagina can be called a cunt or a pussy. Sometimes if you are really angry with a
guy you can call him a dickhead or a cocksucker or a pussy. In this case, calling a guy a pussy
means you are calling him a vagina, which means you are implying he is kind of weak. If a guy doesnt
seem to have the courage to do something, other guys might call him a pussy. If you are really angry
with a woman, you might call her a cunt. But this is really nasty most women will get angry if you call
them cunts.
to justify s/t to say, This is ok! or This is acceptable!
to catch a disease catch is the verb used with disease. I caught a cold yesterday.
a judge this is the person in charge of a courtroom. A courtroom is where trials occur. In America
there are criminal trials (where people can be punished by being thrown in jail) and civil trials (where
people can be punished by being forced to give money to other people).
chronic if something is chronic, it happens over and over again. It doesnt seem to stop.
pedophilia this is when some older people only seem to like the idea of having sex with very young
people. Its a creepy type of mental illness. A person who has this type of mental illness is called a
pedophile.
a priest in the Catholic Church these are the guys who wear the black shirts with the white collars.
They are the ones who operate the churches and say the masses or religious services. There are two
types of Christian Churches: Catholic and Protestant. In Protestant Churches there are no priests the
people who do the services are called ministers. In the Jewish religion, these types of people are called
rabbis. Why are Protestant Churches called Protestant? Its because these churches were created by
people who thought the Catholic Church was corrupt. So they protested against the Catholic Church.
To protest against something is to say that something is wrong and to try to change the thing which is
wrong.
hush money when you want a child to be quiet, you might say: Hush! So hush money is money
that is paid to a victim of a crime to make sure he/she does not come forward and complain.
to donate to give money or time or effort without expecting anything in return.
a role model if someone is a role model to children, he shows the type of behavior that a child might
adopt or follow. Actually there are good role models and bad role models for children.
cognitive cognitive skills are thinking skills.
IQ Intelligence Quotient. A measure of a persons intelligence. The highest category of intelligence
according to the IQ is genius, the lowest is moron. If you are angry at a person and think he is
stupid, you can call him a moron. This is kind of a strong insult, however.
to kidnap to steal a human being.

to chop to cut into pieces. A chef usually chops up vegetables to put them into a soup.
bright this can also mean intelligent.
a nut a crazy person.
the kids mothers yes, you can use two s in a row.
anti if you are anti-something, you are against it or dont like it. If you are pro-something you are for
it or like it.
tightly knit very close together. If people have a tightly knit relationship, they are super close.
to take to the streets to go into the streets, usually to protest or to take some type of community
action.
to panic to become very nervous about something and act without thinking. For example, if you have
a child and are at the supermarket, and you turn around and see that your child is not behind you, you
might panic and begin running through the store looking for him/her until you find the child.
to be preoccupied to be really focused on one thing so that you cant concentrate on other things
that are happening. i.e. Bob, you are not doing a good job today at work because you seem to be
preoccupied about something else.
to apprehend to catch.
surveillance cameras these are cameras meant to record things that happen publicly.
accidentally not by choice, not deliberately.
to glimpse to see something briefly.
a license plate this is something placed on the front and back of American cars so that the car can be
identified by the police or by people who witness (see) accidents. It is usually a combination of letters
and numbers.
a sentence yes, a sentence is usually a grammar term, but in the field of criminal law a sentence also
means the period of time a person will go to jail. For instance, Rod Blagojevich, a corrupt politician from
Chicago, was given a 16 year prison sentence this year. He will be in jail for a long time.
to plead this is also a legal term. If a person is brought into a courtroom after being accused of a
crime, the judge will say: How do you plead? The defendant (person accused of the crime) can say: I
plead not-guilty or I plead guilty. If the person pleads not guilty, there will be a trial. Basically, saying:
I plead not-guilty means I am not-guilty. Its really old fashioned language.
a trial this is the process in which a judge or jury tries to determine whether a person is guilty or
innocent. The person accused of a crime can choose to have either a judge or a jury.

a plea deal there are many, many people who are arrested by the police in America. Therefore, the
court system is overcrowded. Prosecutors have too many cases to deal with every day. Therefore, they
often try to negotiate with the defense attorney instead of having a trial. A prosecutor might say, OK,
we have a lot of evidence that your client committed this crime. If we go to trial, your client will probably
be found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in jail by the judge. However, if your client is willing to plead
guilty so that we do not have to waste time and money and go to trial, we will ask the judge to show
some mercy and to only give your client a 10 year sentence. So this is a plea deal. This is a legal
term that youll see in the newspapers, so you dont really have to memorize it. So in the story above,
the guy who killed the child and chopped the child up accepted a plea deal for 40 years. This sounds
long but in the prison system in America, if you behave well they often drop (take away) time from your
sentence. So a person with a 40 year sentence might get out in 30 years. If he had not accepted the
plea deal, he might have been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
a liberal the opposite of a conservative. A liberal is supposedly more open-minded and
experimental than a conservative and a liberal politician will want to see things change in his/her society
whereas a conservative politician usually likes to see things stay the same. In American politics a liberal is
usually a Democrat and a Conservative is a Republican.
to be inspired to be influenced to do something on a very deep level, to be especially motivated by
someone or something.
a deli a little store where sandwiches and other cold-cut meats can be purchased.
to be considered as to be thought of as.
to consume in this case: to eat. A consumer, however, can be a person who buys things.
to slaughter this means to kill an animal, usually for food.
to bleed this means to make the animal lose its blood until it is dead.
to drain this means to bleed an animal until it does not have any blood left in it. Of course, you can
probably never completely drain an animal of all of its blood. Yes? No?
to be pissed about something means to be angry about something.
to smear to take a substance and rub it against another substance in order to leave a messy
mark. You might smear sun block on your face or body.
mortality the fact that everything that lives is going to die. Fuck!
a sacrifice the act of giving something up in order to get something better.
rise, rose risen in this case the story goes that Jesus died and then he came back to life he rose
from the dead.

Grammar stuff: The imperative telling someone to do something

The big problem that foreign students seem to have with the imperative is that they often use a pronoun
before the imperative form of the verb. For instance, You take the garbage out! No. It should just be:
Take the garbage out. Or, Please take the garbage out.
Now, nobody likes to take orders. So unless you are a total asshole, please dont just tell someone to do
something, use please before your imperative statement in English. So basically, dont use a pronoun
and try to use "please" and youll be ok. If a person uses the imperative with you without "please," hes
an asshole.
Please throw that garbage out before you leave! Please give me my bag! Please hand me my coat.
There are other ways to soften an imperative sentiment or command. If you want to tell another person
you are with that she should cross the street, you can say, Please cross the street with me. But that
sounds a little silly. So you can use lets. Lets cross the street now! Lets get some dinner now! Lets
go to a movie.
Why dont we is very useful. Why dont we cross the street now? Why dont we get some
dinner? Why dont we go to a movie? Please practice this.
Heres something somewhat related to the imperative. Foreign students who are studying with nativespeakers who have to leave a table to go to the bathroom are often not sure what to say. Please try
this: Would you mind if I went to the restroom? Would you mind if I answered this call? So it is going
to be Would you mind if plus some past tense of a verb.

More Grammar Stuff So vs. Such a

Almost every foreign student makes this type of mistake over and over and over again. Basically, you
use so with an adjective and such a with an adjective and noun.
She is so beautiful!
He is so fat!
That book is so good!

She is such a beautiful woman!

He is such a fat guy!
That is such a good book.

Please practice because it drives me crazy when people make this type of mistake.

18 essential vocab words Fill-in-the-blanks

a magician, a role model, to shave, to donate, sideburns, chronic, asceticism, to justify, to
pervade, to panic, liberal, to chop, inspired, to be preoccupied, to slaughter, to glimpse, a
sacrifice, a deli
Basically, the Republican political party in America is conservative and believes that what is good for
business is good for America; the Democratic political party is ___________ and believes that business
should be regulated through strong laws and there should be lots of social programs for people.

____________ were very popular in the 1960s and 70s and suddenly came back in the 1990s when men
became inspired by hairstyles and facial hair from those decades.
Young boys love sports activities, but athletes are sometimes not good _______________ for these
children. Athletes often cheat, fight and argue with officials or get involved in drug scandals.
Bob was very sad to read about the suffering of the Japanese people after the 2011 earthquake and
tsunami. Therefore, as poor as he was, he ____________ a little bit of money to try to help the
survivors in Japan.
Initially the pain in my back came and went. However, when the pain became _____________ I knew I
needed to go to a hospital and find out what might be wrong.
Asian parents tend to have a reputation for making any type of ____________ for the sake of their
children and their childrens education.
I was hungry, but I didnt want to eat a huge meal, so I stopped off at my neighborhood _________ and
bought a ham and cheese sandwich.
I havent seen too many celebrities in New York City. Once, however, I caught a _____________ of
Hugh Grant as he was entering a hotel.
Joe had to admit that he had not been a good husband or father lately because he was so
________________ with his work.
In the old days a ___________ used to make small objects disappear or pretend to saw (cut) people in
half. Now magic tricks have become complex theatrical spectacles.
When a Buddhist monk ___________ the hair off of his head, he is making a statement that personal
appearance is of no real concern to him.
Vegetarians and even more radical (extremely liberal) vegans object to the way that many animals are
______________ for food.
The guillotine was a device created during the French Revolution which _____________ off the heads of
people thought to be traitors (not faithful to the Revolution).
The flag of New York City was _____________ by the flag of Holland since the first European settlers
here were from that country.
Although Bob realized that the brakes on his car were not working, he did not _____________. He
simply slowed the car down by taking his foot off the gas and pulled over to the side of the road.
Hedonism is the philosophy that the best life is a life of continuous pleasure. To the other extreme is
_____________: the belief that pleasure is evil or that it can corrupt (make a person immoral, dishonest)
a person.

Even though it is terribly inefficient and slow and unreliable, the subway system ___________ New York
City; you can get just about anywhere in Manhattan by subway.
Although some people feel that the war with Iraq could be _____________ because we removed a
dictator from power there, others point out that there was, honestly, no good reason to attack that
country.
Answers: liberal, sideburns, role models, donate, chronic, sacrifice, deli, glimpse, preoccupied,
magician, shaves, slaughtered, chopped, inspired, panic, asceticism, pervades, justified,

5. Please dont give money to beggars!

One night, around Christmastime, a police officer in Times Square saw a man lying on the sidewalk who
wasnt wearing any shoes or socks. It was extremely cold outside and the cop felt sorry for the man.
He was afraid that the mans feet might freeze in such cold weather. The cop realized that there was a
shoe store right next to where the guy was lying and he decided to do a good deed. He asked the
man what his shoe size was, then he went into the store and bought a pair of beautiful boots for the
homeless man. He paid over $100 of his hard earned money for those boots.
The police officer didnt realize it, but there were some tourists standing nearby who not only observed
what he did, but they also took photos of him handing the new boots to the homeless man. They sent
the photos to the local newspapers and the cops photo was on the front page of newspapers, not just in
New York City, but all over the country. The cop became an instant hero and was on many TV shows.
But, this whole situation seemed very strange to me from the start. You know, Im Suzy. I have a lot of
experience in this city and I can smell a rat a mile away. In another chapter I wrote about my
volunteer experience with homeless people and I knew from that experience that there are many places
in Manhattan where homeless people can get free clothes. There are churches all over the city that give
homeless people free food and free clothes. In fact, there are very good people who travel around at
night looking for homeless people who might need clothes. So how could this guy be sitting on the street
with no shoes on his feet? It didnt make sense. Honestly, some homeless people are better dressed
than I am! Ive thought about going to these churches to get free food and clothing too! (Im joking.)
So the situation didnt make sense. Some journalists began looking for the homeless guy who got the
free shoes because they wanted to ask him how he felt about what the cop had done. And, in fact, one
journalist found him near Columbia University walking around with no shoes on his feet again!
When the journalist asked the man where his beautiful new boots were, the man stated that the boots
were so nice he was afraid other homeless people might try to kill him and steal the boots, so he had
hidden the boots. But, this was, of course, a lie.
It turned out that this guy wasnt even homeless! When the journalist published this guys photo
showing he wasnt wearing shoes again, people from his apartment building saw him in the newspaper
and called the newspaper and told the journalist that this guy had free housing from the government,
because he was poor and had been in the military, and was suffering, apparently, from a psychological
disorder. So he wasnt homeless, he was getting free housing, free food and free money from the
government. But, sometimes he would walk around in the cold without any shoes just to make people
really pity him! It all made sense now. This is why he was lying right outside of a shoe store. He

wanted someone to feel sorry for him and buy him a pair of expensive shoes, so that he could take the
shoes back later and get a refund. So, basically, the cop got scammed. He wasnt really a hero, he was
a guy who got taken advantage of by a shady fake homeless guy who was already getting lots of
free stuff from the tax payers.
So whats the lesson you should learn? Please! Please please pretty please! Dont give money to
anyone. They are all trying to scam you. Sometimes youll even see mothers on the subway holding
babies. The woman will say, My baby and I cant find a shelterwe are so hungry.. No. Not true.
Theres definitely a shelter that will take a homeless mother and baby. This is America not India. You
dont see people starving and dying in the streets here. Youll hear beggars giving you all kinds of sob
stories. No! Dont believe them!
The homeless people I helped as a volunteer even told me this the people who are begging are just
trying to make money, usually for drugs or alcohol. If you give them money you are probably hurting
them more than helping them. Sometimes people will stand in subway stations and say, Please.I just
need $1 to get on the subway and get home No! They are lying. In fact, my language exchange
partner Bob once made a stupid mistake. He had to make a quick subway trip to give someone
something and he just grabbed a leather packet (kind of like a wallet but smaller) with his Metrocard in
it. After he got to where he was going, he tried to use the card again for a return trip and it wouldnt
work. There was no more money on the Metrocard. Bob then realized he had not brought his other
wallet with his credit cards and money. So now he was far from his apartment without any money and
without any Metrocard.
So what would you have done? Some people might have explained their situation to the subway
attendant, but, realistically, this person wouldnt have believed Bob. Some people might have tried
turnstyle jumping, but this is illegal and Bob doesnt do anything illegal. So Bob walked. It was in the
summer, the weather was OK, and he just walked home. It took him 3 and hours, but he simply
walked home. Basically, thats what honest people do. He was in desperate need of a little money, but
he could not bring himself to beg. It was beneath his dignity. So listen to Suzy: if you come here,
please dont give these beggars a penny.

Definitions of terms:
a begger someone who asks for money from strangers
the sidewalk this is the long area of concrete that people walk on. The sidewalk is separated from the
street by a curb. You always park your car next to a curb.
a cop police officers are called cops. Whats interesting is that in previous generations there were
often negative and nasty terms for police officers in America. Young people usually used these terms.
For instance, in the 60s and 70s cops were called pigs. That might be because of how the police acted
toward young people who protested the Vietnam War. Now, in America, however, I dont think there are
any slang or nasty terms for the police.
the guy you hear guy all the time. Hes the guy I told you about. Hes the guy who lives near me.
Hes the guy who was in the newspapers. Etc. So guy refers to a man. Theres really no term like this
for women.
a good deed a deed is an action. If you do a good deed, usually this means you do something nice
for a stranger or you do something nice that you really didnt have to do.

my hard earned money this is an expression you hear a lot of. I am not wasting my hard earned
money on such a bad movie! A person could say, I am not going to waste my money on but people
will often say, I am not going to waste my hard earned money on Adding hard earned provides
greater emphasis. It implies that the person works very hard and does not want to waste money he/she
worked hard for.
a hero is someone who does something positive that most other people wouldnt have done. Usually
being a hero requires courage or bravery. The opposite of a hero is a villain.
I can smell a rat this means that you can sense that something is wrong. You cant say for sure, or
you cant prove it, but if you smell a rat you feel as if something is very wrong. I can smell a rat a mile
away means you are really good at sensing when something is not as it should be.
It didnt make sense this means something really looks or is strange. If something doesnt make
sense, you dont expect to see it and the fact that it exists indicates something is wrong.
It turned out that - you hear this a lot. If a person wants to jump to the end of the story quickly,
he/shell say, It turns out that So it turns out that means basically, the result was that
to feel pity to feel sympathy for a person
a scam, to be scammed this is when someone creates a plan to take your money from you, or to
cheat or trick you out of money. Basically they want to steal your money from you through some plan.
to get taken advantage of this is when someone uses you, or tricks, deceives or fools you so that
they can get something from you
shady dishonest, not to be trusted
a shelter this is a place, either provided by the government or a charity, which provides a place for
people to stay and sleep at night. It is free. In America if a womans husband treats her badly she can
leave her home and go to a womans shelter and they will help her.
starving not getting enough food to the point where it has become painful and you might die
a sob story this is a story the person thinks will make you cry or make you feel pity for them. The
proper response to a sob story is: I dont want to hear your sob story! To sob means to cry.
a Metrocard this is the magnetic card that you need to use to get into the subway system in New
York City. It is usually a yellow card with the letters MTA on it. Metropolitan Transportation
Administration. Metropolitan means city.
a subway attendant this is a person who works inside a large glass booth in the subway station.
You can ask this person for help or buy a Metrocard from this person (although most people buy their
Metrocards from Metrocard machines).
turnstyle jumping in order to enter into the subway system, you have to pass through a turnstyle.
This is a device with three silver, metal arms. You push on an arm and it turns downward allowing you to
enter into the system. Some people literally jump over the turnstyles to get a free subway ride. But, if
you are caught doing this by the police, you will be arrested and taken to the police station.

beneath his dignity your sense of dignity is the way you feel about yourself. If you think you are a
good person, you will have a sense of dignity. If you are ashamed of something, you have a low sense
of dignity. If something is beneath your dignity, you think you are too good to do it.

Grammar Stuff
could vs. was able to
Its important to realize that could is not always the past tense of can. Sometimes could points to the
future and you have to use was able to instead.
For instance, if someone says to you, Where did you buy that cup of tea? You cant say, I could buy it
at Starbucks. That points to the future. I was able to buy it at Starbucks. --that points to the past.
How did you get here so quickly? I was able to catch a cab. (Not: I could catch a cab. I could catch a
cab literally points to the future.)
Why is your English so good? I was able to learn so much from the Suzy book! (Not: I could learn so
much from the Suzy book.)

11 Terms/phrases Fill-in-the-blank exercise

Cop, my hard earned money, to smell a rat, pity, scam, shady, shelter, starving, sob story,
subway attendant, turnstyle
I was tempted to give the beggar a dollar, but I looked at how he was dressed and he was better
dressed than I was. So I realized his attempt to get money from me was just a ____________.
During the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade someone stole my wallet from my backpack. I found a
____________ and he told me to go to the nearest police station and file a report.
The beggar told me that he had been kicked out of his apartment and that he could not find any place to
stay or to eat, but he was a fat guy with nice clothes, so I decided he was telling me a
________________.
There was something about the accounting books that didnt look right to me. When I asked the boss,
she did not answer my questions directly. I ______________________.
My children kept bothering me to take them to the latest action/adventure movie, but I knew the movie
was going to be crap and I didnt want to spend my _________________________ on it.
I do feel ______________ for the homeless. That is why I do volunteer work to help them. I will not
give my hard earned money to a beggar, however.
I noticed that some people simply walk through the _____________ while some people push it in order
to enter the subway system.
I always knew that politician was ____________________. Therefore I was not surprised when he was
arrested and put on trial for taking bribes (money).
If I ever have a question about how to get where I am going, I usually ask the ____________________
and he/she will usually give me good travel advice.

If a person does not have enough money to pay his/her rent, he/she does not have to live in the streets.
There are numerous _____________________ around New York City which will provide a safe place to
stay until the person can begin to make money to live independently again.
I had been working so hard that I wasnt able to eat all day. I felt as if I were _________________
when I finally got home.
Answers: scam, cop, sob story, smelled a rat, hard earned money, pity, turnstyle, shady,
subway attendant, shelters, starving

6. Ticket blitz!
So I was riding on the MTA D line. Just to fill you in, the subway goes almost everywhere in this
city. You really dont need a car here, although the MTA really really really really truly sucks. It sucks big
time. This has to be the worst freaking public transportation system in the world. Zimbabwe probably
has a better system than New York. North Korea probably has a better system. And they keep raising
the fares here because the MTA workers belong to a strong labor union and keep receiving pay raises
and extra benefits. So average citizens pay a huge amount to use a shoddy transportation system in
order to give the MTA workers nice lives. Are the MTA workers nice in return? Ha ha ha ha ha!
And the rats! Oh my God! You see rats all over the place in the subway system. I am not joking. BIG,
ugly, aggressive and hungry rats crawl around the subway system as if they own it. Who knows, they
may be union members too and may be getting benefits. They seem to work as hard as MTA employees.
Ha ha, that was a sarcastic joke. At first I thought that maybe Bloomberg figured out a way that rats
could be good for business because they are UBIQUITOUS but then I realized that there are rats all
over the subway system just because nobody from the MTA seems to really care about doing his/her job.
The system is FILTHY. Filthy means as dirty as something can possibly get.
Recently the MTA decided to combat the rat problem by removing garbage containers from many
stations. Their reasoning was that the rats were eating the garbage people were throwing into the
containers. Now some people in New York seem to just throw their garbage onto the train tracks, where
the rats eat it more easily.
Let it suffice to say that the MTA is the dirtiest, ugliest, most unpredictable and worst managed
transportation system on the planet. If you come here you will be shocked by how bad it is. In fact, the
smartest thing any NY politician ever did (in regard to the MTA) was to hire a guy named Jay Walder to
run the system. He went to Harvard and then worked for the MTA before going to London to
successfully run the London subway system. After just a few months at the MTA, however, Walder
seemed to consider the system to be hopeless (it couldnt be fixed). He quit and went to Hong Kong to
run a better system. In Hong Kong he said that the budget of the MTA was a mess and that the
infrastructure was a bunch of old garbage.
But its not just the infrastructure and crazy fares that cause pain. I swear to God! I swear to God every
time I find a seat on the subway some fatass will inevitably sit next to me on my right hand side and

then some fatass will sit to my other side and these two fatasses will scrunch me in. Every fucking
time! I get squished by fatasses.
So this story I am going to tell you happened a few years ago. Just to let you know, stories from the
past can be told in the present tense, so thats what Ill do here.
So Im riding on the MTA D line with Cathy, a girl from Taiwan from the school that I attended (the
school really sucked), and there is an empty beer bottle rolling around on the floor of the train. Its
rolling all over the place, hitting peoples feet, making noise, rolling all over. Cathy and I were the only
two people who were bothered. :P So when it rolled over toward Cathys feet, she bent over and picked
it up. Shes an Asian so she cares about cleanliness. She did the right thing. She held it on her lap and
once we left the car she was going to throw it out.
So then these two kind of stupid looking and kind of fat white guys came over to us.
One of them pulled out a wallet, opened it and said: New York City Police Department! Dont you
know its illegal to drink on the subway?! Both Cathy and I were shocked and frightened. These were
plain-clothes cops. It was tough for us to say anything. Both she and I tried to say something, but
we were not native speakers and we couldnt say anything, but then one of the cops said, Shut up. I
dont want to hear any bullshit. So neither of us said anything. And I looked around at the other
subway riders and nobody was even looking at us. They were just ignoring us. This was so wrong.
So then one of the fat white cops then demanded identification from Cathy and wrote her out a
ticket. We were absolutely shocked. Then one of these fat white cops said, Make sure you pay
this! Otherwise, its going to be big trouble for you.
So I told this story to my language exchange partner and he was livid! He promised to go with Cathy to
the hearing (they lost!) but he told me something interesting. This is how, apparently, New York City
makes money when it desperately needs it. The cops go on a ticket blitz.
Blitz is the German word for lightening (thunder and lightening occur during a rain storm). A blitz is also
a quick attack. My language partner gave me examples from the newspapers of how cops have been
told to try to make money for the city through ticket blitzes. (So a ticket blitz is when cops decide to write
lots of tickets for small, insignificant non-important- things in a short time, in order to make money for
the city.)
For instance, a pregnant Latina woman (a woman who was going to have a baby soon) was walking
down the street on a hot day and started to feel sick. So she walked over to a stairway leading into a
MTA station and she sat down on the stairs. Well, two cops (cops is slang for police officers) came along
and gave her a ticket for illegally sitting in a public place! She was pregnant and sick.
Then there was another story about a woman who was a bit tired and who walked into a neighborhood
park. She sat down on a bench and rested as she watched the neighborhood children playing on swings
and other things at the park. Well, a couple cops saw her, walked over to her and gave her a
ticket! Why? Apparently there is a law that you may not enter a New York City childrens park without a
child! If you do, you can be ticketed!
Then there was the famous story of the woman who was feeding pigeons. Just sitting there and
feeding pigeons. Cops pulled up in their squad car and gave her a ticket for feeding pigeons!
Then, for awhile, cops were giving tickets out to small business owners who had their phone numbers
displayed on the outside of their businesses, usually on their awning. Apparently there was a very old
law that said you cant have your business phone number displayed publicly!

Then he told me that the cops once devised a trick. They left a bag of groceries in a subway station,
on a bench. So some people would wander by and see the bag of groceries and decide that it would be
a waste to just leave the groceries there. Maybe some people were hungry and saw the groceries and
decided to take the bag. After all, 1.8 million New Yorkers receive food stamps. 22% of New Yorkers
are probably hungry. The NYPD would then jump out and arrest the person for theft! This trick was
used until a newspaper exposed it because so many people who had never been arrested before were
being arrested for picking up a bag of groceries. Hello, finders keepers? Isn't this an American
expression?
Personally, I thought this was America. Land of the free. But virtually everywhere I go I see cops cops
and more cops. Often they are just standing around, doing nothing. If you go to Wall Street you can
see that they stand around doing nothing but they have HUGE machine guns. And the first time I tried
to use the subway, I was pulled over by two cops and they searched through the bag I was
carrying! They literally went through the whole bag as if there might be something dangerous in there!
After there was a subway bombing in Moscow, police with huge machine guns were ordered to ride on
the subways in New York City. There was a photo on the front page of a newspaper in which there was
a cop with a huge machine gun scrunched in between standing passengers. Oh my God. If a cop were
ever to use one of those huge guns on the subway lots of innocent people would get shot. The faces of
the people standing around the cop showed that people were just kind of shocked and frightened by this.
The search of bags before people enter the subway system is Zillionaire Bloombergs idea of an antiterrorism tactic. But, I mean, I was so embarrassed by that search that now when I enter a subway
station I look to see whether cops are searching bags and if they are I simply leave that subway entrance
and go to another a half a block away! There are numerous subway entrances and they are all close to
each other.
So this strikes me as an especially brilliant (OK, thats SARCASM) anti-terrorism tactic because real
terrorists are NOT going to casually wander over to the police and let them check their belongings! They
are going to do what I do now they are going to use an entrance that is unoccupied (not used) by the
police! That's common sense.
So be careful in this city. Dont pick up litter (litter is garbage on the subway or street) thats
wrong. Dont feed pigeons. Dont go into a childrens park alone. Dont get sick and sit down on a
subway stations stairs. And when you enter a station and dont feel like letting people dig through
your personal belongings, just walk an extra half block to the next entrance. But if you happen to be a
terrorist suicide bomber who is reading this, please cooperate with the NYPD and just walk up to the
cops and let them find the bomb in your bag (sarcasm again). Welcome to the land of the free and home
of the intelligent.

Definitions of terms
The MTA D line the subway lines in New York City are labeled or represented by numbers and
letters. Basically you have the A,B,C, D, E. F. G, J, L, M, N, Q, R, W lines and the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 lines. The
D Line runs from the top of the Bronx to the tip of Brooklyn.
to fill you in to provide you with knowledge that you might be lacking (to lack something means not
to have something).

a fare - the amount of money you have to pay. Every couple of years the fare is raised. Now it is $2.25
to ride a dirty, ugly and unreliable system.
a labor union a group of workers established to protect the rights of workers in an industry and to
ensure a fair salary or wage for those workers. In some parts of the country politicians have been trying
to limit the power of labor unions that represent public workers (people who work for the government).
In New York City and State the public unions (unions made of people who receive their salaries from
taxes from the people) are so powerful that basically the mayor and governor give them whatever they
want. This is why New Yorkers pay crazy fares for such horrible service. Welcome to America.
a benefit something beyond what a person receives for pay. A benefit might include health insurance
or a pension (money you receive after working for a certain number of years and then retiring).
a shoddy system a terrible, ineffective, ugly, run-down, unpredictable mess of a system. If
something is shoddy, it is garbage or junk or just plain shit. The MTA is a shit system.
a rat a type of rodent which is bigger than a mouse but related to the mouse. It has a long tail.
ubiquitous everywhere
to combat something to fight against something, to try to get rid of or eliminate something.
reasoning the logic a person uses to justify an action, the reasons a person has for doing something.
let it suffice to say that this means: let me just say this and this will be enough because I dont
really want to discuss the matter further. Suffice comes from the word sufficient.
unpredictable not foreseen, not anticipated, happening in an arbitrary or random manner.
the budget the amount of money the MTA gets from the state.
a mess if something is a mess, it is not orderly, not organized; in fact, it is really badly organized and
chaotic.
infrastructure an infrastructure is everything that makes a system run. Basically the MTA tracks and
signals are junk, garbage and shit. The corrupt politicians in Albany (the capitol of New York State) have
been interested in stealing tax money and not fixing things with tax money.
a fatass someone who is fat or, more specifically, who has a fat butt or ass.
inevitably certain, unavoidable, its going to happen
to scrunch to squeeze in between a narrow opening.
to squish to press something very hard.
to be bothered by s/t or s/o to be irritated, to be made a little upset.

a persons lap this is the area of ones upper legs that a child might sit on if one is seated. People
usually put napkins on their laps before they begin to eat.
a wallet this is what a guy usually puts his money and his credit cards inside. Police officers often
carry their identification as police officers in their wallets.
a plain-clothes cop a police officer who wears regular clothes so that people cannot tell that he is a
cop.
bullshit nonsense. Something wrong or ridiculous. This is a very dirty word.
a ticket a written form of notification that the police are charging you with some offense. Most people
are familiar with traffic tickets that car drivers might get for speeding or illegal parking.
livid if a person is livid he/she is very very very angry.
a hearing a formal process where some authority figure or figures determine guilt or innocence. At a
hearing a person may bring along a witness or witnesses these are people who actually saw what
happened and can tell the hearing officer what really happened.
swings children usually sit on these and then begin to move forward and backward through the air
because their seat is attached to a horizontal pole above them by chains.
a pigeon this type of bird is ubiquitous in cities. They poop a lot and are generally hated. Do not
confuse a pigeon with a sparrow sparrows are the small brown birds but pigeons are larger and
rounder.
an awning this is usually a canopy that is suspended over the front door of a business or sometimes a
house. Its like a covering over part of the sidewalk in front of a business.
to devise to create.
groceries stuff you buy from a grocery store or a super-market. Groceries are usually items of food.
to wander by to casually walk by.
to arrest this is when the police formally take a person into police custody so that the person can be
charged (formally accused of a crime) and potentially put on trial (a trial is the process where a judge or
jury looks at all the evidence of a case and decides whether a person is guilty or innocent).
theft the act of taking something that belongs to another. Burglary is when a person breaks into a
place and steals something. So there is a difference between theft and burglary. A thief steals
something but a burglar breaks in and steals something.
finders keepers losers weepers an American adage: If someone loses something the finder
becomes the legitimate owner and the person who loses the thing can merely cry about it.
a machine gun a type of rifle that shoots out many bullets very very quickly, one after the other.

a bombing when an explosive device is set off in order to kill and/or destroy.
a tactic is a part of a strategy. A tactic is some mini-strategy.
a block a city block usually stretches from one cross-street to another. The area from 74th street and
Broadway to 75th street and Broadway is one city block.
this strikes me as being this seems to me to be
sarcasm a type of negative humor in which a person or thing is mocked or made fun of. The key to a
sarcastic statement is that the person making the statement kind of pretends to be saying something
seriously, but everyone can tell he is mocking someone or something.
to dig through to search through.
personal belongings - are some things that a person owns.
a suicide bomber is someone who gives up his life by exploding a bomb attached to his/her body in
order to harm others and destroy property.

Grammar stuff: articles (a, the)

Look at this terrible sentence: They need table.
Why is this type of statement so frustrating for a native-speaker to hear? Because they would seem to
mean/imply that more than one table might be necessary. But, then again, maybe a small group just
needs one table. Without the right article, or without pluralizing the word tables, the native speaker
doesnt know what the hell you are trying to say.

This is why articles and pluralization are so important. A native-speaker doesnt know whether you are
saying: They need *a* table. Or: They need tableS. They need table could mean either of those
sentences.
I have friend who like that. OMG! Do you mean I have friends who like that.? Or I have a friend
who likes that. Youll drive English speakers crazy if you dont use your articles.
I once heard another person say: He did stupid thing. He did a stupid thing? Or, he did stupid
things? It turns out that she meant he did stupid things. I thought she had meant he did a stupid
thing. This gets really frustrating to people who have been trained their whole lives to listen for the
article or the plural form.
Articles are huge! You have to use articles! You really do need to nail these articles down! Many
foreigners do not even try to use articles and they sound terrible. They dont even realize how bad they
sound.
Oh man, when I hear foreign students speak, their inability to use articles really drives me crazy. Every
Asian or Russian student then makes this excuse: Hey! We dont have articles in our languages! I

dont care. You are here to speak English, yeah? You are not here to speak broken English, right? Use
your goddamn articles! They are so freaking easy. Sorry. Im Ok. Let me check my blood pressure.
Heres the rule again: countable stuff has to have a freaking article. Non-countable stuff doesnt need
an article. When people speak they usually speak about countable things, so always be ready to use an
article. Think, Can I count buildings? Yes. OK, THE building is close by.
Whats the difference between a and the? If you are talking about one thing among many, you have
to use a. I need a new laptop. The new laptop, which I recently bought, is quite good. The is for
one special thing you are pointing out. I am going to visit an historic church today. The church I visited
was built In the 1700s.
Heres what drives me nuts. If you mention a persons profession, you have to use an article. A teacher,
a doctor, a nurse, an accountant etc. You dont say: Im going to see doctor. You do say: Im going to
see a doctor. I think that elementary and high school English teachers around the world should be shot
by the NYPDs huge machine guns for not stressing the articles. When you learn a vocabulary word you
should also learn whether it is countable or non-countable.
Thats why in my vocabulary word lists I dont write: sacrifice I write a sacrifice. A sacrifice is
countable. You can have two of them. You cant have two waters though. Water is a general
thing. You can, however, have two cups of water. A cup of water. Lots of people make mistakes with
the word advice. You cant say advices. You have to say, a piece of advice. Let me give you a
piece of advice. Let me give you two pieces of advice.
The word person always has to take an a or the. I am a lonely person. I am a skinny person. He
is the only person I know who has been to Nepal.
Heres another problem I have noticed. Many foreign students use some instead of a. This sounds
terrible too. They need some table. No! They need a table. Yes.
They need some book about history. No. They need a history book. Some does not equal a.
Some only works with a plural noun or something non-countable. I need some water. Give me some
money. I need some potato chips. Dan needs some more patience.

16 essential vocab words fill-in-the-blanks

unpredictable, to be bothered by something, his/her lap, a tactic, a hearing, to devise, a
ticket, to arrest, to wander, to bomb/a bombing, theft, a block, to combat, reasoning, livid, a
mess
A person doesnt have to be worried about being ___________ by the second-hand smoke of others
cigarettes in New York City bars or restaurants: smoking indoors is illegal in every bar, restaurant and
business.
These days young women in Manhattan seem to prefer to ___________ through SoHo or The Meat
Packing District when they are bored or just feeling like doing something.

When I first came to New York City I stayed at a Youth Hostel on 103rd and Amsterdam but had to walk
up to 120th street to get to my school. I was surprised, however, to learn that New York City
___________ are quite short; the distance between 103rd and 120th was very brief.
I hate my current roommate because he never cleans up after himself. After he spends two hours
cooking for himself in the kitchen, he leaves a _____________ in the sink.
Peter Braunstein was ___________ by police in Tennessee after he fled (ran from) New York City
following his Halloween sexual assault against a woman he used to know. He had dressed up as a New
York Fireman to gain entry to the womans apartment.
The best way to ___________ crime is to make sure that there are enough jobs for people and to make
sure that everyone can receive a good education.
Sometimes subway lines are shut down during the weekend. The ____________ for this is that the
subway is essential during the work week, but repairs can be done on tracks during the weekends
(therefore some lines or sections of lines might be shut down).
If the state and city governments could ____________ a way to develop the Bronx economically, and
provide meaningful jobs for parents, this would probably improve the quality of life for their children and,
therefore, help the children to perform better in school.
It is illegal to talk on your cell phone in your car in New York City, and if a cop sees you do this he/she
will definitely give you a ______________.
The weather in New York in March and April is often ____________. You might think a warm day will be
followed by another, but often nobody really knows what the next day will really be like.
Recently a newspaper did an investigation and learned that almost 90% of the people who attend MTA
______________, in regard to tickets given to them in the subway system, lose their cases. The
newspaper seemed to imply that this shows the person receiving the ticket will not receive justice.
My friend was the victim of a ___________, even though she should have known better than to do what
she had done: she left her backpack on a table at Dunkin Doughnuts while she went next door to the
Laundromat (the place where you can clean your dirty laundry clothes). When she came back the
backpack was gone.
One __________ that beggars (people asking for money on the streets or subway) often use is to claim
that they are very hungry or that they are suffering from a terrible disease.
In Tokyo it is common the push other people when you get on the subway system. When my Japanese
friend, however, pushed an American so that she could get on a crowded subway car, the American
became _____________ and started screaming at her.
If you place your purse on the seat next to you on the subway, you might receive a ticket in the next
ticket blitz. It is illegal to do this. So it is better to just keep your purse on your ________.

Various terrorists associated with a Brooklyn Mosque (Islamic place of worship) were planning on
_____________ the New York City subway system, but were arrested by the FBI before they could carry
out their plan.
Answers: bothered by, wander, blocks, arrested, combat, reasoning, mess, devise, ticket,
unpredictable, hearings, theft, tactic, livid, lap, bombing

7. Why the hell is Bloomberg the mayor?

The leader of an American city is called the mayor. Different cities have different systems for how long
the mayor can serve. In Chicago, a traditionally corrupt American city, they had the same mayor for
over 20 years. Before him, his father had been mayor for over 20 years. No, this is not North Korea, this
is Chicago, in America. These guys kept getting elected because they ran a highly efficient political
system, which is called "The Democratic Machine." Let me be honest. Let me really be honest. As an
objective observer of the American political system it seems to me that the Republicans are evil and the
Democrats are corrupt. I'm Suzy and I have to be honest.
Why do I say Republicans are evil? Well, they do not seem to care whether everybody has access to
good health care, they seem to like wars and spending money on weapons, they like building prisons,
they believe in capital punishment etc. They believe in helping the rich to get richer, without making
sure that the wealth that is generated/created can benefit their entire society. This attitude creates huge
gaps (spaces) between the rich and the poor. Some people have zillions of dollars and some people have
zilch (a funny term for nothing). If there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor, they dont care.
In fact, they blame the poor for being lazy, even though many wealthy people became wealthy because
their parents died and left them lots of money. But they do not seem to be as corrupt as the Democratic
Party (unless you consider selfishness and greed to be forms/types of corruption).
Why do I say Democrats are corrupt? Unlike Republicans they seem to care more about people, want
everyone to have good health care, want to have lots of social programs etc., but for some reason
Democrats (at least in New York and Chicago) seem to do lots of illegal and dishonest things. The best
example of this, which occurred recently, involves a guy named Rod Blagojevich. Its pronounced: blah
GOY uh vich. His ancestors came to Chicago from Eastern Europe (thats why he has the long name).
A mayor is the leader of a city, and a governor is the leader of a state. As the governor of Illinois (the
state in which Chicago is located) he had the authority to appoint people to various offices. In one
famous case, he called various people up to ask how much they might pay him to be appointed to an
important office. He was caught by the US Government (the FBI) and is now in jail (where he belongs).
The funny thing, however, was that he could never understand that he had done anything wrong. Until
the moment he was thrown in jail, he claimed he was innocent and that he was just doing what
everybody in Illinois did. Basically he said, Isnt this the way the American government is supposed to
be run? Whats wrong with what I did?
So, unfortunately, when an American votes, he/she has to think to himself, "Am I evil or am I
corrupt?" The people who are not evil or corrupt just don't vote. If I were a citizen, I wouldnt vote.
The US Government likes to attack other world leaders, but, hello, this is the country that helped
Blagojevich develop. Before he was arrested by the FBI, there were many people who thought
Blagojevich might become president someday. In any case, lots of people in America do not vote. I am
not joking. If anyone honest ever were to run for office, I think he/she would win, because all the

honest people are just waiting for someone good to vote for. I think a lot of people thought Obama was
honest.
A Democratic machine runs the city of Chicago and virtually (almost) everybody is a part of it and
benefits on some level from it. So basically everybody in Chicago is corrupt. Although America has a
tradition of a two-party political system, there is just one political party in Chicago (The Democrats) and it
controls everything. If you want to do anything, you have to do it through the Democratic Party.
Chicago is in the State of Illinois and several of the Governors of Illinois have gone to jail. Rod
Blagojevich, a Chicagoan and product of the Democratic Machine, was just the most recent Illinois
Governor to be found guilty of a crime. President Barack Hussein Obama first gained political office in
Chicago, by cooperating with the machine. You do good things for the machine and the machine does
good things for you. That's how it works in Chicago. Quid pro quo.
As I mentioned, in Chicago you had two members of the same family who were mayors for more than 40
years (together). Some cities try to avoid this type of situation by establishing term limits for
mayors. New York City used to have term limits. Why New York City changed its term limits law is part
of this story.
About Bloomberg: basically, and I'm giving it to you straight here, in the American democratic system
you can buy political offices. Not directly. There's no giant Walmart Department Store where you can go
and say, "I wanna buy the office of mayor." Not yet anyway. But in America if you have enough money
you can buy an election or two or in Michael Bloomberg's case: three. Yes sir, he has bought three
elections to be and remain the mayor of New York City.
What do I mean when I say he bought elections? He spent so much money that his opponents couldnt
compete with him effectively. If you have lots more money than your opponents, you will win an election
in America. This is what Americans mean by democracy. Americans believe the whole world should have
this system.
The mayors of Chicago, whom I mentioned previously, used a corrupt system, but the mayor of New
York City used cold, hard cash. American farmers fought a revolution from 1775 - 1783 to establish this,
you know. They got rid of the English king for this system. They wanna sell this system to the rest of
the world. It is so important to the American government that the rest of the world should follow this
wonderful system. So when I say that Bloomberg "bought" his office, I am saying that he paid a lot of
money to win it - same thing as "buying" it.
Am I being cynical? I don't think so. I think I'm being realistic. First of all, let me give you a bit of a
history lesson, then I'll make my argument. When I got here I kept hearing about what a wonderful job
Giuliani had done cleaning up New York City. So I believed it. Wow, wonderful mayor. He got rid of all
the crime and violence and pornography and made Times Square a place that is safe for tourists.
Giuliani was the mayor before Bloomberg.
While he was running for the presidency of the USA, however, I began to hear and read other things
about him. He liked saying or implying that he was the guy who "saved" New York City after
9/11. How? New York City didn't need saving. And what the hell took them so long to start building
something new at ground zero? For ten years after the attacks they didnt start building anything. To
be honest with you, that's a total disgrace. In 2011 they finally started building something where the
World Trade Center used to be. Almost ten years and there was nothing there. Why? Stupidity in the
mayors and governors office.
So I started hearing that Giuliani didn't really "clean up" New York City. He didn't save anything and he

didn't clean anything. I began hearing that there was an African American mayor before Giuliani
named Dinkins and that Dinkins is the guy who started to clean up New York City and his policies really
started taking effect after Giuliani took office. And I heard the Giuliani beat Dinkins in an election
because he openly appealed to the racism of many white New Yorkers. In any case, Giuliani had two
terms and those terms ended in 2001.
So what happened then? Bloomberg, who had always been a Democrat, just plain switched his
political party to the Republican Party in order to have a better chance of winning the election. Had he
run as a Democrat, he would probably have lost in the primary or preliminary election. He
won the Republican primary election because nobody else was running as a Republican. He was
aided, furthermore, by the apparent nastiness of his Democratic opponent, Mark Green. Green had
won the Democratic primary election. Green had run against a Latino/American named Freddy Ferrer
in the Democratic primary election, and had made statements that seemed anti-Latino. (anti- means
against; pro means for.) Bloomberg picked up on this and ran many television commercials in Spanish
and he spent 73 million dollars on his campaign. Nobody had ever spent that much money on a mayoral
election. That's almost the amount of money a person running for the presidency used to spend.
Green was only able to spend 1/5 of the amount of money that Bloomberg spent. Every Latino voted
against Green. There are lots of Latinos in New York City. Bloomberg is currently the wealthiest person
in New York City with 16 billion dollars. 16,000,000,000. He doesn't need that much. He isn't worth
that much. Regardless of the crazy amount Bloomberg spent, however, he barely won the election: 50%
to 48%. Again, he probably won because every Latino voted against Green and for Bloomberg.
In 2005 Bloomberg, was still a Republican. Ferrer (a Latino) won the Democratic primary election this
time. Therefore, Bloomberg ran against Ferrer. (Green just disappeared). Bloomberg is a white, Jewish
guy, and so with a huge Latino and African American population in New York City, it looked as if Ferrer
might win. Honestly, many people tend to vote in America based on race or ethnicity. One problem: in
all honesty, Latinos and African Americans don't seem to like each other very much in this city. I gotta
be honest. They dont get along. This is the word on the street. But it looked as if Ferrer had a
chance of uniting these two minority groups against Bloomberg, until he (Ferrer) really screwed up.
You'll read about the Diallo shooting a bit later in a chapter about police scandals. Basically, Diallo was
an innocent African immigrant who was shot by 4 white police officers in the Bronx. To make a long
story short, the cops were looking for a rapist, saw Diallo, thought he was the person they were
looking for and when they told him to put his hands in the air, he didn't understand what they were
saying. So he reached into his back pocket to pull out his wallet and identification and the cops then
shot him - saying they thought he was pointing a gun at them. The cops were put on trial (in an allwhite town in upstate New York) and found not guilty.
So why do I mention Diallo? The NYPD was a little scared of Ferrer becoming mayor because they
seemed to feel that he might not like police shootings of innocent black men (and there have been a few
in this city - recently a white cop even shot a black cop by mistake because the black cop was running
with a gun and was in ordinary street clothes on the job). So at a question and answer session with
NYPD officers, Ferrer was asked: Do you think that the police who shot Diallo committed a crime?
Ferrer should have either said what a majority of New Yorkers might have said: "Yes," or, Ferrer could
have been polite and diplomatic and said, "Well, a jury decided this case and found them not-guilty. I
don't want to second-guess a jury. However, I personally feel that there was no reason to kill
Diallo." Instead, Ferrer wimped out in front of the cops and said, basically, "Oh no! Of course
not! There was no crime in shooting Diallo." He lost every African American vote and lost to Bloomberg
by 20%. Ferrer had the reputation of being a nice guy, but he was too much of a wimp to beat
Bloomberg. If he had said, Yes, killing Diallo was a crime, he would have picked up many African
American votes. But he lost.

So in 2009 Bloomberg was supposed to finish his second term and leave. That was the law. Two
terms and you leave. In 2008, he switched political parties again - he became an Independent - because
he had thoughts of trying to use his massive fortune (his huge amount of money) to buy the presidency
of the USA (to become the president of the USA). Mr. Barack Hussein Obama ended that dream for
Bloombucks.
Race and gender played a huge part in the 2008 presidential election. Americans believed it was time to
have either a woman or a black man as president. Why would Americans vote for a very old, short, ugly,
nasally, mean white-Jewish guy when they could vote for a young, friendly and idealistic African
American guy or woman? Come on Bloombucks, get real! There are some things money cant buy.
Faced with the idea of not holding any political office, and just going away to die on some island in the
Caribbean that he owned, Bloomberg came up with a plan to stay on television and act as if he were
important. Very simply, he changed the law created by the people to limit the amount of time a mayor
could serve in New York City. Nobody is really sure what he did, or how he did it, but he got a majority
of the members of New York's city council to change the law that stopped someone from being mayor
for more than two terms. The law was changed and it allowed him to run for a third term. There were
rumors that he threatened some City Council members and offered favors to others. It was a shady,
dishonest tactic, and it worked.
Because of his massive amount of money, virtually all significant (important) Democratic candidates
dropped out of the race for mayor. Not one major candidate felt he/she could beat Bloomberg given
the insane/crazy amounts of money Bloombucks was willing to spend to buy political office. Only one
guy ran against him - an African American named Bill Thompson, who had held a minor political office
before. I think Thompson thought, Hey! Im the same color as Obama, maybe a little darker, so I think
dark-skinned people in New York City will vote for me the way they voted for Obama! In America, race
and ethnicity matters when people run for office.
Wrong. Thompson was one of the weakest candidates to ever run for any political office anywhere. I
hate Bloomberg so much that I sent email to Thompsons office offering to volunteer and the email was
never returned. In fact, I sent several pieces of email and made a couple phone calls and nobody ever
got back to me. After the election I learned that this was a common experience among people who
wanted to help him.
There was a New York Times article written after the election that revealed some of the ways, tactics or
methods or techniques that Bloomberg used to win this election. Number 1: his people called President
Barack Hussein Obama and told him to stay out of New York City. Somehow they were able to
convince the president of the USA not to come to New York to campaign for (help) a fellow Democrat. I
think they made some kind of deal with Obama because, after the election, Obama then invited
Bloomberg to the White House for dinner. @_@ Sometimes they play golf with each other now.
The funny thing is, Bloomberg later betrayed Obama anyway. Before the 2012 election he told a group
of people in New York that he felt that Romney would be a better president than Obama. So basically,
he tricked and used Obama.
Number 2: Then Bloomberg spent and spent and spent even more of his money. He spent an absolutely
insane and mind-boggling 110 million dollars. He ran nasty television commercials attacking Thompson
and praising himself and Thompson didn't have the money to respond effectively. Some people might
say, however, Come on Suzi, people arent stupid! Just because someone has more money that doesnt
mean he will win the election. I disagree.

Not everyone in the city knows everything that is happening in the city. So if I do not have children in
the school system, or if I do not work for the school system, I really have no idea how good or bad the
school system is. So if the mayor keeps running commercials telling everyone that students are doing
well in the school system, people will begin to believe students are doing well in the school system. If
the mayor keeps running commercials saying that crime rates are going down, when in fact they are
going up, most people will believe that crime rates are going down. It is, actually, quite easy to deceive
and manipulate the people if you have enough money and enough connections with the newspapers.
Bloomberg had, apparently, both.
Whats up with Bloomberg? Personally, I think this guy is desperate to seem important. OK Bloombucks,
you were elected again, now do something to help someone! Youve got zillions of poor people in the
Bronx! Help them! You are great at making money for yourself so you can eat nice food and wear nice
clothes and live in a nice place and travel to exotic locations, now help some Black and Latino people you
mother fucker! Develop businesses in the Bronx so people can work! Help people to help themselves
you son-of-a-bitch!
Im sorry to use such harsh language (you need to know these dirty words, though), but it bothers me
that the greatest city in the world has terrible poverty that it doesnt have to have. I am convinced
that in one generation America could eliminate its poverty and racism but deep down inside certain
people seem to like having poverty and racism. Lots of people here see no problem with poverty and
racism. They think it is natural. They blame the people who suffer from poverty and racism and say that
they deserve it for not working hard enough.
Bloomberg spent 12 times as much as Bill Thompson was able to spend. He had television commercials
running day and night. In his commercials he attacked Thompson and seemed to lie about his own
accomplishments. For instance, he said that test scores in New York City public schools were rising with
him as mayor. What he failed to point out (what he didnt point out) was that many educators were
claiming that the tests being given to students had become much easier! He said crime was diminishing
(dropping, becoming less). After the election, however, it was revealed that police officers were not even
recording many crimes that occurred so that the crime statistics would make it look as if crime were
diminishing in New York City.
When it was all said and done Bloomberg won but only by 4% - 50% to 46%. Many felt that this
showed the level of dissatisfaction with Bloomberg - after 110 million dollars he just barely beat a
candidate that, basically, nobody liked and who did a terrible job of running against
Bloomberg. Thompson had only spent 6 million dollars and did not seem very competent (able to do
things well).
So there you go. I gave you many statistics in my intro about poverty. 1 out of 5 children born in NYC is
born into poverty. Homelessness is on the rise in the city. There are about 50,000 homeless people who
live in public shelters here. Crime is on the rise because so many neighborhoods are so poor and so
violent. The gap between the rich and the poor widens every year. The public transportation system is a
disgrace. Taxes climb each year. You read about police corruption or abuses practically every
week. The schools really don't seem to be getting better. We have massive poverty here. Just go into
the Bronx and walk around and you will be shocked. Basically, as far as I can tell, the city is going
down the toilet. But Bloomberg bought himself another election and if he feels like it, he'll probably
buy himself another one. This is America after all. The land of freedom and opportunity to buy anything
you really want.

Definitions of terms

to serve we say that our politicians serve terms of differing years. The implication is that they are of
service to the people. Whether this is true is debatable (questionable). Basically, demagoguery seems to
be the political system of America. A demagogue (pronounced: DEM uh gog) is someone who says what
he thinks people want to hear in order to get elected and he usually only does what he thinks the people
who voted for him want him to do (while making money for him/herself and using his/her power to help
various friends).
corrupt dishonest, not legitimate, no longer pure or innocent, rotten. A corrupt politician might take
bribes money from people to do some type of favor for them for instance.
to get elected we use the verb to get in this case. Or we can just use the verb to elect in the
passive voice. Bush got elected to two terms. Bush was elected to two terms.
objective - an objective observer only wants to know the truth. He/she is not showing any preference
or personal choice. He/she is really trying to be super honest. If a person is being subjective, that
person has some pre-established preferences or choices. That person is making a decision based on
what he/she likes or prefers and not what is the real truth.
prisons - these are also called jails, places where (or, in which) "criminals" are punished by being locked
into cages like animals. In America, a huge number of these criminals are African American men. A
weekly magazine recently reported that 1 out of 11 black men in America is currently in jail or prison. 1
out of 100 men, in general, are in jail in America. America has more people in jail than any other country
in the world. 1% of Americans are in jail. Why are there so many black men in jail? Visit the
Bronx. Visit a neighborhood where black folks have to live and you will be shocked. Try to live in that
neighborhood and you will be more shocked. If a person is treated violently during his youth, this is
going to change him, obviously. If a person is treated badly and subjected to violence almost every day
of his youth, he will have to become violent to survive. One day, at a party I attended, a KoreanAmerican guy who is a lawyer once said, "Isn't America great! Even our poor people have televisions and
microwaves." I thought he was an asshole. Another guy said, "Yeah, we give our poor people just
enough nice stuff to keep them from killing us." Even to this day African Americans are treated horribly
in this country and Barack Hussein Obama has done and will do nothing about it. About 12% of the US
population is made of African Americans, by the way. Why are there so many jails and people in jail in
the land of freedom? Companies make money from the prison system in America. It is a for-profit
business.
capital punishment - execution, the state/government killing a criminal, usually because he/she killed
one or more people. The USA uses a method called "lethal injection" to kill killers. Lethal means
deadly. An injection is what a doctor might give you to get medicine into your blood system as quickly
as possible. A doctor injects you with a hypodermic needle or a syringe. So a prisoner is tied down to a
table and two needles are inserted into his/her arm. One needle allows a sleeping drug to enter the
person's system. After the person falls asleep the other needle allows poison to enter the person's blood
stream. Thankfully bedbugs haven't thought of this yet. It sounds like a nice way to kill a person. The
only problem? Doctors and nurses in America (God bless them for this) will not help prison officials to kill
people. So stupid, uneducated prison guards have to insert the needles. They do a lousy (bad) job. In
Texas a condemned man (a man sentenced to death) suffered for hour while a guard kept sticking a
needle into his arm, looking for the right place. Some journalists became sick just watching this and
vomited.
to appoint someone to something this means that someone chooses someone to fulfill a position or
to do something. Bob was appointed by the director of the company to do research about the market
overseas.

a governor this person is the highest elected official of a state. He is like the president of a
state. There are 50 states.
a jail this is a place where people who are found guilty of various crimes are placed. Jails are made up
of jail cells these are the small rooms (usually with iron bars) in which human beings who are
considered a threat to others are placed.
quid pro quo this is Latin for This for that. A quid pro quo situation is one in which a person does
something for you so that you will return the favor later.
a term a period of time.
to give it to you straight to tell you something directly. It is like giving someone a strong alcoholic
drink without any water to weaken it. The real truth.
to get rid of s/t this is a highly useful phrase in English. To eliminate something, to remove something
or someone. I would like to get rid of my roommate he has been living here for 1 year on disability
insurance (if you are injured and cant work, you can receive money to live on until you are well again)
and he never leaves the apartment and always sits in the kitchen reading stuff.
pornography non-artistic material showing naked people having sex or just plain naked people.
9/11 this refers to the terrorist attacks against New York City and Washington D.C. The attacks
occurred on September 11, 2001 or 09/11/2001.
Ground Zero in the terrorist attacks, airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center buildings in
lower Manhattan by suicide-pilots who had killed the real pilots. The area where the two buildings used
to stand is called "ground zero."
a disgrace something terribly embarrassing or humiliating.
African American this is what black people are called in America.
to take effect when something begins to work or have an effect. I took the aspirin about a half hour
ago and it is starting to have an effect the pain is going away.
to beat in a competition, one person usually wins and another loses. The person who wins beats the
other person.
to appeal to - if a politician appeals to some group, he provides a policy or idea or promise to a group
that they will like. If you appeal to the racism of a group, you know that there are a bunch of racists and
you speak directly to them, indicating to them that you share their beliefs and that you are one of them.
Racism means a hatred of a group because of their race. There are terms like sexism and ageism as
well.
racism this is an irrational hatred of a person because he/she belongs to a certain racial group. There
is a difference between racism and discrimination. Racism is an attitude but discrimination is an action
taken to stop a person from succeeding because he/she is from a minority group. Racism is an attitude

but discrimination is an action. Prejudice is also an attitude. But prejudice does not just apply to issues
of race or gender.
just plain switched he gave no excuses, no good reasons, he just did it he just plain did it.
had he runyou can avoid using if for the third type of conditional statement. If he had run, he
would have beaten Bush. Had he run, he would have beaten Bush. Had he known the subway was going
to be late, he would have taken a taxi.
a primary election America has two big political parties: The Democratic and The Republican
Parties. Whats the difference? Earlier I said, somewhat jokingly, that Republicans are evil and
Democrats are corrupt. I still think that is true, but, basically, the Republicans support business interests,
favor low taxes and a strong national defense. They oppose abortion and gay marriage. They are
conservative. Democrats believe is strong social programs and are pro-choice (for abortion) and pro-gay
marriage. (Pro means for and anti means against.) They are generally liberal although there are
moderate (somewhat conservative and somewhat liberal) and conservative democrats. Bill Clinton was a
somewhat conservative democrat. So before a major election between candidates from these political
parties, each party will have a primary election to determine which candidate will run against the other
partys candidate. For instance, four Democrats might run against each other in a primary election for
the presidency and the winner will run against the Republican candidate who has beaten his/her
opponents. Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama ran against each other in Democratic primary elections in
every state of the United States. Finally, Obama won more of those primary elections and therefore he
was able to run against McCain for the presidency.
to aid to help.
nastiness meanness, rottenness, someone who is just not a nice person is nasty.
to run against to run against another person in an election is to compete against another person.
a Latino - is anyone from a Spanish-speaking western country. Ferrer was from Puerto Rico. That's a
little island that the USA stole from Spain in a war they had with that poor country over 100 years
ago. Yes, just as the USA made some excuses to attack Iraq, they made some excuses to attack Spain
because they wanted to steal some islands from them. One of the islands they stole was Puerto Rico.
He picked up on this he noticed this and he used it to his advantage.
They dont get along they dont like each other.
the word on the street the information that everyone knows in New York City but which is never
mentioned on TV or in the newspapers.
to screw up to make a mistake, or to ruin something. To "fuck up" is also used. Bob really fucked up
his marriage when he began cheating on his wife.
to make a long story short you hear this a lot. If a person has a long story but abbreviates it or
shortens it.

a rapist this is a person who violently attacks a woman sexually. Look this word up because it's kind
of a nasty word describing a nasty activity by a nasty person.
a wallet this is the small leather case in which men hold their money and ID and credit cards and
photos etc.
to be put on trial after a person is arrested he/she is given a trial or put on trial. A trial occurs in a
court room. In America the person put on trial has a choice he/she can choose to have a judge hear
the case or a jury hear the case. For a criminal case a jury is usually made of 12 people. A civil case
is different from a criminal case because a civil case only involves money so there are criminal courts
and civil courts. Criminal courts are divided into two types: misdemeanor court for minor offenses
and felony court for major offenses. A misdemeanor is a minor offense and a felony is a major
offense. Trying to steal something from a store is a misdemeanor and killing someone is a felony.
to be found not-guilty is to be determined to be innocent of a certain crime.
to commit a crime the verb commit is used for crimes. He committed murder. He committed
theft. He committed arson (burning a building). This is also used for suicide. A man recently committed
suicide by jumping from the top of the Empire State Building. This is a true story. In fact, since 1931,
when the Empire State Building was finished, 34 people have jumped to their deaths from it. The last
guy to do it was a 21 year old student from Yale University who came from a wealthy family. He was
doing well in school, was good-looking, had money whyd he do it? He took his secret with him. Thank
God nobody was killed when he (stupidly and arrogantly) decided to die in the most public way he could
think of. In 2000, a Canadian guy with a weird/strange sense of humor dressed up as a pirate (!) and
jumped from the top of the building. Why a pirate? Who knows. Its New York City, strange stuff
happens here every day.
to second-guess someone after a person makes a decision and the decision turns out to be wrong,
people will second-guess the decision. They will assert that another choice was better.
to wimp out a wimp is considered to be a weak man. To wimp out means to not be strong enough to
do something you were supposed to do. i.e. First he said he was going to go bungee jumping but then
he wimped out and went to get something to eat instead.
to be supposed to this is close to the verb should or should have. I was supposed to be there at
3pm but the fucking MTA (the transportation system in New York City) wasnt working properly and I was
late.
Bloombucks is a word used to categorize Michael Bloomberg. A buck is a slang term for a
dollar. Bloombucks was great at making money for himself but not so great at helping poor New Yorkers
make money. He failed miserably as a mayor.
gender this usually means sex: male or female.
idealistic the opposite of practical or pragmatic. If you are idealistic, you have higher values or goals
which often do not involve money or ambition or greed.
Come on! common slang expression. It means something close to Oh my God!

get real this is also slang and it means, Be honest! Be serious! Stop lying!
to be faced with to realize something; to see a truth very clearly.
as if he were this is an example of the subjunctive mood in English. The subjunctive is dying out but
some educated people still use it. You would say, as if he were because something is in doubt here
and that doubt is expressed by using were instead of was. If you were to say, As if he was
nobody would notice so go ahead and use it.
the city council this is the group of politicians that makes the laws in New York City. There are 50
council people who are supposed to represent the people of New York City. Ha ha ha. That's so funny!
to drop out of something to quit something.
to convince to persuade someone of something.
to betray s/o not to be loyal to someone; to have someone trust you and then to do exactly the
opposite of what the person expected.
mind-boggling unbelievable, shocking, hard to understand. The origins of the universe are mindboggling. How could something come from nothing or how could something have always existed?
A son-of-a-bitch this is an insulting and dirty term directed at a male person that you dont like. A
bitch is a dog. A son of a bitch
have to have not should have.
to blame to accuse someone of something, to say that a person has done something wrong
were again, we see the subjunctive here.
when all is said and done when everything is finished.
dissatisfaction not being satisfied, not being happy with a situation or person.
barely just able to do something by a small margin or amount.
going down the toilet getting worse and worse and probably leading to a bad end.

Grammar stuff: Will vs. Would

Basically will indicates that something is going to happen, would means something can or might
happen if something else happens. Both will and would are commonly used in conditional
statements. Will is used in the simple and would in the unreal.
Think of using will or going to in a scientific sense. If you place a certain amount of a chemical into a
container with another chemical, something WILL happen. It is like a scientific law. In regard to would

however, its as if you are thinking of doing the scientific experiment. If I placed this chemical in that
container with that other chemical, something WOULD happen.
If you want to know for sure whether a person is going to do something, you will use will. "Will you be
leaving town this weekend? Yes, I will.
When you ask a person what he or she wants, you usually use would. Would you like to have a cup of
coffee? Would you like to dance? Would you like to borrow this book?
If you need to excuse yourself you also use would. Would you mind if I took this phone call? Would
you mind if I went to the bathroom? Would you mind if I + past tense (this is an unreal conditional
situation).
Please also remember that would can be used in English to mean used to. A couple years ago he
would play basketball on Saturdays. A couple years ago he used to play basketball on Saturdays. My
mother would rock me in a rocking chair when I was a child. My mother used to rock me in a rocking
chair when I was a child.
Please remember that you use used to when you talk about something you used to do, but dont do
any more.

16 essential vocabulary words. Fill-in-the-blanks

corrupt, a dictatorship, pornography, a disgrace, racism, gender, to convince, dissatisfaction,
to serve, a term, objective, to beat, to aid, nastiness, idealistic, to appoint
What is ____________ and what is art? Usually if a work (a book or painting for instance) has some
meaningful theme or idea to it, it will be considered art even if it is of a sexual nature.
In America, the president ___________ individuals to the Supreme Court, but only when a Supreme
Court justice resigns (quits) or dies.
The level of poverty (poorness) in the Bronx should be considered a __________ and every New Yorker
should be ashamed of this. Instead, the poverty is conveniently ignored. Poor New Yorkers are given just
enough to stop them from rioting (destroying businesses and property in a large, angry group), but not
enough to stop crime or violence or to ensure the children of the poor will do well in school.
Just because Obama was elected president doesnt mean there is no __________ any more in
America. Discrimination against Blacks and Latinos still exists despite an apparently black president.
Many teachers begin their careers with a very _______________ attitude. They do not care about
making a lot of money and just want to help young people to learn and lead good lives.
The ___________ of Kim Jong Un in North Korea is the last remaining government that was set up by
the Soviet Union (now called Russia) and Communist China during the Cold War. This inhumane
regime (cruel, non-human government) allows thousands to starve to death each year. (to starve is to
go without food for a long time)

After Franklin Roosevelt served three complete __________ as President of the USA (he died after being
elected a fourth time), it was decided that this should never happen again and now a president may only
be re-elected once.
During the financial crisis of 2009, the federal government (The US Government) decided to
___________ various banks and financial institutions financially.
Although Eliot Spitzer pretended to be a very honest politician, he was totally ________ because he
violated the law by paying for prostitutes.
In a terrible example of complete ____________, Mayor Michael Bloomberg once yelled (like an old
woman) at a disabled journalist (a journalist who was in a wheel chair because he couldnt walk) during a
press conference, because the journalist accidentally made noise during one of Bloombergs (boring)
speeches.
Although Barack Hussein Obama was able to ________ Hilary Clinton in the Democratic primary, he
chose to appoint her to the position of Secretary of State.
There has not only been racial discrimination but also discrimination on the basis of ________ in
America; although these days it seems as if women are pulling up to men and full equality between the
sexes may become a reality soon.
Many Americans were simply not ____________ that providing tax dollars to the banks and financial
firms that created the financial crisis of 2009 was a good idea. It seemed as if bad behavior was being
rewarded by doing this.
A judge in a talent show should try to be _______________, but some subjective decisions can occur
under some circumstances.
______________ with the economy seems to be the strongest reason for Americans to vote for or
against any particular president. Even though George Bush (the dad of the stupid George "White" Bush)
won a war, he was beaten by Clinton because of the bad economy.
Franklin Roosevelt was the only president of the United States to __________ more than two terms. He
was elected four times.

Answers: pornography, appoints, disgrace, racism, idealistic, dictatorship, terms, aid, corrupt,
nastiness, beat, gender, convinced, objective, dissatisfaction, serve

8. Yellow Fever
So I was sitting in a Starbucks with my Japanese friend Naoko and every two minutes I could see that
someone was sending her text messages. So I said, "Naoko...you found an American guy who fell in
love with you? That's great, your English is going to soar!" Naoko looked at me sadly and replied: "An

American guy, yes. One of my teachers at my language school has yellow fever. He tries to go out with
all the sexy, skinny Asian ladies. He's got quite a reputation at the school. He won't leave me alone
and I don't know what to do."
Well, this was freaking Naoko out, so I gave the teacher's cell number to an American guy friend of
mine and he placed a call to the horny teacher. I'm not exactly sure what he said, but the horny
teacher seemed to stop being so horny - at least with Naoko. But back to what Naoko said: yellow
fever. What the heck is yellow fever?
My language exchange partner totally has yellow fever. Hes a white guy and Im teaching him Spanish
and hes helping me with my English. When we sit and chat in a Starbucks or other type of cafe he
always checks out the cute Asian girls as they come in. So I guess he doesnt think that Im very sexy,
which is good, because hes fat. Im glad he doesnt like Spanish-speaking girls. Yes, let him keep looking
at the cute Asian ladies. ^^
Here's a little trick gals. Just tell every American guy that you meet that you have a boyfriend. Then
they'll leave you alone. But, I have to be honest, yellow fever has spread through New York City. You
see sexy Asian ladies and (ugly) white guys all over the place around here. Now, this really pisses some
Asian guys off and theyll say, Only the ugliest Asian women will go out with white guys and white guys
dont know the difference between an attractive and an ugly Asian. No. I dont think so. Sour grapes,
my friend. I have seen some hot Asian ladies with some not-so-hot white guys, and Ive seen couples in
which both partners were equally hot.
My fat native-speaking language exchange partner: I answered his ad on craigslist.org. He wants to
learn Spanish and was looking to teach someone English. I need to stay sharp - I need really intensive
English and I can get it with this guy and he doesn't hit on me because he has yellow fever. So we chat
for an hour in English and then an hour in Spanish. That does the trick for both of us.
Whats yellow fever? Well, literally, yellow fever was some kind of tropical disease that plagued
various cities several generations ago. When someone in New York City says that some guy has yellow
fever, however, he means that the guy is hot for Asian women. Get it? Asians are said to have yellow
skin by white people and if you have a fever you burn inside. So a guy with yellow fever burns inside
for Asian women." Hes basically a white guy who likes Asian women. He might even be a horny guy
who wants to date sexy Asian chicks.
Naoko and some of my other Asian friends have mixed emotions about this. They are kind of proud
that Asian ladies are so popular, but they also sense that there might be something wrong with a guy
who just likes Asian women. Are the guys who like Asian ladies objectifying them? Yet, when I got
here one of my first thoughts was, wow, people in New York City are kind of fat. Then I read this article
in one of New York Citys really cheap and badly written tabloid newspapers. The article said that
35% of Latinos in New York City are obese. 28% of African Americans are obese. 24% of white people
are obese. Asians werent mentioned, so Im guessing not many of them are obese. I dont think Ive
seen an obese Asian in Manhattan :P
Now, in regard to the statistics, we're talking obese here, not just fat.
Obese means dangerously fat. So if 35% of a population is obese, I'm not even sure what the numbers
would be for just plain fat. But let me tell you, Americans are just kind of just plain fat. So you get all
these skinny, cute Asian ladies walking around New York City, and they are like sex goddesses or
something compared to all the fat ladies. The white guys who are used to looking at chunky ladies of all
different races can't get enough of the seeeeeeeeeeeexy Asian ladies.
Why are they so sexy? Well, I think it's diet and I think it's basic cultural values. Even though I started

to become a little chunkier here a little voice inside of me kept saying: stay skinny girl! Show some selfrestraint. My Asian friends tell me the same thing. Now this is an issue among some Asians who say that
they get skinnier in America and anticipate becoming fatter back in Taiwan, China, Korea or Japan. Their
argument goes something like this: they really like Korean and Japanese food and just tolerate
American food, so when they get back home they are going to eat more and get fatter. Maybe, but I
have heard the other argument more often: the portions of food offered at American restaurants are
huge and a lot of fried food is offered here.
Getting back to yellow fever. I have to be honest. It's not going to be politically correct to say this,
but if you're a cute Asian lady in New York City, Black and Latino guys are going to hit on
you. Alot. Simple fact. "Hey Miss Wonderful..." That's what some black guy said to Naoko yesterday
before he gave her his phone number. Ask any Asian lady. This has become a sociological FACT among
Asian women. Deal with it. It's true. I won't lie about it.
I knew a girl who literally had to move from her neighborhood because 5 or 6 black and Latino guys
would hit on her daily and she just got freaked out by the whole situation. If you don't like what I'm
saying, then talk to the Black and Latino guys and tell them to stop it, because it actually kind of pisses
me off. It's totally disrespectful and I think it shows a big chunk of racism among some guys of
color. They see petite Asian women and they think they are cute and they think they have the right to
interrupt their thoughts by hitting on them. Hello. That's not wrong? Do these guys hit on White and
Black and Latina women? My language exchange partner told me they don't because these women
would make a scene. So because Asian ladies tend to be polite, they get hit on. Maybe they need to
start making a scene.
So now let me tell you a story about an Asian girl from Hong Kong and a guy with yellow fever. This girl
chose to use an Americanized name Sarah. One day she was sitting in a Starbucks and a guy came
over to her table and asked whether he could sit there. The place was crowded and she just thought
that he needed a place to sit. But, after a short while he began chatting with her. He looked a little
attractive, although a bit chubby. But, she was happy to be speaking English with someone for free!
Ultimately, he invited her to get some drinks at a nearby bar and, being an open-minded girl from Hong
Kong, she went. It turns out that he was part South American and so after Sarah became a little drunk
he invited her back to his place to listen to cool South American music. So she went. And they had
sex. Then they had sex again a couple days later. She told me they had sex four times on four different
occasions before she had to leave New York City.
However, the last time she was at his place she accidentally left a very expensive scarf at the guys
apartment. So she emailed him and told him she might be coming back in the future and she asked him
to hold onto her scarf. Well, sure enough, she came back to NY City four months later and emailed him
again. To be honest with you, I think she was looking for more South American sex by offering to pick
up her scarf. But time waits for no one! He emailed her back and told her that he no longer had the
scarf. He had given it to his new Korean girlfriend!
Sarah, however, demanded this scarf back and he told her he would get it from the Korean girl. I dont
know what kind of story he had to tell, but he got the scarf back and returned it to Sarah. Was she
happy? No. She had started to develop warm feelings for the guy and was shocked and disappointed he
was just a horny guy with yellow fever.

Definitions of terms
to fall in love with s/o you might already know that the verb to fall goes with the emotion love
but, what the hell, Im telling you again.
to soar to take off or to rise into the sky figuratively or literally
a reputation this is the general attitude that people have or feel about you based on what they know
about you. If you have a good reputation people have heard good things about you.
to freak s/o out if someone gets freaked out they become shocked and a bit disgusted
horny a person who is horny is someone who thinks about sex a lot and who devotes a lot of his
energy to trying to have sex.
to check s/o out to look a person over, to see whether the persons physical appearance is attractive
to you.
a trick literally something a magician does that surprises people because of an unexpected
outcome. Figuratively, a trick is something you can do to get a predictable outcome. i.e. Let me show
you a little trick; if you do x then youll get y.
sour grapes this is from one of Aesops fables. A wolf who cannot reach a bunch of grapes then says
that they were probably sour anyway and he doesnt need them.
to stay sharp to maintain your excellent skills, or to ensure that your skills are not lost.
to hit on someone to try to get someone to become interested in you, to try to get someone to go
out with you or to have sex with you.
it does the trick this means it works.
tropical this is a geographical region where it is very hot.
to be plagued by a plague is a horrible disease that spreads rapidly and that often people have little
control over. To be plagued by something is to be bothered by something that wont seem to go away
and which is kind of terrible.
to be hot for someone to really really want someone very badly.
chicks slang term among some white young people for girls or young women.
to have mixed emotions to feel more than one emotion at a time usually conflicting emotions.
to objectify s/o to treat a person as if he/she is an object.

a tabloid a type of newspaper. New York City has, basically, three big newspapers. Two are tabloids
and one is a broadsheet. The New York Times is a high-level and intelligently written broadsheet
paper. The Post and Daily News are often poorly written papers that have lurid stories (stories of
violence, sex, gossip etc.). Sometimes the lurid stories are fun to read, though. A tabloid type of paper
is called a tabloid because of the way it looks it is easy to hold and read on the subway. A broadsheet
is difficult to read on the subway.
obese really fat.
just plain fat obviously fat.
chunky not skinny but not fat. A chunky person is a person who has some meat on his or her bones.
the argument goes something like this the argument sounds like this
a portion an amount
to be politically correct to say what everyone expects you to say or to say what any good liberal
American would say. So even if a person is in favor of the death penalty, if he considers himself liberal
on most issues he might say, Of course, the death penalty is morally wrong!
Black and Latino black folks in New York City are usually called African Americans and folks from
Mexico, Puerto Rico, South America are often called Latinos.
deal with it this means to accept something that exists and is going to continue to exist
a big chunk of something a big portion of something
petite small and skinny
to make a scene to cause trouble, to make noise, to argue, to complain.
chubby a person who is chubby is not fat but not skinny. We might say he/she has meat on his/her
bones. A chubby person is a little fat.
ultimately finally. At the very end.
it turns out you say it turns out when you want to say, basically, I didnt know this originally but I
discovered that.
a scarf this is an item of clothing you often wrap around your neck in the winter time.
to hold onto to keep safe, to keep for awhile, not to give something away.

Grammar stuff: this type of vs. these types of, this, these, that,
those
Many students get these types of statements mixed up. Furthermore, many foreign speakers do not
know how to use type of correctly. Lets say you see two dogs and one is a German Shepard and the
other is a Rottweiler. You cant say: There are two different dogs there. To say two different dogs
means there are two non-identical dogs, but they could still be of the same breed. You would have to
say, There are two different types of dogs there.
If one neighbor is very nice and cooperative and the other is mean and nasty, you dont have two
different neighbors, you have two different types of neighbors. If you have formal and casual clothing
you have two types of clothing.
The big problem, however, is that students do not show consistency when using the term type or
types. Sometimes a student will say: This types of beer is good Instead of correctly saying: These
types of beers are good. This type of dog is gentle. These types of dogs are gentle. This stuff is
important.
Do you know what the real problem is? First, most Americans dont even speak grammatically correct
English. Second, they dont care whether you speak grammatically correct English either. Many foreign
students are surprised to learn that if an American can basically understand what you are trying to say,
he/she is happy. Americans dont often care whether your English is broken or not.
Well, kind of. Of course, if you speak really broken English theyll never give you a job here. But, if you
are asking directions or just casually chatting, they wont care about your English.
This person, these people. Please know that people is the plural of person. You will never say persons.
That person, these people. This really matters. If you do not maintain your consistency using this, that,
these, those, your English will sound terrible, even to an American who speaks bad English.

12 Essential vocabulary words. Fill-in-the-blanks

to soar, a reputation, to be horny, tropical, to plague, mixed emotions, obese, chunky, petite,
to freak out, lurid, a portion
I have _________________ about the new immigration law in Arizona. On the one hand I am in favor of
immigrants coming to America, but, on the other hand, I do not like the idea of people coming to this
country illegally and not paying taxes.
Because Sunmis children were born in America, and were eating lots of fried foods and junk foods, they
started to become as ___________ as many other American children.
In August many New Yorkers leave the city because the weather becomes almost ___________, with
temperatures reaching over 90 degrees F (32 degrees C).
Its one thing to be a little chunky but people who are ___________ are at a greater risk of developing
the disease of diabetes as well as various forms of heart disease.

Whenever oil prices climb around the world, we then see the price of airplane tickets __________.
Every foreign student in New York City seems to realize that the __________ of food which is served
here is much larger than in their home country.
The New York Times presents world news, but for the really _________ stories about NY, a person
should read the New York Post or the Daily News. They have stories about people jumping from the
Empire State Building and subway murders that the New York Times does not write about.
Recently a man who was riding on a subway train was accidentally hit by some garbage that another
rider was trying to throw through the open doors of the train. He ______________ and killed the man
who had thrown the garbage.
Asian women have a reputation for being __________, but once they get to America their weight often
soars!
Political corruption continues to __________ both the city of New York and the State of New York. Many
New York politicians are often arrested by the Federal Government and thrown in jail.
Everybody seemed to think that Tiger Woods was, basically, a good guy and a real family man. Few
people suspected that he was, in reality, a __________ guy who lived to have sex with as many women
as he could find.
Although Eliot Spitzer tried to establish a ____________ for being an honest politician, in reality he
seemed to care more about being a horny guy than he cared about the people of New York city and
state.

Answers: mixed emotions, obese or chunky, tropical, obese, soar, portions, lurid, freaked out,
petite, plague, horny, reputation

9. I almost killed my language exchange partner

It was the hottest day of the summer. It was, in fact, a little over 100 degrees. And, well, sometimes I
can be lazy. So I was supposed to meet Bob at noon at a Starbucks in midtown, but when I went
outside at about 10:30am to buy a paper, it was just too damn hot. I went back up to my studio,
turned on the air conditioner, sent Bob a text message that I wasn't feeling well and I relaxed for the rest
of the day. How could I have known these innocent little actions of mine might have led to a tragedy!
Apparently Bob, who lives in Queens, got an early start that day. So, when I sent my text message, he
had already gotten on the subway and was traveling into Manhattan. Believe it or not, cell phones are,
for the most part, useless in the underground subway system in New York City. So he emerged from the
subway system at about 11:30am and only then received my message.
So Bob was now faced with a dilemma. His next appointment was at 6pm. Should he catch a
movie? Should he go back to Queens? Should he go to a museum? What could he do to kill 6 and a

half hours?
Well, Bob faced this situation the way any overweight American would. He went to a Chinese buffet
restaurant. He told me that he ate a pyramid of food there. He piled alot of food onto his plate and ate
every bite. Then, he later told me, he began wandering around Manhattan trying to figure out what to
do. At this time, apparently, he was also carrying a laptop in a laptop carrying case. And, ladies and
gentlemen, it was the hottest day of the year. It was 100 plus degrees. I addressed this with Bob
but he said that he had never had any health-related problems before and he didn't think anything bad
would happen to him. As far as he was concerned, it was just a little hot outside and now he had a
chance to just casually wander around Manhattan. But to summarize: it's really really really hot, Bob has
over-eaten, Bob is very angry because I cancelled at the last minute, and Bob is now going to walk for 6
hours in blazing heat. You can almost guess what is going to happen next. (I deliberately mixed the
past and present tense here because Americans often do that when telling a story. The first part was in
the past tense and then I suddenly switched to the present tense.)
So, to make a long story short, as Bob was walking down 5th avenue, his back began to
hurt. Then his stomach began to hurt. Then his chest began to hurt. Then he started to have trouble
breathing. Then he collapsed onto the sidewalk on 5th avenue. What do you think happened next? Of
course, the people of Manhattan just casually stepped over Bob's body and left him there. He told me
that he lost consciousness but when he regained it he propped himself up and tried asking people
for help. They all ignored him.
He remembered some type of research study that said that in an emergency, when you need help, you
should pinpoint one person and direct your request for help to that one person. But the good people of
Manhattan must have read that study too because every time he tried to make eye contact with
someone, that person merely turned his/her head and kept walking. So Bob struggled to his feet and
staggered into a bank, where he collapsed again. The people working in the bank could not, however,
allow a dying man to remain on their floor, so they picked him up, propped him into a chair and began
giving him some water. They also called 911 to get some assistance for him.
So this is where the story gets interesting. I guess when you call 911 for a medical emergency the FDNY
(Fire Department New York) shows up. Deep, dark, dirty secret about the FDNY: although New York City
is 60% Black and Latino, over 90% of the guys on the FDNY are white. A federal (US) judge recently
excoriated Bloomberg for not doing anything about this. Apparently there is some type of racist,
discriminatory testing system that prevents women and individuals from minority groups from joining
the fire department. So almost every fireman in New York City is a white guy. Yes, this is America in the
21st century. But this is about how I almost killed a guy, so let me get back to that story.
So all these white firemen showed up at the bank. Bob said they came in a fire truck. So every time a fat
white guy collapses in Manhattan they send a fire truck? I still don't get this one. But, in any case,
the firemen showed up and talked to Bob a bit. At this point he was sitting down in a swivel-chair in
an air conditioned building, he had drunk some water and he knew that help was there, so he was
starting to feel better. In fact, the firemen literally told him that there was nothing wrong with him and
that he was going to be ok. Then they left. Some bank employees also told Bob that he could sit and
relax in the chair for as long as he needed to. The firemen left but then a private ambulance showed
up from a nearby hospital. So from what I can tell, when you call 911 for an emergency they send the
FDNY and a private ambulance. But watch out for these private guys! They are vultures!
As soon as the private ambulance guys showed up they told Bob they would have to take him to a
hospital. Basically, they wanted to make some money for their hospital. Bob, however, had just been told
by the FDNY that he was going to be fine. They said it was probably just an anxiety attack or the
result of being angry and over-fed in extreme heat. No big deal. But these ambulance guys wanted to do
a little business for their hospital and kept telling Bob that they needed to start a line in his arm and

get him to the emergency room. Bob, however, was needle-phobic and wouldn't let these guys start a
line in his arm. Bob kept asking for aspirin. He said that he had heard that if you have chest pains you
should take an aspirin.
At this point, according to Bob, one of the ambulance guys (EMT guys - Emergency Medical Technicians)
said: "No. I could give you an aspirin. I could give you nitroglycerin if I wanted to. But you won't let
us start a line, so I'm not doing that." So at this point, Bob, who is not stupid, knew he wasn't in medical
trouble because if he had been, they would have given him an aspirin or nitro. At this point he knew
these ambulance guys (the stupid fuckers) were just trying to make money. So Bob literally said, "Listen,
you are making me feel worse, just go away, I don't want your help." So these stupid fuckers then said,
"OK, you are refusing to cooperate! We are now medically and legally authorized to take you to our
hospital against your will!" This is totally against the law in the USA. From what I heard, even if you
are literally dying and someone wants to treat you, you can refuse treatment. In order for a doctor to
treat you against your will in America, a judge has to give that doctor permission.
So Bob thought to himself, "Great! They are totally violating the law! I'm going to get free medical
treatment and I'll make some money by suing the hospital for this!" So they grabbed him and threw
him onto a stretcher and took him to the hospital. Bob was worried, however, about how he could
prove that he was taken against his will. These EMT fuckers were so stupid, however, that they even
helped Bob to prove this. When they got to the hospital they gave Bob a form to sign. They said, "You
have to sign this to show that we took you to the hospital." So Bob said, "Great! Let me have it!" He
then wrote, "I was taken to this hospital against my will. Bob" on the form. :P The EMT guy looked at
the form and said, "OK smartass. Thanks for signing." Bob responded: "You're quite welcome. Thanks
for letting me sign."
What was the first thing that happened at the Emergency Room? They gave Bob an aspirin. @_@ They
also took some blood from Bob. And they took a chest x-ray even though Bob told them he didn't want
one. 6 hours later, yes, 6 hours later a doctor showed up. The doctor: "Bob. I have some good
news. You didn't have a heart attack." Bob: "I know. What's my cholesterol level?" The doctor, "I
don't know." Bob: "What's my blood pressure?" The doctor: "I don't know." Bob: "I want to leave
this hospital right now." The doctor: "We should take another blood test." Bob: "Are you telling me that
legally I have no right to get up and leave this hospital right now?" The doctor: "No, you may leave, of
course." Bob: "Then, you are going to sign me out, right now, or I am going to get up and go. Where
are my clothes? I'll leave this place naked if I have to and when the NY Post takes pictures of a naked
fat white man walking home through Manhattan you can tell them why your hospital kept me here
illegally and took a number of unauthorized tests." The doctor then supplied Bob with more forms to
sign - one form indicated that Bob had refused "further treatment." Bob later said, "What
treatment? The only treatment I received was an aspirin."
So what did this hospital try to charge Bob? Take a guess. Go ahead. He was in the hospital for about
7 hours, lying on a bed. They gave him an aspirin and told him he didn't have a heart attack. They did
not check his cholesterol nor his blood pressure. An aspirin and a long wait - how much do you think a
person should have to pay for that?
They tried to charge him $3,500. How much did Bob pay? Zero. Zero, zilch, nada. Bob sent email
directly to the president of the hospital. Let me just say, it wasn't the nicest email message in the
world. He gave the hospital a deadline to waive his fees and informed them that if the fees were not
waived, they'd all go to court and he would pursue a complaint through the Attorney General's
Office. Within a week Bob had a letter from the hospital apologizing for his (mis)treatment and an
assurance (a guarantee) that his bill was being waived.
I guess I should learn a lesson from this. All of my actions have consequences. I thought I was
innocently canceling an appointment but in reality I was triggering a situation that would lead to a man

collapsing and being taken to a hospital emergency room. My laziness could have led to a major court
battle and who knows what the hospital did to discipline the EMT workers who totally broke the law. All
because I was too lazy to meet my conversation partner. It's pretty scary, actually, to think about how
things work out.

Definitions of terms
100 degrees Fahrenheit - the formula to convert between Centrigrade and Fahrenheit is 9/5C + 32 =
F. So go ahead and plug 100 into C and youll see that you get 212 F. Yes, water boils at 100 degrees C
and 212 degrees F. Plug 0 into C and you get 32 F. 5 degrees C = 41 degrees F. 10 degrees C = 50
F. 15 degrees C = 59 degrees F. See a pattern here? For every 5 degrees that C rises you get a 9
degree rise in F. So remember that 10 degrees C equals 50 degrees F and you can do some quick
calculations to figure out what other temperatures mean. 32C equals about 90F. So 100 degrees F =
about 40 degrees C.
Starbucks the big difference between a Starbucks in America and in other countries is that most
Starbucks are very loud outside of America. In America a Starbucks can often be relatively quiet. People
often come in alone with their laptops or books and study or do work.
a studio this is a basic housing unit in New York City. It is one large room that has everything: a bed,
a kitchen, a bathroom etc. Its like a little spacecraft.
a tragedy a tragedy is when something terrible happens, usually involving the untimely death of
someone.
a dilemma a problem that is hard to resolve or impossible to resolve
to catch a movie to catch is a verb that is often used with movie. Hey! Wanna come along with us
and catch a movie? This means, Do you want to come along with us and see a movie?
to kill time this means that you have a lot of time between events and have to find some way to
spend that time. I needed to kill 4 hours in Salt Lake City while I waited for my next flight.
6 and a half hours its 1 hour, 1 and a half hours, 2 hours, 2 and a half hours etc.
to pile a pile of something is when you place objects on top of each other. A pile of food is a lot of
food the different types of food have been placed on top of each other to make a little food mountain
to figure something out you hear this alot in English: to figure something out. This means to solve
some type of problem. I need to figure out how to get from the east part of the Bronx to the south part
of Brooklyn tomorrow morning.
I addressed this with Bob I discussed this issue with Bob.
blazing heat really really intense heat, a very very hot situation.

to make a long story short if you have a long story but can see that people are in a hurry you might
abbreviate the story and say, Well, Ill make a long story short
His back began to hurt if you have some type of pain somewhere, something hurts. I have a
headache my head hurts. I have been sitting for too long at this Starbucks so now my ass hurts. My
left arm hurts. Etc. You could also say I have a pain in my arm, a pain in my back etc. It sounds silly,
however, to say you have a pain in your head. You have a headache.
to lose consciousness to pass out, to go into a non-awake stage or state which is kind of like a sleep
stage.
He propped himself up if a person is lying down and pushes himself up a bit, but he is still not
standing, he is propped up.
to pinpoint to identify very precisely.
to stagger to walk in a way that is unstable, to walk weakly, as if you are going to fall. Drunken
people often stagger when they walk.
to excoriate to really verbally punish or attack.
racism is the irrational hatred of a person or group based on skin color.
discrimination is action taken to deny a person his/her rights due to skin color. Discriminatory is the
adjective.
I dont get this I dont understand this.
swivel chair a chair that moves from side to side.
an ambulance the type of vehicle that picks up injured or sick individuals and takes them to a
hospital. An ambulance has a loud siren that is used to warn cars to move to the side of the road.
a vulture - a type of large bird that feeds off of dead animals that other animals have killed. It is a
scavenger as opposed to a predator. A predator hunts while a scavenger either steals or takes leftovers.
anxiety intense nervousness mixed with fear that lasts awhile.
to start a line this is medical terminology to put a little device in a patients arm so that various
solutions or medications can be attached to it if the patient needs that in the hospital.
needle phobic afraid of needles.
should not have to.
nitroglycerin this is used in explosives but it also seems to help people who are having heart attacks.

to be authorized - means to be allowed to do something by law.

against your will against what you want to be done. Your will is your desire to do something.
to sue this is an essential word in America, where lots of people sue other people. Suing is a legal
process. To sue someone means you want to take this person to a courtroom where he might be forced
to pay you some amount of money for something he did to you which was wrong or which caused you
harm. A courtroom is where a trial takes place. The person suing is called the plaintiff and the person
being sued is called the defendant.
a stretcher this is a movable bed on which a person is placed in order to take him to an ambulance
and then a hospital.
smartass - is an insulting term for someone who thinks he is smarter than other people.
cholesterol this is a substance that can build up in a persons veins and arteries and which can cause
a stroke. It usually comes from the fatty substances that a person eats. If a person has too much
cholesterol this substance can literally block the flow of blood through his/her body and cause a stroke
(when blood cannot get to the brain). A stroke can kill or paralyze a person.
blood pressure this is a measure of how quickly and forcefully blood is traveling through a persons
body. High blood pressure is usually a sign that a person has been experiencing a lot of stress.
to charge someone is to request or demand a payment for certain services.
zero, zilch, nada all of these words mean nothing.
to waive a fee to wipe out or get rid of a fee.
to go to court - means to go to the place where a trial can take place.
a complaint this is a formal allegation or statement or document that something wrong was done.
The Attorney Generals Office this government office is supposed to help consumers in each state
of the country. The AG can sue companies if they have been harming or cheating citizens.
To trigger to cause; triggering causing. A gun has a trigger to shoot a gun you pull the trigger.

Grammar stuff: Past tense vs. participle stuff

Oh my God. This is so easy. I dont know how students still make this type of mistake. If you are
referring to a particular time that something happened, like last Tuesday or ten years ago or
yesterday, then you have to use the simple past tense. You have no freaking choice!
Last Tuesday I called my mother in Chicago and told her the good news concerning my upcoming
wedding. Ten years ago I attended a university in New York City. Yesterday I ate a hamburger.

If you do not indicate a specific time in the past, you have to use has or have and the past
participle. I havent called my mother recently. I have been to Niagra Falls. But: I went to Niagra Falls
when I was younger. I have eaten at Sophies many times in the past.
I once read that book. I have read that book.
used to is used a lot in the past as well. I used to attend The University of Wisconsin. I used to eat in
that restaurant every Thursday. I used to buy the New York Times until the price went up again. Used
to indicates that you did something continually but stopped at some point.
Using the past tense and then going even farther back is used in English alot. He told me that he had
finished his work at 6pm. She felt that Bob had violated her trust by seeing another woman. So you use
the past tense and then a past participle after it.
Honestly, if a person asks you a question, listen for the verb form that he/she uses. Have you
ever been to Kentucky? No I havent. Did you ever eat at Sophies? Yes I did, in fact, I have eaten
there many times. (This implies you are going to eat there again). Or: Did you ever eat at
Sophies? Now, you can say, Yes I did. Or, if you have eaten there a lot: Yes, I have eaten there a
lot. Or: Yes, I used to eat there often. (This means you have stopped eating there.) This is kind of
easy isnt it? English is so easy.
Stories, In English, can be told in the present or past tense. Yesterday a guy became angry at me
because he thought I had taken his parking spot. After I parked, he ran out of his car and banged on my
window and demanded that I leave the spot. I refused. I then got out of the car and called the
police. This guy got so scared he ran away.
You can also say: So yesterday this guy becomes angry at me because he thinks that I took his parking
spot. After I park my car he runs out of his car and starts pounding on my window. Then he demands
that I leave! So I refuse to do that, step out of my car and call the police. The guy gets scared and runs
away.

More grammar stuff: Scary vs. Scared, boring vs. bored,

interesting vs. interested
This is often a real problem for foreign students. This situation is scary, therefore I am scared. This class
is boring, therefore I am bored. This book is interesting, so I am interested in it.
A situation will have the ing and your emotional state will have the ed.
This movie is so scary! I was so scared by this movie.
This book is so boring. I am so bored reading this book.
Bob is such an interesting guy. I am interested in meeting Bob.

14 essential vocabulary words Fill-in-the-blanks

a tragedy, a dilemma, to catch something, blazing, to pinpoint, to stagger, discriminatory, a

vulture, an ambulance, anxiety, to sue, to waive (a fee), a complaint, to charge
I hate having to leave a tip when I go to a restaurant here. But what I hate more is that sometimes the
waiter will ____________ me for the tip and place it on my bill because he can tell I am a foreigner and
he thinks I wont leave him anything.
Several neighbors of the Browns had filed ____________ with the Agency for Childrens Services in New
York City, stating that a child, Nixtmary Brown, was being abused (treated badly). ACS ignored or did
not adequately investigate any of these complaints, and Nixtmary was ultimately viciously killed, after
being starved (not given food), by her step-father.
The trial of the alleged (if a person is alleged to have done something, the authorities have arrested him
and are claiming he is guilty) terrorists presented a ___________ to New York City government: the
people of New York wanted the terrorists tried where they had killed many people, but the cost to the
taxpayers for security and the trial was going to be exorbitant (huge).
The biggest ___________ most contemporary New Yorkers experienced was the terrorist hijacking and
attack on the World Trade Center buildings. Over 3,000 innocent people died.
In a medical emergency a person can call 911 in New York City and an ____________ will be sent to
assist the person in trouble. However, the person will be charged a high sum for this ambulance service.
The only time I ever go to Times Square is to __________ a movie at one of the huge movie theaters
they have there.
It is very easy to sue another person in New York City. There are courts where a person only has to pay
a small fee to file a suit (a case). In fact, if the person is poor, the court will _________ this small fee
and the person can sue a person without having to pay anything.
The worst heat wave I can remember was when I was visiting Chicago in 1995. It was ____________
hot, over 103 degrees F (40 degrees C) and over 300 people died in heat-related deaths.
Americans seem to like to _________ each other. Attorneys even advertize on television saying: You
deserve justice! Hire me! The most common type of lawsuit seems to involve injuries suffered through
the fault of others or businesses.
The level of alcoholism in a society is often a measure of the ___________ that people in that society
face. Although Japan, for instance, is a pleasant society with low crime, the pressures are immense and
there is a high rate of both alcoholism and suicide.
In pre-industrial societies, the ___________ was a highly symbolic bird. It could pick all the flesh off a
dead persons bones and then fly into the sky, as if imitating the flight of the persons soul to a higher
level after death.
After a building burns down, firefighters will try to _________ the exact spot where the fire started so
that they can determine whether the fire was an accident or a case of arson (arson is the crime of a
person deliberately setting a fire).

Many people are confused by the American type of resume. In many foreign countries a person must list
his age and post a photo on his/her resume. In America, we think this can be a _____________ practice
that unfairly allows an employer to avoid choosing people based on age and appearance.
It was apparent that the man was drunk because he had been ____________ down the street moving
randomly from side to side.
Answers: charge, complaints, dilemma, tragedy, ambulance, catch, waive, blazing, sue,
anxiety, vulture, pinpoint, discriminatory, staggering

10. New York Citys Rise to Power and Fame

Why did New York City become so famous? Two reasons: geography and money. The geography led
to the money, by the way. Let me explain.
Whats so special about New York City geographically? Well! It has the deepest port/harbor in the
western hemisphere. Huge ships from Europe and all over the world could sail right up to land and
unload their cargos (the goods or stuff that they carried). In regard to other cities on the east coast,
sometimes the ships had to anchor out to sea and send the cargo in to land on smaller boats. That
was a real pain in the ass. It was much better to sail right up to the land and unload or load up a ship.
Also, New York City did not really have any type of crop nearby. The soil sucked and no real crop could
be grown. A crop is a type of food that is grown: wheat, rice, barley, corn etc. People could not survive
as farmers so they became highly aggressive traders. They built roads and canals to help farmers and
manufacturers get their goods to New York Citys port, where the goods could be shipped
overseas. Once goods arrived in New York, they were easily transported out to various other regions of
the country. For example, the southern part of the USA was heavily dependent on New York City to ship
its cotton overseas to England and other countries. The South then also received various goods from
England. So the first stage of New York Citys rise was located at South Street. This is where the main
port was. You can still go there and see some old ships. They have lots of stores and restaurants there
and few people even know that this area is what gave New York City its early boost toward wealth and
fame.
People who engaged in trade out of New York City became fabulously (hugely) wealthy. Americas first
millionaire John Jacob Astor was one of these guys. Astor came to America right after the
Revolution, from Germany. He began to buy animal furs from Native Americans and he would sail his
ships all the way to China to trade these furs for Chinese silk, tea and porcelain. He would then sail to
Europe to sell these Chinese goods. When Astor died it was estimated that he had so much wealth that if
his money were converted into contemporary dollars, he would be considered the third wealthiest
person to have ever lived! (I dont know who the first two were.)
OK, so thats the geography part. Guys like Astor were making so much money trading that they literally
couldnt use most of it. Even with the fanciest houses in the USA and every luxury, they still had too
much money just lying around. So, basically, they began building banks. This way they could loan
money they didn't need to others and make a profit by collecting interest on these loans. Where did
they start building these banks? Wall Street. One bank after the other was built along Wall Street by the
guys who made money by trading. As I mentioned earlier, Trinity Church is the only building that still

exists that existed before they began tearing down houses and churches to build banks on Wall Street. A
stock market was also set up on that street and it is now the famous Stock Exchange (get your picture
taken next to the giant statue of a bull there).
So these guys who had been traders began to realize that it was a lot easier to make money by building
banks and loaning out money for interest. Within a relatively short time New York City started to become
the financial capital of the world. So do you see the development here? New York City started out as a
trading center but was so successful as a trading center, it evolved into a banking center.
It took the Civil War, however, to really launch New York City into the stratosphere. At this time,
1861, America had two different economies a northern industrial economy and a southern agricultural
economy. The industrial economy was based on folks who owned factories and folks who worked in
factories while in the south the agricultural or farming economy was based on folks who owned land and
the slaves who were forced to work on this land for free under inhumane conditions.
The interesting thing is, traders and Wall Street bankers in New York City were making a huge amount of
money from the cotton that was being produced by slaves in the south. The cotton had to be
transported up north and then it had to be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, primarily to England. So,
believe it or not, initially folks on Wall Street wanted to support the South in the American Civil War.
In fact, southerners joked that once the south stopped sending its cotton up to New York City, grass was
going to start to grow in the streets of lower Manhattan and Wall Street because there would be no
business any more. Wrong. Once the southern states left the United States and stopped shipping cotton
to New York City, the northern economy paradoxically took off. Why? New York City traders and
bankers realized that, in reality, the southern method of doing business was not very efficient and the
exporting of cotton was a good source of making money but not the best source of making money. New
York City traders soon began gathering grain and various food products from the Midwest and other
northern areas and began exporting this. At that time Europe had been experiencing a drought and
desperately needed food. So New York City lost the cotton trade but discovered a much more lucrative
food trade. The economic situation for the Wall Street bankers blossomed.
Furthermore, the United States government needed money to fight the war. They got virtually all of the
money they needed from Wall Street. Basically, Wall Street bankers paid for the North to win the civil
war. They loaned the United States government an immense amount of money and the government paid
that money back with interest. And, now that the south was gone, the Congress was made up entirely
of northern congressmen. Southern congressmen had been stopping northern industrialization by
blocking various laws that the north needed to develop technologically. Such laws would have hurt the
south. Now that the south was gone from the Union (the term for the United States of America) the
north began to pass laws that allowed the development of many new industries and technologies and the
development of a transcontinental railroad system.
Getting rid of the south for awhile and then beating the south in the Civil War was the best thing that
ever happened to America! Unfortunately hundreds of thousands of people died in this war brought
about by ignorant southern racists. Without the South the Wall Street economy really took off! It went
through the roof! The south had been dead weight to the American economy and without the South,
America was now free to fulfill its economic potential. Or, at least, lots of bankers and factory owners
got filthy filthy filthy rich. Filthy rich means really rich.
So this is another paradox that I realized when I got to America. Basically New York City is the most
exciting city in the world primarily because of the bankers and factory owners who lived from around
1861 to 1900. They brought so much money into the United States of America that all kinds of things

could be developed and created. Great universities, museums, concert halls, huge department stores,
sky scrapers etc. I mean, the Metropolitan Museum, which has to be one of the greatest museums in
the world, was started by these wealthy guys who made a fortune between 1861 and 1900. Oh! Did you
ever hear of The Frick Collection?
There was a guy named Frick who lived during this time and he was a steel guy he worked with
Andrew Carnegie to produce some of the best steel in the world. Steel is the strong metal you need to
build railroad tracks and skyscrapers. He made so much money that he bought alot of great works of art
from Europeans who were desperate for money. When he died he had so many masterworks of world
art that they just turned his house into a frigging museum! And its one of the nicest museums in the
city! There are paintings by Rembrandt and Velasquez and Goya and Holbein there! Virtually every
painting is a masterwork!
So these greedy white guys who lived for money and were super aggressive, and who often treated their
workers like garbage, endowed this city with great art and great services. Thats why I say its a
paradox. You would think that greedy behavior would lead to corruption and decline, but New York City
seemed to develop amazing institutions. In fact, economists have an expression for this paradox: private
vice leads to public good. So basically the more greedy people are, and the more they pursue their own
economic interests, the more wealth will be generated for the public to enjoy. Yet, New York City has a
huge gap between the rich and the poor, so, obviously, this system isnt as perfect as the economists
might suggest.
So there have been various incarnations of New York City. The first incarnation was when the Native
Americans lived here and farmed and hunted. Then the Dutch came and lived pretty peacefully with the
Native Americans (for awhile). They were interested in getting beaver skins from the Indians so they
could make money by making and selling fancy hats back in Holland. So there was trade and peaceful
coexistence. If you look at the flag of New York City youll actually see a beaver on it. So we can say
the second incarnation of New York City involved the Dutch, and later the English, who stole New York
City from the Dutch in a war, and this incarnation was a pre-international trade New York. Then we get
the third incarnation, which was centered around South Street. This is the big trading period where New
York Citys excellent port came in handy and helped traders develop excess (more than was needed)
wealth. This period led to the fourth incarnation, which was the banking incarnation. The excess wealth
developed through trade was used to create banks which allowed more wealth to be created more
easily. These days New York City seems to remain the off-spring of these wealthy, greedy, aggressive
white guys who turned to banking. Of them, J.P. Morgan was the most famous and powerful. They
turned his house into a museum as well its near the Empire State Building.
How does that make you feel? Basically NY City kind of owes its prominence to a few guys who made
zillions of dollars through trade, oil, steel and banking. Im not sure how it makes me feel. Should I feel
grateful to these guys who were not interested in creating wealth for their society but who accidentally
created it while they got filthy rich?
Will there be another incarnation of New York? Probably. Who knows? I can feel New York City
struggling toward something else, but without proper leadership, and New York City hasnt had any
leadership in a long time, the struggle might be in vain.

Definitions of terms
geography the physical features of an area; i.e. Chicago is near a lake and on a flat area of land. The
city of San Francisco is located geographically in a hilly area.

a port/harbor this is a place where ships come in to shore (land) or the place from which ships
depart from the land.
right up to some students are confused by two prepositions next to each other. Right up to means
directly up to something; practically touching something.
anchor out to again, two prepositionsno big deal. To anchor out to sea means that a ship drops its
anchor out in the middle of the sea or far from land. An anchor is that huge and heavy cross-shaped
thing that ships drop into the water to stop the ship from moving.
in to land again, two prepositionsmoving in toward the land
a pain in the ass this is a figurative expression. If a person is a pain in your ass the person bothers
you. If something is a pain in the ass it is a nuisance or a bother.
a boost - this is a lift off the ground; it means assistance or help, to help someone get off the ground or
to help someone or something to get started.
The Revolution this is the American Revolution, which was fought against England from 17751783. Basically, this was a revolution started by wealthy people living in America at that time, but fought
primarily by brave farmers and city workers. The wealthy people did not want to pay taxes to a far-away
English government that wanted to use its American colonies to support the English economy. Basically,
England wanted Americans to produce raw materials that would be processed in England and sold back
to Americans. That wasnt fair, was it? Of course not! Americans wanted to process and export their
own goods. Some people have said that this revolution was more of a Civil War since the Americans
had considered themselves English citizens. Thats an interesting argument. Its not true, though. By
1775 Americans and Englishmen were totally different types of people.
fur this is the skin of an animal that helps to keep a person warm when it is worn by the person. Many
women own fur coats made of mink, for instance.
to convert to change.
contemporary right now.
interest if you take out a loan, you will be charged interest. This is extra money you have to pay back
in addition to the amount you borrowed. This allows the loaner to make a profit. If you take out a loan
you are a borrower. Many students get confused when they use the terms borrow and loan. If you
give the money, you are loaning. If you take the money, you are borrowing.
The Civil War this was the war that was fought between the north part of the US and the south part
from 1861 1865. Basically the USA had two economies at that time. There was a northern industrial
economy and a southern agricultural (farming) economy. The southern economy was based on slave
labor. The big issue which really caused the war to start, however, was the issue of tariffs. A tariff is a
tax on imports to a country. The north always wanted high tariffs because they were good at producing
goods and the south always wanted low or no tariffs because they liked importing stuff from
England. When Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860 the south realized he would promote an
economic policy favoring the north and they left the United States and formed their own country: The
Confederate States of America. Ultimately they lost the war because of Wall Street, Lincoln, Ulysses S.

Grant and many brave northern soldiers who died because they believed the world could be a more just
place (a "just" place is a place with justice - real justice). God bless them for believing that.
the stratosphere this is an upper layer of the earths atmosphere. To say that something went into
the stratosphere means that something really did well or really soared; it did unbelievably well.
inhumane not showing human or humane values. If someone acts in a cruel or nasty way, he is
inhumane.
a paradox when you expect one thing and something opposite happens.
a drought a long period of time without rain.
lucrative if something is lucrative it generates a lot of money.
Congress The US Congress makes the laws. There are three parts to the US government: the
Congress, The President and the Court system. Each of these parts can control or limit the power of the
other parts. This is one reason why the USA has never had a dictator. Even though the president is
called the most powerful person in the world, his power is really quite limited by the Congress.
transcontinental going across the continent of North America.
to take off to soar, to rise, to increase.
through the roof a figurative term. If something goes through the roof it increases quickly and more
than anyone could have expected.
dead weight something unnecessary that might hold back a persons progress. Lets say that you go
hiking in the mountains. You dont want to take high-heeled shoes with you those would be dead
weight because you cant use them.
sky scrapers tall buildings found in cities around the world.
frigging a term just a little less dirty than fucking. Its still kind of dirty.
to endow to fund or to provide resources to.
vice immoral behavior, behavior which seems evil or wrong.
an incarnation a version of something.
beaver skins the skins from the fat little animal that likes to build dams in small streams. You know
the type of animal he likes to float on his back.
coexistence to live together.
to come in handy to be useful.

the off-spring something born from something else.

Prominence/to be prominent if something is prominent, it stands out from other stuff. A prominent
doctor is more famous or well-known than other doctors.
to be in vain if something is in vain, that means that an effort was made but nothing was
accomplished. i.e. Jack had studied for 3 years to pass his CPA exam, but each time he took it, he failed.
All of that studying was in vain.

Grammar stuff: the subjunctive

The subjunctive is dying in English. It is really only used when was is changed into were in situations
which are unreal. But because formally educated Americans tend to use the subjunctive, you should
know about it.
If I were that fat guy, I would not eat so much fried food. You would think it should be If I was that fat
guyhowever, to indicate unreality was is changed to were.
Basically, the rule for the subjunctive is that you always change was to were after if. This helps
more clearly indicate that this is an unreal situation.
Its the same for the third person singular as well.
If he were feeling better, he would go to the baseball game.
If she were not interested in literature, she wouldnt be writing a book about it.
If he were a bit more relaxed, he would live longer.
Just remember that if you use if and the verb to be in the past tense in the first clause, you should
use were and not was. Many Americans use was anyway. As I said, the subjunctive seems to be
dying out.
If he were more handsome, he would be able to date more women.

15 essential vocab words Fill-in-the-blanks

geography, a harbor, fur, to convert, contemporary, in vain, inhumane, a paradox, a drought,
lucrative, to endow, an incarnation, to coexist, vice, skyscraper
Many people who object to the usage of fur coats feel that the animals used for this fur are treated in an
______________ or very cruel manner.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that the Dalai Lama is the actual, literal ___________ of the God of Mercy; the
God of Mercy lives within his body.

I am an open-minded and tolerant person and I respect everyones religious beliefs, but I hate it when
people try to _________ me to their religion by taking me to their church and trying to make me believe
what they believe.
A societys definition of what constitutes (makes up) ____________ often changes. At one point drinking
alcohol was considered immoral and wrong in America, but now alcohol is drunk freely in the States.
Henri did not want to give up the dream of owning his own business. He had worked hard and saved
money for many years and he did not want all of this effort to be _____________.
Although the differing races and ethnicities in America dont always mix with each other socially, at least
they seem to ____________ with each other peacefully.
Due to scientific farming techniques, farmers do not need to fear ____________ as much as they used
to. Even if it doesnt rain, water can be stored or transported long distances.
Some people like the artwork of the old masters but for those who like more ___________ art, the
Guggenheim Museum or MoMA might be more interesting.
J.P. Morgan, an incredibly wealthy banker from the early 1900s, helped to ___________ a number of
cultural institutions with his huge amount of wealth.
America not only has a diverse population but also a diverse __________; there is everything here from
deserts, to mountains to prairies to marshlands.
A great transition occurred in the history of the economy of New York City when it was discovered that
banking could be much more _____________ than trading; bankers made more money more easily than
traders.
Although New Yorks ____________ is the deepest in the western hemisphere, it is not used as often as
it was when thousands of ships would sail up to the pier near South Street.
The origin of the universe seems to involve a puzzling __________: how could something come from
nothing or how could something always have existed?
The Empire State Building used to be the worlds tallest ____________. Looking at it now, it still seems
tall, but that that huge.
John Jacob Astor became Americas first millionaire by obtaining animal ________ from the Indians and
trading it with the Chinese for tea, silk and porcelain.
Answers: inhumane, incarnation, convert, vice, in vain, coexist, droughts, contemporary,
endow, geography, lucrative, harbor, paradox, skyscraper, fur

11. An Army of Giant Blond Lesbians?! My gaydar.

In 2011 the US womens soccer team faced the Japanese womens soccer team for the Womens World
Cup Championship. One of my lesbian friends told me that if I really wanted to see excited and
enthusiastic womens soccer fans, I needed to go to a lesbian bar. So off we went to Chelsea.
(I underlined this conditional statement because, basically, its an unreal conditional statement but
instead of using would, needed to is used as a type of modal auxiliary. As I mentioned before,
would can be replaced with other terms like might should etc. Needed to is similar to should in
this case.)
Now, heres the big question lots of foreigners cant get. Why does the US mens soccer team suck so
badly? The womens team seems to dominate world competition, but the mens team is often
mediocre at best. In the last World Cup they only tied Slovenia, a country that has 3 million people (the
USA has 350 million people), and they lost to a poor African nation (Ghana). Whats going on here?
Basically, soccer (called football in every other country of the world) is a suburban sport in America.
City kids dont play soccer. In America, kids from the city seem to be the best team athletes and they
play baseball, basketball and football (American football you know, the game with the really huge guys
who probably derive (get) most of their muscle mass from steroids). Traveling around American cities
like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, you dont see any soccer fields. You see lots of baseball
diamonds, some football fields and lots of outdoor basketball courts.
Indeed, if you like highly competitive and exciting inner-city basketball, you have to go to Rucker.
Whats Rucker? Rucker is probably the most famous outdoor basketball court in the world. Its in
Harlem, and was created by a guy who worked for the NY Park District of course his last name was
Rucker. So its called Rucker Park. Some of the greatest NBA stars, who ever played, played at Rucker
before going off to college basketball programs. You see some intense games there. These guys
LOVE basketball and devote an immense amount of energy to it. They also try to play as creatively as
possible and the fans who watch the games go crazy while cheering for their favorite players or teams.
Rucker Park is so famous that many NBA players come and play there after their season is over (they
play on teams with regular guys from Harlem).
But back to why mens soccer in America sucks. Basically this is a sport for soft white kids who live
immaculate and safe lives in the suburbs. I mean, take a look at the US mens team some time. These
guys are soft. These guys are predominantly white. These guys cant beat teams from third-world
countries. Hello! They play soccer in their nice, quiet, clean suburban neighborhoods, go off to nice,
white, safe colleges and then play against poor guys from some third-world country who have
experienced every hardship under the sun, and they get their asses kicked. They couldnt beat
Slovenia! They just barely beat Algeria! They lost to Ghana! Ghana is the size of New Jersey and ten
times as poor! Ghana kicked these suburban white guys asses! Ghana! Hello! Ghana!
So now Im at this lesbian sports bar in Chelsea. There were autographed photos of all kinds of
female athletes on the walls. There were a couple tennis stars, some basketball players, some
swimmersIm guessing they were all lesbian because they all kind of had the same haircuts. I dont
know. My gaydar isnt as good as my lesbian friend Manuelas gaydar. But she told me, Yeahall those
chicks are lesbians. Look at their hair. Then I realized something and said, But Hilary Clinton has that
same type of hair style. Manuela just started laughing. I kept saying, Manuela, why are you laughing?!
Come on! Tell me! But she just kept on laughing, which pissed me off. Manuela! What are you
saying!? But she just kept laughing! I was so angry. Why was she laughing? She has really good
gaydar, though.

Then the game started. Or actually the ladies from both teams walked out onto the field. When the US
ladies walked out, the bar exploded with cheers, and I kind of understood why. Some of the US ladies
kind of looked like the photos on the walls. I kept looking at the photos and then at the US ladies team
and back at the photos. It was so weird. Manuela was laughing hysterically again. She said, Before
you leave, Suzy, your gaydar will be impeccable!
So on one side of the field the American ladies were lined up and on the other side of the field the
Japanese ladies were lined up, but something really looked wrong. The Japanese ladies were kind of
skinny and petite, but these American gals (gals is a term for girls) were brawny! They were huge!
They were tall, tanned and muscular and they all seemed to have blond hair. They were like big meaty
Barbie dolls. It was an entirely white team of really huge, brawny women.
I have to be honest. The fact that all these ladies were white and much brawnier than the Japanese
ladies really pissed me off. I thought America is a land of diversity? Where were the Black, Latina and
Asian ladies? This looked like a female version of the New York Fire Department which is made up of
nearly 100% white guys. EVERY woman on this team was white. EVERY FREAKING WOMAN! This
wasnt an American team! OMG! How do you call this an American team?
So I decided to root for the Japanese ladies. After all, every American, supposedly, loves an
underdog. Just looking at these two teams, I knew who the underdogs were. And Japan had
experienced a terrible earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear disaster. That country needed this victory. I
was grateful to be in America, and loved many Americans, but this womens team was too white and
Japan needed this one. GO NADESHIKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When the game started, I let loose! I started yelling (in Spanish): GO YOU SEXY JAPANESE GIRLS!!!!!
BEAT THE BEEFY BLOND AMERICANS!!!!!! I was screaming and jumping! But the gals in the sports bar
did not seem to have yellow fever. There were many icy stares directed at me. Even the photos of the
tennis and basketball stars seemed to glare at me. Someone said, Is she cheering for our girls or their
girls? Another woman with really short hair and perfectly round Harry Potter glasses said, Beats me. I
think our girls. Another lady then said, Well, maybe she has yellow fever. She has the right to cheer
for the pretty Asian ladies!
The beefy, big, blond Americans clearly dominated the game, but it was as if my little prayer to God
worked. Even though I am not religious, I kept saying to myself, God, help these Japanese ladies
against this giant blonde army of brawny possible lesbians! This is not an American team God! These
girls are too beefy and too blond. This is an all-white beefy army! Please dont let these beefy girls beat
the Japanese ladies! God! Do not fail me this time! Help these Japanese ladies!!!!!!!! And the prayer
worked because the beefy blond girls kept missing easy shots until one ball, luckily, got in. But I knew
the Japanese ladies would not quit and I outted myself as a Japanese fan when a (sexy) player (oh my
God do I like women too?) with the number 8 brilliantly stole the ball and scored a tying goal.
I jumped from my bar stool (the type of seat on which you sit at a bar) and started screaming in English
and Spanish:
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooal! Un gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolaso!
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooal! You sexy Japanese girl!!!!!!!! Gooooooooooooal!
The bar became quiet. All the lesbian ladies were looking at me, glaring (looking/staring intensely) at
me.
So I yelled at them: They had an earthquake! They had a tsunami! They had a nuclear disaster! I
think the lesbians in this bar were very patriotic.

One shot back (answered back): I know theyve had adversity, but youre an American! Cheer for the
American team!
I was stunned.
Oh my God. Had I turned into a WASP? Did I look like a WASP? Was my English that good? I kept
screaming in Spanishthey didnt notice that? Why didnt they think I was an illegal Spanish-speaking
worker with an under-the-table job? I said, I dont care! And Im no WASP!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!
They then went back to chatting with each other and drinking whatever they drink at lesbian bars. Again
an American scored but again the Japanese came back as the captain of the Japanese team equalized
the score. I thought I would lose my mind. I was literally crying because these Japanese women were
fighting so hard against these giants. It was an obvious David and Goliath story. I was screaming
and crying and the ladies at the bar were really disgusted at me for being so emotional and unpatriotic,
but I didnt care! This was one of the greatest sporting events I had ever seen!! This was more than a
sporting event. I dont even know what the hell it was. I have tears pouring out of my eyes right now
just thinking about it! I think, to me, the Japanese ladies kind of represented my own desperate
struggle in America against white giants who speak perfect English and who seem to dominate
everything and who seem so comfortable and happy in this world.
In any case, it was a miracle for the Japanese girls to even get to the tie-breaking penalty kicks. I
prayed to God again. Please dont let these Japanese ladies fail now! They have gone through so much!
Their entire country is watching them, praying for them. If these beefy Americans win, so what!? Theyll
make lots of money. If these Japanese ladies win, it will mean so much more!
I dont know whether there is a God or not, but the Japanese ladies won. And the patriotic American
lesbians did not kill me. In fact, they were so nice to me. I was literally crying hysterically, like a baby.
Tears were pouring out of my eyes. I couldnt help it. The one who had told me, earlier, to root for the
American team bought me a beer and said, What the hell are you crying for sister? You part
Japanese? I couldnt explain my connection to the game so I just nodded my head, yes. She stood
back, looked at me askance and said, Oh, OK, I guess I kinda see some Japanese in you. Well, your
ladies did a great job! Congratulations! Since we were both standing up, she then slapped me nice and
hard on the ass! And it kind of felt gooooooooooood!
You know, I was really impressed with American sports fans that day, because after the game a lot of
them said, Well, the Japanese ladies played hard and deserved to win. Good for them! This is why
some people call America a meritocracy. Merit means a reward for good work. So a meritocracy is a
system in which hard work and talent is rewarded. Aristocracy is a system I which you succeed based on
being a member of a royal family. So I saw an example of American meritocracy here. Even though the
American team lost, Americans said, Yeah, those Japanese girls were amazing. God bless them! They
deserved to win! It made me cry even more, and then I started wishing I were a WASP!!!!!!
Later I asked Manuela why the US ladies were so good and why the US men sucked. She was a little
drunk and shes always a little sarcastic and she knows Im gullible and believe almost everything so I
didnt know whether to believe her, but she said, Suzy, mens US soccer is a suburban thing. Womens
soccer then she giggled. Well, lets just say its a girl thing. There are some great lesbian athletes
out there and lets just say the USA currently leads the world in this category. So I said, Were some of
the Japanese ladies lesbians too? Manuela then said, Suzy, lets just say my gaydar was going crazy
during that game! I said, Come on Manuela! Youre saying this was a competition between US and
Japanese lesbians!? She just laughed hysterically. I think she was pulling my leg.

According to Manuela female soccer is like a world-wide underground lesbian secret society! I dont
believe it!
So basically Manuela seemed to be implying that female soccer attracts a lot of lesbian ladies but I didnt
believe it. Why doesnt mens soccer attract gay guys? I mean, maybe gay guys could play better than
the bozos who are currently on the US mens team. Ha ha. Sorry. Why dont mens sports attract gay
men in general if womens soccer allegedly attracts lesbians? I wasnt sure I could buy into Manuelas
argument. Although I once had a gay male friend who once told me that when he was 18 years old, he
had joined the National Guard in his state to be around muscular naked men. He also told me he
knew of other gay guy friends who had joined the Navy to be around other guys on ships where there
wasnt a lot to do and, well, where things could happen.
Did you ever hear of the 1970s disco group The Village People? You know them, they did the song
YMCA. They were, basically, a gay disco group, that did songs about gay life, but most Americans had
no idea the songs were about gay life. They didnt know that the YMCA was a pick-up spot for gay
men, for instance. All of their songs were about how gay folks can secretly find places to meet other gay
folks, and, well, do gay stuff. They also did a song called In the Navy! I mean, OK, serve your country
and do gay stuff, why not!? Kill two birds with one stone! But they didnt do a song called Lets
Play Soccer! Hmmmm, according to Manuela, they should have! Who knows! My attitude is
Whatever! Lesbians or no lesbians this was an amazing game.

Definition of terms:

blond You probably know this but a blond is someone with yellowish hair. A brunette is a person
with brown hair. If a person has red or black hair, theres no special term. Also, in describing a persons
hair, we usually say, She is blond, although you sometimes hear a person say, She is a blond. or
She is brunette/She is a brunette. For someone with red or black hair: She has red hair and fair skin
(fair skin is skin that is very white). She has beautiful silky black hair down to her waist. She has red
hair. She has black hair.
lesbian theres a difference between gay and lesbian. Gay usually refers to a man while lesbian
refers to a woman. Where does the word lesbian come from? There was an ancient Greek female poet
named Sappho who lived on the Island of Lesbos. She wrote erotic (sexual) poetry about her love for
other women. Apparently there was a lot of homosexual love in the ancient Greek world. In any case,
the word gay used to mean happy in the old days. Nobody uses gay to mean happy any more.
There are some nasty words for gay people that you should know in case you ever hear them and
wonder what they mean. Faggot is a nasty term for gay men. Believe it or not, you sometimes hear
teenage boys use this term to insult other teenage boys. Dyke is a nasty term for a lesbian.
gaydar you wont find this word in your electronic dictionary. Its kind of a funny, made-up word. Do
you know what radar is? They use radar in airports to follow airplanes as they fly from one place to
another. So radar is used to identify and follow airplanes. A radar screen is usually circular and you see
little dots and hear beeps when it is working. So if a person is really good at identifying gay people,
he/she is said to have good gaydar. Get it? Its a combination of gay and radar. Its like radar, but
you use it to identify who is and isnt gay. Interestingly, some scientists showed that some people really
CAN identify who is gay and who isnt just by looking at them. It all depends on how many gay people
you have known in the past.
to face an opponent to compete against an opponent, to try to beat or defeat an opponent.

a question you cant get if you cant get a question, you cant understand something. i.e. You
could also say, I cant get the answer to this question.
to dominate to control through greater power.
mediocre not horribly bad, but not great either. Just blah. Blah is slang for nothing special. Bland,
Unexceptional. Ordinary.
suburban in many American cities there are areas just outside of the city which are usually nicer and
safer and more expensive to live in. These are like little mini-cities like cities without the problems of
cities. Things are changing though. In the past many people left the major American cities for an easy
life in the suburbs especially since it was felt that a suburban life was better for ones children. Now,
however, the trend is reversing apparently. Wealthier white people are moving back into the cities and
abandoning the suburbs to poor people. There are still lots of affluent white people (white people with
a lot of money) in suburbs though.
mass an amount of something, mass is basically a term from physics means anything that has weight
and takes up space.
steroids these are chemicals some athletes and body-builders inject into their bodies in order to
develop huge muscles.
a baseball diamond a baseball field is called a diamond because it is shaped like a diamond. Kind
of like a pyramid shape but lying flat.
competitive if admission to a school is competitive, it means lots of people want to enter but there
are limited spaces. Any competitive situation means people are struggling against each other to get
something the other person or people want.
NY Park District this is the city department that is supposed to take care of all the parks in NY City.
They have a zillion employees because there are a lot of parks here.
college basketball programs I just want you to know that in America, in order to become a
professional basketball player or football player, you have to go to college and play on your college team
first. Then a professional team can compete with other teams to sign you to a contract after you finish
college (they have an organized system which allows the pro teams to choose college players they call
it a draft and each professional team takes a turn choosing a college athlete from a list of eligible
athletes). So you might think many professional athletes in America are intelligent since they have to go
to college. Ha ha ha ha ha. There have been many stories about how professors treat student athletes
better than normal students. These athletes help the university make zillions of dollars since people
enjoy watching college sports in America. So student athletes are often treated like princes on campus.
They are given full scholarships, for instance.
to devote to devote yourself to someone means to dedicate yourself completely to a person. To
devote yourself to your studies means to focus 100% on your studies. A person might say, We need to
devote more attention to developing jobs in poor neighborhoods instead of devoting money to pay for
more police officers there.
soft soft is the opposite of hard. If you say a person is soft, you mean that the person is weak, or not
powerful. For instance, many Republicans or conservatives feel that President Obamas foreign policy
has been too soft and that America now looks weaker in the world than it used to.

immaculate - pure, clean, not dirty.in this passage I implied immaculate meant a purity due to a lack
of experience in the world.
predominantly mostly. Flushing Queens is made up, predominantly, of Koreans and Chinese.
hardship difficulty. If you have been experiencing a lot of hardship lately, your life has been tough, or
rough.
under the sun if you say everything under the sun, you are basically saying everything.
to get ones ass kicked to be defeated or beaten badly.
So now Im at - basically Im shifting focus to another story or another part of a story. Im saying,
OK, in this part of the story I am now at a lesbian bar in Chelsea.
an autograph when a celebrity autographs something, he/she signs his/her name to it.
to be or get pissed off this is slang for to get angry.
to explode with cheers explode, eruptthese are terms indicating a sudden and loud noise, like an
explosion. This is figurative language, again.
hysterical if you become hysterical you lose control of your emotions. You can say he laughed
hysterically or he cried hysterically. Those are the two most common usages.
impeccable means flawless, perfect, without fault.
petite this is a term for short and skinny women. Audrey Hepburn was known as a petite actress.

brawny muscular, meaty, not skinny but certainly not chubby or fat. A brawny person looks like a
strong person.
freaking - this is a nice way of saying fucking.
to root for to cheer for. I dont know where to root for comes from.
an underdog somebody not expected to win, or someone or some group that does not have good
chances or odds of winning.
Nadeshiko this is what the Japanese call their womens soccer team. No it doesnt mean cute
potentially lesbian Asian ladies it means beautiful little flower or something like that.
I let loose I let go, I acted without thinking, I went wild
beefy having muscles.
an icy stare a cold, hard look, when someone looks directly into your eyes without smiling and you
can sense that the person is a little pissed.
to glare at same thing as above. When a person looks right at you for a long time, making eye
contact and letting you know he/she is upset.
beats me Short for: It beats me, which means: I dont know.

to have the right to Americans use the word right or rights a lot. I have the right to say anything
I want to say! Or, conversely, You do not have the right to treat me that way! This term comes from
the US Constitution which lists various rights (abilities to do things) which, according to Americas
founding fathers, no government should be able to take away from people.
to dominate to control, to be in charge.
to out myself to reveal myself to be something, to show that I am something.
brilliant very, very intelligent or something amazing. Beckham scored a brilliant goal in the European
Championships.
a tying goal if you tie a score, you make sure you or your team now have an equal number of points
as the other team. If you are losing 3 to 2 and someone scores a goal, you have tied the score.
patriotic someone who really loves his country is patriotic.
adversity hardship, difficult times.
to be stunned to be shocked - If you were to be hit by a bolt of lightning, you would be stunned
(and maybe killed). The Police have stun-guns which can shoot electricity into a person and cause him
to collapse on the ground.
to come back - in sports terminology, if you come back, you were losing but now you are beginning to
catch up.
David and Goliath a Bible story referenced a lot, David was a skinny little shepherd boy who had to
fight against a giant and with Gods help he won.
disgusted if you feel disgusted you feel kind of sick or nauseated. If you think you are going to throw
up, then thats what feeling nauseated means.
a desperate struggle desperation is when you seem to be running out of hope or chances to
succeed at something and you might start to panic. A struggle is a type of fight or competition.
a miracle when something happens and it looks as if God made it happen because there are few other
explanations.
What the hell are - You can begin a sentence with What the hell to emphasize your shock. What
the hell are you doing looking through my personal belongings!? What the hell did you do that for!?
What the hell are you looking at!?
You part Japanese? Sometimes an American will leave out the verb form are when asking a
question like this. The question should be: Are you part Japanese? You gonna eat that? Are you going
to eat that? (If not, may I have it?) You tired? Are you tired? You hungry? Are you hungry?
to nod if you want to indicate yes, you nod your head up and down (move your head up and down).
To indicate no, you shake your head from side to side. She shook her head no. She nodded her
head yes.
askance sideways.

to slap to hit someone with the flat part of your open hand (your palm).
gullible someone who is gullible believes everything he/she is told.
To giggle to laugh lightly.
a girl thing something that girls would understand, something pertaining (dealing with) girls.
pulling my leg joking with me. I dont know who created this idiom. Stop pulling my leg! A kind of
dirty way to express this involves the word shit. If you are among friends you might say, Oh my God
you are shitting me! That means you are joking with me. You are shitting me! There is no way
Bloomberg will be elected mayor 4 times. This actually comes from the word bullshit. If something is
bullshit, it is a lie. If you tell someone something that he doesnt believe, he might say, Thats
bullshit!
underground if an activity is an underground activity, it is not a mainstream activity.
Underground art might be very strange, experimental art that most people would not like. An
underground organization might be a secret political or cultural organization.
a secret society a secret society is a society or group of people who choose to keep the operations,
goals and activities secret. The Freemasons are a famous secret society.
allegedly supposedly. This might have happenedsomeone claims it happenedits a good guess as
to what happened. i.e. Allegedly the man had tried to rob a liquor store, but when he was caught he left
the store and tried to run and was then hit by a car. Allegedly Bob and Mary are breaking up because
Bob has been going out with Jane but who really knows!
to buy into to believe in something someone told you.
gay male homosexual folks are called gay. Homosexual ladies are called lesbians.
The National Guard there are two versions of the military in America. The real Army, Navy, Air Force
and Marines and the National Guard versions. Members of the National Guard are kind of soldiers. They
receive some initial military training and then once a month they report for further training. They are
often used by states in emergencies. If there is a flood or earthquake, guys and women from the
National Guard will help people to survive and will distribute food etc. During the Vietnam War, George
white Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard. During that time you could avoid fighting in the
Vietnam War if you joined the National Guard. Im not sure why everyone didnt do this. If everyone had
done this, then the US military wouldnt have killed over 1 million Vietnamese people. I cant tell you
how pissed off I am about the Vietnam War.
disco a type of really tacky, evil, stupid music from the 1970s.
a pick-up spot a place to find sexual partners.
to kill two birds with one stone to do or accomplish two things at one time.
Whatever! a common phrase in New York City, which, basically, means I dont care.

Grammar stuff: How to use explain

Many students will say, He explained me how to get to the Metropolitan Museum.
No. No no no no no NO! That sounds worse than something a child would say in broken English.
Seriously, if you want to sound really stupid, keep saying explain me.
He explained how to get to the Metropolitan Museum to me.
When you use the verb to explain, you have to use: explain + object + to pronoun
Can you explain to me how I can get to the Met Museum? That works too.
Joe explained the problem to Bob. He explained the situation to her. We explained the book to them.
You often have to use how after explain. Can you explain how this works to me? Can you explain
how I can get to Yankee Stadium from here?
You really have to get out of the habit of saying explain me explain you explain him etc. It sounds
TERRIBLE to a native-English speaker. Really terrible.
Lousy: Bob explained her that she can buy a metrocard here.
Good: Bob explained to her that she can buy a metrocard here.
Good: Bob explained that she can buy a metrocard here to her.
Lousy: Mark explained me the story of the book.
Good: Mark explained the story of the book to me.
Lousy: Let me explain you the story.
Good: Let me explain the story to you.
At this point you should practice many sentences in which you use the verb to explain properly. Almost
every foreign student makes this mistake over and over again, and it sounds so bad. Please stop driving
me crazy and practice this!

More Grammar Stuff: How to say when something will happen in

the future
Many students will say: I am going on vacation two weeks later.
No. I am going on vacation in two weeks.
Please practice this because most students make this mistake and it drives me crazy.
No: Five months later I will go home.
Yes: In five months I will go home.
No: I will be a bit late. I will be there 20 minutes later.
Yes: I will be a bit late. I will be there in 20 minutes.
If you are running late and want to send a text message to someone, you can type: I will be about 20
minutes late.

You can use 3 days later or 20 minutes later, but be careful! Joe washed his car. 20 minutes later it
rained. I arrived in San Francisco on Monday. 3 days later I went to LA.
Do you see the difference? If you are talking about doing something at a future time, you have to use
in 3 days. If you are describing something that happened, you have to use 3 days later.

Fill-in-the-blanks: 18 really useful vocab words

gullible, allegedly, a miracle, desperate, to be stunned, patriotic, to glare at, to devote, to
root for, brawny, an underdog, competitive, suburban, mediocre, predominantly, hardship,
gaydar, to face
Although many critics think that Woody Allen made some brilliant films when he was younger, lately his
films seem to be less original and creative and are _____________ at best.
After the two strangers accidentally bumped into each other getting onto the subway car, neither
apologized and they just stood there ________________ at each other until one of them finally left the
train car.
We had paid a fortune to see a famous pianist at Carnegie Hall. This guy is _____________ one of the
worlds greatest pianists, but on that evening his performance was so mediocre that I almost fell asleep.
Sarah had heard that the taxi fare from JFK airport to downtown Manhattan was fixed (or set) by law at
about $45. Therefore she was _____________when the taxi driver demanded that she pay him $70 for
her trip into town from the airport. She refused to pay the unfair fee and reported the taxi driver to the
city (she took down his drivers number from the taxi). (Always jot down write down- the taxi drivers
number if he tries to cheat you. You can go online and easily report him to the Taxi and Limousine
Service. Hell get into a lot of trouble and you will make sure he doesnt try to cheat anyone else.)
Before Jack entered the military he looked like a scrawny kid (skinny, weak kid), but after he came home
3 months later, he looked like a ______________, powerful guy. He had developed massive muscles.
Everyone was excited that Italy was going to ___________ Spain for the European Championship, but
everybody then became disappointed that the Italian team performed so badly.
In August of 2011 the mayor of New York City told the people of New York that there was going to be a
violent hurricane (a storm that causes destruction and that comes from the ocean onto land) that would
hit the city. The _______________ citizens bought lots of extra food and water and hid inside their
homes, only to learn that the hurricane was no more than a mild (weak) rain storm. (But Bloomberg said
this showed he was a great leader who cared about other people.)
Scientists recently proved that if you spend a lot of time with gay people, you will develop very good
_____________. With this ability, you can often determine whether a person is gay or not just by
looking at him/her.
Francesco was surprised by how _____________ Americans are. Many Americans have American flags
flying outside their homes and feel quite proud to be Americans. In some European countries, people are
not that enthusiastic or proud about their countries.
When starting your own business, it is not unusual to experience a certain amount of _____________.
But often if you struggle long enough, you will succeed.

It was a ____________ that a 15 year old student in the Bronx survived being shot in the head by a stray
bullet. Not only did she survive, but she went back to school and recently graduated.
In the old days, the Bronx was made up of _______________ Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants. Now
it is mostly made up of Latinos and Black folks.
Bob was beginning to feel a little _______________. He knew he had to leave his apartment by the 30th,
and it was already the 22nd and he hadnt found a new place.
How much time should a person __________ to learning English? Well, experts differ in their advice.
The most reasonable answer would seem to be a meaningful amount each day. Not too much and not
too little. Study anything comfortably, and youll learn a lot.
When I was planning on moving to Chicago, there were some great housing deals in __________
locations, but I would have needed a car to get into the city where I had my new job.
There are two baseball teams in New York City: The Yankees and the Mets (Mets is short for
Metropolitans city-dwellers). The Yankees are located in the Bronx and the Mets are located in Queens.
Yet, some people in the Bronx __________ for the Mets and some in Queens cheer for the Yankees.
Americans loved the movie Rocky in the 1970s because it was about an ____________ fighter who was
given the chance to fight an opponent who was much more experienced and better than he was.
Getting into a famous or prestigious US university is a highly _____________ process. Yet, admission
is not based entirely on grades or a students grade point average. Many universities consider
background factors and special talents when they choose their incoming class.

Answers: mediocre, glaring, allegedly, stunned, brawny, face, gullible, gaydar, patriotic, hardship,
miracle, predominantly, desperate, devote, suburban, root, underdog, competitive

12. Immigration policy Get Your Victim Visa!

I was really confused. In fact, I was shocked. I had heard that Sunmi, my Korean friend, had been
attacked by four inner-city teenagers in Brooklyn and that they had stolen about $20 from her. They
shoved her up against a wall and took her wallet, then beat her a little bit before they ran
away. Thankfully they did not seriously hurt her, but I imagined that the attack must have been a
traumatic experience. Yet, at the coffee shop where she rested in between shifts at her illegal
restaurant job, she was very happy. Why was she happy? She had been given a victim visa after the
attack! So because she was an illegal immigrant who had been attacked in America, she could now
become an American citizen! You are not going to believe this story, but its really true!
First of all, Sunmi was totally illegal. Some immigrants come here with tourist visas and just dont leave.
They deliberately over-stay their visas. If such a person gets caught, to be honest with you, nothing
really bad happens. Basically they send the person back home, where the person belongs anyway, and
the person cannot come back to the US for a few years. Theres no terrible punishment. In fact, you
get a free plane ride home, so why not overstay your visa? So for a person who has no great prospects
back in his or her home country, overstaying a visa might be a good strategy. They then get tax-free
under-the-table jobs and live here under the radar. There is absolutely no effort to ever collect taxes

from people who work under-the-table and so this is a risk-free criminal activity that many foreigners
engage in.
The USA seems to condone this. And it seems that illegals working under-the-table jobs can live here
pretty comfortably. Your options (choices) are limited, however. You can be, basically, a waitress, a
nanny (taking care of children) or a dog-walker. Yes, in the USA people can make money by going to
other peoples apartments while they are working and walking their dogs. Dogs are treated better than
people in some parts of New York City. If you are a guy, you can also get some illegal jobs doing some
types of physical labor or construction. In rural areas illegals might be hired to pick fruit or vegetables on
farms.
Some illegal immigrants find Americans to marry this is called a green-card marriage. If you marry an
American person you can become an American in fact, its the easiest way. Eight foreign women have
offered to pay my language exchange partner Bob to marry them. I think he should have taken the
money and done it, but he says he has integrity and wont do it. Others just live here illegally their
whole lives because, basically, some business owners of the city profit from illegal immigrants. If a
person is illegal he/she does not have to be paid a fair or decent wage and there is no need to provide
insurance to these people etc. Its practically slave labor, to be honest with you. Indeed, earlier I
mentioned how badly waitresses can be treated by restaurant owners who hire illegal immigrants. Its
disgraceful.
The policy in regard to illegal immigrants in America is really screwed up. In some parts of the country
immigration officials hunt down illegal immigrants, while in many big cities the illegals are welcomed
and protected. In New York an ex-governor (Eliot Spitzer the guy who left office because he was
addicted to visiting prostitutes) even tried to give illegal immigrants official drivers licenses.
Illegals provide an extraordinarily cheap source of labor. Business owners like to say that illegals do the
jobs that Americans dont want to do, which sounds like racism or some other form of ism to me. It
makes it seem as if Americans are a special type of higher humanity and that they can bring in a lower
form of humanity to do the really nasty and dirty jobs. The solution, of course, would be for employers
to act like human beings and to pay people a higher salary to do the nasty jobs, but, instead, they like
the idea of bringing in poor people who cant speak English to do these jobs for a fraction of the
salary. They make lots more money doing this. Then they act as if they are such wonderful
benefactors because they are giving these immigrants a little more money than they would have made
in their home countries. Typical hypocrisy. Total exploitation.
Back to Sunmi. She had overstayed her visa by 8 years and there was really little that anyone could do
to help her become an American because she married another illegal immigrant instead of an American.
But then she got attacked. Even she didnt know how lucky she was to get attacked. But in New York
City the government really seems to like illegal immigrants. They are so good for business! So the
government doesnt want an illegal immigrant to be afraid of reporting any type of crime to the police.
If I am illegal and if I get attacked, I might be afraid to report the crime to the police for fear that I
might be kicked out of the country. So the government of New York City had to find a way to protect
these illegal immigrants from crime because they are such a valuable economic resource. The
government did not want criminals deliberately targeting illegals, knowing that the illegals might be afraid
to go to the police. So in New York City, if you are illegal, and if you are attacked, the city will help you
get a visa to become a legal citizen so that you can report the crime that happened without worrying
about getting kicked out of the country! This is called a victim visa.

So now several of Sunmis friends, who are also illegal, are very jealous and are trying to determine ways
that they can get attacked without being harmed too much, so that they can become American
citizens. Jeeyun actually tried walking through Harlem at 3am, but Harlem has become so gentrified
that she was perfectly safe. She was so angry that nobody attacked her. She really wants to become an
American citizen.
Who, exactly, by the way, are these illegals? Well, at one of my language schools (it sucked!) I met a
Hungarian woman who had been a lawyer in Hungary but who was now working as a waitress. She told
me the economy sucked in Hungary and she wanted to see whether she could go to graduate school in
the USA. She couldnt get a long-term visa and so she just over-stayed her visa and hoped for the
best. She was desperately searching for an American guy to marry when I knew her. I heard that she
was offering $20,000 to the right guy. Apparently, in regard to these green card marriages, the couple
has to remain married for two years in order for the foreigner to become an American. After that a
divorce can occur. This is totally illegal but the US government stupidly allows many of these marriages
each year. Who really knows how many - maybe thousands. And sometimes American guys take the
money and do not get married and there is nothing the illegal immigrant can do, because she will not
want to admit to offering money to a guy to become an American citizen.
I also once met a doctor from Peru, who was going through his licensing process in America, who was
working as a bus boy to make money illegally. Now, this is a really menial job! The guy was cleaning
tables and washing dishes and he was a doctor in his home country. So weve got foreign doctors and
lawyers here who are doing the dirty work so that Americans can eat at various nice ethnic restaurants,
supposedly for less money. The great humanitarian benefactors who support illegals overstaying their
visas are doing such a great service to the educated classes of the third world! I think we should
change the sign on the Statue of Liberty to read: Hey! Are you a doctor or lawyer in a struggling thirdworld country? Drop everything and come to America! We have numerous positions in the restaurant
industry for you and you can live here tax free. And, merely by marrying an American you can
immediately boost your status and join the professional class here. Or make sure you get attacked. Its
your choice! Come live the American dream!

Definitions of terms
a victim someone who is hurt in an accident or because of a crime.
inner-city essentially inner-city means the poor part of the city. It can also be called the inner city
if you are using this term to refer to a place.
to shove up against to push someone up against something.
trauma a trauma is a shocking and frightening situation which a person has a hard time forgetting or
getting over.
a shift a period of time during a day that a person works at a job. If you work the night shift you
might work from 5pm to 1am.
prospects possible good outcomes.
under the radar doing something without being noticed.

to condone this means to know that something is wrong but to allow it to occur anyway.
a green card marriage a green card is a card that gives a person permission to work in the USA. It
is a first step toward citizenship. If a foreigner marries an American he/she can often obtain a green
card. Otherwise, it's hard for a foreigner to get a green card unless the foreigner is hired by a company
that is willing to pay the legal fees for a person to get the green card through the company.
integrity a strong sense of honesty and honor.
a decent wage a respectable wage. A good wage.
to screw up to mess up, to ruin something.
to hunt s/o down to search for someone systematically and relentlessly (without giving up).
labor work.
a fraction a small portion.
a benefactor a helper.
hypocrisy when someone says one thing but does something else. If I tell you that smoking is bad for
your health but then you later see me smoking, I am a hypocrite or guilty of hypocrisy. A person who
does this is often called a hypocrite. It is pronounced: HIP oh crit.
exploitation when one person or party uses or takes advantage of another party.
for fear that out of fear that, or because of a fear that
to be kicked out of the country to be removed from the country, to be forced to leave.
gentrification the process in which poor people are forced out of a neighborhood so that wealthy
people can move in. Landlords (building owners) usually accomplish gentrification by raising rents.
a bus boy this type of worker usually cleans tables and removes dishes. This type of worker usually
helps waiters or waitresses.
a menial job - a job that does not require very many skills and for which a person might receive a very
low salary.
The third world basically any country that is not the United States of America or a European or Asian
ally of the USA. A third world country is a developing country.
to boost to increase.

Grammar stuff: one of _______s

This is one of the most common mistakes foreign students make. Notice that I wrote mistakes. If you
use one of.. you have to have a plural at the end of that phrase. One of my friends is studying in
Barcelona.
One of the uncles of my cousin is a millionaire. One of his friends is Danish.
One of the people at my office is a Japanese guy. (people is plural)
So what seems to be confusing to students about this is that you have to use a plural, but then you use
the third person singular form of the verb. That is because the subject is one. of the people is a
prepositional phrase. One of the people at my school is an ice skater.
So in this sentence, one is the subject, of the people and at my school are prepositional phrases is
is the verb and a star ice skater is the object. People has to be used because it is plural.
One of the students in my class is sexy. Students has to be plural this is what Im saying: 95% of
foreign students do not use the plural here and it sounds TERRIBLE to native English speakers.

More grammar stuff: to marry, to get married, to divorce,

to get divorced
Many students will say Joan got married with Bill. No.
Joan got married to Bill. Or, Joan married Bill.
So basically, if you use got married, youll have to use to. If you just use the verb to marry, youll
have to use an object.
Harry got married to Mary. Harry married Mary. Harry will get married to Mary. Harry will marry Mary.
Its the same with to divorce or to get divorced, except for the fact that you have to change to to
from. Joe will divorce Helen. Joe will get a divorce from Helen. Joe is divorcing Helen. Joe is getting
divorced from Helen.

12 Essential Vocabulary Words. Fill-in-the-blanks

a victim, inner city, the trauma or trauma (a countable and non-countable word), a shift,
prospects, labor, a fraction, a benefactor, hypocrisy, exploitation, gentrification, to boost
A strike, or an organized work stoppage, usually occurs when there is a disagreement which cannot be
resolved between the workers, or ________, and the supervisors, or management.
In an attempt to _________ the economy, by stimulating spending, the President and Congress can alter
tax laws to ensure people have more money to spend.

Whether the police acted legally or illegally, Amadou Diallo was certainly an innocent _______: he had
done nothing wrong before he was shot at 41 times by New York City police officers who mistakenly (and
stupidly) thought he was a criminal.
Virtually every American president since Jimmy Carter has tried to establish peace in the Middle East, but
the _____________ for peace are still quite uncertain.
City government should focus on developing the inner city. Instead they allow real estate developers to
engage in ______________, which merely forces poor people out of the city in favor of wealthier people.
There are advantages and disadvantages of working the night __________. Usually youll get paid more
but you might not be able to enjoy the nightlife of the city as much.
An area of economic hardship, such as the South Bronx, can be classified as an __________ area; this
type of area usually has higher rates of crime and violence as well as obesity and health problems.
Those people who, out of a sense of goodwill or compassion, support illegal immigration, do not address
the concern that illegal immigrants can be _____________ by employers who will pay them quite low
salaries and make them work long hours.
Although Americans think that a large ____________ of their pay goes to the government in taxes, it is
nothing compared to the amount that is taken by the English government from their people.
Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg points out that he has been a __________ to many charitable
organizations, he has failed to point out that he has never helped people in the inner city to improve their
lives.
Many educators feel it is _____________ for government leaders to demand harder work from teachers
while the government neglects its responsibilities to help the poor raise their families in better conditions
and help their children better prepare for school.
Psychologists have been studying the extent to which the __________ of the September 11 th attacks has
affected the school children who lived in that neighborhood at the time of the attacks. Are these children
experiencing greater stress and anxiety than children who were not in that area on that date?
Answers: labor, boost, victim, prospects, gentrification, shift, inner city, exploited, fraction,
benefactor, hypocrisy, trauma

13. See New York and Die.

Once, a few years ago, I was in a little bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to check out an indy rock band
called Easy Money. There was a guy there who was buying drinks for people. Lots of drinks. He was
really drunk, loud, dancinghaving the time of his life. Three days later I was looking through one of
New Yorks tabloid newspapers (a tabloid paper is a cheap, easy to hold newspaper which is often badly

written and which contains lots of gossip) and I saw his photo. He had committed suicide by jumping
from a very tall building. Why did he do it?
Apparently he had been living in New Orleans with his girlfriend around the time that Hurricane Katrina
hit that city. Instead of evacuating the city, he and the girl friend decided to stay in their home in the
abandoned city and enjoy themselves. They looted some stores, stole some food, wandered around
the streets at night everything you can do to enjoy yourself in a ruined city. One night, however,
while they were on illegal drugs, the guy flipped out and killed her. He stabbed her to death
numerous times. When he came to his senses and realized what he had done, he was overcome with
grief and guilt and decided that he needed to kill himself as a response to her murder.
So he gathered up all the money that he and the girlfriend had about $5,000 and hitched a ride to
New York City. It was his intention to live here for as long as he could on the $5,000 and then kill
himself when the money ran out. Hey! I think Mayor Bloomberg would say thats good for the local
economy! So this was the guy that I saw in the Williamsburg bar. Every day and night for thirteen days
and nights he experienced nothing but pleasure until his money ran out and he jumped from a
building. In his suicide note he stated that he had lived a life of pleasure and died with no regrets. He
wrote, I lived a nice, happy little life.
So what is the moral of this story? First, you can spend a lot of money here quickly pursuing pleasure
if you are not careful. Second, theres stuff to do here every night of the week. I would recommend,
however, that you should pursue economical pleasures here and that you pursue what I would call
meaningful pleasures. A lot of the stuff that costs a lot of money sucks. Let me explain. Or lets say
that if you want to live in New York City for a long time on a little bit of money, what can you do to have
fun?
My favorite fun, and CHEAP cultural activity is the Chelsea art galleries. There are about 200 art
galleries in the Chelsea neighborhood. Most of them are between 10th and 11th avenues and 20th and
27th streets. Within this square area you can go, any Thursday night of the year, and get free wine, do
some people watching and see some amazing art from artists who are currently alive and creating. Some
of the art is by famous artists, some by artists who will become famous and some by artists who should
become famous. Some of the work sucks, but I have to be positive for a change and tell you that a lot
of the art in Chelsea is thought-provoking and wonderful. I think going to the Chelsea galleries is
better than going to the Met Museum or MoMA. What is the difference between these galleries and the
museums? These galleries stay in business by selling art. Museums stay in business by charging
admission fees and buy receiving donations.
Of course this is New York City and so there is a downside to this story of this great resource of 200
galleries. The downside is that these galleries are slowly disappearing. About 5 years ago there were
about 300 art galleries in Chelsea. At around that time, however, the Highline Park was built. This is
an elevated park. It is a park built on above-ground railroad tracks. Trains stopped running on those
tracks many years ago, and so they turned the tracks into a park. Many tourists go to the Highline and
this has caused the development of many hotels and apartment buildings in that area. These new
buildings are attracting more people and the rent in that neighborhood is going through the roof
(increasing rapidly). So many of the gallery owners can no longer afford to pay rent to stay in that
neighborhood. Im guessing that 10 years from now there will no longer be a Chelsea art gallery district.
So New York has a new tourist trap, but will lose some amazing art galleries.
Frankly, this is crazy. This was an amazing resource to this city. How a mayor could just sit around and
allow a resource like this to die is beyond my understanding. But, basically, the loss of the Chelsea art
gallery district is a little allegory (symbolic story) for whats happening to New York City in general. The

priority is to bring in more and more affluent people (people with money) and to push out anything else.
So New York will get lots more wealthy people, and will lose lots of art galleries. In a previous chapter I
pointed out that New York City has gone through different phases (stages). I am afraid the next phase
of New York will not be an especially meaningful one. It will be New York as an area of comfort and selfsatisfaction, not as a dynamic city of change and progress. It will be bourgeois hell.
Oh! Speaking of art. If you want to go to the Metropolitan Museum, don't pay them very much. They
request that you pay $25 for admission but that's too damn high. According to the law, they can only
recommend what you should pay. They cant force you to pay anything. Don't feel guilty about paying
them a dollar. You just have to say, "I'd like to pay $1 today." The person behind the counter will say,
"OK, thank you!" That person is usually a student working part-time, so he/she doesn't care what you
pay.
Also, the Museum building belongs to the people. We paid for it and we built it. Furthermore, the City of
New York gives the museum money every year and provides the museum with free electricity. This
museum belongs to you - pay it one dollar. Im serious!!!! Please dont pay this place more than one
dollar. It is outrageous that they are trying to get $25 from you! By the way, each museum in the city
has a free day or a day when you can pay what you want to in order to enter. Take a look at each
museums website and find out when you can get in for free or for a dollar. I would, however,
recommend that you should check out the Frick Collection on Sunday. You can get in for a dollar on
Sunday between 11am and 1pm. This building used to belong to a guy named Henry Clay Frick, who
was a zillionaire. He bought lots of art from Europeans who needed money. He bought so much art that
after he died they just turned his house into a museum.
But back to Chelsea. Thursday night is usually opening night. This means that some galleries will be
showing new exhibits of work and so they keep these galleries open later than usual (from 6pm 8pm)
and have a mini-party in each gallery with new work. Everyone is welcome and it doesn't matter what
you wear. Most gallery "hoppers" (a gallery hopper is a person who likes going to galleries) wear normal
clothes. There is usually free wine, cheese, interesting people and often the artist him/herself is there to
smooze with. Everyone is welcome! Once people get a little wine in their bellies they can act strange
though.
I went to an opening with my language exchange partner Bob and a sexy Korean friend of mine and
some big, fat drunken white guy came up to us while my alcoholic language exchange partner Bob was
getting more wine. This big fat white guy said to my Korean friend: Hey, babyare you
Japanese? She responded by telling him that she was, in fact, Korean. He then said, Well, who cares
what you aregimme a kiss baby! He then leaned forward to try to kiss her! At this point my language
exchange partner saw this and came running in and chased the guy away. The fat guy kept saying to
Bob: Oh manIm so sorry! I didnt know she was with you! As if she was the property of my
language exchange partner the fat guy never apologized to her, only to the guy he thought she was
with! And my exchange partner was kind of fat!
Oh my God it was so embarrassing that he thought the sexy Korean girl was dating my fat language
exchange partner Bob! Anyway, if you want to avoid the rare incidents like this, drop by the galleries on
a Saturday morning and leisurely stroll through them they will all be open and everyone is welcome
to come in and look around, but you won't get free wine. The owners are so nice. Theyll leave you
alone to look, but if you ask a question they will be very happy to talk to you about the art in their
galleries. These owners love their jobs! They want to sell art, but they want people to benefit from their
galleries too.

Other cheap but provocative cultural activities? Off-off Broadway theater. Dont waste your money
on the huge Broadway productions; they suck. All glitz. And it is too damn expensive. You can see five
good off-off Broadway plays for the price of one Broadway play. Off-off Broadway shows are only about
$15 or $20 and have actors who are passionate about acting. The material is often more thoughtprovoking and its just more fun to sit in a little theater among cool people and watch something that
most people will miss. Youll be engaged by off-off Broadway theater, youll be entertained by
Broadway. Your perspective on life and about yourself can be changed by an off-off Broadway
production. I would recommend searching for off-off Broadway in an internet search engine.
The other thing that I have enjoyed doing is going to see the movie version of Metropolitan Opera
performances. To see an actual Opera, it would cost you about $100, at least. But the Met Opera films
each of its operas and shows the opera in theaters around the world once a month. I have always loved
going to these much cheaper film versions of the operas. Im an opera expert now because I have
attended so many of the Met movies.
Finally, you should check out the little bars on the Lower East Side and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These
bars usually have indy rock bands that play on a nightly basis. Some of these bands may become
commercial, some may not. Who cares its fun to buy some ear-plugs (please wear ear-plugs) and to
be engulfed by the deep, pulsating bass rhythms that seem to penetrate your body as you stand
drinking your cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. If theres any loud guy buying drinks for everyone and
dancing and acting as if he is nearing the end of a short, happy lifemaybe you should call the police.

Definitions of terms
to check something out to take a look at, to sample, to investigate.
indy rock this is rock music that is recorded on small labels or by small companies. These bands can
later be signed by major labels or big companies.
to commit suicide suicide is not a verbyou have to say he committed suicide.
to evacuate to remove citizens from a dangerous area of a city or country.
to abandon to leave something behind.
to loot this is a form of stealing that happens in cities where some type of disaster occurs. After an
earthquake people might break into stores and take things without paying for them. Thats looting.
ruined destroyed.
to flip out to go crazy, to lose control and do something extreme or violent.
to stab to take a sharp object and force it into a human being in order to seriously harm that person.
to come to ones senses to suddenly realize that one has done something crazy.
grief extreme sorrow, guilt a feel of regret or remorse for something bad one did and which one
cannot change

to hitch a ride to ask for a ride from a stranger, usually by standing on a highway with a sign
the moral of a story what the story means, the deeper meaning of a story. So I am being silly here
by saying the moral of the story is that you can spend money quickly in New York City.
Lets say this is useful when you want to give someone an example.
Chelsea a neighborhood in New York City with lots of gay people and lots of art galleries.
for a change this kind of means finally.
thought-provoking something that causes one to think.
a tourist trap a place where tourists visit. A trap is a device that catches something. So tourist
traps catch tourists and take away their money.
bourgeois hell bourgeois, pronounced boo SZA, means wealthy people. Hell is a place of pain and
punishment. New York City will look like a hell filled with boring, uncreative, wealthy people.
outrageous shocking! If something is outrageous it can make you very angry or upset because it is so
unreasonable. If you are outraged by something, something has made you very very angry.
to smooze or to smooze with to socialize with differing people in a casual setting.
a leisurely stroll a casual walk.
off-off Broadway basically you have three types of theatre productions in New York City. Broadway
is expensive and near Times Square. Off-Broadway is less expensive and kind of near Times
Square. Off-off Broadway is dirt cheap (very cheap), inexpensive and usually much better.
glitz something shiny and attractive that is basically meaningless or not important.
engaged affected by, influenced by, made to think or feel by.
commercial an activity from which you can make money.
engulfed surrounded or swallowed by.
pulsating throbbing, like a heart-beat.

Grammar stuff: there is, there are etc.

This is huge. You have to get used to saying there is there are there was there were there will
be etc.. In fact, this occurs in all verb forms: There have been, there will be, there should be etc.

Most students will say something like, We had four children in our family or we were four children in
our familyno no no noThere were four children in our family.
Most, if not all, western languages have this. In German it is es gibt and in Spanish it is hay. There
are indicates existence. There are 30 students in my class. There are 50 states in the United States of
America. There are three children in my family. There is a funny squirrel that lives in the tree in front of
my house. There is a good TV show on tonight.
There were a few reasons why I quit my job. There was a period of time when half of Europe was
communist. There were no students absent yesterday. There were very few crimes on the New York
City subway system last year.
There have been 44 presidents of the United States of America. (We use have been because there will
be more presidents.) There have been a number of suicides that took place at the Empire State Building.
(This anticipates that there will be more there is the possibility that there will be more).
Its going to be tough for you to make this change if you are not using there is correctly, unless
someone points it out to you, but try to be aware of situations where you have to express existence
without a definite subject and you should start to catch on.

12 essential vocab words. Fill-in-the-blanks

to evacuate, to loot, to stab, ruined, grief, guilt, to smooze, glitz, commercial, to be engulfed
by, outrageous, to abandon
The typical New York City cocktail party is a good opportunity for people of the same social class and the
same interests to ______________ comfortably.
Although some people like the atmosphere and the __________ of Broadway productions, I look for the
teeny weeny (small) theatres that present more engaging and thoughtful work.
New York City became a huge ____________ center because of the early traders who benefited from
New Yorks harbor and then the bankers who benefited from the excess capital produced by trade.
After any major natural catastrophe some people will totally disregard the law and the needs of others
and begin to ____________ various businesses.
Because the city of Chicago had been built, primarily, out of wood, virtually the entire city was
_______________ by fire in 1871, but it was quickly rebuilt of more permanent and less flammable
materials after that. (If something is flammable, it will burn.)
Almost every year it seems that the fares for the MTA subway system go up. What I feel to be
__________ is the fact that the fares are increased to pay for the higher and higher salaries for MTA
workers who dont even do a good job.
Although the elimination of Native American cultures and over 200 years of slavery are terrible incidents
in the history of the USA, very few people seem to feel any ___________ about this; they claim that they
did not do anything and they are not responsible for the actions of their ancestors.

The __________ that a person feels after the death of a parent is often inexpressible and immeasurable.
The September 11th terrorist attacks seemed, at first, to have ____________ New York Citys economy,
but the economy bounced back quickly afterwards.
The Mayor of New York had hoped to bring the 2012 Olympics to New York City. His plans to host the
Olympics had to be ____________ after the Olympics was awarded to London.
When the police noticed that smoke was coming out of a car in Times Square, they immediately
_______________ the area and disassembled (took apart) the bomb that could have exploded.
In one of the strangest stories of crime in subway history, a man ____________ three other men with a
knife because one of the men accidentally hit him with garbage he was trying to throw away.

Answers: schmooze, glitz, commercial, loot, engulfed, outrageous, guilt, grief, ruined,
abandoned, evacuated, stabbed

14. Subway stories

So these three guys had just gotten out of a late-night party and were heading home on the subway. It
was about 5am on a Sunday. As the doors of the subway opened at a stop, one of the guys tried to
throw a small bag of garbage through the doors and into a garbage can outside of the train.
This was an absolutely stupid idea. Doing stupid things - even little stupid things - in a large, congested
(crowded) city can get you killed. Folks, you dont know how many ticking time bombs there are in
this city. One stupid little thing can set someone off as if he were a bomb waiting to explode. The guy
who threw the garbage missed hitting the garbage can and hit a guy standing next to the doors. That
guy became so angry, enraged, in fact, that he pulled out a knife and killed two of the men. He injured
the third man. It happened so quickly that nobody could stop it, or everyone was too afraid to stop what
was happening.
When the train stopped at the next stop and the doors opened, the murderer escaped although they later
caught him. So hes no longer out there waiting to kill anyone else who hits him with garbage. He was
19 years old when this happened. This incident, however, revealed to the people of New York that the
MTA did not have surveillance cameras in every subway station. In fact, in the stations where there
were cameras, half the cameras were broken. The MTA was paying 350 million dollars of tax money a
year for security and they didnt even have security cameras that could capture the image of a
murderer.
Then there was the story of two guys who got into an argument on the subway over something petty
(small, not really important). Again, one of the guys pulled out a knife and stabbed the other guy to
death. I am guessing that you have a lot of guys carrying knives on the New York City subway
system. After this murder, everyone on the subway ran to the other side of the car from where this

happened. Someone contacted the police through an emergency communications box in the subway car
and the police ordered the person driving the train to keep its doors closed when it reached the next
station so that the police could arrest the murderer. So when the train pulled into the next station it
stopped with locked doors until the police could arrive. 35 people were locked in the same subway car
with a violent and angry murderer. They were locked in there for over 5 minutes, until the police finally
arrived.
Thankfully the murderer did not feel like killing anyone else and these terrified passengers (straphangers) were unharmed. There was some controversy about this, however. Should they have opened
the doors to let innocent people escape or was it necessary to keep people's lives in danger so that a
murderer could be caught? I don't know, I'd probably have allowed the doors to be opened so others
would not get killed. I think the NYPD was pretty lucky on this day.
The ultimate New York City subway story, however, is the legendary story of Bernie Getz. This
happened back in the 80s when New York City was going through a wild-west stage where crime was
rampant, especially on the subways. So Getz was this nerdy, skinny guy with coke-bottle thick glasses
who had been robbed in the subway system before by an African American youth. From what Ive been
able to understand, law enforcement was a joke back then people were pretty much on their
own. Apparently nothing much happened to the guy who had robbed Getz and this made Getz very
angry. So, like any angry American, Getz went out and bought a gun. They are all over the place. Need
a gun? Trust me, youll be able to find one. He started carrying the gun with him on the subway. He
had just decided that he wasnt going to take it any more. The city wasnt doing anything to protect
people and he was tired of being scared. Now I know what youre thinkingisnt this illegal? Yeah! Hell
yeah! In America you may own a gun and keep it in your house for protection but you may not ride
around on the subway with it.
So one fine day Bernie was traveling home on the subway late at night from his job. Four African
American youths approached him for money. Now heres where the stories differ. It seems that they
surrounded him in a manner in which he thought was intimidating. The youths claimed
otherwise. Nobody seems to be really sure what was said, but Getz later claimed that he felt intimidated
and threatened and because of the prior attack he pulled out the gun and began shooting. He hit all of
the African American youths. Thankfully none of them was killed but one was paralyzed from the
waist down.
So what happened to Getz? He kind of became a hero to many people who were fed up with the lack
of safety in New York City. In fact, this situation may have been a turning point in New York City
history. He was called the subway vigilante and after this shooting I think people realized that
something had to be done about the runaway crime. Getz, of course, was arrested, but people in the
African American community were a bit upset because the jury only found him guilty of illegally
possessing a gun not attempted murder. The jury seemed to understand why Getz acted the way he
did and condoned the shooting. He only spent a few months in prison. However, in America the legal
system is made up of two basic branches the criminal and the civil court systems. So Getz got
kind of lucky in the criminal system but the African American guys then sued Getz in the civil court
system. Getz was tried in the Bronx and every member of the jury was Black or Latino. They found Getz
guilty and fined him millions of dollars. However, Getz found ways of avoiding the payments owed to
the youths. He has boasted that he has not paid those youths one penny that he was ordered to pay
them. The irony, however, is that two of the African American youths who were shot by Getz later
committed their own crimes violent crimes. One of the youths actually raped a child several months
later.

In any case, be careful on the subways. One of my Japanese female buddies has been mugged twice in
the subway and every once in a while you hear about crazy guys who push people onto the subway
tracks so that the people are run over by trains. I remember reading about this twice and each time the
pusher was a schizophrenic guy who had been released from an American hospital because his
insurance had run out.
The only really strange thing I ever saw in the subway involved two well-dressed white people. One was
a guy, maybe in his late 30s, maybe a real estate agent or banker and the other was a woman, probably
in her early 50s, who looked a bit like a lesbian short, spiky hair and round wire-frame glasses, a
vest, long pants. These two people accidentally bumped into each other as they were entering the
train. Now, heres some advice: if anyone bumps into you or if you bump into another person just say,
Oooops! So Sorry! That will disarm the other person and hell then say, Oh! No Problem! Thats
OK! Neither of these people did that. Instead, they exchanged insults. I cant remember the exact
insults but they were something like: You fucking moron! Watch where you are walking! and/or: You
asshole! You bumped into me!
After that brief exchange I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping there would be some kind of
physical fight but things seemed to immediately die down. As luck would have it, though, when
people began to clear out of the subway car at a particular stop, each of these people found a seat facing
the other. So the woman looked at the guy and said, Nice shoes! What did you pay for those cheap
shoes? $20? The guy then said, Fuck you bitch. I paid more for these shoes than you paid for your
whole wardrobe last year. She then said, And nice jacket. Did you get that at a thrift
store? Again, Fuck you bitch. This is a designer jacket. Some stupid bitch like you wouldnt recognize
that, though, would she? She continued. Oh nice tie! Is that a clip-on tie? Fuck you bitch! This is
100% silk and I purchased it in Milan myself. Its better than anything you could buy with your welfare
check isnt it? Yeah, well good haircut! It looks like a childs haircut! Did your mommy cut your hair
for you? Bitch, at least my mommy didnt give birth to some disgusting dyke! This is when I had to
leave the train. Yes, fine examples of the white professional class in America.

Definitions of terms
a ticking time bomb a time bomb is a device that will explode after a certain amount of time goes
by. We say that certain people are ticking time bombs, meaning that sooner or later they are going to
explodeit is just a matter of time. Ticking is the sound that an old fashioned clock made. Tick tock tick
tock tick tock.
to be enraged to be very very very angry. Rage is extreme anger. Outrage is anger one feels
when one witnesses or experiences an injustice.
surveillance cameras these are cameras used by the police or security systems to monitor behavior
in public places. Once the murder occurred, everyone in New York City was sure the murderers face
would have been caught on such a surveillance camera, but the camera at that station didnt work.
to capture an image to catch an image on film or tape; the process in which an image registers on a
photo or film.
to arrest when the police arrest someone they take this person to a police station because they
believe he/she has committed a crime.

a straphanger this is another term you hear a lot in New York City for people who ride the
subways. If there are no seats, people have to stand and hold straps coming from the ceiling of the car.
ultimate means final or best or the best example of something.
legendary really really famous almost like a legend or myth.
the wild west a period in American history when there was very little law enforcement in various
western towns and people had to take care of criminals or criminal acts themselves. Often a person
suspected of a crime was just hanged from a tree by his neck until he died. This was in the 1800s.
rampant out of control. Rampant inflation is destroying the economy.
nerdy a nerd is basically a person who doesnt care too much about his/her appearance, is very
studious likes to read, is intelligentperhaps a nerd will wear glasses. Nerd used to have a negative
connotation. A nerd was thought to be a weak and not very cool person. But American society has
changed and now nerds like Bill Gates are highly valued and admired.
law enforcement was a joke Law enforcement is the act of upholding the law or making sure the
law is followed or making sure that if the law is broken the person who broke the law can be brought to
justice. The police are the primary law enforcement officials in any modern society. Back then when
people thought about the NYPD upholding the law they often laughed as if the idea of that was a
joke. Expecting the NYPD to do their job, back then, was felt to be ridiculous.
may own a gun not can own a gun. May means permission, can means ability.
intimidating frightening, threatening.
a claim an assertion, a statement a person has made which might be true or false.
prior before.
to be paralyzed to be unable to move either a certain part of your body or your entire body.
the waist this is the area of the body that separates the upper and lower part of a persons body.
to be fed up with to be at a point where one is so angry or upset about something that he/she will
not tolerate that thing or action any more.
a lack of an absence of, not having enough of something.
a turning point the point in time where a situation turns or changes from something to something
else.
a vigilante this is a non-police officer who punishes a person or people for some type of alleged
crime. Vigilantism is totally illegal.

runaway crime out of control crime.

possessing a gun having a gun.
to condone to know that something is wrong but to allow it anyway.
civil vs. criminal court civil court deals with money. You can sue a person in civil court. When you
sue someone you file legal papers against him to obtain money from him. In the criminal court system
there are other forms of punishment although a monetary fine is also possible.
a fine this is a punishment in which a person is expected to pay money.
to be mugged to be attacked and robbed. To be robbed means that a person takes your money or
something you own.
schizophrenic a person who doesnt know reality. He/she no longer has a real connection with
reality. This is a severe mental illness. This type of person may see things that do not exist or hear
strange voices.
to run out if something runs out, you no longer have it. My insurance ran out last week; now I have
no insurance. I had a six pack of beer but I ran out of beer yesterday after my brother came over.
a lesbian this is a woman who is attracted sexually to other women.
spiky sticking up in the air like a spike.
to disarm to remove a weapon from someone or in this case to be so nice to a person that he/she
cannot do anything mean or bad to you.
a moron this is the opposite of a genius. A moron is someone felt to be very very stupid.
as luck would have it an expression that means luckily or fortunately.
a wardrobe all the clothing that a person owns and wears; usually a persons wardrobe is to be found
in his/her closet.
a thrift store this is a store where you can buy clothing which has been worn before. You can also
buy a number of second-hand things there books, dvds, toys etc.
a clip-on tie men who wear ties usually have to learn how to tie them. Male children just usually clip
on their ties, meaning there is a little device that allows the child to affix the tie to his shirt
without having to tie it the tie is already tied for him.
a welfare check welfare checks are sent to poor people, usually single mothers, in America. A check
is a piece of paper that allows the transfer of money from one person or party to another.

a dyke this is a very mean and nasty term for a lesbian. Basically there are two types of lesbians: a
lesbian can be butch or femme. A butch lesbian has male characteristics. A femme lesbian is more
feminine and attracted to butches. Gay males are tops or bottoms. Many of my friends remark that the
most attractive men in New York City are gay. That's true. Some heterosexual men (men who like
women) are trying harder to be physically attractive, however, and now these guys are being called
"metrosexuals." Metropolitan means city-like. These are attractive city guys who are not gay, but might
look gay.

Grammar stuff: confused, confusing, embarrassed, embarrassing

etc.
To confuse and to be confused are very confusing to foreign speakers.
To confuse is a transitive verb. That means it takes an object. I confused him when I spoke in
Italian. He confused me when he told me that story. Me is the object.
To be confused is an adjective. I was confused by his story. I became confused, or I got confused,
when he spoke to me in Italian. I got confused by what you said. What you said confused me.
Do you see the difference?
Before you use confuse or confused think about whether you are using it as a verb or as an
adjective. If you are using it as a verb, use a subject, confuse, and an object. She confuses me when.
If you use it as an adjective, use it as an adjective! The confused person looked confused. He was
confused by the difficult math problem. (adjective) The math problem confused him. (verb)
Its the same with embarrassed. To embarrass and to be embarrassed. He embarrassed me when he
told me the dirty story. I was embarrassed when my friend told one of my personal stories to other
friends of mine.
Another big problem: a person can be embarrassed or confused, but a situation is embarrassing or
confusing. You NEVER say I am confusing!!!!!! I AM CONFUSED!!!!!!!!! I am confused, I am
embarrassed, the problem was confusing, the situation was embarrassing.

15 Essential Vocabulary Words. Fill-in-the-blanks

to be enraged, to arrest, a straphanger, ultimate, rampant, intimidating, a claim, prior, to be
paralyzed, the waist, a lack of, a vigilante, to condone, schizophrenic, a lesbian
Some conservatives thought that whether or not a Supreme Court judge might or might not be a
________________ was a big issue since she would have opportunities to make rulings on cases dealing
with laws regarding same-sex marriages.
Initially, according to the Arizona immigration law, anyone might be stopped and asked to prove he/she
is a citizen. Under a significant change, only if a person is suspected of committing a crime and then
_______________ can he/she be questioned about citizenship status.

Everyone was shocked to hear of the strange man who pushed an innocent woman in front of a moving
MTA subway train. It was later revealed that he was suffering from the psychological disease called
_____________, where a person can no longer distinguish between what is real and what isnt.
One significant problem with the immigration policy of the US is that there is often a __________ skilled
labor in the USA for certain professions but highly educated foreigners cannot get into the country or
cannot get visas to work here.
Individuals who are pro-choice often point out that they do not __________ abortion, but they feel it is
the womans choice to continue or to end her pregnancy within a reasonable amount of time.
Many Americans were ______________ to find out that administrators at Penn State University
apparently tried to cover up crimes involving the sexual abuse of children committed by a Penn State
athletic coach.
Generally in New York City _____________ are quite well-behaved and courteous I often see people on
the subway give up their seats to the elderly or the pregnant.
Even though there were no surveillance cameras in the subway system, police were able to _________
the murderer based on a description given by witnesses.
In the ___________ game of The World Series, the Yankees were able to win and take home their 27 th
championship. Historical note: The term Yankee comes from the name Jan Key. Key was a very
aggressive New England trader who seemed to best represent the new type of businessman being
developed in America in the late 1790s. New England is the upper part of the American east
coast. Europeans began to refer to all American businessmen as Jan Keys (or Yankees).
The American press often reported the number of American soldiers who had been killed in Iraq, but they
often failed to mention the number of soldiers who had been ___________ and who could no longer
function as actively as they once had.
Both cockroaches and bedbugs seem to be ___________ in New York City. You find bedbugs even in the
swankiest (fanciest) hotels and cockroaches are ubiquitous. Rats are also becoming a huge problem.
The Guardian Angels were a group of young men and women who, as volunteers, patrolled (walked
through and monitored) New York City subway cars in the 70s and 80s in order to ensure the safety of
passengers. They made it clear, however, that they were NOT _____________, they were not interested
and catching criminals but in preventing crime in the first place.
Many first time arrivals to the USA find the immigration officers at the airport to be quite
____________. Indeed, they probably try to be frightening since they must make sure that no terrorists
can sneak into the country. They should be more polite, though.
When women in America start to get fat, you see it first in their butts. As for men, you can see the fat
start to accumulate around their ____________ and they have to, of course, begin buying bigger and
bigger sized pants.

The city __________ that there are only 2,000 homeless people living on the streets but homeless
activists find this figure to be way too low. way too.something is VERY common in English. He is
way too fat. She is way too angry. "way too" can mean "far too."
Life ___________ to the September 11, 2001 attacks is often remembered to be more peaceful and
calm, although I think it was probably just as tough to live here then as it is now.
Answers: lesbian, arrested, schizophrenia, lack of, condone, enraged, straphangers, arrest,
ultimate, paralyzed, rampant, vigilantes, intimidating, waists, claims, prior

15. 9/11/01: From Tragedy to Disillusionment

It happened quite a while ago, so if you are kind of young you might not really know what 9/11/2001
was in the history of New York City. By the way, 09/11/2001 means September 11, 2001. In Europe
and Asia this date would have been written: 11/09/2001. So let me give you a run-down on what 9/11
was and let me tell you some of the dirt that most people outside of New York City did not hear about in
regard to some of the shocking things that happened afterwards.
I was on vacation at the time, so I asked my fat language exchange partner Bob what his experience
was. He was a teacher back then and heres what he wrote to me over email. It is both interesting and a
little funny, believe it or not.
Bob: As you know I was teaching the 7th grade at a school in the Bronx at that time. I had finished
teaching my first class of the day and then had taken that group of students down to the school gym.
As I was walking back to my classroom for a break, I ran into the school secretary who told me to go up
to my classroom and turn on the classroom TV because someone had flown an airplane into one of the
World Trade Center buildings. So I imagined that a small airplane had accidentally crashed into the side
of the building and I went upstairs to see what had happened. By the time I got there, however, a
second large airplane had been flown into the other World Trade Center building and when I turned on
the TV I was aghast at what I saw.
When my group of students arrived for the next class, we just sat there watching the TV for the rest of
the day. The city government felt that it would be better to keep students in their school buildings
instead of sending them home, although some parents came to the school to take their children home.
What I remember most was that my students couldnt understand why people were jumping from the
windows of the World Trade Center buildings. This was the first big question they had. Students kept
saying, Dont they know they are going to die by jumping? So I had to explain that many of the people
in the buildings faced a dilemma. They couldnt get out of the burning buildings (the elevators and
stairs were no longer usable) and so they had two choices they could die by being burned to death or
they could die by jumping from 85 stories or even higher.
The other thing my students were worried about, of course, was their safety. This was big question
number 2, which soon became big question number 1. The school principal wanted to act like a
macho guy and so he convened all the students and teachers into the assembly hall shortly after the
attacks so he could give us an inspirational and comforting speech. Now, to be honest with you,

when your city is being attacked, its probably not a great idea to take 500 children and place them in
one small room (they can all be easily obliterated at one time). But he really felt he needed to deliver
his inspirational and comforting speech. Maybe he had waited his entire life to deliver a speech like this,
and he didnt want to miss his chance. Who knows?
Being a principal is kind of a boring job. You just have to punish little kids for doing stupid little things
that all little kids do and you have to harass and threaten your teachers to try to make them get higher
standardized test scores from their students. He was a small-time, career educrat, and this was
suddenly his shining moment. History had found him. He would sparkle. This was his Winston
Churchill moment. He was in New York City (on the edge of NY City but still in NY City). There was a
disaster (miles away) but he was a leader. We were his flock. He would comfort and inspire us.
So he told the students they were safe, even though we were all crammed into one small assembly hall
and one small bomb would have killed all of us. He then told us justice would be done. The
perpetrators would be found. He said that American technology had been used to harm America but
American technology was fearsome and would be used to even the score. He said evil men had done
this and they would be rooted out and held accountable. They would be brought to justice, dead or
alive. Basically he scared the hell out of my students. By the time we got to our classroom again,
some of the girls were crying.
Earlier, while watching the TV reports, students at the school knew this was happening in Manhattan
and, to kids in the Bronx, Manhattan sometimes seems as far away as the moon. Its like another city
instead of another part of New York City. But after hearing their principal tell them they were safe so
many times, the students began to realize they might not be as safe as they had thought. Suddenly
Manhattan seemed a lot closer than the moon. Too close. Too damn close.
So we came back up to our classroom and one of my students said, Mr. B, give it to us straight! Are
we going to get killed here or not?! Another student said, How the hell are we safe? Just because our
principal says were safe? Who the hell is he? What crap! Airplanes are flying into buildings all over the
place! How the hell are we safe?!
So I told them the truth.
I said, Alright. Are we going to get killed here? I dont think so. Why not? Theres nothing of any value
to destroy or fly into here in the Bronx. Theres absolutely nothing a terrorist would want to blow up
here. This whole borough is so damn poor the terrorists wouldnt waste their time on it. What the hell
are they going to blow up? The dollar stores? The cheap liquor stores? The empty parking lots? The
dirty little Chinese take-out places? Theres literally nothing! Think about it, what the holy hell can
terrorists even fly airplanes into in this borough?! Theres nothing! Guys, lets face it, you are probably in
the safest area in the whole United States right now!
They were very happy to hear this! And, I felt like a leader. I felt like Churchill. I had inspired and
moved and comforted my students. One student asked whether he could run and tell this good news to
his younger brother in another classroom, so I let him. Then word spread around the school and
students started to cheer up a bit. They started smiling and joking around, until they saw the TV again,
and saw people jumping off window ledges, and then they looked grim and grew solemn once more,
but I think they felt a little safer knowing there was nothing to attack in the Bornx.

Basically the Bronx is so far from lower Manhattan that I didnt really see anything. At times we heard
military planes flying over the school, but the planes had taken action far too late. The only other thing I
remember is that over the next few weeks the art teacher had all the kids create 9/11 artwork and then
she had a big gallery-style show in the school cafeteria, but basically every kid drew or painted the same
types of images people falling from buildings or airplanes crashing into buildings. So some parents and
people from the community came and saw badly drawn childrens pictures of people falling from buildings
and wondered why kids were drawing people falling from buildings instead of drawing horses or dogs or
their mothers. It was kind of a morbid show, actually. Nobody was really sure what the point of the
show was, but a small neighborhood newspaper did a story about the show (A Childrens Perspective
of Horror!) and so the art teacher and the macho principal seemed quite satisfied.
This is Suzy again. You can go online and look up this date and see video of at least one airplane flying
into one of the World Trade Center buildings. There were two World Trade Center buildings which had
been built on the lower tip of Manhattan in the early 70s. These buildings had been the tallest buildings
in the world for a short time until they were eclipsed by Chicagos Sears Tower (now called the Willis
Tower). Both of the buildings were huge, over 100 stories (floors), and ugly as hell. These buildings
were built when Americans cared about having the tallest buildings in the world. They got bored with
that, however. Now people in Malaysia and Taiwan and the Middle East seem to care about this.
Americans really dont care anymore about having the tallest buildings.
When I lived in Brooklyn I would see these buildings off in the distance as I walked toward my subway
stop and I always thought they were quite drab and boring, kind of an eyesore. They were built when
big was considered beautiful and style didnt matter one bit: they were two giant rectangular
structures that were built during the era of ugly skyscrapers. To people who hated America they
represented brute economic domination and force. They symbolized Americas power on the world
stage: these stark, gray buildings that hid, behind their boring faades, the types of business
dealings that controlled lives around the world and made some people filthy rich and kept some people
dirt poor. The buildings represented the hidden or secret processes of capitalism to many around the
world who struggled or saw economic struggle. The architectural philosophy was less is more the
form followed the function of the building. So the goal was to cram as many businesses into as
small a space on Manhattans tip as possible and they tried to do this with these two buildings.
So one morning a number of Islamic terrorists boarded airplanes in Bostons Logan Airport. They had
divided themselves into four groups for four airplanes. Each of the four planes was supposed to fly to
the west coast and was loaded with fuel. Each team of hijackers was to enter the cockpit of the
plane, kill the pilots and take control of the plane. They were to then fly the plane into various buildings
(committing suicide) in New York and Washington, as a protest. Three teams succeeded two hitting
the World Trade Center buildings and one hitting the Pentagon, where US military strategy is
coordinated. One team failed. They waited too long to take action, the people on board the plane
learned of the other suicide missions by cell phone and they stormed the cockpit and caused the plane
to crash into the ground. They were considered heroes for stopping that plane from crashing into a
public building.
Why did the terrorists do this? What were they protesting? Specifically, Osama bin Laden, who was
basically the guy who funded this terrorist organization, stated that the attacks were meant to protest
the fact that American soldiers were in Saudi Arabia. This country is considered holy ground to many
people who are Muslims. More broadly, the attacks occurred, it seems, because of American support

for the state of Israel and the suffering of the Palestinian people that is perceived in many Middle Eastern
countries. Many Middle Eastern countries feel that the USA has neglected the needs of the Palestinians in
favor of Israel. Also, proponents of radical Islam seem to be somewhat anti-capitalist. They point out
that pure Islam is communal in nature whereas the economic basis of western society seems to
promote aggressive competition and social stratification and inequality of opportunity. The recent
protests and revolutions in Middle Eastern countries, however, seemed to show that there had been a lot
of stratification and inequality in the Middle East as well. In any case, the terrorists were protesting a
bunch of stuff when they crashed these airplanes into the Twin Towers: US troops in Saudi Arabia,
capitalism and the support of Israel.
Thankfully, these terrorists kind of fucked-up. When the Twin Towers were fully occupied, there were
about 50,000 people in each building. So if the terrorists had been a bit smarter and more efficient they
could have killed about 100,000 people. Instead, they attacked the buildings before 9am, when a
majority of building occupants were still traveling to work. Instead of 100,000 people, they killed 3,000,
which was still terrible, of course. Due to the huge amount of fuel that each plane had been carrying,
each of the skyscrapers totally collapsed due to the intense fires that were started inside of each building.
The very systematic manner in which the buildings came down led to some conspiracy theories. A
wealthy guy had just recently purchased the buildings and there were rumors that he staged the attacks
so he could collect the insurance money and there were rumors that after the attacks he imploded the
buildings so that he could get the insurance money and build something better in that location. I do not
believe that theory because ii literally took almost 10 years before they began building any new buildings
at that site.
Some people also believed that President George Bush knew the attacks were coming and didnt do
anything. Americans were shocked that the FBI and CIA had known nothing about these attacks even
though the terrorists were in the country taking flight lessons and had ties to overseas terrorist
organizations. Apparently some people in lower-level positions of the FBI tried to warn the higher-ups,
but they were ignored. Americans were also confused as to how 15 or 16 guys could board airplanes
with the type of sharp instrument that was used to kill flight attendants/stewardesses and pilots. Its like
nobody was actually doing his/her job in America at the governmental level.
These terrorists took their flight lessons, hung out with terrorist buddies, received lots of wire transfers
of lots of money, bought some weapons and hijacked some airplanes pretty easily. It was a piece of
cake. They took advantage of the fact that US government workers often just dont seem to do their
jobs (its probably like this in most countries).
This seemed to happen with the BP (British Petroleum) oil leak too. Remember how for weeks and
weeks, in 2010, oil gushed into the ocean off the coast of America? There were federal watchdogs
who were supposed to be monitoring what BP was doing but I read in the newspapers that these guys
were hanging out in their offices watching internet pornography (dirty stuffnaked people having sex
etc.). My impression is that these governmental watchdogs do nothing. In New York City the
Department of Buildings has the reputation for doing nothing, ACS an agency that is supposed to be
protecting children - has a terrible reputationWhy is this? Why cant these watchdogs do their jobs in
America? Just get rid of the watchdogs if they are not watching stuff. Why are Americans paying for
watchdogs who dont watch stuff?
So why do I say there was disillusionment after the tragedy? Do you know how many New York City
firemen died? Over 300. How many police? A little over 20 (which is still a large number). Why? The

New York City firemen had been complaining for a long time that their radios did not work. Sometimes
they would enter buildings and they would not be able to communicate with others outside of the
buildings because of these faulty radios. Mayor Giuliani knew this. He never corrected the radio
problem. So when engineers informed the city that the buildings were going to collapse (fall down), the
police officers got the message, because their radios worked, and they left the buildings. I am guessing
there were some in the buildings who were still heroically trying to get people out (maybe they could not
get out fast enough or decided to take their chances and stayI dont know) and they are the 20+ that
died. But the firemen inside the buildings did not hear that the buildings were going to collapse. Their
personal radios didnt work.
Thats bad, but heres something worse. Word on the street has it that New York City police and
firemen do not like each other. Some people felt that the police officers should have communicated more
effectively with the firemen and should have made a greater effort to tell them to leave the building. The
police received the order to leave the firemen didnt. The police didnt see that the firemen were not
leaving the building? Because police officers and firemen did not, at that time, communicate with each
other well (and perhaps still dont), it was felt by some that the police just simply left the firemen in the
buildings. If this is true, what they did was tantamount to murder in my opinion. 300+ firemen were
in those buildings and were crushed and burned to death because nobody told them to leave. There
was no absolutely no reason for 300+ families to be destroyed.
But then some of the firemen who survived or who were not at the building when it collapsed did
something I found utterly shocking. This is kind of complex, but let me try to explain this. When a
fireman retires, he receives a pension which is a percentage (I think 70%) of the salary that he made
during his last year of work. So if you made $50,000 the last year you worked, you would get 70% of
$50,000 every year for the rest of your life, once you retired. Now, heres where it gets tricky. If a
fireman works overtime he can make more money. Many firemen worked a huge number of overtime
hours in the days and weeks following the attacks. Many firemen worked long hours pulling the dead
bodies of their friends from the destruction.
So, for the year ending 2001, some of these guys had made much more than they had ever made in any
previous year and would ever make in future years. Some, apparently, made almost double what they
had made the previous year. So, suddenly, New York City firemen began to quit their jobs to receive
huge pensions! A large number did this! So they deliberately quit their jobs at a time when the city
needed them, in order to receive a huge pension for the rest of their lives. The newspapers did not
criticize this selfish behavior because they were afraid of seeming to be against firemen. What these
firemen did, however, didnt seem right to a lot of New Yorkers.
So I think all of this was disgraceful (not honorable) but it gets worse. Giuliani built a platform
overlooking the World Trade Center site so that tourists and celebrities could view the carnage. Lots of
celebrities had their photos taken there. I think there was a VIP section of the platform. Thousands of
people traveled to New York City to walk up this platform to see the destruction. And, Giuliani clearly
used the attacks to try to resurrect his waning political career. I remember seeing him on television
conducting memorial services for the victims. Day after day Giuliani seemed to try to get on TV. He
then ran for the presidency stating, effectively, that he had saved New York City after the attacks. How?
By building a platform for tourists? Thats basically all I remember him doing after the attacks. Lets see:
Giuliani failed to get proper radios for his fire department; he built a zillion dollar emergency center in the
World Trade Center buildings, so when there was a real emergency the center couldnt be used because

the emergency was IN THE BUILDINGS most terrorists wanted to blow up; Giulianis police chief, at that
time, was later thrown in jailGiuliani saved New York City? Please tell me how. Would somebody
please tell me how he saved New York City?
But it gets more disgraceful. George White Bush seemed to use the terrorist attacks as a justification
to invade Iraq. Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden; in fact, they hated each
other, but about 40% of Americans believed that he assisted in the attacks. Bush stated that not only
did Iraq have weapons of mass-destruction but that they were aiding terrorists. But only after
Saddam Hussein was gone, were the Al Quaeda terrorists from Afghanistan able to set up bases in Iraq.
And recently it was reported that a top Iraqi informant to the USA openly lied, at that time, about
weapons of mass destruction. The informant hated Saddam Hussein and wanted him removed from
power, so he told the USA that Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction, but Hussein wasnt.
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, used this informants false information to justify the war at the
United Nations.
Then we captured low-ranking soldiers in Afghanistan and transferred them to Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, where the US military kept them in cages like animals, refusing to give them any type of trial or
justice. They were not considered prisoners of war because Bush had decided to call them terrorists, but
they were not given trials as criminals. This was the most illegal thing in the world. President Barack
Hussein Obama has kept them in cages there. How do you make people really angry to the point that
they want revenge? Keep them in cages without trials. Then, when associates of bin Laden were
captured, they were tortured using the technique of water-boarding (or other methods). Hello, I
thought Americans were the good guys? The American government has people out there torturing
other people, and yet the US government will complain about human rights offenses in other countries.
There was one guy named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They tortured him so much that he admitted to
crimes that he couldnt possibly have committed. They water-boarded him 183 times. The newspapers
in America (talk about a disgrace there really are NO real newspapers in America, including the New
York Times) began reporting that he was responsible for virtually every act of terrorism ever committed.
These idiot journalists were writing, Wow! This guy has been involved in many more crimes than we
thought! To stop people from torturing him, he was making up crimes he couldnt possibly have
committed. He admitted to everything under the sun.
Then, about 10 years after the attacks, the US government finally decided to hold trials for individuals
captured in Afghanistan, especially for the mastermind of the attack: Khalid Sheik Mohammed. But
the mayor (Bloombux) and the police commissioner of New York complained that such a trial would hurt
business in lower Manhattan (too much traffic) and so Obama arbitrarily and capriciously decided to
give him a military trial. This means American soldiers judged him, and, basically, this meant he had no
chance of being found not guilty. So there was no justice because it would have disrupted traffic.
What the hell is going on in America?
Oh, theres more. Then, many of the people who worked hard in 2001 to remove dead bodies from the
destruction began dying early and painful deaths. The government did not want to admit that rescue
workers were dying at early ages (of strange types of cancer) because they had not been issued
satisfactory equipment or because they were falsely told that it was safe to work in that area of the city.
Only recently have these individuals (some of whom are still alive but suffering) been granted some
funds for their medical expenses and retirement. They were not given very much, however, in

compensation and they only got it ten years after the attacks and after they fought the government very
hard. Basically, their lawyers are going to get most of the money in legal fees anyway.
Then, yes theres more, (!) for about 10 years, they did not even attempt to even build anything in the
space that had been occupied by the Twin Towers. For many years politicians haggled with each other
and absolutely nothing was done. For almost 10 years nothing substantial was done. Ground Zero was
just an empty area in lower Manhattan. There were years of TOTAL stupidity on the part of then
Governor George Pataki, Governor hooker-lover Spitzer, then Governor Patterson (who was almost
thrown in jail while in office now he works for the MTA!!!!), and, of course, by that remarkable genius
(yes, thats sarcasm) Michael Bloomberg, who sat with his head up his ass for many years, showing
zero leadership, and did nothing to get a building built in his city.
So theres the dirt. Its pretty depressing. But do you wanna hear depressing? An Islamic group
made it known that they wanted to build a mosque near the ground zero site and a majority of New
Yorkers opposed this. There were, in fact, heated meetings where people protested. Because Muslims
attacked the World Trade Center buildings, non-Muslim people did not want an Islamic Mosque near that
area.
I say, let them build their mosque. Who the hell cares? Those were nutty Muslim guys who hijacked
the airplane. This is America goddamn it. OK, so you might find it offensive that an Islamic group
would choose to build its mosque so close to ground zero. Fine, you have the right to feel what you
wanna feel. But did you ever hear of the US Constitution? Those wealthy, powerful, old white guys in
Philadelphia in 1789 didnt know what a beautiful document they were writing. That document is the law
period. They have a right to build their mosque anywhere they wanna build it. Leave them alone for
Christsake! In fact, the Constitution says you should leave them alone. Actually, at this time, it looks
as if people in the New York state government have found informal ways to stop this mosque from
being built. So much for the city of diversity and tolerance.

Definitions of terms:
a tragedy in normal conversation a tragedy is a horrible situation that usually involves death.
disillusionment if you become disillusioned, you become sad and depressed about the reality of a
situation. An illusion is a false image to be disillusioned means to see the truth clearly and to be
upset by it.
kind of this is often heard in English and it means somewhat or a little.
a run down a brief account, a quick telling of details.
the dirt this means the real dirty embarrassing truth; the truth that someone is trying to cover up.
7th grade in the American school system, a student begins in Kindergarten (at about age 5) and goes
through the 8th grade (graduating around the age of 14). He/she then enters high school at the age of
14. Most students spend 4 years in high school: freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. If a
person goes to college, he/she also goes through freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. If you

go straight from K through college, youll have a bachelors degree by the age of 22. Many students then
work toward a masters degree (this can take a couple more years). Some students then pursue a PhD.
The Bronx New York City is made of 5 boroughs. These are five relatively large areas: Manhattan,
Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. The word borough basically comes from an old
English word meaning town. The 5 boroughs were independent towns until 1898 when all 5 of these
areas were joined to form New York City. There were a few reasons to join these differing areas, the
biggest was that by combining these boroughs, one big city could collect a lot of tax money and create
more amazing things.
the school gym this is a part of the school where physical education classes take place. Generally,
American kids dont get much physical education. Maybe once or twice a week. In some schools the
students do not get any gym classes. This, of course, is a huge mistake. America is currently suffering
from an obesity problem. If a person is obese, he/she is fat really fat. A lack of physical exercise
leads to this type of problem. Also, there have been many studies which show that students who get
more physical exercise do better in school.
a break a period of time in which you dont have to work.
aghast shocked.
dilemma a situation in which you have two choices and they both suck.
85 stories 85 floors. For some reason you can call a floor a story.
a principal the leader of an American elementary or high school is called a principal.
macho if a guy is macho, he thinks he is very tough or strong. He likes demonstrating to others that
he is a strong, physically powerful guy.
to convene to bring people together. To convene a meeting
inspirational to motivate people is to inspire them.
comforting to help people feel at ease, or to feel more secure or confident.
obliterated to eliminate or wipe out completely.
to harass to bother someone a lot.
standardized test scores a standardized test is a test that is the same for each person who takes it.
an educrat this is a term that is a combination of educator and bureaucrat. An educrat is an
educational administrator.
shining moment glorious, amazing, spectacular, wonderful moment.
sparkle to shine; if something sparkles, it reflects the sun in an amazing way.
Winston Churchill the leader of England during World War 2, who was known for inspirational
speeches. When England was isolated against Germany and it looked as if England might lose the war,

he said something like, Well fight the Germans on land! Well fight them in the air! Well fight them on
the sea! He was really good with his prepositions.
flock a flock is a collection of sheep. Whats a sheep? Its an animal we get wool from. Sheep is
singular and plural. It makes this sound: baaaaaaaaaah. A collection of Christians or believers is
sometimes called a flock. i.e. The minister preached to his flock for about an hour last Sunday.
crammed to be stuffed into one crowded place.
perpetrators people who have committed some type of crime are called perpetrators. Sometimes the
crappy (garbage) newspapers in New York City use the term perp, which is short for perpetrator.
fearsome something that scares people.
to even the score to get revenge. To hurt someone who has hurt you.
to be rooted out to be completely destroyed as if you are pulling a plant out of the ground from its
roots.
to be held accountable to hold someone accountable, basically, means to punish the person.
dead or alive if the police say they want to catch someone dead or alive, it means they are willing to
kill this person instead of capturing him.
He scared the hell out of my class. to scare the hell out of someone or some group means to really
frighten them.
Give it to us straight! this term comes from drinking alcoholic beverages. You can drink straight
vodka or you can mix it with soda or juice. If someone says, Give it to me straight! he/she means, just
tell me the pure truth dont mix it with anything to make it weaker or softer.
a borough omg, didnt I explain this already!?
A dollar store this is where you can buy cheap stuff. It used to be that everything could be bought
for a dollar but now most stuff is $1.29. You would say, a dollar twenty nine.
guys you can call a mixed group (a group of males and females) guys.
grim if someone looks grim, he/she looks very worried and serious. Grim news will make you feel
worried or concerned.
solemn certain events are often described as being solemn. A funeral, for instance is a solemn event.
People are very serious and make sure that they act appropriately and seriously.
morbid a morbid attitude is a weird, unhealthy kind of sick attitude. You hear and read about morbid
fascination a lot. He has a morbid fascination with serial killers (killers who kill lots of people, one after
the other). He has a morbid fascination with Japanese pornography.
the point the purpose or goal.
neighborhood this is the area where you or others live. A neighbor is a person.

to eclipse something an eclipse is literally when the moon gets in front of the sun and covers it up.
When one thing eclipses another it becomes more important or more prestigious or significant than the
thing it eclipses. The World Trade Center buildings were the tallest until they were eclipsed by the Sears
Tower. The Sears Tower took over the number one position.
ugly as hell very very ugly.
drab plain, boring, having no exciting quality to it.
an eyesore something is an eyesore if it is so ugly it kind of hurts your eyes. To feel sore is to feel a
slight pain.
one bit this word comes from bite. So a bit is like a little bite. A little bit of something is a little
piece of something. In this case one bit means: not at all.
rectangular a rectangle is a geometrical figure that has a longer length than width.
the era period of time.
a skyscraper a very tall building. The official definition of a skyscraper is a building in which the
height is at least seven times that of the width of the building. How do I know all this stuff?
brute stupid, aggressive, non-human. You often hear of brute force.
to dominate is to control, so domination is complete control of a person, country etc.
the world stage a stage is where a theatrical performance happens. So the expression world stage
means, basically, the world or what people can see of whats happening in the world.
stark very severely plain or drab.
a faade the outer surface of a building.
dealings relations with another, the way one acts toward another.
filthy rich this means disgustingly rich. So rich it is ridiculous. Filthy means really, really, really dirty.
the implication is that a person cannot get this rich without having done dirty things.
form follows function This was an expression architects used to mean that the way a building looks
should depend on how it is going to be used. If a building is necessary to hold many businesses, it can
be a giant rectangle, there is no need to do anything fancy.
to cram into to force more things into one space than should be there. Students often cram for
exams, meaning they force lots of information into their memories in order to pass a test of short-term
memory skills.
a terrorist usually a terrorist is an individual who belongs to a type of evil or violent NGO (nongovernmental organization). A terrorist organization will have some political goal and will work toward it
through the use of violence, often directed against innocent civilians.

a hijacker is someone who steals a vehicle or plane or anything that has gotten started or is moving
toward a destination. An airplane hijacker takes over an airplane after it has left the ground. A carjacker
takes over a car when the driver stops temporarily at an intersection. These are literal hijackings. The
term can be used figuratively. If a person starts a group and another person suddenly takes the group
over, that person has hijacked the group. By the way, notice the sentence structure here: Each team
was toThat means each team was supposed to
the cockpit is the place where the pilot and co-pilot sit in an airplane. A pit is a hole in the ground. A
cock is a rooster. This is the type of bird that makes an annoying sound when the sun rises. The sound
sounds like: cock-a-doodle doooooooo! Thats an example of onomatopoeia thats when a word
corresponds to a sound. It is pronounced: on oh mat oh pee uh. Meow is an example of onomatopoeia
that is the word for a sound that a cat makes. Aarf aarf is the sound a dog makes when it barks. Why is
the place where a pilot sits called the cockpit? Who knows, but a cockpit was literally the place where
roosters would fight each other while people placed bets on which rooster would win the fight. The word
cock also refers to the male penis. The thingee. Pronounced thing ee. The thingee that a guy uses to
help make babies.
to protest to take action against something you feel is very wrong. Often huge groups of people will
protest together in the streets against a government policy.
to storm something to attack something.
Muslims these are the followers of the Prophet Mohammed who helped to establish the religion of
Islam. Basically, from what I can tell, this was a religion meant to unify Arabic tribes (groups) into a
community of peaceful and supportive brotherhood.
proponents people who are in favor of something, an opponent is someone who is against something.
communal when members of a group share everything.
to promote to encourage, to try to make something successful.
stratification this is when a society can be imagined as consisting of layers: the rich are on top, the
poor are on the bottom.
fucked up - if you fuck up, you make a huge mistake.
conspiracy theories these are theories that groups of people secretly planned to take secret action to
do something big. A conspiracy is when a group of people takes secret action toward some goal that will
only benefit them.
to stage something means to take action to make something look as if it really happened. To fake
something.
an implosion the opposite of an explosion. When something explodes it flies in all directions. When
something implodes it falls in on itself.
a tie to something a connection to something
the higher-ups people who are in charge of something. People at the top of some system.

a wire transfer this is when money is transferred electronically from one place to another.
a piece of cake if something is a piece of cake, it is easy to do.
gushing oil oil which is pouring out of the ground and into the sea at a high rate
watchdogs these are people who are paid to watch certain operations of government to make sure
everything is running the way it should. A watchdog is literally a dog that guards a house or other
property.
to monitor to watch, to keep track of.
to get rid of to eliminate.
faulty something is faulty if it doesnt work the right way.
word on the street something that everybody knows.
tantamount to murder equal to murder or the same thing as murder.
to crush to force down on something or to squeeze something until it bursts or is destroyed or killed.
to retire to officially stop working.
a pension this is the monthly amount of money that a person can receive from his employer, if he/she
has worked long enough, after he/she retires.
tricky difficult or complex.
overtime if you work beyond your regular 8 hours, this is called working overtime.
deliberately if something is done deliberately it is not an accident, a person chose to do it to
accomplish some goal.
a platform a stage, a large structure which is elevated and on which people can stand to look at
something or to be seen by others.
the carnage the destruction. The ruined stuff you see after something huge has been destroyed.
VIP Very Important Person; in nightclubs there is always a VIP section for celebrities looking to cheat
on their wives with stupid girls from New Jersey.
to resurrect to be reborn, to give a second birth to something
waning pronounced: way ning. dying, leaving, going away. When the moon appears and begins to
get stronger it is a waxing moon; in the second half of its monthly cycle it starts to disappear and is a
waning moon.
conducting performing.
a justification an excuse for something, some reason as to why something happened.

weapons of mass destruction the types of weapons the United States regularly uses on smaller and
defenseless countries. For instance napalm was a weapon of mass destruction used in Vietnam. It was a
type of jelly that burned off a persons skin when it was dropped on innocent people. Or atomic bombs
like the kinds dropped on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Or chemical weapons, like Agent Orange
a chemical dropped on the forests of Vietnam to destroy trees so that enemy soldiers could be seen more
easily. Or what about the bombs dropped on Dresden in World War II. Or those dropped on the people
of Iraq by George White Bush?
aiding helping.
bases places where soldiers are put for a long-term occupancy.
informant someone who provides secret information to a government or agency.
low-ranking not highly positioned, not in leadership positions.
Guantanamo Bay After Castro kicked out the dictator Batista in Cuba, the United States refused to
remove its ships or its military people from a small area of Cuba. This area is called Guantanamo Bay.
The United States government has been illegally keeping enemy prisoners of war at that illegal base.
Obama said he would end this brutal and inhumane practice. He did not. He hasnt done a lot of things.
water-boarding this was a method of torture. Torture is when someone in a position of power
deliberately hurts another, usually to acquire information. The torture of water-boarding involved making
a person feel as if he was going to drown. To drown means to die from being under water for too long.
good guys Americans like to think of themselves as being very good people. When they are not
starting ridiculous wars that kill people in places like Iraq, not killing Native Americans, not throwing black
guys in jail or making children of color live in hopeless poverty, and not dropping atomic bombs or
napalm or other weapons of mass destruction on women and children, they are often quite good.
human rights these are basic rights that the USA believes every person should have. What is a right?
A right is an ability to do something without others trying to stop you. Or, you can also have the right
not to have stuff done to you.
a mastermind a person who is the brains behind an operation. The person who conceives of a big
plan.
arbitrarily randomly, without a good reason.
capriciously if you do something capriciously, you do it just because you feel like doing it.
to disrupt something to interrupt something.
rescue workers people who try to save the lives of others after a disaster.
to haggle with to argue with, to negotiate strongly. You haggle with a person but you haggle over a
price.
substantial in this case substantial means real

who sat with his head up his ass of course it would be physically impossible for this great man to
stick his head up his ass, so this is a figurative term. It means he did nothing. If a person has his head
up his ass, we mean he is ignorant and isnt doing anything.
the dirt the deep, dark dirty truth
Do you wanna hear depressing? This is a statement made to humorously emphasize something.
a Mosque this is where Muslim folks worship. Christians worship in Churches and Jews worship in
Synagogues.
heated a heated discussion is a discussion that generates anger.
nutty - crazy
offensive something that insults or offends a person or people.
period if a person makes a statement and then says Period!: he/she means that as far as he/she is
concerned, the discussion is over, there is no further room for discussion.
For Christsake! this is an exclamation like Dammit! Or: Fuck! It is less harsh sounding than dammit
or fuck.
informal not formal, in this case politicians seem to have persuaded the people who wanted to build
the mosque not to build it. Nobody is sure how they persuaded them.
So much for diversity and tolerance this is sarcasm. Im saying, basically, where is the diversity
and tolerance that everyone says exists in New York City if Muslims cant even build a mosque where
they want to?

Grammar Stuff: a 21 year old boy (not a 21 years old boy)

The material below represents one of the most common mistakes foreign students make. Please
examine this closely and try to understand whats going on here:
Correct:

Incorrect:

a 21 year old boy

a 21 years old boy

a 5 dollar bill

a 5 dollars bill

a 100 story building

a 100 stories building

50 million people

50 millions people

50 million dollars

50 millions dollars

But!!!!!! See below:

Correct:
The boy is 21 years old.

That check is worth 5 dollars.

That building has 100 stories.
Millions of people die each year of hunger.
He has 50 million dollars.

Do you see the differences?

20 Useful Vocabulary Words; fill-in-the-blank exercises:

to convene, to haggle over, morbid, heated, offensive, drab, a break, to cram into, to
protest, inspirational, stratification, to harass, a conspiracy theory, a justification, a
watchdog, a proponent, tricky, a mastermind, a perpetrator, a pension
For the tourist, traveling around lower Manhattan can be a bit ___________ because the streets are not
numbered as they are farther up the island. Many tourists have to ask for directions.
When a person buys illegal goods in Chinatown, he/she is expected to ___________ over the price. The
illegal vendors (sellers) do not put price tags on their illegal merchandise.
After the two people bumped into each other on the subway, they began a _____________ argument
that lead to both of them screaming insults at the other.
George Bush said that the ____________ for the war against Iraq was the fact that Iraq was developing
nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. It turned out this was not true.
A ____________ of capital punishment (this is when the government kills a criminal) say that this
punishment prevents others from committing murders. Statistics, show, however, that this is not true.
Every student, regardless of how good she is, needs a ___________ from studying. In America students
get a two month long vacation each summer.
The United States Congress has vacations like every other organization. The Congress is __________ at
the start of every year on January 3rd.
A couple summers ago, many women on the Upper East Side reported that a short, thin male Latino had
grabbed their breasts and butts and then had run away. The _____________ of this crime was later
caught after he grabbed a woman in a subway station and was caught on tape by a surveillance camera.
All the TV stations showed his photo and his fellow workers at a restaurant turned him in to the police.
The Attorney General of New York is supposed to be a consumer _______________; if the AG finds that
a business is operating unfairly, he can take this business to court and hold it accountable.
In America, if a person owes money, a collection agency may try to ___________ the person into paying
the money. They may call the person numerous times and may even engage in unethical and illegal

behavior to try to get the person to pay his/her debt. (By the way, debt is pronounced with a silent b
det.)
When I told Bob that his shirt didnt match the color of his pants, I was not trying to be
______________, but Bob felt insulted and engaged in a heated argument with me.
One of the most ______________ American presidents ever was Franklin Roosevelt. He helped many
Americans stay confident during the Great Depression. He once said, The only thing to fear, is fear
itself.
The ______________ of the 9/11 attacks was arrested and tortured by the CIA, and was given a military
trial for developing the plan to hijack airplanes, destroy American buildings and kill innocent civilians.
There are many _________________ about the assassination (murder) of John Kennedy because
Kennedy, himself, had done so many nasty things and offended so many people. He ordered the
assassination of the president of South Vietnam, tried to assassinate Castro numerous times, started the
Vietnam War and almost caused the world to be blown up in the Cuban missile crisis.
Want to make some extra money in New York City? Buy a house in Queens or the Bronx and
__________ as many immigrants, poor people and foreign students into the rooms as possible. The city
of New York really doesnt care!
Although I found the interior design of my new apartment to be a bit _________, the outside view of the
Hudson River made up for the lack of interesting dcor.
If a person works long enough at a company, he/she might be eligible to receive a ____________ after
he/she retires. This amount of money, along with the governments social security payments, will help
the person to live more comfortably.
Many serial killers (killers who kill many people, one after the other) have had a ____________
fascination with torture and pain. As young men they often engaged in horrible actions in which they
caused pain to others.
Although America boasts of the possibility for an equality of opportunity, the _______________ of
American society along racial lines (according to race) seems to be preventing this goal from happening.

Answers: tricky, haggle, heated, justification, proponent, break, convened, perpetrator,

watchdog, harass, inspirational, offensive, mastermind, conspiracy theories, cram, drab,
pension, morbid, stratification

16. Who is on the money?

Lets start with the $1 bill. This one is easy: George Washington. First president. No-brainer. But
heres some good gossip about George. He was a military genius. Heres an example. During the
Revolutionary War the English military occupied the city of Boston. This was terrible for the Americans

because Boston was the home of most of the trouble-makers (do-gooders) of the Revolution and it was a
rich city. Washington was Americas top general and he had to find a way to get the English out.
As luck would have it, another American general had captured 300 English canons earlier in the war
and had them transported to Washington outside of Boston. During the night Washington had these 300
canons positioned on Dorchester Heights, a large hill that overlooked and partly encircled the entire
English fleet in Boston harbor. When the sun rose the English saw all those canons pointing at all their
ships and they freaked out. It appeared as if Washington could destroy a huge part of the English fleet
and really harm the English military. So the English General immediately sent a note to Washington: If
you destroy my fleet, I will burn down the entire city of Boston. If you refrain from destroying my fleet I
will take all of my soldiers immediately out of Boston. So now, put yourself in Washingtons
place. What would you do? Would you really hurt the English by destroying a big part of the English
navy but then lose the city of Boston or would you let ships go that could destroy American ships later
and transport more English soldiers, but by doing so you would save Boston? Washington let them go.
So why would I call this guy brilliant? Because although Washington had 300 canons, he had no canon
balls! Thats right, he had nothing to shoot from those canons. The canons were harmless. He totally
bluffed the English into leaving Boston! He forced the English out of Boston without firing a shot and
without killing a person. The English left and never came back to Boston because they were afraid of the
canons on Dorchester Heights. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha!
The $5 bill, again a no-brainer: Abraham Lincoln. He was the president during the Civil War. Theres a lot
of revisionist history that says that Lincoln was a racist and that he didnt really care about black people
who were slaves. These revisionists claim that Lincoln wanted to preserve the United States more than
he wanted to free any slaves. Bullshit. Trust me, Abe was a good guy. He really cared about
people. Of all the US Presidents this guy was probably the best human being. This guy was moral to a
fault. He wrestled with all of his decisions and seemed to always try to do the right thing. In the
history of the world Lincoln stands out as one of the fucking best ever. Sorry, I need to wipe some tears
from my eyes. Cynic that I am, even I have to admit Lincoln was a great person.
The $10 bill: That handsome son-of-a-bitch Alexander Hamilton. I like this guy so much that my
chapter two is primarily about him and his vision for the development of the United States of
America. He was the only founding father of the USA who was born poor and he could see that one
day the USA would be a world powerhouse. His vision and hard work helped make the USA a
powerhouse. He died way too young. He has never been given the credit he deserves. Fuck that slaveowning bastard Jefferson! Hamilton rocks! Jefferson sucks.
The $20 bill: a real, total bastard. Andrew Jackson. Ill take two Hamiltons for one Jackson any day of
the week. This guy Jackson hated Native Americans. He was violent and kind of ignorant. He is
lionized for one reason: Before he became president you could only vote in America if you were a white
male, over 21, who owned land. After he became president you could vote if you were a white male who
was over 21. So he is considered a pioneer of democracy. His worst crime against humanity is called
The Trail of Tears by Native Americans.
Basically, he wanted to chase all the Native Americans out of Florida and allow white farmers to move
into that land. So he ordered the American military to go into Florida and chase the Indians out. Some
Americans thought this was wrong and they filed legal papers with the Supreme Court to stop him
from doing this. And, believe it or not, the Supreme Court ordered President Jackson NOT to send the
army into Florida. The Supreme Court stated that the Indians had the right to live there.

Wanna know what Jackson said? He said, to paraphrase, I am the president and I have an
army. When the Supreme Court gets an army they can tell me what to do. So the president just plain
ignored the Supreme Court decision and sent the army into Florida to chase the 5 tribes down there out
of Florida. The Indians were forced to walk to Oklahoma, and forced to live in an area that did not have
any good farmland and which did not have any animals to hunt. The Indians were forced to become
totally dependent on the US government for their survival and had to accept food and supplies, including
a lot of liquor (alcoholic beverages), from the government. The Indians were forced to live on a
reservation this became the term for the areas of land the government would force various Indian
tribes to live on.
Reservations still exist. The Navajo reservation, out west, is one of the poorest areas in the
world. Interestingly, many Indian reservations are making money these days by opening gambling
casinos. Gambling is illegal in most US states, but US law does not apply to Indian reservations, so many
non-Indian people go to these Indian reservations to gamble. Some tribes are now making lots of
money. The Navajos, however, live close to Las Vegas - why would anyone go to an Indian casino when
they could go to a Vegas casino? Man, the Navajos need some luck. Seriously, please pray for the
Navajos.
The $50 bill. U.S. Grant. Great General who helped the North beat the South in the Civil War but a
president who really sucked. He became president shortly after Lincoln was killed (assassinated). Funny
story. Grant studied at West Point Military Academy. This is the college where people go to become
officers in the US Army. When Grant studied there he was the worst student in his class. The best
student was a guy from Virginia named Robert E. Lee. When the Civil War started Lincoln contacted Lee
and told him that even though he, Lee, was from the South, he should fight for the United States and
that Lincoln would make him the top northern general. Lee, however, chose to fight for the southern
states against the United States. And he was good. Too damn good. Initially, no northern general could
beat him. Things looked bad for the north.
Before the Civil War Grant had kind of fucked up his life. Although he had graduated from West Point,
he became an alcoholic and was thrown out of the army. When the war started, he was working for his
father at a store in Illinois. But the United States of America was so desperate for soldiers when the war
started that they accepted Grant again and he proved himself to be a great soldier. Soon he was a
general and he was winning all of his battles. So finally Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant to be the head
of the United States Army.
In America people often dont care whether you fucked up in the past. They like it when you say, OK, I
fucked up. Who cares? Thats the past. You wanna live in the past? Fuck you! Lets move forward!
Maybe thats because everyone in America kind of fucks up sooner or later. Its a risky country! You take
risks, you fuck up! Its simple! Thats why Americans can be so forgiving, and so successful! When the
Chinese learn how to fuck up as much as Americans can fuck up, then the world should be worried about
the Chinese. But right now the Chinese are too worried about NOT fucking up, which means they are
REALLY going to fuck up, so lets not worry about them.
Hello? The whole freaking world wants to come to New York City not Shanghai.
Many people were shocked when Grant, an alcoholic was appointed General. Some people went to
Lincoln and said, Mr. President! How can you appoint an alcoholic to be the leader of your
army? Lincoln, who had a sense of humor, said, I know hes an alcoholic. In fact, I want to find out
what he drinks and give it to all my generals! That was a joke. A joke is a statement that makes you
laugh. Ha ha.

So you had one of the best students from West Point ever Lee fighting probably the worst student in
West Points history Grant. And Grant kicked Lees ass! Grant was the only guy who could beat
Lee! And Grants soldiers loved him. He was a kind man he was even kind to his horses! The only
time anyone could remember him becoming angry was when he saw another US soldier being
mean/cruel to a horse! So Grant kicked Lees ass and helped win the war that freed the slaves.
The other good gossip about Grant involves when Lee had to surrender to him. When Grant had finally
beaten Lee and Lee had to give up (formally stop fighting), a formal surrender ceremony was
required. Grant, however, had experienced a lot of hardship and failure and could sympathize with
Lee. He did not want Lee to feel humiliated, since Lee had been a great student and a great general. So
for the ceremony Lee dressed up in his finest uniform but Grant just dressed up in a common soldiers
uniform and he treated Lee with the utmost respect. For the rest of his life Lee never forgot this act of
kindness and if a southerner spoke badly of Grant, Lee immediately spoke up for this remarkable
man. But, thats where the good news ends. Grant was such a lousy president that the United States
will probably never experience so much governmental corruption again. Some people say he was too
nice to have been a good president. But he wasn't too nice to win the most violent war in American
history? I need to think about this.
The 100 dollar bill has Benjamin Franklin on it. Franklin was a great scientist and inventor. Hes the guy
who discovered that lightning is, in fact, electricity. He is also considered the embodiment of early
American capitalism. He started from scratch and worked his way to prominence. Hes on the
hundred dollar bill, however, because of his diplomatic service during the Revolutionary War. Basically,
there was no way that an American army could have defeated the English without European
help. England had the best fucking army in the world and the Americans had hard working and brave
farmers.
Franklin was able to convince the Spanish, the French and the Dutch (people from Holland are called
Dutch) that they could weaken the English by assisting the Americans in the revolution. In the final
battle of the war the American army, under Washington, and the Dutch, French and Spanish navies,
surrounded the English army and forced them to surrender. That was in 1781. The Revolution was a
long war which started in 1775. That was a fucking long war. What the hell was wrong with the fucking
British?! That war was too fucking long! Jesus Christ! Im glad American farmers kicked their asses. Go
home redcoats! Stay there!
Now for the coins: the penny (1 cent = $0.01) has Lincoln. We already covered Lincoln. The nickel (5
cents = $0.05) has Jefferson. I hate him. Ok, he wrote All men are created equal but I think he
stole that line from the English philosopher John Locke. And Jefferson owned slaves. And please dont
tell me that it was common for people at the time to own slaves, because Hamilton didnt own
slaves. Jefferson owned slaves and had a child with one of his slaves, which means, folks, that he raped
her since a slave has no rights and cant say no. Rape is a crime in which a man sexually forces himself
on a woman. Now Im angry. Every time anyone ever mentions Jefferson I get pissed off. I wont even
use nickels.
The dime (10 cents): Franklin Roosevelt. He was elected president 4 times and helped the United States
get out of the great depression but he gave half of Korea to the Russians and, therefore, the North
Korean problem is due to his weakness, so I have nothing else to say about him since many of my friends
are Koreans.
There is also a 50 cent piece that has John Kennedy on it, but absolutely nobody uses this coin for some
reason. Little kids collect this coin. Kennedy a controversial figure. It is alleged that his father
acquired the Kennedy wealth through illegal means. In fact, it looks as if it has been proved that Joe

Kennedy (the dad) made a lot of money by illegally importing and selling alcoholic beverages during a
time when such drinks were illegal in America. Some Americans seem to love Kennedy. If you meet one,
ask him or her why. I read that Kennedy started the Vietnam War. The previous president, Eisenhower,
refused to commit troops to that conflict. Eisenhower was an objective military man and he knew that
the French had been beaten by the Vietnamese and that even a powerful western country could not win
that type of war.
He also realized that a war against Vietnam would harm the American economy. He also realized that if
Vietnam did become a communist country, it would not really matter much to American interests.
Kennedy was a young playboy compared to Eisenhower and made the stupid mistake of getting the US
involved in a war that led to the deaths of 50,000 American soldiers and the deaths of 1,000,000
Vietnamese. The Vietnamese people still suffer from chemicals used by the US military in that war, even
though the war ended in 1975. Basically Kennedy started the war and then one of Americas shadiest
(most dishonest) presidents Lyndon Johnson really messed the war up.
Oh, back to the playboy. I also read that Kennedy was no friend to the Civil Rights movement and
wasnt that concerned about poor people in America. I also read that he had the president of South
Vietnam assassinated and tried several times to assassinate Castro, the leader of Cuba. The Cold War
also got worse with Kennedy as president. In fact, he supported a crazy attempt by some crazy Cuban
guys to try to invade Cuba (search for: Bay of Pigs) and this invasion totally failed. But he is liked
because he was young and handsome? He was handsome? OK, I guess as a foreign chick I cant
recognize when some American Caucasians are handsome. In any case, they threw him on the 50 cent
coin that little kids collect.
Finally they have these crazy dollar coins that nobody uses. On one they have Susan B. Anthony. She
worked hard to help women get the right (the legal ability) to vote (in 1920). And on another dollar coin
they have a Native American (Indian) lady named Sakajawea. This is weird. Why do they have
Sakajawea on a dollar coin? Well, basically, France used to own the big middle part of what is now the
United States. I put quotation marks around own to indicate that, of course, Native Americans had
been living in that region for thousands of years. Basically France owned it because they had soldiers
and military bases (forts) throughout that part of North America. In the early 1800s, France offered to
sell this region to the US government because France desperately needed money for a war they were
fighting against England. So Jefferson paid the French and took ownership of the land they had
previously controlled.
No American really knew what was west of the Allegheny Mountains (a mountain range not far from the
east coast that stretches from the very north to the very south), however, so Jefferson asked two Army
officers to lead an expedition (an exploratory group) into this new territory to see what was there and to
draw maps. So they took a bunch of Army guys out west to see what Jefferson had bought. While they
were looking around, they met a Native American lady named Sakajawea and she and one of the Army
guys fell in love. So, basically, Sakajawea gave the Army guys a tour of the land that Jefferson had
bought. She knew about large chunks of the region. This was, however, a huge mistake, because once
the US Government had maps of all the land the French used to have, they sent soldiers and settlers
(people who wanted to live on that land) out west and killed the Native Americans there and stole their
land. So the US Government is still so grateful to Sakajawea that they put her image on a dollar coin
that nobody uses.

Definitions of terms

a no-brainer this refers to a super-easy decision, a decision that is so easy to make that it requires
virtually no thought.
gossip little stories sometimes true and sometimes false - secretly exchanged behind the backs of
people.
as luck would have it luckily, fortunately.
a canon this is a type of old fashioned weapon. It was a giant gun, usually with two wheels next to
it, from which large balls used to be shot.
to encircle to form a circle around.
a fleet a large gathering or collection of ships.
to be freaked out to be shocked and to panic.
to refrain from doing something to hold oneself back from doing something, to stop oneself from
doing something.
a canon ball the type of ammunition that was shot from a canon.
to bluff to make a person think you are going to do something so that he has to take some type of
action, even though you can't or don't want to do what you say you are going to do.
a revisionist this is a type of historian who claims that what most people believe is actually false and
that there is a more accurate history. Some revisionists are accurate and some are not.
bullshit a dirty way to say: nonsense.
to be moral to a fault to be so moral that it hurts you, or to be almost too moral.
to wrestle with an issue to struggle with what the right answer or response to an issue might be.
a handsome son-of-a-bitch sometimes calling a person a son-of-a-bitch can be a compliment. It all
depends on how you say it. Dont try to do this unless you are really really confident with your English.
a bastard an insulting term directed against a guy (male). Bitch would be the term directed against a
woman. Literally, a bastard is a child who comes from a single mother. A bitch is a female dog.
Hamilton rocks rocks is the opposite of sucks.
Native Americans the first folks to live in North America, before the arrival of Europeans. They are
also sometimes called Indians.
to lionize someone to praise someone a lot. To glorify someone.

a pioneer an innovator, someone who goes somewhere or does something before anyone else.
to file legal papers to formally introduce a case in a courtroom. To do the paperwork necessary for a
court case to occur.
to paraphrase not to quote a person directly but to give someone the general idea of what another
person said.
a tribe a pre-industrial group of people within a certain geographic area sharing a certain language
and culture. Indians (Native Americans) lived in tribes. Some still live in tribes on reservations.
an officer in the military you have common soldiers and officers. An officer usually receives a
specialized military education and has leadership qualities that enable him/her to command or lead
others.
He fucked up his life he ruined or messed up his life.
to kick a persons ass figuratively this means to defeat a person in a sports competition or battle
etc. Its a dirty expression.
to surrender to give up, to stop fighting and agree to the terms of the army that has won the battle.
hardship difficult times. Adversity is the higher level word.
utmost very most, the highest.
corruption a lack of honesty, a situation in which things are not being run or operated with integrity
or diligence or honesty.
embodiment if someone is the embodiment of something it is as if he carries that thing in his very
body or he is the best example of something.
from scratch from the beginning.
prominence to be prominent is to be in a high position or a position where many will see and admire
you.
controversial a controversial issue or person is someone/thing about which people cannot agree and
which can lead to a heated debate or argument.
to allege to assert, to claim, to argue.
a conflict a type of struggle, a fight.
a playboy - a guy who primarily focuses on drinking and sex. A book published about Kennedy stated
that he had a different woman virtually every night of the week. It is a historical fact that he once even

had a sexual affair with a woman who was an East German spy. The FBI had to say, "Mr. President, we
can't stop you from having random sex, but please don't have random sex with enemy spies."
The Civil Rights Movement this was a social movement in America in which African Americans
struggled to gain the rights and freedoms that were guaranteed to them in the United States Constitution
after the Civil War.
to backfire to expect something to happen as a result of your action but to see the exact opposite
thing happen. In the old days if you tried to fire a gun and it exploded in your face, this was an example
of a backfire. If your plan backfires, you probably wanted to hurt someone but you wound up hurting
yourself instead.
The Cold War this was not a real war but a situation of military and political tension in the world that
lasted from 1945 to 1989 as a result of ideological differences between the United States of America and
The Soviet Union (Russia). It ended when the Soviet style of socialism fell or collapsed.
a Caucasian a white person. At some point some scientist or anthropologist decided that white
people came from an area near the Caucasus Mountains who knows where white people came from.

Grammar Stuff: Countries and people who live in them

This drives me crazy. Dont tell me you visited German. You did not visit German. You visited
Germany. A German is someone who lives in Germany. Lets go through some countries please.
A person who lives in England is English.
A person who lives in Russia is Russian. A person who lives in France is French. A person who lives in
Holland is Dutch. A person who lives in Scotland is Scottish. A person who lives in Japan is Japanese. A
person who lives in China is Chinese. A person who lives in Switzerland is Swiss. Greece Greek.
Slovakia Slovakian. Italy Italian. Thailand Thai. Vietnam Vietnamese. Canada
Canadian. Sweden Swedish. Turkey Turkish. Israel Israeli. Eqypt Egyptian. Austria
Austrian. Australia Australian. America American. Mexico Mexican. Brasil Brasilian.
Heres something interesting. If an adjective relating to a persons country ends in n the word person
is left out. For instance, He is a Japanese person. He is a Korean. He is a Dutch person. He is an
American. He is a Chinese person, he is a Russian. Please learn the difference between the name of a
country and the name of a person from that country!

18 Vocabulary Words. Fill-in-the-blanks

gossip, a fleet, to freak out, to refrain from, to bluff, to wrestle with, to lionize s/o, to
paraphrase, to surrender, hardship, utmost, embodiment, to start from scratch, prominence,
controversial, to allege, a conflict, to backfire
In 1664 an English __________ with many ships arrived at New Amsterdam harbor in an attempt to take
over the small trading town. The people of that town were so unhappy with their governor that they

refused to fight for him (Peter Stuyvesant) and they allowed to English to take over and rename the town
New York.
Governor Dewitt Clinton was the ____________ of a great leader. He had vision, the capacity to turn the
vision into reality and the charisma and competence to get elected. His vision allowed for the building of
the Eerie Canal, which connected New York commercially to the Midwest.
In the workplace, ___________ can be quite dangerous and harmful, since negative stories about coworkers usually get back to the co-workers themselves.
Public servants in America usually have to take an oath in which they pledge that they will do their
____________ to protect the Constitution and serve the people.
The attempt to secure a third political term almost ____________ for Michael Bloomberg. Although he
spent $100 million on his campaign and his opponent only spent $6 million, he almost lost.
At a recent gallery opening I met a gallery owner who was also, obviously, a transsexual I did not
_____________, however, because I know now that there are all kinds of people in New York City and I
like that!
Few people seem to know that there is some type of ___________ between New York City police officers
and New York City firemen. On 9/11 it seems that the police did not communicate effectively with the
firemen (whose radios - or walky talkies were not working) and therefore over 300 firemen did not
know they should have evacuated the burning and crumbling buildings. Approximately 20 police officers
died.
Although it was ____________ by some of the newspapers that Governor Patterson illegally obtained
tickets to a Yankees World Series game, he denied the allegation.
Jina ____________ when she saw her first cockroach crawling across her kitchen sink. She learned,
however, that boric acid quickly eliminates all such little insect creatures.
Issues that seem ________________ in some American cities do not seem to bother people in New York
City. Neither gay marriage nor abortion is thought to be a problem here. New Yorkers seem to think:
Live and let live!
Although I found the tourists attitude and comments to be offensive, I ________________ from
returning harsh language for harsh language.
Barack Obama seemed to gain _______________________ in the Democratic Party fairly quickly and
easily. Within two years of being elected a Senator he was elected to be president.
Living in New York City is not easy. Many people feel that the ___________ involved in living here are,
however, worth it because there is so much to do and so many interesting people to meet.
After the two World Trade Center buildings were destroyed, it was decided not to rebuild them but to
start from ______________ with a new design.

The people of the city of New York were forced to ___________ to the English and New York City
remained occupied by English soldiers until the Revolutionary War ended.
There is a good way to determine whether a person is going to kill himself or whether he is
____________. If the person tells you specifically how he is going to commit suicide, he probably
intends to do it.
Many people around the world felt that President Barak Obama was _____________ a bit too much when
he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having, really, done nothing.
To ________________ what Lincoln said, a nation which is divided on essential political and economic
issues cannot function properly.
It seems that politicians in a democracy do not want to ___________ with the big issues; they want to
do what the voters want them to do so that they can be re-elected.
Answers: fleet, embodiment, gossip, utmost, backfired, freak out, conflict, alleged, freaked
out, controversial, refrained, prominence, hardships, scratch, surrender, bluffing, lionized,
paraphrase, wrestle

17. My volunteer activity

Im not really religious, but I like to church hop. I like the symbolism in churches. For instance, let's
look at the "cross." This is the "t" shaped thing that, according to the Christian story, the Romans killed
Jesus on. It is also called a crucifix. This is a big religious symbol of Christianity but the symbol of the
cross was used by differing ancient peoples before the Christians.
In fact, the cross seems to be a symbol or ideogram for a tree, which has been a very symbolic object
around the world. Think about it: a tree's roots go deep into the ground and the trunk (body) of the
tree and its branches rise up into the sky. So ancient people believed that the tree was a type of
"bridge" between the earth and the sky or between people and God or between the lower (animal) part
of our nature and the higher (godly or spiritual) part of our nature. I love trees. The horizontal line
(running from right to left) of the cross represents the earth. The bottom part of the vertical line (the
line running from the bottom to the horizontal line) represents the tree's roots, and the top part of the
vertical line (above the horizontal line) represents the trunk and branches of the tree. + So, basically,
the cross represents a bridge between the lower and the higher in ourselves.
Also, regardless of the cynic and trouble-maker that I am, I still like the basic message of the Christian
gospels which is that there is a meaningful way to live and interact with others and that a person can
change his/her life and become a better and more humane person. A good religion should challenge
people to examine their lives and the way they live and challenge them to overcome negative stuff in
their lives and communities. I like the values of humility, thrift, kindness, forgiveness and tolerance
(although I often dont live up to these values) in the Christian message. So each Sunday I go to a
different church in Manhattan (or another borough - Queens and Brooklyn have lots of churches). One
Sunday I went to a church that was looking for volunteers for their homeless night shelter. I am an
adventurous person and so I stayed after the service and volunteered to work at this church shelter.
Heres the lowdown.

Believe it or not, America didnt have a homeless crisis until the 1980s. This is when Ronald Reagan was
president. Reagan had a new economic theory. He believed that if he helped wealthy people everyone
else would benefit from this. The more the rich got richer the more money would be spread around to
everyone. I dont think it worked.
Most of the private church-run homeless shelters in Manhattan began around 1982 to 1986. Reagans
economic policy caused hundreds of thousands of poor people, who were barely getting by, to be forced
out into the streets. The crisis that began during Reagans presidency continues to this day. Mayor
Bloomberg proposed that he would address this situation, but the situation has become worse while
Bloomberg has been mayor. There are about 40,000 homeless people living in city-operated/city-run
shelters and there are at least 2,000 people living on the streets. The city has to allow them to live on
the streets because a judge stated that it is their right to live homeless if they choose to. Most of the
people on the streets seem to be mentally ill, however. A shelter, by the way, is a place where a person
who is in danger can come to live safely. City shelters have a reputation, however, for being dangerous
places.
So what do I do at the private (non-city) shelter? During the day there is a particular community center
in Manhattan that provides services for about 100 homeless people. They are given lunch and dinner
there and also given some job training and counseling programs. At night, the homeless are not
allowed to sleep at the center according to city law, so they are sent by buses to different churches.
The churches are given fold-out beds by the city and some bed sheets, blankets and towels. Two
volunteers are supposed to show up each night and set up the shelter in the church basement and put
the beds and other stuff away in the morning. At night, we pull out the folding beds from a storage area,
set up some tables for some snacks that we can buy with donated money and when the homeless folks
show up we welcome them and make them feel at home. Volunteers are asked to do one volunteer
stint each month, so there are lots of people who volunteer. So you show up at about 7:30pm and you
set things up, meet the homeless, hang out and then go to sleep. Its lights out at 10pm although the
volunteers may stay up later in a separate room. At 6am everyone wakes up, eats breakfast and then a
yellow school bus comes along and picks up the homeless people, who go back to the community
center. Volunteers often hurry home to shower and get ready for work. The homeless are able to
shower at the community center.
Yes, we volunteers have to sleep on city fold-out beds too. They suck! The fold-out beds have
mattresses that are covered in light green plastic so that they can be easily cleaned and they are
really very uncomfortable to sleep on. I am always so grateful when I can come back home to my own
bed. For one night a month, though, you get a feeling of how it is to be homeless and to live in a
communal situation. I am so happy I have done this.
I was, of course, a little scared before my first stint. I wondered what kinds of people might show
up. We all have our conceptions of the homeless based on people we see begging for money or lying on
the street. But I was really surprised. The homeless folks were just regular folks. They were so
nice! One guy once joked with me and said, in fact, that he was not homeless but bedless. He said
living during the day was relatively easy because there are so many places to go and things to do in New
York City, but the real problem was finding a safe place to sleep at night. He thought of himself as being
more bedless than homeless. I remember leaving my first stint feeling uplifted and I usually feel that
way now when I volunteer.
I learned that there are only a few reasons as to why people become homeless. One is bad luck. Some
people just experience such terrible financial situations that they can no longer afford rent and are forced
into the streets. Many people in the city shelter system are, believe it or not, there with their

families. The second reason is drugs and alcohol. I would say that a majority of the homeless I have
worked with became homeless because of drugs and alcoholism. Mental illness is also a cause. Finally,
family problems sometimes cause people to leave their homes. Many young people who can't get along
with their parents will leave home, for instance.
Speaking of mental illness, I once used to talk to a homeless guy all the time at the shelter. He was very
articulate (well-spoken) and smart. He told me he had a Masters Degree. So I asked him why he was in
the homeless system. His answer gave me goosebumps. He said that he suffered from a mental
illness and that he heard voices. He went on to say that the voices often told him to kill himself. He
continued by saying he had tried to kill himself 7 times. I asked him about the voices. I asked him
whether he recognized the voices and he told me that, yes, indeed, he did. These were voices from
people he had known in his life who had died. The voices told him that death is better than life and
that he should join them where they now were.
I get goosebumps just thinking about that. He told me that they gave him some medication to take and
that if he took the medication the voices would go away. The problem was that the medication had side
effects. He often felt nauseated from the medication. So he had a no-win situation. He could take
the medicine and feel sick or not take it and potentially kill himself.
I have met so many interesting people the volunteers and the homeless. Some of my fellow volunteers
have been lawyers, judges, teachers, actors, a guy who worked at the UN, students, pilates instructors
etc. This was a great way for me to practice English and do some good at the same time while meeting
interesting people and honing my own people skills.
So there are church shelters and there are city shelters and I think the private, church shelters are better
and safer. Until America, as a society, is ready to develop an economic policy that counteracts the
policy that created homelessness, I will continue to do my stints as an act of protest against such a harsh
(cold, hard) economic system that allows homelessness. I will also continue to volunteer as an act of
basic human decency. There have been many times that I have been rotten to other people. I really
don't want to be rotten and doing this volunteer work makes me feel that I might be able to live a life
without rottenness. There is always a sense of goodwill, peace and love at the shelter. It's probably the
most Christian thing these churches do. My big lesson, however: the homeless really are not different
from you and me.

Definitions of terms
to church hop, to gallery hop, to bar hop etc. to go from one place to another instead of just
staying at one place. A bunny rabbit hops around from place to place.
symbolism a symbol is one object that represents something that cannot be talked about easily. In
ancient religions wine was an important symbol because it looked a little like blood and because it had an
amazing effect on people. When a person drank wine he/she became different kinder, more tolerant,
more free, more joyousso wine became a symbol for a new or higher type of life that might be
possible. The cross or crucifix that Christians use is also an ancient symbol. To ancient people a tree
was a symbol for a connection between the earth and sky (or our lower, animal nature and a higher,
godly nature). So the straight line of a cross represented the earth, the line below the straight line
represented tree roots and the line above the straight line represented the trunk and branches of the
tree. Other common symbols from religions around the world have been fish and fishermen, ravens,
snakes, mountains, bread, horses etc. A horse seems to be a symbol of transition - moving from one
place to a better place. There is a wonderful painting by Rembrandt at the Frick Collection in Manhattan

which is called The Polish Rider. In this painting, as a rider is getting closer to his destination, the horse
is becoming more and more emaciated (thin through hunger). That has always represented, to me, the
horse as a symbol of spiritual transition - as the rider approaches his destination the horse dies a little
more.
peoples - this is the only time you can ever pluralize "people"when you are talking about more than
one group of peoplethen "a people" becomes a countable noun.
the tree - here we should not use "a tree" because we are talking about trees in general. For
instance: The bear is a type of animal that hibernates (sleeps for several weeks). The bear is also an
animal that fishes. The human brain is a highly developed organ which can understand almost
everything about the universe, except how it came into being. The car transformed the American
economy in the early 20th century. If you are talking about something as a type of subject, then you
have to use the. The whale has the largest brain of any animal.
a cynic someone who usually sees the negative or dark side of things.
Gospels - Ok. This is really controversial. Christians consider the Bible to be made of two basic books.
The Old Testament and the New Testament. So, basically, you have the Jewish Bible and the Christian
Bible. Christians read both of these Bibles and consider both to be holy. Jewish people, however, say
there is only one part of the Bible, the Jewish part. The Christian Bible is all about the life of Jesus and
his teachings, and Jewish folks say this is bullshit. Christian folks say that the Jewish Bible is all about
everything that prepared the world for the birth and life of Jesus, and that the New Testament, or
Christian Gospels, is the most important religious stuff you should read. Gospel means "good
news." There are four basic parts to the Christian part of the Bible and they are called the
"gospels." There are, in fact, four gospels (stories) about Jesus and they were supposedly written by
four of the followers of Jesus, although many modern scholars think this is bullshit. I dont know what to
think. I'm sorry. I'm Suzy. I have to be honest.
humane having the best of human qualities: kindness, tolerance, forgiveness, generosity, altruism.
thrift not being wasteful.
a night shelter a place where a homeless person can go at night to sleep.
the lowdown the basic truth about a situation.
crisis a difficult or tricky situation in which you dont know what the outcome can be and in which the
outcome can be bad or good.
to benefit from to gain some good from.
to propose to offer a solution or a suggestion.
counseling psychological help or advice.
a fold-out-bed is a temporary bed that can be folded up to more easily store it when it is not used.

a stint a period of time doing something. Guys and young women in the army do a stint of two years
or four years. A volunteer stint is an amount of time devoted to doing something (it can be a short time
or long time).
lights out when the lights need to be shut off in a communal situation.
communal a situation in which a group of people are involved.
to feel uplifted to feel very good, to feel higher.
goosebumps when you are cold you might see that the skin on your arms looks a little different
because of many little teeney tiny raised hills or bumps. Also when you are afraid you might see
goosebumps on your arms.
who had died again, it is important to know how to use the verb to die: he died, he has been dead
for 3 years, he is dead etc. To die is an intransitive verb it doesnt take an object. Most of the time
youll say he died or she died.
a side-effect if you take medication you expect that the medication will cure a problem, but it might
create an additional but not as severe problem which is called a side-effect.
to feel nauseated - means you feel like vomiting or throwing up.
a no-win situation is a situation in which you feel as if you cannot win regardless of what you do.
to hone - means to sharpen something. Anything from a knife to a persons language skills can be
honed.
to counter-act to take action in response to another persons action.
decency basic kindness or basic good behavior.

Grammar stuff: woman, women

You might think it is frivolous (not important) for me to include this, but I have had students who made
this mistake over and over again. You simply need to know how to pronounce these two words
differently or you are going to drive native English speakers crazy.
Woo mun - woman
Wi men - women
Women has a distinctive short i sound in the first syllable. This has to be nailed down. I cant tell you
how many English students have driven me nuts by continually mispronouncing women.

10 Essential vocab words. Fill-in-the blanks

symbolism, a cynic, humane, thrift, the lowdown, to propose, a stint, a side-effect, to hone,
to counter-act
Although many people believe that the strange ______________ on the American dollar bill was taken
from the secret Masonic society in the early USA, most historians dispute (deny) that claim.
I dont mind doing an occasional volunteer ______________ because I am being of service while also
learning more about myself and the different types of people in the world.
The earthly goal of every religion should probably be to help each person become more ___________ so
that he/she can be of service to others and help make the world a morally better place.
I dont want to sound like a ____________, but I am not sure I can call Obama a black man; his mother
was white and his experience in America seemed very white to me.
During the economic recession many Americans were forced to adopt a life-style of ___________; only
essential things were bought at this time.
I need an English language partner to help me to ___________ my speaking skills, which are pretty good
as they are, but which can become better.
Investigative journalists often provide the ___________ on stories that many people only really knew
vaguely; they dig deep and often uncover scandals.
A ____________________ of sleeping pills is that the next morning a person can be a bit irritable or
grumpy (in a bad mood).
A good politician will often _______________ a compromise solution to a tricky problem, therefore
hurting the feelings of many, if not all, of his/her constituents (a constituent is a person the politician is
supposed to represent).
Even though the new head of the MTA, Jay Walder, seemed conscientious and competent, his kind words
and tireless efforts did not _______________ the incompetence of the workers.

Answers: symbolism, stint, humane, cynic, thrift, hone, lowdown, side effects, propose,
counter act

18. I once went to a sex club

I have been here since the late 90s and this story goes back to that time. I mention the date because I
really dont know whether such places exist in New York City any more, and I was surprised that such a
place existed during the Giuliani era (Giuliani was a mayor of New York City). This was the period of time
when Giuliani was engaged in his holy war against pornography.

To find a sex club in the city at this time was really surprising because of the bizarre anti-pornography
law which had been passed. It seems that Giuliani wanted to wipe out all porno book and video/dvd
stores and this resulted in a law, which still exists, called the 60/40 law. This means that if I own a store
in which Id like to sell pornography, 60% of my merchandise has to be non-pornographic, while 40%
can be pornographic. So apparently store owners who want to sell pornography stock their stores with
60% junk that nobody really wants to buy usually old Hollywood dvds in order to be able to sell their
porno. That such stores even exist, during a period of time when pornography can be acquired so easily
on the internet, surprises me and I have no explanation for the durability of such shops. I have noticed
a few of these porno stores around 8th avenue and 40th street just a smattering of stores. But back to
my sex club story.
Basically, I was all alone in New York City during this period of time because it was my first year here. It
was around Christmas time and although I am not very religious, I was a bit lonely because the USA
goes overboard for Christmas. You have decorations all over the place and Christmas songs all over
the radio. They create a real Christmas atmosphere that can make a person feel as if he/she is missing
something by not participating in the whole charade. If you are not a Christian around Christmas time
you must have it kind of tough in this country. I had met a German girl from my ESL school (the school
sucked!) and she asked me whether I wanted to go to dinner at around this time and so I accepted even
though she had always seemed a bit strange to me.
So as we were eating on the Lower East Side she said, Suzyyou are quite open-minded. I have
wanted to go someplace in New York City for a long time but I didnt have the guts to ask anyone to go
with me and I dont want to go alone. I feel comfortable with you, so may I ask you to go someplace
with me? Being even more open-minded 14 years ago than I am now, I encouraged her to tell me
about the place where she wanted to go. She said, Id like to go to the V-Room. Its a sex club. I
said, Whats a sex club? She said, Its a place where people have sex and other people watch
them. I was so shocked to hear this that I immediately agreed to go. On the one hand, open-minded
as I am, the idea of watching people have sex didnt really appeal to me, but on the other hand, the
concept of the place seemed so strange that I had to see it.
The only problem was that she wasnt quite sure where it was. So I merely dialed 411 on my mobile
phone (not many Americans had mobile phones at this time) and I asked the operator for the address of
The V-room. To my surprise he gave me an address in Chelsea and off we went. So this place not only
existed but was even listed in the phone book! Now to this day I am still a little confused because I told
this story once to someone who was born in New York City and he told me the V-room was a bondage
club bdsm. This V-room that I went to wasnt a bondage club, however it was just a sex club. Maybe
there were two V-rooms or maybe it changed from a bdsm club to a sex club. Who knows.
I was surprised again when I got there because the building looked like an old warehouse (a place where
goods are stored before they can be sold) or a factory and we had to take a freight elevator up to the
floor on which the sex club existed. We were both surprised to find that because we are women we did
not even have to pay an admission fee. I later asked a guy who was there how much he had to pay and
he told me some exorbitant amount like $30.
When we first got off the elevator we were thrust right into the action. To my right I immediately saw
three naked men sitting on a sofa. They were looking at something and masturbating. I swear that
these naked guys were sitting there and whacking off. When I looked to see what they were looking
at, I noticed a woman kneeling in front of a man and she was clearly performing oral sex on him. She
was clothed but the man had his pants down.

The most shocking thing, however, was that as soon as we stepped off the elevator about 8 guys ran up
to us and formed a type of semi-circle around us. A couple of guys literally had their penises out of their
pants and were stroking them to get them hard. They fully expected that my German friend and I were
going to have sex and they wanted to see the lesbian show. This semi-circle of guys followed us around
the whole facility for the entire time we were there! At one point I actually said to them, Listen guys. I
have to be honest, my friend and I are not going to perform for you. We are just here to watch. But
they still followed us on the off chance that we actually were going to have lesbian sex.
In fact, we saw semi-circles of horny (sexually aroused) guys all over the place. Basically, the
owners/managers of this place had simply thrown mattresses on the ground, all over the place. I think
this sex club used to be a factory because there were wide open spaces and you could turn corners and
go into smaller spaces. Throughout these spaces there were mattresses which had just been thrown on
the floor. And if there was a crowd of men around a mattress you knew that some type of sexual activity
was taking place. It was kind of a tacky place. Dark and ugly and the guys looked veryhmmmblue
collar, maybe like sanitation workers, construction workers, cops that kind of guy: White, Black and
Latino. Oh! And the women who were having sex were all fat. I am not joking. We saw some of the
ugliest couples that you might imagine at this sex club.
There was really nothing sexy about the place. I recall wandering around the place and disinterestedly
watching couples having intercourse. I even saw a man performing cunnilingus on a woman but I
felt so removed from all of this (I didn't feel as if I was a part of this) I felt absolutely nothing. And
everywhere you had these semi-circles of guys masturbating all over the place! I have no idea what they
did with the cum that these guys ejaculated I really dont remember any people with mops there!
OMG I hope they cleaned up the stuff that was shooting from these guys penises! They must have!
Maybe they had a rule: after you shoot your stuff all over the place, you have to clean it up. I hope so.
Im just glad they didnt make me take my shoes off when I entered. I didnt want to walk on my own
carpeting with my shoes on when I got home!
Yet, despite how unsexy I found the place, my German friend started to come on to me! She started
to hit on me! I dont know whether she was lesbian or bi or just horny but after awhile she said, Suzy,
have you ever kissed a girl? She was slowly stroking my arm as she said this. I pulled away from her
(because it kind of felt nice to have my arm stroked :P) and told her that I had, in fact, not kissed a
girl. I could see that she was trying to seduce me. We talked for awhile and she finally mentioned that,
secretly, deep down inside, she was hoping that she and I might have public sex. I guess I was a bit
more hot-tempered back then because I became indignant. She had brought me to an ugly, dirty,
tacky place filled with crude guys so that she could have sex with another woman while others
watched. And these werent even educated, cute guys! We got into a huge argument and I stormed
out of the club. I recall this vividly because she had driven me to the club and I lived in Brooklyn, off
the G train line, at that time, and I had a hard time getting back to where I lived, and it was freezing
cold. Thankfully I didnt have to pay anything and at least I now had another good story to tell you.

Definition of terms
a holy war Literally, a holy war is a war that is fought for religious principles. If a politician engages in
action he wants citizens to perceive as extra-specially moral or even holy, we jokingly say this politician is
launching a holy war against something. Giuliani launched a holy war against pornography during his
administration.
pornography - is material of a sexual nature which is not considered artistic or socially useful. Its dirty
stuff. Naked people, naked people having sex etc.

bizarre very strange.

to wipe out to eliminate.
to stock to place in a store so that the product can be sold.
durability if something is durable it lasts a long time.
a smattering a little sample, or a little bit of something spread around just a little.
to go overboard to do too much of something, to over-react.
a charade a show, something that isnt real but is done for show.
to have the guts to do something - to have the courage to do something. Your guts are your internal
organs below your ribs. So if you have the guts to do something, you have a natural courage to do
something. A dirtier way to say this is to say that someone has the "balls" to do something. "Balls"
refers to a man's testicles. Those are the two little round sacks under a man's penis (cock) where sperm
is produced. Sperm and a woman's ovum (egg) combine to produce a child.
to appeal to if something appeals to you, you like it.
I was confused many students might say: I was confusingnoa situation is confusing but a person
can be confused.
bondage the act of tying a person up so that he/she cannot move. Some people get sexual pleasure
from doing this to others and some people like to be tied up.
a freight elevator a giant elevator in which freight or large goods are transported up and down a
building.
exorbitant out of this world, huge, too high.
thrust pushed or shoved.
to masturbate this is when a person, male or female, plays with his/her sexual organs to become
sexually aroused and sometimes to attain an orgasm. I think youre gonna have to look orgasm up in
your electronic dictionary. Basically its an amazing sexual feeling that can be experienced by men and
women. Women usually experience an orgasm when the guy focuses on her clit or clitoris. So if a
woman wants to masturbate, she can play with her clit with her fingers until she gets off or comes or
orgasms.
to whack off this is a slang term for when a male masturbates.
oral sex this is sex performed by one person, on another, in which the first person uses his/her mouth,
lips and/or tongue to stimulate the sexual organ of other person. A guy who performs oral se on a
woman will use his tongue and lips primarily on her clitoris. Every guy claims to be great at oral sex.

to stroke a cock this is the hand motion in which a guy runs his hand up and down the erect (hard)
shaft of his penis (cock) to help the man ejaculate or come. When a man comes (gets off, orgasms,
ejaculates), he shoots out a white fluid called semen. The semen contains the mans sperm, which
contains his DNA. Sperm usually combines with a womans egg to produce another person.
the off chance the unlikely chance, or the unlikely opportunity.
tacky not classy, not sophisticated.
blue collar working class. The professional class is called the white collar class.
sanitation workers these are garbage men. These are the city workers who remove everyones
garbage.
disinterestedly watching or observing without any real interest. Pronounced: dis IN tris TID lee
intercourse a form of sex in which the mans penis penetrates the womans vagina.
cunnilingus the type of oral sex a man would perform on a woman. The man licks the vaginal
opening of the woman, focusing, hopefully, on her clitoris, and tries to help the woman attain to an
orgasm. A woman's clitoris is the little part in her vagina, toward the top, which can give her immense
pleasure if it is stimulated by a guy's tongue. She can have an orgasm if the guy is really good.
cum a slang term for semen. Sometimes spelled come.
to ejaculate this is when the man reaches orgasm and shoots out his semen.
a mop this is a cleaning device that one usually soaks in water and soap before using it to clean ones
floor. It has a long stick and a mop head that absorbs water.
to come on to someone to make a move on someone, to try to pick someone up, to try to seduce a
person, to try to get a person to develop emotional or sexual feelings for you.
to seduce to try to get a person to fall in love or lust with you. Lust is sexual desire. If a woman
seduces a man, she comes on to the man so that he develops sexual desire for her. Then shes really in
control!
indignant to become angry for a moral reason. To become angry because you are offended or upset
by something.
crude vulgar, not sophisticated, low-class.
to storm out to leave a place in a very angry mood and perhaps loudly. To leave a room the way a
storm affects an area.
vivid life-like or lively.

Grammar stuff: subject + verb + object + relative pronoun clause

or prepositional phrase.
Someone once said that Italian is the language of poetry, German is the language of philosophy, French
is the language of lovers and English is the language of business. Actually, I think English is the
language of science because it is so logical and allows a person to express precise, detailed things or
events.
Like all generalizations, there is some truth to this and some falsehood. I am guessing this person said
English is the language of business because it is a very precise language. Or, it allows a person to
express very detailed and precise ideas and situations. There have been exceptionally great English
language poets and philosophers and I am hoping some good lovers too, so I think English is pretty good
for everything you might want to try! This is one of the reasons it has become a world language!
There is nothing mysterious about the sentence structure of English. It is very basic.
Indeed, it would not hurt you to look at various sentences in an English book and analyze those
sentences according to the sentence structures. You will see how basic English is there is always a
reason for an English structure, except for when there are idiomatic exceptions like Im going home
which you might think would be Im going to my home. In fact, you can say Im going to my home
but this common phrase has been shortened through usage to Im going home.
I challenge you to go through passages of this book and really analyze the sentence structures
determine where the subjects, verbs, objects, relative pronoun clauses, prepositional phrases etc.
are. This will really help you to construct your own sentences.
Most basic English sentences are going to be made up of a subject + a verb + an object. There are very
few of these simple sentences, but what you have to realize is that to continue this type of sentence
there are a couple of things that are quite common that you can do. The most common things are using
a prepositional phrase or a relative pronoun clause. Whats the difference between a phrase and a
clause? A clause has a verb and a phrase doesnt.
The dog ate the food which we had left on the table. which is the relative pronoun that introduces
another subject, verb and object and then a prepositional phrase is used (on the table). Relative
pronouns introduce clauses because you have verbs in them, prepositions introduce phrases because
there are no verbs.
I visited the church where the tomb of Alexander Hamilton is found.
I saw the person who is called the Naked Cowboy. (who introduces a relative pronoun clause).
I bought the book in the store on 5th avenue where you have also shopped. (two prepositional phrases
followed by a relative pronoun clause).
One big problem I have noticed is that sometimes foreign students want to begin sentences with
prepositional phrases but forget to use the preposition.

They might say something like: The mountains, my husband and I went there and saw some deer. It
should be: In the mountains my husband and I saw some deer. Without the preposition you now have
two subjects. It's pretty common to begin sentences in English with prepositional phrases.

14 Essential vocabulary words Fill-in-the-blanks

pornography, bizarre, durability, a smattering, to come onto s/o, exorbitant, to seduce,
indignant, crude, vivid, to storm out, blue collar, to wipe out, a mop/to mop
A person looking to get a room in New York City through a foreign agency should be very
careful. Sometimes the agencies will put students in dangerous neighborhoods and in buildings that
charge ______________ rents.
In a recent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art there were numerous live, naked human models
throughout a gallery. Some people considered this to be _____________ while others agreed that it was
art.
I hate a dirty kitchen, so I try to ___________ my kitchen floor once each week.
You might be surprised to know that most jobs in America are _____________ and do not require a
college education.
Sunyoung was kind of proud of herself. She told me that a guy who looked like David Beckham tried to
______________ to her at a bar in the East Village. She rejected his advances, however, because he
could not speak grammatically correct English and shes looking for a boyfriend who speaks the language
perfectly. (if reject someones advances this means you refuse to go along with the person who is
interested in you).
Although some psychologists believe that we only dream in black and white, I know that I have had
several _____________ dreams in striking colors.
During the argument Bob and Judy were having, Bob told Judy that she did a lousy job of performing oral
sex on him. Judy cursed at Bob and then _______________.
When I first got to NY City, it was announced that a new disease was killing older people: The West Nile
virus. The city then began spraying insecticide all around the city, at night, to try to ____________ the
mosquitoes which were spreading this disease.
In the famous movie The Graduate, an older woman attempts to _________ a young man, and
succeeds. They have a sexual relationship even though he is dating her daughter.
Yes, there is a man who calls himself The Naked Cowboy and he does play the guitar in Times Square.
No, he is not completely naked, but this is one of many ____________ or very strange ways that creative
people can make money in New York City.
Many people in New York City were ______________ when they learned that Michael Bloomberg had
convinced members of the City Council to change the term limit law so that he could run for mayor again.

Many sports fans are impressed by the _______________ of the New York Yankees. They are one of
baseball's oldest and most successful franchises (organizations).
Few people know that there were huge riots (violent public disturbances) at Columbia University in 1968
due to the fact that there were so few African American students at the school. Even today if you go to
Columbia you just see a ______________ of black students.
So-called shock-jocks are found throughout American radio stations. A radio host is often called a
disk-jockey and the shock-jock entertains people by acting in an outrageous and often offensive
manner and by telling __________ jokes and stories
Answers: exorbitant, pornography, to mop, blue collar, come on, vivid, stormed out, wipe out,
seduce, bizarre, indignant, durability, smattering, crude

19. From beatnik to hippy to punk to hipster? Welcome to

Williamsburg (changing conceptions of what it means to be
cool)
When I got to New York City in the late 90s the cool places to go were The Lower East Side and the East
Village. At that time Williamsburg Brooklyn was in its beginning stages as a hipster hangout. Now it
seems to be in full bloom as a hipster paradise; this is why I wouldnt be caught dead there now.
Whats a hipster? Basically a hipster is someone who dresses a certain way and who listens to certain
types of music and who thinks that he or she is cool because he or she has nailed down a certain style.
Lets backtrack a little bit though.
Did you ever hear of the beatniks? Basically beatniks were young (and not so young) people from the
1950s, in America, who could not adapt to the highly conservative dominant culture of America at that
time. They got their name from being called the beat generation. What was meant by calling them the
beat generation? Well, I think they were called the Beat Generation because of the multiple meanings
possible to the word beat. On the one hand they loved jazz music and since music has a beat or rhythm
they were a generation attracted to jazz. Beat also means defeated in English. They were a
generation that seemed to feel defeated by conservatism and the consumer values of America at that
time. To feel beat or beaten moreover could mean to feel tired. So perhaps the beats were tired of
the American way of life and wanted something more exciting or meaningful than what they saw.
The stereotypical image of the beat or beatnik is of someone who wore black clothing a lot and maybe
a beret. They wore loose fitting clothing and seemed quite skinny as if they were starving artists.
They had shaggy (messy, unkempt, uncombed) hair and the men often wore goatees. They loved
coffee houses and free form poetry. The most famous beat poem is Howl by Alan Ginsburg. Jack
Kerouac is the most famous beat writer - he wrote the novel: On the Road.
The beats were the precursors of the hippies. Like the beats the hippies seemed to drop out of the
dominant American culture a generation later but they were a bit more colorful. In fact, there is probably
no way to separate the hippy movement from the drug movement in America at that time. A Harvard

Professor named Timothy Leary had learned about a hallucinogenic drug developed by a researcher in
Switzerland (Albert Hoffman) and he began to experiment with this drug LSD himself. When a
person took LSD he/she saw colors that he/she had never seen before and had various visions. The
person saw a new version of reality. Hoffman and Leary wrote that after taking LSD a person could
question the nature of what we call reality and could begin to envision a better world and a better life.
The drug induced what Leary called a trip. For several hours a person would enter a new reality a
much more vivid type of dream state, while the person was awake.
Now, hallucinogenic drugs have been used throughout human history in various pre-agricultural religions.
The Native Americans of the Southwest and the Mesoamericans (Indians in Mexico) used these types of
drugs extensively, especially a hallucinogen called peyote. The visions these drugs induced were
considered religious in nature. Shamans often took these drugs to better connect to the spirit worlds
where they could communicate with the spirits of dead ancestors and nature spirits. LSD was much more
powerful than peyote and Leary was on a mission to spread this drug far and wide. Learys slogan was:
Tune in, turn on and drop out. He meant: Take the drug, have the new experience made possible
by the drug, and drop out of or leave the dominant American culture and its harmful values.
When we talk about a dominant culture, we are talking about the most powerful culture in a country.
Americas dominant culture, as I mentioned before, was created by white people who were Protestants
(Christians) and descendants of English people (WASPs White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants). In America
there are other types of cultures and young people often tap into these other cultures for inspiration.
So the Beats, for instance, tapped into jazz, which came from African American culture. The hippies
tapped into drugs. A lot. All kinds of drugs.
So the hippies were greatly influenced by taking LSD. Even their colorful clothing was based on the
colors and visions they had when they took the drug. They claimed that the drug was a liberating
(freeing) influence on their lives. Generally they seemed to value freedom and love although some could
argue they were more than a bit self-absorbed. I read a book that stated male hippies were terrible
sexists and viewed women as sex objects primarily. Who knows. In any case, this was another type of
cool among American youth.
Then the punks followed the hippies. This type of cool was imported from England where workingclass young people began forming rock bands that used very simple chord combinations in very fast
and loud songs that were generally nihilistic and anti-establishment in nature. Basically the word
punk means trouble-maker or young criminal. American punks looked back on the hippy generation
with scorn. They asserted that the hippies claimed to value love and peace and equality but that they
were really just middle class and upper middle class white hypocrites who just sought comfort and
drugs. They joked (rightly) that most hippies ultimately changed clothing and sought jobs on Wall Street
or Madison Avenue. Indeed, it is assumed that many of the hippies who were so liberal in 1968 voted for
the ultra-conservative president Ronald Reagan in 1980. (Ultra means VERY or super or extra.)
Punks often wore black leather jackets, torn jeans and spiky (^^^) hair. The most extreme form of
haircut among the punks was the Mohawk haircut. Youve seen them the person just has spiky hair
running down the middle of his/her head with both sides of his/her head shaved. Punks also began
dying their hair strange colors. Again, this was a coolness that was derived from the fact that young
people were standing against something not only commercialism and consumerism but also the
conservative politics and conservative values of the time. The hippies had become conservative and this
disgusted the punks. The apex of the punk movement was, of course, during the Reagan and Thatcher

administrations in the USA and England. Big punk bands were the Sex Pistols and The Clash. The
Ramones were a New York City punk band but they were not very political and I think they sucked.
Black Flag, from California, was a pretty good punk band. The Dead Kennedys were OK. The same
criticisms directed against the hippies could probably also be directed against the punks. After a while
punk seemed to be about getting the right clothing and listening to the right type of music. It became
commercialized and harmless.
After the punks we see nothing cool for a while. Then, suddenly, in the early to mid-90s we see the
development of what you can see in Williamsburg these days the hipsters. Williamsburg is hipster
central USA. The term hip basically means cool. In fact, the term hip was used a lot by the beatniks.
Are you hip to Coltrane? meant: Do you know about the music of John Coltrane? Nobody knows why
hip began to be used this way. But in no way, shape or form are hipsters protesting or dropping out
of anything. Its all about the clothing, the look, the music and the bars one goes to.
Hipsterism is a temporary style of life it usually lasts from a persons college years to a few years after
college. Its hard to describe the hipster style, though, because it changes. A couple summers ago male
hipsters wore full beards. Back in the 90s hipsters wore goatees and sideburns. For a while hipster men
were getting kind of pudgy or chunky. There are certain hairstyles that hipsters wear or tend to wear.
Being a hipster used to mean wearing vintage (old-fashioned) clothing, especially for women, although
that seems to have changed a bit too. Tattoos were also big among some hipsters for a while as well.
Anyway, these yearly changes in style occur in this neighborhood, somehow, and influence hipsters
around the country.
Is there a hipster ideology? Is their style a protest against anything? Hmmmm. I dont think so. In
the 90s, when I came here, hipsters were into indy rock music or music on independent record labels and
would frequent various indy rock bars to hear cool bands which were not supposed to become famous.
The really cool bands didnt want to become famous, because becoming famous meant that the band
was no longer cool, but corporate. It was uncool for these bands to show ambition. The alternative
rock phenomenon of the 90s came from the hipster universe. All of these alternative bands began in
the little hipster bars of Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York etc. and then were signed to major
label records. Then the hipsters would rant that the bands had sold out to corporate America.
Yet, from what I could see, all the hipsters came from pretty affluent homes. And the hipsters didnt
and dont seem to have any problem with the idea of getting a job in corporate America when they
graduate from their very nice and very expensive universities. Basically, this seems to be a coolness
movement which is funded by wealthy parents. In America this type of young person is often called a
trust-fund baby. You have these upper middle class kids who dont have to work and who scorn (look
down on) people who actually try to make money (the successful bands) because they have so much
money coming in from their parents that they really dont have to work.
So maybe there is a hipster ideology, but its kind of a rotten ideology. Its an ideology of laziness and
excess and an open and unapologetic pursuit of comfort and style at the expense of anything
meaningful. Basically the hipsters are pretending to rebel against their parents and their parents
lifestyle, while not really rebelling. Theyll, basically, be very much like their parents sooner than they
can imagine. The hipsters induce the feeling of coolness in each other but it is not based on any
achievement. I dont know why they think they are cool. They look like bozos to me. Its the most
hollow (empty) coolness American youth has yet devised. Its all basically a pretense by kids who have
too much time on their hands and too much money in their pockets.

Definitions of terms
to be cool this is a tough word to define. Someone is cool if he has a certain style or attitude that
others do not have and that they want to have. Some people seem to be born cool and others work hard
to seem cool. Many rock stars are either cool or want to appear to be cool. In this essay I talk about
how images of coolness have changed over the generations. Also, there are cool places and places
that are not cool. A cool place, of course, is a place cool people go to.
a hangout a place that certain types of people regularly gather together socially. A hipster is a cool
type of person. I explain what a hipster is throughout the essay.
to bloom to blossom. When a flower is in bloom it is fully developed.
paradise a perfect place of reward for the faithful after they die.
I wouldnt be caught dead there this is an extreme statement meaning that you hate a place so
much you wouldnt even want your dead body to be there.
to nail something down to really get something, understand something or to be perfect at
something.
to backtrack to go backwards in order to tell a whole story.
to adapt to change so that you fit into an environment.
dominant strongest, most powerful.
consumer a person who buys products.
stereotypical a stereotypical concept is a prejudicial concept, a limited, vague idea of some type of
person; to stereotype a person is to group a person into a type of general category: i.e. All Asians are
good at math, or All Italians are hot temperedetc.
a beret a type of cap that was worn in Paris in the late 1940s; existentialist students seemed to enjoy
wearing this type of cap. Youll have to look on the internet to see a beret.
a goatee this is a combination of a moustache (hair under a guys nose) and a mini-beard (hair around
a guys chin). Its not a full beard sort of a circle of beard around the guys mouth but not on the sides
of his face.
free form poetry is poetry that does not rhyme and which does not have a predictable rhythm.
a precursor someone or something that comes before something else.
to drop out of to quit something, to leave something.
hallucinogenic causing hallucinations or visions of things which do not really exist in the world
outside of your mind.
a vision something seen. A hallucinogenic vision is something seen internally. Its in your inner world,
not the outer world.

to envision to see. To imagine.

to induce to cause.
extensively widespread. All over the place.
a shaman in pre-industrial societies the shaman was the person who could connect with the spirit
world to help his/her community. Pre-industrial and pre-agricultural religion seems to have been
shamanistic in nature and visions or vision journeys were often accomplished by the shaman through the
use of various drugs from various plants.
a mission a goal to be accomplished which has been given to a person by God or a higher authority.
Tune in, turn on, drop out tune in = take this drug. Turn on = feel the effects of this drug. Drop out
= Leave society as a result of this drug.
to tap into to get rubber from a rubber tree, you have to drill a hole into the tree and then place a
hollow tube through the hole. Then the rubber comes pouring out. Its the same way people get syrup
from trees. This process is called tapping into a tree. So if you tap into something, you get some type
of benefit or even influence or inspiration from it. This phrasal verb can be used in a business context:
Korean automobile manufacturers are hoping to tap into the US market now that a free trade agreement
has been signed. Another example: The politician is hoping to tap into the huge number of young
people who have never voted before. Another example: In order to write this song, I tapped into some
Brasilian musical traditions.
to be self-absorbed to be entirely concerned with oneself and ones own pleasures. To be egocentric
or egpistic and not altruistic.
sexist this is a person who has prejudicial ideas and attitudes toward women
working class generally, economically speaking, there is the upper class, middle class, lower class,
working class and under-class. In the case of some professions, however, its hard to categorize them.
Some folks who work with their hands make relatively good money and some folks who work primarily
with their heads make a low salary. So blue-collar and white collar are often used as terms. Even if
a fireman makes $80,000 a year, his job is a blue-collar job. Even if a writer can barely pay his/her rent,
he/she does not have a blue-collar job.
a chord did you ever notice how guitar players position their fingers on the stems of their guitars?
One finger combination and the sound that comes from it when the guitar strings are strummed (played)
is a chord.
nihilistic in the history of philosophy, the nihilists didnt believe in anything. Nihil is the Latin word for
nothing. Nihilism is a philosophy of rejection a rejection of idealism more exactly. The punks were
rejecting the hippy philosophy among other things.
anti-establishment against the authorities of a given society.
to feel scorn for something or someone to feel contempt, or to look down on s/o or s/t

a hypocrite - someone who says one thing but does something else. For instance, if a parent tells a
child that smoking is bad for a persons health, but then the child sees his parent smoking, the parent
can be called a hypocrite. Pronounced: HIP oh krit.
to derive from to get from.
the apex the highest point
in no way shape or form is a long way of saying never.
ideology a belief system. A logical system of values and beliefs.
alternative not of the dominant culture, a different choice, a less popular choice.
a phenomenon anything that happens and is observable is a phenomenon. You can have a natural
phenomenon (phenomena is the plural form) or social phenomenon.
to rant to complain loudly.
to sell out to give up ones ideals for money.
affluent wealthy, having lots of money.
to be funded by to receive money from another source for some type of project.
a trust fund this is a bank account set up for a child who will receive the full amount of money when
he/she reaches a certain age (usually 21).
rotten bad, lousy, terribleif you leave a piece of fruit lying around for too long it will become rotten.
at the expense of instead of, in place of, taking the place of something more valuable.
to rebel against if you are in a weak position, but take action to gain independence from some
powerful person or organization, you are rebelling against that person or organization. To rebel against,
basically, means to fight against something that you are a part of, which is powerful and which you feel is
wrong.
Bozo the name of a famous clown. A clown is someone who dresses up in strange clothing and who
wears makeup in order to entertain children. They often perform in circuses.
a pretense a pretense is something phony or fake that one pretends to have or be. For instance, a
pretentious person pretends to be highly educated or better than others, but deep down inside there is
nothing special about him/her.

Grammar stuff: gerunds vs. the present progressive

Any English verb can become a noun by adding ing to it. This then is called a gerund.
To Run running. To run is a verb and running is a gerund.

I like running through Central Park on breezy days. Here is where students get confused. In this
sentence, like is the verb. Running is the gerund. Running becomes the object of the sentence.
He enjoys eating pizza. Enjoys is the verb form.
What is more confusing is that running and eating are also part of the present progressive tense.
I am running in a race tomorrow. This sentence has no object because to run is an intransitive verb it
does not take an object.
Please do not confuse the gerund and the present progressive tense. Here are a couple examples of
using the gerund first and then the present progressive tense:
One of my favorite activities is reading mystery novels.
He was reading a mystery novel when his sister called him to dinner.
He was only interested in investing his money in a reliable stock.
He is investing his money these days in reliable stocks. (If something is reliable, you can trust it.)

18 Essential vocabulary words

to bloom, paradise, to adapt, dominant, a phenomenon, a pretense, stereotypical, a
precursor, to envision, to induce, a mission, sexist, nihilistic, a hypocrite, to tap into, to rant
about something, to sell out, affluent
Statistics show that in America the more ____________ a students family is, the better he/she will do on
the SAT test. This indicates that there is no real equality of educational opportunity in the USA since the
wealthier students will do better in the US educational system.
A religious leader who abuses his power and status to illegally make money or to satisfy his sexual needs
is a complete and total ___________; you would expect more moral behavior from someone who
preaches the Gospel.
The daffodil is a petite little yellow flower that is one of the first flowers to _________ in New York City in
the spring. When you see that the daffodils have spread their petals, you know warm weather is coming.
It is not as difficult to _________ to New York City as a person might think. In fact, if a person lives in
an affluent neighborhood like Forest Hills, getting used to life in New York City will be relatively easy.
Bob really thought that Louise loved him, but he realized this was all a _____________ meant to trick
him into marrying her so that she could get a green card.
In order for America to land the first people on the moon, the government had to ______________ the
amazing engineering knowledge of German scientists who had created horrible weapons of destruction in
World War 2.

Many firemen say that women are not as strong as men and, therefore, they should not be in the fire
department. Other people find this attitude to be __________ and say women can be just as competent
as men in the FDNY. (Competent means capable of doing something effectively.)
The young people who gathered in Washington Square Park, dressed in black, were the opposite of
idealistic; indeed, their personal philosophies seemed quite ___________ as they claimed life was of no
value and there was no meaning to be found in anyones life.
A solar eclipse, when the moon moves in front of the sun and this can be seen from various points on
Earth, is a ________________ that used to frighten people in ancient times.
Many artists begin their careers demonstrating a love for art and a disdain (feeling of contempt or
hatred) for money, but as they get older they _____________ and try to sell their art at more
commercial galleries to make more money and live more comfortably.
Many popular religions promise their followers an eternal life after death in a type of ___________ which
is free from pain and anxiety.
The internet is a quite useful tool for people to _________________ anonymously. They are able to
express their dissatisfaction or irritation against something without fear of being identified.
The League of Nations was a ___________ to the United Nations. It came before the UN but was not as
successful.
WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants white, descendants of the English, Protestant not Catholic)
represent the _____________ ethnic group in America. Indeed, when people talk about America being a
melting pot, they seem to talk about people becoming more and more like WASPs.
Many politicians will pretend to be on a moral and political ____________, but once they are elected
everyone finds out they are not working toward high ideals but their own political and financial power.
The ____________ Asian woman is short, passive, petite, polite, quiet and uncomplaining. Few Asian
women that I know meet this image.
The founding fathers of America probably did not __________ the type of diverse society that America
became. All of the founders were white men and many of them owned slaves.
The election of Barack Obama __________ a sense of pride in the African American community as they
saw a man with a darker skin color elected by Americans of all colors.

Answers: affluent, hypocrite, bloom, adapt, pretense, tap into, sexist, nihilistic, phenomenon,
sell out, paradise, rant about something, precursor, dominant, mission, stereotypical, envision,
induced

20. Police Scandals: Diallo, Luima, Bell

The Diallo shooting happened the first year I was in New York City. Nobody has ever forgotten this
because it was so terrible. It has become a part of New York City history that will never be forgotten.
Amadou Diallo was a young man from Western Africa who had come to New York City to begin a new
life. He was here legally and he was living with his parents in a part of the Bronx called Soundview.
One night police in his neighborhood were informed that a rape had been committed and they were told
that the rapist was a black man. They were given a vague description of this black man. At around the
time of the rape, Diallo had stepped out of his apartment and was standing in front of his building
getting some fresh air. He had done nothing wrong that night in fact, he seemed to be a nice guy
who had never done anything seriously wrong.
As chance would have it, four white police officers driving around looking for the rapist spotted Diallo
standing in front of his apartment building. They suddenly decided that he might be the rapist. So they
pulled their car over, jumped out of the car, pulled their guns out and started yelling at Diallo to put
his hands in the air. Of course, all of this was an over-reaction. To be honest with you, it was insane.
The guy was just standing there getting some fresh air. Why would a rapist be standing in front of a
building getting some fresh air?
Apparently Diallo did not speak very much English. He had no idea what these cops were yelling at him.
So he thought they wanted to see his identification. Maybe he thought they were questioning whether
he was a legal immigrant. But then again, since New York City welcomes illegal immigrants, he didnt
have to worry about this. But he was confused and wanted to present his identification to the police.
So he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. When he did this, the four police officers
fired 41 times at him. Yes, thats right. They shot 41 bullets at an innocent African immigrant who had
never hurt a person in his life.
So they shot at Diallo 41 times and they hit him 9 times and killed him. They were about 3 meters (10
feet) away from him when they shot. The whole situation was just crazy. You shoot at an innocent guy
41 times from 3 meters and you are so scared of his wallet that you only hit him 9 times? Where did
these cops get their training from?
So immediately Giuliani took the side of the cops. The people of New York City, however, were quite
upset. I participated in a few protests and demonstrations over the Diallo shooting. There were people
of all colors and ethnicities at the protests. People were just outraged.
The police officers who fired at Diallo were arrested, because of how outraged New Yorkers were, and
put on trial. However, their lawyers were very clever. The lawyers argued that the people of New York
City were so upset about the shooting that there would be no way that the police officers could get a fair
trial in New York City. The lawyers argued that virtually (almost) everyone in New York City had already
determined that the police were guilty. So the judge allowed the trial to be moved to another place in
New York State. The trial of the four white police officers was to be held in a town in upstate New York
that had mostly white people in it. The 12 jurors of the case were all white people. The 4 cops were
found not guilty of murder by this jury. (Remember that a jury is made up of 12 citizens. A person
accused of a crime gets to choose between a judge and a jury.)
After the verdict, there were more protests. I remember marching in one of these protests. There were
thousands of us and we marched down Fifth Avenue toward Bryant Park, where a rally was going to
take place. What Ill never forget is the arrogance of the police during that protest march. As we

walked down 5th avenue on the sidewalk, the cops literally walked next to us on the street. There were a
huge number of them. Each cop had a huge number of plastic straps on his/her belt that could be used
to bind the hands of protesters. And to try to intimidate us further, they had huge paddy wagons on
the street many, many paddy wagons. The implication was clear: they were looking forward to the
opportunity of arresting people who had decided to protest the illegal and shameful killing of Amadou
Diallo. The NYPD became really arrogant during the time Giuliani was mayor.
The people who were marching, however, would not be intimidated. I saw several men take out their
wallets and hold the wallets inches away from the faces of police officers as they chanted (shouted over
and over): Its a wallet! Not a gun! over and over again. Literally, almost the entire city felt terrible
about what had happened to Diallo.
Luima this is a different story but another notorious New York City story everyone should know about.
Basically Luima had been accused of some type of crime and apparently fled the scene of the alleged
crime. So various cops had to chase after him and when they caught him they were enraged (incredibly
angry). In fact, they were so enraged that they brought Luima back to a Brooklyn police station and took
him into the bathroom. One cop took a broom and broke the broom stick in half. The cops removed
Luimas clothes, held him down, and one of the cops took the broomstick and violently inserted it into
Luimas rectum. Actually, he raped Luima with this broomstick. He violently raped Luima to the point
that Luima lost consciousness.
The doctors were shocked to see what Luimas insides looked like after the attack. The police who were
involved claimed that Luima had fallen down some stairs. When Luima recovered from his operation and
told his story, nobody even seemed to believe him. Only when one brave cop came forward and told the
press and the authorities what he had seen were these cops arrested. They were all thrown in jail and
one guy is still in there (the guy who used the stick). What happened to Luima? Of course, he sued the
city. And he won big time. He collected $10,000,000 because of what had been done to him. He now
lives in Florida. He has a mansion and a swimming pool and four cars. One of my cynical friends said,
Hey! Hes living the American dream! Is the dream worth a broomstick up the butt? Not in my opinion.
Bell was a guy who was going to get married on one particular Sunday, but he was shot the day before
his wedding by the police. Basically there is a somewhat stupid tradition in America many guys go to
strip clubs the night before they are to get married. So Bell and his three buddies went to a Queens
strip club that had a bad reputation. In fact, there were plain-clothed police officers in the club.
Apparently Bell and his friends got into an argument with some other guys there and one of the guys
from Bells group said that they were going to go to Bells car and get a gun and come back and kill the
other guys. Well, of course, a cop heard this and sent a message over his radio to other police who were
outside the bar.
In reality, none of the guys from Bells group had a gun and there was no gun in Bells car; they were
bluffing. A bluff is when you pretend to have some type of power or ability but you really dont. The
cops didnt know that, however. So as Bell was starting up his car, a cop got in front of the car with his
gun drawn and ordered Bell and his friends to step out of the car. At this point, Bell stepped on the gas
pedal and tried to hit the police officer. Now, Bells friends later said they didnt know this guy was a cop
when Bell tried to hit him. Who knows. But when Bell attempted to hit this cop, other cops around the
car started firing their guns into the car. There was one cop named Oliver who shot 50 times into the
car. In fact, he fired 30 something bullets and then reloaded and shot many more. No bullets were fired
by Bell or his friends. All of them were hit and Bell was killed.

Again, people in New York were upset because of all the bullets that had been fired into the car. So the
cops were arrested. Four of the cops were arrested. This time none of the cops was white Oliver
seemed to be of Middle Eastern origin. This time there was no jury. The cops chose to have a judge
hear their case. The judge found the cops not-guilty. It turns out that all the guys in the car had
criminal records and the two survivors had already filed law suits to get money from the city for their
pain and suffering. The judge ruled that the police did not deliberately kill Bell, but that they acted
under stress and pressure and only after Bell had tried to kill a cop with his car.
Were there protests? No. Diallo was a person who was totally innocent; I think many New Yorkers didnt
feel that Bell and his friends were completely innocent. They were at a terrible and seedy strip club, had
threatened to kill people and then Bell, himself, tried to hit another human being with his car. Basically
the judge said this was a tragedy but that he couldnt find the police guilty of anything not even the
firing of 50 bullets into a car of unarmed people. Bells wife, who was quite pretty, became a New York
City celebrity and even ran for political office.
So there you have it. If you come to New York and hear that the police have a reputation for shooting or
harming men of color, these are three big reasons why. In fact, a while ago a white cop in Harlem shot a
black plain-clothed cop who was running down the street after a suspected criminal. And there are
other, less well-known incidents.

Definitions of highlighted words

a rape - this is a terrible situation in which a man forces himself on a woman sexually. Maybe you
should look this word up in a bi-lingual dictionary and see which word your language uses for this type of
terrible action.
vague not clear, not certain.
to get some fresh air to leave an enclosed area and go outside for a break.
as chance would have it as things wound up happening, as something unpredictably happened, as
things happened.
to spot someone or something to see something, to see something as if shining a spotlight on it.
to pull over ones car to drive ones car to the side of the road.
an over-reaction to react to a situation with too much force, to do much more than you really had to.
He was confused almost every foreign student has problems with to be confused. I was confused
by this article. I get confused when I listen to him speak. Just remember, you can be confused and you
can get or become confused. I got confused, I was confused etc. I am confused about how to get to
Long Island. I am confused about where the store is located.
to fire a gun to shoot a gun. Many foreign students confuse to fire with to burn or to start a
fire. The angry boy burned down the building. The angry boy fired a gun at his enemy.
to be on the side of if there are two people or parties who are in some type of conflict and you are a
third party, you can choose to support one or the other of the parties or people. You are then taking

someones side. In the Korean War, China took the side of North Korea and America took the side of
South Korea.
to protest this is when a person or group of people decides that they do not like something and they
become very vocal or loud about what they dont like. When a large group protests they often gather
together in a public area with signs and they chant (repeat) slogans (statements) over and over. No
American Beef! End the war! No justice, no peace! etc.
to be outraged to be very angry, very very upset.
a verdict a decision as to whether someone is guilty or innocent.
a rally when a group of people gather together in order to protest something.
arrogance the expression of the feeling that a person has that he/she is superior to others.
to bind something to tie up something.
to intimidate to threaten, to try to frighten another.
a paddy wagon this is a type of police vehicle. It is usually box shaped so that it can hold a number
of prisoners at the same time.
an implication a meaning which is a consequence of something, a result of something. If the subway
system stops running at midnight, one implication is that people who work at night will have to find
another way to get to work.
notorious famous for negative reasons.
to flee: flee, fled, fled to run away
alleged accused, supposed, thought-to-be
a broom this is something that is used to sweep dust from the floor of a room. A broom has a long
handle called the broom stick and a part made of many pieces of straw that can be used when a person
sweeps the floor to get rid of dust. Witches are shown riding brooms.
the rectum hmmmmmyou might have to look this one up in your bi-lingual dictionary as well. A
persons rectum is the place where poop comes out when you sit on the toilet. So, basically, you take
food into your mouth and the food travels through your digestive system and what the body cant use
comes out of your rectum. It is also called an asshole. Some people can be called assholes.
consciousness the state of being awake and aware.
to throw in jail the verb commonly used in regard to jail in America is to throw. The criminal was
thrown in jail.
to sue someone to take a person to court and to demand that the person (or in this case the city)
pay money to the person who is suing because of something that occurred which was wrong. There are
lots of lawyers in the USA and lots of people sue each other and various companies and organizations. If
I am in a department store and I fall down because the floor is wet, and I hurt myself, I can sue the

department store to get money to cover my medical costs. Sometimes the court will even award the
person who was injured extra money because the person suffered after the jury.
a mansion a huge, beautiful, expensive house.
a strip club this is where women take off their clothes while trying to dance while horny (sexually
aroused) guys sit there and watch them.
plain-clothed cops these are police officers who are dressed in plain, ordinary clothes in order to
catch criminals secretly.
to draw a gun this means to pull a gun out of a holster. The holster is the leather case that a gun
is usually held in.
a criminal record - an official record of criminal activity that a person has supposedly engaged in.
a law suit this is when a lawyer files papers in court claiming that some wrong has been done. A law
suit is usually an attempt to collect money from someone based on the claim that the person did
something wrong and deserves to be punished.
deliberately if a person does something deliberately, he/she chooses to do it, it is not an accident.
seedy not nice, not clean, not respectable.
a tragedy something terrible.

Grammar: transitive and intransitive verbs

There are only two types of verbs in English. Some verbs take objects and some verbs take either
nothing or prepositions. Its really useful if you can tell the difference between these verbs.
The verbs that take objects are called transitive verbs. If you use a transitive verb, you can use an
object.
To eat is transitive. I ate pizza.
To travel is intransitive. I traveled to Boston yesterday.
An intransitive verb takes a preposition. In fact, it might be good to learn intransitive verbs with their
prepositions. I care about doing well on this test. My sister cared for me when I was a child.
To ask is transitive. You will never say: I asked to him. Its always: I asked him.
You will also never say: I visited to Boston. Its always: I visited Boston.
Many students mistakenly use to after ask.please dont do this, it sounds terrible.
This is pretty basic. If you are not sure whether a verb is transitive or intransitive, please look it up and
memorize the preposition that goes with it if it is intransitive.

I enjoy sitting in a rocking chair when I read.

I enjoy reading books about New York Citys history.
This is quite simple.

15 Essential Vocab Words Fill-In-The-Blanks

vague, an over-reaction, to protest, a verdict, a rally, arrogance, to intimidate, an
implication, notorious, to flee, consciousness, a mansion, deliberately, seedy, a tragedy
Jewish, Italian and Irish people began to _________ the Bronx for more expensive areas of the city and
surrounding areas in the 1960s and 1970s and now there are very few people of those ethnic groups in
that borough these days.
One of the more __________ stories of criminal sexual assault involved Peter Braunstein, who dressed as
a fireman on Halloween to get into a womans apartment to attack her.
Many immigration officers probably do not mean to ___________ foreign visitors; but, they are under
real pressure to keep individuals out of the country who might violate American laws.
I only had a ________ idea of what life might be like in New York City before I came here. Now I feel
that I have a very concrete idea after living here 14 years.
Times Square used to be a __________ area filled with porno shops and prostitutes; now it is filled with
tourist shops. Which is worse?
One ____________ in regard to allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the city is that they might be
used by the restaurant industry for cheap labor and may not live very well.
Although he had been in a terrible accident and was in real pain, he had not lost his ____________ and
could describe what had happened to the police.
February 15, 2003 was a day of world-wide ___________ against Bushs war against Iraq. Over 100,000
people in New York City tried to march to the UN building, but they were blocked by the police.
You couldnt quite call the gathering a protest, but a group of people upset about shorter hours for New
York City libraries met outside the Flushing Library branch for a ___________. Many people stood and
listened to many speakers attack the new city policy.
In the late 1990s, the ___________ in the O.J. Simpson trial shocked many Americans. He was found to
be not guilty but many Americans believed him to be guilty.
The stabbing death of Amy Watkins was a true New York City ____________. She was a social work
student who was very young and who was attacked and killed by two young men for a mere $9.
The presence of New York City police officers with machine guns in the subway was a total
____________ after the Moscow suicide bombings. The cops with the huge guns looked silly in the
peaceful subway system.

The Frick Collection is an amazing collection of European art treasures that are shown in the very
___________ where Frick lived. His huge and luxurious house has been transformed into a museum.
Many people from other cities have the stereotype that New Yorkers are quite rude and ____________.
On the contrary, they are quite polite and humble.
Although many people think that Central Park is an area of nature, the park was constructed
______________ in the 1800s. It was designed by Frederick Olmstead, a Swedish artist/architect.

Answers: flee, notorious, intimidate, vague, seedy, implication, consciousness, protest, rally,
verdict, tragedy, over-reaction, mansion, arrogant, deliberately

21. Diversity my ass? The Crown Heights Riots

Everyone in New York City needs to know certain stories. Diallo, Getz, Crown HeightsIll tell you about
The Crown Heights Riots now. Even though these riots occurred in 1991 they had a huge impact on New
York City history and nobody has forgotten what happened. These riots are, basically, why Giuliani
became mayor. Like all the terrible stories of New York City, this story kind of lingers in everyones
memory.
Basically Crown Heights is a neighborhood in Brooklyn and is still made up of two basic ethnic/racial
groups: people of a dark skin color and of African origin and Hasidic Jewish folks. By the way, in New
York City, among people of African origin, you have African Americans and Caribbean Americans. Most
foreigners cant tell them apart because both types of people look black. African Americans,
however, have ancestors who have lived in America for generations and some or all of those ancestors
were slaves in the South. Caribbean Americans came and still come to the USA from Jamaica or other
Caribbean island nations. Their ancestors were slaves on those islands as well, but they have lived in
freedom in predominantly black societies for generations. To generalize, Caribbean Americans seem to
have it easier in America than African Americans since they come from nations made up primarily of folks
of color and so they havent experienced that type of racism or discrimination that traditional African
Americans have. Also, Caribbean Americans tend to have a little more money than African Americans
since they were able to work and save in their home countries before coming over. Thats not always
true though, since Haitians are considered Caribbean Americans and Haitians are quite poor. Its almost
impossible to tell the difference between an African American and a Caribbean American just by looking
at a person, although sometimes it is possible.
In any case, one day in 1991 a well-known Hasidic Jewish rabbi was driving through Crown Heights as
part of a motorcade. I dont know where they were going. This rabbi fell behind the other cars in
the motorcade and tried to speed up before a traffic light changed so that he could catch up to the
motorcade. He must have been going pretty fast because he hit another car and then his car continued
onto a sidewalk where it knocked over a 600 pound pillar, then the car hit a wall and then the car
continued moving sideways hitting two Caribbean American children, killing one of them. The distance
the rabbis car traveled after hitting the other car was about 25 meters. Thats a big chunk of distance.
So he was traveling at a pretty high speed when all of this happened.

When bystanders saw that two children had been hit, they dragged the rabbi out of his car and started
to beat him up. The bystanders were black. Obviously, the fact that the rabbi was Hasidic was a factor
in the beating. I have to give it to you straight. Black folks in America have experienced generations of
prejudice and discrimination. Recently Obama and the US Congress bailed out the US banking
industry. Why hasnt the US Government ever bailed out poor black folks who have never had
opportunities to advance in American society? Sorry, I had to say that because it needs to be said more
often.
The generations of racism and discrimination and hatred that African Americans have been subjected to
has left many in this community with a feeling of continually being victimized. At this time many
African and Caribbean Americans in Crown Heights felt that Hasidic Jews were treated better than they
were by the government and that the Hasidic community was buying up too much property in their
neighborhood and forcing black people to leave. To see a Hasidic man run over two black children led
some folks in this community to overreact violently.
The Hasidic community has their own volunteer police department and they have volunteer ambulances
for individuals who are Hasidic. Im not joking. This community wants to take care of its own affairs and
to be isolated from the rest of New York City society. One of these Hasidic ambulances arrived and took
the rabbi away to a hospital to be treated for the beating he received. This became a huge issue for the
black community. The first person to be taken for medical help was the Hasidic rabbi, not either of the
children. As time went on the resentment in the black community of Crown Heights began to smolder
and then exploded. A group of black young people went into the Hasidic part of Crown Heights
specifically looking for a Hasidic person to kill. On their way they threw rocks through windows, and
vandalized automobiles. Ultimately, this group came across a 29 year old Hasidic man from Australia
who was in New York City studying at a university. They stabbed him to death.
Believe it or not, for three entire days black folks rioted in Crown Heights. Lots of cars were damaged,
stores were looted and homes were attacked. Hundreds of police officers were sent into the
neighborhood but they often felt overwhelmed and retreated from the rioters. When everything was
said and done about 150 police officers and 40 civilians were injured. About 130 people were
arrested.
Giuliani used this riot quite effectively to become mayor. The mayor at that time was David Dinkins, a
black man. Both Dinkins and the police chief, back then, seemed to have made some critical errors.
They did not seem to respond as promptly as they could have and perhaps did not send in enough
police quickly enough. Giuliani seemed to imply that Dinkins didnt care about Jewish people and had
taken the side of the black community during the riots.
To me the Crown Heights situation represents an extreme example of diversity in New York City. Sure
there are huge numbers of differing people, but they tend to stick to themselves. If you go to
Flushing, for instance, you see huge areas of Chinese businesses and then areas of Korean businesses.
These areas are kept separate and Koreans and Chinese often do not seem to value each other. You
have little ethnic enclaves all over the place, especially in Queens.
The most obvious examples of racial segregation would be Harlem and Spanish Harlem. Harlem begins
just a little above the neighborhood in which Columbia University is located and stretches upward for
about 20 blocks. This was a traditionally black neighborhood although it was never meant to be this by
the real estate developers. In the early 20th century Harlem was developed to be an area for wealthy

people. But with the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and a subway system that connected Manhattan
and Brooklyn, wealthy people began moving there. Because the huge, beautiful houses that had been
built in Harlem could not be sold to the wealthy, real estate people began selling the houses to poor
blacks, crowding several families, sometimes, into one house. Harlem soon became a large African
American ghetto. Above Harlem is Washington Heights. This is a neighborhood primarily of poor
Dominicans. Dominicans come from a little island nation of extreme poverty in the Caribbean. To the
east of African American Harlem is Spanish Harlem an area of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.
If you travel throughout New York Citys boroughs youll see little pockets of ethnic groups all over the
place. In Greenpoint Brooklyn you have thousands of Polish people. On Arthur Avenue in the Bronx you
still have an Italian American community. Down near Coney Island youll find a huge area of Russians.
So once a Chinese friend of mine said, New York City does not have not diversity. Diversity my ass!
Everyone lives among his/her own little ethnic or racial group and the groups dont mix.
Ok, she had a point, but I dont think this means there is no diversity here. On the contrary, New York
City is super diverse. If everyone mingled together we would have a melting pot situation. We would
just melt into one homogeneous culture. Who wants that? Thats what everyone leaves his/her home
country to avoid. I prefer the salad bowl situation. I like it that you find different pockets of people from
all over the world here. We just need to become more tolerant of each others differences and accepting
of each other. Generally, New Yorkers seem to be doing a pretty good job of that.

Definitions of terms
my ass if you tell an American something and he/she responds by saying my ass, that means he/she
doesnt believe you or thinks what you are saying is ridiculous. This is a vulgar expression. i.e. Bob: I
once went on a date with Madonna. Ralph: My ass! You wish you had gone on a date with Madonna!
to riot this is when a group of people loses control and begins to protest something violently, often
looting and destroying property
to linger if something lingers, it doesnt go away quickly. A smell can linger or a memory can linger.
a neighborhood is a place in a city made up of a small number of blocks (streets). New York City is
divided into various neighborhoods: Chelsea, Soho, Flushing, Williamsburg etc.
to tell something apart from something else to recognize a difference between one thing and
something else. This is confusing to foreign students because they think to tell only means to speak
about something. Actually, to tell can also mean to see in English. To tell something from
something else means to be able to see a difference between these two things.
a Hasidic Jewish rabbi we dealt with Hasidic Jewish folks before (in a previous chapter). A rabbi is a
Jewish religious leader. Catholics have priests, Protestants have ministers.
a motorcade this is a single line of cars traveling together toward some destination.
to fall behind when others are going at a faster speed or pace and you do not match that speed or
pace you fall behind.

a pillar this is a type of stone or metal structure that extends far into the air, usually a pillar is used to
keep up some type of ceiling; its basically a very thick pole.
bystanders people who are just standing around and watching something.
to drag s/o out of s/t: to pull a person out of some place against his/her will.
to bail out this literally is what a person in a boat does if the boat starts to fill with water. The person
takes a bucket or pail and begins scooping the water up and pouring it out of the boat. A financial bail
out is when a company is sinking financially and the government provides it with money so it doesnt sink
completely.
to be victimized to be harmed by someone more powerful.
an ambulance a vehicle used to transport a sick or injured person to a hospital.
resentment a lingering feeling of anger because of an injustice.
to smolder if a small fire starts, it smolders for awhile before becoming a huge fire.
to vandalize to illegally destroy property.
to stab to illegally stick a person with a knife with the intent of harming the person.
to riot this is when a group of people loses control and begins to protest something violently, often
looting and destroying property.
to loot when a rioting crowd deliberately breaks the windows of stores and runs into the stores to
steal things.
to retreat to run away from a dangerous situation.
when everything is said and done when a situation is over and it can finally be assessed or judged.
to arrest when the police take a person into their custody because they believe he/she has committed
a crime.
promptly when someone is supposed to do something. If you arrive promptly at a dinner, you arrive
at the right time.
to stick to themselves when a particular ethnic group chooses to associate with just people from
their own ethnic group.
ethnic enclaves little areas of the city where you only find one type of ethnic group.
segregation the separation of people based on how they look or what their ethnicity is. Integration is
the opposite term. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in racial integration (bringing the races together).
real estate developers or agents these are people who buy and sell houses.

a ghetto this term comes from Europe where they used to force Jewish people to live in certain poor
areas of a city. Now a ghetto is usually a place in an American city where poor black and Latinos are
forced to live because the US government prefers to bail out banks and not poor people.
a pocket literally a pocket is the place in mens pants where a guy can hold things like keys. A
pocket can also mean an area in which certain types of people are located.
a melting pot is America a melting pot where everyone becomes the same or is it a salad bowl where
a collection of different ethnicities can live together?
homogeneous all of the same kind

Grammar stuff: that vs. in which

Many students falsely use that when they should use in which.
For example: That is the bank that I have my money. That sentence doesnt work. This one works:
That is the bank in which I have my money.
Many students think that using that is very simple and it always works as a relative pronoun. No. If
you are referring to places, you might not be able to use that. Colorado is the state where I saw the
Grand Canyon. Where is the relative pronoun there. Or you could say: Colorado is the state in which I
saw the Grand Canyon.
The relative pronoun also changes for time. That was the year when I was born. That was the era in
which Eisenhower was the US president. in which could have been used for when as well.
Also that does not always require a subject, verb and object after it in which does.
He is the man that ate the apple. that refers back to the object man and serves as a substitute for
man as a subject in the next part of the sentence. If you use where or in which you will always
have a subject, verb and object. I want to go to a restaurant in which they serve sushi.
So I would recommend that if you are talking about a place and need to use a relative pronoun, use
where or in which. I am looking for a language school in which I can get some good speaking
practice. I am looking for an apartment in which I can live with my husband and children. I am looking
for a city where I can raise my children healthfully and peacefully.
But, in which doesnt always refer to a physical place. For example: I had a dream in which I was being
chased by a dog. Or: I want to avoid a situation in which I might get hurt.
So, basically, in which points back to the object and refers to something happening inside the object.
Its gets a little more complicated. You can also use on which, through which, over which, etc.
That is the chair on which I usually sit. To be honest with you, for on which, most Americans place
the preposition at the end of the sentence and drop which, although it is grammatically correct to
place it with which. For example: That is the chair I sit on. vs. That is the chair on which I sit. That is
the table on which I placed a book. vs. That is the table I placed the book on.

16 Essential Vocab Words Fill-In-The-Blanks

a riot, to linger, a neighborhood, a motorcade, bystanders, to bail out, an ambulance, to
smolder, to loot, to retreat, to arrest, segregation, a ghetto, a pocket, homogeneous,
promptly
When a person sends email to another with some type of request, he/she expects that the email will be
answered ____________, within a day or two.
Martin Luther King Jr. became famous in America as an advocate of integration; he dreamed that children
of all colors might live together peacefully. Malcolm X became know for his advocacy of ____________;
he believed that black people and white people could never get along with each other.
I had thought that Hasidic Jewish folks only lived in Williamsburg Brooklyn, but based on what I saw,
there is a small ____________ of these folks in Bensonhurst Brooklyn as well.
Many foreigners know that if they are not well or in critical condition they can call 911 for an
____________, but they do not know that the city will charge them a huge amount of money to be
transported by this vehicle to a hospital emergency room.
After any type of crisis, such as an earthquake or a riot, some irresponsible people can be expected to
attack and ___________ local businesses because the police will be too busy elsewhere.
A great song will usually ___________ in a persons mind for some time and the person will often hum it
to him/herself frequently.
Although a society with a ____________ population might not have the minor conflicts that can occur in
a diverse society, diversity seems to enrich a society and a persons experience in that society.
A good strategist knows that not every battle can be won and that sometimes it is necessary to
____________ in order to fight again.
The American people were hesitant to ______________ the automobile industry because its leaders
seemed so arrogant. However, so many jobs would have been lost if this industry had failed that money
was, ultimately, provided.
American cities are generally peaceful places but there have been ___________ in the past due to the
perception that a racial injustice has occurred; these are often violent and bloody incidents.
Harlem was not meant to become a black ___________. But when wealthy white people moved to
Brooklyn that area was left for only the poor blacks who needed to move uptown due to rising rents
downtown.
President Kennedy had been riding in a _____________ of several cars during his assassination in Dallas
(an assassination is when some type of leader is killed).
Some people like Soho for the shopping and the Lower East Side for the bars and clubs, but my favorite
_____________ is Chelsea for the art galleries there are over 200 of them there.

Recently the police ____________ a naked man who was walking through Times Square yes, it is
illegal to walk naked through Times Square.
The Los Angeles riots in the early 90s happened because the police were caught on videotape viciously
beating up a black man. It was not just that one incident, however, which led to the riot. Anger had
been ___________ for a while as African Americans felt that the LA police were racist and corrupt. After
the videotape was released, the anger exploded.
_______________ who witness an accident will often report the details to the police unless they are in
a hurry, then they will flee from the scene.

Answers: promptly, segregation, pocket, ambulance, loot, linger, homogeneous, retreat, bail
out, riots, ghetto, motorcade, neighborhood, arrested, smoldering, bystanders

22. Finding a place to live in New York through an agency

I had met Jeongyon at a bar in K-town. K-town is basically one street in Manhattan where you have lots
of Korean stuff restaurants, coffee shops, karoke places, a Korean bookstore, an internet caf etc. She
told me that she had come to New York City through a Korean agency and that she was paying $1,200
per month for a room in a bad neighborhood in Brooklyn. Of course do you think the agencies are
wonderful altruistic organizations? $1,200 is a crazy amount to be paying for a room. It is way too
expensive exorbitant! I have to tell you that these types of agencies often screw their clients. Let
me tell you about the places where some agencies will put you.
Jeongyon was in a persons two story house. She was living in what was once a childs bedroom.
However, the owner of the house had decided to make some money and so every single room in the
house was being rented out to foreign students from a Korean and Japanese agency. The woman was
even renting some rooms in her basement area. She had built extra rooms in her basement. The
problem? First of all, there were too many people living in this house there was always competition for
use of the kitchen and bathroom. Secondly, this is totally illegal in New York City. Such a situation is
called illegal SRO housing. SRO stands for Single Room Occupancies. If a house is classified as a one
family house or a two family house, the owner is not allowed to rent out spare rooms to strangers. And
building extra rooms in a basement is really illegal and dangerous. Many fires start in these illegal
basement rooms.
Thats the bad news. The good news? The city doesnt care. Thats right folks, the city looks the
other way. So if you are living in illegal housing the city will probably do absolutely nothing to you or
the owner. This is probably the best way for shady (dishonest) people to make lots of money tax-free.
It is happening all over New York City. This has to be the biggest source of illegal income in the city and
Bloombucks and the government simply dont care. So these agencies find illegal housing throughout
the boroughs of New York City and cram as many people into these places as they can and they
charge an exorbitant amount to each student. The agencies and the home-owners make a fortune.
How do I know? Let me tell you a story.

Bob, my language exchange partner, wanted to take a break from teaching and started working for
himself as a tutor. He didnt have the heart (wasnt mean or nasty enough) to charge his students a lot
of money, so he had to find a cheap place to live, and he took a basement room in Flushing, Queens.
(Flushing, by the way, has a huge number of Chinese and Korean folks). To make a long story short, he
realized that the whole house in which he was living was an SRO situation because someone in the
neighborhood reported the house to the city. This was true. The house was owned by a very shady
Chinese lady and she rented out every single spare room to strangers. She was making a fortune and
she wasnt paying any taxes on the amount she was making. So after the citizens report, what did the
city do?
It was a joke. They posted a flier outside the front door of the house demanding entry to the house.
Most people ignore these fliers and the city does absolutely nothing. But sometimes shady people are
kind of stupid. So the landladys green-card husband called the city and made an appointment for an
inspector to arrive. But the appointment was set for the next month. This was fine with the city
because it seems as if the city is willing to let the home owners try to change the situation before the
inspectors can arrive. In that one month the landlady moved Bob and another guy out of the illegal
basement rentals and placed them temporarily in another illegal house she owned. She then asked each
person living illegally in her house to temporarily leave the house on the day that the inspector arrived.
Her scheme was to tell the inspector that everyone living in her house was a family member if nobody
was there to be questioned, she thought she could get away with it.
And she almost did! The inspector arrived and could not find anyone living in the basement (illegal
basement rentals are a serious offense in New York City) and the inspector was told that everyone living
in the other rooms was a family member. Apparently he bought the story and wasnt going to do
anything about it. Bob, however, became upset with how corrupt this woman was, moved out of the
house, and contacted the city himself. He reported that he had been living in the basement and reported
that the people who were living in the rooms of the house were not family members. He told the city
that all they had to do was check the mail being delivered to the house to verify that strangers were
living there. So, basically Bob, God love him, forced the city to do something.
So ultimately the landlady had to appear in court and she was found guilty of illegally renting out rooms.
Do you want to know what her punishment was? Hardly anything. A slap on the wrist. She was
fined $1,200. She had been collecting $500 per month from Bob alone, so $1,200 was nothing. So,
basically, the city doesnt care about these illegal situations. I knew Japanese girl who was living in a
house in Queens in which the landlady (the woman who owned the house) had a son who worked for the
New York Police Department. The son was always coming over and certainly knew his mother was
making money illegally, placing foreign students in dangerous situations and not paying taxes. Neither
he nor the city cared.
Should they care? I think so. Every once in a while I read in the papers about fires that start in illegally
rented houses because there are too many people putting too much of a strain on the electrical outlets.
Or people will cook using hotplates in their rooms and start fires. In one case a landlord had built a
number of extra rooms in his building in the Bronx and, when a fire started, firemen entered the building
to put out the fire but then the firemen became trapped in the building because there were too many
new walls that had been illegally constructed. They could not find their way out of the building. Four
firemen died so a slumlord could make a little extra money.

So I want to tell you, when you pay your agency in your homeland they are probably going to send you
into an illegal house. So what can you do? I guess the best thing is to use craigslist.org or another
website to try to find a place of your own. Koreans can go to heykorean.com this is a site for Koreans
in New York City. I know Japanese people have that type of site too but I dont know what its called.
Some students take a room through an agency but then try to find a cheaper place when they get here.
Do some research! Dont be lazy! Go online and try to find a person from your country in New York City
who has a spare room and who will not try to screw you out of money by putting you in a dangerous
room.

Definitions of terms
altruistic caring deeply about others; the opposite term is egocentric caring only about oneself.
a crazy amount crazy in this case means: very very unreasonable way too expensive.
way too expensive way too means very very very. It is way too cold out there today! That shirt is
way too expensive! He is way too fat; he needs to lose weight. (notice: not lose his weight.
To screw someone if someone screws you they take advantage of you or use you. to screw is
another term for to fuck
a two story house a story is the same thing as a floor. A two story house has two floors.
spare rooms extra rooms.
to look the other way to know that something is wrong but not to do something about it.
a borough New York City is made up of 5 boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and
Staten Island.
to cram people into to fit as many people in as a person can even if the people are not comfortable.
exorbitant way high, very very high.
shady dishonest, corrupt, not legitimate.
a flier basically a sheet of paper with instructions or an advertisement on it.
a green-card husband a man who marries a woman, usually for money, so she can receive her
green-card and stay in America to work.
an inspector someone who works for the city or state and investigates complaints.
a scheme a type of plan, usually a shady/dishonest type of plan.
to get away with something to escape punishment for something that someone did wrong.
he bought the story he believed a false story.
corrupt dishonest, not straight-forward, willing to compromise ones ethics.
to verify to prove, to become certain of.

a slap on the wrist a minor punishment.

to be fined to be punished by being ordered to pay money to the city or state.
a strain on something too much pressure on something, an overload, too much usage of something.
a hotplate an inexpensive device which can cook small items, it is an electrical device.
a slumlord a slum is like a ghetto. So instead of saying landlord we say slumlord for someone
who rents cheap, badly maintained property to make extra money.

Grammar stuff: another vs. other

Another thing is an extra or additional thing. An other thing is something completely different. Often,
but not always, another is used for a singular thing and other is used for plural things.
Another person might have acted differently from me. Other people might have acted differently from
me.
If you have had a beer and are still thirsty for beer, you will have another beer. If you ordered a beer
and they gave you a glass of wine, you ordered something other than what you received.
Often times you use other when you have a choice. If someone offers you a Coke or a Pepsi they
might say, Do you want the Coke or the other soft drink?
If you have only been offered a Coke and have drunk it they might offer you another Coke.
If you are talking about two things and a person asks you to choose one of those, the word other might
be used. There are two tabloid newspapers in New York City: The New York Post and the New York
Daily News. A tabloid is a small newspaper that is easy to read on the subway. Someone might say, Do
you like the Daily News or the other tabloid?
If there is an accident and you were a witness a police officer might say, Which car caused the accident
this one or the other? Other is always used in regard to a choice. Another is always used if you
want more of something.
This is all quite simple. Just catch yourself before you use other or another and think: am I talking
about a choice or something extra? Choice = other, extra = another.

11 Essential Vocab Words Fill-In-The-Blanks

way too, to screw, spare, a borough, altruistic, to cram, shady, an inspector, a scheme, to
verify, to be fined
Although many people might think that people attracted to the medical profession are ___________, they
might not feel that way once they see their medical bill is way too high; indeed, they might think doctors
are selfish and greedy.

Manhattan is the most famous part of New York City and until 1898 it was the only part. The five other
____________ were included with Manhattan to make up New York City to increase the size and budget
of the city.
I try to avoid buying anything from street venders. If they think you are from out-of-town they will often
try to ___________ you on the price of what they sell (if they think a person is from New York they
charge him/her a reasonable fee).
Although drinking beer publicly is allowed in many cities in the world, if you do so in New York City you
will be __________. This is true even though there is a photo of the mayor of New York City drinking a
can of beer publicly.
The Department of Health is supposed to send _____________ to every restaurant in the city to ensure
(make sure) that every restaurant is clean and the food is safe; yet, someone once videotaped rats
running though a Taco Bell that had just recently been inspected and given a good grade.
It is necessary to bring a number of sources of your identity when you try to obtain a drivers license
the clerks want to really ___________ that you are who you say you are.
Although some people feel they can make some extra money by renting out __________ rooms in their
houses, this practice is generally considered to be illegal and dangerous in New York City.
My landlady wanted me to become involved in an internet marketing program, but I realized it was just
an illegal ____________ to make money.
I would love to live in Manhattan but the rents are ___________ high.
On a hot summer day, the last thing I want to do is to be ____________ into a full subway car with
many unhappy and sweaty people.
Albany, the capitol of New York State, has such a history of corruption that some people think everyone
there is __________ and not to be trusted.
Answers: altruistic, boroughs, screw, fined, an inspector, verify, spare, scheme, way too,
crammed, shady

23. A Few Important Names in New York City History

You see and hear a lot of historical names all over the place, but most people dont know who is who.
Here is a rundown on just a few folks:

Henry Hudson. The Hudson River, which separates Manhattan from New Jersey, was named after him.
Who was he?
In the early 1600s European scholars were convinced that a ship could sail over the North Pole to
reach Asia from Europe. They did not know that an ice-cap made that impossible. Asia was where all the
good stuff was. Asia had the best products in the world. Europeans first learned that Asia had all the
good stuff when an Italian guy named Marco Polo wrote a book in the 1300s about his visit to China.

While a majority of Europeans were living terrible lives and dying early deaths in a social and economic
system called feudalism, Polo observed huge cities in China in which large populations lived in peace,
comfort and stability.
Yes, Europe SUCKED and Asia ROCKED. And, ladies and gentlemen, it looks as if Asia will rock again!
Things are happening there these days. In any case, Polo described everything he saw in China, perhaps
hoping to inspire change in Europe. Maybe he hoped people would read about how unnecessary
feudalism was and how possible a better social organization could be.
The problem? As well as living horrible lives, and dying young, most Europeans couldnt read. The only
people who could read what Polo had written were the people who were benefitting from all of the
human suffering of the serfs (poor farmers). So Polos book didnt inspire people to change a terrible
social structure, it inspired people with money and power to try to get to Asia to buy some of the superior
goods there. An ironic situation (you expect one thing and something else happens).
So Hudson was an English guy who captained a ship for a Dutch company. They wanted him to try to
sail over the North Pole so they could get good Asian stuff. He, however, really wanted to find a sea
passage through North America to Asia, and so he actually pretended to sail toward the North Pole but
then he headed west instead. He was one of the first European guys to discover Manhattan and he
sailed up the river that would be named after him hoping it would lead to a passage through North
America to Asia. It didnt work, but the Dutch were happy to learn about Manhattan and later
established a colony there.
Ultimately, Hudson went back one more time to North America, still trying to find a passage to Asia.
On his last voyage his crew got pissed at him for some reason and put him, his son and a few other
people into a small boat and sent them out to sea. Hudson disappeared. Regardless of what a dickhead
(idiot) he might have been, I hope he and his son didnt suffer too much before they died at sea. I mean,
just kill the guy, dont push him out to sea to slowly starve to death. What the hell was wrong with those
sailors!?

Peter Stuyvesant There is a Stuyvesant Park and a Stuyvesant High School. Stuyvesant High School
is considered the best public high school in New York City. Basically Peter Stuyvesant was the last Dutch
Governor of New Amsterdam (this is what New York City used to be called when it was controlled by the
Dutch remember that the Dutch are people from Holland/The Netherlands).
He was a nut. He was totally autocratic, a real dictator. He was also highly intolerant. Although
New Amsterdam had become a diverse colony, Stuyvesant seemed to hate diversity and wanted to
promote Dutch culture and a very severe Calvinist religion. The guy was really uptight. He especially
hated Jewish folks, but then again he hated just about everyone.
Basically the colonists began to really hate him because the original Europeans on Manhattan loved life
and enjoyed drinking, partying, having sex and all kinds of stuff (that most New Yorkers enjoy). This is
one reason why New York City is so different from other American cities. When the English attacked New
Amsterdam in 1664, the people refused to fight. They felt that life under the English would be better
than life under Stuyvesant. So Stuyvesant had to surrender to the English. There is a town called York
in England and so the English changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York. It is easy to recognize
images of Stuyvesant because he had one of his legs shot off in some type of war. He wore a wooden

peg leg. Why would people name a bunch of things after this nut (crazy person)? Who knows. Some
people like nuts.
Stuyvesant High School should be a controversial place, but nobody seems to care that New Yorks
best high school hardly has any black or Latino students. So the name for this school is appropriate since
Stuyvesant was an intolerant, racist guy. But people dont seem to care about the bad racial
demographics (statistics) at this school.
Well, I care. But who cares what I care? Nobody cares what I care! Thats who! But I wanna tell you
this anyway, whether you care or not:
Stuyvesant is considered one of the best high schools in the USA. It is a public school, which means the
students attend for free and the people of New York City pay taxes to support it. But, in order to attend
the school a student has to do very well on a very difficult standardized test. So right now about 70%
of the students there are Asian or Asian-American, 25% are white and white immigrant children (for
example, Russians) and only about 5% are African American and Latino. A majority of New Yorkers are
people of color, but only 5% of students of color are in Stuyvesant. Why?
Obviously black and Latino children live in terrible neighborhoods and do not have access to huge
amounts of economic resources (money and jobs). Thats a huge part of the problem. But, a person
could argue that many Asians come to America quite poor and yet their children do well in the school
system. Poor Asian parents seem to set high standards of performance for their children and their
children use the American educational system the way it was meant to be used to help even poor
students gain better lives through learning.
This is a controversial and complex issue. Why do black and Latino children seem to do so poorly in
Americas educational system? Poverty isnt insuperable since Asians overcome it in America. I think,
therefore, there has to be some element of racism involved. Blacks and Latinos have been subjected
to a lot of racism throughout US history. Perhaps this negative view of these minority groups has
affected the standards by which these folks believe they can achieve success. Perhaps government
officials and educators simply do not care about minority children. When I read about the citys
attempts to achieve educational reform they always talk about test scores and not children. They are
always interested in improving test scoresthey want those scores to look good.
Maybe if they wanted the children to have meaningful lives, things would change. Basically, if we want
good schools we have to have good communities where people can live safely and meaningfully. This is
not out of Americas reach. America just doesnt want to reach for it.

Governor DeWitt Clinton There is a DeWitt Clinton High School but there should be more stuff
named after this guy. This guy was huge. He was a rare commodity: an honest politician who cared
about the people. He was the 6th Governor of New York and it was his idea to build the Erie Canal.
Whats that? Well, if you look at a map of the United States you can see that toward the middle of the
map there are five huge lakes. These are called the Great Lakes. In the early 1800s Clinton thought it
would be a great idea to connect the East Coast to the Midwest through a canal that would run from the
Hudson River to Lake Erie. So he wanted to connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and this would
allow crops and goods to be transported more easily from the middle part of the United States to the
coast.

It took several years to build the canal but once it was built transportation costs from the East to the
Midwest dropped by 95%. Western New York became more populated and more and more people
began moving to the Midwest. The Erie Canal was huge. It was a big factor in regard to the movement
of European-Americans farther west. It helped European Americans move west faster than they would
have. It made it much more easy to move goods from the Midwest to New York and from New York out
to the rest of the world. Clinton was an economic visionary, like Hamilton. I guess Native Americans
might still be pissed at him though. The farther west the European-Americans went, the more land the
Native Americans lost.

Andrew H. Green There is nothing named after this guy but he, too, was HUGE. In the mid-1850s he
was put in charge of a city planning board. What did he do? He came up with the idea for Central Park.
Many people think Central Park is something natural. No. The area that Central Park now occupies
used to be a poor neighborhood. Because Paris and London had huge centrally located parks, Green
thought New York City should have one. So he accepted a plan by a guy named Frederick Olmsted (a
landscape artist from Sweden) and he had the neighborhood torn down and replaced by Central Park.
They moved in tons of soil, created artificial bodies of water and brought in huge numbers of trees.
Central Park is not a work of nature; it is a work of landscape art.
He also came up with the idea of Columbus Circle, the American Museum of Natural History and The
Metropolitan Museum. He wanted Central Park and the area around it to be like a university and place of
rest and relaxation for the public. He also helped to create the New York Public Library, one of the
greatest library systems in the world. Finally, he was the guy who worked the hardest to consolidate
New York City. What does that mean? Well, up until 1898 only Manhattan was considered to be New
York City. When New York was consolidated, the areas of The Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and (my
favorite borough) Queens joined Manhattan. By consolidating New York City in this manner, one city
government was now able to collect a huge amount of money in taxes and many new improvements to
the city could be made with this money. Can you imagine what New York City would be like without
Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum and without the five boroughs? They didnt name anything
after this guy. That sucks. But, OK, youre right: hes dead, so he doesnt care. OMG you have become
cynical while reading this book!

Fiorello LaGuardia There is the famous LaGuardia Airport and LaGuardia High School. This guy was
huge too. Some people think he was the greatest mayor in American history. He was mayor of New
York City for three terms during the Great Depression.
What did he do? Ha! What didnt he do!? This guy makes Bloomberg look like a total wimp. Well, OK,
Bloomberg is a total wimp. Basically he did a bunch of things. I wrote about machine politics in a
previous chapter. New York City government used to be very corrupt. The city government was run by
a political machine. If you wanted a job, you did a favor for someone in government and they did a favor
for you by giving you a job. Or if you had a relative in government, you got a good job. This system is
called a system of patronage. It was a system of connections if you knew the right people you got
special favors. Basically a patron is like a protector.
LaGuardia ended all that nonsense. LaGuardia destroyed machine politics in New York City. He
established a merit-based system for getting jobs in New York City government. He also went after the
gangsters and mafia guys. These criminals had been operating effectively by bribing cops. LaGuardia
ended this nonsense and had many powerful criminals arrested. He was able to obtain money from the
Federal Government and he fixed up New York Citys infrastructure. He built bridges, tunnels, parks

and many low-cost housing units for the poor. Like DeWitt Clinton he truly seemed to care about people.
So basically he got rid of long-standing political corruption, he arrested powerful criminals, and he fixed
the infrastructure of New York City. Now we have Bloomberg, who has done NOTHING but wants to be
considered one of the best New York City mayors ever. Well, you cant beat Fiorello, Bloombucks, not
even in your pathetic megalomaniacal dreams.

Grammar Stuff: Placement of just or only

Another huge mistake that many foreign students make concerns the placement of the words just or
only. Usually, these two words have to be placed between the subject and the verb: please do not use
just or only at the beginning of a sentence.
I only learned about the scheduling change yesterday.
I just found out about the change in schedule yesterday.
I only have $5, so I cant do anything tonight.
I just have ten minutes to spare before I have to leave for my train.
But, if you are going to use a past participle, only or just comes after the have/has/had part. It has
only rained a little bit this year. I have only heard about him, I have never met him. I have just had a
car accident. She had just noticed that he was calling her when she saw him.

Definitions of terms:
a rundown a brief account, a quick telling of something.
to convince, convinced to make a person certain or sure of something; to be sure of something.
The North Pole the spot at the very top of the earth. The North Pole is surrounded by what is called
The Arctic or the Arctic Icecap. The South Pole is surrounded by what is called The Antarctic or
Antarctica. The Arctic region is made of frozen ice and snow while Antarctica is an actual continent (a
huge area of land) covered by ice and snow.
a majority the largest number.
feudalism from about 500AD to about 1400AD this was the primary economic system in Europe.
Feudalism was made up of, primarily, lords and serfs. Basically a lord owned a huge tract (piece) of land.
On this tract, he had many serfs working for him as farmers. Each serf and his family was responsible for
growing crops on his own little area of land. The serf was allowed to keep a little but had to hand most
of what he grew over to the lord. The lord also had to provide crops to the King.
stability a stable situation is a situation that does not fluctuate (change) too much. If a country is
experiencing social stability, things are generally calm.
to rock this is the opposite of to suck. If something rocks, it is very good.

ladies and gentlemen this is a formal and old-fashioned and kind of funny way of addressing a
crowd of people.
to inspire change if someone inspires you to do something, that person has given you the motivation
to do something. To inspire change means to motivate change.
to benefit, benefitting any word that begins with bene means something good because bene
means good in Latin. Mal means bad in Latin. To benefit from something is to get something good
from something.
a serf a poor farmer who worked for a lord in Europe during the Middle Ages.
to captain to captain means to lead. If a person captains a ship, he is the leader of the ship.
Dutch remember that people from Holland (which is also called The Netherlands) are called Dutch.
Why? I dont know. I cant know everything. Id like to know everything, Im trying to know everything,
but I am pretty sure I will fail to know everything.
a sea passage a way through something is a passage. So Europeans were looking for a way through
North America that ships could sail. A sea passage is, therefore, a sea way.
a colony this is a place where people from a bigger or more populous country go to start a smaller
version or replica of their society. Some countries have, however, been colonized. India was colonized
by England England took over control of the government and began running India to serve England.
ultimately finally, at the end of a process.
got pissed at him became angry at him. Please remember that to get and to become can mean
the same thing. He got fat. He became fat.
a dickhead a guys dick is his cock or penis. If we say a guy is a dickhead, we say he is quite stupid.
a nut a crazy person. Nobody knows how the word nuts began to be used for the word crazy.
autocratic an autocratic government has one powerful leader who controls everything.
intolerant not open-minded. A tolerant person would value diversity while an intolerant person
doesnt like to see anything different or new.
diverse not the same, having a variety of parts or things.
to promote to encourage, to want to make something grow or develop or increase.
a Calvinist John Calvin was a super conservative Christian from the 1500s. He created
Presbyterianism a Protestant Christian Religion. Calvin believed in an idea called predestination. This
meant that before everyone is born, God decides whether that person will be saved and go to heaven or
damned and go to hell. Heaven is the place Christians anticipate going to after they die if they have
been good. Hell is the place for rotten, lousy, nasty people. So Calvin believed that there was nothing a
person could do to save him/herself. He also was quite ascetic (he hated pleasure). He didnt think his
followers should drink alcohol (fuck him!), have sex (double fuck him!) or even go to the theater (I can
live with that since Broadway Theater kind of sucks). Interestingly, a sociologist thought that Calvinism

helped in the development of capitalism. Heres his argument. In Holland (where capitalism developed
early) everyone was a Calvinist. People wondered whether they had been chosen by God to be saved or
damned. So the people of Holland began thinking that if God chose to save a person, God must love that
person. So people thought that if a person were doing well in his life and living successfully, obviously
God loved him and that person must be one of the people God had chosen to be saved. So, of course,
people in Holland began working extra hard to make money so that they could be successful and so that
it would look as if they had been saved by God. The people of Holland worked harder than any other
European people at that time and capitalism developed more quickly there. In England, however,
capitalism began to develop along with industrialism (the making of goods in factories), so England
ultimately eclipsed and surpassed Holland (caught up to and moved ahead of).
uptight an uptight person is super super dooper conservative. Tight is the opposite of loose. If a
person is uptight he is not a person with an open-mind and physically he/she will seem cold. An uptight
person might not drink, laugh a lot, try new things etc.
a colonist someone who lives in a colony.
under the English to live under the English means to live under their laws or according to their laws
and rulers.
to surrender to give up, to stop fighting and to acknowledge that the other side has won.
a wooden peg leg basically after Stuyvesant lost one of his legs in a battle, he had a wooden stick
stuck, somehow, to the part of his leg that still remained. This is called a peg leg. It doesnt have a foot
part it is just a stick that the person can use to walk. So Stuyvesant still had the upper part of his leg
and used a stick for the lower part.
controversial something controversial is something that people might have heated arguments about.
A controversial issue is a hot issue that people will disagree about.
standardized a standardized test is a test that will be the same for all who take it. The American
educational system seems to be shying away from (moving away from) standardized testing while this
type of testing remains strong in a few Asian countries. Although standardized tests are not the only
thing that colleges look for when they admit students, I think that such tests are still quite important. On
the surface standardized tests look fair, but America is a diverse country and many studies have shown
that the more money a family has, the better the children in that family will do on standardized tests. In
America, Asians and Whites seem to do well on such tests while Blacks and Latinos do not.
insuperable if something is insuperable, it cannot be overcome or defeated.
racism this is when someone hates another person or group because of that person or groups skin
color. Sexism is when guys hate or look down on women. Ageism is when younger people look down
on older people. Race is different from ethnicity. If you are white, that is your race. If your ancestors
came from Germany, that is your ethnicity.
subjected to forced to experience something.
minority if you are in the minority, you are in a group that has fewer people than the group which has
the most people. You are not a member of the dominant social group.

to reform to change for the better

to be out of reach to be impossible; for something to be so far away someone cannot reach it.
a rare commodity this is an expression you sometimes hear that applies to a rare or unique person.
A commodity is actually something produced to be sold. But if a person or a thing is called a rare
commodity, it means that person is quite unique and special.
a canal this is a relatively thin passage through which water flows and on which small ships can sail.
lakes large bodies of water within a large area of land.
crops foods that can be grown. Wheat, corn, ricethese are crops.
dropped if prices dropped, they decreased or declined.
a board a group of people who make decisions like a committee.
a landscape artist a person who uses the physical environment to create what he/she considers to be
art.
to tear down, torn down to pull something down physically, to remove something
a ton a measure of weight according to the America scale. A ton is equal to 2,000lbs. Basically, a ton
is something very heavy. I think a car weighs 2 tons.
to consolidate to bring a bunch of different things together. Con always means with and we can
see the word solid in consolidate. If a student takes out a few different loans to pay for college in
America, those loans can be consolidated. All the loans are combined into one big loan and the student
just makes one payment each month and all the lenders take a share of that payment.
a term an official period of time.
a wimp a weak man.
machine politics when a political system is run like a machine. This usually means that there is a
strong ruler and he has a very effective system in place by which he does things. If you want to get
anything from a political machine, you become a part of the machine. If you dont belong to the machine,
the machine will ignore you.
corrupt dishonest, not willing to act rightly or ethically.
merit-based a merit-based system is a system where your success depends on how good you are, not
who you know. In a machine system, if you know people in the machine, you can benefit and get a good
job. In a merit based system, you have to prove that you deserve a job with the government. Merit
means ability or competence or goodness.
gangsters people who belong to a criminal organization.
mafia the name of a criminal organization in America.
to bribe to give money to someone in a position of authority so that you can get a favor.

Federal this refers to the overall US Government. There are Federal, State and City governments in
the USA.
infrastructure all the stuff necessary to make a city work. The highways, the sewer system (where
human waste goes after you flush the toilet), streets, the electrical systemthese are parts of the inner
structure of a city.
a megalomaniac megalomania is a psychological disease in which a person is power-hungry or in
which a person believes that he is much more important than he really is. A megalomaniac is such a
person. If a person has been mayor for 12 years in New York City and the Bronx is still the poorest
urban (city) area in America, I would strongly suggest that the mayor who has served for 12 years has,
basically, done nothing. For Bloomberg to assert (to claim) that he might be one of the greatest New
York mayors ever seems to be a case of megalomania, but I am no psychologist so I might be wrong.
(I do not think I am wrong.) no psychologist is correct usage. i.e. I am no doctor, but I can tell
that you are sick. Even though he was no expert on classical music, he could tell the violinist had
performed excellently. So no, plus a profession or expertise, can mean not a.

14 Vocabulary Words: Fill-In-The-Blanks

uptight, stability, autocratic, intolerant, to promote, controversial, insuperable, racism,
crops, to consolidate, a bribe, infrastructure, a megalomaniac, a wimp
Although Clark Kent seemed to be a nerdy ____________, nobody could have imagined that, in reality,
he was the powerful Superman.
The more conservative a person is the more _____________ he seems to be in regard to changing things
that even a majority of people might find to be wrong.
Everybody thought that Jill was an ________________ person because she was a financial analyst who
never drank and who went to bed early. So everyone was surprised and a little shocked to learn that she
had worked as a stripper during college. (a stripper is a woman who takes her clothes off in a club while
dancing usually badly - while guys watch her).
Is Julian Assange, the creator of Wikileaks, a social activist or a _________________? Many journalists
have pointed out that he sees himself to be a great man who is changing the world for the better.
During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt was able to help millions of Americans get back to work
by hiring citizens to create or strengthen the American ______________. Many previously unemployed
men worked to build bridges and dams and electrical facilities.
Abortion, gay marriage, capital punishment and euthanasia are highly _____________ topics about which
many people disagree. Abortion is when a woman ends her pregnancy before giving birth. Capital
punishment is execution when the government kills a criminal. Euthanasia is mercy killing allowing
people who are very ill and in pain to die.

When Lula was elected to be the president of Brasil, he made it clear that he felt that poverty and hunger
were not ________________ social problems. As president he worked hard to eliminate both of these
social evils.
If you go to any elite American university you will find very few Black and Latino students. Is this a
form of ______________ on American campuses? The universities say it is not; they say that they value
diversity but have to take the best students. Elite means Most selective.
After the American Revolution, there were 13 American states and no federal or central government. It
was Alexander Hamilton who worked the hardest to convince all 13 states to _______________ into one
country: The United States of America.
Recently the American economy has been fluctuating between boom and bust times of great economic
prosperity and times of economic downturn. Most Americans would seem to like greater economic
_______________ so that their lives can be more predictable.
The most obvious form of political corruption involves a politician taking a ___________ from someone
who wants to profit from doing business with the government. These days this type of corruption is
called a pay-to-play scheme. A scheme is a plan.
One ___________ government after another fell in 2011. Young people in the Arab world used social
networking technology to organize protests against dictators (rulers who have total power in a society).
One of the reasons New York City became a banking center is that it is impossible to grow
__________________ in this region of the United States. New Yorkers had to become traders.
Although it is important for the President of South Korea to try to ______________ peace between his
country and North Korea, some people have argued that he should be tough against an autocratic
government in the North which has attacked a South Korean naval vessel and fired artillery shells at a
small South Korean island.

Answers: wimp, intolerant, uptight, megalomaniac, infrastructure, controversial,

insuperable, racism, consolidate, stability, bribe, autocratic, crops, promote

24. I bought a gun to get my State ID card.

As a sexy young foreign chick, white and south Asian guys at liquor stores have a hard time telling
whether I am over 21 or not. This is very important because anyone who sells any type of alcoholic
beverage to anyone under 21 can receive a summons to appear in court and will get hit with a $1,500
fine. I literally saw this happen.
I was at a neighborhood grocery store standing in line when a young woman attempted to buy a six pack
of beer. The guy behind the counter, an immigrant from Pakistan, initially asked her for her ID card.
She claimed that she had forgotten it and he then told her he wouldnt be able to sell her any beer. She,

basically, then said, Oh, come on! Look at me. Im over 21, right? He looked at her and said, Well,
yes, you look over 21. She then said, How old do you think I am? He sized her up for a second or
two and then said, Well, maybe 25? Now, this was critical because there is a sign in each liquor store
and deli which says: ID cards are required for anyone who does not appear to be over 30 years old. So
by selling her beer while stating that she only looked 25, he was be violating his stores policy and state
law. If he had said, Well, you look over 30 he would have been ok. But, she really didnt look over
30. To be honest with you, she didnt even look over 20 to me.
She then said, Ok, see, Im over 21. I look 25. Please, please, pretty please, sell me the beer!? Im a
little late already. Please just sell me the beer. Being a nice guy, he then sold her the beer. As soon as
she walked out of the store, however, two NYPD cops came in and gave him a summons. They were
quite rude and self-righteous. How could you sell liquor to a minor! That girl is 19 years old! So
the girl had been secretly working for the police. This, by the way, is called a sting operation a secret
operation where someone is secretly with the police but pretending to be just a normal person.
The Pakistani guy was so ashamed. I felt so bad for him. I later learned that the judge would not listen
to any excuses and hit him with a $1,500 fine and placed this on his criminal record. As an immigrant I
dont know how this will hurt him in his attempt to become a citizen. I, personally, think that mercy is a
huge component, or should be a huge component, of any legal system, but, then again, the City of New
York makes lots of money through these sting operations.
What does this have to do with buying a gun? Let me tell you.
I decided to get my drivers license because I was tired of carrying my passport around with me all over
the place to prove my age when I wanted to buy a beer. Also, I thought it would be nice to rent a car
and drive around sometimes. So I trekked (traveled) down to the DMV The Department of Motor
Vehicles. They have one near Macys on 35th street. Oh my goodness was that place crowded! And the
funny thing is, strangers talk to each other in lines in New York City. These two blond girls just started
chatting with each other while they were waiting. I was shocked by how easily people who dont know
each other over here just start chatting. And they were exchanging personal information.
Like, Yeah, after I graduated from NYU as a dance major in 04 I worked as a Rockette for a while
They both told each other their life stories in about 10 minutes and casually chatted as if they had known
each other for years. When they reached the end of the line they simply said, OK! Take care! Nice
meeting you!
Oh my God. The DMV has a point system to get a drivers license. I guess because of the terrorist
attacks they dont just hand out ID cards or drivers licenses based on a little bit of information. But, fuck
it, I had a goddamn passport! Shouldnt a goddamn passport be enough to get an ID so I can buy some
goddamn beer every now and then?
When I got to the end of the line and went to a counter the clerk looked at all of my identification and
said, Oh, I am sorry to tell you this, but you are one point short. One point? Yes, he continued,
giving me a photocopied sheet. For each form of ID you bring, we give you a certain number of points.
You gave me a passport, a credit card and a bank statement. You are one point short. Do you have a
utility bill? No. I didnt have a utility bill. I was renting an illegal room in an illegal building at that
time. Well, he said politely, you are going to have to look at that sheet and find another form of ID to
give you that one extra point. Please come back when you have it.

So I showed my conversation partner the sheet and he immediately caught something I had missed.
Listed on the sheet, as a valid form of ID worth 2 points, was a gun license basically a license to own a
gun that you can obtain when you buy a gun. My partner then said, It looks as if the only way you can
get an ID is to buy a gun. Buy a gun, get the license, and then get your ID to buy beer. It made perfect
sense to me. Actually it didnt, but this is New York City and even Alice in Wonderland never had to
confront (meet with) the bizarre logic of this type of place.
I looked online and, sure enough, you dont even have to be a citizen to buy a gun here! I met all the
criteria and had all the ID necessary to buy a gun and get a gun permit. Oh my God! The process was
so easy. First you apply for a permit, then you buy the gun, then you get your license. Basically you fill
out a form and they check to see whether you are nuts or whether you have committed a major crime
(a felony). If you are not nuts and havent yet committed a major crime, you get your gun!
Why? The Second Amendment to the US Constitution, baby. When the Constitution was written
there had been a long tradition in English law that a person had the right to have weapons to defend
himself in his home. Some people think the 2nd Amendment was created because the Americans who
fought the English in the Revolution used their own weapons and so owning weapons might have been
felt to be important to the future security of the USA. No, if you really investigate the Second
Amendment you see that, at that time, it was felt every person had a right to protect his own home.
I was hoping the guns came in different colors because I wanted to get a pink one. It turns out that pink
guns are illegal for some reason (I was told they look like toys), so I got a cheap black one. I got my
permit and then I paid about $300. Oh my God. Its scary to think that for $300 I bought something
that would allow me to easily kill another human being. Buying this gun was one of the strangest
experiences of my life. I dont even know what the gun is called but I know it has some number.a 9
millimeter or something. I didnt buy any bullets, though, and I keep my gun way under my bed.
But after I bought my gun, I took a really close look at the sheet and realized that I didnt have to buy
the gun because I could have used my green card for the extra points! I was so mad at myself! But,
anyway, now I had all the information and all the points necessary to get my drivers license. I went back
to the DMV, presented all of my information and materials to the clerk and he directed me to a place
where Id have my photo taken and within minutes I had a State of New York ID card (for the beer) and
was able to take a test as the first stage to get my license to drive. I am not sure what I am going to do
with the gun; maybe I should throw it in the Hudson River, but carrying a gun outside is illegal, so what
the hell else can I do but keep the goddamn thing under my bed each night. Maybe I can use it to shoot
bedbugs. Joking. Thanks for reading my book. May God love you and protect you more than he did
me when I came to this city! May you have nothing but boring stories to tell about New York when you
return home, if you choose to return home. If you stay here, you have my sincere best wishes! Love!!!!
Suzi!!!!!!!!

Definitions of terms
a chick this is a slang term for girl or young woman that, generally, young white guys might use.
There are other slang terms African Americans and Latinos might use the term shorty for a young
woman.
to tell, telling this drives some foreign students nuts (makes them crazy). To tell someone something
can mean to say something. But to tell the difference between two things means to see a difference

between two things. If I have died my hair and I want to find out whether it is noticeable, I might ask
someone: Can you tell that I died my hair? I am, essentially, saying: Can you see or determine that I
died my hair?
a summons basically this is a ticket to appear in court to answer to some type of accusation.
a fine a punishment in which a person must pay a sum of money.
behind the counter the desk like area behind which the person stands in a grocery store or a
Starbucks to sell you something is called a counter.
Come on! This is generally said when one person thinks the other person is being unreasonable. For
example, if a guy wants to eat Italian food and his girlfriend wants to eat Thai food, and they have eaten
Thai food the past three nights, he might say: Come on! We have eaten Thai food three nights in a
row! Give me a break! Come on! is used a lot in English in America.
to size someone up to examine someones physical appearance.
critical most important, essential.
to feel or be self righteous feeling a sense of moral superiority, feeling as if one is more honest or
good than another person.
a minor someone in America who is under 18 is a minor.
mercy forgiveness, a feeling that a person does not have to be punished.
a sting operation this is when the police pretend not to be police in order to trick someone into
doing something wrong so they can arrest him/her.
a Rockette Radio City Music Hall has famous female dancers with long legs who are called The
Rockettes. I dont know much about them since Ive never been to Radio City Music Hall.
a utility bill a bill that one might receive for electricity or gas.
to catch something to spot something, to see something that someone else doesnt.
criteria standards. Be careful, criterion is singular and criteria is plural.
nuts this means crazy or mentally ill in America. Nobody knows why.
a felony a major crime as opposed to a misdemeanor, which is a minor crime.
The US Constitution this is the basic law of the USA. It is the document which makes the USA one
of the freest places on earth because it is a document by the people telling the government what the
government cant do to the people. Each Amendment establishes basic rights. The first Amendment, for
instance, guarantees freedom of speech and religion, among other things. The second guarantees
freedom to own a gun. There are a bunch of Amendments.
bullets these are the objects that are placed in the gun that do the actual killing.
way under far under.

the clerk this is what you call the person behind the counter in a deli (grocery store that also sells
sandwiches) or grocery store.
May God love you this is kind of a formal way of wish someone something. May you live a long
life! means I hope you live a long life. May you do well in school! means I hope you do well in school.

Grammar stuff: asking questions

Oh my God. Some of you foreign students cannot even realize how bad you sound when you ask
questions in English. Hello! If you use a question word, a verb HAS TO BE after it. Whenever I hear:
Why you no go to Northern Boulevard to buy Korean food? I want to scream!!!!!!!! Listen carefully.
Please pay attention: Why DONT you go to Northern Boulevard to buy Korean food?
NO: Why you live in Queens? YES: Why DO you live in Queens?
NO: Why he didnt do that? YES: Why didnt he do that?
Why you why you why you why you why you why you why you OH MY GOD!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH
MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
I never want to hear: Why youagain!!!!!! Why dont you? Why do you? Why didnt you.?
Please get used to using: do, dont, didnt. Or, Why are you.
No: Why he went to Jersey? Yes: Why did he go to Jersey?
Why are you studying economics? Why are you staying with your brother this summer? When did you
come to the USA? Where are you from?
People, this one is SO EASY! Never, please NEVER say why you UNLESS you are making a statement.
For example: You never told me why you decided to go to California.
When you are asking a question, after why always find a verb to use. This is really essential. I am not
joking if you really really really want to sound terrible, then keep using why you. If you want to
speak better English, please catch yourself and put a verb after every question word in English. America
thanks you.

9 Essential Vocab Words Fill-In-The-Blanks

a summons, a counter, critical, self-righteous, a minor, mercy, a sting operation, a utility bill,
a clerk
In New York City a ___________ is considered to be anyone under the age of 18, although the age of
consent (the age at which young people may have sex with people their age or older) is considered to
be 17.
Although our sense of revenge and vengeance is incredibly strong, every major religion admonishes
(encourages) us to search for the capacity to show ___________ or forgiveness as well.

Many times the police will not arrest a person that would take up too much time so they will issue a
_______________ instead and the person receiving this document will have to appear in court.
When you are at a deli or a grocery store, it is always wise to count the money that the ________ hands
back to you in change; sometimes they give you the wrong amount.
Rent for most apartments does not cover the ______________, so renters themselves have to pay for
gas and electricity.
The most __________ factor I look for in a candidate that I might vote for is integrity (honesty). I
havent voted since 2000.
The most bizarre ____________ I read of was when the NY police left a bag of groceries in a subway
station and arrested anyone who picked up the groceries and tried to take them home. Many people
thought this was absolutely ridiculous. It was.
I dont want to seem _______________, but I become very angry when I hear that some people do not
pay their taxes or that they cheat on their taxes; I try to be 100% honest.
When you buy some type of drink at a Starbucks you usually have to order at one part of the
____________ and then go farther down to another part to get your drink.

Answers: minor, mercy, summons, clerk, utility bill, critical, sting operation, self-righteous,
counter