Truth of Troy: Trojan War Story

Take a closer look at the fictional story of the Trojan War written by Homer. Was there any truth in the myth? Is it possible that there was an ancient war fought for love? Did Helen really have a face that launched a thousand ships?

Do you want to know more about The World of The Aeneid?

"Oh no, it's Friday the 13th!"

Thanks to Greg Williams and Wikiworld
Click on the image to enlarge

Does the phrase "Oh no, it's Friday the 13th!" mean anything to you? Does this date fill you with fear, anxiety and foreboding - or is it simply another day on the calendar? Whether you're superstitious or not, join us as we try to find out why Friday the 13th is such an infamous date.

First listen to the BBC radio programme.
Then try to do the Unlucky Day Quiz


Words and expressions from the programme:

to be superstitious: to believe that certain things are lucky or unlucky, or can cause certain events to happen - based on old magic
anxiety/to feel anxious: to feel worried and nervous
utter dread: very great fear
bad luck/to be unlucky: when bad things seem to happen to you without any real reason
a coincidence: when two or more things happen at the same time by chance in a surprising way
to tempt fate: to do or say something that might make it easier for bad things to happen
potency/potent: powerful, influential

And if you've got any doubt read the tapescript.

Homer's Evolution

Homer evolves from a single cell organism into a couch potato.

BBC Downloads

As you really know, apart from surfing on BBC web pages on

Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation;

General & Business English;

Quizzes;

Recipes

..., you can download the last seven days' audio, video and text to take away.

What else do you need to improve your learning?

Languages, Languages...

When learning another language we try to translate the new words to our own instead of learning how the new language works. Sometimes the translations are quite funny as you can see from the list above.
Have fun reading funny English signs and if you have any doubt you can solve them with the key-explanation.

There are many words in English which come from other languages, try to revise this list from Learning English British Council's page