English Conversation Questions

Pictures

Questions

1. How often do you post pictures on social media?
2. How many pictures do you have on your phone?
3. What’s the last picture you took?
4. Do you ever take picture of your food?
5. Do like looking at old pictures?
6. Do you have any pictures of yourself as a kid?
7. Are you concerned about old pictures of you being on the internet?
8. “A picture is worth a thousand words” – do you agree?

Videos

Vox
Early portraits looked pretty grim.
A lot of old photos from the 19th and early 20th century are fraught with doom and gloom—and on the

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occasion the literal dead face. That led to the popular belief that people just did not smile in old photographs. The common explanation is due to the limited technology at the time to capture a smile. Exposure times were long and the thinking was it’s easier to hold a serious expression over a long period. Another theory included early photography being heavily influenced by painting (which meant no smiling).

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Category:  History & Culture
Keywords: Photography | Pictures | Smiling
Vox
What it took to collect these 54-million-year-old photons from a supermassive black hole.
On April 10, 2019, the team announced their results: They had successfully imaged the supermassive black

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hole in the center of the galaxy m87, which is nearly 54 million light-years away from us. They were able to achieve unprecedented resolution using very long baseline interferometry, which combines the observations of multiple radio telescopes across the globe.

The team wanted to find out whether Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity holds up in the extreme environment of black holes, and the results do, in fact, seem to be consistent with the predictions. In the future, we may see more and sharper images of black holes as the team targets smaller wavelengths of light and recruits more telescopes. Eventually, they may include an orbiting space telescope.

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Category:  Science
Keywords: Pictures | Universe

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots