Hiroko-san's Monday Morning English [Week 10]

Travel News Wire… Americans drink 50 gallons of soft drinks per year, or roughly one gallon per week… Medical studies have shown that one quarter of the population of Swaziland has contracted AIDS… The British Library's collection of 7 million books can be accessed by an automatic crane retrieval system which can be maintained by eight employees. Books are delivered to the main library building in St. Pancras within 48 hours.

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Hiroko's Memory Tips:

Look over the phrases for 5 minutes.
Say them to yourself without looking at the screen.
At lunchtime, say them to yourself again. Can you remember all three phrases?

Achilles' Heel

Sean: How did the computer software seminar go yesterday?
Angie: "It went really well. So many people came. The conference hall was packed. Why didn't you come?"
Sean: "Sorry, Angie. I was in Kobe yesterday."
When we want to say that there were many people in a room and there wasn't any extra seats or room to stand, we say it was packed. Some people say "It was packed like a can of sardines(small fish)." It means there was no room to move at all. We can say "The concert hall was packed." or "The highway was packed with cars."

Prescription drug abuse

This year big pharma has had difficulty in the Chinese market.

The phrase big pharma means the group of top pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKlein and other "giants." Lately, the media has been reporting that big pharma is having trouble because many of their popular drugs are losing patent protection.

give a green light

Robin: "Did we receive a reply from the client in Korea on the solar panel bid?"
Frank: "Yes, the manager's office called yesterday. They gave us a green light to start the project."

Just as a green light means that you can go forward on a street, we can get a green light from a boss or a customer, or we can give a green light to an employee.

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