Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

Hi teachers,
Thank you so much for teaching me so much English and American culture.
Sorry I have questions to ask....

Thanks again
1.The jazz and Broadway melodies will make even the *ankle-caving* shufflers on ice feel like they are starts in a show.

2.Chorale under the direction of 17 choral conductors as part of an exciting "audience chorus".
So audience was taking part of the chorus, right?

3.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art annually displays its Christmas tree with 18th-century ...adorning its candle-lit boughs and life-like creche figures forming part of a n Nativity scene at its "base".
What does the base here mean?

4 He *takes us on* a practical joke *at the expense * of foreign
students in America.

He *takes us on*=He tells us?
regarding=*at the expense * of ?

[CP]

1. Probably talking about the music at an ice-skating rink, saying that the music is so good that even the worst skaters will feel like stars. Beginning ice skaters are unsteady on their feet, looking more like they are shuffling along than skating smoothly, and their ankles give in (or cave in) easily, which is what I think is meant by "ankle-caving shufflers."

2. Yes, probably the audience joins in to sing the chorus. Maybe it's the Halleluja Chorus. That's always popular to have the audience join in on -- so rousing.

3. Just means the bottom of the tree, right at the ground.

4. At the expense of foreigh students just means the joke is on the foreign students, or they are the ones who end up being laughed at. As for takes us on a practical joke, it depends on what the person actually did. A practical joke is a trick played on someone, like putting a whoopee cushion in a chair or short-sheeting a person's bed. That's in contrast with an ordinary joke, which is spoken. If this guy takes us on a practical joke, I suppose it means as you read what he has written, or follow along with him, there is some elaborate story that turns out as a joke on the foreign students.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[missdaredevil]

[CP]

Yes. If you say or do something at someone else's expense, that person is figuratively paying the price for what you said. If it is a joke, the person is paying the price of the humor, and is known as the butt of the joke.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb