Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

1
I do a lot of *travels* or *travel* or *travelling*.

2
Is it *to plunge the toilet* or *to plumb the toilet*?

3
He *made the toilet water overflow* by flushing down a plastic bag.\
Is that how people say it?

4
She played up her commercial know-how for all she was worth.
Sorry I don't quite understand the sentence.

5
What is the kind of musical instrument that has many metal bars and people play it by hitting them with sticks?

Thanks guys

[CP]

1. Traveling. (In the U.S., use one "l"; in the U.K., use two.)

2. Say "plunge" to mean use a plunger to unclog the toilet bowl. A plumber would plumb the building or the toilet (the room) by installing the pipes and fixtures.

3. He clogged the toilet / stopped up the toilet / made the toilet overflow.

4. When someone does something "for all he / she is worth," it means he or she does it to the utmost, does it the best he or she can.

5. It is a hammered dulcimer. A beautiful instrument, don't you think? And fun to play. The sticks are called spoons. Lots of people make their own hammered dulcimers, and they make their own spoons, too.

What you called "metal bars" are the stings, double strings, in fact, so that the hammer is sure to strike at least one, and to gain from the resonance of two strings vibrating together.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[bud]

5. A xylophone has metal bars. Here are some pictures:

http://images.google.com/images?q=xylophone&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

[CP]

Yes, xylophones! What was I thinking? Also glockenspiels. The wooden sticks are called mallets.

The marimba and vibrophone are similar, but with wooden bars. They have a nice, round, mellow tone.

Sorry if I led you astray with my hammered dulcimer boo-boo.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb