Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jasonlulu_2000]

Their task is to get a fully-designed blog up and coming, complete with many postings based on a theme of choice.

What does "up and coming" mean in this sentence?

In his book, he had challenged readers to make deep cuts in personal emissions to keep the world from reaching extremely important tipping points.

What do "tipping points" mean?

We take a side trip to the lesser Three Gorges or travel up the shennong Stream in a peapod boat and enjoy various shore trips along the way.

What does a side trip mean?
What does "peapod" mean? I cannot find it in any of my dictionary.

Thanks

[CP]

1. I think the writer meant to say "up and running": Their task is to get a fully-designed blog up and running, complete with many postings based on a theme of choice.

Then it would mean that their task is to get the blog started and functioning. Usually by "up and coming" we mean someone or something that shows promise. Not long ago, Barack Obama was an up-and-coming junior congressman from Illinois. Now he's president.


2. If you want to push a cow over, in a silly sport known as cow-tipping, you have to push her to the point where she can no longer stand upright and must fall over on her side. That exact point is the cow-tipping point, or just the tipping point.

More generally, a tipping point is what is also sometimes known as a point of no return.

3. A side trip is just a little excursion in addition to the main trip. Maybe you want to vacation in Nice, France, and you go there for a couple of weeks. But you also will probably make a couple of side trips to Monaco and Antibes.

4. Without researching it, I would guess a peapod boat is a boat shaped like a pea pod, rather like a canoe. I'm sure others know more about this than I.
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[jasonlulu_2000]

That helps a lot1