Cork
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Eucharia | Todd |
Todd: Eucharia, can you talk about where you are from?
Eucharia: I’m from Ireland and I’m from the second biggest city in Ireland which is Cork. Now the name ‘Cork’ doesn’t come from wine bottle cork, it comes from the irish word ‘kirkig’ which is ‘marsh’ so you can imagine how wet Cork is. We have a lot of rain.
Todd: And is Cork a big city?
Eucharia: It’s a sprawling city. Most people live outside of the city and commute and my parents live about a 25 minute walk to the city centre and that’s quite normal, so most of the city spreads outwards and the surburbs tend to be quite big and you can get lost quite easily!
Todd: What are the people in Cork like?
Eucharia: Well when I go home its really strange for me because the men in my city speak with a very high pitched accent voice so it sounds very strange to me, and girls tend to speak in a lower voice because a lower voice in Ireland usually means intelligent and most people would like to seem intelligent. However, most people love to laugh in Cork so there is a really good sense of humour: you just walk on the streets and you hear people laughing all of the time. It’s great.
Todd: Oh that’s nice. And what would you say is the best thing about your city?
Eucharia: The best thing are the people of course, but also the food. The entertainment is just fantastic. Every night you can go out, you can have dinner. After you can go to the theatre, you can go to classical music concerts, you can go to pop concerts, rock concerts. You can go dancing, different types of dancing. Oh I miss dancing! You can do Irish dancing, more Hip hop dancing, disco dancing. Anything is possible any night of the week.
Todd: Ok and what’s the worst thing about your city?
Eucharia: The worst thing has to be rain because Cork is such a wet place. We don’t have a lot of snow in Cork because when it snows the snow quickly fades away because the ground is made of limestone so I’ve never seen real snow before, but getting back to the rain, it rains almost non stop from autumn until spring.
Todd: Wow, that’s a long time!
Eucharia: So it’s a long time having a grey sky over you.
Todd: Still it sounds like a nice place.
marsh
It comes from the Irish word ‘kirkig’ which is ‘marsh’.
A 'marsh' is a wet area with a lot of tall grasses. It doesn't have as much water as a pond or a lake, but it usually has some water part of the year. Ducks and other birds like to live in marshes. Notice the following:
- The dog was dirty and wet from playing in the marsh.
- When he tried to cross the marsh, his pants got really wet.
sprawl
It’s a sprawling city.
If something is 'sprawling' it is spread out in an unnatural, uncomfortable or impractical way. To say a city is 'sprawling' is to say that it is not very compact or that it reaches a great distance in all directions. Notice the following:
- My dog was sprawled out on the bed when I got home and there was no space for me to sleep.
- He is most comfortable when he is sprawled across the sofa.
high-pitched
The men in my city speak with a very high-pitched accent.
'High-pitched' is a high tone. In this case, the men speak with a feminine tone. Notice the following:
- She gave high pitched scream and then started running.
- The police siren was very high pitched and hurt my ears.
anything is possible
Anything is possible any night of the week.
This means that anything could possibly happen on any night of the week. There are endless possibilities. Notice the following:
- He could pack his bags and leave for Egypt tomorrow. With him, anything is possible.
- Maybe you'll win the lottery tomorrow, after all, anything is possible.
non-stop
It rains almost non-stop from autumn until spring.
If it rains "non-stop," that means it rains without stopping at all. Notice the following:
- The baby has been crying non stop all night.
- Okay. Time to turn of the television. You have been watching movie non-stop all day.
Vocabulary Quiz
anything • non-stop
