Before I get to the lesson, I just want to welcome those of you whom I met at Coney Island in New York this weekend. I was at Flea By The Sea, a flea market not far from the boardwalk and, of course, the beach. I was there to sell The small guide To Improving Your English. If you bought the booklet, I hope you take it with you always and study, review, or just read it as much as you can. That was the whole idea of my writing it--to have something that people can take with them anywhere to practice English. I hope you become a regular here and follow our blog of free quick lessons.
Now for the lesson. This one is easy and quite common. When you are doing nothing in particular while waiting for something to happen, you're simply killing time. If, for example, you're meeting a friend at 3:30, and you arrive at the place thirty minutes early, what do you usually do? Well, if you can't think of anything important, you simply kill time. You window shop, or you browse around a store, or you sit in the park and watch people. You do nothing in particular; you simply do whatever you feel like doing until your friend arrives.
So the next time you're early for an appointment, ask yourself, "Where can I go to kill some time?" or "How can I kill time?"
like this:
A: Hey Tom!
B: Hey Andrea!
A: What a surprise! What are you doing here?
B: Oh, I'm just killing time. I have a class at 2, and I got here 20 minutes early.
A: Do you mind if I sit with you?
B: No, not at all.
A: I do the same thing. I usually grab a couple of magazines and read them before I go home.
B: That's right! You work downstairs at Whole Foods, don't you?
A: Yeah. Actually, a lot of people kill time there, too. It's a nice place to sit and eat or read something.
B: I know. I do that quite a bit, too.
By the way, if you are studying English as a Second Language now or if you've been studying English for a long time but still have difficulty keeping track of the different verb tenses, modals, and conditionals, The small guide To Improving Your English is a handy booklet to have while you're killing time. You can do a quick review while waiting for your appointment.
Have a nice day. Have fun!
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