ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

My heart is bleeding

I just found out this morning, as I was checking the balance on my flexible spending account that the claim I submitted this January wasn’t processed.  I called the claim office to find out why, and the reason was that there was no record of my claim.  Since it has already passed the claim deadline of April 15, 2009, I cannot claim the balance on my account from last year’s flexible spending account for my childcare expenditure in 2008.  I should have checked my account to ensure that the reimbursement was there.  I have been faxing the claims for years and never had the problem of a claim not being processed.  I have all the information I faxed except the fax transmission record.  Therefore, there is no proof for me to even argue that I did fax the claim in January 2009.

Commonly confused words:

Lay vs. Lie

劣幣驅良幣

Bad currency drives out good currency

*Translated by Elisa on 10/04/09 - 版權所有*

The study found it is early oestrogen exposure that "masculinises" boys to be boys – a phenomenon that owes more to "girl power" than was ever suspected.

=> The study found that it is early oestrogen exposure that masculinizes boys to be boys 

Error Correction

If you happened to read the comments a so-called columnist left me before I erased them, you might have remembered what his/her correction was. 

Can you imagine what wakes us up in the winter?  Oh, did I say “winter”?  It does seem like winter to me waking up at a temperature around 30 degree Fahrenheit’s for the past week.  Anyway, it is our friendly little woodpecker.  Did I say “friendly”?  I meant to say it in a sarcastic tone.  I hate woodpeckers.  Imagine that you are sound asleep and suddenly awoke by loud hammerings on your wall.  If you experience that, you would understand how I feel.  I don’t know if they are within the protection of Minnesota State Law or not.    

Anyway, we saw the coyote again the other day near our pond.  Oh, remember the pheasant that used to wake us up in the morning.  I believe it leaves for the summer and returns in the winter.  Maybe, Minnesota summer is too hot for it to sustain.  I don’t think that the coyote ate it.  That pheasant jus showed up in spring to chew off our screen door so it could get to the dead bugs behind the screen door.  I don’t know why it didn’t go after the fresh bugs.  Maybe it is a lazy pheasant. 

Commonly Confused Words and their correct usage:

I thought that it would be beneficial to list the words that were commonly misused and their correct usage.  I will continue to add the words to the list as they come to my mind.

Complete vs. Whole

Sometimes, “complete” and “whole” are interchangeable but sometimes they are not.

Commonly confused words

Affect vs. Effect

Affect (v.): to influence, to act on, to produce an effect in, to impress the mind, to attack or infect, as a disease, 影響, 感染