Don't give up

Audio: Rachel Roberts (British standard accent) Chuck Rolando (Standard American accent)

Source: Speak Up Magazine www.speakupmagazine.com.br

This month we look at the word give, which can means to pass, consign, hold, deliver, reveal, collapse, surrender, betray, punish, help and more.

IN SIMPLE TERMS...

You give someone a present and their birthday and they give you a smile in return. In a shop you give the cashier money to pay for an item: she or he takes the money and gives your receipt. Giving here is simply the act of consigning something.

A colleague takes early retirement, so your office gives, or holds, a party for her. The company gives her a golden handshake, a fat cheque, so she gives a speech to thank everyone. Her face gives away, or reveals, the emotion she feels. A colleague asks how she'll spend her time now. "Looking after my grandchildren," she answers my daughter recently gave birth to twins."

CRIME DOESN'T PAY

Two criminals rob a bank: they escape onto the roof but it gives in, collapses. One criminal is stopped by the police and gives in. surreders; the other one gives the police the slip-he escapes. The first criminal asks the police to give him a break, a chance. The police chief gives go-ahead-he agrees-to a deal:
If the criminal gives away (betrays) the second thief. The criminal refuses, and a judge gives him 10 years in prison.

PEACE AND LOVE

In the 1960s John Lennon sang "Give peace a chance,", but today there are still wars and soldiers still give their lives for their countries. Ecologists tell us world is poisoned, but we can't give up, or renounce, our cars and planes because our lives depend on them.

Glossary

Collapse: desmoronar.

Surrender: render-se.

Item: objeto.

Early retirement: aposentadoria antecipada

Golden handshake: Aperto de mão dourado.

Fat cheque: Pagamento gordo.

Twins: Gêmeos

A chance: Uma oportunidade.

Deal: Acordo, trato.

Thief: Ladrão.

Poisoned: Envenenado.