QB 9 July 2020

Vocabulary: the root cause

means

a. the main reason

b. the tree support

c. the destination plan

Idiom:

to kill time

means

a. to stop the clock

b. to do something to entertain yourself to make the time pass more quickly

c. to have a specific hour of the day when you stop to relax after a stressful situation

Grammar:

Which is correct?

a. They have been staying at the beach during two weeks.

b. They have been staying at the beach since two weeks.

c. They have been staying at the beach for two weeks.

Vocabulary: the root cause

means

a: the main reason / the basic cause / the fundamental reason (for a problem)

Examples:

We should treat the root cause of the illness and not the symptoms.

One of the root causes of workplace absenteeism is work-related stress.

Idiom:

to kill time

means

b. to do something to entertain yourself to make the time pass more quickly / to fill in time between activities / to do something while waiting

Examples:

• Instead of sitting around waiting for the meeting to start, she read some emails to kill time.

• I was killing time on Facebook before I had to leave home this morning.

• When we have to wait for the children to get home, we usually kill time by doing some exercise.

Grammar:

Which is correct?

c. They have been staying at the beach for two weeks.

*for + length of time (3 minutes, 1 hour, two months, a year, a long time)

*since + a specific time/day/date/year when something started (last year, 4 days ago, the day we met, 2010, I was born)

*during + a noun (the summer, our English class, that time, the week, my lifetime)