Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

Impr
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our Englis
h: Englis
h in Ev
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y Life
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15. READING
MAN:
Reading. I do a lot of reading. I have three book-
cases in the house full of books.
INTERVIEWER:
What sorts of things do you read?
MAN:
Everything. You name it. I probably have a book on 
everything, how to do everything. And I’m particularly 
interested in World War II, and especially the airborne 
units of World War II, and what they did and that type 
of thing. But military history in general, like Civil War, 
First World War, World War II—all the way up.
16. OPERA 
You know that, you know, you often ask yourself the-the 
moon question: what beer do you bring to the moon? Or-
or what, or-or-or what, uh, or-or, who, what music do 
you bring to the moon? You know, uh, the beer would 
have to be Guinness because it’s good for every occasion, 
although I love 
Natty Boh
, uh, because it’s a hot-weather 

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beer—we live in hot weather, uh, but, um, what? I’ve often 
asked myself that question and-and-and, um. Well, a cou-
ple years ago—it changes day to day—right now, you’re 
asking me, uh, there’s on—, there’s three. I mean, there’s 
Mozart, but Mozart, you have to be absolutely—Mozart 
is frenetic, he can be frenetic, he-he-he demands a lot of 
you. Uh, Verdi, he’ll just sweep you, he’ll just sweep you 
away but sometimes it, um, sometimes you don’t want 
to be swept away, sometimes it’s too many choruses, too 
much orchestra. Puccini, Puccini if you, if you, if you 
wanna
cry, Puccini, or-or, in-in-in Verdi, especially in, 
uh, 
Il Trovatore
, you know, the-the, uh, “
è pieno, è pieno, 
è pieno il mio cuor
,” you know, I-I-I . . . Or, uh, and then 
sometimes, on a, today was a French day because it’s-it’s-
it’s a C major day and sometimes, if-if the moon were, 
uh, in-in November or something. Dark. November day. 
Wind out there, some rain like yesterday—it has to be 
Wagner. It has to be Wagner. It has to be. It has to be 
the 
Götterdämmerung
. It has to be, it has to be Brun-
hilde gettin’ on Grane and going into the, into the fi re. 
So-so-so actually, uh, if you ask me my moon, my moon, 
my moon opera, my moon composer . . . Who-who com-
bines all three of those if you, if you really need it. Uh, I 
think right now, God sends me to the moon right now, 
I’d have to do Guinness,