The Tale of Tolkien (2)

But soon Tolkien faced his darkest trial - fighting in World War I, Life as a soldier was difficult, painful and dangerous. Tolkien became sick and had to return to England. Others were not so lucky. "by 1918, all but one of my close friends were dead." Tolkien later wrote.

Back in England, Tolkien became a scholar. He taught literature classes at Oxford University, did research and wrote-several influential papers. He continued to love languages, studying Greek, Anglo Saxon, Finnish and more. But Tolkien didn't just study languages; he invented his own! They added to the rich setting of the fantasy stories he had been writing for years.

The Hobbit
One day while grading tests, Tolkien found a blank page. He wrote the sentence, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." This began his children's story The Hobbit. When it was finished, a friend gave it to publisher Stanley Unwin. Unwin's 10-year-old, Rayner, loved the book, so Unwin published it in 1937.


Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Two Meanings of “All But”

So, Ken, have you finished all the books I lent you?

All but one, I'm still in the middle of "The Spy Catcher".

OK. Friends, did you catch that exchange? So then, let me ask, did Ken finish one book or does he have one book to finish?

And the answer is the latter. The phrase "all but one" means all except one.

Steve lent me five book in total. I've read four so far. I finished all but one book.

You could replace the word "but" with the word "except". All except one. Now the phrase "all but" can have another meaning - almost or very nearly.

Right! Here is an example. In some places, bus service has all but disappeared.

And that means bus sevice has almost disappeared.

You might see just one or two buses a day in those places.

Or we might talk about a dying language that's all but forgotten.

Hardly anyone speaks it anymore.

Hmm, what a shame.


Language Lab
scholar n.
a person who has studied a subject for a long time and knows a lot about it : an intelligent and well-educated person who knows a particular subject very well
- Many scholars participated in this conference.
- Dr. Williams is a well-respected scholar who specializes in Mayan culture.
scholarship n.
an amount of money that is given by a school, an organization, etc., to a student to help pay for the student's education
- Wesley got a scholarship to Princeton.

influential adj.
/ˌɪnfluˈɛnʃəl/
having the power to cause changes : having influence
- Eric is an influential biochemist.
influence v.
/ˈɪnˌflu:wəns/
the power to change or affect someone or something : the power to cause changes without directly forcing them to happen [noncount]
- Brenda is always influenced by other people's comments.

fantasy n.
something that is produced by the imagination : an idea about doing something that is far removed from normal reality
- The little girl lives in a fantasy world.
- The book is full of fantasies and exotic stories.
fantasize v.
/ˈfæntəˌsaɪz/
to imagine doing things that you are very unlikely to do : to have fantasies [no obj] — often + about
- Dave fantasized about becoming the world's greatest baseball batter.

publish v.
to prepare and produce (a book, magazine, etc.) for sale;
to make (something) known to many people : to make a public announcement of (something)
- The writer's first poetry was published in 1983.
publisher n.
a person or company that produces books, magazines, etc.
- Random House is a famous international publisher.


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