Cartoon - English Joke

"What makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa lean?"

"It never eats!"


Explanation:

The key to understanding this joke is the word lean.

Lean has two meanings:

Lean (verb) means 'to slope to one side/ not straight' (as you can see, the tower isn't straight).

Lean (adjective) means to be thin, healthy and not fat.'

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Break Down

The phrasal verb Break down + noun can be used to talk about  analysing something in detail: "You need to break down the maths problem in order to solve it properly."

Break down is also used to talk about something that has stopped working properly: "Can you please come and pick me up from work? My car has broken down."

We can also use Break down to describe crying: When she found out the news of her friends death she broke down in tears.

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Dawn on

This cartoon is based on the word dawn.

Dawn: Dawn (noun) is the time early in the morning when the sun first appears in the sky.

"She woke up at dawn."

Dawn on somebody: If something dawns on you, you realise it for the first time. You suddenly understand something after not understanding it.

"I was going to call her then it dawned on me that I didn't know her phone number."

"It finally dawned on him what the problem was."

"It dawned on her that she could get home sooner if she walked through the park."

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Word of the Day: Fold

Today's cartoon is based on two meanings of fold.

1 - When you fold a blanket, paper or cloth you bend it so that one part of it lies flat on top of another part.

"Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding to make designs without cutting the paper."

"Fold up the clothes and put them away."

2 - When a business folds, it goes bankrupt; it fails and is unable to continue.

"Many small businesses fold within the first year."

"After losing so much money, they had to fold the company."

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Phrasal Verb - 'Drop off'

Let’s take a look at the phrasal verb ‘drop off’.  As you know, phrasal verbs can have more than one meaning. In this cartoon, ‘drop off’ means both ‘fall off’ and ‘fall asleep’. For example:

1) Drop off – similar to fall

The boys dropped stones off the cliff

2) Drop off – fall asleep

I dropped off while watching TV last night

Here are another 3 possible meanings for this phrasal verb.

3) Drop off- gradually decline/ become less

Sales dropped off at the end of the month

4) Drop off- stop somewhere for someone

Could you drop me off at the station?

5) Drop off- stop and give something to someone

Could you drop this letter off at the post office for me?

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SPOT

This joke is based on the double meaning of spotted.

Dalmatians are white dogs with black spots. The Dalmatian dog in the cartoon has black spots on his body. When something has spots on it, we can say it is spotted: he is a spotted dog.

"The man painting the wall has spots of paint on his clothes."

"She bought a spotted dress to wear to the party" - the pattern of the dress has spots.

Spot can also be used as a verb meaning to notice, find or detect something.

"Read this report and see if you can spot any mistakes."

"I finally spotted my friend in the crowd."

"They couldn't spot her because she was hiding."

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