Having the Time of Your Life

L Pre-Reading Activity

1 picosecond (one-trillionth of a second)	The shortest period of time we can currently measure accurately.
1 nanosecond (one-billionth of a second)	How long it takes for a typical home computer to execute one software instruction.
1 decisecond (one-tenth of a second)	Often referred to as a “blink of an eye”.
7 minutes	The time it takes for the average person to fall asleep.
1 hour	It has 3600 units in it.
24 hours	The amount of time it takes for the planet Earth to rotate one time on its axis.
365.24 days	The time it takes for the planet Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun.
10 years	One decade.
1 score	This unit is the equivalent of 20 years.
1 century	Also known as “one hundred years”.
1 millennium	We recently celebrated a new one of these.
75 years	This is the typical human lifespan.
65 million years	The length of time dinosaurs have been extinct
4.5 billion years	The approximate age of the planet Earth.

& Reading Exercise: top

Reading Comprehension Questions:

1. a 2. timeless 3. a definite article is used before ordinal numbers 4. answers vary 5. b 6. 2

7. c

þ Grammar Exercise: top

Idioms related to time

Exercise One

to give someone a hard time	to make someone’s life difficult
to have time on your hands	to have an abundance of time
not give someone the time of day	to ignore or intentionally avoid someone
bide your time	to wait patiently for a good opportunity
make up for lost time	to compensate for time that you’ve missed
to have a whale of a time	to enjoy oneself very much
the big time	the highest or most successful level in a profession
to call it a day	decide or agree to stop doing something
in no time	very quickly and efficiently
in the nick of time	just in time
on the spur of the moment	spontaneously
time is on your side	you can afford to wait to do something
serving time	in prison
a sign of the times	something that represents the nature or quality of a particular period

Exercise Two

1. [A] Did you enjoy your vacation down South?

[B] Oh yes. The kids just had a whale of a time visiting Disneyland and swimming in the ocean.

2. [A] You were running really late this morning. Were you late for your 9 o’clock meeting?

[B] Fortunately, I caught the streetcar and as a result, I made it to work in the nick of time.

3. [A] I’m such an organization freak. I just hate it when Carlos springs something on me at the
last moment.

[B] You know Yvette, sometimes it’s exciting doing something on the spur of the moment. You

really should learn to just let your hair down every once in a while.

4. [A] I’m really exhausted. I don’t think I can look at these figures for another minute!

[B] I know exactly how you feel. Let’s just call it a day.

5. [A] Congratulations on your promotion.

[B] Thanks so much. Wow, an editor at The Globe & Mail, I guess I finally made the big time!