Young Elfride falls in love for the first time with an architect who is sent to make plans to renovate the local church. She supposes Stephen to be a professional man from London, but finds he comes from more humble origins. Stephen must go away and make something of himself before he can claim her. Circumstances change in his absence, and Elfride must decide if she will keep her pledge to marry Stephen. A Pair of Blue Eyes is Thomas Hardy’s third novel, and the first one to bear his real name when it was first published. The novel was first published as a serial, and the “cliffhanger” is supposed to have been named after a scene in which a character is left hanging over the edge of a cliff—while readers are left waiting for the next chapter to be serialized. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Easy French Phrase Book is an excellent resource for both serious French language learners or for the casual traveler who's planning a visit to France. The book comes packed with 1500 commonly used phrases in French, English and a pronunciation guide to make sure you say the phrases correctly.

Here's something new and exciting from NTC, the leading publisher of books for students of English as a second language. Electronic dictionaries on CD-ROM make it easy to look up a word or phrase instantly and have access to thousands of typical American English example sentences. The student can store selected entries in his or her personal electronic notebook. Conduct faster, easier research with eDictionaries on CD-ROM -- Open and search any number of dictionaries at once -- Internet link provides updates and additional entries -- Free on-line site for purchasing additional reference materials -- Each eDictionary also includes two bonus dictionaries: NTC's Dictionary of Acronyms and Abbreviations and NTC's Dictionary of Proverbs and Cliches

In day-to-day speech we use words and phrases without a passing thought as to why we use them or where they come from. Max Cryer changes all that by showing how fascinating the English language really is. Did you know that the former host of Today, Jane Pauley, claims to have coined the term “bad hair day,” or that a CBS engineer named Charley Douglass invented the name and use of “canned laughter” for television, or that “cold turkey” as a term for quitting something immediately was popularized by the novel and movie (starring Frank Sinatra), The Man with the Golden Arm? Here you’ll learn the origins of “credibility gap,” “my lips are sealed,” “the opera’s not over until the fat lady sings,” “supermarket,” “supermodel,” “there’s no accounting for taste,” “thick as thieves,” and hundreds more. For anyone who loves language, this new book will “take the cake.”

This language-learning system offers the chance to quickly and efficiently develop the practical Italian needed for travel. 2 CDs with 90 minutes of material feature phrases and sentences spoken first in English and then in Italian, followed by a pause for repetition. The accompanying 80-page manual contains each word and phrase on the CDs.

Mastering the American Accent is an easy-to-follow approach for reducing the accent of non-native speakers of English. Well-sequenced lessons in the book correspond over eight hours of audio files covering the entire text. The audio program provides clear models (both male and female) to help coach a standard American accent. The program is designed to help users speak Standard American English with clarity, confidence, and accuracy. The many exercises in the book concentrate on topics such as vowel sounds, problematic consonants such as V, W, TH, the American R and T and others. Correct lip and tongue positions for all sounds are discussed in detail. Beyond the production of sounds, the program provides detailed instruction in prosodic elements such as syllable stress, emphasis, intonation, linking words for smoother speech flow, common word contractions, and much more. Additional topics that often confuse ESL students are also discussed and explained. They include distinguishing between casual and formal speech, homophones (e.g., they're and there), recognizing words with silent letters (e.g., comb, receipt), and avoiding embarrassing pronunciation mistakes, such as mixing up "pull" and "pool." Students are familiarized with many irregular English spelling rules and exceptions, and are shown how such irregularities can contribute to pronunciation errors. A native language guide references problematic accent issues for 13 different language backgrounds. Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.