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Vocabulary: winning or losing

In our present society, it's common and considered as normal to watch your neighbours, to gauge and assess them, compare them... Very young, our kids start competing in every field... and consider it important to WIN, to be the FIRST ONE, the WINNER, the ACE, the "CHAMPION", whatever methods people are using, for that matter...

In class, teachers have a hard time recommending group work and explaining the difference between "exams" (which our students have to take ) and "competitive exams" which will take place much later ...)

I) Win... ???=> a victory.

To win, I won, won *	To earn money
to win hands down	the winner
to win in an armchair	to beat someone
to win by a neck/ by a nose	a win-win situation
to beat someone 5-3 **	to defeat someone

* to win, I won, won.

** to beat, I beat, beaten.

II) ... or lose?=> a defeat.

To lose, I lost, lost ***	the loser
to beat the pants off	to thrash someone
to beat someone hollow (BE)	to be a good/ bad loser

*** Be careful: to lose= has a single O.

III) Scoring:

a point	the score
the score was 3 to 2	the score was 4 all
to be in the lead	to have a lead over someone
to come in first/ second	the runner-up
to tie with sb for first place	there's a tie for the second place
"deuce"	a draw/ a tie

A record	the world record
to break a record	to hold the record
a champion/ championship	a record holder
to mount the podium	a gold/ silver/ bronze medal
to be disqualified	to withdraw => a withdrawal (a forfeit)

IV) ... and breaking records?

* to hold, I held, held

* to withdraw, I withdrew, withdrawn

The "recipe", if there's one..., to be a WINNER, is to work, and train, and work again!

In the long race of learning a foreign language, you're your sole opponent... (tempting you to yield to "the easy way", "intellectual laziness"). Intellectual curiosity, pleasure, and the possibility to communicate easily with a lot of people are your allies and... your reward! Let's go! Here's your training! You have the FORCE! Never give up!

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1. You’re much taller and stronger than Kyle and if you play against him, you’ll , especially as he looks tired.

2. Playing chess against Grandad is interesting, but not real fun as he always me... In fact, he always tries to teach me new moves, but he ...

3. Pat isn’t what I’d call a , but I’d say he’s not terribly hardworking and persistent....

4. From the beginning of the race, he was and remained so till the finish line.

5. The two teams were really good and though they wanted to make a difference, the match ended in a . Hard luck!

6. Come on, Tom, don’t be a ... Chris had trained more than you had and deserved the victory...

7. David had for so long that he was terribly disappointed to lose it by two tenths of a second...

8. Leo expected a difficult match against Julian and was surprised when he knew that Julian had finally from the tournament.

9. It's difficult for your brother to accept this , since he's so used to winning!

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