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The English we speak.

Hi Helen, wow, what's that?

It's a present for you, Chris.

A present for me?

Oh, that's very kind of you. Here you go. A new dictionary! How nice! That's such a lovely

present and it's not even my birthday.

But hang on, why have you stuck all these pieces of string onto the book?

There are strings to your present.

I see.

Do you mean there are certain conditions that come with

this present? Yes, strings to your present. Ah, you mean there are strings attached.

I see, so it's an expression in English. That's right

having strings attached doesn't actually mean you need to stick pieces of

string on the book. You can just tell me what the conditions are. Oh, okay. Well, the conditions are that I can borrow your dictionary whenever I need to use it.

That's absolutely fine. You can borrow it any time.

Great. Um, do you have any headphones I can use to?

I want to listen to my MP3 player.

Yes, here you go.

Thanks.

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