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Vocabulary: moral values - English lesson
Our values!? That's a very full agenda! Some people complain about the disappearance of the common values (or that they are really dying out...) Yet, it's our duty to pass onto our kids and grandkids some moral and ethic values without which our society couldn't endure.
Respecting some values, "accepting" them, makes a certain social harmony possible. Those values may be dependent on the different civilisations and cultures, but on the upbringing and education people have received, integrated and decided to implement (or not!).
Some "universally accepted moral values" are fundamental. Let's quote: Peace - Freedom - Social Progress - Equal Rights - Human Dignity. In this lesson, we'll stick to individual values, but of course, we should not forget the collective, professional and global levels. For the individuals, the main secondary values are: accepting responsibility for personal actions and for the consequences of these actions, accepting a duty of care, affirming the individual's right to self-determination, the truth first, being honest, honouring agreements, integrity, a duty towards our elders and towards future generations etc.
GOOD or EVIL? Right or Wrong?
A value | A system of value |
Good | Bad/ evil |
To know right from wrong | = To know good from evil |
It's the right thing to do | It's the wrong thing to do |
... a clear conscience... Rightness
A wrong | To be wrong |
Wrongly | A fault/ a defect/ a failing |
To be at fault | An error/ erroneous |
Right=> to be right | Rightly/ rightness |
A duty | It's his duty to do it! |
Moral/ ethical | Immoral/ unethical |
To have a clear conscience | To have something on one's conscience |
Just/ fair * | Justice/ fairness |
Unjust/ unfair | Injustice/ unfairness |
* In English, there are two words to express "justice": you may speak about what is FAIR or what is JUST.
Not every native speaker makes a real difference between the two words consciously...
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/100576/whats-the-difference-between-just-and-fair
Let's remember that strict equality is "fair" whereas "just" takes what it is morally normal to give one person or another one according to more subjective criteria.
Fair = both sides are equal; Just = the morally good side wins.
IN ORDER TO ACT "WELL", we must understand what is at stake:
To understand | Understanding |
Understandable Comprehensible | Understanding Comprehension |
intelligible | Intelligibility |
To make oneself understood | To manage to understand |
It makes sense | To realise that |
To grasp | To be within/ beyond sby's grasp |
To follow | To gather that/ stg |
... so I gather | I don't see the point of it |
To fail to understand | to make a mistake/ be mistaken |
To miss the point | a misunderstanding |
To have a mistaken idea of | ... not the faintest idea... |
I'm quite lost/ 'm at sea | it's puzzling |
To be unfathomable | as far as I know/ as I can tell... |
The know-how | to do something knowingly |
To know stg like the back of your hand | = to know very well |
To be a mine of information | to be a know-all/ a know-it-all |
To be a walking encyclopedia | to be knowledgeable about |
A basic/ slight knowledge | thorough knowledge |
To be learned | to know everything about |
SOME IDIOMS ABOUT THE SUBJECT:
- It's beyond all understanding/ all comprehension
- It suddenly dawned on him that= he suddenly understood...
- I can't make head or tail of this!= I don't understand anything whatsoever!
- To shed light on something= help to explain it or make it easier to understand.
- He's not the brightest bulb in the box/ not the sharpest knife in the drawer/ not the sharpest tool in the shed= not very intelligent.
- ... until the penny drops= until he understands...
- To jump to conclusions= to make decisions too fast
- A light bulb moment= a sudden moment of inspiration.
- (the) brains behind something= the person thought to have planned and organised everything.
- It's Chinese arithmetic= something very complicated or difficult to understand.
This should be enough for beginners (and even for intermediate learners...) to manage pretty well. That's why you may find the following test quite easy, my aim here being to encourage hardworking learners to go a little further in lessons.
To all of You, I give THE FORCE!

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