Startibartfast (a name from the 'Hitchhiker's Guide') I'm reading Douglas Adams' 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and I'd like to ask some native English speakers if the funny name Startibartfast suggests anything specific. Why did Arthur "practically choke" upon hearing it? Just an unusual name or is there some hidden meaning?:) The passage goes as follows: "Excuse me," he said to him, "what is your name by the way?" "My name?" said the old man, and the same distant sadness came into his face again. He paused. "My name," he said, "... is Slartibartfast." Arthur practically choked. "I beg your pardon?" he spluttered. "Slartibartfast," repeated the old man quietly. "Slartibartfast?" The old man looked at him gravely. "I said it wasn't important," he said. The aircar sailed through the night.

Tax exile - a place or a person? I've come across the phrase "tax exile" in a Douglas Adams' book : "And as theories go this was all very fine and pleasant until he suddenly claimed to have found this planet, and to have worked there for a while driving a limousine for a family of cheap green retractables, whereupon he was taken away, locked up, wrote a book, and was finally sent into tax exile, which is the usual fate reserved for those who are determined to make a fool of themselves in public". The verb "sent" somehow suggests to me that a tax exile would be a place (although it didn't quite make sense why they would send you to one). Then I looked it up, and Wikipedia says " A tax exile is a person who chooses to leave a country with a high tax burden and instead, reside in a foreign nation or jurisdiction which takes a lower portion of earnings. Going into tax exile is a means of tax mitigation or avoidance." Could someone please give me some examples of how you use the phrase "tax exile"? Thanks!

Upholstered chair Could someone tell me what an "upholstered chair" is usually like? I came across an exercise where I have to group pieces of furniture as "office" and "hope" and the Key has "upholstered chairs" in the office furniture group as opposed to easy chairs for home). I looked those up and there are lots of pictures like this http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=2490073 Looks suitable for a home! So what does this expression mean in modern English (and specifically, maybe, British English, since my book is British)? Are they only soft office chairs with wheels that people use for working at the computer? Thanks in advance!

Difference between poky and cramped Hello! I have a little question: Is there a difference between "poky" and "cramped" when describing a room? According to my dictionary, both mean "unpleasant because it is too small". Are there any specific things that make these words different? Thanks!

The phrase "given a (the) chance" I've recently come across the phrase "given the chance" ("Many people are capable of learning a foreign language given the chance") I'm trying to define it as a particular syntactical form, but I haven't succeeded in that. I know that "given" is a past participle, and I understand the meaning of the phrase, but is there a name for this structure? Does it work with some other verbs as well? Could you give me examples with "given a chance" VS "given THE chance" - as a Russian speaker, I still struggle with the articles in English... Thanks in advance!

"have one get on with what he/she/it is doing" -? Hello! I have difficulty understanding the following sentence (It's from D. Adams' 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Could someone explain it to me please? :) "Get off," said Ford, "They're ours," giving him a look that would have an Algolian Suntiger get on with what it was doing.

"earn somebody a hangover" -?? I can't understand the sentence from 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ' : "God what a terrible hangover it had earned him though. " The nearest context is: Something about a new bypass he had just found out about. It had been in the pipeline for months only no one seemed to have known about it. Ridiculous. He took a swig of water. It would sort itself out, he'd decided, no one wanted a bypass, the council didn't have a leg to stand on. It would sort itself out. God what a terrible hangover it had earned him though. I'm not sure what "it" refers to in the sentence and also I've never heard hangovers "earning" people. Could someone explain? Thanks!

Please help me guess the singer!:) Very tall, with short dark hair, originally Spanish, but lives in the US. Sings both in English and Spanish. Sorry for ignorance, but I'm not a pop music fan and can't guess who he is. Could someone help, please? (It's part of an English exercise:))

How to pronounce 0.033 and 0.003 ? Could someone help me with the pronunciation of these numbers? 0.033 0.003 0.07% Thanks in advance!