Exercise
1) -Is there any news from Michael?
- No, I haven't received any news from him lately.
<em>He already been at vocation long</em> and he wrote only one letter.
Может чуть чуть сбивать с толку потому, что vocation это настояшое слово, которое обозначить что-нибудь довольно неясно как "destined profession/place in the world".
Хотя, я считаю что здесь намеренное слово vacation (Амер.), в том случае:
He has already been on vacation a long time (/ a while) and has only written one letter.
It was in January. I just can't un(dernstand?) anything it. Maybe he has was offended at by something? <em>'to be offended by...'</em>
- Not at all, I have known him many years. He has never loved to write letters.
2) Linda had come to Tom and was talking with him, when Martin came/came over/arrived. Martin didn't expect her there because he knew that she and Tom hadn't spoken for ages. When he saw that they were talking so lively* he stopped in shock. Tom turned to him and said: "Hi, my old friend, we have just been talking about you".
*<em>lively</em>, несмотря на <em>-ly</em> окончание его, действительно не является наречием. <em>Livelily</em> - настоящое наречие, но редко. Это и спорно звучит странно. Самый естественный вариант, наверно, "in such a lively way". Or just "so excitedly".