Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Complex Answers

This is how I would have done the exercise. Please tell me if you think anything strange or wrong:

1. Ibrahim bought an eight-hundred-thousand-pound farmhouse with three acres of land.
2. A sixteen-year-old girl wearing a belly dancing costume came into Victor’s bedroom.
3. Hye Jin needs some six-inch steel nails.
4. Concorde was the fastest passenger plan in the world.
5. Have you seen those Swiss army knives with gadgets for everything?
6. Ayaka used to be a much-respected economics lecturer at Oxford University.
7. Akiko has just started a fifty-thousand-pound job with a New York firm of accountants.
8. Assem bought a three-hundred-year-old picture of two men working in a field.
9. Nelja had a fantastic four-course meal with two bottles of wine for less than twenty pounds.
10. Sangsoo was on a long, twelve-hour flight with stop-overs in Delhi and Moscow.
11. The forty-car pile-up on the M1, caused by yesterday’s freak weather conditions, has finally been cleared by police.
12. Pan Am Airways passengers flying to New York can expect three-hour delays.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Analys.icio.us - Mapping Word Frequency of a Text

Too lazy to read a whole article? Copy and paste any text here at Analys.icio.us and you'll get a map of the most commonly usef words in that text. This should tell you what it's about in about five seconds, giving you more time to do nothing.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Mind if I...?

Here are the conversation openers and replies that we used in class today. I'll give you everything on a handout on Monday.

Mind if I join you?
Sure. Go ahead.


Sorry to butt in…
No problem. Go ahead.

How are you?
Fine thanks. Any you? You’re looking well.

Nice to see you again.
Nice to see you too. How are you?

It’s been a long time, hasn’t it.
Yes, I think we last spoke a month ago.

Terrible weather, isn’t it.
Yes, awful. I think it’s rained every day since I arrived.

That’s a nice shirt / blouse.
Thanks. I bought it from Harrods.

This coffee’s a bit weak.
Yes it is, isn’t it. Not like the coffee you get in Italy.