Animals & Us : BBC Documentary

The BBC Documentary that we listened to in preparation for next week's test is available here. You can also visit the website of Victor Schonfeld's film The Animals, the trailer for which is below:

Making Connections

The powerpoint presentation from today's class is available here.

You may also be interested in this collection of online activities based around vocabulary in the Academic Word List. They should keep you busy for a few minutes at least...

Providing examples

In the graduate diploma reading & writing class yesterday we looked at ways of incorporating examples in sentences and paragraphs. We noticed that patterns of use vary according to the expression employed and the length / structure of the example:

• Some students, for example Chao, did not come to class today.

• Some students did not come to class today, for example Chao.

• Some students did not come to class today. Chao, for example, is not here. Actually we have not seen him since last decade.

• Some European countries have benefitted greatly from joining the European Union. A case in point is Portugal, which was considered a developing country less than thirty years ago.

• Some European countries have benefitted greatly from joining the European Union. A good example is Portugal, which was considered a developing country less than thirty years ago

(apologies to Portugal if that's unfair or untrue...probably both...)

Here are the sentences we created in completing an exercise from Stephen Bailey's, Academic Writing : A Handbook for International Students:

1. A number of sports, for example football, have become very profitable due to the sale of television rights.

2. Certain twentieth-century inventions affect the lives of most people. For example, in the past, Arabic people were unable to communicate quickly with Chinese people. However, since the invention of computers and the Internet, Yasir and Maggie can send each other e-mails in a matter of seconds.

3. In recent years, many women have made significant contributions to the political world. For example Angela Mirkin became the German chancellor.

4. Three-year guarantees are now being offered by most car makers, such Toyota.

5. Certain diseases are proving much harder to combat than was expected 20 years ago. A case in point is influenza, which has actually become stronger because each year more strands of viruses develop.

6. Many musical instruments use strings to make music. For example, the guitar has two kinds of strings - thick ones and thin ones.

7. Several mammals are currently in danger of extinction. Pandas, for instance, need to be protected if they areto survive the next century.

8. Some students in this class are very intelligent. A good example is Lucy, who can always get the correct answer quickly.

9. The behaviour of some students in this class is quite predictable. For instance, Maggie and Lucy will chat with others or fall asleep when the class is boring.

10. Several members of the group, like Abdulaziz and Omar, have families in the UK.

Finally, we looked again at the difference a comma makes:

Kostas likes girls who cook for him. (he only likes the ones that cook for him)

Lucy likes men, who are better than women. (Lucy likes all men, and all men are better than woman

Youtube Tutorials

I've been asked about how to to perform certain formatting tasks in MS Word, like indenting text for long quotations. Youtube has lots of tutorial videos and it doesn't take much searching to find what you want, but you can click here for an example of a simple overview of paragraph formatting to start with.

Ode to Billie Joe

You can follow the lyrics to this song by clicking here.

Class Notes : Will, Would, Can, Could

WILL

WILL is used for future predictions, but it is also about willingness:
- Will you help me? (not a particularly polite way to ask for help)
- I’ll help you. (it’s always polite to offer!)
- I’ll get the phone.
- I’ll lend you the money.

WILL is a modal verb, and therefore reflects the writer / speaker’s point of view at the moment of writing / speaking. When we refer to the future without prior thought or planning, it’s very natural to use WILL:
- Are you going to the party?
- Yes
- Oh good…I’ll go too.

WOULD

If we think of WILL being a present tense, we can see that its meaning is REAL / POSSIBLE. If we think of WOULD as the past tense of WILL, it makes sense that its meaning is UNREAL / HYPOTHETICAL:
REAL: If Yasir brings a knife to the next class, Omar will feel scared.
UNREAL : If Yasir attacked Omar with a knife in class, Mark would encourage him.

Other UNREAL uses:
- I would never eat dog.
- If I were you I’d get my hair cut.
- If I was a woman I’d be happier.

WOULD is also used to report WILL in the past:

1900: “no man will ever walk on the moon”.

In 1900, it was believed that no man would ever walk on the moon.
In 1900, the idea that a man would one day walk on the moon was unfathomable.

CAN and COULD

CAN has several functions. It could refer to ABILITY (I can speak French), PERMISSION (Can I go to the toilet?), and a GENERAL prediction (English can be difficult at times).
COULD also more than one possible use. It can refer to LIKELIHOOD (Some people think that England could win the World Cup this summer), GENERAL ABILITY IN THE PAST (I could swim quite well when I was younger)
This is a potential barrier to clear communication. If we say “Maggie could get married”, are we talking about the past or the future? We can adjust our language to make meaning clearer:
SPECIFIC ABILITY IN THE PAST: Maggie was able to get married three years ago because she found a man who had lost his glasses.
FUTURE PREDICTION: Maggie could get married to a rich Saudi prince in the future if she is lucky.
“Maggie can get married” either refers to her ability – or rather eligibility – or the fact that she has permission to marry.

Class Notes : Verbs of Reference Revision

We can divide verbs of reference into two categories:

1.Verbs that can be used to introduce a quotation:
Note that these verbs can be followed by direct speech in quotation marks, or THAT followed by a subject and a verb.
Informal: Yasir says “Omar should suffer!”.
Yasir says that it is advisable to harm Omar.
Formal: Mark agrees (with Yasir) that corporal punishment is the only approach Omar will understand.
Examples of this type of verb:
- state, argue, (mention, note), claim, think, believe, write
- point out / indicate
- agree / concur (with someone)

An alternative to these verbs is ACCORDING TO:
e.g. According to Yasir, it is advisable to harm Omar.

2.Verbs that are followed by a noun phrase:
- describe e.g. Yasir describes ways to harm Omar. Firstly, he can be cut with a knife. Secondly, if no knife is present, it is possible to beat Omar with a stick or piece of wood. Yasir also discusses the possibility of injuring Omar with poison. However, he notes that none of these approaches will be successful unless we “first tie Omar up with rope”.
- explain e.g. Yasir explains the best way to harm Omar.
- refer to e.g. Yasir refers to scientific evidence that harming Omar is beneficial.

Note that these verbs are used to provide a summary or general overview of what has been stated. They therefore introduce a topic and tend to be followed by further explanation or exemplification.

Question: How can we use REFER in the passive voice?
- Scientific evidence that harming Omar is beneficial is referred to.
- Yasir’s argument has been referred to several times in this class.