QUANTIFIERS

Grammar is my weakness in English. This blog message is entirely dedicated to quantifiers.

“Quantifiers are words that are used to state quantity or amount of something without stating the actually number. “

I find an interesting link on the internet: http://www.smic.be/smic5022/quantifiers1.htm and I did the exercises online:
- the first exercise learn you how to use: little, a little, few, a few. My first score was 63%. I wasn’t pleased so I’m trying to remember the rules:

Little -> uncountable nouns -------- = ------hardly any, no much
A little-> uncountable nouns -------- = ------some, small amount
Few-> countable nouns -------- = ------ hardly any, no much
A few-> countable nouns -------- = ------some, small number

The Alex’ homework for tomorrow is also about the quantifiers.

Exercise 7/29
0%
None (both)
Almost none (countable)
Hardly any (both) / little (uncountable)/ few (countable)
Some (both) / a few (uncountable)
Many (countable) / much (uncountable)
Far too many / far to much
A lot of (both)/ All (both)
100%

HOMEWORK - TOPIC SENTENCE

Read the passage. Underline the topic sentence.

Circle the sentences that don't belong.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Probably the best loved of American poets the world over is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Many of his lines are as familiar to us as rhymes from Mother Goose or the words of nursery songs learned in early childhood. Thumbelina was written by Hans Christian Anderson. Like these rhymes and melodies, they remain in the memory and accompany us through life.

There are two reasons for the popularity and significance of Longfellow's poetry. First, he had the gift of easy rhyme. He wrote poetry as a bird sings, with natural grace and melody. Many song birds are found in Massachusetts. Read or heard once or twice, his rhyme and meters cling to the mind long after the sense may be forgotten. Second, Longfellow wrote on obvious themes which appeal to all kinds of people. His poems are easily understood; they sing their way into the consciousness of those who read them.

Americans owe a great debt to Longfellow because he was among the first of American writers to use native themes. Columbus called the Native Americans "Indians" because he thought he had landed in the Indies. He wrote about the American scene and landscape, the American Indian ('Song of Hiawatha'), and American history and tradition ('The Courtship of Miles Standish', 'Paul Revere's Ride', 'Evangeline').

At the beginning of the 19th century, America was a stumbling babe as far as a culture of its own was concerned. The people of America had spent their years and their energies in carving a habitation out of the wilderness and in fighting for independence. Wood carving was a common American pastime. Literature, art, and music came mainly from Europe and especially from England. Nothing was considered worthy of attention unless it came from Europe. But "the flowering of New England," as Van Wyck Brooks terms the period from 1815 to 1865, took place in Longfellow's day, and he made a great contribution to it.

I

The new legend of the Isle of Man ( short version)

I was wondering how many people visited or have a little information concerning the Isle of Man. I was surprised to find that same of them never heard about it or don’t really know where is it situated. So I decide to write a story about this land using all the information I could collected.

Long time ago, the giant Manannán Mac Lír took a huge rock on the Northern Ireland and droped it into the sea. The wind and the water carved the rock and gave it life. The people who live there are called Manx and their land is the Isle of Man (IOM). During their lomg history, they have built on the steep wooded valleys, homes, farming villages and cities. Some testimonies of their sweat are the Casteltown and its medieval Castle Rushen, the Corrins Tower, the Lady Isabella, the Cregneash Village, the Peel Castle, and the Tower of Refuge.

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The Manx created a close-knit community and their own flag. A brutal punishment by hanging was imposed on people who betrayed their society. This capital punishment was abolished only in 1993 and people say that the Castle Rushen is still haunted by a "woman in black" hanged for murdering his children.

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Time passed and their society changed faster then their law. Even today the abortion is not allow in the IOM. Sometime, a close-knit community forgotten by the rest of the world can look like a prison, but each 'tribe' has its imperfections.

The IOM will always be an enchanting island with deep waters, high sandy headlands, the rarest wetland wildlife and the Manx have found a way to attract the young of the other countries. They have done this by creating a Tourist Trophy (motocycle race), offering haven taxes and the movie industry. Their stunning views have appeared in more than 80 films (such as Trauma, Cinderella and Lassie).

What the people say about Isle of Man ? (long version)

I was wondering haw many British people visited or have any information concerning the Isle of Man. I was surprised to find that same of them never heard about it or don’t really know where is it situated. Despite his unpopularity in London tribe , I succeed to collect same interesting stories about capital punishment, lower taxes, abortion low and movies productions. I couldn’t verify all of them, but maybe this fact can provides the charm of a legend. When I thought finding a subject that can steel my classmates’ attention, another impediment dissipates my entire enthusiast: how can I write about these little stories with no connection between them? So I decide to tell you another story using the information I could get by people sayings and the cyber universe: Internet.

Long time ago, the giant Manannán Mac Lír took a huge rock on the Northern Ireland and drop it into the sea. The wind and the water carved the rock and gave it life. People that have been living there are called Manx and their land, Isle of Man. Along of their history they build on the steep wooded valleys, homes, farming villages and cities. Some testimonies of their sweat are the Casteltown and medieval castles (Castle Rushen), the Corrins Tower (1806), The Lady Isabella (1800), the Cregneash Village, the ruins of the Peel Castle (1392), and the Tower of Refuge (1832).

The Manx had created their own flag represented by tree legs in red background. ('What has three legs and flies? Manx trousers’) and they have been living in a close-knit community. A brutal punishment by hanging expected the people who betrayed their society. In 1872, the last hanged man was called John Kewish. The Queen Victoria was not happy to be involved in those criminal punishments and she asked the abolishment, but the Manx low didn’t change until 1993. A legend say that a "woman in black" hanged for murdering his children is hunting in the Castle Rushen of Casteltown.

Time passed and their society changed faster then their low. Until today the abortion is not allow in the Isle of Man. Sometime, a close-knit community forgotten by the rest of the world, can look like a prison for their members. A woman, who decides by her self she’s not prepared to be a parent, has no choice.

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But each tribe has his imperfection. The Isle of Man, still stay an enchanting island with deep waters, high sandy headlands, the rarest wetland wildlife and the Manx found a way to attract the young of the other countries. In our days, this land is associated with motorcycle race, the TT (Tourist Trophy), haven taxes and the movies industry. His stunning views appeared in more than 80 films and TV dramas (Trauma, Cinderella, The dark, Lassie, Finley the fire Engine, The Cotage …

slides show Isle of Man

"The attitude of the Manx people is best summed up by a joke:

A tourist having a pint of Okell's beer in the pub is joined at the bar by a fisherman with a bucket of live crabs. The fisherman gets a drink and ignores the bucket. The tourist watches as the crabs skitter about, trying to climb out of the bucket. He says to the fisherman 'Aren't you afraid you'll lose your crabs?' The fisherman glances down at the bucket and replies, 'No, those there are Manx crabs. As soon as it looks like one of them is going to get out, the others gang up and pull him back down to their level."

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/pda/A3197207?s_id=2

WRITING COMPARATIVELY

Bruce Parry's Tribe versus my tribe

Bruce Parry travels around the world and explore forgotten lands. How people live there, what are their beliefs and what future expect them? To get an answer to these questions, he tries to integrate into each different tribe like one of their members. In this short essay I will analyse some cultural aspects like the value system and the religious beliefs presents in Adi’s tribe (illustrated in a documentary by Bruce Parry) and in my tribe (an isolated village from Romania).

I have been educated in the Christian religion, so we believe in one God and in the holy trinity. The first difference I notice in the Bruce Parry’s documentary was that the Adi people are recognising hosts of deities. They take care that the spirits who live in the forest or in their houses don’t look at them in a bad light, because they have the power to protect them and to help them during the hunting. A multitude of rituals are due at this belief: incantations, sacrifices, gifts. In the same time, younger people started to be influenced by the Christian religion and they go to church, all like us. The superstitions survives in every culture even if sometime they are forbidden because of the religion (the Adi’s tribe think they can see the future in a leaf, the Romanian tribe – in a cup of coffee, the Senegalese tribe - in the shells, the French tribe – in cards).

Every tribe has an important festival each year. We all pray for forgiveness and for thriving, we sing, we cook special foods. There are dissimilar ways to prepare the festival due to our environments, our life standard and our traditions. Before the Christmas, my tribe’s people have to fast and then they sacrifice a pig to prepare their foods. Adi’s men go hunting before the Aran festival and then sacrifice a kind of beef. Even the young who adopted Christian religion participate at this ceremony. They share the animal meet and nothing is lost. I think we act likely the same when we invite friends and all the family members to eat in our homes. The most important thing in the values system of the both tribes is the family, despite the different meaning of this word. The Adi’s family is larger and not all the members are relied by the blood. They have also a chief of the village respected like a father.

Each tribe has his own culture. We have to be tolerant and to observe the beliefs, the behaviours and the values system of a tribe who seems to be so much different to ours. We can not understand another culture if we don’t try to listening the other. Trying to live in the others tribe, we’ll learn that we have a lot in common and the distances between the two cultures will diminish. We’ll be capable of appreciating the wealth of our own culture and the other’s culture, to understand why sometime they act differently and we’ll be capable to live with in harmony.
“People do not realise that what is opposed to something is also identical with it.”

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT: Alex's homework

Vocabulary : Exercise 6 page 19

Word combinations

- climate change
- false impression
- scientific journal
- global warming
- satellite images
- significant effect

Complete the text with the word combinations:

I read in a respectable scientific journal that global warming is already happening. Satellite images have shown that climate change is even reducing the legendary snow on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Since 2000, observations of the significant effect of rising temperatures have started to mount up. Even the American business community has stopped trying to give a false impression that everything it’s all right.

GRAMMAR: Exercise 7 page 19

- present perfect simple and continuous

« sea levels have been rising for the last 20 years »

a) Which sentence focuses on an activity that is still continuing? Which tense is used?
- present perfect continuous: has been shrinking

b) Which sentence focuses on the result (or lake of result) of an activity? What tense is used?
- present perfect simple: has increased, have not achieved, has had, have begun, has found, have not had

c) Which tense is used for an activity that is completed?
- past simple


Observation: With since and for you can use some verbs in the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous with no difference in meaning (eg: live, stay, work, study, teach, wait, drive)
She’s lived / she’s been living in that house for 20 years.

Speaking: Exercise 9 page 19
Discuss changes in your environment. Use the present perfect simple and continuous.

The first warning about global warming was in 1950. Since then, change climate has been evoluating dramatically faster then that scientists predicted. Many species risk loosing their habitat (eg : polar bears) and the people had realised that the future of our planet is compromised.

In the south east of Romania were I have been living, people complain about the seasons’ characteristics changing. The summer become hut and droughty and that had a significant bad effect on agriculture. Our grandparents told that in winter the layer of snow was huge. Today is rarely snowing in winter. Latest years, our region has received more and more alarms. The unexpected hard rain has drowned farmlands and inhabitants' houses. All these changes have been decreasing people’s standards life, because of their indirect effects. The drought affects the agriculture, so less foods for domestic animals and for inhabitants who become more susceptible to disease.

About the global environmental problems like climate change, pollution, forest fires, oil spills, hole in the ozone layer, each of us has already heard from the media. But people are continuing to destroy their own house, their planet. The only hope is that “every single one of us makes a difference every day” (Jane Goodall). The difference is to make a choice, to adopt the behaviour and to act in a way that does not harm our planet.

LISTENING TO JANE GOODALL

Jane Goodall: Helping humans and animals live in Africa

The famous scientist Jene Goodall hold a conference in Ted.com.

The video of about 24minutes is available at:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jane_goodall_at_tedglobal_07.html

(listening exercise)

Janne Godall has started to study the chimpanzees’ behaviour since 1960. Today it’s known that they behave nearly like humans “they are more like us then any other living creature”. To exemplify these behaviours Janne told us that chimpanzees live until 60 years old. At about 13 years old the female can reproduce and after her first baby she needs 5 or 6 years to reproduce again. During this time, the mother takes care of her baby (she carries him on her back, she teach him how react in a normal day life and she sleeps with her child every night). During their childhood, the chimpanzees observe and imitate the older other. Each of them has his own personality. They don’t have a “spoken language” but they are capable of many gestures, postures (embracing, kissing, taking the hand, patting one to another on the back, throwing rocks) and feelings (compassion, love, altruism, extreme brutality) similar with the humans’. They are “territorially aggressive”, even capable to lead a kind of primitive war.

Janne still continuants his observation today and she affirms there is a blurry line between this specie and humans. A global problem is that many species, like chimpanzees with who we share the planet are loosing their habitat. Since 1960, Janne has remarked how forested area of Gambia is diminishing. She asked her self hows to save the chimpanzees while very poor people living around the national park are confronted with vary hard conditions of life. The number of people living in this area is increasing. They started with 12 villages and now there are 24. The only solution is to improve the life of these people (to create farmlands, schools, to ease the access to the fresh water, to provide the opportunity of micro-credits, to inform about family planning and about HIV). This programme is already started and day by day people understand about the need of conservation of their trees (to avoid the erosion sols). They agree to leave 10% and 20% of there land, so the trees can grow back and chimpanzees can travel and interact with other groups outside the natural park.

In Africa there is a great deal of poverty, so people cut desperately more and more trees for providing food for them self and their family. We have to give them something in exchange, to care of. “What are we doing to our planet?”

A science man told if every people attends the life standard of an European, we’ll need four planets. “But we have just one planet”. Jane ask how it is possible the most intelligent been of these planet, capable of high technologies, destroy the only home he has. Everywhere in the world we see the pollution (“the earth is poising our foods, the air that we breathe is posing us, the water […] is been polluted by agricultural, industrial and household chemicals.”), sol erosion, climate change. “And the poor people are affected worst”.(ex: In sub-Saharan, the rain doesn’t come.)

At the end of the conference, Jane Goodall, try to sensibiliser each listener to think before harm our planet about the compromising the future of their children and nephews. She began a programme with a message of hope called Roots and Shoots in Tanzania, witch today it is spread in 97 countries around the world. Each roots & shoots group can choose between one of these projects: “to help their own community and help communities in others parts of the world, to help animals, to help the environment that we all share”.

“People can make a better world for all living things.”

SUMMARY: Isle of Man may strengthen education links with China

'It's a big world out there – there are 400 million Chinese people learning English at the moment. [...]The Isle of Man might be a small country but we have big aspirations.'
(Adrienne Burnett; Courier article: Isle of Man may strengthen education links with China)

The Confucius Institute has more then 200 centers established in the Universities all over the world. Its purpose is to teach students about the Chinese’s language and culture. With a competitor economy, China has maybe a long term strategy to approach the futures business partners.

Today, the United Kingdom has ten of this institutes and Isle of Man may have his own nearly. Few days ago, members of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan China) visited and shown their interest for the Ballakermeen High School in Douglas (Isle of Man). If they’ll be in agreement after the negotiations, the partnership will be officialised by November.

LOCAL NEWS: Abortion - a Manx woman's story

In our days everyone speaks about freedom. I wonder in what degree a woman or a man is free? Is our freedom just a dream? Is not it limited by the local law? The abortion was a controversial subject for long time. The Isle of Man law allows the abortion in few cases: the future mother’s life or health it is in danger, the baby risk a seriously handicap or he is the result of a rape. What about a woman who decides by her self she’s not prepared to be a parent?

A 19 young woman old get pregnant when great opportunities able to change her life open to her. Decided to change his working class situation, she is not prepared to become a mother. Unfortunately, the Isle of Man low doesn’t allow the abortion in her case. The only issue she finds is to go in one clinic of England. She feels like a prisoner of her own land, that she never left before. Our young woman had managed to finance her trip to a clinic from Liverpool. Not any member of her family could be present, for the simple fact that they couldn’t afford it.

Today, with difficult and unforgettable souvenirs, our character finished his studies and got a doctorate. She says: “I would've liked to have a choice”. I think we are never free; we have to submit at the rules that our society had create before…function of his believes. But the society is always changing, so why we don’t change her rules also?

(Source of the story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/content/articles/2008/08/20/pro_choice_feature.shtml)