Infinitive and ing + verbs

I am writing to complain about the poor service that I received when I was in your store last week. recently you decided to remove (remove) listening facilities in your stores, and your staff encouraged customers to take (take) home their CDs without hearing (hear) them first. you invited us to return (return) any CDs that we did not like, as long as we kept the receipt as proof of purchase. In my opinion this was an exellent policy as it allowed customers to risk (risk) buying (buy) things that were a little different. A consequence of your policy is that customers will buy more CDs, and this means returning (return) more that they dont like. In fact last week I brought back eight CDs, from the fourteen I had bought on the previous visit. Your salesman refused to accept (accept) such a large number, and accused me of taking (take) the CDs home just to copy (copy) them. I strongly object to be (be) treated like this.

Relative pronoun and clauses

1- The beach is a place that I go to if I am feeling a little depressed and it always makes me feel better.
2- Kamelia, who is one of my closet friends, always know how to console me.
3- Poligamy is a notion that I will never be able to accept.
4- An old ring, which is probably my most treasured possession, was given to me by my grand mother.
5- Few people have heard of Hicham Elgerouj who is a runner, but he is very famous in my country.
6- London which I've always dreamed of visiting, now seems to me like any other city.

Fighting crime with science seminar - Preparation

DNA - Genetic material contained in every cell and unique to the individual
DNA profiling - Identifying people by visual representations of unique regions of their DNA
Frye standard of admissibility - Scientific evidence may only be considered in court if the type of evidence is generally accepted by the scientific community.
Gel electrophoresis - Technique used to separate pieces of DNA by size
Multiplication rule - Method used to obtain likelihood of more than one event occurring simultaneously
Restriction enzyme - Protein that cuts DNA at specific base sequences


-This is an exercise on crime vocabulary with answers but, please do the exercise first before checking the answers.

Crime vocabulary exercise


-I read this article and found very interesting about the CCTV systems at present and some future plans expected to be implemented in near future to cut the crime rate and help police to do their job as its best.

CCTV System in use and some future plans

Finally, First piece of Introduction

‘We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

A common viewpoint in our society is that the media presents harmful stereotypes to us in several ways every day. Different kinds of media exist which manipulate all of us. News papers, TV, Radio etc. are the prominent media at present. However, this also has the power to educate people through documentaries, visuals, news papers, and movies. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge to us. Looking at the other side of the picture spending too much time on TV or playing games leads us to develop indolence, violent behaviour and unhealthy diet. In recent years when media and technology are surrounding all over we have started relying on media more than it deserves. Commercials these days don’t even attempt to inform about the product and instead rely entirely on gimmicks. Truthfully, it all depends on individuals how they react against what they see or hear on TV, news papers, magazines or radio. According to Joan Langham and Warren Stewart (1981), children who were found with more aggression in their nature were more likely to watch really different variety of programs to non-aggressive children. Their priority was to focus their attention more towards violent stereotypes and characters, and they had the extensive choice of TV channels. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is influenced by the media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Word count 235

References:

Langham, J. and Stewart, W. 1981 ‘Television viewing habits, and other characteristics of normally aggressive and non-aggressive children’ Australian Psychologist, viewed 30^th July 2008,

Phrasal verbs in academic English

An exercise of Phrasal verbs and one-word synonyms....

Phrasal Verb	Synonym	Example
put forward (an idea/view/opinion)	Present	In her latest article Kaufmann puts forward a theory which is likely to prove controversial.
carry out ( an experiment/research)	Conduct	I intend to carry out a series of experiments.
make up	Constitute	Children under the age of 15 make up nearly half of the country’s population.
be made up of	Consist of	Parliament is made up of two houses.
point out	Observe	Grenne points out that the increase in life expectancy has led to some economic problems.
point up	Highlight	The study points up the weaknesses in the current school system.
set out (to do something)	Aim	In his article Losanov sets out to prove that...
go into	Discuss	In this book Sergeant goes into the causes of the Civil War in some depth
Go/Look back over	Revise, review	Please go/look back over this term’s notes.

Media Vocabulary Exercise

Turn on the TV! There is live coverage of the cricket match between England and Australia.

Those were today's headlines. And now it's Angela McCarthy with her weather forecast.

I can't stand that stupid comedy. Can you switch to another transmission, please?

A soap opera is some kind of TV drama in parts based on inter-human relationships.

We're just getting some breaking news, that a tidal wave has destroyed much of the city of Atlanta.

I like the new presenter introducing and reviewing progammes on our local TV.

'The Weakest Link' is a very popular quiz based on general knowledge, broadcast daily on BBC television.

The time of day when most people are watching television is known as prime time

Many TV viewers were shocked when late-night presenter John Smith's face started puffing up horribly while on air.

"Welcome to another live TV debate. Our host is as usual Simon Bainbridge, and his guests today are some of Poland's most prominent politicians".

Gap Maker Exercise

The text for the exercise was taken from Here


Throughout the period he was dealing with her, she kept up the facade that she was genuinely grieving for the death of her husband."

The following August, a body was found off the coast of Hartlepool and police asked Mrs Darwin if she would be prepared to identify it.

As a detective explained the situation, she burst into tears and said she wanted the body to be John's so he could be laid to rest, and so that she could move on, Mr Robertson told the jury.

He added: "We submit this was a convincing performance and one which obviously required no prompting, let alone coercion, from her husband."

Mrs Darwin's defence centres on her claim that she was coerced by her husband.

Mr Robertson said that for the defence to succeed, she must prove that Mr Darwin was present at the time each offence was committed .

She will also have to show that the pressure was so great that she had no choice, and "she was impelled to act in a way against her own will".

He showed the jury a photograph of John and Anne Darwin smiling and posing with a Panamanian estate agent, when the couple were looking to buy property in Central America with the proceeds of their fraud, he said.

Homework - 02/07/08

Change the following verb to noun

To distribute --- Distribution
To solve --- Solution
To predict --- Prediction
To communicate --- Communication
To introduce --- Introduction
To transport --- Transportation
To produce --- Production
To pollute --- Pollution
To conserve --- Conservation
To govern --- Government
To develop --- Development

Homework - 03/07/08

Most iPod owners reported that on average, only 20 of the tracks on their iPods would have been bought from the iTunes shop.
Far more important, they described was free music ripped from CDs someone already owned or acquired from file-sharing sites.
83% of iPod owners defined that they do not buy digital music regularly. The minority, 17%, buy and download music, usually single tracks, at least once per month.
On average, the study declares that only 5% of the music on an iPos will be bought from online music stores. The rest will be from CDs the owner of an MP3 player already has or tracks they have downloaded from file-sharing sites.
“It is not instructive to think of portable media player owners nor iPod owners specifically, as homogenous groups” reflected the report.
It demonstrated “Digital music buyers do no necessarily stop file-sharing upon buying legally.”
The importance of “free” to digital music fans should not be underestimated, suggested the report, and should be a factor for newer digital music firms, such as Spiral Frog, which use an ad-supported model.
“Digital music purchasing has not yet fundamentally changed the way in which digital music customers buy music.” Predicted the report.

Some vocabulary exercise... please leave me some comments. thanks

Word Humorous
Definition intended to excite laughter or amusement
Synonyms comedic, funny, jocose, jocular, witty
Example Yesterday we met our new teacher in the conversation class and we found him very humorous person...

Word Sentimental
Definition affectedly or extravagantly emotional
Synonyms romantic, soft, soppy, gushy
Example sometimes people really get sentimental in love which is really not good for them.

Word Persistent
Definition could not find one
Synonyms consistent, constant, continuous, determined, durable, enduring
Example one should need to be persistent to their studies to achieve some good grades.

Word Tiresome
Definition arousing no interest or curiosity
Synonyms annoying, boring, demanding, dreary, irritating
Example To my knowledge Mr. Simpson was really tiresome sort of T.V programme I have ever seen in my whole life.

Word Methodical
Definition Arranged or proceeding in a set, systematized pattern
Synonyms orderly, regular, systematic
Example Mr. Boris Johnson has to have more methodical approaches to bring us a safe and sound London

Word Eloquent
Definition fluently persuasive and forceful
Synonyms articulate, silver-tongued, smooth-spoken
Example In my pre-sessional English course I found both of my teachers (Steve and Helen) really eloquent type of persons.

Word Convention
Definition A formal assemblage of the members of a group
Synonyms assembly, conference, congress, convocation, meeting
Example in Zimbabwe Mr. Tsavangiri the opposition leader of ex-president Mugabe had to find shelter under the roof of the Dutch convention after the intimidation of Mr. Mugabe’s thugs.