28 February 2013

Chinese businessman outsources daughter's homework

An enterprising Chinese boss outsourced his 12-year-old daughter's homework assignment to nine of his employees.

An enterprising Chinese boss outsourced his 12-year-old daughter's homework assignment to nine of his employees.Photo: REX FEATURES


The employee, who only gave his name as Mr Chen, said it took three days to finish the homework.
"We stayed up late for two nights," he complained. "The girl was quite demanding. She only needed to do one of the four options, but she insisted on doing them all, without actually getting involved herself in any way".
Students were asked to follow their parents back to their home towns, and to either draw a picture, create a video, take photographs or write an essay about the changes that had happened over the past decades.
Mr Chen, a professional photographer, said he was in charge of taking the photographs. "My boss said it was practice for me too. But there was a dilemma. I could not take great pictures, since they were supposed to be by a 12-year-old, but if the pictures were bad my boss would blame me."
He said the project was the most elaborate yet. "We have helped her before, but usually with some maths or model-making."
This time, he said, different staff were drafted for the video and the essay, one person was charged with uploading the work onto the school website, and the company driver was enlisted to transport the team around town.
Mr Li, who was in charge of making the film, subcontracted the task out further to a friend working at a local television station. The result was a two-minute, professionally edited clip complete with backing music and aerial shots.
The Qianjiang Evening News said the local primary school had now cautioned the boss, who remained unnamed. "We do not encourage this sort of thing," a teacher told the Chinese newspaper. "We will have a thorough talk with the parents".

13 January 2013

Englishman wakes up from stroke speaking fluent Welsh


Englishman wakes up from stroke speaking fluent Welsh An Englishman who suffered a stroke has surprised doctors after he woke up speaking fluent Welsh. . By Telegraph reporters 9:58AM GMT 27 Dec 2012 Alun Morgan, 81, was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War but left 70 years ago. During his time there he was surrounded by Welsh speakers but never learned the language himself. He left the country aged 10 and lived his life in England and recently suffered a severe stroke. But when Mr Morgan regained consciousness three weeks later, doctors discovered he was speaking Welsh and could not remember any English. It is thought that the Welsh Mr Morgan heard as a boy had sunk in without him knowing and was unlocked after he suffered the stroke. Mr Morgan, who is retired and lives with his wife Yvonne in Bathwick, Somerset, is now being taught to speak English again. "I'd not lived in Wales since I was evacuated there during the war. Gradually the English words came back, but it wasn't easy,'' he said. Mr Morgan had been watching the lunchtime news when his wife noticed he was not responsive and called an ambulance. He was rushed into hospital where he spent three weeks being stabilised and assessed. Doctors diagnosed Mr Morgan with aphasia, a form of brain damage which causes a shift in the brain's language centre. He was helped by the Communication Support Service, run by the Stroke Association in Bath. In 2012 grandmother Kay Russell, 49, of Bishop Cleeve in Gloucestershire, suffered a migraine and began speaking in a French accent. Sarah Colwill, 35, of Plymouth, Devon, also suffered a migraine and began speaking with a Chinese accent. Doctors say they suffered Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition which damages the part of the brain that controls speech and word formation. More than 150,000 people have a stroke every year in the UK, and a third end up with aphasia as a result. Chris Clark, Stroke Association’s UK Director of Life After Stroke Services said: “Stroke can have a big affect on individuals and lead to personality and physical changes. With a stroke, blood supply to the brain is cut off and in the areas starved of oxygen, brain cells die and damage can be caused. “Aphasia is caused by damage to the areas of the brain responsible for language. "As a result, individuals who were previously able to communicate through speaking, understanding, reading and writing become more limited in their ability to do so."

26 December 2011

Here's an article from thisismoney.co.uk

Britons spent £2.4bn on unwanted Christmas presents this year

By This Is Money Reporter

Last updated at 8:18 AM on 26th December 2011

Over the festive season, £2.4billion is spent on unwanted Christmas presents, a new survey suggests. One in five Britons said mothers were the worst culprits for giving inappropriate gifts, followed by mothers-in-law (18 per cent) and aunts (16 per cent).

Unwanted: Every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this ChristmasA survey of 2,000 people for online classifieds website Gumtree.com found that every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas, each worth £48.41 on average. A third of unwanted gifts end up gathering dust in the loft or the back of a cupboard, 15 per cent are given away to someone else, and 2 per cent are binned. But half of Britons are too polite to express their true feelings about undesired presents and will thank the giver enthusiastically, according to the survey.
Just 10 per cent of people will admit they do not want the gift and ask for a receipt, and only 4 per cent will be completely honest about what they think of the offering. Hamish Stone, from Gumtree.com, said: ‘From our research it’s clear that despite many people’s best efforts, homes across the UK are going to be cluttered with lots of unwanted Christmas presents this year. Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2078516/Britons-spent-2-4bn-unwanted-Christmas-presents-year.html#ixzz1hfr3OtJp

Some language remarks: Please note the beautiful example of the Future Perfect Passive "Every adult will have been given two presents ..." Actually this is the first time I have come across such a structure. Look for two more passive forms in the text.
culprit: a person who has committed a crime
loft: a space under the roof used for storing things
clottered with: crowded with
binned: something that ends up in the rubbish bin

Have You ever been given a present that you didn't like? What did you do with it?

Britons spent £2.4bn on unwanted Christmas presents this year



By This Is Money Reporter

Last updated at 8:18 AM on 26th December 2011








Over the festive season, £2.4billion is spent on unwanted Christmas presents, a new survey suggests.

One in five Britons said mothers were the worst culprits for giving inappropriate gifts, followed by mothers-in-law (18 per cent) and aunts (16 per cent).

Unwanted: Every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas
Unwanted: Every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas

A survey of 2,000 people for online classifieds website Gumtree.com found that every UK adult will have been given up to two presents they did not want this Christmas, each worth £48.41 on average.

A third of unwanted gifts end up gathering dust in the loft or the back of a cupboard, 15 per cent are given away to someone else, and 2 per cent are binned.

But half of Britons are too polite to express their true feelings about undesired presents and will thank the giver enthusiastically, according to the survey.

Just 10 per cent of people will admit they do not want the gift and ask for a receipt, and only 4 per cent will be completely honest about what they think of the offering.

Hamish Stone, from Gumtree.com, said: ‘From our research it’s clear that despite many people’s best efforts, homes across the UK are going to be cluttered with lots of unwanted Christmas presents this year.


Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2078516/Britons-spent-2-4bn-unwanted-Christmas-presents-year.html#ixzz1hfr3OtJp

30 April 2011

The Royal Wedding

In this article article you can watch a video of the royal wedding and read the text of the vows.

Palindrome sentences

Read them backwards:
Do geese see God?
Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?/
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
Murder for a jar of red rum
Too bad - I hid a boot.

03 April 2011

Bread and butter pudding


Simple, fast and delicious! Even for beginner cooks.


Find the recipe here.
How clever I am! I would never have thought that I am able to make and post such a google document!

01 April 2011

Cat-lift! - Funny Videos at Videobash

This video has absolutely nothing to do with English, but it's so extraordinary - I've never heard of such a device. And the website looks amusing as well!
Cat-lift! - Funny Videos at Videobash
 

April Fools' Day


Listen to this recording
and give short answers to the following questions:
1 How old is this holiday?
2 What did ancient nations celebrate on this day?
3 Which nation started to celebrate New Year on January 1st?
4 What happened to those people who didn't accept this change?
5 Which TV channel enjoys playing tricks on the viewers?
6 Which famous English landmark was declared to undergo significant changes?
7 What will happen - according to a TV channel - if you jump in the air at 9.47 this day?
8 What was the biggest success at Burger King's on this day in 1998?
Here are some fool quotes:

"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time." (Abraham Lincoln)
"A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes." (Bruce Willis)
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise knows himself to be a fool." (Shakespeare)

31 March 2011

The Common European Framework? We don't need bureaucrats to tell us what to teach! | Oxford University Press

I find this article extremely interesting. I agreed with it before I even came across it. We cannot teach as we think we should because we are restricted by exam regulations coming from ignorant bodies somewhere "out".
The Common European Framework? We don't need bureaucrats to tell us what to teach! Oxford University Press

29 March 2011

April Fool's Day

April 1st is approaching, here are some fool quotes:
"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time." (Abraham Lincoln)

"A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes." (Bruce Willis)

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise knows himself to be a fool." (Shakespeare)

25 March 2011

The loudest cat in the world


Click on this link to watch and listen to Smokey purr.

Match the decibels with what they refer to. A) 20 B) 65 C) 70 D) 92

i) an average cat's voice
ii) a washing machine
iii) Smokey's purr
iiii) Smokey's purr from 6.5 feet's distance
True or false?

Smokey is unfriendly.
It purrs as loudly as a truck engine.
It doesn't annoy its owners.
The Guiness Book of Records had a category for the loudest cat.

Check this article for the correct answers. http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979157842

Geogreetings

Click here, it's fun. Wanna try?

18 March 2011

Football Rivalry. Listening task from BBC 6 Minute English.
Click on this link.