READER_Bryson prompts

SECTION 1. __

BRYSON_

Read TWO of these articles below to be shared  and explained in next class

(Select 15 language items in each to teach your partner). 

   10. Wide-Open Spaces               (p. 52)  

    11. Rule Number 1: Follow All Rules        (p. 56) 

     12. The mysteries of Christmas               (p. 61) 

SECTION 2. __

Explain the humourous remarks:

11. RULE NUMBER 1: FOLLOW ALL RULES 

1.     I did a foolish thing .... local cafes and seated myself without permission.   

 2.     "Yup," I replied proudly. "Dressed myself too."  

3.     I have seen the sign from every angle but supine.  

4.     the server in this section is very busy, so you may have to wait a while for her to get to you."  

5.     instinctive recognition that these are useful ways of helping to achieve and maintain a civilized and orderly society.  

6.     a little Teutonic order wouldn't go amiss in England-for instance,  

7.     speak freely here, I would support capital punishment). 

8.     written rules-twenty-seven!-of which my favorite is "One Bounce Per Dive on Diving Board." And they're enforced.  

9.     the clerk, who had the charm and boundless motivation you would expect to find in someone whose primary employment perk is a nylon tie.  

10.  "This is expired," he sniffed. "Then I won't ask to drive the plane," I replied.    

11.  He looked at a printed list. "... not on our list of Permissible Visual Cognitive Imagings," he said, or something similarly vacuous. 

 12.  "Are you seriously suggesting that I had this book specially printed so I could sneak on to a flight to Buffalo?" 

13.  Eventually we ended up with a crowd scene .... the supervisor's surpervisor, ...., several inquisitive bystanders ....., and a guy selling jewelry.  

14.  My flight was due to take off in minutes and froth was starting to form at the corners of my mouth. "What is the point of all this anyway  

15.  Anyway, I changed tack and begged.  

16.  I don't suppose anyone has ever shown such earnest, remorseful desire to be allowed to proceed to Buffalo.  

17.  "There is always a little more toothpaste in the tube," I said. "Think about it." (* you always manage to accomplish something if you try a little harder.)

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SECTION 3. __


Use these prompts to retell the following chapters.

10. Wide-Open Spaces

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1. talking big scale
2. the population of the USA
3. twice the size of France
4. New Hampshire
5. metallic wombs
6. a million immigrants
7. 6 per cent
8. 68 people per square mile
9. Daniel Boone

11. Rule Number 1: Follow All Rules

1. foolish thing
   
2. jump the queue
   
3. Teutonic order
   
4. public swimming-pool
   
5. picture ID
   
6. written instructions
   
7. tooth paste 
   

12. The Mysteries of Christmas

1. “A-Wassailing We’ll Go”
   
2. Christmas in Britain vs
   Christmas in America
   
3. Thanksgiving
   
4. turkey
   
5. News Year’s Eve
   
6. there are no ...
   
7. Boxing Day
   
8. shopping malls
   
9. alms boxes
   
10. Slade 
    

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Graphs, Charts, tables -Written expressions -IELTS

     Writing Task 1 (Academic) at IELTS

http://www.ieltsbuddy.com/ielts-practice.html 

Lesson 1: Describing a Graph Over Time
This important lesson shows you what you must do to properly describe a graph or chart that has a period of time.

Lesson 2: Describing an IELTS Pie Chart
In this lesson you'll learn how to write about a pie chart, with tips on how to best organize your answer and advice on the language to use.

Lesson 3: Describing an IELTS Process
In this lesson you'll learn how to describe an IELTS process diagram, with information about organizing your answer and using the passive voice.

Lesson 4: Describing two graphs together
Sometimes you get two graphs to describe together. This lessons shows you how to organize your answer if you do.

Lesson 6: Gap Fill - Bar Chart
This lesson is a gap fill in order to help you practice the language of comparison, contrast and percentages.

TASK_10.  Analyse a table

 The following table gives statistics showing the aspects of quality of life in five countries.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information in the table below. Draw cultural conclusions from the reality behind the info.

         Table: The Quality of Life in Four Countries

Country	GNP per head  (1982: US dollars)	Daily calorie supply  per head	Life expectancy at birth  (years)	Infant mortality   (per 1000  live births
Bangladesh Bolivia Egypt Indonesia USA	140    570    690    580 13.160	1877 2086 2950 2296 3653	40 50 56 49 74	132 124 97 87 12

• 
  
• As with all graphs and charts, when describing tables:
  • Do not describe all the data presented - present the main points of each feature (you should make sure you mention each feature though)
  • Look for significant data; e.g. the highest, the lowest etc
  • Try and group the data.  This may require you to use some general knowledge about the world, such as recognising developed and developing countries
• What is the table measuring?
• What type of language do you need to use (Change? Comparing and contrasing?)
• What tense would you use?
• Which country has the best quality of life and which has the worst?
• What information could you use for an overview / conclusion?
• How could you group the information?
• How many paragraphs would you have and what you would write about in each one?

The groups chosen that are similar are grouped together into paragraphs.

The language is focused on the language of comparison and contrast as the table is not over time. The compare and contrast structures have been highlighted so you can see how they are used.

Sample Answer

The table uses four economic indicators from GNP and Daily calorie supply per head to Life expectancy at birth to Infant mortality in order to show the standard of living in five selected countries in 1982 spanning across the globe,  belonging to the three continents. All criteria can be mingled along the idea of "more is better", but is it really so? 

Overall, it can be seen that the quality of life in the USA was far higher than the other four countries. To begin, the USA, which is a developed country, had the highest GNP as expected at over 13,000 dollars per head.  It also had a much higher daily calorie intake and life expectancy, and the lowest rate of infant mortality. The other developing countries had quality of life ratings that were significantly lower.  

The range of indicators for Egypt, Indonesia and Bolivia were similar, with Egypt having the highest quality of life amongst the three.  However, the infant mortality rate in Egypt’s was slightly higher than Indonesia’s at almost a hundred deaths per 1000 compared to 78 in Indonesia.  

Bangladesh had by far the lowest quality of life in all the indicators.  Its GNP was one hundred times smaller than the USA’s.  Its calorie intake and life expectancy were about half those of the USA, and its infant mortality rate was 10 times greater.  

As a way of conclusion, we can gather ..... 

Bill Bryson - an eye on his language in his big world

    5 passages  language work      —— nuria p.

THU 25 January 43

43. A day at the seaside. (p. 206) - 1. Coming home (p. 15)

 TUE 30 January 

2. Help (p. 19) 3. Well, Dr, I was just trying to lie down (p. 23

 THU 1 Febr 

4. Take me out to the ball park. 27 - 5. Dumb and dumber. (p. 31) -

TUE 6 February 

6. Drug culture (p. 35) 7. Mail Call. (p. 39) -

 Attention to some expressions and a kind of summary from these five passages, 

00001   coming home

• I HAVE BEEN QUIETLY, EVEN GAMELY, REASSESSING POINT NUMBER THREE.
• AFTER SUCH AN ABSENCE IS A SURPRISINGLY UNSETTLING BUSINESS
• MOVING HOME AFTER MANY YEARS AWAY IS LIKE THAT IN MOST RESPECTS, AN ODD BLEND OF THE COMFORTINGLY FAMILIAR AND ODDLY UNKNOWN.
• REALLY, I COULD HARDLY HAVE FELT MORE FOREIGN IF I HAD STOOK THERE DRESSED IN LEDERHOSEN.
• JUST BRING EXTRA MONEY FOR ROAD MAPS AND REMEMBER TO ASK FOR  SPACKLE.

COMING HOME

It talks that he read in a book things he could do in life and he chose one of them: go home.

He had been doing this lately.  A year ago he went from England to States with his family.

After nearly two decades, he found that everything had changed.

He had left as a youth and was returning in middle age.

He felt very strange, specially doing shopping.

In fact, although he was from America, he was very happy in Britain and he neves stopped thinking of America as home.  He thought he felt more like a native of his own country where he lived.

soon he enjoyed reencountering those things he had grown up with, but he had largely forgotten.

Then he admitted he had been wrong and he could go home again, just some thing has changed.

0004   take me out to the ball park

• FULL OF DELICIOUSLY SCATTERED MICRO-MOMENTS OF REAL ACTION
• I HAVE NEVER FELT ANYTHING SO STARTLINGLY NOT LIKE I EXPECTED IT TO FEEL
• I WALKED AROUND FOR FOUR HOURS ON WOBBLY LEGS … AND VOWED NEVER AGAIN TO DO ANYTHING SO FOOLISH AND PAINFUL
• YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A BRAIN SURGEON TO WORK OUT THAT IF…
• IT IS ALL IMMENSELY COMPLICATED BUT ALWAYS IN THE END THEY DOGGEDLY MANAGE TO COME UP SHORT.
• THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THIS, RELIABLE AND EFFICIENTLY, FOR OVER HALF A
• CENTURY.
• THERE IS NO ROOM FOR SENTIMENT IN SOMETHING AS WILDLY LUCRATIVE AS AN AMERICAN SPORT.    I HAVEN'T SPACE HERE TO ELUCIDATE ALL THE MISGUIDED THINGS THEY HAVE DONE TO MY BELOVED GAME IN THE PAST.
• GENERALLY THESE WERE DANK AND CREAKY (BALL PARKS), BUT THEY HAD CHARACTER.
• NOW THE OWNERS WANT TO TEAR IT DOWN AND BUILD A NEW STADIUM.

                           TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL PARK

Difference between baseball and cricket.

All are games which involves balls and bats.

He prefers baseball, because he played as a boy.

Once, when he was a boy, after watching football on TV he thought he could do it and he flicked the ball casually into the net with his head.   He had a big red circle and word mitre imprinted on his forehead.  It was painful.

Now the Worls Series has just started and it is the annual baseball contest between the champion of the American League and the champion of the National League.   So, it only involves two teams.

But they are not the two best teams in baseball, because each league is

divided into three divisions of various teams.

But every team (good or not) has the chance to go to the World Series.

But Chicago Cubs never manage to qualify even under a system as magnificently accommodatins as this.   

They haven't been in a World Serier since, he believes, 1938.

But all the great old stadiums have been replaced with big characterless, multi-purpose arenas.

There are only four of theses old parks left.   One is in New England, although the owners wanted to build a new one.   He thinks he won't go to the new stadium, but it is impossible because he is hopelessly addicted to the game.

On the other hand, Chicago Cubs continue to play at Wrigley Field and when it plays there is one of the great American experiences.

So, for all that he thinks that nobody deserves to go to the World Series more than the Chicago Cubs.  But they can't go because that would spoil their tradition of never going.

So he considers not easy being a baseball fan.

(note that always de conclusion or fact is written in the last last pharagraph)

000005 —dumb and dumber

• I AM ALWAYS A LITTLE DUBIOUS ABOUT THESE SURVEYS

• STILL, THERE IS A KIND OF EMPTINESS OF THOUGHT AT LARGE THESE DAYS THAT IS HARD TO OVERLOOK.

• … THE EFFECTS HAVEN'T QUITE WORN OFF.

• IT SOMETIMES FEELS AS IF NEARLY THE WHOLE NATION HAS TAKEN NYTOL AND THAT THE EFFECTS HAVEN'T QUITE WORN OFF.

• I DON'T FOR A MOMENT GHINK THAT AMERICANS ARE INHERENTLY MORE STUPID OR

• BRAIN-DEAD THAN ANYONE ELSE.

• AMERICAN LIFE IS FULL OF THESE LITTLE CRUTCHES, SOMETIMES TO A QUITE ASTONISHING DEGREE.

• IT WAS EXCRUCIATING, BUT HARDLY UNUSUAL.

• THE GIRL WITH CLITIS GOES BY THEN CUCHKLINGLY EXPLAINED THAT…

• I MEANT STATE IN THE RATHER BROADER SENSE OF NATION-STATE

• BUT LET US FINISH WITH MY FAVOURITE INANITY OF THE MOMENT 

                                                                 DUMB AND DUMBER

After some organization tested American high school seniors they realised they didn't know anything about general culture.

He is always a little dubious about these surveys.    In general there is a kind of emptiness of thought at large these days that is hard to overlook.   This phenomenon is now widely

known as the Dumbing Down of America.

He explains that in documentaries the comments are stupid and it happens all the time.

He was recently on a flight and he read the airline magazine.   There was a "Letter from the President" explainign how they had just conducted a survey of their customers to find out

their needs.   In that case they wanted to arrived on time and with their luggage.

He found it funny.

Americans tends to specify the country as well as the city in datelines.  For example they use "London, England".

Even he refers to a politician (I think) he used a "strange" sentence in his campaign, although he was right: "It's about the future, because that's where we're going".

Everything has to be translated to a simply way / words.

(12 inches = 1 foot)

00006     DRUG CULTURE

• TO COME IN A BLURRY FRAME OF MIND
• …BUT YOU WOULD BE SMILING AGAIN, IF WANLY
• …FINISH THE DAY HAVING THE TIME OF THIS LIFE AT A BOWLING ALLEY
• THE DRIFT OF ALL THIS WAS…
• …WHEREAS AMERICAANS WILL SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS
• A MAN GRIMACES AFTER A POOR SHOT AND MUTTERS TO HIS PARTNER
• IN THE GLOVEBOX OF HIS CAR
• … THAT LETS YOU GET OUT THERE
• ANOTHER MORE RAKISHLY ASKS,…
• THE IDEA IS THAT YOU READ THE ADVERT, THEN BADGET YOUR DOCTOR…

  

                                                                         DRUG CULTURE

He lives in US and he miss coming in from the pub about midnight in a blurry frame of mind and watching Open University on TV.

Now he would not find the same on TV.   He is not sure, but he would find a guy wearing an old-fashioned clothes and who is talking about something he had no idea.    Except once, he saw an unexpected diverting documentary.   The gist of the programme was that the same product had to be sold in entirely different ways in the two markets:  England

(cold relief) and US (instantaneous relief).

The drift of all this was that the British do not expect over-the-counter drugs to change their lives. 

  To conclude, he said that Americans expect to feel more or less perfect all the time. 

 Americans spends a lot on medicines of all types, but the really amazing change lately is that now even prescription drugs are advertised.

The idea with the adverts is that you read and then ask your doctor to prescribe it for you.

So readers are deciding what medications are best for them.   So it seems that Americans know a great deal about drugs.

He does not agree whether this obsession with health i worth it, but he thinks is better to achieve harmony drinking six pints of beer and watching Open University.

000007   MAIL CALL

•  
• …GRAND BUT NOT FLASHY,…
• THE COUNTER STAFF ARE ALWAYS BRISKLY EFFICIENT AND PLEASED TO GIVE…
• THE EMPLOYEES HAD HUNG UP BANNERS, PUT OUT A LONG TABLE WITH A NICE CHECKERED CLOTH…
• … WHO SPED THEIR DAYS MANGLING LETTERS AND WHIMSICALLY SENDING MY ROYALTY CHEQUES TO…
• I WAS WON OVER UTTERLY
• … THAT AS I STROLLED HOME FROM MY ERRAND, WIPING CRUMBS FROM MY FACE, MY THOUGHTS TOWARDS AMERICAN LIFE IN GENERAL...
• …WELL, AMONG ALL THIS CLUTTER AND DETRITUS WAS A FORLORN AND MANGLED LETTER…
• MAT  és bústia???
• … THAT SOME PUCKISH SOUL HAD ONCE SENT A LETTER ADDRESSED, WITH PLAYFUL AMBIGUITY, TO…
• … TO SUGGEST A NEED FOR CAUTION WITH REGARD TO THE POSTAL SERVICE AND ITS
• SLEUTHING ABILITIES.
• NOW JUST TO GIVE THIS PLAINTIVE TALE A LITTLE HEARTWARMING PERSPECTIVE, LET ME TELL YOU THAT NOT LONG BEFORE I DEPARTED…

                                                                         MAIL CALL

Living in a smal, old-fashioned New England town you have a small, old-fashioned post office.

American post offices deal only with postal matters, not pensions, car tax,…

But here there are never any queues and you go quick.

Once a year every American post office has a Customer Appreciation Day, when the employees give pastries freely to customers.

He appreciates this gesture and he see the postal employees like highly trained individuals.

One day he received a letter which he had sent to a fiend in California forty-one days ago.

It indicated Insufficient Address.

He could not believe it because he had recently read an article in a magazine explaining that postal authorities in American had worked out that a letter had to be read different in order to find its receiver; in that case it was a letter with a poor and careless address  written on it.

He point out an example that before leaving Englanc, the Royal Mail had brought him, within 48 hours of its posting in London, a letter.

He complains that  the service won't help him out when he cannot remember a street name (that was what was left in his returned letter).

When you move form one country to anothers you have to accept that there are some things that are better and some things that are worse.

But he thinks about the day of the pastries and he feels happy because  a part from all what have happened he did get a free doughnut, so on balance he guesses he is happy.

what have happened he did get a free doughnut, so on balance he guesses he is happy.

DATA shows_Bless you- hail doctors- 2016 a blurred picture

Item #1  -The Guardian

Figures show extent of NHS reliance on foreign nationalsnews--  Thinktank warns stricter immigration rules could hit service after stats show 11% of all staff and 26% of doctors are non-British

• in emergency care, haematology and old-age psychiatry. Without the support of these doctors many NHS services would struggle to provide effective care to their patients."
• if they were from outside the European Economic Area they had to take additional language tests to ensure that they spoke English to a good standard.

• The data shows:
•  that Romanians outnumber Australians 
•  there are 3 Ghanaians for every 1 New Zealander.
• ...
• ...

    FULL GRAPH   

Tim Finch, from the IPPR thinktank, said the statistics held lessons for immigration policy.  Click here for large version of graphic.   Graphic: Finbarr Sheehy 

While the figures help illustrate the contribution of migrants, they do not paint the whole picture: 

•  as many will have taken British nationality since arriving.
• Nationality statistics of NHS staff have never been published but figures on where doctors qualified are made available by the General Medical Council, which include GPs in its data.
• The HSCIC figures are provisional as of September last year. The nationalities of 136,624 staff were not recorded and, due to use of different staff record systems, data was not available from two NHS trusts.
• ... GPs are not included in the HSCIC figures because they are not employed by the NHS. 

• ..

HEALTH by numbers ...

 a blurred picture
and poor maths wisdom
DATA-FACTS-STATISTICS: 

UK -infoPOSTERS 

•  on Alcohol in the UK- click HERE
•  on SMOKING in the UK- click HERE