Home tasks

After-reading task

Task 8.4 The odd one out. Exclude each word in turn. Be ready to provide a reason for exclusion.

 

 

Home tasks

After-reading task

Task 3.4 Old Ernie calls you and says he is very, very disappointed, because his business was spoiled after your book was published. His place became less popular. He thinks it is your fault. Your task is to convince him that this text is not meant to be anti-advertisement of his place. By means of what will you prove it?

 

Letter to Old Ernie

 

    Hello, Ernie.
    I think that you are completely wrong about my novel. I suppose, it is quite impossible to think, that my book is anti-advertising. I haven’t written it with purpose to make your place less popular; don’t you think it would be crazy if I’d had that as a point of my novel? To tell the truth, the fact, that your club is mentioned in a book is a great ad; many places become popular after some scandal or suspicious talks about them.
In our case we don’t have real scandal, but narrator in this novel have negative attitude to things that happens in your place. However, negative attitude can have not only anti-advertising effect; quite the reverse, it can make your place even popular. I think people are going to check this fact personally; they can’t take word for that is truth. If your place in reality is better, you can’t lose clients that easy.
    I presume also, people understand, that it’s just an opinion of one single person, imaginary person. People who read my novel could disagree with my narrator. It’s fine to have any opinion you want about any fact, isn’t it? And you can’t accuse every negative opinion for anti-advertising; moreover I’m not your opponent in business.
    Perhaps, you think, that now there is lower number of people in your club, because people don’t want to be “morons” and “bastards” as my narrator say. Of course, one could recognize himself in the descriptions and won’t go in your club anymore, but it means that what my narrator says actually is truth. Also that means you won’t have problems with some idiots anymore. So only stupid people are gone; the problem of intelligence of your visitors is more important than problem of quantity, isn’t it?
    I think I have answered your question.

J.D. Salinger

Home tasks

To learn five new words.

 

Vocabulary

It Kills Me by J.D. Salinger

Home tasks

13.05.2008

To make a bank of sentences which include words "less" and "fewer". Define a rule. 

 

B A N K

    Rule: you say "fewer" when you can count objects, or measure it somehow. You say "less" when you can't measure objects or you don't have exact quantity in the context. Also it's better to use "less" when you compare something with a specific number.

Home tasks

Make a list of parameters concerning which teachers can evaluate students. Make a gradation.

 

 

 

 

Parameter “Interest to the lesson”

  1. Subparameter: “Activeness” 

    Values:

• “hyperactive”
• “pretty active”
• “not so active”
• “not active”

  2. Subparameter: “Position to the lesson”

    Values:

• “enjoys a lesson”
• “doesn’t care about lesson”
• “dislike lesson”

 

Parameter “Smartness”

  1. Subparameter: “Marks” 

    Values:

• “good marks (7-10)”
• “not good marks”

  2. Subparameter: “Erudition”

    Values:

• “knows a lot in different topics”
• “knows many in a couple of topics”
• “knows not much apart from scholar program”
• “knows not much even from scholar program”

  3. Subparameter: “Way of thinking”

    Values:

• “innovative, rational, creative, powerful”
• “fast, productive”
• “productive”
• “no”

 

Parameter “Behaviour”

  1. Subparameter: “Skill of sitting still”

    Values:

• “exists”
• “not exists”

  2. Subparameter: “Attention to the work”

    Values:

• “is very attentive to any work”
• “is attentive only to the works which he doesn’t dislike”
• “is rarely attentive to any works”

 

Parameter “Character”

  Values:

• “calm, good mood”
• “normal”
• “nervous, unpredictable, bad mood”

 

Parameter “Look”

  Values: 

• “good”
• “bad”

 

Home tasks

Write about interests your classmates relativelly to films.

 

Person 1

    This one likes movies more willingly with figuring of Johnny Depp there. He’s a big fan also of Bruce Lee. I think that “Pirates of the Caribbean” could be his favorite movie. He also enjoys serials like “Prison break”. 

Person 2

    This person likes all films by Hitchcock. As for the other films, this person would rather watch unpopular films that have some artistic worth. This one watches movies a lot and knows also about actors and directors pretty much.

Person 3

    Personality number three prefers pop-films and finds it very good. It doesn’t matter if it’s Russian or foreign film, in most cases for this person is important that that is new and has plenty of effects, so script plays minor role.

Home tasks

After-reading task

Task 3.2 Write a summary of the article for your internet website in order to advertise the article.

 

Check it out!

 

    Incredible article I found yesterday! The Economist, a popular weekly magazine, published very interesting article about phone of the future. Author tries to guess, how a cell phone will change, how it’s going to look like and will it be even called “a phone”. In the article you will found comments of number of respectable people in telecommunications industry (representatives of such companies like Vodafone, Sony Ericson) and authors of books about development of technologies.

    Article is divided in three parts; in first talk is about possible features that could appear in the phone, already now phone is not just a telephone, it plays movies, music, gets into the internet, allows to make photos etc., in future seems that phone will be even more smarter. Some people believe that the phone will be “a remote control for life”. In future a phone could be used like passport, wallet, keys and many others. There’s also pretty interesting statistic about, how many MB each person hear, read and listen per day. Second part is about, how a phone will look like. Would be found alternatives for the existing now keyboards and small displays. Experts suggest that it wouldn’t be a single device or even there wouldn’t be any device and people could use brainwaves for the connecting to the phone. “Unexpected consequences” called a part three; mobile technologies seem to change social routine. Specialists make predictions that people will be always connected to each other.

    I think that it’s very interesting article. Predictions are always interesting, I think that even if this information is not the exact prediction (in no doubt it isn’t), it’s anyway very interesting to know such things, at least to laugh about these “stupid ideas” in future. 

After "Phone of the future"

Home tasks

To write three arguments with examples for one of rules from this text.

 

    I think that rule four is one of most important because:

        1. The things will be easier to do (after analysis).

    When you spent some time on analysis what you want to have in the end of work, have thought of possible variants how it could be realized, then unintentionally your in-process-of-work potential will be greater, than without doing analysis. 

    For example, you need to make a design of website; you need to make it really good, simple and clear. So, if you will hurry up and decide not to do full brainstorming and start doing template of webpage right away, then the result most likely will be worse. So, for instance, when you start to think about possible navigation on webpage, first idea that crossed your mind was to make drop-down menu in the left side of page, and then after a while you had, let's say, 5 pages with such type of menu when you suddenly realized that you need some more sub-units in your menu and you need to add it again in all your previous done pages and after all it would be nice to make just simple stroke-menu on top of page and so on.

    We see, that if you've spent just a little time on planning and analyzing organization of website, you would spend much less time than doing double work.

        2. Result will be better.

    After analyzing and discarding all bad ideas and having accordingly only best ideas, we can hope that we will have the best result from all we may have.

    For example, when you need to buy products for one day and besides to spend the minimal sum of money, but also it would be nice to buy health-giving food; number of calories comparatively with the norm of the day have to be ok, etc., you need to think of the place where you will go and the products that you going to buy there.

    You can buy some dried crusts and milk for all day and most likely manage in 1.50 Ls or less. But you can also look up in internet for healthy food and see what there is offered as minimal day ration. And then, full of useful information, go to the grocery shop.

       3. It's better to have different possibilities of ways what to do. 

    When you have some alternative ways that your work could be realized, then it will be easier in future to direct process if something will go not how it was planned. But at first you have to plan what to do in such case, when problems can appear. 

    Different problems could appear, when you are going to school with a bus at morning. For example giant traffics, bus can come later than usual, some kind of unhurried bus-driver, crashes, etc. 

    But you can forecast such problems and went out from home earlier.

After text by Edward de Bono

Home tasks

To find a different types of questionnaires (more reliable and not).

 

    I really haven't found anything reliable. Almost all of the questionnaires and tests I’ve found have transparent structure.

    All websites with questionnaires are approximately like these:

          1. http://www.mentalhelp.net/

          2. http://www.queendom.com/tests/index.htm

Again under influence of text by Nick Hornby

Home tasks

To write a paragraph about some quote from this text.

 

"Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence"

 

   If you create something that is required to help people, then the result of your work has to be as understandable as possible. You mustn’t be afraid to seem stupider; so you don’t need to make a fruit of your work purposely more difficult than it can be. Way how object tells about its idea and function have to be clear. Of course you mustn’t think that customer is not too clever as you are. Message of your product must be instantly identified, realization — simple, no obscurity. So, main idea is to make simple form. Not to burden customer with the look of product, but to make understandable its functions.

    For example you need to make a design of website. You have to think about structure, organization of data, think how to place blocks with information correct, and many other things. And only then put this complicated scheme of pages in simple and proper design. On website design is a form that helps people to understand better message and get the information. People just have to feel comfortable on website.

    And the reason why so little number of websites have good design are designers that are afraid to seem stupid. Sure! If you don’t think of some fantastic metaphor for the name of link or don’t choose screaming colors for page or don’t set animating background and put some noisy music definitely you can’t be called designer. That’s the biggest problem, that’s why design is incompetent. Design must be simple. Design must to work.

    So, I can just totally agree with this quote. All problems of incompetence connected with obscurity of product.

After text by Robert Heinlein

Home tasks

27.02.2008

To make a questionnaire.

 

 

 

After text by Nick Hornby