English Listening

A bit of grammar !

Simple Present
Affirmative	She drinks.
Negative	She does not drink.
Interrogative	Does she drink?
Form	I, you we they play | he, she, it plays
Uses	action in the present taking place once, never or several times facts actions taking place one after another action set by a timetable or schedule

Present Progressive
Affirmative	He is reading.
Negative	He is not reading.
Interrogative	Is he reading?
Form	To be (in the simple present) + verb + ing
Uses	action taking place at the moment of speaking action arranged for the future

Simple Past
Affirmative	I cried.
Negative	I did not cry
Interrogative	Did I cry?
Form	Regular verbs: Verb + ed | Irregular verbs: forms differ and should be learned by heart. This is a list of irregular verbs
Uses	action in the past taking place once, never or several times actions taking place one after another

Past Progressive
Affirmative	He was driving.
Negative	He was not driving.
Interrogative	Was he driving?
Form	to be (in the simple past) + verb + ing
Uses	action going on at a certain time in the past actions taking place at the same time action in the past that is interrupted by another action

Present Perfect Simple
Affirmative	They have slept.
Negative	They have not slept.
Interrogative	Have they slept?
Form	Have / has + past participle (past participle of regular verbs: verb + ed | Past participle of irregular verbs: forms differ and should be learned by heart. This is a list of irregular verbs)
Uses	emphasis is on the result (not the duration) action that started in the past & is still going on action that stopped recently finished action that has an influence on the present

Present Perfect Progressive
Affirmative	He has been thinking.
Negative	He has not been thinking.
Interrogative	Has he been thinking?
Form	have or has + been + past participle (past participle of regular verbs: verb + ed | Past participle of irregular verbs: forms differ and should be learned by heart. This is a list of irregular verbs)
Uses	putting emphasis on the course or duration (not the result) action that recently stopped or is still going on finished action that influenced the present

Past Perfect Simple
Affirmative	She had won.
Negative	She had not won.
Interrogative	Had she won?
Form	had + past participle (past participle of regular verbs: verb + ed | Past participle of irregular verbs: forms differ and should be learned by heart. This is a list of irregular verbs)
Uses	action taking place before a certain time in the past sometimes interchangeable with past perfect progressive putting emphasis only on the fact (not the duration)

Past Perfect Progressive
Affirmative	He had been waiting.
Negative	Had he been waiting?
Interrogative	He had not been waiting.
Form	had + been + past participle (past participle of regular verbs: verb + ed | Past participle of irregular verbs: forms differ and should be learned by heart. This is a list of irregular verbs)
Uses	action taking place before a certain time in the past sometimes interchangeable with past perfect simple putting emphasis on the duration or course of an action

Future Simple
Affirmative	You will win.
Negative	You will not win.
Interrogative	Will you win?
Form	will + verb
Uses	action in the future that cannot be influenced spontaneous decision assumption with regard to the future

Near Future (going to)
Affirmative	He is going to watch TV.
Negative	He is not going to watch TV.
Interrogative	Is he going to watch TV?
Form	to be (in the simple present) + going + to + verb
Uses	decision made for the future conclusion with regard to the future

Future  Progressive
Affirmative	She will be listening to music.
Negative	She will not be listening to music.
Interrogative	Will she be listening to music?
Form	will + be + verb + ing
Uses	action that is going on at a certain time in the future action that is sure to happen in the near future

Future Perfect
Affirmative	He will have spoken.
Negative	He will not have spoken.
Interrogative	Will he have spoken?
Form	will + have + past participle (past participle of regular verbs: verb + ed | Past participle of irregular verbs: forms differ and should be learned by heart. This is a list of irregular verbs)
Uses	action that will be finished at a certain time in the future

Future Perfect Progressive
Affirmative	You will have been studying.
Negative	You will not have been studying.
Interrogative	Will you have been studying?
Form	will + have + been + verb + ing
Uses	action taking place before a certain time in the future putting emphasis on the course of an action

London 2012 festival success signals new era for culture

 

A scene from Piccadilly Circus Circus in central London.

A new era of arts collaborations and partnerships was signalled today as the London 2012 festival came to a close and released figures that showed 19.5m people took part.
The 12-week festival was the biggest of its kind in the UK, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad which traditionally runs alongside the sporting Olympics.
Chief executive of the Royal Opera House and Cultural Olympiad chairman, Tony Hall, said festival organisers had set out to make the festival better than any country before: "We said that with a slight trepidation, but I think what we have delivered right across the UK is absolutely that – we have done it better than anybody else before. We have had an extraordinary summer of arts and culture on a scale that has never ever been done before by any nation at the time of the Olympics."
The number of artistic collaborations and partnerships has been unprecedented and Hall said he hoped it would change the way arts organisations work. "If I think about our collaboration with the National Gallery [a Titian/Royal Ballet project], I think 'why have we not done this before?' I hope that now people have done things together that those links and contacts will continue. We have all learnt so much this summer."
Hall said the festival had made it easier for people to work on projects in the future. The festival director, Ruth Mackenzie, pointed to the example of Piccadilly Circus – which was turned into an actual circus for a day – which had never been closed for an event since VE Day. "I'm prepared to bet we're not going to have to wait as long before we can see an event of that scale and artistic ambition again," she said.
After the final weekend of festival events, including choreographer Michael Clark at Barrowlands, figures were released that showed 19.5m people took part in the festival. That figure included 16.5m taking part in free events and 2.9m ringing bells as part of Martin Creed's All the Bells artwork.
The Cultural Olympiad board will stay on for another year to work on the festival's legacy and whether such an event can become a regular fixture in the arts calendar, while Mackenzie and her team will depart over the coming months.
The cultural baton was handed on to Derry, next year's UK city of culture.

Self-assured Obama recovers with better balance of style and substance

Mitt Romney puts up a fight against a more decisive opponent but can't overcome the president's sharp delivery

Obama won the best lines of the night as Romney came off overly aggressive in an attempt to maintain his lead.

Barack Obama had one thing going for him coming into this debate: he couldn't be any worse than the last time. Mitt Romney had one drawback: he apparently couldn't be any better.
As it turned out Obama was much better. Clearer, sharper, more decisive and passionate, he challenged Mitt Romney on the facts and rhetorically he overwhelmed him. It was a rout every bit as conclusive as the first debate. Only this time the victor was Obama. Last time he barely showed up; tonight he showed Romney up.
Self-assured without being too cocky, focused without being too wonkish, he managed to strike the right balance between being firm with Romney and empathetic with the questioners. There was little of substance that he said that was different; but there was a great deal of difference in the way that he said it.
To him were gifted the best lines of the night. When taking on his Republican challenger over his shift from supporting a ban on assault weapons as governor of Massachusetts to opposing them as a presidential candidate, he said: "He was for an assault weapons ban before he was against it."
When Romney pushed him on investments in his pension funds Obama, asking if he'd seen his pension recently, Obama responded: "I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long."
When Romney was corrected by the moderator, Candy Crowley, after suggesting that Obama did not call the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi a "terrorist attack" Obama shouted with a smile: "Say it louder, Candy."
Romney did put up a fight. Approaching the debate with the same style as he did in Denver he brought his best self. Probably his best line came in an answer about why, given the hard times of Obama's first term, he should be trusted with a second. "We just can't afford another four years like the last four years," said Romney.
It is difficult to equate the stiff and impersonal figure of the conventions with the man who showed up tonight. But it simply wasn't enough. Indeed, if anything it was too much. For in his effort to reassert the control he enjoyed during the first debate he overreached.
Where he once appeared animated he now came off as aggressive. His interruptions looked desperate and his interjections were shrill. In the two weeks since his triumph in Denver he went from persuasive to petulant.
The other loser tonight was US politics. Two men circling, talking over each other, drawing on different facts and calling each other liars looked like a metaphor for much that has gone wrong in American political culture over the last generation. Town hall meetings are supposed to be less confrontational. But more caustic than consensual, this was a bad-tempered affair.
Obama's performance will energise his base and shore up the doubts of those shaken by his earlier drubbing. It will staunch the bleeding of support towards Romney but it is unlikely to reverse the flow.
They called it a town-hall meeting. But in truth there are very few towns like it. It was a room full of undecided voters: the nation is not

Is boredom bad for your health?

 

Boredom can unlock creativity in some, but can be corrosive for others.

 

What were you doing before you started reading this? Were you fully focused on another article? Or doing the crossword? Eating breakfast? Organising your day? Or were you staring out of the window, feeling restless and bored?
It is more likely to have been the latter. Fleeting moments of boredom are universal, and are often what drives us to stop what we are doing and shift to something that we hope will be more stimulating.
But although boredom is common, it is neither trivial nor benign, according to Dr John Eastwood, a psychologist at York University, Toronto. Eastwood is the joint author of The Unengaged Mind, a major new paper on the theory of boredom.
Boredom, he points out, has been associated with increased drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, depression and anxiety, and an increased risk of making mistakes. Mistakes at work might not be a matter of life and death for most of us, but if you are an air traffic controller, pilot or nuclear power plant operator, they most certainly can be.
Commercial pilot Sami Franks (not his real name) confirms that boredom can make pilots lose attention. "When you fly long haul, there are two pilots, one of whom is monitoring all the screens while the other does the paperwork, talks to air traffic control and so on. You need to be alert for landing and takeoff, but once you're 500ft above the runway, the plane's on autopilot and it can be very quiet and boring.
"In a study I saw of co-pilots who woke up after a nap, 30% reported seeing the other pilot asleep too," adds Franks, in a comment that will not play well with nervous flyers.
The stakes are not usually so high, but boredom can be protracted, heavy and associated with an unpleasant sensation, according to Eastwood. And despite having attracted the attention of philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists and educationalists, there is no precise definition of boredom and no consensus as to how we counter it. The report says boredom is most often conceptualised as "the aversive experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity."
"All instances of boredom involve a failure of attention," says Eastwood. "And attention is what you are using now to blot out the plethora of stimuli around you while you focus awareness on a given topic."
There are three functions involved in attention. We have to be suitably aroused, so as not to fall asleep on the job. Then we have an orienting system that can cut in so that if you cross the road, deep in thought, you will still respond to a flickering light on the edge of your visual field that heralds a fast-approaching car. And the third type of attention is an executive system that oversees our mental activities, so we can consciously stay engaged even if the task is not very interesting. Boredom results when any of these functions breaks down.
Dr Esther Priyadharshini, a senior lecturer in education at the University of East Anglia, has studied boredom and says it can be seen in a positive light. "We can't avoid boredom – it's an inevitable human emotion. We have to accept it as legitimate and find ways it can be harnessed. We all need downtime, away from the constant bombardment of stimulation. There's no need to be in a frenzy of activity at all times," she says.
Children who complain that they have nothing to do on rainy half-term breaks may find other things to focus on if left to their own devices. The artist Grayson Perry has reportedly spoken of how long periods of boredom in childhood may have enhanced his creativity. "We all need vacant time to mull things over," says Priyadharshini.
But if boredom can enhance our creativity and be a signal for change, why is it such a corrosive problem for some individuals?
People who have suffered extreme trauma are more likely to report boredom than those who have had a less eventful time. The theory is that they shut down emotionally and find it harder to work out what they need. They may be left with free-floating desire, without knowing what to pin it on. This lack of emotional awareness is known as alexithymia and can affect anyone.
Frustrated dreamers who haven't realised their goals can expend all their emotional energy on hating themselves or the world, and find they have no attention left for anything else. Bungee jumpers and thrill-seekers may also be particularly susceptible to boredom, as they feel the world isn't moving fast enough for them. They constantly need to top up their high levels of arousal and are always searching for stimulation from their environment.
"Boredom isn't a nice feeling, so we have an urge to eradicate it and cope with it in a counterproductive way," says Eastwood. This may be what drives people to destructive behaviours such as gambling, overeating, alcohol and drug abuse, he says, though research is needed to tease out whether there's a direct causal link.
"The problem is we've become passive recipients of stimulation," says Eastwood. "We say, 'I'm bored, so I'll put on the TV or go to a loud movie.' But boredom is like quicksand: the more we thrash around, the quicker we'll sink."

Why I became a teacher: because I know education changes people's lives

 

Keen to change career, Sandra Reston pursued teaching and discovered a passion for teaching people who had lost faith in education.

I had an horrendous time at school. I deliberately failed my entrance exam at grammar school so I could go to the local comprehensive with my friends. I started off in A stream and ended up in D stream. I was completely disengaged. Everything was too slow, I was bored. I didn't think I was clever and I was told I was stupid. My strongest memory is being caned on my last day at school and being told I would never make anything of myself.
That level of low self-esteem stayed with me for many years. I didn't leave home until I got married and then I ran my own fashion and travel businesses, but I still felt stupid.
I decided to do my A-levels at night school when I in my 20s. It was like Educating Rita really: my husband was totally unsupportive. When my sociology lecturer said I should apply to Durham University my husband made me feel that was completely impractical and basically impossible. So it wasn't until we got divorced that I thought this is the time for me and I did an Open University degree in humanities.
My first year was a star burst. I loved it so much, I couldn't believe what I was learning. The final 18 months of the degree were more difficult because I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It became very complicated fitting in the chemotherapy but I didn't want to stop because I thought I was going to die. I knew I just couldn't die without completing my degree so I struggled on. The treatment worked, I survived and went straight on to do an MA.
At the time, I felt my MA was more valuable than a PGCE but in hindsight I probably should have done one. I knew I wanted to pass on my love of learning and my love of literature. But conventional routes to teaching didn't work for me.
I did some supply teaching in schools but realised I felt more engaged with adults and young people who needed a second chance. I could make more of an impact on them and this was the way teaching career went.
I started working at Wetherby Young Offenders Institution and then went on to Full Sutton High Security Prison. At Wetherby Young Offenders I was teaching 13 to 19 year olds. I was there to teach them humanities but if you can imagine all these kids who are off the wall and use the f word as punctuation, you can understand why what I ended up teaching was life skills. I also spent a lot of time teaching young offenders and adult prisoners how to read and write. Many of my students couldn't read but you can actually learn to read at any age. At Full Sutton the dyslexia rate was 62%. Most of my students were from very fractured backgrounds, some had been homeless or had lived in hostels. Prisons have an incredibly eclectic mix of people and for many of the prisoners on long stretches education was just something to pass the time and relieve the monotony. But some ended up doing degrees with the OU. I taught in prisons for four years, just on an hourly rate so I also worked as a private tutor with individual students mostly in English and sociology and was also an examiner. So it was quite a variety.
When I got my job teaching at Leeds City College I was over the moon. I walked in the first day to a real classroom with real students. It was enormous for me. There's not a day when I don't go into work and think how much I love what I do. For me teaching is theatre. I'm in charge, people are learning from what I know.
My students didn't get their qualifications at school for whatever reason or never really went to school at all, so I can relate to them. Many are very bright. One of our star students last year go 4 A*s and one A in his GCSEs yet he'd failed all his exams at school.
Many of our students have very difficult home lives and have to be really determined to come to college. We have 16 year-old students who are carers, mums who want to get some qualifications and missed out the first time, students who have been disrupted all their lives with enormous personal problems to face alongside trying to get an education. Everyone has their story or a challenge to face and they've decided to get some qualifications. They know it will change their lives and it will also change how they think.
Here at college they have tutors who are great role models. All of us in our team have come into teaching through a number of ways, none of them conventional. We all have real life experiences. We understand what it's like to have to work evenings or be up against flack of someone trying to demoralise you. When you've lived at the financial edge yourself I guess it makes you have different approach – I know you anything is possible rather than thinking nothing is possible.
I think my pupils would say I was tough and demanding but they know they will get results. Our attendance for our access course is 96% which is phenomenal.
I feel so proud of my students. I love them - I just think they're great! They come in with their books, they've done their homework - often for the first time in their lives. When it's results day I'm like a mother hen clucking over her chicks. When my students see what they have achieved it's an amazing moment. They can believe in themselves.
I think it's vital that FE colleges give people a second chance. FE is very different to school. If you walk down the corridor you don't know who is a teacher and who is a pupil as obviously there's no school uniform. It's all first names, there are different relationships. We provide high levels of pastoral support. We are strict, we don't allow lateness, if you miss a session I'll know about it. But being at college is not compulsory.
I'm a huge believer in life long learning. I did my degree because I loved it and at the moment I'm planning taking some short literature courses at Oxford University. I think, in fact I know, education changes lives.
Sandra Reston is curriculum manager at Leeds City College where she manages the ACCESS programme, BTEC science and the Step Up programme.

Thanks to Sandra for sharing her poetry lessons resource, which she developed for her access students at Leeds City College. Sandra has found the resource helps students overcome their fear of poetry, particularly of it being 'high culture' and not for them.