Monday

Adverb/Adjective collocations

Why can't you say utterly excited?

Find the answer at BBC Learning English

Then take a quiz on adverb/adjective collocations at ESL Tower. (click on the phrase in the right column then on the phrase in the left column that it completes.)

Surprising Pain Triggers

Look through this slide presentation on the Web MD site to discover some surprising sources of everyday pain.

Do you suffer from pain which may be caused by one or more of these triggers?

Chronic Pain

This is the mission statement of the American Chronic Pain Association. Can you identify any cohesive devices used in the text?

Our Mission

To facilitate peer support and education for individuals with chronic pain and their families so that these individuals may live more fully in spite of their pain.

Visit their site for more information on chronic pain, and other videos such as this one. You can view the transcript and follow along.

Cohesion

Cohesion is the term for the quality of a text such that it appears as a single unit, not as a random sequence of thoughts or sentences. Cohesion is achieved by a number of devices or ties as explained below.
ESL students may have trouble understanding a text that seems to have easy words and concepts because they fail to identify the cohesive ties. Conversely, the teacher may fail to understand the ideas or arguments that the ESL student is trying to express because the student has not yet learned how to tie English sentences together clearly and naturally with the appropriate cohesive devices.

Backward reference

The most common cohesive device in texts is the backward reference to something that has been mentioned before. The technical term for this type of reference is anaphora. Three examples of anaphoric reference are:

Use of a pronoun to refer back to an already-mentioned noun.
Use of the definite article to qualify a noun that has been already been introduced with the indefinite article.
Substitution of an already mentioned noun by a synonym or hyponym.

Here are examples of each:

My sister's on the phone. She says she needs the drill that she lent us.
When I looked out of the window yesterday I saw a man and a woman standing by the gate. The man was wearing a hooded jacket and the woman was carrying a baseball bat.
There was so much delicious food on display, but I'm on a diet so I had to stick to the salad.

Forward reference

Another common cohesive device is forward reference or cataphora. Here are two examples of cataphoric reference:

Perhaps I shouldn't tell you this, but when I was young I had hair down to my waist!
Please send your reply to the following address.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a third cohesive device. This is the omission of words on the assumption that the listener or reader will be able to supply them mentally. Examples:

The horse (that was) injured in the road accident had to be put down.
I would love to visit New Zealand but I can't afford to. ( .. visit New Zealand.)
I'd rather talk to someone on the phone than send them an email. Wouldn't you? .. rather talk to someone on the phone than send them an email?)

Conjunctives

A final and very important device that makes texts cohesive is the use of conjunctives or adjuncts. These are the words that show how ideas are connected. For example: firstly, secondly, so, however, nevertheless, in conclusion, by contrast, on the other hand, etc.

Read a detailed analysis of the cohesive devices in a short science text. Or look at some extracts from examination questions with problematic cohesion.

Coherence

When sentences, ideas, and details fit together clearly, readers can follow along easily, and the writing is coherent. The ideas tie together smoothly and clearly. To establish the links that readers need, you can use the methods listed here. Note that good writers use a combination of these methods. Do not rely on and overuse any single method – especially transitional words.

Read more about cohesive devices.

Adverbials

An adverb is a single word and adverbs are a word class like nouns and adjectives.
An adverbial is a clause element like subjects and objects.
An adverbial may be an adverb or it may be something else.
An adverb can also form part of an adverb phrase or an adjective phrase.

Stress Management

You have a lot more control than you might think. In fact, the simple realization that you’re in control of your life is the foundation of stress management. Read more at helpguide.org

Then visit Life Care Foundation for some tips and techniques to manage stress.

Stress Test

Take a test to measure your stress level.at lessons4living.com

Suffixes

Suffixes are groups of letters attached to the ends of roots, words, and word groups. Suffixes serve a grammatical function.
A suffix can indicate what part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) to which the word belongs.
Suffixes can also modify and extend meaning.
The following suffixes are grouped beneath the grammatical function they perform.

After looking through the list try this quiz at a4esl.org

Dance Me to the End of Love

Leonard Cohen - Dance me to the end of love
Dance clip: Danny Lerer , Bamaly Pando

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

In an interview, Cohen said of the song:

“

'Dance Me to the End Of Love' ... it's curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that's why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, "Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin," meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it's not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.

The Dance of Life

The Dance of Life is a painting by Edvard Munch, 1900.

It is also a book written by Havelock Ellis in 1923.


...it is necessary to insist upon life as a dance. This is not a mere metaphor. 

The dance is the rule of number and of rhythm and of measure and of order, of the controlling influence of form, of the subordination of the parts to the whole.
That is what a dance is. And these same properties also make up the classic 
spirit, not only in life, but, still more clearly and definitely, in the universe itself. We are strictly correct when we regard not only life but the universe as a dance. For the universe is made up of a certain number of elements, less than a hundred, and the "periodic law" of these elements is metrical. They are ranged, that is to say, not haphazard, not in groups, but by number, and those of like
quality appear at fixed and regular intervals.  Thus our world is, even 
fundamentally, a dance, a single metrical stanza in a poem which will be for ever hidden from us, except in so far as the philosophers, who are to-day even here 
applying the methods of mathematics, may believe that they have imparted to it 
the character of objective knowledge.

José Navas's inspiring trek to stardom

José Navas left his home in Caracas, Venezuela in 1988 with a one-way plane ticket to New York City and $200 in cash. Now, almost a quarter-century later, the Montreal-based Navas has developed a reputation as one of Canada’s most-loved dancers.

Read the entire news story about José Navas. How do you feel about his success? How does his story fit in with January's theme of Tolerance?

Safe Use of Dietary Supplements

Older man reading the label on a pill bottle.

While there is a great deal of evidence to indicate that dietary supplements help in preventing and treating states of nutrient deficiency, there is much less evidence about their usefulness in preventing or treating other diseases. Natural products such as herbal medicines or botanicals are often sold as dietary supplements and are readily available to consumers; however, there is a lot we don't know about the safety of many of these products, in part because a manufacturer does not have to prove the safety and effectiveness of a dietary supplement before it is available to the public.

Two of the main safety concerns for dietary supplements are

The possibilities of drug interactions—for example, research has shown that St. John's wort interacts with drugs such as antidepressants in ways that can interfere with their intended effects
The possibilities of product contamination—supplements have been found to contain hidden prescription drugs or other compounds, particularly in dietary supplements marketed for weight loss, sexual health including erectile dysfunction, and athletic performance or body-building.

Meditation

Meditation techniques include specific postures, focused attention, or an open attitude toward distractions. People use meditation to increase calmness and relaxation, improve psychological balance, cope with illness, or enhance overall health and well-being.

"Meditation" [1 min 37 sec]

Click to watch this video
Transcript, Video help

Acupuncture

One of the oldest forms of so-called alternative or complementary medicine is the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture, now claimed by many to be a science. Michael Shermer goes in search of what is behind acupuncture through interviews and getting himself poked!

Guide to Aromatherapy

Sunday

7 Tips from The Mentalist

My favourite new TV-show is The Mentalist. One of my favourite little interests over the last year or so has been to try to figure out why some people stand out, why they are charismatic.

Now, if you have seen the Mentalist – a show about a former fake psychic who’s really good at reading people and helps the police out with solving a weekly murder case – then you have probably seen how charismatic Simon Baker is in the lead role.

And even if you haven’t, this article just draws some inspiration that show. Many of these qualities are those one may find in many other people that are often considered charismatic like George Clooney, Bill Clinton or just some friend you might have.

Also, I think being charismatic is about being a better you and bringing out more of yourself with less self-censoring. So these are just some general things many charismatic people seem to have been in common. There are many variations to being charismatic.

Read more...

5 Attributes of Charisma

A combination of modern science with ancient wisdom is making major insights into charisma possible. By drawing upon scientific principles, psychology and extensive research-based studies and combining these with esoteric philosophies, you’ll discover there is an internal blueprint for charisma. Read more...

Charismatic People

Love them or hate them, you have to face it: they are charismatic and they leave no one indifferent. This is not a comprehensive list, just a sample to give you an idea of charismatic persons.

Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"

Rolling Stone Magazine released a list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in November 2004. It represents an eclectic mix of music spanning the past 50 years, and contains a wide variety of artists sharing the spotlight, including Bobby Darin, Madonna, Patsy Cline and OutKast. The Rolling Stone 500 was compiled by 172 voters comprised of rock artists and well-known rock music experts, who submitted ranked lists of their favorite 50 rock&roll/pop music songs. The songs were then tallied to create the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Topping the list is Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone. The rest of the top ten is made-up of other legendary and influential rock icons and bands. The Rolling Stones grab the #2 position, followed by John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, the Beatles, Nirvana, and Ray Charles. List favorites include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, who appear a combined total of 49 times, making-up almost 10% of the list.

Check out these links to find the lyrics to your favorite songs on the list.

Charismatic Musicians

Check out Rankopedia's rating of the top charismatic musicians of all times. Bono comes in at #8. But all of the musicians on the list come from the popular music field.

In an article in the NYT, A Gift From the Musical Gods, Zachary Woolfe writes about charismatic performers in the classical performing arts and tries to define just what charisma is.

Quotes:

It’s no coincidence that these moments depend on physical presence. Charisma operates most strongly on a visual level; it’s telling that when we need another way of describing someone’s possession of it, we say, “You can’t take your eyes off her.”

The problem is that when it comes to the arts, the uses of charisma become harder to pin down. When Bill Clinton is charismatic, you vote for him. When an obscure carpenter’s son in ancient Galilee is charismatic, you join his ministry. But when the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter is charismatic, or Callas or Mr. Amidon, what are you supposed to do? What happens? Is our applause enough?

Read Mr. Woolfe's article as a basis for a discussion of charisma. Compare his definition to those in the self-help articles posted.

He Wasn't There

Discussion questions:
Have you heard the song He Wasn’t There? What is it about? Do you know who Lilly Allen is? What do you know about her? What do you think her childhood was like? Who do you think she’s singing to?

He wasn't there when I needed him
No, he was never around
His reputation was preceding him
And he was out on the town

It didn't matter if he let me down
I didn't care about the lies
But all I knew was that he loved me very much
He was my hero in disguise

I'm so pleased I never gave up on him
Oh, well you wouldn't believe some of the things that he did
And everyone said you have to give him some time
And I'm glad that I gave it to him 'cause now everything's fine
}
Now you see I never thought you'd be
A constant person in my life
And I don't think that you would be
If you'd have stayed with your ex wife

I know you wouldn't but there is no need
No need to apologize
Because I know you'll always love me very much
You are my hero in disguise

I'm so pleased I never gave up on him
Oh, well you wouldn't believe some of the things that he did
And everyone said you have to give him some time
And I'm glad that I gave it to him 'cause now everything's fine

You might have thought you didn't teach me much
But you taught me right from wrong
And it was when you didn't keep in touch
Well, it taught me to be strong

And just in case you ever thought
I would I wouldn't change you for the world
Because I know you'll always love me very much
I'll always be your little girl

I'm so pleased I never gave up on him
Oh, well you wouldn't believe some of the things that he did
And everyone said you have to give him some time

+And I'm glad that I gave it to him 'cause now everything's fine

Vacation Memories

Here are some brief vacation memories from Stars -

Then read this article by a woman who is creating childhood vacation memories for her children, just like her husband's memories: Childhood Vacation Memories.

Oprah Talks About Childhood In Milwaukee

Watch this video interview with Oprah talking about her childhood in Milwaukee.

Coca-Cola Childhood Memories

The Coca-Cola company has gathered childhood memories from all over the country which are related to Coca-Cola.

Here are two:

When I was in elementary school in Baton Rouge, LA, there was a department store
called Goudchaux's. While we didn't shop there very often, we went every six weeks
to "cash in" our report cards. Goudchaux's rewarded every "A" with a nickel. Once we got our nickels, we went right to the center of the store in themain aisle and dropped
one into the small red shiny vending machine with the crank handle. (A Coke only cost
one nickel.) Out came the iciest, coldest Coke you've ever tasted. My mama would
walk around and shop until we were done. That was a great incentive for me to earn
those A's. A free Coke -- that was truly a celebration I looked forward to every report
card.

---

When I was very young, my mom used to take me with her when she went to the
beauty parlor. The time was the late 60s, an era when most women visited the
beauty shop on a weekly basis. As I was too young to stay home alone, I had to go
with her. Needless to say, going to the beauty parlor was not my idea of a good
time. It was boring, the magazines weren't to my liking, and the whole place roared
from the din of numerous hair dryers -- those huge bee-hive types you sit under for
an hour at a time. I know mymom could carry on a conversation with the next lady
while they were both under those things, but I could barely hear myself think.
My mom soon learned that the best way to get me to behave was to buy me a Coke
from the vending machine. They came in small and large contour bottles and, being
a kid, I wanted as big of one as I could get (still do). I remember the cold feeling of
the bottle in my hand and the cold Coke caressing my arid throat, which was
parched from the dry, hot air emanating from all those hair dryers. If I was really
good (and my mom's hairdo time-consuming), I might get a second Coke. Man,
heaven.
I remember those days like they were yesterday. And every time I see a 10-ounce
contour bottle, I remember my mom, the beauty parlor and the times we spent
together.

Read more at Coca-Cola Stories.

A Short History of the Blues

The History of Rock site provides a short history of the Blues and links to information on many of the important Blues singers and musicians.

A modern blues musician, Eric Clapton, gives us a fine version of an Otis Rush classic from an abandoned documentary 'Nothin' But The Blues' by Martin Scorsese.

Blues Instruments

See pictures and descriptions of the instruments used in a Blues band on ablueshistory.

Read a more detailed article on the Blues Guitar, including this quote,

No other major musical genre is as tied to one particular instrument as the blues is to the guitar. Although blues music always has been first and foremost a vocal art form, musicians have used the guitar not merely for harmonic or rhythmic accompaniment, but as a way of amplifying and enhancing the spirit of a particular text. Because most blues musicians are self-taught, with little concern about the correct way of playing the instrument, the flexibility of the guitar allows each artist to develop a style based on their own personality and temperament.

Then learn to distinguish the violin from the viola.

Jazz Instruments

If you’re thinking of assembling your own jazz band then here is a list of jazz instruments that you and your future band mates should be able to master in order to create the unique and tantalizing blend of sounds that only jazz music can create.

Types of Musical Instruments

There are many different types of musical instruments, including woodwind instruments, string instruments and electronic instruments. Find out which musical instruments are popularly used in different formats

Types of Musical Instruments -- powered by ehow

Bob Dylan - "Blowing in the Wind"

Bob Dylan, ( /ˈdɪlən/) born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and painter. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan revolutionized perceptions of the limits of popular music in 1965 with the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting.

Read more ...

John Lennon - "Imagine"

John Winston Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Along with fellow Beatle Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. As of 2010, Lennon's solo album sales in the United States exceed 14 million units, and as writer, co-writer or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all-time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Read more ...

Filmed at Tittenhurst Park, Ascot, 1971. Directed by John Lennon & Yoko Ono.

U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums and percussion). U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music. Throughout the group's musical pursuits, they have maintained a sound built on melodic instrumentals, highlighted by The Edge's textural guitar playing and Bono's expressive vocals. Their lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal themes and sociopolitical concerns. U2 have released 12 studio albums and are among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide. They have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band. In 2005, U2 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone ranked U2 at number 22 in its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Throughout their career, as a band and as individuals, they have campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes, including Amnesty International, the ONE/DATA campaigns, Product Red, and The Edge's Music Rising.

Read more ...

Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana's sudden success widely popularized alternative rock as a whole, and as the band's frontman Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a generation", with Nirvana being considered the "flagship band" of Generation X. Nirvana's brief run ended following the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, but various posthumous releases have been issued since, overseen by Novoselic, Grohl, and Cobain's widow Courtney Love. Since its debut, the band has sold over 25 million albums in the United States alone, and over 50 million worldwide.

Read more ...

Saturday

Body Image and Diet

Your body image is how you think and feel about your body. Body image involves your perception, imagination and emotions. It does not necessarily reflect what you see in the mirror or what other people see. Poor body image is often linked to dieting or eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating and to other mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. Many people try a lot of different diets that do not work. Some people diet because they have a poor body image, rather than because they want to be a healthy weight. While it’s important to maintain healthy eating behaviours, constant dieting can lead to physical illness and depression, especially if your weight goes up and down after dieting.
Read more at Betterhealth

How Good is Your Body Image?

The Body Shop once famously ran an advertising campaign which said that there were only seven (8) people in the world that actually looked like supermodels. And that the average size for women in this country was 14. We know this, yet we all, both men and women alike, strive to look younger and more attractive. The source of these unrealistic feelings is obvious: the TV and the media have for so long bombarded us with images of good looking, perfectly honed, young people, that, now, we all feel a pressure to fit in to look the same.

What is clear is that none of us are able to live up to these expectations. The result of this is that many of us end up with a distorted body perception, ie we do not see ourselves how others see us. For some, this can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and compulsive eating - conditions which are dramatically increasing in society and which require serious attention.

To see what your body image is like, take our test compiled by Deanne Jade, Principal of The National Centre of Eating Disorders.

from netdoctor.co.uk

And now, please, look through the materials from the original Body Shop campaign.

#1 Best Diet Recommendation

from the American Council on Exercise - for health professionals

By MICHELLE ZIVE

What advice do you give your clients who want to lose weight? What do you think is the most important lifestyle change a person can make? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below or join the conversation on the American Council on Exercise page on Facebook. I’m going to tell you something you already know. Diets don’t work. Most people can lose weight by restricting calories, but they can’t keep it off (Aphramor, 2010). And yet just about everybody is searching for that elusive magic —usually a restricted diet with specific foods to avoid—that will enable them to permanently (and easily) shed their excess pounds (Bacon and Aphramor, 2011).

Of course, permanent and lasting weight loss can’t be found in a formula—but believe it or not, this is actually good news for you and your clients. While only a registered dietitian can prescribe a diet, including a weight-loss diet, you can offer your clients something much more valuable—you can help them create a successful lifestyle-based weight-loss plan. With the proper tools—knowledge, skills and motivation—you can help your clients create healthy habits and ultimately, healthier lifestyles that include maintaining a healthy weight.

Read more ...

Good Food, Good Cognition

What's the Latest Development?

A new study links good nutrition with good cognitive performance, presenting exciting new evidence that cognitive decline could be slowed in old age by simply altering one's diet. By looking at biomarkers in the blood of the study's 104 participants, researchers sought an objective measure of health before beginning cognitive tests. "People who had higher levels of B family vitamins, as well as vitamins C, D, and E had higher scores on cognitive tests than people with lower levels," reported researchers.

What's the Big Idea?

Obviously there are other determiners of cognitive function than nutrition. What's unique about this study is that scientists were able to determine how large a role nutrition plays in thinking and memory: "They found that nutrient biomarkers accounted for 17 percent of the variation in the tests of thinking and memory function. Other variables, like age, education, and having high blood pressure accounted for more: 46 percent. But for brain volume, the role of nutrition was larger, accounting for 37 percent of the variation.

A Celebrity Tattoo

See more celebrity tattoos at stylebistro.

How Tatoos Work

Not too long ago, most Americans associated tattoos with sailors, bikers and sideshow artists. But tattoos have become more popular in recent years, and the people who get them are as diverse as the styles and designs they choose. And some people who would never think of tattooing pictures or symbols onto their bodies use permanent makeup -- a type of tattoo -- to emphasize their eyes and lips.

In this article from howstuffworks, we'll look at how the tattoo process works and examine the safety and legal issues surrounding it.

Inside this Article

Tattoos - Did You Know?

During the Roman Empire, Roman soldiers were required by law to have identifying tattoos on their hands in order to make it difficult to hide if they deserted.

Some Christian groups, such as the Knights of St. John of Malta, sported tattoos to show their allegiance.

In Japan, tattoos are strongly associated with organized crime organizations known as the yakuza.

Tattooing was also used by the Nazi regime in Nazi concentration camps to tag prisoners.

Sunni Muslims believe tattooing is forbidden and a sin because it involves changing the creation of God and because the Prophet cursed the one who does tattoos and the one for whom that is done.

Find these and more facts about tattoos on wikipedia

Causative Passive

Remember:

The causative in the passive voice has two structures:

For GET and HAVE: usually used with professional services.

I went to the bank to have my check cashed.
I got my car washed and the oil changed.

GET/HAVE plus SOMETHING plus PAST PARTICIPLE (by someone)

Usually, we know who is doing the professional service so the BY SOMEONE is not required.

MAKE in the passive works the same as the usual passive for other verbs:

I was made to clean my room when I was a child.

I was told to clean my room ...

Notice that in the passive with make, an infinitive with to follows:

Now try an exercise to see how well you understand

How to Get Over Status Anxiety

Your reference group may determine whom you will envy, but you can determine your reference group. If you're sick of being the poorest person on the block, pick up and move to a more modest neighborhood, says economist Robert H. Frank. While we can't altogether suppress status awareness, we can largely control whom we will inevitably compare ourselves to; we have great latitude in our choice of friends, neighbors and coworkers.

Finding the right pond is often a process of trial and error, says graduate student and researcher Sarah Hill. If you do well in a particular realm, and thus gain status, positive reinforcement propels you to stick with that domain. "If a woman is really good at jumping show horses and it provides her praise and even gets her access to a different mating pool, she's going to compete in that arena," Hill says. Yes, she will feel envious of rivals, but the feeling will motivate her to become better at a sport that defines her, and her self-esteem will grow accordingly.

People Like Us

Class
As in "middle class," "working class," "upper class."
Class can be harder to spot than racial or ethnic differences, yet in many ways it's the most important predictor of what kind of financial and educational opportunities someone will have in life.

It's the 800-pound gorilla in American life that most Americans don't think about: how do income, family background, education, attitudes, aspirations, and even appearance mark someone as a member of a particular social class?

Welcome to the " People like Us " Web site. It's a companion to the PBS documentary special — a place to learn how social class works in America and to test your own preconceptions about who belongs where on the social scale.

Play the games, read the stories, watch the video - then tell us what you think of class in America - where would you fit in?

Keeping up with the Jonses

A status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols. Status symbols also indicate the cultural values of a society. For example, in a commercial society, having money or wealth and things that can be bought by wealth, such as cars, houses, or fine clothing, are considered status symbols. In a society that values honor or bravery, a battle scar would be more of a status symbol. The condition of one's body can be a status symbol. In times past, when workers did physical labor outdoors under the sun and often had little food, being pale and fat was a status symbol, indicating wealth and prosperity (through having enough food and not having to do manual labor). Now that workers usually do less-physical work indoors and find little time for exercise, being tanned and thin is often a status symbol in many cultures.

What is considered a status symbol will differ between countries and states, based on the states of their economic and technological development, and common status symbols will change over time. For example, before the invention of the printing press, having a large collection of books was considered a status symbol. After the advent of the printing press, having books was more common among average citizens, and so the possession of books was less of a status symbol.
Possessions typically perceived as status symbols may include a large house or penthouse condo, a trophy wife, or a luxury vehicle.

"Keeping up with the Joneses" is an idiom in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.

Social status once depended on one's family name; however, the rise of consumerism in the United States gave rise to social mobility. With the increasing availability of goods, people became more inclined to define themselves by what they possessed and the subtle quest for higher status accelerated.
from wikipedia

Friday

Michael Pollen -In Defense of Food

Author and activist Michael Pollan is a passionate advocate for sustainable food. He is the author of best-selling books, The Omnivore's Dilema and In Defense of Food, among others.
In his compelling talk at PopTech, he explores how our industrial food system is keeping us overly dependent on fossil fuels, destroying our environment, and making us sick. Breaking this cycle requires fundamentally changing our relationship to food - and eating more meals together.
Pollan's well known advice is. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Watch this video and discuss it with your classmates.

Diet Debates

Followers of different diets claim that their diet is the best, the healthiest, the most ecologically sound, etc. Two dominate trends these days seem to be vegetarian diets and paleo diets.

Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets (fruits, vegetables, etc.), with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat. There are varieties of the diet as well: an ovo-vegetarian diet includes eggs but not dairy products, a lacto-vegetarian diet includes dairy products but not eggs, and an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet includes both eggs and dairy products. A vegan diet excludes all animal products, including eggs, dairy, and honey.

The modern dietary regimen known as the paleolithic diet (abbreviated paleo diet or paleodiet), also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era. Centered on commonly available modern foods, the "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

These links will give you an idea how the debate goes (two serious and one humorous video):

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Eating Meat Causes Global Warming

...but if you want to eat meat, consider grass fed animals

Vegetarian vs. Meat Eater

The 84th Academy Awards

The official trailer of the 84th Academy Awards®.

Visit the official site of the 84th Academy Awards, or the page of the Academy for up to date Oscars news

Why Do the Oscars Hate Laugh-Out-Loud Comedies?

In an article for The Atlantic, Kenneth Fallon, assistant editor at TheWeek.com and a former producer of The Atlantic's Entertainment channel, argues that funny, well-reviewed films with broad appeal almost never get nominated for Best Picture. Read Fallon's article, and look through the slides of popular funny movies that never got an Oscar nomination, at The Atlantic.

'Hugo:' A Dazzling 3-D Display Of Movie Magic

Read this movie review of Oscar nomminated film, Hugo from npr, then watch the clip from the film below.

by DAVID EDELSTEIN

In Hugo, Martin Scorsese has hired himself a bunch of A-plus-list artists and techies, and together they've crafted a deluxe, gargantuan train-set of a movie in which the director and his 3-D camera can whisk and whizz and zig and zag and show off all his expensive toys — and wax lyrical on the magic of movies.

The source is Brian Selznick's illustrated novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which takes place in 1930 and centers on an orphaned 12-year-old, played in the film by Asa Butterfield, who lives in a flat in the bowels of the Paris station.

Hugo's drunken uncle, until he went missing, had the job of setting the station's clocks, so now the boy, to cover for the disappearance and stay out of the orphanage, does the job in secret, stealing through tunnels, up rickety ladders and over catwalks, careful to avoid Sasha Baron Cohen's stationmaster with his relish for orphan-catching.

For a while, Hugo's only company is a semi-complete automaton, a kind of primitive mechanical man that his late machinist dad (Jude Law, seen in flashback) discovered in a museum storage area. Hugo thinks the automaton holds the key to his future; alas, the key it doesn't hold is the one that would wind it up and set it in motion.

Scorsese, working from a shapely script by John Logan, is hell-bent on bedazzling us. He and production designer Dante Ferretti pack the screen with clocks and gears and cogs and other round objects that also evoke the film canisters that show up later, when pioneer fantasy filmmaker Georges Melies turns up as a character.

The 3-D cinematography by Robert Richardson is calculated to tickle you, most obviously in shots in which the stationmaster's Doberman pinscher sticks its long snout into your face, but more subtly when the train station is layered with booths and passengers at all kinds of levels, and when overhead shots create odd spatial tensions in the frame, obstacles around which bodies invariably hurtle.

Scorsese has studied the best 3-D films, not just Cameron's Avatar but Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder, and, as far as I'm concerned, redeemed this increasingly tiresome form. Cameron has agreed, calling Hugo at a recent screening a "masterpiece."

I liked the film a lot, but am not so ready to use the "m" word. When Melies appears, the movie becomes a plea for Scorsese's film-preservation cause — which I'm 100 percent behind, but which introduces an element of self-consciousness that pulls the narrative off the rails.

Jaap Buitendijk/Paramount Pictures

Abandoned by an alcoholic uncle after the death of his father, Hugo services the train station tower clock by day and sleeps in it by night.

For all the wizardry on display, Hugo often feels like a film about magic instead of, well, a magical film — something Steven Spielberg has made with his 3-D movie Tintin, opening in December. Wonderful insights into Hugo's mind about the overlap between man and machine get a bit upstaged when he expresses them to his new 13-year-old friend, played by Chloe Grace Moretz.

Those two kids, Butterfield and Moretz, have a wonderful transparency, and the cast is a treat. Baron Cohen finds all kinds of bizarre notes with which to express his ardor for a flower-stand owner (Emily Mortimer), among them a rictus grin that suggests Peter Sellers. That hoary genre veteran Christopher Lee — now Sir Christopher — lends majesty to the role of a librarian, and Michael Stuhlbarg is winningly geeky as an early film scholar.

Ben Kingsley as Moritz's godfather, who runs a toy stand, is mysteriously cold and brittle, even cruel — but when all is revealed, we warm up to him.

At its best, in scenes with the automaton and its Mona Lisa smile, and in an explosive runaway-train nightmare, Scorsese is as deft as Spielberg. When he shows us a famous clock-hanging sequence in Harold Lloyd's Safety Last and tries to replicate it, he's trying too hard. The clips from such Melies wonders as A Trip to the Moon show a delirious unreality that's a world away from Hugo's literal-minded wonders.

Pages

Followers