L.A.S.T CLASS of BEL 260 :(

Miss Zu did asked me to present about the future tenses. So, I'm asking help from my group members to do it. Today is the day. We present about future tenses. 

•When expressing future time, we use :      

soon             in the future          tomorrow                  next week                    

next month             next year

There are four types of future tenses :

SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE

RULES :

1)  Used to refer actions or events that will happen in the future.

I’m sure it will rain this afternoon.

2) Used with will to make predictions or refer to events which we think are highly possible in the future.

Manchester United will beat all the other teams to win the FA Cup this year.

(predictions) 

  

3)   Used with “will” to refer to something which we decide to do at the time of speaking.

Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.

 

4) Used with “be going to” for actions which we have already planned to do in the future and events which we think are possible in the future.

Asian share markets are going to perform better at the end of the year because of brighter prospects in the US economy.  

   

FUTURE CONTINUOUS  TENSE

ØA continuous action that will take place at a  

   certain time in future.

Ø How to form:

    subject + will/ shall + be + infinitive + ing

Ø Example:

    The girl will be doing her homework at  

    8.00pm tonight.

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

Rules :

1) Used to refer action or situation which will be completed by a definite time in the future.

Our  train  reached Bangkok by midday tomorrow.

Our train will have reached Bangkok by midday tomorrow.

2) Use already and just to refer to action or situations which will be finished by an approximate time in the future.

By march next year, we already receive the loan for our new house.

By march next year, we will have already received the loan for our new house.

FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS  TENSE

How do we use the Future Perfect Continuous Tense?

    We use the future perfect continuous tense to talk about a long action before some point in the future. Look at these examples :

vI will have been working here for ten years next week.

vHe will be tired when he arrives. He will have been travelling for 24 hours.

How do we make the Future Perfect Continuous Tense ?

subject + auxiliary verb WILL + auxiliary verb HAVE + auxiliary verb BE  + main verb

                       (invariable)                                   (invariable)                          (past participle)     (present participle)

                 will                        have                      been         verb+ing

Examples :

I will have been working for four hours.

We will not have been waiting long.

Will you have been playing football ?

    After that, Miss returns back our mid-term paper and listening test paper. Now I realise that we had been learning BEL 260 with Miss Zu for a semester. 

     

     Thanks for giving us the precious and useful knowledge. Thanks for all the patience, support and advises. Sorry for every single thing. 'Halalkan' all the knowledge Miss Zu.

"Please pray for my success, Miss Zu."

writing test on argumentative essay in group,,

Morning

Early in the morning, we have a test for argumentative essay. We do a test in a group that consists of 5 members. My group members are Baini, Mira, Zakirah, Edlina and me. Each writer is given only 15 minutes to do his or her own paragraph. The essay will be in 5 paragraphs.

i) Introductory paragraph

ii) 3 body paragraphs

iii) Conclusion

The question is about parental negligence is the main causes of social problems. As that is an argumentative essay, we must have a stand whether we agree or not with that issue. My group is totally agreed with this issue. But I don't have the ideas in my mind that morning. I can't think fast. How to write it ??? Actually I'm having a problem when writing an argumentative essay. I'm having a little confusion and didn't understand it fully. So, I think I did my paragraph that is the conclusion part badly. I wanted to say sorry to my group members. 

"Maybe I should practise to write more argumentative essay because it will be in final."

Night

During the night class, we discuss a few questions from the past semester paper given by Miss Zu. But we just go through the question to know what kind of question that might be asked in the final examination. She just gives us a brief explanation about it. We have an express class today because Miss Zu said that she wanted to end the class earlier. After finish discussing the questions, A class takes a few pictures with Miss Zu while our class go back early since the last class will be on Thursday.

Today, we must submit the argumentative essay before the class starts. Then, we learn about tenses.

Present simple

use when we want to say something routine :

-I usually get up at 7 o'clock

-She doesn't often go to the cinema

-What does she do?

-Did she go to the movie?

-Does he have time?

Present Continuous

use to say something happening now

- I am not standing.

- Is he sitting or standing?

- They are reading their books.

- They are not watching television.

- What are you doing?

Past Simple

use to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past

- I saw a movie yesterday.

- I didn't see a play yesterday.

- Last year, I traveled to Japan.

- Last year, I didn't travel to Korea.

- Did you have dinner last night?

Past Continuous

use to indicate that a longer action in the past was interrupted

- When Miss Zu was teaching, someone knocked the door.

- When the phone rang, she was writing a letter.

- While I was writing the email, the computer suddenly went off.

- You were not listening to me when I told you to turn the oven off.

Past Perfect

use to expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past

- I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Kauai.

- I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.

- Tony knew Istanbul so well because he had visited the city several times.

- She only understood the movie because she had read the book.

Present Perfect

use to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now

- I have seen that movie twenty times.

- I think I have met him once before.

- There have been many earthquakes in California.

- People have traveled to the Moon.

- People have not traveled to Mars.

"True failure is dare to fail."

bravo everyone, you guys did a great job ;)

Morning


It is the first time I saw Miss Zu was so happy. All the time she is smiling. She said that all of us did an excellent work. Congratulations to all my classmates. Give a big applause to yourself !

This the complete essay that my group did.

Introductory Paragraph

According to New Straits Times, the latest case was a dead baby girl found floating in a sewage tank behind a girls' college hostel in remote Kelantan two days ago. The decomposed body was found by a group of boys playing nearby. Two more abandoned baby cases were reported that day in Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. This situation can be caused by many factors which surround us. Thus, baby dumping is caused by peer pressure, modern technology and lack of knowledge in individual self. 

Body Paragraph

     Peer pressure is one of the factors that contribute to baby dumping. Drinking, smoking, have sex when a person is not ready and whatever it may be, sometimes others put the pressure on you to participate in something that you might not want to do it. This kind of pressure can cover everything from fashion through sex and dating. It needs to be made aware that peers can prove to have influence on each other. When your friends ask you something that you never do before this, you will make it as a challenge such as having a couple as well as having a sex. As a result, the victim will be pressured to do the baby dumping. Thus, one should not succumb to a peer pressure when it comes to doing the bad thing from the starting.

         

     Another cause of baby dumping in this country is due to modern technology. Nowadays, people have unlimited communication with each other due to the presence of numerous social networking. Examples of social networking are Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger and many more. All of these social networks can bring negative impact to those people who misuse it. The negative impact of social networking is evident in online dating when the couple meets face-to-face for the first time. Commonly their personalities do not match their self-written descriptions. They use the wrong detail of personalities to trap people. After that, he would ask for a blind date after they managed to deceive the victim. It might be the person she would see is a bad person. Therefore, we should not easily believe the person we just know especially through internet.

         Besides, lack of knowledge in individual self also is one of the causes of baby dumping. The knowledge about sexual education has been implemented since in secondary school but some of them are not interested about it. They might be thought that they can manage their life in future. In addition, they are not thinking about negative impact that will occur in the future. For instance, when many young teenagers are doing the baby dumping, they are susceptible to side effects such as illness. Sometimes, most of them do not practise what they have learnt during the religious classes. Instead, they want to satisfy their desire. When a woman is pregnant out of wedlock, then they will take the easiest way that is baby dumping to settle the problem without thinking of religious law. Thus, every person should have general knowledge such as sexual education in order to reduce the growing incidence of abandoned babies.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, peer pressure, modern technology and lack of knowledge in individual self are the causes of baby dumping. Isn’t it clear now that baby dumping is in a critical stage? Isn't it time for the leaders of the world to stop being merely a ‘talking shop’ and actually take effective action to deal with baby dumping? Shouldn’t we, as normal citizens, stand up and be counted as well in dealing with this problem? Or are we just going to wait until baby dumping becomes the norm in our life before we actually do something?   

Before the class dismissed, she gave us another assignment on argumentative essay. I think argumentative essay is like the essay that we have did just now. The difference is just you need to have a stand and the conclusion must included the refutation. It is an individual assignment and must be submitted on Thursday.

Certain television programme are considered to be unsuitable for children. Do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion. 

"This feeling is good."

Night

We learn something new on a reading part. Our topic is Interpreting writers' points of view, attitudes or intentions.

Example :

We have long been aware of the need to involve people for these medical tests.

We have long been aware that people are being used for these abominable tests.

* Both sentences discuss the involvement of people in medical test.

In the first sentence, the writer displays a neutral attitude towards the issue. However, in the second sentence, it is clear that the writer believes that using people in medical tests is cruel or horrible. In other words, he is biased towards the issue. The writer used the words 'used' and 'abominable' to convey this attitude. 

Tone refers to the writer's use of words and writing styles to demonstrate his or her stand towards the issue in a text. Examples of tone words : 

abstruse, absurd, mocking, malicious, evasive, cynical,intense, condescending.

WRITER'S INTENTIONS

Classified into 4 :

- to persuade

- to inform

- to entertain

- to instruct

Answering the questions below will help you in analysing the writer's intention :

• What is the tone of the writer ?
• What are the writer's point of view/beliefs on the issue ?
• Who is the writer ? ( background, occupation )
• Who is the intended audience ?
• What is his statement of purpose/thesis statement ?
• What do the titles, headings, boldface, italic suggest ?
• What are being highlighted in the introductive and concluding paragraph ?

Next, we learn about analysing and evaluating reading texts.

   In order to analyse a reading text, you must first be able to determine the writer's point of view, tone and intention. All the skills that have been discussed in the earlier topics such as making inference, distinguish between facts and opinions and drawing conclusion can also help you in analysing a text before evaluating it.

   Next, in evaluating a text, you need to judge whether the writer has provided facts or fallacies in achieving his or her purpose. This requires you to decide whether the writer has successfully provided a sound argument on a topic or merely stated flawed reasoning which will lead to bias. Below are some examples of flawed reasoning ::

(a) Personal Attack : focusing the argument on the person's personality/background etc rather the issue at hand.

(b) Over-generalisation : forming a general opinion based on inadequate examples.

(c) Jumping on the and bandwagon : trying to persuade readers to agree on an idea because the majority does. 

(d) Quoting on the wrong authority : citing a person who is famous but is not an authority on what he or she is talking about.

After learning the whole thing, each group must write about who is the writer, the target audience, writer's tone, words or phrases used and writer's intention in front of the class. We are given a video clip of Pink entitled 'Family Potrait', an advertisement about a child who mistreat her father and another advertisement that is the only person who saved from the car accident is the one who fasten the seatbelt. I enjoy the night class so much even though my group never win any games.

article and subject verb agreement

Today is the presentation of article and subject verb agreement.

ARTICLE

—  There are only three articles in English: a, an and the.

—  There are two types of articles indefinite 'a' and 'an' or definite 'the'. You also need to know when not to use an article.

Indefinite articles - a and an (DETERMINERS)

—  A and an are the indefinite articles. They refer to something not specifically known to the person you are communicating with.

—  A and an are used before nouns that introduce something or someone you have not mentioned before:-

EXAMPLE FOR DETERMINERS

For example:

—  "I saw an elephant this morning." 

"I ate a banana for lunch." A and an are also used when talking about your profession:-

For example:

—  "I am an English teacher." 

"I am a builder."

Definite Article - the (DETERMINERS)

You use the when you know that the listener knows or can work out what particular person/thing you are talking about.

                For example:

—  "The apple you ate was rotten."

"Did you lock the car?"

You should also use the when you have already mentioned the thing you are talking about.

                For example:

—  "She's got two children; a girl and a boy. The girl's eight and the boy's fourteen."

We use the to talk about geographical points on the globe.

                For example:

—  the North Pole, the equator .

We use the to talk about rivers, oceans and seas

                For example:

—  the Nile, the Pacific, the English channel.

We also use the before certain nouns when we know there is only one of a particular thing.

                For example:

—  the rain, the sun, the wind, the world, the earth, the White House etc..

However if you want to describe a particular instance of these you should use a/an.

                For example:

—  "I could hear the wind." / "There's a cold wind blowing."

—  "What are your plans for the future?" / "She has a promising future ahead of her."

The is also used to say that a particular person or thing being mentioned is the best, most famous, etc

NO ARTICLE

•       We usually use no article to talk about things in general:-

•       For example:

•       Inflation is rising.

•       People are worried about rising crime.

                 (People generally, so no article)

•       Do not use an article when talking about sports.

•       My son plays football.

•       Tennis is expensive.

Do not use an article before uncountable nouns when talking about  them generally.

For example:

•       Information is important to any organisation.

•       Coffee is bad for you.

•       Do not use an article before the names of countries except where they indicate multiple areas or contain the words (state(s), kindom, republic, union). Kingdom, state, republic and union are nouns, so they need an article.

•       For example:

•       No article - Italy, Mexico, Bolivia, England

•       Use the - the UK (United Kingdom), the USA (United States of America), the Irish Republic

Subject-Verb Agreement

Agreement

—  Present tense verbs in English should agree with the subject of the sentence

—  Singular subjects use singular verbs

—  Jack robs liquor stores (s on the verb)

—  Plural subjects use plural verbs

—  Bonnie and Clyde rob banks (no s on the verb)

—  Most native speaker do this instinctively

—  More complex problems require you to learn a few rules

Identify the Subject

—  Ignore words that come between the subject and the verb

—  Reduce sentences to their simplest form

—  A good set of skis costs / cost hundreds of dollars

—  A good set of skis costs / cost hundreds of dollars

—  A good set of skis costs  hundreds of dollars

—  My boss, as well as her staff, leave / leaves early every Friday

—  My boss, as well as her staff, leave / leaves early every Friday

—  My boss, as well as her staff, leaves early every Friday

Compound Subjects using “And”

—  Most compound subjects joined by “and” are plural

—  Bert and Ernie is / are special friends

—  Bert and Ernie is / are special friends (plural verb)

—  Exception: If the words joined by “and” refer to a single thing, the subject is also singular

—  War and Peace is a very thick book (singular)

—  My friend and co-worker is waiting to see you (singular)

Compound Subjects using “Or”

—  When the subject is joined with “or” or “nor” the verb agrees with the words closest to the verb

—  Neither the instructor nor the students has / have any control over the number of 8 o’clock classes

—  Neither the instructor nor the students has / have any control over the number of 8 o’clock classes (plural verb)

—  Either two credit cards or a membership is / are needed before you can rent movies

—  Either two credit cards or a membership is / are needed before you can rent movies (singular verb)

—  Note: While the above example is correct, it is usually better to place the plural word closer to the verb

—  Either a membership or two credit cards are needed before you can rent movies (plural verb)

Indefinite Pronouns

—  Indefinite pronouns are singular

—  every, everyone, everybody, each, neither, either, none, one, no one

—  Every student has / have a unique student number

—  Every student has / have a unique student number

—  None of us admit / admits to sending the e-mail message

—  None of us admit / admits to sending the e-mail message

—  Ignore prepositional phrases coming between the subject and the verb

—  Each of the five departments is / are hiring new instructors

—  Each of the five departments is / are hiring new instructors

Collective Nouns

—  Words such as jury, committee, or herd will be singular when everyone in the group is acting together

—  The jury is / are deciding the fate of the accused

—  The jury is / are deciding the fate of the accused

—  Collective nouns will be plural when the members of the group are not acting together

—   The jury is / are undecided on the guilt of the accused

—  The jury is / are undecided on the guilt of the accused

Here, There, and It

—  When the sentence begins with Here or There, the subject follows the verb and controls whether the verb is plural

—  Here are my reasons for quitting (plural)

—  There is no need to pay me next week (singular)

—  It is always singular

—  It was the long hours that bothered me (singular)

—  RULES – When the sentences start with “THERE” and “HERE”, the subject will be always be placed after the verb

Words Ending in S

—  Words such as economics, AIDS, physics and news are singular

—  Economics is fun and exciting

—  The news is usually broadcast live

—  Words such as scissors, eyeglasses and pants that name things with two parts are plural

—  My glasses were broken when I did a face plant

"Learning grammar is the hardest part I think."