Good Morning!

It is the eighteenth of August 2010. It is Wednesday.

THE WEATHER

It is fine.
It is fine and clear.
There is not a cloud in the sky.
It is cold early in the morning but the sun quickly warms everything.
There is a big difference in temperature between being in the sun and being in the shade.

Look at this scale:

There is not a cloud in the sky.
There are a few clouds in the sky.
It is cloudy. (It is overcast)
It is very cloudy.
It is very very cloudy.

Here is another:

a big difference
a small difference
a slight difference
no difference at all

Now I want you to tell me about the weather where you are. What is the weather like where you are? Answer this question. Say your answer aloud.

What is the weather like today?

Now write an answer. What is the weather like today in your area? (Post the answer below in the “comments” section)

THE NEWS

Here is a current news headline:

Mexican mayor kidnapped
This means:

A Mexican mayor has been kidnapped.

A past participle has replaced a passive verb phrase.

“Has been kidnapped”

has become simply

“kidnapped”.

Here are the details:

In Santiago near Monterrey the local mayor has been kidnapped by cartels. Twenty-eight thousand people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006.

Look at these phrases:

has been kidnapped
have been killed

The grammar is exactly the same. They are both present perfect passive phrases. The first one is singular. The second one is plural.

Look at these degrees of injury:

he was frightened
he was hurt
he was injured
he was seriously injured
he was badly injured
he was critically injured
he was killed

Here is another headline:

French activists uproot vines

This means

French activists have uprooted grapevines

“Have uprooted vines”

becomes simply

“uproot vines”.

Present simple tense is used instead of present perfect tense.

A plant has a root. Plants have roots. A root is a noun. It is a thing. It is a concrete noun. Look at these phrases:

the root of the problem
dig it out by the roots

Propagation from a Cutting

The word, root has a verbal meaning too. If you take a cutting of a fruit tree and dip it in rooting powder then place it in good soil, it will “root”.

A plant “roots”.

You can say:

It roots.
It has rooted.

or

It takes root
It has taken root.

That means roots have grown out of the main stem and into the soil. The plant has taken root. Beautiful!

“To uproot”

means

“to pull out by the roots”.

Here are some details:

French activists have uprooted transgenic grape vines in a protest against the introduction of genetically-modified food. Global food supply is becoming increasingly more heavily centralized and transgenic food is a powerful tool in the armory of the food corporations as they struggle to maximize their profits. The French anti-GM food activist group Faucheurs Volontaires (voluntary reapers) wants to pull genetically engineered plants out by the roots.

Look at these phrases:

transgenic food
genetically modified food

is becoming increasingly more centralised
is becoming increasingly more difficult
is becoming increasingly more frequent
is becoming increasingly more common
is becoming increasingly more endangered

the French anti-GM food activist group
the Dutch anti-GM food activist group
the German anti-GM food activist group
the Norwegian anti-GM food activist group
the Danish anti-GM food activist group
the Swedish anti-GM food activist group
the Croatian anti-GM food activist group

the struggle to maximise profits
the struggle to minimise environmental damage

What do you think about genetically modified food? Think about it. Read about it. Are you aware of any dangers? Answer the question now. Answer it orally (Say your answer aloud!)

What do think about genetically-modified food? Are you aware of any dangers?

Now write your opinion in the “comments ” section below.

Here is another headline:

Disaster unfolds in Pakistan.

In this case present simple tense is used instead of present continuous tense.

“Unfolds”

means

is unfolding

That means “catastrophe is taking place right now”.

A fifth of the country is underwater and millions of people have been made homeless. Little help has come. There is a danger of cholera epidemics.

You fold and unfold a scroll. A scroll is a long piece of paper or cloth. In the past everything was written on scrolls. All stories that were written, were written on scrolls. The scroll was unfolded and then folded up again when it was read.

Look at these passive phrases:

It was unfolded.
It was read.
It was folded up again.

Nowadays we say that a story unfolds because in the old days a scroll was unfolded to reveal the story (in the case of a written story or message).

A sad story is unfolding now in Pakistan. Is anybody in Pakistan listening? Are you OK?

News and weather Summary

Now listen to a summary. If you do not understand everything you hear, go back and read the text again. Look up all the new words in the dictionary.

Download audio file (nw180810.mp3)

at albertopveiga

First Guy: Prohibition; it started many gangs you know? Irish gangs. Italian gangs. You know what I mean? In New York and Detroit and Chicago and all he big cities. And they were all pushing beer and they were driving up into Canada and bringing whiskey down from Canada because it was legal in Canada. And. You know? Created a lot of crime. Ok? And it was like one gang would go into a place and say “you have to buy your beer and whiskey from my gang” and they would buy it from his gang and then the next week another gang would go in there and the people were scared!
Second Guy: Mm.
First Guy: Ok? And some people had actually been murdered and their shops were blown up and so all it does…all it does…these stupid laws create more problems than what they were designed to do. And I firmly believe that if they took a look at some of the drug laws that we have. And I am not saying that they got…they should …you know…make every drug legal. But you know… some drugs should be legal… like… you take marijuana … you know which has already been proven that it is good for people with glaucoma. It increases the appetites in people in hospice who are dying from cancer so there is benefits to many drugs.
Second Guy: Yeah.
First Guy: And I think they should stop and get off this stupid idea…you know what I mean?..that it is going to promote …you know…more crime..actually drugs promote crime being illegal. It doesn’t promote crime if it was legal because it would take the profit out of it by being legal.
Second Guy: Yeah.
First Guy: And that is pretty much what it comes down to and I cannot prove this but it is firmly my belief that my own government, the United States government is involved in drugs to bring in enough money to fund the CIA’s covert operations to run and destroy governments around the world who do not play ball.
Second Guy: I believe that too.
First Guy: You know? That’s it. And I believe we have a government behind the government.
Second Guy: You know like…Have you ever heard of a website called LEAP L-E-A-P. “Law Enforcement Against Prohibition” and its narcotics agents, lawyers; like all people who worked in the war on drugs…
Third Guy: I agree with you. I agree with you.
Fourth Guy: It is a major industry. Lot of money involved.
Third Guy: I don’t think they should have prohibition. I think you should be able to buy your heroin right next to your alcohol and whatnot. Absolutely.
Fourth Guy: With large federal taxes. They should tax hell out of it.
Third Guy: I totally agree. Totally agree. You know? I just think it should be treated as …addiction to drugs should be treated as (a mental illness?) problem.
Second Guy: As a medical problem. Yeah. It’s a medical problem.
Fourth Guy: It’s an income creation problem.
First Guy: Let me just say this. Let me say this. Ok. If you stop…and my first feeling is number one we gotta get churches, synagogues, mosques ; all religions…organized religions out of politics. Ok? They don’t belong in there.
Fourth Guy: Well they are out of politics. But they aren’t. Legally they are not allowed to be in politics.
First Guy: Yeah but they have so much influence.
Fourth Guy: I know. They won’t stay out.
First Guy: And this is the problem because they want to inflict their philosophy and their ideals and their morality on me and you and everybody else and I don’t want these people’s morality on me. I know what is best for me. I know what I have to do. I am big boy now. Ok?

at Tambako

Mark: So John..
John: Yeah.
Mark: You are working on a dissertation for a PhD. That is for an American university?
John: Yeah, that is right. It is a university in San Francisco, California
Mark: And what is the area?
John: I am studying..It is philosophy but with an emphasis on Buddhist studies, you know, and Buddhist philosophy.
Mark: In any particular country?
John: Well, yeah, I am mainly interested in Thailand even though I live in Japan, you know. I like Thailand’s version of Buddhism better.
Mark: Is that theravada?
John: Yeah. That is right.
Mark: Ok. So are you studying any particular temple or any particular aspect of Buddhism?
John: Yeah. I am doing research on a couple of temples there in Thailand. One is called Suen Mok, which is pretty famous. It is got a very good program for ten day meditation retreats and they are geared for teaching foreigners meditation; meditation techniques.
Mark: What is the other temple?
John: The other one is north of Bangkok about three hours bus ride and it is called Tam Krabok.
Mark: Uh-huh.
John: And it is… Well it does different things but one thing it does is it helps addicts recover, you know. It has probably cured about one hundred thousand addicts; mostly heroin or opium addicts, you know, and so I am really interested in how meditation can replace an addiction. You know what I mean?
Mark: Wow! So they are like teaching people to meditate and overcome the problems that caused them to become addicted to drugs?
John: Right. Exactly.
Mark: Wow! Isn’t that a wonderful thing. A hundred thousand.
John: Yeah.
Mark: Wow! That is really amazing. You have been to the temple?
John: Yeah and interviewed several of the head monks and some of the other people there and it is just a really really, to me, an effective way of applying Buddhism, you know?
Mark: Right.
John: To eliminate our addictions and work toward something more significant
Mark: Right excellent. That is really…That is great. Like. To use something like that to…That is really good.
John: A real practical form of Buddhism. As I understand it to try to help people live better lives and things like that and this seems to be a real, you know, obvious way to do it.
Mark: Drug addiction is a big problem in a lot of different countries.
John: Yeah.
Mark: And if they are finding something they can do about, it that is really great.
John: Yeah I agree totally there. And it was a big problem in Thailand. You know until 1959 opium was legal in Thailand.
Mark: Really?
John: And suddenly they made it illegal and all these people who would take it as a normal part of their life suddenly were illegal addicts.
Mark: Wow!
John: And so this place has really done something that I think is really important.
suddenly they made it illegal
Mark: What is the name of the temple again?
John: Tam Krabok. It means cave of the “prabok”.  It is kind of like “telling it like it is” or something like that. Originally it was just a group of monks and they lived in caves
Mark: Wow!
John: And then they started making a big temple out of it.
Mark: The caves of truth.
John: Yeah. That would be a good way to translate it. (laughs)

1. Active Voice
Australian people speak English.

2. Passive Voice
English is spoken in Australia (by Australian people).

Note that the object (English) became the subject.

Practice Passive Voice in a Discussion

Listen to the conversation (London Accent) and then use the internet to answer these questions:

Compare answers with your classmates

Where is heroin produced?
What is it made from?
Where is opium produced?
What is it made from?
Where is marijuana produced?
What is it made from?
Where is ecstasy produced?
What is it made from?
What is ketamine?
What is ice?
Are drugs and crime linked in your community?

Passive Voice in Reading: You can see a text with many examples of passive voice by clicking the link: (The Banjo Player’s brother – full text)

at egg

London Bloke: Personally to myself, Class A drugs are drugs that…Ok I will put it this way…
Australian Bloke: Speed. Co…?
London Bloke: I will put it this way. To me non-Class A drugs are drugs that can be cultivated without any …modern farming techniques … or chemical interference… for example… non-Class A drugs: marijuana, even opium. Yeah? Class A drugs: heroin, cocaine, crack, ice, MDMA: ecstasy, ketamine. That to me is class A drugs.
Australian Bloke: What have they all got in common?
London Bloke: They all eat Mr Jack(?)