Useful Synonyms

When I do my assignment at CELC today, I find out these useful synonyms on chapter 14 of the book " Focus on Vocabulary" (Schmitt, 2005). I would like to share them with you.

• unavoidable= inescapable= inevitable
• end=conclude=terminate
• next= side by side with= adjacent
• yearly= twelve-month=annual
• result= conclusion= outcome=consequence
• gain=advantage=benefit
• almost=nearly= virtually
• yet= even so= nevertheless= nonetheless
• happen= take place= occur
• length=period=duration
• specialist=professional=expert

Hope that you can add more to this list. We all learn from each other.

Reference:
Schmitt D. and Schmitt N. (2005). Focus on Vocabulary: Mastering the Academic Word List. Pearson Education. NY 10606.

A half of my first semester is nearly completed.

It is wonderful to say that in this beginning of this academic year, I am luckily involved in the E02 group of EG1471. I have learnt a lot of things from my classmates and especially my tutor, Ms Fong.

I consider my improvement in academic writing style, for example, the citation, the format of academic essays... is the most important achivement I have until now. And, thank you Ms Fong who has helped my classmates and me understand the various grammar points, vocabulary as well as their pronunciation.

However, I find that there are a lot of things I have to do in order to meet this module's requirements. First, I have not try my best to increase my vocabulary (actually, I admit that I am a little bit lazy). Without strong vocabulary, I can not feel comfortable to express my idea and to maintain the academic style at the same time, which is the main cause of my first terrible assignment. Second, I am still not able to summarize and paraphrase an arcticle or a piece of academic writing properly. Of course, the shortage of vocabulary is a main reason; however, it is the lack of ability to express one idea in various way that makes me fail. Last but not least, it is necessary for me to practice speaking standard English. Although I always use English in studying but it is not a really good one. I had better focus on this weakness before graduating and finding a job.

To overcome these above weaknesses, I should spend more time on practicing English. First, it is important to improve my vocabulary espeacially the academic vocabulary relating to Engineering and Technology topic. Also, I should use the time wisely. Having a note book of vocabulary with me when moving around the school may be a good idea. Second, the more reading I do, the more ways of expressing idea I can have. Moreover, killing two birds by one stone, I can also broaden my knowledge through those books, and acrticles. Finally, it is important to speak properly not fast. Thus, slowing down my speaking speed and focusing on the grammar as well as my pronunciation may be one of the solutions.

There are many things I have to do so that sometimes, I wish one day had 48 hours. However, thinking again, I also want to complete this semester quickly and effectively since I miss my family so much.(oh, I have gone out of the topic).

Recess week has begun and I have another chance to redouble my efforts in the second half of this semester, so I had better focus on it instead of thinking about the scarity of time and my limited ability.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to Ms Fong, and my dear classmates. You have created a comfortable study environment. Although I have not remembered all of your name (especially the guy's names), I will always remember that we are in the same English class.

If you have any idea about ways of studying Englich, please tell me. I look forward to your comments. See you soon,

A sympathy analysis of resistance to new technology

There are various reasons for the resistance to new technology.
First, it is obvious that people are usually not eager to change what they have been familiar with. It is what we call " mind inertia" which mainly originates from people's fear of wasting time and money to discover new things. Second, and more important, the change itself sometimes make a lot of people worse-off, which is a certain reason for the resistance of technology. Dating back to the British Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century, despite of the unbelievable thriving in industrial technology, the workers' living standard continued descending dramatically. Machines have taken places of human. Poor workers are fired, and blamed technology for their misery so that they broke any machines they could. As a result, this era of briliant development in technology, to the workers, becomes the most sorrowful one. However, we should sympathize with these poor people since " much fundemental change is painful and that which destroys old ways of life is more painful still" (Randall, 1995). Last but not least, misusing of new technology and its extremely severe consequences are the most likely causes of the global resistance to it. We and our following generations will never forget the two painful landmarks in the history of mankind: Hiroshima and Chenobyl. The wrong application of nuclear power, in specific, and of new techonology, in general, is so costly that it totally changes many people's the point of view toward this issue:' Is new technology what we really need for a better world?'. All in all, the resistance of technology can originate from many reasons and has different levels ranging from the most normal individual reasons to the most complicated one. Whenever the new technology can do harm directly or indirectly to humans, the resistance is still there. Thus, basing on this understanding, as future engineers, we must aim to the human welfare in all new technology we are trying to apply into real life.

Reference:
Randall, A.(1995). In Bauer, M.(Ed). Resistance to new technology: nuclear power, information technology and biotechnology. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

e-porfolio2: Common grammar mistakes

The tense is one of the most important grammar point in English. In fact, we have to say that without tenses, English is meaningless. Among 12 tenses in this global language, I sometimes confuse between the Present Perfect Tense and the Present Perfect Continuous one. They are similar in some way but also slightly different and easy to be misused.
The following information is retrieved from the book "Advanced Grammar in Use" (Martin, 2003)


Present Perfect Continuous vs Present Perfect:

In general, both of the two tenses mentioned above indicate " something that started in the past and which affects the situation that exists now." (Martin, 2003). They are also used to describe the repeat of events or activities. However there is some slightly differences in their meaning.

On one hand, "the Present Perfect Tense focuses on the effect of an activity or an event, or the fact that something has been achieved." (Martin, 2003). We also use this tense to emphasize the number of times that an activity takes place, and the result of a change.

On the other hand, the Present Perfect Continuous pays attention on "activities or events which may or may not be finished" (Martin, 2003). It is common to use this tense to emphasize activities which we have continued doing during a period of time. We also use the Present Perfect Continuous to describe the continuity of the change.

In brief, the Present Perfect focus on the achivement of an activity while the Present Perfect Continuous pay attention on an activity's continuity. And right choices of tenses can add significant meaning in our sentences.

Exercises: (Martin,2003)

1) Use these words to fill in the blank and pay attention to the usage of the Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous tenses:

claim, disappear, give, move, stop

1. An important file ... from my office.

2. Dr Fletcher... the same lecture to students for the last ten years.

3. With thier win yesterday, Italy... into second place in the table.

4. For years he... that he is related to the royal family.

5. Good, the noise... , so I can start concentrating on my work again.



2) Connect the two clauses to complete these sentenses. Focus on the relationship between their meaning and the tense used in each clause:
a. I have swum...
I have been swimming...

...and I feel exhausted
...thirty lengths of the good.



b. I have visited Vienna....
I have been visited Vienna...

...three or four times before

...since 1990 and I have always felt very safe here.


References:
Martin. H (2003). Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. (Ms Fong, I am so sorry that I do not know how to creat an indent in this blog for the reference. I will ask my classmate for it. Thanks)

My impetus

Prof Seeram Ramakrishna once wrote:"...the traditional scope of engineers has been broadened considerably..."("The expanding world of engineers"). This statement is considered as the most important compass to the next generation of Engineers stepping into their profession. Engineers nowadays no longer limit themselves to some life's requisite such as building, or designing machinery. They can take part in solving most new challenges. The idea of the great potential of future Engineering is greatly important because it changes the view of society, so motivates the engineer to redouble their efforts to achive success.

Since society's view does have a great influence on each person's decision, this new idea helps us overcome a lot of prejudice about Engineering profession. The word " an Engineer" often remind people of a man working extremely hard with machine, buildings. Unlike a businessman who can have a lot of choices in the economy, engineers can only choose buildings, bridges, cars, ships, and airplanes. He also hardly has a spare time to relax because there are always things to learn, to complete, and it is boring to work with machine day after day. Last but not least, Enigineers' average salary was usually not deserve their labour.

These prejudice now can be overcome by this new idea about a broadened scope of engineering nowadays. We now recognize the variety of options that an Engineer can choose as their profession. Their knowlege can be applied to solve most of the obstacles that human beings are facing today. Engineering does not mean the job when people have to work with machine, and draft everyday. Engineers now can analyse financial problem, play an important roles in health care service, in protecting environment. As the first article-"Introduction to the Grand Challenges for Engineering" has mentioned, Engineering covers "four broad realms of human concern(...) [which are] substainability, health, vulnerability, and the joy of living". Society now has a right point of view about the mission of the next Engineering generations'mission.

Next, let us have a closer look about how this new idea has an influence on each person's especially each Engineer's thinking so that we can understand its importance more clearly. First, being recognized by society gives Engineers motive to redouble their efforts because people tend to accomplish what they are expected to do. Second, from the statement, person can deduce that being an Engineer does not limit his ability, but actually provides him with a valuable opportunity to be as good as he is able to.

Morever, the connecting with other people in other career makes the life as an Engineer be fullfilled with interesting experience. Finally, this statement also gives each person some idea about what he needs to do especially when he is an Engineering students. In order to success, he not only has to really good at his specialization, but also has to sharpen his social skills and develop his awareness of the world in future. More choices mean more challenges, and more responsibilities required. This new idea does open a new horizon to each of Engineer.

In conclusion, the idea of the broadened scope of Engineering makes an extremely difference in the society's way of thinking and becomes a motive for the future's Engineers. Accompanied by the idea about the various challenges human beings are facing today, this new idea really shows the way to achieve human welfare in future. Engineering should not be limited in some aspects of life because its potential is unlimited.

The first lesson

Dear Ms Fong and my new classmates,

I would like to say thank you so much to Ms Fong since you have made our class interesting and enjoyable. Having attended the Open lecture on Friday, I was really worried when you lost your voice in the middle of the lecture period. However, you still tried hard to finish the presentation. You must be a very good lecturer and it is really lucky for me to be involved in your class.

This is my first time attending a tutorial. However, thank to Ms Fong and you, my classmates, I felt really comfortable. I hope we will have a lot of beautiful memory about each other.

Best wishes,