Search results for 'tag:Universities tag:Idioms' matching tags 'Universities' and 'Idioms'

Re: so that and such that?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:22:58 GMT

so that

From dictionary.com

In order that, as in I stopped so that you could catch up.
With the result or consequence that, as in Mail the package now so that it will arrive on time.
so ... that. In such a way or to such an extent that, as in The line was so long that I could scarcely find the end of it.

All three usages date from a.d. 1000 or earlier, and the first two are sometimes put simply as so, as in I stopped so you could catch up, or Mail it now so it will arrive on time.
Source: The American Heritageï½® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright ï½© 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company

such that

From mathworld.wolfram.comA condition used in the definition of a mathematical object. For example, the rationals can be defined as "the set of all m/n such that n is nonzero and m and n are integers ." From dictionary.com

adj : of a degree or quality specified (by the `that' clause); their anxiety was such that they could not sleep

Examples

Take x to be a real number so that x² is non-negative. [Correct]
Take x to be a real number so that x²+1 is greater than 4. [Incorrect]
Take x to be a real number such that x²+1 is greater than 4. [Correct]
The subset H of the Lie group G is a discrete subgroup so that G/H is compact. [Incorrect --- not all discrete subgroups of Lie groups have compact quotient; this is from the Annals of Math., 107, p313.]

Briefly, if omitting the "that" from "so that" renders the sentence nonsense, then you should probably have used "such that".
You won't find "so that" among lists of commonly misused phrases because only mathematicians commonly misuse it. Probably the error arose from the influence of German, where the two are not distinguished.

Keas (CPE reading, selective cloze)

Tanit — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:30:32 GMT

From Paper 1 (Reading) of the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) of the University of Cambridge, Part 1. In this part candidates are asked to read three extracts and to answer a total of 18 questions, six per extract.

Here are some directions and suggestions given in the CPE handbook for this task:

Students should be aware of the different aspects of vocabulary tested in this part of the paper. They should read through each text carefully, not forgetting the title, to get a general idea of the text type and meaning before looking at the options. They could also be encouraged to think about the possible forms and meanings of the gapped words at this stage. They should be aware that the missing word(s) may form part of an idiom, fixed phrase or collocation, so they should always check the words around the gap carefully. The missing word(s) must also fit the whole context of the passage so they should also check that the completed sentence makes sense in the passage as a whole. This is particularly important in the case of linkers.

Are you ready to read the extract and decide which answer best fits each gap?

__________________________________

Keas - not just pretty parrots

[test]
Few birds are as "insatiably|hungrily|thirstily|unmanageably" curious as keas. New research shows how these New Zealand parrots channel that curiosity for maximum benefit: they "pick|take|lift|pull" up tips by watching each other. Keas are notorious for investigating and, in the "process|procedure|measure|technique", often destroying everything from rubbish bins to windscreen wipers. Ludwig Huber and colleagues from the University of Vienna have found that in keas, which live in family flocks, social learning affects patterns of curiosity. In their experiments, the keas' tasks was to open a steel box with a complete locking mechanism. Two birds were gradually trained as 'models' and then they "performed|enacted|staged|presented" the task again under the watchful gaze of keas who were new to the job. "Sure|Certain|True|Fair" enough, birds who had watched a demonstration had a much higher success "rate|proportion|percentage|occurrence" than keas who had never watched one.
[/test]

Looking for some tips and/or curriculum suggestions

mikesusangray — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:50:11 GMT

Hi all!

I've been giving English conversation lessons to a theology professor for about a year now. He's getting on in the years - a couple years from retirement - and his primary goal has been just to get his spoken English going a little stronger. His mother tongue is French but he's been teaching at a German language university for many years.

I'd like to add some more specific inputs to our lessons but I can't seem to find the right material. His passive skills are excellent - he reads widely and with perfect comprehension in his field - and he can communicate quite understandably. He is a linguistics specialist and can grasp any concept about the language immediately. I brought along Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use and he could plow through a chapter in five minutes with perfect conceptual comprehension.

However, he also continues to make very simple errors - for example, he has trouble choosing between present simple and continuous or often uses the present tense for past events. Sentence order tends to get wander hither and yon while definite and indefinite articles come and go with the tide. (Prepositions are a problem too, but I won't beat him to hard there - prepositions are difficult in any new language.) In many cases his mistakes are typical of French or German speech patterns.

One other limitation is that he enjoys the weekly lessons (a good hour), but doesn't have much time to study in between.

Right now we spend about 15 minutes reading a chapter from Advanced Grammar in Use and about 45 minutes talking about just about anything under the sun, while I take notes and show him problems under the categories Pronunciation/Articles & Prespositions/Word Order/Other Grammar/Vocabulary/Idioms. However, I don't think the work book is a good choice - particularly since he doesn't do the homework - and it seems like he isn't making very good progress with his typical problem patterns - though he greets them like old friends when I point them out.

Any tips here?

Re: What does "a means to an end" mean?

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:26:29 GMT

a means to an end

something that you are not interested in but that you do because it will help you to achieve something else. Mike doesn't have any professional ambitions. For him, work is just a means to an end. (not used with the)

Re: multilingual Europeans

Cool Breeze — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:57:11 GMT

Koto
Why are European people so fluent in English?
People say it's becasue their languages are all derived from the same root as English but is this the only reason?
Was it easy to master English for you?

Hi Koto

I realise you may never read this but I'll post it just the same. Not all European languages are related. My native language, Finnish, isn't even an Indo-European language. It is related to Estonian and Hungarian but not to such Germanic languages as English, German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch and so on.

One reason many Finns have at least a working knowledge of English probably results from teachers of foreign languages having a very good education in the languages they teach and the teaching methods. The methods are extremely important. All language teachers are university graduates with 4 to 7 years of university studies behind them. As for English, everybody has studied it at school before entering a university, which is also an advantage. Also, the universities select the very best candidates from English-speaking countries to do the teaching. The professors are Finnish, though, and there are some Finnish lecturers as well.

I am mentioning this because I have noticed on my travels that quite a few people who tell me they are teachers of English have a rather fragmentary command of the language themselves. If a teacher doesn't know the language, he can't teach it. In many cases the student isn't at fault at all. There are amazingly incompetent teachers of languages in many countries. Some of the posters who claim to be teachers of English on these forums wouldn't pass the qualifying exams for would-be teachers at Finnish universities.

I have never mastered English. I have a fairly good knowledge of the grammar but my vocabulary could be much larger. Learning languages has always been easy for me; that is, learning the languages I have attempted to learn. I am not so sure how quickly I would learn Japanese or Thai, for instance. English spelling causes me the most problems. And of course any words and idioms I am not familiar with.

Cheers

Re: Take liberties (with somebody) - Old-fashioned?

An Asian — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:00:53 GMT

Thanks Khoff.

MH, you are right. I googled and found the phraseâs still in use. Probably what is "old-fashioned" is the sexual-abuse implication of the idiom as it stands. Now people tend to add some explicit adjectives like "sexual, indecent, inappropriate..." to the idiom to make things clear. That's only my assumption from the following examples:

Daily News Journal (subscription), TN - 7 hours ago -An Associated Press investigation of teachers who take sexual liberties with students found that too many are moving from state to state without school ...

Mid Columbia Tri City Herald, WA - Oct 26, 2007
Fathers molest daughters, baby sitters abuse their charges, religious leaders take liberties with young worshippers and some teachers are sexual predators. ...

Grand Forks Herald (subscription), ND - Oct 29, 2007
Every state has laws against child abuse, and many specifically outlaw teachers taking sexual liberties with students. Every district has administrators who ...

Winston-Salem Journal, NC - Oct 20, 2007
In June 2000, Bobby O. Curry Sr. was charged with taking indecent liberties with a student and taking indecent liberties with a child. ...

UMKC University News, MO - Oct 29, 2007
Did Father Flynn take inappropriate liberties with a pubescent male? Sister Aloysius, armed with what might be a personal vendetta, is determined to prove ...

Thanks MH.

Re: I've been here from 7 o'clock.

Doll — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:32:23 GMT

Clive wrote:

Hi Doll,

Why are you so sure these other examples are wrong?

Yes, I was really so sure that they are strictly not grammatical but tonight I asked them to one of the grammar instructors in my university and learned the correct choices. From the time gives the sense of particularity too but it really sounded incorrect to my non-native ears. Why didn't I add that this is my try or thought but talked so sure? Generally I avoid stating certain things not to mislead anyone as well as myself. God! I only know standart English even for some cases I don't know it. I have to eat loaves of bread, yes yes. ( A Turkish idiom)

Re: can someone check for me ... ? ( my grammar mistakes) ^_^

Feebs11 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:35:47 GMT

Lulu-uae wrote:
Many people like to live in a big city for many ~~advantages~~ reasons .Firstly, they can find job [jobs/a job] easily and get a lot of money at work and that related to high cost of living. Secondly, there are large transport network [plural verb/singular subject : they must agree] so they can transfer from one place to another without difficulty. Finally, there are more fun things ~~and comfortable~~ in a big cities. For example, cinemas, museum and malls. Furthermore, [You have "Finally" in the previous sentence - so you should not have "furthermore" in this one] there are better facilities in education and sports, In stance [idiom >> "For instance"], more colleges, universities and clubs.

Big cities also have some disadvantages. There are many traffic jams that form pollution ~~air~~ so [people/the residents] canât breath fresh air. In stance [see previous comment about this], Dubai is one of these cities have crowded. [have crowded what?] Moreover, the horrible ~~noisy~~ [noise] in the big city is another ~~disadvantages~~ [disadvantage] especially at [in] the morning when the workers ~~and employees~~ start work. ~~the last cons~~ [The biggest disadvantage is the] expensive cost of living.

[

.
.

I know I have many mistakes,but you can help me.

Re: 'A FEW' and 'FEW'?

Yoong Liat — Mon, 28 May 2007 01:58:44 GMT

Allwynglad wrote:
A few of my friends were there in the theatre.

Few of my friends were there in the theatre.

Do these sentences mean the same?

a few
adjective
more than one but indefinitely small in number; "a few roses"; "a couple of roses"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source
a few

A small number of persons or things. This phrase can differ slightly from few used alone, which means "not many." For example, The party was to end at eight, but a few stayed on indicates that a small number of guests remained, whereas The party began at eight, and few attended means that hardly any guests came. [Late 1200s] Also see quite a bit (few).

Self-Evaluation Essay

Super Sonic — Sat, 19 May 2007 22:54:48 GMT

Hi,

I had my final exam from the writing course as a home take-in, but the type of the essay sounded a little bit weird to me. Here is what my lecturer gave as information:

Writing FINAL

Write an evaluation essay on the following topic

The Self-Evaluation essay is a reflective essay assessing and describing your learning experiences. Write a self evaluation essay considering the guidelines below.
The following are guidelines for your Self-Evaluation Essay:

Include each of your learning objectives,
Describe how the learning objectives were accomplished and the steps used to complete objectives,
For objectives you did not meet, state why not. What did you learn from the failure to meet objectives? (Is this even proper English? )
What else did you learn that was not in your initial objective? Specific examples should be cited. The student should review the learning objectives set at the beginning of the term and assess what growth he or she has achieved during the term."

And here is what I have written (Could you please proofread it considering the notes above?):

This Is Only the Beginning

This is my first year in the Linguistics department of Hacettepe University. I can easily say that this university is not quite what I expected it to be. I was hoping to improve myself in many fields, but this did not happen in the first year, since I had to deal with my courses more than anything else. However, my English dramatically improved thanks to the courses. I would like to evaluate this year in terms of how I improved my English skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening), while doing nothing about the other fields I was interested in (arts and sports).

First of all, I have been able to improve my expressive English skills thanks to a native speakerâs being our lecturer, and having courses on how to express ourselves better in English. Margaret was the lecturer of our writing course. I learned many new words, idioms, grammar structures and expressions in her classes, which would have me state my thoughts in a more comprehensible way in written language. Also, both in our writing and reading classes we had discussions about various controversial subjects that helped me improve my speaking skills. We were having phonetics at the same time, and as a student trying to attend all the classes, I improved my pronunciation. So, I can say that I am grateful for my department to help me meet my objectives in expressing myself both in spoken and written language.

Secondly, my receptive skills have also improved with the help of the courses like reading, literature, and listening comprehension. Even though I did not have much difficulty in reading and understanding course books, articles, reading passages and the like, I was rather poor at literal texts, or in other words, the figurative use of English language. By the help of our literature classes, I got over this problem, and now I can mostly understand what Shakespeare or Hemingway says. My listening skills, likewise, improved remarkably after having taken the listening comprehension courses. I was unable to differentiate between the words that resemble each other like âmateâ and âmadeâ before I took those courses. I can say that listening to someone speaking English has become one of the easiest tasks ever with the help of my lecturers.

Thirdly, even though there has been a big improvement in my English skills, I have not been able to deal with arts or sports, both of which are my main interests. I was hoping to have art lessons such as painting and music. However, all the courses are academic ones. Another deficit of my department âor of the university in general- is that there are not many sports activities going on. Because of these reasons, I felt rather âantisocialâ in my first year in the university. As a result, not having done anything in these two areas is the only objective that I missed this year, but I am thinking of taking piano and karate courses next year from another university. If only my university gave more importance to these two areas!

Consequently, although I was not very content with the overall situation of the university this year, I must admit that my English skills have improved drastically within this year. I, however, still feel sad about not being able to take any courses from my areas of interest. Who knows, maybe this was only the beginning. Maybe, I am going to like this university better. Only time will show!

Thanks in advance