Improve Your English – 187 [Archives:2003/640/Education]

I. What to Say
Situations and Expressions (50)
Making Plans (II)

Plans are made keeping a set of given factors in mind. They usually indicate the planner's assumptions about and the possible consequences of certain actions taking place at the moment.
Now let's review some more expressions used to indicate one's plans.

– We have firm intentions to work hard consistently to achieve the target.
– I have definite hopes to be computer literate within the next two months.
– Once I graduate, I'll be in a position to proceed to India for higher studies.
– Having achieved my short term goal, I'd now make best efforts to fulfill my long term objective as well.
– I'll put my best foot forward to make a mark in my job.
– Given the determination and strong will power, there's no reason why I can't achieve my target within the stipulated time.
– If everything works out well, by this time next year I hope to be abroad.
– I shall be reaching your house at 5 P.M. by the dot and together we shall be driving to the airport.
– Since the first phase of the enterprise has gone up well, the next phase is bound to work out well according to our plans.
– The company is all set to enter the market with a bang.
– APTECH is poised for an impressive growth.
– Yemen Times is scheduled to be a world class newspaper.
– Yemen is targeted to be a nation in the forefront of technology and human resource development during the next decade.
– He aspires to attain the top rank on his class in the next exam, and I hope he will.

II. How to Say it Correctly
Correct errors, if any, in the following sentences
1. Myself, and thousands who think like myself, will not accept this.
2. Wanted immediately – three bed-roomed house by company executive within easy reach of the station.
3. There were a few interesting pages, but the majority of the book was boring.
4. A case of empty coke bottle were put out after the party.
5. Are you finished with the DHP?

Possible answers to last week's questions
1. I have never done and will never do such a thing.
2. He knows how to prepare French toast.
3. Whatever happens keep on trying.
4. It's no use asking him – he is not interested in it.
5. He seldom, if ever (seldom or never) plays cricket.

III. Increase your Word Power
A) How to express it in one word
1. Something exactly like.
2. Likely to last for a long time.
3. Threats illegally used to compel someone.
4. Time just before it gets quite dark.
5. Articles on which customs duties must be paid.

Possible answers to last week's questions
1. Place where rubbish, etc., may be unloaded and left: dump (n)
2. Short and fat: dumpy (adj)
3. A child who is a slow learner at school: dunce (n)
4. Of twelve or twelfth: duodecimal (adj)
5. Make a fool of someone: dupe (vt)

B) Foreign phrases and expressions
Use the following expressions in illustrative sentences:
1. ad populum
2. ad verecundiam
3. ars est clare artem
4. art nouveau
5. biblioclasm

Possible answers to last week's questions:
1. addendum (Lat. n) (an addition or an appendix to a book) (pl. 'addenda'): Please look up the addendum given at the end of the book for some more information on the subject.
2. amour courtois (Italian) ('courtly love'): The poem is a sensuous expression of amour courtois.
3. ad baculum (Lat.) (argument according to force): The courtroom listened with rapt attention the ad baculum of the defence lawyer.
4. ad hominem (Lat) (personal): He received a note ad hominem from a friend.
5. ad ignorantiam (Lat.) (The argument which depends on the person being ignorant or uninformed): He was ridiculed for his ad ignorantiam.

C) Words commonly confused
Bring out the meaning differences in the following pairs of words
1. altar, alter
2. alternate, alternative
3. alteration, altercation
4. allusion, illusion
5. allow, permit

Possible answers to last week's questions
1. miss (vt) (to fail to catch): I missed the train.
amiss (adv) (to feel upset or offended): Please don't take my remark amiss.
2. amen (Interj) (may this be true): May you prosper in life. Amen
amenable (adj) (able to be influenced by): He is amenable to reason.
3. ambience (n) (the character, quality, etc. of a place): I am impressed by the dignified ambience of the university.
ambient (adj) (completely surrounding): The ambient air of Mahweet is refreshing.
4. amateur (n) (a person who paints pictures, performs plays, takes part in sports, etc. for enjoyment and without being paid for it): He is an amateur athlete.
professional (adj) (Showing qualities of training of a member of a profession): The teacher should continually refine his professional equipment.
5. a.m. (adv (ante meridiem. Used after numbers expressing time): Lectures start at 8 a. m.
A.M. (Amplitude Modulation): He has an A.M. radio.

D) Idioms and phrases
Use the following phrases in sentences
1. avail someone nothing
2. under the auspices of
3. augur well
4. for ought I know
5. attune to

Possible answers to last week's questions
1. become of (to happen to someone): What will become of a nation if people are engaged in fighting one another?
2. in all fairness (free from injustice, dishonesty, or self-interest): In all fairness, I should take you to confidence and share the secret with you.
3. awake to (become conscious of): You should awake to the dangers of the situation well in advance.
4. away with (take away; remove): Away with the scoundrel!
5. right away (without dealy): Let's have lunch right away.

IV. Grammar and composition
A) Grammar
Fill the gaps with make or do
1. I always )- a lot of mistakes when I speak English.
2. If I )- my homework every day, my English will improve.
3. Let's go to bed now. We can )- the dishes in the morning.
4. I want to )- an exam in French. Do you know where I can )- one?
5. You should not )- a noise when the lecture is going on.

Possible answers to last week's questions
1. I get to Sanaa during the week-ends.
2. If they had played well, they could have won the match.
3. The boy who won the prize is the captain of the team.
or, The boy who is the captain of the team won the prize.
4. He spoke incoherently as if he were mad.
5. It is obvious that he is innocent.

B) Composition: Paragraph writing
Expand the idea contained in the maxim

20 forgiveness is the noblest revenge

Possible answers to last week's question

19. Man lives in deeds, not in years

The true worth of life is assessed not in how long we live, but what we have achieved. In other words, man's life is not measured in terms of years, but by worthwhile, noble deeds. The mere fact of existing or surviving amounts to leading a meaningless life. A long life is no sign of life's greatness; it does not make life glorious or memorable.
In the evening of one's life when one looks at his past in retrospect, his heart is filled with profound satisfaction at the noble deeds he had performed, not at the barren desert of an uneventful, purposeless existence. The man who spends the life like an animal – eating, drinking, sleeping and procreating -has little contribution to expansion or enrichment of life. His life is supposed to have been wasted if he has only spent his time and energy in idle pursuits and fruitless pastime. Sensitive writers have always preferred a short but beautiful and glorious life of a lily to that of a long and barren life of an oak. One hour crowned with glory is worth an age of purposeless existence. A short life dedicated for the welfare of the humanity is by far a great achievement and such a man, like a seasoned timber, lives ever after.

V. pearls from the Holy Quran
“Allah's object
also is to purge
Those that are true in faith
And to deprive of blessing
Those that resist faith.”
S3: A141

VI. Words of Wisdom
“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.”
)Descartes
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