SPĚVÁČEK – studijní newsletter 27/2015

Study newsletter
2015, week 43
Content
Language level
Page
Phrase of the week – Thanks a bunch
All levels
1
Mind map – Interjections, part III
All levels
2
Czenglish – To straighten vs. to iron
Pre-intermediate (B1-) – Advanced (C1)
3
Business Writing – Too many words?
Pre-intermediate (B1-) – Advanced (C1)
4-5
Test – No, no, a thousand times no!
Pre-intermediate (B1-) – Advanced (C1)
6
Phrase of the week
Thanks a bunch
We use this expression ironically when we are not very happy about
something
You can use this phrase in ………… language.
 Spoken
 Informal
Example 1
A: Sorry, Paul. There aren't any comfy chairs left so you'll have to sit on the floor.
B: Thanks a bunch.
Example 2
A: Have you seen my sandwich?
B: Ah! I found one on the table so I threw it away. I thought you had finished.
A: Thanks a bunch! That was my lunch.
1
Mind map
Learning new vocabulary in the most effective way
Vyzkoušejte si interaktivní Mindmapy zde:
http://www.jazykovka.info/studujeme-jazyky/mindmap/interjections-part-iii/
Klikejte na slova, uslyšíte jednotlivá slovíčka namluvená rodilým mluvčím.
Slovíčka
Slovo
Yum/Yummy
Hooray
Lah-de-dah
Mm-hmm
Mmm
Mwah
Neener-neener neer-neer
Oh
Oh-oh
Ooh
Význam slova
vynikající, chutné
hurá
nenucenost, zamítnutí, výsměch
souhlas
potěšení
pusa, polibek
posměch
odpověď na potěšení nebo zklamání, bolest
varovná odpověď
zájem, obdiv nebo pohrdání
2
Czenglish
WRONG:
My hair is naturally curly so I have to iron it every day.
RIGHT:
My hair is naturally curly so I have to straighten it every day.
I hate ironing so the thought of ironing my hair as well as my clothes is a horrible one!
Luckily, I don't have to because firstly, I'm a boy, and secondly, because in English, we don't
'iron' hair, we 'straighten' it.
In the 60s before people had hair straighteners - the machine we now use for making our
hair straight - they had to lay their hair on an ironing board and get someone else to iron it
for them. Thankfully, time has changed, and now girls have the much easier task of simply
straightening their hair.
So, don't say, "I ironed my hair this morning." It sounds funny and people might think you're
a bit strange! Instead, say, "I straightened my hair."
3
Business Writing
Too many words?
Continuing on our theme of wordiness, it seems to be a problem that many of my blog
readers recognise.
One major cause of wordiness is overuse of prepositional phrases.
Prepositional phrases (phrases that begin with words like for, at, in, over and through) often
add unnecessary words to sentences and make them unclear.
The easiest way to demonstrate this is to show you some prepositional phrases and some
sentences which include prepositional phrases, and the revised versions.
Before
After
Developments in technology
Technological developments
Increase in the level of funding
Funding increase
Processes for the management of the budget
Budget management processes.
Organisation of the meeting
Meeting organization
The reason for the failure of the project for the HR
department was the inability of the team in
finding suitable resources without incurring
additional expenses.
The HR department’s project failed
because the team couldn’t access the
resources without spending more
money.
The most recent developments in the finance
sector will be included in the results of the report
of the state of play in the country at this time.
The report of the current situation in
Australia will include information about
recent finance sector developments.
Now sometimes the revised version is only a couple of words shorter, but when you read the
revised sentences you will see that they are easier to understand.
It is okay to use a couple of prepositional phrases, but when a writer uses too many they can
become a problem. If you find yourself using a number of them in a sentence, think hard
about what the message is that you want to communicate. What did you really mean when
you wrote the sentence?
4
To illustrate the problem further, here’s another example from The Writing Centre at the
UNC College of Arts and Sciences.
The reason for the failure of the economic system of the island was the inability of Gilligan in
finding adequate resources without incurring expenses at the hands of the headhunters on
the other side of the island.
Revised:
Gilligan hurt the economic system of the island because he couldn’t find adequate resources
without angering the headhunters.
DALICE TROST, původem z Austrálie, je absolventkou magisterského studia
managementu lidských zdrojů na University of Canberra v Austrálii. Lektorka je
držitelkou certifikátu TEFL opravňující k výuce cizích jazyků. V rámci své profesní
praxe zastávala vysoké manažerské pozice jako personalistka, senior
supervizorka, HR manažerka, a to mimo jiné ve společnostech v Dubaji a
Austrálii. Aktivně se věnuje publikační práci v oboru vzdělávání a anglického
jazyka.
Lektorka je autorkou knihy, ze které čerpáme tyto tipy: Business Writing-A Tip a Day for 30 Days
5
TEST: No, no, a thousand times no!
“How often do you play tennis?” “……… (1).”
“Where are you going tomorrow?” “……… (2).”
“Where did you go last evening?” “……… (3).”
“What did you say?” “………. (4).”
“How many brothers and sisters do you have?” “………. (5).”
“Do you ever go to the cinema?” “ ……… (6).”
“What will you buy her?” “……… (7).”
“Would you like to go dancing?” “……… (8), thanks.”
“How much money do you have?” “……… (9).”
“Who are you going with?” “……… (10).”
1.
A Nowhere
B No one
C Never
D Nothing
2.
A Nowhere
B Never
C Nobody
D None
3.
A Never
B Nowhere
C Nothing
D No
4.
A No one
B Never
C None
D Nothing
5.
A None
B No one
C Nobody
D Nothing
6.
A No, one
B No, never
C No one
D Nowhere
7.
A None
B Nowhere
C Nothing
D Never
8.
A Never
B No
C No one
D Nowhere
9.
A None
B Nothing
C No
D No one
10.
A Nowhere
B No
C None
D Nobody
Správné odpovědi se dozvíte ihned po dokončení on-line testu zde:
http://www.jazykovka.info/studujeme-jazyky/minitest/no-no-a-thousand-times-no/
Správné odpovědi z minulého týdne (What’s up?):
1B, 2C, 3A, 4D, 5B, 6C, 7D, 8A, 9B, 10C.
6