Blog

Methanotrophs affect global temperature. This is because:  

Which of the following groups is often included among the uninsured in the US?

Which of the following are determinants of obesity? Select all that apply.

What is the part of speech of the bold/underlined word in this sentence? John went to the City Concert Hall to hear the famous pianist play Chopin.

Read the following short article about language. 1.  Choose five (5) of the words in bold/underlined and explain what they mean in your own words–no dictionaries nor internet.   2.  Then explain what the 2 underlined sentences mean in your own words. 6,000 languages: an embattled heritage By Ranka Bjelja-Babic       Are the vast majority of languages doomed to die out in the near future? Specialists reckon that no language can survive unless 100,000 people speak it. Half of the 6,000 or so languages in the world today are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people and a quarter by less than 1,000. Only a score is spoken by hundreds of millions of people       The death of languages is not a new phenomenon. Languages usually have a relatively short life span as well as a very high death rate. Only a few, including Basque, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit and Tamil have lasted more than 2,000 years.       What is new, however, is the speed at which they are dying out. Europe’s colonial conquests caused a sharp decline in linguistics diversity, eliminating at least 15 percent of all languages spoken at the time. Over the last 300 years, Europe has lost a dozen, and Australia has only 20 left of the 250 spoken at the end of the 18th century. In Brazil, about 540 (three-quarters of the total) have died out since Portuguese colonization began in 1530.       The rise of nation-states, whose territorial unity was closely linked to their linguistic homogeneity, has also been decisive in selecting and consolidating national languages and sidelining others. By making great efforts to establish an official language in education, the media and the civil service, national governments have deliberately tried to eliminate minority languages.       This process of linguistic standardization has been boosted by industrialization and scientific progress which have imposed new methods of communication that are swift, straightforward and practical. Language diversity came to be seen as an obstacle to trade and the spread of knowledge. Monolingualism became the ideal.       More recently, the internationalization of financial markets, the dissemination of information by electronic media and other aspects of globalization have intensified the threat to “small” languages. A language not on the Internet is a language that “no longer exists” in the modern world. It is out of the game. It is not even used in business.       The effects of the death of languages are serious for several reasons. First of all, it is possible that if we all ended up speaking the same language, our brains would lose some of their natural capacity for linguistic inventiveness. We would never be able to plumb the origins of human language or resolve the mystery of “the first language.” As each language dies, a chapter of human history closes.       Multilingualism is the most accurate reflection of multiculturalism. The destruction of the first will inevitably lead to the loss of the second. Imposing a language without any links to a people’s culture and way of life stifles the expression of their collective genius. A language is not only used for the main instrument of human communication. It also expresses the world vision of those who speak it, their imagination and their ways of using knowledge. Thus, the preservation of languages no matter how minor is an urgent matter.

What is the part of speech of the bold/underlined word in this sentence? The students worked through the exam carefully to avoid making too many mistakes.

Read the sentence carefully, and choose the best answer to the question. If this book begins with a familiar theme–the Native American experience of the last 120 years–the author brings to it great power and deep understanding. What do we know about this book?

Read the paragraph.  Write 1-2 sentences that summarize the main idea of the paragraph without copying phrases directly from the original paragraph. Memory is a funny thing. If you say someone has a good memory, do you mean they can recall something quickly or can absorb new information easily? Regardless of what you believe memory to be, you need to be careful not to create barriers for your memory to store things correctly.  To be honest, memory can be negatively affected by a number of things. Poor nutrition and depression can affect a person’s ability to retain information. This is because both of these issues can create a chemical imbalance in your body and brain. Furthermore, excessive alcohol use can also impair memory and cause permanent damage to the brain over the long term. Science is well aware of both the short-term and long-term effects of too much drinking. Finally, a vision or hearing impairment may affect a person’s ability to notice certain things, making it harder to record information in the brain. The usual pathways for memory and retention are either impeded or nonexistant, and the brain may not be able to compensate. Certainly, we need to make sure we are not making it difficult for the brain to engage in all the necessary processes to keep our memory facilities working well.

Look at the following sentences. Match the words with PREFIXES we have learned to the best explanation.

Read the following sentence carefully, and choose the best answer to the question. Just before his tenth birthday, Juan received a horse from his father; this was the first in a series of expensive gifts intended to create the impression of a loving parent. Why did Juan receive the horse?