Error correction

In class we looked at the following errors from your reading worksheets:

1. In this comment, it was drawn a picture of Eurozone
2. The structure of the Eurozone is under the risk of destroying
3. Many people may face to unpredicted results
4. Eventually, the trilogy of Men in Black is ready to complete.
5. Complicated scenario of the film lead to high expectations.
6. It is inevitable that Greece exit from the Eurozone
7. As one knows that there is a big crisis in Greek.
8. Two mains idea
9. It will be good for Greek to return of the drachmas
10. Past two years revolutions were occurred in the Middle East which were called Arab Spring.
11. This is different from the other revolutions, because the deep sectarian differences in Syria.
12. Russia’s, China’s and Iran’s supports to Asad’s regime.
13. As a result, even if Asad’s regime will be overthrown, the battle between the sectarians and ethnic pockets will not finish.

We also made the following corrections:

3. Many people may face unpredicted results

5. The complex plot leads to high expectations.

6. It is inevitable that Greece will exit from the Eurozone

9.It will be good for Greece to return to the Drachma

12.Russia, China and Iran’s support for Asad’s regime.

Note that many of these corrections were easy with resources like the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary or the Oxford Collocations Dictionary.  If you would like to suggest further corrections or ask any questions, please add a comment to this post.  Remember that you can post links to interesting reading material or publish your own summaries on this blog and I will be VERY HAPPY to respond.

Click here for a link to the article we read from New Statesman.

I would be very interested to read your thoughts and opinions on the content of the article.  Please also let me know if you find any particular sentences or sections difficult to read.

Feedback on Reading Worksheets

Below, I have tried to write corrected versions of what you each wrote as the “gist” of the article we read last week.  In your opinion, which version is the best?

a.       Entrepreneurs deal with the cost of the production process.  If they find a location with lower costs, they move there.  The key point that I wish to make is that with increasing prosperity, Chinese workers want more pay, shorter hours and more benefits and so labour costs in China have grown and, as a result, some production is moving back to the developed world.

b.      There are some changes in the economic zone.  The wage costs are increasing in China and production is moving to other countries.

c.       Repatriation of production.  Usage of high technology in production reduces labour cost, and I think in future only robots will be used in production.

d.      Owing to rising labour costs in China, the global economy will have to face a new crisis in the information age.

e.      Rising wage costs led to production being moved to China.  Now, Chinese companies are searching for different production techniques, such as using robots in manufacturing.  This contributes to an increase in the standard of living.  However, the company’s standard product used to have a ten-year life cycle.

f.        It is explained that economic growth in China may be affected by a changing situation, with positive and negative effects on Chinese employment and big companies with factories in China.

g.       First of all, in the text, the writer mentions general economic transformations in China’s special economic zone.  He uses a method which goes from general to specific information.  I think that in the text there are some observations about Chinese wages and their various effects.            In China, economic process is boomeranging, which brings a harmful result from the intended good one.  Developed countries have advanced technology and some jobs are returning to developed countries.

i.         Firstly, the text says something about labour rights and this affects other processes of production.  The writer also gives some information and examples about his ideas.  Workers will want higher living standards, but they might not achieve them because of technology.

Peerless

When I saw this article about Andrea Pirlo in today's Guardian, it reminded me of our discussion of the word "peerless" in last Thursday's class.

This week's reading task

If you would prefer to complete your reading worksheets electronically, please feel free to use the file below.  Better still, you could post your gist, reactions, vocabulary lists, and language questions directly to this blog.

I would be grateful if you could post links to texts you have chosen to read as a comment on this blog post (or, if you're feeling brave, as a blog post of your own).

You can access The Boomerang Effect via the Economist website by clicking here.  My wordle cloud comes from wordle.net.  I also showed you the AWL Highlighter; there are related links here.

Suggested reading

The main purpose of this blog is to encourage you to do as much reading as possible...in English of course. I don't really mind what you read. It's important that it's something that you find interesting, but it would also be good if you chose texts that help you develop your vocabulary (i.e. nothing *too* easy). I will post links to good online resources, but if you find other sites by yourself, please share your own recommendations by making comments or posts on this site. As a starting point, I'd like to recommend the following:

• The Economist 
• New Scientist 
• The Guardian
• The Independent
• The Telegraph
• The BBC

 for listening practice, there are lots of interesting clips on the following sites:

• The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy
• TED

All of these links, and many more, can also be found on my Online Learning Resources Blog.

Finally, if like me you would rather read and talk about football than, well, most other subjects, there's plenty of intelligent football writing in the quality British newspapers (I tend to read the Guardian football pages over breakfast every morning), but there's also a great blog called The Swiss Ramble, which combines football and economics in a fascinating way (if you like that kind of thing).