Small Talk

Wierd unusual story
http://youtu.be/A_j3bVYwAp4

A strange coincidence
Do you believe in destiny or just coincidence?


Read about the amazing true story below and watch the video link.


At the age of 36, struggling writer Julie Wassmer was about to have her first ever meeting with a literary agent. Little did Julie know how momentous this meeting was set to be. Twenty years earlier, when Julie was just 16, she had become pregnant. Worried how her parents would react, Julie had kept her pregnancy a secret right up until the day she gave birth. Ten days later, she'd been forced to make the hardest decision of her life: to give her baby up for adoption. As the years passed, Julie often wondered what had happened to her daughter. Now, through the most extraordinary of coincidences, Julie was about to find out. A temporary secretary called Sara had just started working in the agents' office. Sara had recently discovered that she had been adopted, and had just got hold of her birth certificate. According to the certificate, her mother's name was Julie Wassmer.


Youtube video link

Thank you all for attending today's lesson.
I'm happy to see Domenico back amongst us once again, and with a very valid contribution to discussion, too.


Lessons seem to be going very well, and I'm very happy to continue discussing lesson content over a coffee after class. Thank you so much for displaying so much enthusiasm for English language - keep up the good work.


For your homework please choose an important figure, if not yourself, to use for your time line practice.
You don't have to go into too much detail, but try to use a variety of tenses which we can then discuss in the next lesson. Use the purple time line exercise as a source of reference (also available on this blog).


See you next Tuesday.

English 24
Here's an opportunity for everyone to save 40% on subscription to 'english24' monthly magazine.


Thanks to AISLi you can now take advantage of this limited offer.
Ask me for further information and for a subscription request form if you would like to subscribe.

Questionnaire Results
Thanks to everyone who submitted their completed questionnaires about the INFN Upper Intermediate / Advanced English Classes.


Below you can look at the results and compare the general overview with your own needs and expectations.
Lessons will be orientated around what you have expressed as your needs and interests.

Can animals talk?

Take a look at the following link to a blog which talks about the capacity of animals learning words and communicating effectively with humans.


http://joe-perez.com/languagemystic/2011/07/talking-dogs-and-other-true-tales/

The mastermind behind an empire that has revolutionised personal computing, telephony and music 

Taken from The Guardian.co.uk

Steve Jobs history Video

Steve Jobs was born February 24, 1955, to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption. Smart but directionless, Jobs experimented with different pursuits before starting Apple Computers with Stephen Wozniak in the Jobs' family garage. Apple's revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology.

Early Life

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. His father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor and his mother, Joanne Simpson, worked as a speech therapist. Shortly after Steve was placed for adoption, his biological parents married and had another child, Mona Simpson. It was not until Jobs was 27 that he was able to uncover information on his biological parents.

As an infant, Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist. The family lived in Mountain View within California's Silicon Valley. As a boy, Jobs and his father would work on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby which instilled confidence, tenacity, and mechanical prowess in young Jobs.

While Jobs has always been an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. In elementary school he was a prankster whose fourth grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal his parents declined.

After he did enroll in high school, Jobs spent his free time at Hewlett-Packard. It was there that he befriended computer club guru Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was a brilliant computer engineer, and the two developed great respect for one another.

Apple Computers

After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes. Jobs later recounted how one course in calligraphy developed his love of typography.

In 1974, Jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. Several months later he left Atari to find spiritual enlightenment in India, traveling the continent and experimenting with psychedelic drugs. In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computers. The duo started in the Jobs family garage, and funded their entrepreneurial venture after Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak sold his beloved scientific calculator.

Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making the machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive, and accessible to everyday consumers. The two conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers that they initially marketed for $666.66 each. Their first model, the Apple I, earned them $774,000. Three years after the release of their second model, the Apple II, sales increased 700 percent to $139 million dollars. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publically traded company with a market value of $1.2 billion on the very first day of trading.Jobs looked to marketing expert John Scully of Pepsi-Cola to help fill the role of Apple's President.

Departure from Apple

However, the next several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple sales, and Apple had to compete with an IBM/PC dominated business world. In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counter culture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative. But despite positive sales and performance superior to IBM's PCs, the Macintosh was still not IBM compatible. Scully believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and executives began to phase him out.

In 1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO to begin a new hardware and software company called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar's potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money into the company. Pixar Studios went on to produce wildly popular animation films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Pixar's films have netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.

Reinventing Apple

Despite Pixar's success, NeXT, Inc. floundered in its attempts to sell its specialized operating system to mainstream America. Apple eventually bought the company in 1997 for $429 million. That same year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO.

Much like Steve Jobs instigated Apple's success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalizing the company in the 1990s. With a new management team, altered stock options, and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. His ingenious products such as the iMac, effective branding campaigns, and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again.

Pancreatic Cancer

In 2003, Jobs discovered he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pescovegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options. For nine months Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of directors nervous. Executives feared that shareholders would pull their stocks if word got out that their CEO was ill. But in the end, Job's confidentiality took precedence over shareholder disclosure. In 2004, he had a successful surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years Jobs disclosed little about his health.

Recent Innovations

Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod, and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of modern technology. Almost immediately after Apple releases a new product, competitors scramble to produce comparable technologies. In 2007, Apple's quarterly reports were the company's most impressive statistics to date. Stocks were worth a record-breaking $199.99 a share, and the company boasted a staggering $1.58 billion dollar profit, an $18 billion dollar surplus in the bank, and zero debt.

In 2008, iTunes became the second biggest music retailer in America-second only to Wal-Mart. Half of Apple's current revenue comes from iTunes and iPod sales, with 200 million iPods sold and six billion songs downloaded. For these reasons, Apple has been rated No. 1 in America's Most Admired Companies, and No. 1 amongst Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders.

Personal Life

Early in 2009, reports circulated about Jobs' weight loss, some predicting his health issues had returned, which included a liver transplant. Jobs had responded to these concerns by stating he was dealing with a hormone imbalance. After nearly a year out of the spotlight, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote address at an invite-only Apple event September 9, 2009.

In respect to his personal life, Steve Jobs remained a private man who rarely discloses information about his family. What is known is Jobs fathered a daughter with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan when he was 23. Jobs denied paternity of his daughter Lisa in court documents, claiming he was sterile. Jobs did not initiate a relationship with his daughter until she was 7 but, when she was a teenager, she came to live with her father.

In the early 1990s, Jobs met Laurene Powell at Stanford business school, where Powell was an MBA student. They married on March 18, 1991, and lived together in Palo Alto, California, with their three children.

Final Years

On October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that co-founder Steve Jobs had died. He was 56 years old at the time of his death.

Taken from A&E Television Networks.

Tuesday 13th March


For your homework today I would like you to complete the task below.
There are a series of sentences which each present a particular tense conveying a respective meaning.
Look at the time lines on the right and match them to the correct sentences.
Think about the difference in meaning in each case considering whether the actions are punctual or durative, complete or relevant at the time of utterance.

Thursday 8th March


Thanks to all of you who made it to today's grammar lesson.
Cettina, after you left we completed the listening exercise on page 4 of the Language to go Student's book.
For homework I have asked everyone to identify which tense is being used in the sentences extracted from the listening dialogue (grammar focus exercise 5, page 5).

Thursday 1st March, 2012 - Homework

Please remember to find the time to look at the idioms we covered during last Thursday's lesson which focused on metaphor and idioms.

BBC World News


Hello everyone,
Please look at the BBC website link frequently to keep to with world news and practise your English skills.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

There is water on Mars!

"Regenerative environmental control systems"

What do you think the above title refers to?

This is the curious name given to an indispensable piece of equipment on board the capsule that put the first American astronaut into orbit - but what is it?

Go to the link and watch the video of John Glen's speech to find out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17107817

Watch the video about this modern day space technician's specialisation.

Welcome Paolo and Domenico.


What a nice lesson I had together with you all today. I was sorry Cettina couldn't be with us although I know she is elsewhere enjoying her day.
I was very pleased to meet Paolo and Domenico, at last - welcome to your English class.
Thanks to all of you who have done homework and completed the questionnaires. I will publish the results as soon I have them all back. This will allow us to model our lessons to meet your specific needs without boring you.
There are lots of things I have in mind for your future lessons, and they are all orientated around understanding language and stimulating advanced usage of English such as connotations, register, style, English usage, idioms etc.


Below is a link to some listening from the BBC. There is also a text you can follow as you listen. Don't worry, there are no trick questions in class afterwards.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2012/02/120223_6min_english_orbit.shtml

50th anniversary of NASA space orbit