The Art of Language and Deception in Lolita free essay sample

In his own words, he is Humbert the deadly charming sophisticate, Humbert the lover, Humbert the monster, and above all Humbert the the manipulator. In the Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov, Humbert uses ornate language and style to manipulate the audience and invoke a trust and cordialness that leads to a view of him as a sympathetic pedofile. Humberts narration is full of wordplay and hidden meanings. He is playing with our minds throughout the novel, slowly gaining our trust and manipulating us. The complexity of Humbert’s narration creates an interesting and enjoyable flow to his confession that he uses to his advantage, since it is at some points quite difficult to piece together true facts and details of his story. His narration spontaneously changes; from a serious and eloquent demeanor, to a playful tone riddle-like tone with wordplay, as well as from his monstrous and uncontrollable pedophiliac yearnings, to a somewhat sensible and remorseful individual. We will write a custom essay sample on The Art of Language and Deception in Lolita or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page His change in voice allows him to commit crimes in one hand, while fooling us with his ornate language in the other. For example, in a child-like mix-up of letters, Humbert blurts out â€Å"What’s the Katter with misses? † I muttered (word-control gone) into her hair. † This is quite a setback from the Humbert who begins his phrases with â€Å"Gentlemen of the jury! †(Nobokov 69), following it by providing well thought out defenses for his nymph desires. By teasing the jury with the two sides, he shows an playful and vulnerable side to him that could not be completely ruthless, as well as a level-headed moral being who is simply conflicted with an uncontrollable desire. In addition, Humbert addresses the audience in this way to give them a feeling of authority towards a man who freely admits his guilt, which keeps his manipulation game in check most of the time. The fact that Humbert mentions numerous times the lolita’s sexual deviousness and flirtatious demeanor, while in true sense mind, her child-mind at the age of twelve could not have grasped and control the relationship, regardless of her sexual experiences embodies this manipulation. The constant mixing of moral values shields the audience from seeing the true monster that he is. He tells us on numerous occasion that he loves her and even displays remorse from time to time â€Å" in retrospect, was no more than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tires and her sobs in the night—every night, every night—the moment I feigned sleep† (176) quickly offsetting it by showing his ruthless and evil perversion the sensualist in me had no objection to some depravity in his prey (124) at what he has created Humbert referring to himself as a monster and pedofile therefore, is only to distract the audience from their manipulated minds. The changing style allows more time for a visual stimulation in his ornate style and shocking accounts, and less time in actually deciphering the fabricating lies to the actual evidence and occurrences. The ending result is that the stimulating narration is its analyzes itself and that the reader gives up on decipher some of his clues Being the writer that he is, Humbert cannot help but create beauty within each moment of his story, which work to distract the audience out of complete repulsion towards his actions. Whether it be admiring the sunlit lake in the mundane suburban noontime, having a brief tryst with a nymph-like prostitute in a cheap hotel room, or contemplating a drowning murder in which he described â€Å" passed like the tail of a falling star across the blackness of the contemplated crime. It was like some dreadful silent ballet, the male dance holding the ballerina by her foot and streaking down through watery twilight. † (Nobokov 86-87), he does not fail to veil his crimes with lavish brilliance. In this case, the imagery he creates using a simile of graceful ballerinas amid the darkly lit backdrop of a vicious homicide illustrates the genius of Humberts distractions that keep the reader intrigued and unquestioning. Though the audience may be aware of the fact that his thoughts and actions are repulsive most of the time (he clearly states it), like an infatuated lover in the middle of an abusive relationship, we are hooked on to his language, and seem to take less offense towards him because what he feeds us in his style and imagery. Diverts reader from the real problem. The masterpiece in his language: distracts the reader from fully grasping or taking seriously the sadist that he outwardly presents to us. By displaying his sadist desires bluntly and at the same time being able to capture the empathy and understanding of such the jury, who by all societal standards, should be rioting his confession, Humbert can revere himself on yet another feat, in which he is able to manipulate by empathizing beauty in his evil, insteading attempting to hide is dark thoughts. In a way, his self-confessing and guilt ridden outburst towards his inner-most pedofilia desires displays that the guilt he feels is not completely at his fault. It is the societys fault that, the laws that prohibit that type of relationship. Although Humbert may have felt remorseful towards the destruction he caused lolita, it is unjust to label him as a reformed criminal and a hero. He never really states that there is something completely morally wrong with his thoughts, only that the society he is a part of believes Based on the novel, a man of Humberts intelligence: one that strategically places each detail of his liaisons, each sentence, each word in place to create a riddle-like confession that leaves the reader speechless or sorrowful does not simply show us his true self to an audience without thinking it through. In other words, it would make little sense for a man of Humberts intellect to so easily forget his judging jury and directly show his vain and arrogant personality to further accusate himself. Not to worry however, because Humbert had after all strategically mannered each one of his jolts of laughable conceit and arrogance. His too-good, smarter than everyone demeanor is apparent when he mentions his adult companions (Valeria, Charlotte, Rita) in his less-fortunate and pitiful voice. While envisioning how he could use Charlotte to his advantage he says â€Å"I might blackmail—no, that is too strong a word—mauvemail big Haze into letting me consort with little Haze by gently threatening the poor doting Big Dove with desertion if she tried to bar me from playing with my legal stepdaughter. †(Nobokov 71) Here, he purposely shows us the ease he believes he has in getting what he wants and in controlling the other characters, while in reality the audience is aware that these flaws inhibit greater consequence. In additon, Humbert also allows himself to exaggerate the size of his reproductive organ when he tells us â€Å"I was to her not a boyfriend, not a glamour man, not a pal, not even a person at all, but just two eyes and a foot of engorged brawn–† (Nobokov 283). The intent in each of these instances therefore, is to show that on top of his moral flaws, he also has character flaws such as his vanity and cockiness, which allow him to humanize himself outside of the pedofile box he is put in. Furthermore, it strangely but logically enhances his reliability as a narrator because his bouts of denial and arrogance works to show the reader that he is not as conniving and calculating as the reader may think if he is able to forget the simple aspect of his own voice when writing his confession. This effect, however is exactly what Humbert wants us to think, that his moments of inattentiveness and feeling vulnerable he describe obviously biased scenarios and viewpoints. Of course, the true effect is that Humbert has succeeded yet again in manipulating the audience, in this case allowing us to see him more as an honest narrator, whether it be out of his own recklessness, or his inability to contain his emotions. As a result, the reader will in some cases, be occupied with analyzing his psychological motives of a sick man at odds with his feelings and desires and inexplicably releases on an easy twelve year old prey, instead of acknowledging that he is quite simply a manipulative sadist. He had to paint a more pathetic and self-delusional image of himself in order to hide his sinister and manipulative side. Classic ruthlessness to some of his actions. He purposely displays his human weaknesses as a first person narrator to gain an excuse for his actions. Like how serial often blame narcotics or demonic possession for their actions, Humbert inexplicably blames his imbalanced mind, while in reality it is his manipulative genius that causes us to believe this. The stated point to the work is to show us the confession of a reformed pedofile. The imbalance of chemicals in the mind of such a monster and how to spot one. Most importantly, to show that he has changed for the better. Upon closer inspection it is seen that this interpretation is simply a distraction from sinister and almost comical manipulation that he puts the reader through. It is a roller coaster of feigned attractions that ends with a triumphant Humbert who has fooled the audience with his deranged sympathy games. He is a true manipulative (monster) because through the jail he is able to manipulate the audience, ironically through his confession. Blurs line between sadism and beauty

Ray! essays

Ray! essays My African American is Ray Charles, Ray Charles is one of the greatest R Ray Charles Robinson was born in September 23, 1930, He grew up in Albany, Georgia and was raised in Greenville, Florida. At age Six, Ray Charles suffered from Glaucoma after traumatically watching his brother drown in a washtub his mom used for laundry, because of this he started to lose his site. At the age of Seven he attended St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind from 1937 to 1945 where he learned Piano, Clarinet, and Alto Sax, He also learned how to read and write music in braile In 1948 he was Seventeen and took 600 dollars of savings and moved to Seattle, where he formed the Maxim Trio who had a major hit called Confession Blues. During this time in Seattle he began using Heroin. Later Ray Charles made Ray Charles Enterprises, he recorded many songs of his there, like I cant stop loving you Born to Lose and many more. Later in 1986 he was inducted to the Rock Ray Charles overcame many obstacles like when he started using heroin in 1948, and especially him losing his site at the age of six, learning to play piano clarinet and alto sax, and learning to read Braile and write music in Braile is just amazing, I cant realate to any of these but to overcome a lot of these things is just amazing. Ray charles didnt really do anything controversial but he did use heroin in 1948, he did appear in many movies and later dropped his contract. My opinion on Ray Charles is that he is a great and influential African American, he has influenced many people in his life and ...

Groupism in Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Groupism in Design - Essay Example A group is needed to complement the weakness and bring out the best in every individual. In business, groupism serves as an audience to the prospected market of the product. However, controversies regarding groupism are discussed and debate everywhere. Some designers claimed that groupism would box their ideas into the norms of the group and hinders their creativity. Some studies also pointed out that groupism in universities creates misunderstandings and rivalry to the outside group of students. In family, groupism could result in degree of animosity with those who are outside the family. Designers are people who have extreme ideas. They are not afraid to take risks and be different. They are individuals with strong personality. Introducing them into a group will be of great challenge; for them, it seems like being enclosed into a cage or box. For them, their ideas will be controlled and will not be heard according to their wants and preferences. As stated earlier, the group is needed to minimize the weaknesses and brings out the best in every individual, but how come that even the strengths will be suppressed This risk could be reduced through organization's proper recruitment and management. Working in a group required lots of effort and team building. The management must evaluate the designer's skills to know the areas where they excel the most and the areas where development is needed. Working as a group is as simple as math. Everyone has their highest positive number and lowest negative number. These will be summed up and be divided according to the numbers of m ember. The average is the rate of the group's effectiveness. On the other hand, the highest positive number could be recognized with the help of proper management. Understanding uniqueness of every individual could give the management an insight on what hinders productivity, what can be changed and developed. Groupism in design is just like a basketball team playing. Everyone wants to excel, to give their best and help the team win. But even with the best players, playing without goal and cooperation will not help win the game. It will produce confusion and misunderstandings. The strengths of every player should be used and the weakness of each should be complemented by other players. The coach could help the team by proper allocation of players and setting of instructions. According to the survey made in Japanese schools, 61% of the 280 respondents believed that the main reason for a society to have preschool is to learn on how to be a member of group. The need to belong is part of the human instinct making groupism as a normal sight in schools and universities. As an urban word, groupism is defined as losing someone's identity after being part of the group. Stereotypes were created due to the fact that they are afraid to be different. They tend to ignore their own ideas and openness was not extended to every member because they are afraid to be rejected. Peers struggle to belong in a group and be accepted; consequently resulting in generation of low confidence. The leader of the group is followed and everyone goes with the flow. Motivation comes from outside sources. On the other ha

Western Culture. Wal-Mart in Germany and Carrefour in South Korea Essay

Western Culture. Wal-Mart in Germany and Carrefour in South Korea - Essay Example However these multinational corporations through the imposition of their own culture on the international societies fail to gain a wider acceptance in such markets. Thus in the subsequent period Wal-Mart and Carrefour both had to gain retreat from international markets like Germany and South Korea respectively. (Culture at Wal-Mart, p.68; Jung-a, 2006). Wal-Mart in Germany The retail giant, Wal-Mart based in Arkansas in United States had expanded its operations to gain access to international markets like Germany. However during 2006 the multinational retail company unfortunately had to wind up its operations from the country owing to a cultural conflict. The problem with Wal-Mart operating in Germany was that it failed to adjust its operational practices based on the existing culture of the German society. The sales staffs at Wal-Mart were trained to gain nearness to the customer by pitching sales standing at a ten-foot distance to them. These people endeavored to maintain eye conta cts with the customers while demonstrating their product and shared greetings and smile with them. However the German people not used to such cultural paradigms misunderstood them, which created the main problem. Further the staffs at Wal-Mart also helped the food and grocery marketers with their stuffed bags. These practices were dramatically assumed to be erroneous by the German population to which the management of the company paid little attention. German people who came face to face with operation staffs at Wal-Mart busy in conducting gossips and romances totally shunned such relationships for which they started developing a negative attitude towards the company. However the management of Wal-Mart did little to change the operational practices and in rendering training to the staff in behave in a likely manner with the customers. They only recruited German managers to help reduce the cultural gap. However unfortunately such action taken by the company in gaining customer attent ion also failed to generate any positive responses. The company, which was also surpassed by the German retailers in terms of sales and revenue gradually, quit its operations from the country during 2006 (Culture at Wal-Mart, p.68). Carrefour in South Korea

Why Golf Is a Sport Essay Example for Free

Why Golf Is a Sport Essay A matter of opinion has separated a variety of sports enthusiasts apart, due to the ongoing debate of whether golf is a sport or simply a skill. Famed golfer Arnold Palmer declared, â€Å"Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening – and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented. (ThinkQuest. com)† These words state what every athlete experiences and feels when he/she is turning a double play, making the game winning three point shot, or throwing a hail mary pass for a touchdown. Golfers are athletes too, they train for that big moment just like any other athlete, but they do it individually and gain the glory for themselves. Golf has increasingly become known not as a sport, but as a skill, which is a huge misconception that I intend to set the facts straight. The definition of a sport is narrowly defined, and to one its own opinion, but Golf is a competition just like every other sport, winning is its pinnacle. Golf requires the number one characteristic that is vital to all sports – hand-eye coordination. These men and women use their athletic ability to reach the top of their game. Golf takes sports to a different level and is played on its own terms. To each his own opinion, but why has the definition of â€Å"a sport† being termed as so narrowly? The NCAA defines a sport as: An institutional activity involving physical exertion with the purpose of competition versus other teams or individuals within a collegiate competition structure. Furthermore, sport includes regularly scheduled team and/or individual, head-to-head competition (at least five) within a defined competitive season(s); and standardized rules with rating/scoring systems ratified by official regulatory agencies and governing bodies. Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and even golf display these qualities of what is defined as a sport. There has been a considerable amount of people who tend to disclose golf as a sport, only a skill or activity. Yet, many people object the physical exertion aspect with golf, that it does not require any. These objectors who say golf should not be included in that defined group are ignorant to athletics and its regulations. My definition of a sport is a competition that involves athletes who play to win within a certain structure of rules and regulations. Anyone can be an athlete; they do not have to be good to play a sport, as long as they try with some effort. A sport requires certain qualities of an individual too that it can not be without. Hand-eye coordination is vital to every sport out there. A basketball player has to shoot the ball into the hoop, a football player has to throw the ball to an open receiver, a baseball player has to swing a bat to hit a 95 mile per hour fastball, and golfers have to swing their club and hit a tiny ball a couple hundred yards. It is the number one aspect that is required in all sports. Although it is common to associate sports with many other qualities. The â€Å"manly† qualities of other sports such as cheerleaders and fights usually are not included in golf, some figure because it is missing these qualities, that it should not even be considered a sport. â€Å"Cheerleaders are important to sports. They keep the crowd excited; they keep the participants enthused about winning; and they give you something else to look at when the action on the field of play grinds to a halt. With golf theres not a lot of action to begin with. (Irvin)† Although golf is missing the appendages that invigorate other sports with such audacity, the onlookers respect their golfers need for silence and concentration. It is a sport which requires a massive amount of concentration, just like any other sport. Irvin states his idea that cheerleaders are important to sports, when in fact; cheerleading has nothing to do at all with the style of play. He is right that they keep the crowd excited, but that is the only reason why they are there, they do not play, they yell and dance. It makes me wonder why one would think that Golf needs to have cheerleaders to keep the crowd excited when the golfers need a massive amount of concentration. Yet regular sports fans forget that each sport is different, and that is what makes them stand out and appeal to others. Golf does not appeal to some, but a lot of people play the sport religiously, reason being – one does not have to be the typical in shape athlete that most are. Golfers are athletes too, and train to be good ones. Swinging a club and hitting a ball three hundred plus yards requires muscle strength in the torso and upper body. Golfers are just the kind of athletes who do not need to negotiate long-term big money contracts, and scratch themselves while being interviewed after play is over (Lowe). Golf is not a team sport either; it is an individual sport and the glory is captured for them, and they take pride and honor after an amazing feat as any athlete would. The honor and competitiveness of this sport has trickled down to the much supportive fan base. After exposing the truths and presenting evidence about one of the greatest sports ever to be played, we can no longer dispute golf as just a skill or activity, but declare Golf a real sport. It is important to sports enthusiasts everywhere that they have to look beyond the typical definition of a sport and expand their minds. Golfers are athletes too, playing for the top prize every time they step onto the course. Golf is gaining popularity by the second, no longer can it be said to be â€Å"not a real sport†. Golf justifies what every sport should be, the way it is played, the professional maturity that every golfer shows, and competition. Merriam Webster defines a sport as 1): physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2): a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in. Golf qualifies as a sport according to this definition and until it is changed, it will remain one of the legendary sports to play.

Functional Areas of Organization

Functional Areas of Organization INTRODUCTION: Organisations are built about a group of functions, each of which provides support for the operations of the business. Functional departments each serve a specific purpose with an organisation to achieve its objectives. The most common functional areas of an organisation discussed below. Information need is an individual or groups desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious or unconscious need. The information and need in information need are inseparable interconnection. Information needs are related to, but distinct from information requirements. An example is that a need is hunger, the requirement is food. In large organizations, each of the functional departments may be separate, whereas smaller organizations may have integrated departments. Different functional areas of an organization are: Sales Purchase Manufacturing Marketing Finance Human resource Administration Comparison Contrasting Sales The sales team deal with customers and generate orders. The technioques used to generate sales varies between organisation,but some of the most common are telephone,door-to-door sales,advertising,and direct sales through representatives. Purchase The purchasing department is responsible for monitoring how many products or stock is required at any one time and buying accordingly. Manufacturing Depending on the type of organisation, one of the functional departments may be manufacturing, who would deal with all of the processing of product service. Marketing The marketing department advertise and promote the products or service of the organisation. In some case, it may be integrated with the sales function. Finance The primary function of the finance department is to ensure that there is financial stability within an organisation and a steady cash flow to support day-to-day transactions. Human resource The role of human resources is to provide support to the employees of an organisation. The primary function is to ensure the welfare of staff, by giving advice, guidance and motivation to enable them to work productively. Administration The administration function is integral to almost all organisations. Administrative staff works in all departments within organisations. Purchase: The purchasing department may also be responsible for buying in consumable products, such as stationery, to support the other functional departments within the organisation. Sales: the sales department may also provide supporting functions to other departments, particularly if the organisation does not have a dedeicated marketing or customer service department. Manufacturing : Large national or multi-national organisations offering a diverse range of products or services would certainly need a manufacturing department to spearhead product developments. Marketing: The marketing department will be involved in the few activities. Such as designing developing promotional materials, organising marketing events, likely launches and campaigns. Developing websites Finance: The finance department is responsible for payment and transaction, investments, accounting procedures, budges and forecasting Human resource: Human resource departments are also responsible for overseeing the recruitment of staff and the payroll as well as resignations and redundancies. Administration: Organising meetings, taking minutes, audio and touch typing and letter writing are some of the day to day tasks an office administrator undertakes.

Caring for Children Essay

As a social worker, it is important to follow all the legislations which are in the field of children’s rights so that all children can be safely looked after and treated with respect. The Children Act was introduced in 1989 and the Scottish children act was introduced in 2004. This act was initially designed to ensure that all local authorities were making equal provision to support young children, teenagers and their families. This act includes the support of children with disabilities when they are at the age of 18 and this comes under the NHS Community Care Act of 1990. In 1995 the Children Act was updated In Scotland with the same view that the child is still the centre of importance. The act updated the law in Scotland related to looking after children and young people. ECM was introduced in 2003. It stands for Every Child Matters. This legislation considers the well-being of children and young people from births up to age of 19. Five principles of this legislation apply to every child, whatever their background and circumstance is. All children should be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and experience an economic well-being. All organisations working with children and young people must work together to protect children from harm and help them to achieve their goals. Information will be gathered concerning vulnerable groups so that support strategies can be put in place. Children and young people will be involved in the process of decision making. The first Children’s Commissioner for the UK was appointed in the year of 2005 to help give children and young people some input into the government. The Young Persons and Children Act was introduced in 1933. It is an act that puts all the children protection acts together so it comes under as one act. The purpose of this act is to refurbish the statutory framework for the care system in the UK and Wales. This forms a segment of the government’s programme to ensure the children the highest quality of care and support. The Act provides services which are linked to children’s well-being and young people’s well-being, private fostering, child death notification to the Local Safeguarding Boards and suitable national authorities, the powers of the Secretary of State will conduct a research and applications for the discharge of Emergency Protection Orders. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was introduced in 1989. This ac is an international agreement that considers the rights of all  children and young people. It is made up of 54 articles covering a variety of rights, including the right to be free from violence, the right to play, the right to express themselves and have their views taken into account. This convention provides extra rights to ensure that children and young people living away from home and those who have disabilities are treated fairly and their specific needs are met. The Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998. It came into force in England and Wales in the year 2000 and includes the European Convention on Human Rights into the national legislative framework. This Act enables young people, children and adults to look for protection of their rights both nationally and internationally via the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Data Protection Act was introduced in 1998 and it prevents private information from being misusedÃ'Ž

What Is Mindfulness?

Sometimes I think the translation of the word â€Å"mindfulness† is incorrect in two ways. Right Mindfulness is a step of the Eightfold Path and is the centerpoint of Buddhist practice. First, it's not a good translation because â€Å"mindfulness† is kind of an insipid word. â€Å"Be mindful† — what does that mean? It doesn't have the kind of inspiring quality of spaciousness, courage, or living fully.Perhaps if you pronounced it differently and said, mindfulness, that would be a better understanding of the word and its power. But a more fundamental difficulty in even talking about mindfulness, whatever that means for us, is that the mind and the heart are the same word in Sanskrit or Pali. So perhaps a better word would be â€Å"heartfulness† — live in a heartful way. Forget about this mind stuff all together. You could do without a lot of it, if you haven't noticed.The Buddha very often said that mindfulness was the heart or the essence of his practice — to be heedful or aware — that was the road to liberation and to the deathless, to freedom from even birth and death; that is, freedom from being caught in the cyclic nature of things, stepping outside the cycle of things. What does â€Å"mindfulness† mean to us sitting here as a group. We sat for an hour this evening or a little bit less, but for those of you who have attended regularly, we've been sitting here for a year doing something supposedly related to paying attention and being mindful.What does it mean? What are the qualities of it, what are we doing here? We sit, we pay attention to the breath, or our body sensations, or the sounds, or the people walking by, or the various thoughts and images in our mind. To be mindful first means simply to come into the present — to listen with our senses, with our heart, with our physical body, with our ears, with our eyes, to what is actually here in the present; the body, the heart and the min d. It's that thing I've spoken of many times before, the sign from the casino in Las Vegas, â€Å"You must be present to win. In Las Vegas, in therapy, in meditation, it's all the same thing. In order to awaken or to use our life in a skillful way, the first task is to get here, to start to live in the present moment, which means not living so much in our fantasies, in the future, not living so much in the past, in our images and memories, and reliving things that are gone already. The first is learning to be present, which itself is a very wonderful thing, because†here† and â€Å"now† and â€Å"in the present† re the only places that we can appreciate life to begin with. Otherwise, it's kind of second-hand, what happened a few years ago — that's a nice memory — or what we fantasize about. Where can you really appreciate this life we're given? Only in the present. Also, there is something else which interests a lot of people and can only be f ound in the present, and that is love. If you want to love a person or you want to be loved — some of you perhaps know anyway, right? — where does love take place? Or â€Å"when† is a better question.Again, it's a nice memory, â€Å"Gee, I was in love once or twice† — or more in some of your cases. It was very nice. It evokes a nice thing to remember it. Or it's in the future, â€Å"Oh, if only I could meet that right wonderful person,† or â€Å"this person that I live with,† or â€Å"this family,† or whatever, â€Å"if they would change so they would become right, then I could fall in love all over again with them or be happy with them. † The only place that you can really love a person or be loved is in the present. No other possibility for it. All the rest is fantasy.Also in the present comes the possibility of touching our intuition, of creativity, of clarity; all kinds of things. So the first aspect of awareness is simply learning in some way to live more fully here in our present reality. If you learn nothing else from meditation practice than that, you get your money's worth — especially since there's no charge. Secondly, mindfulness or heartfulness mean seeing clearly. It means non-grasping, non-greed, non-hatred, it means not pushing away, and it means not going to sleep, but seeing what is present for us.Bare attention, remembering, being in the present, without trying to change it somehow, which is a hard thing to learn because we're generally planning on what we're going to make this something into next. But then what happens? We end up doing that all the time and missing all the somethings that are here, always waiting for the next one. Mindfulness is really a way of learning to see what is here in a very clear way. People talk about learning mystical things in meditation or spiritual life. There is nothing more mystical, or startling, or bizarre, or amazing, than what is right in front of us.In my days I've done a lot of strange things. I've been to a lot of different countries on this planet, and observed saddhus on beds of nails in India, and strange animals in other parts of the world, and in my early days I took a number of the various kinds of psychedelics and drugs one could take, and have had all kinds of realms and weird experiences, and all kinds of things in meditation. I have never encountered a realm as peculiar, or bizarre, or as interesting as this one. Someone said: The mystery of life is not a problem to solve, or something that you find somewhere else, but it's a reality to experience here.We went to the zoo with the baby on Sunday. If you landed on some weird planet, and then you saw pygmy hippopotamuses or 300 pound ostriches and really wrinkled elephants — Did you ever look at elephant skin? Just amazing! — or the kind of snakes that are there, or sloths hanging upside down, you would say you had come by your spaceship to a really peculiar planet. And yet we forget that. We start to take it all for granted. It all becomes very ordinary, and it's not. If you attend a birth, it's an amazing thing to see a baby being born out of a human body.How does that happen? How does it get in there? I know you know how it gets in there. But I mean, how does it really get in there? Like the ship in the bottle. An incredible thing happens in there, the baby coming out of a woman. And we take it for granted. So to pay attention means to somehow have a newer or a fresher vision, to see clearly. It means to stop our judging and our planning and just see what's here, which is part of what we do in meditation; to stop and not judge a single thing; let it be exactly how it is.Let God take over for a little while and run the show rather than our minds, which get very tired, and very full, and very busy anyway, and need a rest. Someone said: The classic question is: If you pay attention and you don't judge, then how do you live in the world? What part of attention or awareness is that? That's called sampajanna. Sati is mindfulness, sampajanna means clear or right comprehension. It means not only do you pay attention to what's here, but then when you act in your life you also look at the context, at the suitability or the intention of it; what is present.When you act, you first have to see what's here, and then some intuition, or inspiration, or thought arises, â€Å"I'll do this or do that. † It's to pay attention to where your heart is, what motivates you, what the intention and the purpose of your action is, so that you pay attention but you also note the context. The way Joseph, my colleague and friend, answers the question when people say, â€Å"When you just pay attention and note ‘lifting, moving, placing' in the walking, or the in and out of the breathing, how can you live? He said, â€Å"Well, I was doing my lifting, moving, placing one day on a road in India near the Burmese t emple where I lived, just moving my feet and paying attention, and all of a sudden I heard ‘clang, clang' of the bells, and I recognized it. I knew what those bells were. I looked up and sure enough the elephant that lived in town was coming down the road right towards me. I noted ‘hearing, hearing' and ‘seeing, seeing'; then I noticed the intention to move out of the way arise, and then I walked out of the way. † So there are two parts.The first is seeing what is here, living in the reality of the present, and then responding to it wisely, being aware of the situation that we're in. At times this year I've talked in this class about another aspect of awareness which I think is really important to remember in our lives, and that is the very interesting question of why we don't pay attention; why do we go to sleep, why do we drive on automatic pilot, why do we eat three meals a day, two-thirds or three-quarters or ninety percent of it on automatic pilot? Why d o we live so much not here?It's a pretty interesting question, maybe even more interesting than saying, â€Å"One should pay attention or live in the present. † How come we don't? There's a story: When Krushchev pronounced his famous denunciation of Stalin, someone in the Russian Congress Hall was reported to have said, â€Å"And where were you, Comrade Krushchev, when all these innocent people were being slaughtered? † Krushchev paused, looked around the hall, and said, â€Å"Will the man who said that kindly stand up? Tension mounted in the hall. No one moved. Finally Krushchev said, â€Å"Well, whoever you are, you have your answer now.I was in exactly the same position then that you are in now. † Why is it that we don't pay attention? One reason is fear, that if we actually come into the present, there are certain things we have to deal with that we haven't had to in our lives. For some people it's boredom. We're really afraid of being bored. For some it's loneliness. For some it's grieving, something in their hearts that's not finished. So it's better to distract yourself, see a lot of movies, talk to people, keep yourself busy, stay on the phone, and keep yourself working, so you don't have to feel certain things. Another reason we don't stay awake is habit.You could be very peaceful, not have any grieving to do, and be comfortable being alone, and so forth, but it's like there's this huge flywheel inside. And there you are. It's a quiet day, you're just sitting down in the park, and all of a sudden out of nowhere you start thinking about what you'll do next week or next year, making plans, and playing back memories, because there's this powerful habit of thinking. It takes training to kind of release the clutch and let it slow down. That's part of what meditation is about. Also, pain is another reason, because if you live in the reality of the present moment, what do you experience?Up and down, light and dark, night and day, and pl easure and pain. And if you don't like pain which a lot of people don't — understandably — then what you have to do is manufacture some fantasy, to live in a lot of thought and busy-ness so you don't feel it. However, you rob yourself of something very, very important when you do it, which is that you rob your life of living, of heartfulness, of fullness, of vitality, of your existence. To live in the present means that you have to face your boredom and your loneliness when they come. They're not there all the time, and they're not so bad actually when you come to terms with them.They're a little scary but they're not so terrible. And you have to face the fact that there is this habit of greed, and hatred, and fantasy, sort of a machine that spins out thoughts out the habit of it. So you have to be willing to be aware of pain as well as pleasure. But if you are, the rewards are fantastic, because then you can really experience being with anot her person, walking down t he beach, taking a walk in the park, walking outside and seeing the stars. It's really very interesting to start to pay attention to when we go on automatic pilot.If you were to look at something in your meditation, rather than trying to be aware, try to be mindful of when it is that you go to sleep, what it is that's hard for you to be aware of. That is something that is quite interesting to learn about. Use it as a signal. â€Å"I haven't been very mindful today. I wonder what's going on? I haven't been very mindful this week. I wonder why? What's happening? Oh, I'm sad. It's hard to be sad, so I have to keep myself busy,† or â€Å"This thing is coming up that's difficult to deal with, so I think a lot and plan, rather than just notice that it's really hard. We learn somehow to find the center in the moment rather than toppling forward or into the past. If you let yourself do that, then everything stops. And one of the most wonderful things about awareness or heartfulness or mindfulness is that it allows us to come to rest, because there's really only one place to rest, which is in the present. We're householders, we're not monks and nuns. And the question often asked is: In order to be mindful does it mean we have to talk slowly and sit many hours a day and go into an ashram or some monastery?How can we bring mindfulness, heartfulness, wisdom here into our lives? How do you do that? Well, of course, as I said in the past few weeks, sometimes you do have to look at your life and see if you want to slow it down a little bit, if it's crazy, if it's real busy. Because our culture is a little bit mad in that way, you might need to take a look and see, â€Å"Gee, is it time to stop doing a few things, to make a little more space, to slow down? † Fundamentally, â€Å"mindfulness† means to learn to be aware where we are. If not here, where else? If not now, when?Mindfulness is the opposite of â€Å"if only,† it's the opposite of hope, i t's the opposite of expectation. It has in it a certain kind of contentment, not that one might not choose to change the world, but a kind of acceptance that this is really what we get, these sights, these sounds, these smells, these tastes, these perceptions. This is it! Then in another moment, there will be another â€Å"it. † It's not something else. â€Å"I know that this is all it is, but this is it. † When one accepts it, then one can come to rest. Mindfulness in a way is the opposite of grasping, or attachment, or identification.And it can go very, very deep when we allow ourselves, because what we start to see — if we slow down a little bit and pay attention — is how it is a kind of conditioned phenomenon, like a machine, the mind spins this stuff out in a very orderly way by habit — thoughts, fantasies and memories. The world works in certain conditioned patterns, and that's it's nature, and it's all impermanent and quite ungraspable. Wher e is yesterday? What happened to your weekend? Where is it? What happened to 1984, your 20's, or whatever it was — maybe you're 20 now. For some of you, your 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, where did they go?They all disappeared, gone. Isn't that an amazing thing? It's a very profound thing to start to be aware of life coming out of nothing and disappearing into nothing. A day appears for awhile, and then it's gone. It can't be grasped, it's like a bird flying. You cannot hold time and fundamentally you can't hold yourself. So the spirit of mindfulness is learning to live in an awake way. As the Buddha said, â€Å"I'm not a man, I'm not a God. I'm none of these things. I'm awake. † How can I convey the spirit of this? There are songs from the monks and nuns who lived after the Buddha died that are in these poems.If you readTherigatha, the songs of the sisters, there are many enlightenments that take place while they're walking through the forest. One nun is in the forest ta lking about how happy she is that she doesn't have to do housework anymore and she drops a cup or something like that on the ground, maybe it breaks, and all of a sudden she's enlightened. She says, â€Å"Oh, that's how it is. † Things arise for a while and then they pass away. If you can accept that and see that — each day, each moment, with each person, to experience what's there — and then leave it and go to the next, you can live in a deeply free way.So it really has the spirit of aliveness to it. In the monastery it was beautiful. We had all these rules, 227 major precepts and then some hundreds of minor precepts, and then they told you how to fold your robe, which side of the bowl you should put down, and how you should clean it properly. Even how to pee. There is a particular way monks are supposed to pee. You're supposed to squat down, you can't stand up, and you can't pee into water where there are obvious living things or on plants because you might ha rm them, and things like that. At first when I read this, I said, â€Å"Well, what's the difference if I squat down?Nobody is looking, first of all. These rules are dumb. † But after awhile of living them, in this beautiful forest monastery, where there wasn't anything else to do besides meditating and following the rules, which would drive you crazy initially, what you began to see is that somehow they brought you to see that everything was precious, that everything was worth caring for; that it mattered where you peed, that you could pee on the ground and not on a bush, and not harm it; or that it mattered how you took care of your bowl, which was one of your very few possessions.It was a gift from people who said, â€Å"We want to support you because we think that monasteries and what you're doing is valuable in the world and reminds all of us of something precious. So we'll give you a bowl. † You take care with your bowl, you take care with your robe, you take care with your car, you take care with your house, you take care with your clothes, because to be aware in some way means to remember the preciousness of life and to begin to take care with the earth and all the creatures and things on it.It's to be aware of ourselves and our bodies, of our actions, to be aware politically, to be aware economically, to be aware socially as well. Imagine if you were told that you have some disease, let's say AIDS because there's a lot of it that's happening, and it's both scary to people and very immediate and present, and real important to look at. Someone said, â€Å"Well, at best you have four years, maybe you have a year to go. † How would you start to live that year? Things would change for you, I assure you.Your life would become a lot more alive and precious for you. Or imagine that you've been in prison for a long time, as people are in many, many countries of the world. Amnesty International said that 55 countries have political prisoners who are imprisoned and often tortured because of religious views. The majority of the large countries on the earth imprison people for what they think. It's really painful. And then you were let out after a long time in prison, how would it be just to walk down the street in San Anselmo? What would the trees be like?Just the experience of being free, watching the cars, being able to go into a confectionery store and order any kind of sweet that you wanted, or just seeing the sky and feeling the air and being able to decide whether you're going to go down the block to the right or to the left. It's that spirit of heartfulness, of mindfulness that it comes to. It's not so much that you're supposed to be tedious about it at all, but it's somehow much more the spirit of an appreciation of life and of seeing it in a clear way. I remember when I was seven years old I spent a whole summer in bed.I had this kind of infection and I couldn't leave the house. And then when it ended and I fina lly could go out, I was given something like a dollar, which seemed like a lot of money at that time, and I went and I bought a ball and some bubble stuff, and I went to this big park near my house. It was like being let out of prison for a kid being in the house for a whole summer. I was so happy. To this day I remember the sun was shining, I could blow my bubbles and turn cartwheels and throw my ball and do anything I felt like. It was so wonderful. In some ways, that's part of the spirit of bringing awareness to our life.It also means, as I said, that we have to be willing to face that which is difficult, to open to what Zorba called â€Å"the whole catastrophe,† and to appreciate it in some way. It's really quite a trip. So first it means to take care with the earth, to learn that awareness means to receive, to see the preciousness of things. Secondly, then it allows our world to teach us, to let it teach you very simple truths which are the most important. For example, o ne monk went to his master after a long time of training and begged the teacher to give him enlightenment.The master led him over to a bamboo grove. He said, â€Å"See that bamboo there, how tall it is? See that one over there, see how short it is? † And the monk was enlightened. Things will teach us when we see them afresh, when we see them anew. We see them for a minute, we see the ungraspability of anything, of our own bodies — they change — of our thoughts, of our feelings, not to speak of the people and the things around us. — changing, ungraspable. And that they do. Sometimes they're big and sometimes they're small. That's the way that things are.It teaches us the preciousness of life. When we pay attention we can learn. We can learn from our families. We can learn when our hearts are closed and when they're open. We can learn what it means to be attached, what it means to let go and be freer. We can learn about all the forces in the mind. We can le arn about doubt and fear and anger, through awareness. We can learn about love and kindness through attention. It's really universal. We can learn to play tennis in a better way. To train ourselves to be aware is the gift of the Buddha.He said: Here, I'll give you a gift that can make life come alive for you, that can bring both happiness and freedom. And it's a very simple thing. Learn to train yourself to live more in the present. Do what it takes to do that in your life. How can we do it? Here we are, householders, right; not like we have all day to sit and walk in some monastery. Some hints perhaps. First of all, as I've said in previous evenings, one of the most beautiful expressions of awareness comes from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh where he says: See if you can learn to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.Usually we wash the dishes in order to get the dishes clean, right, and then we can get on and do something else, right, or talk to someone. Did you ever do anything like that, where you just did it in order to do it? Maybe we let ourselves do that on vacation. You go hiking in the Sierras, and if you're not too driven — â€Å"Can I get to this camp site by this hour,† or something — and you let go of that a little bit, you just walk along the mountains in order to be walking, everything becomes what it is. It's beautiful. That's the first hint, to start to take some things in our lives and do them for their own sake.Does that make sense to you? Another way is to listen with your heart a little bit more, to try to pay attention to what it's like when you're with people, and see if you can let your words come out of your heart, to say really what you feel inside, what you care about, and to listen with your heart rather than your mind. That's a very good way to wake up; especially the people you live with — your kids, your spouse, family, and things like that. People say, â€Å"How can you be mindful at work? I'm a w riter,† or â€Å"I'm a mathematician. † These are some of the questions I get at retreats. How do you do math mindfully? You have to think and ruminate. † Or, how do you write mindfully, or watch a movie? The best I have been able to come to in that is that when you write, just write; when you watch a movie, just watch the movie; when you read, just read. Not writing and also thinking how people will view it when you're done writing, and planning, and seeing how many more minutes you have to write, and so forth. Just be present for the writing. It doesn't mean to think or be in some special mode. Just do what you do. Not so complicated. When you do math, do math.Of course, sometimes it gets a little more complicated than that, and at retreats I've often told the story of Zen master Soen-Sa-Nim who generally teaches his great Zen teachings, â€Å"When you walk, just walk; when you're hungry, eat; when you're sitting, just sit. † So there he was at the breakf ast table eating breakfast and reading the paper. Students who saw this were very upset. â€Å"You know, you're the Zen master. You tell us, ‘When you eat, just eat,' and here you are eating and reading. How do you explain this? † He said, â€Å"Very simple. When you eat and read, just eat and read. The spirit of it is not so complicated. It's not to make something really false or different about it. It's more the quality of being a bit more where you are. I think that comes from Yoda in Star Wars. Another thing is to remember the power of the act of coming into the present. I told the story a few weeks ago of Robert Aitken-roshi who wanted to go to Japan to study Zen during the Korean War. It was considered a war zone and people weren't allowed. When he went to the consul or the ambassador who was a very learned and dignified Japanese man, he was told, â€Å"I'm sorry, we just can't have visitors; it's war time.The American government doesn't want it and the Japanese government is following that. † The ambassador offered tea. It was very nice. He said, â€Å"Why do you want to do that? I mean, there's this war we have to stop. † He took his cup of tea and he picked it up and he drank it very carefully and silently, and then he looked at the ambassador and said, â€Å"Taking a cup of tea I stopped the war. † With that the ambassador was wise and he understood that, and he arranged a visa for him to go to Japan to study. What we do, if we do it with our full heart and our full being, is a way of bringing the planet back into balance.All you have to do is look at the news or read Time or Newsweek; it's crazy. And it's crazy because it's all mind and thought and going in circles and it's not connected with the heart and the earth. Taking a walk you stop the war, taking a cup of tea, sitting a little bit every day, you stop the nuclear arms race because you let yourself get quiet and feel the earth and the air, and then your acti ons and your vibrations and the effect you have on other people, and maybe even the concerns that you act out politically, all come from that connection with yourself and with the earth around you.I have a good friend who is lawyer from Harvard Law School, a very fine lawyer. He sits through lots of meetings. He said he has really learned to work with his breath. Communication is kind of redundant. You could probably tune in on every tenth sentence and get most of the meaning of things. He is really in love. He says, â€Å"I love my breath. It's much better than what goes on in the meetings. † So you can use your meditation in grocery stores standing in line waiting for checkout, or traffic jams. Wonderful times to meditate. I remember sitting at my teacher's cottage.He sort of sat in a little chair, and people would sit around and he would receive visitors. I was sitting there and waiting for him. It was a really hot day. Usually they had iced coffee on a very hot day in the tropics. Iced coffee is first so good because it's so cool and delicious; and the Thai coffee is half sugar. And secondly, since you don't eat except one meal in the morning, to have a big glass of dark iced coffee filled with sugar is like about three or four hours of caffeine and sugar stimulation before it wears off. It's great sitting. It was a great drug for sitting, there's no question about it.I was kind of in the doldrums. â€Å"I've swept my cottage, now I'll go over and I'll sit and I'll wait. † And on hot days like this, if the teacher sees a lot of people sitting around, he says, â€Å"Okay, you can bring some iced coffee for these poor starving monks,† or whatever. So we sat. I kept thinking about how I was going to go back and meditate. I'd get to my cottage and then after I had it, for two or three hours I would be very alert and awake, and I'm kind of sitting there sweaty and hot and a little bit depressed and just waiting and waiting and waiting. He m ust have known it, and I'm waiting and waiting.Hours go by and other people come by and I'm waiting and waiting. I think, â€Å"God, when am I going to get this wonderful coffee so that it will perk me up and I can really meditate? † Waiting, waiting. It never came. Finally, it became real clear after a lot of hours of waiting; waiting to meditate. I was sitting there doing nothing. When are we going to meditate? â€Å"I'll do it when I get to the sitting, then I'll meditate,† or â€Å"I'll do it tomorrow. † Somehow it's to remember that it's here in the present we're talking about. In some way, mindfulness means coming back to our real home, coming to rest in the present.It is our real home. And our real home is not connected with grasping, our feelings, our bodies, our thoughts, our images, or all the things that are changing — but it's the ease that we can find in being with up and down, light and dark, and all of this duality which is changing. With a n open heart, with heartfulness, with mindfulness, being with it as it is, then receiving it and deciding, if we will, what things to choose to respond to in a wise or compassionate way. This is Don Juan to Carlos Casteneda: For me the world is incredible because it is mysterious, awesome, stupendous, unfathomable.My interest has been to convince you that you must learn to make every act count in this marvelous world, in this marvelous time, I've tried to convince you. You must realize that you are going to be here for only a short while. In fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count. The spirit of awareness or mindfulness really means coming into our life, into the physical senses, into the feelings, into the movement of mind, and into the heart, and living each day from our heart. What do we care about?Taking a concern and a care for the preciousness of the earth. In the end what one discovers is that mindfulness and love are the same thing. To be aware, without grasping or resisting or trying to change — to receive what's here — is to love it; that they're not really separate, that the heart and the mind come together. Or as one of my teachers said: The mind creates the abyss and the heart crosses it. The mind creates distinctions, and coming into the present, into the heart, resolves all of that. The talk in a way is a reminder. Let me ask you a few questions as a way of ending.First of all, what keeps you, what keeps each of us from really paying attention in our lives, from living more fully? Just think about it as I ask. What fear or difficulty in your life keeps you from living here in the present? What illusion or misunderstanding in your life keeps you from living here in the present? What would you have to do to make your life really support living mindfully? What would you have to change to make a real support for this mindfulness or this heartfulness? Wha t would you have to change in your life to allow yourself to love more fully? And the last question is to ask in your heart should you make those changes.See what it said. Generally, it has a good answer. Even mindfulness, however, cannot be grasped. There are days when you're going to be more mindful and days when you're less mindful. And it too, like all things, comes and goes. What you can do is nourish and find ways. That's what we do together here. We sit together, sometimes we have discussions and questions, sometimes I talk to myself out loud and you get to participate, sort of listen to it. It is a way to remind ourselves that there's something really precious. Spiritual life is pretty simple. It's not easy but it's pretty simple.

EFL Lessons

Reading Comprehension Dialogues for ESL/EFL Lessons These reading comprehension/dialogues provide an opportunity for both reading and speaking practice. Each dialogue is also followed by a multiple choice quiz for comprehension practice. Each dialogue is listed under the appropriate level with a short introduction regarding target areas for speaking practice. Teachers can check out the ideas on how to use dialogues in class and print them out for use. Beginner - Lower Intermediate The City and the Country - Comparative form, as ... asInterview with a Famous Actor - Daily routines, present simpleWhats in Your Office? - Use of there is / there are, prepositions and office furniture vocabularyWhat Were You Doing? - Use of the past continuous in combination with the past simpleThe Oregon Weather Forecast - Use of the future with will for predictions, weather vocabularyA Business Presentation - This dialogue allows practice of the present perfectAn Interview - Allows practice of the superlative formIntroductions - Basic questions used when meeting someone for the first timeBasic Personal Information - Questions related to name, address, and marital statusThe Meeting - Schedules, future plans.A New Office - This, that, some and any with objects.Cooking - Daily routines and hobbies.Abilities and Skills - Using can, and able to, making suggestions.A Busy Day - Plans for the day, responsibilities with have to.Planning a Party - Future with will and going to Making Phone Calls Practice making phone calls with these dialogues that cover making doctors appointments, leaving messages, making dinner reservations, calling school about your child, and asking questions about your bills. Business English Deliveries and SuppliersTaking a MessagePlacing an OrderTomorrows MeetingBusiness Meetings English for Medical Purposes Dialogues Making an Appointment with the DentistMaking a Doctors AppointmentDental Check-up - Doctor and PatientDental Hygiene - Dental Hygienist and PatientDental ReceptionistTroubling Symptoms - Doctor and PatientJoint Pain - Doctor and PatientA Physical Examination - Doctor and PatientPain that Comes and Goes - Doctor and PatientA Prescription - Doctor and PatientHelping a Patient - Nurse and Patient Professional Dialogues Cleaning Staff - Vocabulary and requests dealing with cleaning rooms and taking care of guestsA Drink at the Bar - Vocabulary and situations related to serving customers at a barSpeaking to a Customer Service Representative - Disputing a bill over the telephone. Making Casual Conversation A Chat With a Neighbor  - Using the present perfect, present perfect continuous and past simple interchangeablyDirections  - Giving and asking for directions.Having a Hard Time Finding a Job - Speaking about finding a job, with a focus on reported speech

The Many Forms of Plurals

The Many Forms of Plurals The Many Forms of Plurals The Many Forms of Plurals By Mark Nichol Plurals take many (sometimes curious or counterintuitive) forms. Here is an outline of how to form various types of plurals according to the word form or ending: For words ending in: nonsibilant, or voiceless, consonants: add -s (dogs). voiced, or sibilant, consonant blends: add -es (riches). vowels: add -s (knees). -f: delete -f and add -ves (loaves) or -s (chiefs). -x: add -es (foxes). -y: delete -y and add -ies (bodies). For words of Latin or Greek origin ending in: -a: add -s or -e, depending on context (formulas/formulae). -ex: add -es or delete -x and add -ces, depending on context (indexes/indices). -ies: leave as is (species). -is: change to -es (axis). -ma: add -s or -ata, depending on context (stigmas/stigmata). -um: add -s (aquariums), delete -um and add -a (curricula), or either depending on context (mediums/media). -us: delete -us and add -i (alumni), -ii (radii), -era (genera), or -ora (corpora), or leave -us and add -es (octopuses) or use another form, depending on context (cactuses/cacti). Types of irregular forms include: ablaut, or mutated, plurals, with changes in the midst of a word (tooth/teeth; louse/lice). identical singular and plural forms (deer, spacecraft). -en and -ren endings (oxen, children). Some words have more than one plural form, one of which may be archaic (cows/kine) or reserved for a distinct meaning (dice/dies). One problematic category is in referring to fish in general and specific varieties of fish in particular: â€Å"Look at all the fish!† but â€Å"Gars are long, slender, predatory fishes.† Also, some types are given a distinct plural form (sharks, barracudas), though for others, the plural form is identical to the singular one (salmon, sturgeon). Plurals of letters, numbers, or abbreviations are generally formed simply by adding -s, although occasionally, the otherwise incorrect use of an interceding apostrophe is warranted (â€Å"Mind your p’s and q’s†). Usually, however, pluralizing names of letters requires no special treatment, especially when the letter is italicized, as here: â€Å"There are five es in beekeeper.† Initialisms and acronyms also require only an -s: â€Å"Many NGOs are headquartered here,† â€Å"It’s like having two NASAs.† The singular forms of some words are, because they end in s include gyros, kudos, and biceps (as well as triceps and quadriceps). The plural forms are the same, although the latter examples are also pluralized by adding -es. For other words, the original singular has been supplanted by a plural form used in both cases (alga by algae; graffito by graffiti). Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Types of LanguageHow to Pronounce MobileEbook, eBook, ebook or e-book?

Up to the thing u write Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Up to the thing u write - Essay Example Foxfire has become a hero for the people working in atrocious conditions and even puts his own life in danger when it comes to savings lives of his own group and people. Otter is fascinated by his uncle’s stories about America and wants to accompany his father and his uncle to the country. Otter thinks very highly of his uncle. His uncle talks about the social upheavals in China. He then talks about his work in America, making himself a legendary figure in China. Listening to his stories Otter thinks very highly of his uncle. He thinks that his uncle is brave and heroic to have this opportunity and to lead it. What he doesn’t realize till he steps on the land of America that his uncle was very humble to the grueling circumstances around. Uncle foxfire in fact states his acceptance of the situation in the statement above. It is so true that there are only two ways to deal with a situation at hand. Either accept the change and adapt yourself to it or change the situation as per your requirement. Initially the statement may sound heroic but as we go on reading further it is very tragic to know that the heroic spirit has bowed to the inevi tability of the situation. Only in last few chapters uncle Foxfire leaves up to the heroic spirit he has within

Dubai International airport Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dubai International airport - Essay Example The main research questions that shall be answered during the investigation are: †¢Does the service offered by emirates airline organization meet the standard and expectations of its customers? †¢Does the organization have excellent facilities that ensure their airplanes are always in good shape to ensure the safety of their customers? †¢What are the measures that the organization has put in place to ensure customer satisfaction? The objectives of the research will be: 1)To determine the services offered by the organization and whether they meet the standards and expectation of their customers. 2)To evaluate the available facilities in the organization for servicing and repairing airplanes to ensure safety of their customers. 3)To determine the measures put in place by the organization to ensure customer satisfaction. The intended research on the operations of the Emirates airline is important in determining the experience of the customers. While utilizing their services and the role the airline organization play in ensuring that the customers’ satisfaction is achieved in carrying out this research, I as a student of business studies will also gain a lot of important knowledge on what it takes to run such a big organization that serves many people daily and the various measures that can be utilized in successfully satisfying customers derived from different backgrounds and cultures. The emirates airline is an organization in the airline industry that has its headquarters based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In the Middle East, this is the major airline company with over 2500 flights weekly to over 100 destinations in six continents in 74 countries (Emirate airline, 2005).