Nissan New York Taxis

It looks like something you'd see on a suburban cul-de-sac, not inching through Times Square. A boxy minivan made by Nissan will be the next iconic yellow cab in New York City.

1)  cul-de-sac: a dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet

2)  iconic ~icon: a person or thing that is famous because it represents a particular idea or way of life

Bias vs Prejudice

 A bias is a prejudice in a general or specific sense, usually in the sense for having a preference to one particular point of view or ideological perspective. However, one is generally only said to be biased if one's powers of judgment are influenced by the biases one holds, to the extent that one's views could not be taken as being neutral or objective, but instead as subjective. A bias could, for example, lead one to accept or deny the truth of a claim, not on the basis of the strength of the arguments in support of the claim themselves, but because of the extent of the claim's correspondence with one's own preconceived ideas. This is called confirmation bias.

Prejudice is, as the name implies, the process of "pre-judging" something. It implies coming to a judgment on a subject before learning where the preponderance of evidence actually lies, or forming a judgment without direct experience. Holding a politically unpopular view is not in itself prejudice, and politically popular views are not necessarily free of prejudice. When applied to social groups, prejudice generally refers to existing biases toward the members of such groups, often based on social stereotypes; and at its most extreme, results in groups being denied benefits and rights unjustly or, conversely, unfairly showing unwarranted favor towards others.

www.usingenglish.com

Rules of Word Stress in English

www.englishclub.com

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)
   
2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

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Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

1 Stress on first syllable

rule	example
Most 2-syllable nouns	PRESent, EXport, CHIna, TAble
Most 2-syllable adjectives	PRESent, SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

2 Stress on last syllable

rule	example
Most 2-syllable verbs	to preSENT, to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.

3 Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

rule	example
Words ending in -ic	GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic
Words ending in -sion and -tion	teleVIsion, reveLAtion

For a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

rule	example
Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy	deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy
Words ending in -al	CRItical, geoLOGical

5 Compound words (words with two parts)

rule	example
For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part	BLACKbird, GREENhouse
For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part	bad-TEMpered, old-FASHioned
For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part	to underSTAND, to overFLOW

Position of Adverbs

Adverb of Manner

(e.g.: slowly, carefully, awfully)

These adverbs are put behind the direct object (or behind the verb if there's no direct object)

subject	verb(s)	direct object	adverb
He	drove	the car	carefully.
He	drove		carefully.

Adverbs of Place

(e.g.: here, there, behind, above)

Like adverbs of manner, these adverbs are put behind the direct object or the verb.

subject	verb(s)	direct object	adverb
I	didn't see	him	here.
He	stayed		behind.

Adverbs of Time

(e.g.: recently, now, then, yesterday)

Adverbs of time are usually put at the end of the sentence.

subject	verb(s)	indirect object	direct object	time
I	will tell	you	the story	tomorrow.

If you don't want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time at the beginning of the sentence.

time	subject	verb(s)	indirect object	direct object
Tomorrow	I	will tell	you	the story.

Adverbs of Frequency

(e.g.: always, never, seldom, usually)

Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. Is there an auxiliary verb, however, adverbs of frequency are put before 'be'.

subject	auxiliary/be	adverb	main verb	object, place or time
I		often	go swimming	in the evenings.
He	doesn't	always	play	tennis.
We	are	usually		here in summer.
I	have	never	been	abroad.

http://www.ego4u.com

Flame from Burger King

Amy Winehouse dies

Smoking Baby

Formal Email:

How to Write a Formal Email:

1.    Use a proper salutation. Addressing the recipient by name is preferred. Use the person's title (Mr. Mrs. Ms. or Dr.) with their last name, followed by a comma or a colon. Optionally, you can precede the salutation with "Dear..." (but "Hello..." is acceptable as well). Using a last name is more formal and should be used unless you are on first-name terms with the recipient. If you don't know the name of the person you're writing to (but you really should try and find one) use "To Whom It May Concern".

2.    Introduce yourself in the first paragraph. Also include why you're writing, and how you found that person's e-mail address, or the opportunity you're writing about.

• E.g. "My name is Earl Rivers. I'm contacting you to apply for the administrative assistant position listed on CareerXYZ.com."
• E.g. "My name is Arlene Rivers. I am writing about the traffic citation I received on December 31, 2009. I obtained your e-mail address for the Westchester County Clerk website."

3.    Write the actual message. Be sure to get your point across and do not ramble on! Be direct and to the point. If it's fluffed to be longer the reader may glance over the important details.

• The email should be no more than 5 paragraphs long, and each paragraph should be no more than 5 sentences long.
• Insert a line break between each paragraph (indenting isn't necessary).

4.    Use the correct form of leave-taking.

• Yours sincerely,
• Yours cordially,
• Respectfully,
• Best,

5.    Sign with your full name. If you have a job title, include that in the line after your name, and write the company name or website in the line after that. If you do not have a job title but you have your own blog or website related to the content of the e-mail, include a link to that below your name. If the e-mail is about a job, only include a career-related website or blog, not hobbies or interests.

6.    Come up with a brief and descriptive subject.

         E.g.

• Inquiry regarding sales position
• Request for volunteer application

7.    Double-check your message to make sure that you have contained everything that you need in your message. Read your email out loud. 

http://www.wikihow.com

Strange Hangover Cures

**PLEASE DO NOT TRY ANY OF THESE CURES!!***

7. Strange Hangover Cures from Around the World 7. Lemon in the Armpits Apparently some Puerto Ricans (and other citrusy fresh people) swear by this method. While I’ve read a few different opinions, the general belief is that you need to rub a slice of lemon in the armpit of your drinking arm before you start boozing. Out of lemons? Lime’s fine. #6. World’s Greatest Drunks Now it’s clearly between the Russians and Irish for being the biggest drunks, so I’ll present a hangover cure from each. The Russians claim all you have to do is drink the juice squeezed from a cucumber. I don’t know how you go about this, but Vodka literally means water in Russian, so who are we to second-guess them? The Irish cure? Well they’re said “to bury the ailing person in moist river sand.” It’s not exactly clear if they keep the head above ground, or if this is simply the easiest way to get rid of the weakest drinkers. #5. Jog ‘n’ Lick Word on the street (according to BBC ) is that Native Americans would run around in the morning to get sweaty after a hard night on the village. Next step? Why the only logical thing: lick all that sweat up and spit it out, so you can get rid of all the ‘poison’ you’d just oozed out. #4. Kickin’ it old school Now we all learned in school how much the Ancient Greeks & Romans knew how to party. Well, after a wild night of debauchery Ancient Greeks were all about a nice breakfast of sheep lungs and two owl eggs. The morning after, Romans would chow down on deep-fried canaries, which we can only assume were sold in big, family-size buckets. #3. Voodoo While most of these require mixing together ridiculous ingredients, this hangover remedy simply requires a complete lack of logic… or lots of magic (magic trumps logic every time). Haitian voodoo people are said to recommend sticking 13 black pins in the cork of the offending bottle. Try it out, let me know how it goes. #2. Mongolian Mary The hangover cure for heavy drinkers in outer Mongolia is “a pair of pickled sheep’s eyes in tomato juice.” #1. “2 Cowboys 1 Cup” What did those lonely cowboys of the Wild West concoct to cure hangovers? A fresh, hot cup of tea? Oh, that’s nice, sounds like a pleasant little remedy. Wait, they put what in it? Rabbit droppings!

Facial Expressions

We can tell how other people are feeling just by looking at them. When someone is happy, they smile. When they are sad, they frown.  But where do these facial expressions come from? Are they learned or are they innate? David Matsumoto studied these questions for years in his culture and emotion research lab at San Francisco State. Facial expressions are so important because they are part of a non-verbal communication system that we all have; that we use extensively when we communicate with others. Facial expression comment on the word in many different ways so that you know that a person may be joking, or they may be very serious. I think this is why we have emoticons in email. Facial expressions are very difficult to study in a lab because when people are in a lab they are watching what they’re doing. And so, often times, what you get in a laboratory is not what occurs in real life. David realized there was a better setting to study facial expressions; the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. It just so happened he was headed there anyway as researcher for the National Judo Federation. The Olympics is the perfect place to do one of these studies because it’s real life, it’s naturalistic, it’s very emotional. He then turned his eye and the camera toward the Paralympic Games. By studying the expression of the blind athletes in the Paralympic Games and then comparing them to the expression of the athletes in the sighted…the regular…. Olympic Games, we can tell whether they have the same expressions or not. And the result? Those who won showed signs of true enjoyment, those who lost showed sadness or distress or fear or anger. And they were the exact same facial muscle movements that occurred in both the sighted and the blind. They occurred at both exactly the same times and exactly the same ways. And they differentiated winners and losers in exactly the same ways. And so the findings were amazingly similar. So the study of the blind athletes in the Paralympics Games show us conclusively that the source of facial expressions and emotions must be resident in some innate biological program that we all have, that we are born with, and that we have from birth. And that everybody….. all around the world….. as long as you are a human…. has that. And I think that that’s a very powerful message that this study shows. So, then next time you see someone smile, or frown, remember you are seeing an expression of their DNA.

Using Exclamation Marks

!The exclamation mark!

Video one: 

Don't overuse the exclamation mark!!!!!!!!!!

Video two: 

How To Apply Exclamation Marks

Notes:

The exclamation mark (!) should not be used too frequently. It should be used only after real exclamations or interjections and phrases and sentences expressing sudden emotion or wish.

• What a terrible storm!
• How fiercely the wind blows!
• How cold the night is!
• Alas!
• Good luck!

Sometimes the exclamation mark is also used after a short order.

• Get out! I don’t want to see again.
• Shut up! I don’t want to hear a word.