Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 5 ]

5-] Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment .

British English & American English.

British English and American English are not the only special variety of English . Each area  of the English-speaking world has developed its own special   characteristics . This is   usually  mainly a matter of vocabulary and pronunciation .Also English in the USA differs   considerably from British English . Pronunciation is the most striking difference but     there are also a number of differences in vocabulary and spelling as well as slight   differences in grammar . Yet , on the whole , speakers of British and American English have little difficulty in understanding each other . American spelling is usually simpler . For example , British English words ending in –our and –re , end in –or and –er in American English , e.g. colour / color , centre / center . Words ending –ise in British English end in –ize in US English . There are differences in individual words too e.g.   British ‘plough’ becomes   ‘plow’                                                                                                                                        Here are some common US words with their British equivalents .

 

Travel and on the street			In the home
American English		British English	American English	British English
gasoline	petrol		antenna	aerial
truck	lorry		elevator	lift
baggage	luggage		eraser	rubber
sidewalk	pavement		apartment	flat
crosswalk	zebra crossing		closet	waredrobe
line	queue		yard	garden
vacation	holiday		drapes	curtains
parking lot	car park		flashlight	torch
trunk [ of car ]	boot		kerosene	paraffin
hood [ of car ]	bonnet		Scotch tape	sellotape
freeway / highway	motorway		cookie	biscuit
round trip	return		candy	sweets
one way	single		bathroom , rest room	toilet , WC
railway car	railway carriage		garbage, trash	rubbish
engineer on train	engine driver		diaper	nappy
baby carriage	pram		pantihose	tights
subway	underground		french fries	chips
the fall	autumn		semester	term
check	bill		undershirt	vest
bill	banknote		pants	trousers
the first floor	the ground floor		the second floor	the first floor

Other Englishes .

US or American English is not the only special variety of English . Each area of the English-speaking world has developed its own special characteristics . This is usually mainly a matter of vocabulary and pronunciation .

1-] Australian English :

Australian English is particularly interesting for its rich store of highly colloquial words and expressions . Australian colloquialism often involve shortening a word . Sometimes the ending ‘-ie’ or ‘-o’ is then added , e.g. ‘a truckie’ is ‘a truck or lorry-driver’ and ‘a milko’ is ‘milk’ ; ‘beat’ , short for ‘beautiful’ means ‘great’ and ‘biggie’ is ‘a big one’ .’OZ’is short for ‘Australia’ and ‘an aussie’ is ‘an Australian’ .

2-] Indian English .

Indian English on the other hand is characterized by sounding more formal than British English . It has retained in every usage words that are found more in the classics of nineteenth century literature than in contemporary TV programs , e.g. ‘ The bereaved are condoled and the Prime Minister is felicitated on his or her birthday . An Indian bandit is referred to as amiscreant . He complains of a pain in his bosom [ rather than his chest ] .

3-] Scottish English .

Scottish English uses a number of special dialect words . Some of the more common of these are worth learning .

British English	Scottish English	British English	Scottish English
yes	aye	lake	loch
dull	dreich	mountain	ben
to remember	to mind	caretaker	janitor
bank [of river ]	brae	child	bairn
girl	lassie	drink [usually whisky]	dram
beautiful	bonny	outside	outwith
valley	glen	stream	burn
small	wee	church	kirk
live	stay	know	ken

4-] Black English :

Black English is the term used to refer to the English which originated in the Caribbean islands and is now also spoken in many parts of the UK , Canada and the USA . Here are some words which are characteristic of Black English but are also now used in other varieties of English . Many are particularly associated with the music world .

British English	Black English	British English	Black English
Rastafarian hairstyle	dreadlocks	exhausted	beat
girl	chick	understand	dig
improvise	jam	bed	pad
street-talk	rap	dull	square

If you have access to the Internet , use a search engine to look up a variety of English that interests you , for example US English , Singaporean English , Indian English , Scottish English , Australian English and Black English .                           

Headline English .

Newspaper headlines try to catch the reader’s eye by using as few words as possible . The language headlines use is , consequently , unusual in a number of ways . 1-] Grammar words like articles or auxiliary verbs are often left out , e.g.

‘Early Cut Forecast In Interest Rates’ . 2-] A simple form of the verb is used , e.g.

‘Mayor Opens Hospital’ . 3-] The infinitive is used to express the fact that something is going to happen in the future , ‘President To Visit Flood Areas’ .

Newspaper headlines use a lot of distinctive vocabulary . They usually prefer words that are shorter and sound more dramatic than ordinary English words . The words marked can be used either as nouns or verbs .

newspaper word              meaning              newspaper word              meaning

aid *                                     help                                  key[adj.]              essential , vital

axe *                                 cut , remove                        link *                    connection

back [ verb ]                     support                              move *                  step towards a desired end

bar *                                exclude , forbid               ordeal [ noun ]           painful experience

bid *                                 attempt                                oust [ verb ]       push out /remove

blast *                               explosion                           plea [ noun ]           request

blaze *                                 fire                                   pledge *               promise

boost *                incentive , encourage                  ploy [ noun ]        clever activity

boss * , head *                  manager , director           poll *                    election /                                                                                                            public opinion survey

clash *                                dispute                             probe *                investigation

quit  [ verb ]                     leave , resign                        curb *                   restraint ,                                                                                                                            limit

riddle [ noun ]                     mystery                                cut *               reduction

strife [ noun ]                   conflict                              drama                   tense                                                                                                                                situation

talks [ noun ]                    discussions                              drive *           campaign ,                                                                                                                            effort

threat                                danger                               gems [ noun ]    jewels

vow *                              promise                                     go-ahead      approval

wed [ verb ]                     marry                                  hit [ verb ]      affect badly

 

Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 4 ]

4- ] Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment .

Using Your Dictionary .

 Good dictionaries , especially ‘learners’ dictionaries’ , can tell you a lot about a word than just its meaning , including [ among other things ] 1-] Word-class [ usually abbreviations ‘n : noun’ , ‘adj. : adjective’ ‘v : verb’ etc. ], whether a noun is countable or uncountable , and whether a verb in normally transitive or intransitive etc. 2-] Synonyms and their differences e.g. mislay and misplace. 

3-] Antonyms [ opposites ] e.g. friend X enemy / foe . 4-] Collocations [ how words go together ] e.g. living [ cost of living , make a living , standard of living , do something for a living , earn a living , living room etc. 5-] Pronunciation : There   are symbols of pronunciation in each dictionary . 6-] Word stress : often shown    by a mark before the syllable to be stressed or by bold type .   7-] Usage : how a  word is used and any special grammatical pattern that goes with it . e.g. suggest – I suggest you ring him right away . 8-] Whether a word is used for people and / or things .

   Don’t forget that most words have more than one meaning .

Revising Vocabulary .

Revising is especially useful for remembering new material in the target language . it involves looking back at what has been studied at different intervals , at first close together and then increasingly far apart . Here are some suggestions :

1-] Highlight any words and expressions that you had forgotten or were not sure about . 2-] Look at your vocabulary notebook and choose six words and expressions or more that you particularly want or need to learn . Write them down . 3-] Look up any words that you selected in an English-English dictionary . Do these words have any other uses or associations that might help you learn them ? Looking up the word ‘heart’ for example might lead to ‘heart-broken’ or ‘to have your heart in your mouth’ . Write anything that appeals to you in an appropriate phrase or sentence . 3-] The dictionary can also help you find some other words based on the same root . Looking up the noun ‘employment’ leads you to the verb 'employ’ , to the nouns ‘employer’ and’ employee’ , and to the adjectives ‘employable’ and ‘unemployable’ and ‘self-employed’ . 4-] Note the pronunciation of the words and expressions you wish to learn . Try to write them down in phonetic script . Use a dictionary to help you . 5-] In your notebook write down the words and phrases by putting them in a table or a network .6-] The next day ask yourself ‘How much can I remember?’. 7-] Test yourself . You can cover a word or a phrase , then you say it or complete it .

When you have done all the steps above that you feel will be useful to you , close your notebook and remind yourself of what you have been studying and how much you can remember .

Making The New Words Active .

One of the great advantages of revising vocabulary is that it should help you to make the step from having something in your receptive vocabulary to having it in your active vocabulary . Encourage this process by :1-] Writing the words and expressions you are trying to learn in a sentence relating to your life and interests at the moment . 2-] Making a point of using the new words and expressions in your class or homework , your daily life or in some other way . 3-] Keeping a learning diary in which you note down things that particularly interest you about the words you have learnt .4 -] Watching out for the words and expressions you are trying to learn in your general reading of English . If you come across any of them in use , write them down in their context in your diary or notebook . 5-] Writing a paragraph or story linking the words and expressions you want to learn .

Guessing And Explaining Meaning .

A-] Inferring meaning from context .

There are a number of clues which you may be able to use to help you work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word . 1-] The context in which it is used such as a-] Visual clues : a picture in a book or film footage in a TV news broadcast may help you . b-] Your own background knowledge about a situation . For example if there is an earthquake somewhere you know , then you will find it easy to understand the word and many other words . c-] The immediate context [ other words around the unfamiliar word ] : these may make the meaning absolutely clear . For example  ,    ‘ The girl picked one tall gladiolus to put in her new crystal vase’. The word ‘gladiolus’ is obvious from the context to mean ‘a type of flower’. d-] Grammatical clues in the context : it is not difficult to understand if the word is a verb or an adjective or a noun etc. 

2-] Similarity to other words you already know in English .

A large number of words in English are made up of combinations of other words . For example the word “ headscarf” it is of two components which are easy to guess.

3-] Structure .

For example a prefix or suffix may give you a clue . There are different aspects of word formation in English that help you to exploit those clues in making sense of unfamiliar words .

4-] Similarity to a word you know in your own [ or some other ] language .

If your first language is of Latin or of Germanic origin , you will come across many words in English that resemble words in this language . However , English has taken many words from many other languages too . So make use of any other languages you know , but remember that some words are false friends – they sound as if they mean the same but in fact they have a different meaning .

Composition & Essay Writing [ 25 ]

25- ] Composition & Essay Writing .

18-] Pollution .

   Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability , disorder , harm or discomfort to the ecosystem . Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy such as noise, heat or light energy .

                    The major forms of pollution with the particular pollutants relevant to them are 1-] air pollution 2-] water pollution  3-] soil contamination . 1-] Air pollution is caused by the release of chemicals and particulates into the atmosphere . Common gaseous air pollutants are produced nearly by industry and motor vehicles . They include carbon dioxide and monoxide , sulfur dioxide , chlorofluorocarbons [ CFC ]and nitrogen oxides .

          Water pollution is caused by the release of waste products and contaminants into surface runoff into river drainage systems , leaching into groundwater liquid spills , wastewater discharges , eutrophication and littering . But soil contamination occurs , when chemicals are released by spill or underground leakage . Among the most significant soil contaminants are hydrocarbons , heavy metals , herbicides , pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons .

                     There are bas effects on human health and the ecosystems. Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans.    Ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease , cardiovascular disease , chest pain and congestion . Water pollution causes approximately 14000 deaths per day mostly due to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries . Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes . Noise pollution induces hearing loss , high blood pressure , stress and sleep disturbance . Chemical and radioactive substances can cause fatal diseases such as cancer and birth defects . The sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can cause acid rain . Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants . This will affect other organisms in the food web . The emission of greenhouse gases leads to global warming which affects ecosystems in many ways .

                          The World Bank reported in 2002 that pollution causes 2.42 billion dollars of damage to the Egyptian environment annually equaling about 5% of the country’s annual gross domestic product .

                           To protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution , many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution . Without pollution control the waste products from consumption , heating , agriculture , mining , manufacturing , transportation and other human activities , whether they accumulate or disperse will degrade the environment .

Composition & Essay Writing . [ 24 ]

24 - ] Composition & Essay Writing . 

17-] The Role Of Small Businesses .

        There are many benefits of the small businesses for their owners . Small business owners learn to be risk takers and innovators . Corporate employees on the other hand too often interpret their prime directive as keeping their jobs . Risk taking can get in the way of career building .Where as large corporations can be adverse to change , small businesses know that their ability to make rapid decisions and implement course corrections is their key to success . In the ocean of business mega-corporations turn like tankers , while small businesses can zip around them with the agility of a speed boat .

                The small business person must deliver top customer service  and have a passion for excellence , a willingness to dream and create the freedom to make timely decisions to succeed and enlarge .

                      The Small Business Administration in the US was established in 1953 to support small businesses by offering financial and counseling assistance and ensuring that small businesses can compete against large companies in receiving government contracts . Since it was established , it has granted some for of aid to almost 20 million small businesses . In 2003 it offered 219.000 loans worth approximately $ 45 billion . In 2001 there were more than 2.697.000 American companies that employed fewer than four workers . In 2003 53% of small businesses in the US were home based . The US small Business Administration says that small businesses create two of every three new jobs , produce 39% of the gross national product and invent more than half of the nation’s technological innovation . This reflects the important role of small businesses in the largest economy in the world .

                   Small business is not a synonym for small earnings . In fact , many small businesses are extremely profitable . Their advantages of leanness , maneuverability , innovation and customer focus mold them into steady enterprises that earn a significant return on investment year after year .