F2F Class Notes (Jacob) [W]

Next Class Focus

a/an/the


Homework

http://www.51voa.com/

Choose an article from VOA and read it. Either prepare some questions for your teacher or be prepared to be questioned.

http://www.51voa.com/


Vocabulary

Hoarder – someone who refuses to throw things away (sees some value in everything)

Degrade – to become worse in condition
eg. My favorite T-shirt has degraded since I first bought it.
Deteriorate – to become worse in health
eg. My health has deteriorated quickly recently so I started taking vitamin
Downgrade – used to describe a decrease in something with levels (measurable)
eg. I got downgrade in my sports ranking for running

Phase/stage/step – different steps to completing something
eg. I am still at the cleaning phase, and have not gotten to the unpacking stage yet.

Red flag – (bad sign) something that you should see as a sign of something (usually a problem)
eg. I should have seen a red flag when I heard my apartment was owned by real estate company

Apartment (US)/Flat (British)
Bachelor/Studio – an apartment with just a single room
Den – a small extra room (often used for storing books, or as a office space (to small for a bed)
Condo – an apartment that you buy and own (not rent)


Grammar

Excessive packaging 

I also wasn’t able to/couldn’t throw them away

Bugs came to at/towards me

Everything was disastrous/a disaster 

Reasons + for (for should be before or after the word reasons)


Pronunciation

Excessive [Ex-sess-ive]


Writing exercise

Original

I’ve watched a video clip of Prince ER from youtube. The video clip what I watched is about destruction of environment. This kind of video clip could be heavy to deal with but he made it easy to watch with narration with rapping and very fine video design. Thesedays, I am interested about health and healthy life style, because I feel I’m getting weaker than few years ago. Of course there are lots of reasons, but I think the environmental pollution is one of the big reasons. I want to breath fresh air, drink clean water, take a shower with clean water and eat organic foods. However, this simple and basic life style which I’ve had when I was a kid is getting difficult more and more.
To save the earth from pollution, I have to choose inconvenient life style. For example, I like online shopping with lots of reasons but I need to giving up online shopping to use less excessive packing with plastic wrap. Also, I need to give up sleeping 30minutes more in the morning to commute by walk instead of taxi. However, even though I want to live heathly environment, I couldn’t give up my convenience ironically.

Edited

I’ve watched a video clip of Prince ER from/on youtube. The video clip from what I watched is about destruction of the environment. This kind of video clip could be heavy to deal with but he made it easy to watch with narration, with rapping, and very fine high quality video editing/design. These days, I am interested about health and having a healthy lifestyle, because I feel I’m getting weaker than/compared with a few years ago. Of course there are lots of reasons why, but I think the environmental pollution is one of the big reasons. I want to breath fresh air, drink clean water, take a shower with clean water and eat organic foods. However, this simple and basic lifestyle which I‘ve had when I was a kid is getting more and more difficult.
To save the earth from pollution, I have to choose an inconvenient lifestyle. For example, I like online shopping with for lots of reasons but I need to give up online shopping to use less excessive packing with plastic wrap. Also, I need to give up sleeping 30minutes more in the morning to commute by walk instead of taxi. However, even though I want to live in a healthy environment, I couldn’t give up my convenience ironically.