VIP Class Notes (Vicki)

Speaking exercise

I’m based in China. I’m a product manager of China SFA. And I have been working here for over a year.

Pronunciation

“in”

tin, bin, fin, pin, win

“ill”

grill

son vs song

sun vs sung

man vs men

we

Reading

Scientists think they have found an answer to the problem of food shortages. One solution could be for us to eat jellyfish. This could also help to protect fish and other sea life that are endangered. Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia conducted a study of fishing around the world. They discovered that fishing nets caught 92 endangered species of seafood and 11 species of marine life classed as “critically endangered”. The researchers said this was not illegal as the creatures were not protected. Researcher Dr Leslie Robertson said: “Despite national and international commitments to protect threatened species, we actively fish for many of these threatened species.”

The researchers warned we are eating species of fish and other sea life that are on the brink of extinction. They suggested that eating jellyfish could help protect fish that are in danger of disappearing from our seas and oceans. Jellyfish could become a common sight on menus, and we could ask for jellyfish and chips instead of fish and chips. The researchers said jellyfish could be a sustainable alternative at seafood restaurants and fish shops. Dr Robertson said seafood is “not as sustainable as consumers would like to think”. She added: “It is possible to manage our fisheries sustainably and eat species that can survive the fishing pressure. We just have to care about weird-looking squishy things like sea cucumbers.”

Vocabulary

cucumber – huang gua

squishy – soft and wet

survive – xing cun

pressure – ya li

fishery – bu yu ye

consumer – the person who buy

sustainable – ke chi cu de

alternative – another option bei xuan

sight – shi ye

brink – edge bian yuan

extinction – mie jue

fish (v.) – diao yu / bu yu

jellyfish – shui mu

endangered – bao hu de

conduct – zhi xing

danger – wei xian

fishing – diao yu

species – zhong

marine – hai de

critically – yan zhong de
i.e. He is critically hurt.

illegal – wei fa de

legal – he fa de

creature – sheng wu

despite – jin guan

commitment – cheng nuo

threatened – bei wei xie de

Grammar

SVO 

present tense

present simple – is/am/are; do/does
i.e. I am a teacher.
i.e. I eat breakfast.
general fact, an action that happened often

present continuous – is/am/are + doing
i.e. I am teaching a class right now.
specific action that is happening
i.e. I am listening to the class.

past tense

past simple – was/were; did
i.e. I was a student 2 years ago.
i.e. I did my homework last night.
general fact in the past, an action that happened often in the past

past continuous – was/were + doing
i.e. I was drinking water just now.
i.e. I was taking a class yesterday.
specific action at a specific time in the past

future tense

future simple – will + be/do
i.e. I will be a teacher in the future.
i.e. I will do my homework tmr.
general fact in the future, an action that will happen in the future

future continuous – will be + doing
i.e. I will be taking a class tmr.
i.e. I will be sleeping tonight.
specific action at specific time in the future

Homework

Review the vocab and grammar