English Grammar: sentence structure CD1

English Grammar: Sentence Structure
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People did not invent English grammar; they described it. Grammar is a description of logic. It is a description of a logical thinking process. Human beings first uttered distinctive sounds to convey thoughts. Later, people made graphical representations of those sounds, a written language. Finally, people analyzed the language to determine the patterns and variations. That final step is grammar, an analysis of the way a language functions.

We write documents to communicate thoughts to other people. A well written document is a medium that facilitates transfer of the author's thoughts to a reader. A poorly written document may fail to facilitate accurate transfer of the author's thoughts.

English grammar provides guidelines for choosing words, arrangement of words, and punctuation of sentences. We do most of our thinking with word symbols. If we cannot arrange word symbols correctly, we probably cannot think clearly and probably cannot communicate effectively. Consider the following analogy.

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A Soccer Ball That Gives You Energy

Everyday English is a new topic, we can listen the stories with the voice of man and woman. You can pactice your listening and vocabulary skills everyday. It's very helpful for you and me. Give your success !

Click ' Play Button ' To Listening      This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.      Have you ever heard the expression "a ball of energy"? People often use the term to describe very active children. But today we tell about an invention called the sOccket, that is a real ball of energy. Julia Silverman explains.      JULIA SILVERMAN: "The sOccket is a cutting-edge portable generator in the form of a soccer ball." Julia Silverman and Jessica Matthews developed the sOccket as part of a group project for an engineering class at Harvard University. To better understand what a sOccket is, you first need to understand how it works. JULIA SILVERMAN: "When you play with the ball, there is all this energy being transferred to the ball -- even any normal soccer ball. Basically, what we're trying to do is instead of letting that energy dissipate into the environment or just be lost, we're harnessing it inside using these mechanisms, this technology that essentially tries to capture everything with the movement. Everything that is harnessed is then stored in a battery of sorts."The sOccket collects and stores this energy with every kick, hit or throw of the ball. JULIA SILVERMAN: "Then the user can plug any accessory directly into the ball, like a lamp to study, or a cell phone charger. We're developing a water purifier and hopefully some other things that might be beneficial." For every fifteen minutes of game play, the sOccket can provide enough electricity to power an LED lamp for up to three hours. The ball can store up to twenty-four hours' worth of power. The International Energy Association reported last year that nearly one and a half billion people did not have access to electricity. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and in India and other countries in Asia. Julia Silverman and Jessica Matthews both had experience in developing countries before they began the project. They knew that power shortages are a serious problem in many areas. JULIA SILVERMAN: "There's an energy crisis in the world. One out of every five people in the global population don't have any electricity whatsoever. And beyond that, there are a lot of health issues because what people use instead of the electricity are harmful alternatives like kerosene lamps, which produce a lot of smoke." Ms. Silverman says the sOccket is one small solution to a big problem. JULIA SILVERMAN: "And so we knew that just a little bit of light would make a huge difference. And we also knew that soccer was the most popular sport, most loved sport in the whole world." Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman have started a nonprofit organization called Uncharted Play. They hope their sOccket ball will shine more light on the problem of power shortages. It offers people a chance to put their energy into the world's most popular sport and get some energy in return. And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report. Go to voaspecialenglish.com for transcripts, MP3s and now PDF files of our stories. And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English. I'm June Simms. Collected by: Elvis Anh Source: VOA News

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Dog Talk

Everyday English is a new topic, we can listen the stories with the voice of man and woman. You can pactice your listening and vocabulary skill everyday. It's very helpful for you and me. Give your success !

Click Nút ' Play ' Để Nghe      Americans use many expressions with the word dog. People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog’s life, describes a person who has an unhappy existence.     Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.      Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.      Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as meaner than a junkyard dog. Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite.     A junkyard is not a fun place for a dog. Many dogs in the United States sleep in safe little houses near their owners’ home. These doghouses provide shelter. Yet they can be cold and lonely in the winter.      Husbands and wives use this doghouse term when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for coming home late or forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is in the doghouse. She may not treat him nicely until he apologizes. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie.     Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.                                                            (MUSIC)       This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. Sưu Tầm Bởi: Elvis Anh Nguồn: VOALE

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I’m Feeling Very Blue

Everyday English is a new topic, we can listen the stories with the voice of man and woman. You can pactice your listening and vocabulary skills everyday. It's very helpful for you and me. Give your success !

Click ' Play Button ' To Listening      Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are based on colors.     Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.      Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health.      Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song – Mood Indigo – about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: “You ain’t been blue till you’ve had that Mood Indigo.” Someone who is blue is very sad.     The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.      Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money. The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations.      In some cases, colors describe a situation. A brown out is an expression for a reduction in electric power. Brown outs happen when there is too much demand for electricity. The electric system is unable to offer all the power needed in an area. Black outs were common during World War Two. Officials would order all lights in a city turned off to make it difficult for enemy planes to find a target in the dark of night.                                                            (MUSIC)       I’m Warren Scheer. Listen again next week for another WORDS AND THEIR STORIES program in Special English on the Voice of America. Collected by: Elvis Anh Sourc: VOA News

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