Test results reveal what makes a twin white or black

Self-study activity:
This BBC video clip may be of primary interest to Biology students. I picked it up for other reasons: We have the opportunity to get acquainted with two very distinct English accents: a northern accent from Leeds, the girl, who you might find difficult to pick up, and a Scottish accent, the doctor, which should be a blessing for all language learners.

Watch the clip and say whether the statements below are true or false.

1 In the chart, the colour for European is blue and for African is green.
2 The girl's genes are exactly 50% European and 50% African.
3 The girl's mother was 20% European.
4 The reason why one of the twins is black and the other white is just chance.
5 If the girl has more children with a white father it's likely they will be black.

You can read the transcript here.

Key:
1F 2T 3F 4T 5T

English verb charts

I discovered English Verb Tenses Explained through Larry Ferlazzo.

English Verb Tenses Explained can help English students to all levels get a quick overview of the English tense system.

They give examples for all the tenses and use a colour code to identify tenses, and also provide the basic usage rules for each tense.

English Verb Tenses Explained can be a good revision tool for us.

These are James Caan's tips to get a job and distinguish yourself from other candidates. Read his short online Telegraph article.

1. Ensure your CV is interesting.

2. Define your skills.

3. Find a need and follow it.

4. Channel all of your efforts towards finding a company which will actually have a job right for you.

5. Utilise every possible route of finding a job.

6. Be proactive and ask questions about the company, perhaps offer to do a work placement to show your enthusiasm to earn a role in the company

7. Be prepared.

8. Tailor your CV to the position.

9. Image is integral to success.

10. Remember, the company you are applying to may well be researching you, so ensure social networking sites and blogs reflect you in the best possible way.

H/T to Vigilangues.

10 Things Job Applicants should know is a very similar short article from The New York Times.

Austerity

Here at My That's English! we have published a couple of posts about the economic crisis. In September last year we published An Easy Explanation for the Financial Crisis and in May The Financial Crisis Explained came out.

This is a new video about the subject, by Mark Blyth, who teaches at Brown University, in the United States, and which I discovered through Martin McMorrow, who also devised the accompanying activity.

I know, I know I'm going to come in for a lot of flak, as this five-minute video clip is more suitable for advanced students. But I have made up my mind to publish it for a number of reasons:

• It is going to help us understand the worldwide economic crisis.
• A transcript is available.
• There are a lot of visual aids in Mark Blyth's presentation.
• And more importantly: it can help Intermedio 2 students prepare their listening paper exam. How? Students can infer part of Mr Blyth's actual words from the questions in the accompanying activity. Tasks are very often a great help for students as they inform them of the content in the audio file. At the same time, they can also use the questions in the task as a guideline throughout the talk, so that they don't get lost and know where they are at all times, irrespective of the fact that they know the answer to a specific question or not.

1 What was the size of the debt caused by the financial crisis of 2008?
a) $2bn   b) 2,000%   c) $2tn

2 The bottom 40% of US population… since 1989
a) hasn’t had a real wage increase   b) improved productivity   c) paid any interest

3 Blyth compares leverage to playing blackjack. What is Blackjack?
a) a criminal activity   b) a form of gambling   c) a violent sport

4 Governments felt they had to intervene to help banks because the banks were too big to…
a) fail  b) see   c) buy

5 Blyth believes governments and businesses need to pay down their debt
a) as soon as possible   b) at different times   c) at the same time

6 The fallacy of composition is the false belief that was is good for one part of the economy is …
a) bad for another   b) good for all   c) bad for all

7 Blythes argues that governments have chosen austerity measures because…
a) they are easier than raising taxes b) raising taxes is more virtuous c) they allow citizens to contribute equally

8 According to Blythe austerity measures make the poor pay for the problems of debt…
a) through higher taxes   b) which they caused   c) twice

You can read the transcript here.

Key:
1c 2a 3b 4a 5b 6b 7a 8c

American Presidents

From George Washington to Barack Obama, the White House webpage offers overviews of the 44 American presidents to day.

This is a good opportunity to get a general perspective of US rulers while developing our reading skills.

Lessons on American Presidents

Together with the information we can read on American Presidents and that can be found in a section of the White House webpage here is a very useful resource for English students that Sean Banville published recently: Lessons On American Presidents, where intermediate language students can find listening activities on every American President.

Both the audio files and the interactive exercises can be downloaded.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo.

The truth about the psychic powers of groundhogs

Self-study activity:
Watch this video from How stuff works, which tries to address the question of whether groundhogs can really predict when spring will arrive or this is just an urban legend.

Some of the vocabulary in the video is quite advanced, but Básico 2 students (elementary) will find it possible to understand the words missing in the transcript below.

So, can a groundhog really predict when spring will arrive? To find out, we need to meet Punxsutawney Phil’s family.

Groundhogs are marmots. There are (1) ... different species of these big furry rodents, and these marmots live high in the mountains.

Up here, you have to understand weather, because the winters can be lethal. While psychic powers may be optional, it pays to be a real glutton. Every day, (2) ... spring and summer, a marmot can munch its way through an amount of food equivalent to (3) ...  of its body weight. It needs to bulk up if it’s to survive the winter. Because when the snows come, it won’t eat again until the following spring.

Marmots spend most of the winter asleep. Their heart rate can fall from (4) ... beats per minute, to less than (5) ...  . And in deep hibernation, their brain activity may drop as much as (6) .... . But occasionally, one will wake up to check the temperature outside. If it’s still (7) ... , then it’s back to the burrow for more sleep.

Like all marmots, a groundhog responds to the (8) ... changes in light and temperature that signal the (9) ... of spring. So you could say that, in a way, the groundhog is a bucktooth barometer.

But in Punxsutawney, they’re not terribly interested in the (10) ... of Phil’s predictions. That’s because this furry forecaster is a marmot, not a meteorologist.

Key:
1. fourteen 2 throughout 3 one-third 4 two hundred and fifty 5 ten 6 ninety per cent 7 chilly 8 seasonal 9 arrival 10 accuracy