The GP Blog

Monty Python Argument Clinic

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:30:00 +0800

Saving the rainforest

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 10:52:00 +0800

Can the rainforest really be saved by forgiving debts?

BBC's Will Grant reports from Costa Rica on such an ambitious scheme and explores how effective these schemes are.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/one_planet.shtml

Story of a 'Mouse'

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 10:28:00 +0800

Charles Thacker was a scientist in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (known as Xerox PARC) in the 1970s and his group was one of the first to adopt the mouse technology.

To find out more about how it has developed over the years and what the future holds for us, visit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/digital_planet.shtml

Sporting Scandals

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 15:40:00 +0800

All good sport needs drama, but there have been dramatic events over the years which sport could do without.

Stories of scandal, corruption and villains have brought sporting heroes to their knees.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6227573.stm

For Richer For Poorer

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 15:35:00 +0800

It seems that inequality is greater now than it has been since the 1920s. There is a New Guilded Age of the rich in ever bigger mansions and the poor looking in through the gates.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6656923.stm

Coming Out

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 15:34:00 +0800

Homosexuality is one of the world's biggest taboos.

It has led to riots in Russia, huge splits in the Anglican Church, and was a large factor in the re-election of President Bush. Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe famously proclaimed that homosexuals were "worse than pigs and dogs."

Now in the first of two programmes, Clare English explores what it is like to be gay and asks why some societies are more tolerant than others.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6246332.stm

Press For Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 15:31:00 +0800

Roy Greenslade presents this four-part documentary series on the freedom of the press.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2007/12/071204_press_for_freedom_one.shtml

The Story of Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:52:00 +0800

Where do all the things we use/consume come from?

Where do they go after we use/consume them?

Watch the Story of the Stuff!!!

Learn New Words & Feed The Poor!!

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:46:00 +0800

If you thought things couldn't get any better, picture this!

LEARN NEW WORDS AND FEED THE POOR AND HUNGRY OF THIS WORLD DURING THE PROCESS!!

UNBELIEVEABLE BUT TRUE!!!

Check out this website:

Any Sherlock Holmes Fans Out There?

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:28:00 +0800

Any Sherlock Holmes fans out there? If you are one, now you can listen to the adventures of the great detective online on the BBC7 website.

For this and many other fun programmes, please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/monday/

Can World Poverty End?

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 23:34:00 +0800

Hear what the Leading economist and director of the UN's Millennium Development Goals’ Jeffrey Sachs has to say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4413935.stm

Great Audio Programmes for You

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:20:00 +0800

Dear Students,

Holidays are here but learning never stops!

Here are some great audio programme links that will enlighten you about many things happening in our world. Some programmes you can download into your ipod, others you may have to listen online.

The Giving Game

Investigation into the world of Non-Governmental Organisations

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/archive/030717_givinggame.shtml

The Cost of Coffee

Traces the journey of the drink from its producers to your nearest café joint.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6609141.stm

The Cost of Cotton

What is the real cost of your 'cheap' white cotton t-shirt? To find out, follow the link…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6564445.stm

For Richer For Poorer

A candid study of globalisation and inequality in the world

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6656923.stm

Escaping the Caste

On caste system in India

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1516_assignment/page30.shtml

Corruption in Afghanistan

How corruption affects a country

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1516_assignment/page23.shtml

Happy Listening!!!!!!!

Mr. Wangyal

Happy Halloween!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:28:00 +0800

Send this eCard !

Using Commas & Grammar

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:19:00 +0800

Dear Students,

If you ever wonder where to put an comma in the middle of a sentence or an essay, follow this lis link and find out http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.html. If you have problems with Subject Verb Agreement look up this link http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/esl/eslsubverb.html.

For other Grammar problems look here http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar. After learning the rules, start your word processor and do some practice.

Mr. Wangyal

Articel 377a

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:25:00 +0800

Dear Students,

A raging debate has been going on in the parliament and various web forums discussing whether we should make homosexuality a crime or not.

To read some of the interesting viewpoints which may give you some insight into the different local perspectives, follow the links.

http://www.keep377a.com
http://www.repeal377a.com
http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/pdf/20071023/ThioLeeAnn.pdf
http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/pdf/20071023/Siew%20Kum%20Hong.pdf

Improve Your Grammar

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:26:00 +0800

Dear Students,

Here are two very good resources you can utilise to improve your grammar esp. your Tenses. Click on the links and do the online exercises, you can check the answers yourself as these are mainly java based exercises. If there are any rules or explanantions given try to read them before doing the exercises.

http://www.learn-english-today.com/free-english-lessons/free-english-lesson_contents/

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Wangyal

Global Warming! Really?

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:43:00 +0800

Dear Students,

Promos are over but the world is till getting warmer!!!

So if you want to add some more salt and pepper to all the debates and points of views we have been talking and you have been reading about, visit these sites:

http://www.globalwarming.org/

http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/index.html

You can also watch a counter-documentary produced to challenge Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ if you click on this link.

Esnips Sharing Folder

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:03:00 +0800

Dear Students,

Please go to the esnips sharing folder and checkout the TJC 2006 Paper 2 Suggested Answers. To get there, click on the esnips folder sharing widget.

Finding out whether your answers are right or wrong is not as important as knowing whether you know how to arrive at the correct answer, whether your way of answering is correct or not and whether you know how to justify your answers or claims.

Mr. Wangyal

Some Online Grammar Resources for You

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:12:00 +0800

Here are some links teaching how to write sentences - simple, compound and complex.
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/sntmatr.html
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/sntstrct.html
http://www.eslbee.com/sentences.htm

What are clauses? Find Out!!!
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/bldcls.html

Here is a link that teaches how to use pronouns.
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/pronref.html

Here is a link that teaches how to use Verb Tenses.
http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/usetense.html

Your Esnips Widget For Shared Folder

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:48:00 +0800

Dear Students,

Please click on the esnips widget to get to the shared webfolder to access shared documents like ppts and word docs.

Good Luck!!!

Mr. Wangyal

Sample Answer

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:32:00 +0800

Here is the link from where you can download the sample answer for the AQ Question on the text 'THE REWARDS OF OLD AGE'.
http://www.esnips.com/doc/21f60769-9d09-4f5f-b9a6-a3599561a4e1/AQ-Sample-Answer

Sorry for the delay in posting. My internet service at home is still down despite assurances from my internet company yesterday that it was 'fixed'.

Audio links to interesting debates on pressing issues in BBC

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:30:00 +0800

Here are some audio links to interesting debates on BBC.

Is a free media essential for development?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1512_debates/page12.shtml

The Business of Climate Change

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1512_debates/page13.shtml

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 11:52:00 +0800

Exercise

Refer to the passage below. Attempt the following AQ.

Steps :

1. begin with Text Analysis and the Mapping of Main Ideas (refer to previous page)

2. Active Reading should have taken place.

Personal Response

Text

Textual

Analysis

S’pore govt ensures that the citizens have adequate funds for retirement through CPF savings.

Most Singaporeans own a HDB flat and 90% of the households in S’pore own the homes they live in.

It is compulsory by law (through Maintenance of Parents Act) for adult children in Singapore to provide for their aged parents.

Women in such societies have less rights/ status than men?

Societies that are fundamentally Confucianistic in nature tend to have great respect for the elders.

Likewise, the Chinese practise

ancestral worship to ensure blessings and protection for their families.

Is the wisdom of the old still relevant in this age of technological advancement?

Adapted from AJC JC1 Common Test 2003

THE REWARDS OF OLD AGE

1) Old age is a period of dependence. It is a period of dependence on others, but it is also a period of dependence on the particular social and political system in which old men live. In some societies, old age is a time of unequalled power and wealth; in others, it is a time of degradation and despair. The reason for this dramatic difference is fairly simple. In some societies, the old retain control over resources, wealth, land and women. They are courted by the young, who depend on their favours for land to cultivate, for money or for wives. In other societies, the old give up their control of resources or they are allowed to retain little. They are a burden on their descendants.

2) This is a contrast familiar to Western societies for centuries. The contrast between the treatment of the old in industrial slums left to the tender mercies of institutions and the pampered and humoured treatment of their contemporaries in the propertied classes was described by such writers as Galsworthy in the Forsythe Saga and is stark indeed. The reasons are not hard to find. Those whose wealth was their ability to work are of no interest when their strength has diminished with time; those who hold the family property control the young with threats and promises of what their wills might contain.

3) The same contrast holds true for many different aspects of societies. The Siriono are a primitive group of people in the forests of Columbia. Because they hunt freely and gather wild fruits and plants, they do not own land, and they have no major possessions they can use to control the young. When they are old or inform and cannot hunt animals or gather food effectively, they literally become nothing but burdens; and are simply abandoned.

4) Not all old people are treated in this way in hunting and gathering societies. Among the Tiwisa group in Australia Aborigines, the old men wield very great power. They do not have land or property with which to do it- the way they do it is by controlling women. A man promises his daughter in marriage to another, sometimes even before she is born. He does this to gain political alliance with another man, who may seal the pact by giving him his daughter in exchange. Since it is the old men who have all the wives, nobody else but they would normally have wives, or therefore daughters to offer.

5) This theoretical situation is modified by the fact that the old also need the physical support of the young men. They obtain this by promise of wives which they make to the young men in return for their services of all kinds. In this way, by promising their daughters, they control the young. The young have to work so hard and so long to obtain wives that by the time they have wives and, more importantly, daughters by these wives, they too have become old men so the system repeats itself.

6) Many African societies are organised into small clans of people who live together and farm together. These clans hold their land in common as a holy trust from their ancestors of the clan. In such a clan the eldest members are seen as the natural leaders because they are closest to the ancestors. They are only like managers of the common property, but this gives them great power. They can at any time re-allocate the land between the members of the clan and since everybody depends on this land for their very survival, this means that they will not be offended lightly.

7) The powers of the elders extended into the realm of the supernatural. The elders were closest to the ancestors and so if a young man offended them, the ancestors would be angry at this lack of respect towards their representatives. It was believed they would send diseases or other disasters to their descendants and these could only be averted or the diseases cured if a sacrifice were made to the ancestors.

8) In most of the traditional societies of the world, the old not only have the prestige because they control such resources as land or money, or because of the religious power which derives from their closeness to the ancestors, but also because they are thought to be wise. The wisdom of old age depends on a relatively stable type of society. The philosopher of ancient China or India or Europe is always thought of as an old man. In pre-literate villages when things go wrong or a new problem arises, the young talk to the old for advice to see if they can remember a similar situation. An example can be found among the hill peoples of Vietnam. Like many other simple peoples in the world they practise shifting cultivation. This means that in order to cultivate efficiently, these people must remember in detail the way hundreds of different patches of forest were used, when and by whom. In such a situation a detailed memory of the past is essential and thus the old hold distinct advantages. The same principle applies to nomadic tribes: the older men will know the routes to avoid and the ones to take for water and grazing.

9) Yet it is not in practical matters that the memory of the past is important in traditional society. It is also often vital for social and political issues. In many cultures those who are allies and those who are enemies are likely to depend on the type of family links the ancestors of the group had to bind them together. In such situations the old, because they are likely to be the only people who will remember the family histories, will enjoy considerable respect and prestige.

Adapted from ‘The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mankind’

Old age:period of dependence

→burden

contrast

aged with power vs

aged who are a burden

reason: access to resources

similar contrast

western societies

reason for contrast: access to family property

similar contrast

The Siriono

reason for contrast: land ownership

Reason for power: women

→ability to control the young

wives and daughters of the old exchanged for services from the young

African societies

older members → closer to ancestors

→more power

Ancestral worship

Offenders

→ retribution

wisdom and knowledge of the old valued

e.gs

Knowledge of history puts the old at a greater advantage

Once you finish the reading part try writing the AQ answer. I will post the answer in a few days time.

Enjoy your holidays!!!!!!!!!

Kai Xian's Findings

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Sun, 2 Sep 2007 13:27:00 +0800

Kai Xian has gone the 'extra mile' and done some research on the article I posted on 29th August titled 'Life in the 1500s'. She found another article online which refutes many of the claims made in that article. The URL is http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp.

As I have told you in class before while the Internet is a good resource, all the information posted online may not be true. One has to exercise discretion and judgement. A thorough research is always called for when it comes to important facts.

In this case, while the veracity of both articles and claims made by the authors may be disputable and may be either wholly fabricated or partially correct, the important thing to note is they do tell us in some ways how the phrases and expressions we use nowadays could have been coined and give us some information about life in the 1500s.

noreply@blogger.com (Wangyal) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:25:00 +0800

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Do you run through each day

On the fly?

When you ask, "How are you?"

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done

Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You'd better slow down

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Ever told your child,

We'll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,

Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time

To call and say "Hi"?

You'd better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,

It is like an unopened gift.... Thrown away.

Life is not a race.

Do take it slower

Hear the music

Before the song is over.

* Someone emailed me this poem a decade ago. This poem it still makes so much sense today.