S201-205 Homework: Tell Harry how you get to school

Photo J. Maurer

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen-friend Harry who writes:

... I have to catch two buses to get to school. I don't mind, though, because the buses usually run on time and they aren't too crowded. How do you get to school? Do you find the journey tiring? What's public transport like in your area?

Our school just had its first-ever "Environment Day"....

Write a letter to Harry. In your letter

• answer his questions
• ask three questions about the "Environment Day" event at his school

Write 100-140 words. Remember the rules of letter-writing. Please bring your letter to your class next week (February 6 or 8).

Exercise adapted from Olga Afanasyeva, Virginia Evans, Victoria Kopylova, Practice Exam Papers for the Russian State Exam, 2010 Revised Edition, Moscow: Express Publishing/Prosveshchenie Publishers.

S201-205 Homework: Letter to a gymnast

Source

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Julia who writes:

… I'm a gymnast so I train almost every day, and I travel a lot to competitions, so I don't have much free time. Are you involved in any clubs or sports? How much free time do you have and what kinds of things do you like to do? Do you get together very often with your friends?

In two weeks, I'm going to Ireland for a gymnastics competition.

Write a letter to Julia, answering her questions and asking her three questions about her plans to go to Ireland. Write 100-140 words. Remember the rules of letter-writing.

This homework is due at your class time next week (January 30 or February 1).

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Adapted from Elena Klekovkina, Malcolm Mann, Steve Taylore-Knowles, Practice Tests for the Russian State Exam. Moscow, Macmillan Russia, 2006.

S201-205 Homework: Are zoos ever a good idea?

Tell us what you really think! Are zoos justifiable? Why or why not?

If you have already finished your essay on a topic of your choice, then I will ask you to write this new essay on a EGE blank form during class time. However, if I don't already have your personal-topic essay, then I will ask you to finish that essay during this week's class, and write the zoo essay as homework.

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Kazan' Zoo and Botanical Park, December 2013

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Exercise from Olga Afanasyeva, Virginia Evans, Victoria Kopylova, Practice Exam Papers for the Russian State Exam, 2010 Revised Edition, Moscow: Express Publishing/Prosveshchenie Publishers. 

Tea--schedule change

For all Institute students: Our afternoon teas will restart on February 12.

Groups 501-502: Last call for December tests

To access the test, click on the graphic above.

Please note: this is a low-tech test. It's not an interactive form; you have to write your answers in a separate document. Please write and send me your answers (via e-mail or on vkontakte) right away!! I have to give Larisa Viktorovna grades on January 8.

In general, I don't like giving tests this way--it's impossible to control the test-taking environment. Next spring, we probably won't offer this option except to students caught in emergency situations.

Happy New Year!

401V: Isolation and solitude are not the same thing

Following on the theme of what goes into a happy life, two more TED lectures. First, love and the brain, according to Helen Fisher:



(See questions following the second lecture.)

Meanwhile, Sherry Turkle asks us to consider what our disembodied communication patterns (SMS, Twitter, social networks, even social robots) are doing to our souls. Is it time to overcome our fear of unedited self-disclosure in favor of actual human contact and healthy solitude?



Questions about these presentations

Sherry Turkle What is the central paradox illustrated by Sherry Turkle's story of the SMS she just received from her daughter?  She says, "People talk to me about the important new skill of making eye contact while you're texting." Why might this ability seem useful? Is it truly useful?  She goes on to say, "I think we're setting ourselves up for trouble"--in fact two kinds of trouble. What are they?  What is the Goldilocks effect? (Do you know the story of Goldilocks and the three bears?)  What was Stephen Colbert's profound question, and how did Turkle answer?  Turkle witnessed a woman being comforted by a robot in the shape of a seal, and, in her words, "felt myself at the cold, hard center of a perfect storm. We expect more from ... and less from .... And I ask myself, "Why have things come to this?" More from what? Less from what? How does she explain this?  What are the "three gratifying fantasies"?  What is the difference between isolation and solitude?  What attitude to life is symbolized by the phrase "calling in the cavalry"?  Is the situation Sherry Turkle describes limited to the West or the USA? Is this phenomenon also seen in Russia?  Why is Turkle optimistic?

Helen Fisher What three groups of people have these scientists examined using an MRI brain scanner? Anthropologists have found what phenomenon in every society? Almost 95 percent of both men and women gave the same answer—yes—to two different questions. What were the questions? What did the poet Emily Dickinson say about hell? The study of people in love found activity in the VTA, “part of the brain's reward system.” What functions are associated with this part of the brain? Among the people who have been “dumped,” these scientists found brain activity in the same region as the people who were in love. Why does Fisher say, “What a bad deal”? “Dumped” lovers also have activity in two other brain regions. What functions are those two brain regions responsible for? In terms of human reproduction, how does romantic love differ from the so-called sex drive? Fisher tells a story about a girlfriend to illustrate her point about “relapse.” What was the story? Has the spirit of scientific experimentation spoiled the concept of love for Fisher? How does she illustrate her answer to this question? What has this scientific team found out about people who are still in love after many years? What are some of the factors that will determine whether we will love this person and not that person? Is it possible to identify all the factors involved? In what different ways do men and women express intimacy and friendship?

401V, 501, 502: Ken Robinson, "Bring on the learning revolution"

Attention Group 401 (Evening): More from Ken Robinson. (Also see this earlier post.)

Students in Groups 501 and 502: we are also discussing these talks--Judy and I want to hear your viewpoints, too!

Update for Groups 501 and 502: We didn't have time to see this video last Thursday. We'll see it later in December. But we did see "Schools Kill Creativity."



Discussion questions on the second Ken Robinson video:

1. Al Gore spoke at the TED conference four years earlier about the climate crisis, a crisis involving natural resources. What is the “second climate crisis” to which Robinson is referring?
2. Robinson says, “I meet all kinds of people who don't think they're really good at anything. ” They don’t spend their lives doing what they love. Among the factors responsible for this situation, which does Robinson point to? Metaphorically speaking, how are human resources similar to natural resources?
3. Jeremy Bentham divided the world into what two groups?
4. What is fundamentally wrong with “reform”?
5. “I love that word, ‘disenthrall’.” What does it mean, in Robinson’s usage?
6. Thanks to education, we are enthralled to the idea of linearity. What is “linearity”? In contrast, how does Robinson describe life? It’s not linear, but instead it is ….?
7. How did this linearity express itself in the educational policy statement that Robinson encountered soon after his family arrived in Los Angeles? What was his response to this policy statement?
8. Linearity is one principle that holds us in thrall. What is the other idea, exemplified by fast food?
9. Rather than reforming education based on copying systems, no matter how good*, Robinson advocates what approach in the future?
10. Why are people leaving the educational system?
11. Talent is important; what else is important for hour-long tasks to seem like five minutes?
12. Why should we tread softly?

* KIPP (“it’s a great system”): “KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a national [USA] network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life.” (www.kipp.org)