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Trust is the essential ingredient for successful teamwork. How can we avoid misunderstandings and build strong professional relationships?

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Rubik's Cube - How the puzzle achieved success

Erno Rubik first studied sculpture and then later architecture in Budapest, where he went on to become a teacher of interior design. It was while he was working as a teacher that he began the preliminary work on an invention that he called the 'Magic Cube'.

Rubik was inspired by geometric puzzles such as the Chinese tangram, a puzzle consisting of various triangles, a square and a parallelogram which can be combined to create different shapes and figures. However, unlike the tangram, which is two- dimensional, Rubik was more interested in investigating how three-dimensional forms, such as the cube, could be moved and combined to produce other forms.

His design consisted of a cube made up of layers of individual smaller cubes, and each smaller cube could be turned in any direction except diagonally. To ensure that the cubes could move independently, without falling apart, Rubik first attempted to join them together using elastic bands. However, this proved to be impossible, so Rubik then solved the problem by assembling them using a rounded interior. This permitted them to move smoothly and easily. He experimented with different ways of marking the smaller cubes, but ended up with the simple solution of giving a different colour to each side. The object was to twist the layers of small cubes so that each side of the large cube was an identical colour.

Rubik took out a patent for the Cube in 1977 and started manufacturing it in the same year. The Cube came to the attention of a Hungarian businessman, Tibor Laczi, who then demonstrated it at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. When British toy expert Tom Kremer saw it, he thought it was amazing and he persuaded a manufacturer, Ideal Toys, to produce 1 million of them in 1979. Ideal Toys renamed the Cube after the toy's inventor, and in 1980, Rubik's Cube was shown at toy fairs all over the world. It won that year's prize in Germany for Best Puzzle. Rubik's Cube is believed to be the world's best-selling puzzle; since its invention, more than 300 million Cubes have been sold worldwide.

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Rubik's Cube - How the puzzle achieved success - IELTS reading practice test

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Rubik's Cube - How the puzzle achieved success reading practice test has 7 questions belongs to the Short Practice subject. All of the questions are Summary, form completion form

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Burgers made of insects – B1 English listening test - Test-English

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Listening comprehension test for intermediate students (CEFR B1). Watch a video about food and choose the correct answers.

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B1+ Reading Test

Read the text about eco-terrorism and for questions 1 to 6, choose the correct answers.

Seeding clouds to make rain

Drought is an increasing problem in our warming world. All continents have been experiencing more extended periods without rain, leading to forest fires and poor crop growth. Consequently, people are looking at cloud seeding to solve the problem. Cloud seeding is a method of encouraging precipitation by distributing small particles of silver iodide into clouds.

Cloud-seeding expert Arlen Huggins has been studying its effectiveness. 'My earliest experience was to use cloud seeding to reduce the amount of hail in northeast Colorado. They don't get huge hailstones here, like in the Midwest, but they get it more often. We didn't have any luck with that, but we had success later on in increasing snowfall in Utah. Now, the focus is shifting towards increasing rainfall from summer clouds, which is far more unpredictable.

The problem is that it's pretty hard to know whether precipitation resulted directly from cloud seeding. It might have rained or snowed anyway. Even if you cloud seed in one place and don't in another, it's impossible to know for sure what caused the precipitation unless the cloud system is straightforward, like fog that otherwise has no chance of forming rain or snow.

However, it's not during foggy and snowy conditions that people think of increasing the chance of rainfall. It's when a country is hit by drought, and then cloud seeding isn't an option due to the lack of clouds. In warm conditions, only storm clouds can produce rain by seeding, while during drought, skies tend to be clear with a few wispy clouds. The best option to prevent drought is to seed at times of the year when rainfall levels are normal or higher. That way, slightly more rain can be extracted and stored in reservoirs for the dry season.

As cloud seeding is expensive and its effectiveness tenuous, its usefulness is still a matter of opinion. University of Colorado researcher Katja Friedrich says cloud seeding can't end a drought. However, it can be beneficial, provided it occurs alongside other water conservation strategies. Arlen Huggins is of the same mind. Increasing precipitation through cloud seeding would significantly benefit the economy in the large water basin where he works. Still, for that to happen, the water would need to be captured and stored effectively.

There are also environmental issues regarding the impact of cloud seeding. At high levels, silver iodide can harm humans and other mammals, and some studies have found silver compounds to be slightly toxic. However, several ecological studies have shown minor environmental and health impacts. Where cloud seeding has taken place, the amount of silver compounds in the soil and vegetation has been found to be no higher than natural levels. Even so, some environmentalists are concerned about the long-term impacts, as there isn't data on how much silver iodide accumulates in the environment over periods exceeding ten years.

Another fear is that cloud seeding could potentially steal water from neighbouring areas by encouraging the water in clouds that would otherwise fall somewhere else to fall in your location. According to Maarten Ambaum from the University of Reading, it is possible to use cloud seeding to make rain fall on your farm, which otherwise would fall on your neighbour's farm. It's not the case, though, that if one country uses cloud seeding to create rain, a neighbouring country will lose out because clouds are constantly forming and reforming.

Reading comprehension test

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Seeding clouds to make rain - B1+ English Reading test - Test-English

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English reading comprehension test for upper-intermediate students (CEFR B2.1). Read a text about cloud seeding and answer the questions.

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Making a change How easy is it for us to change our lives - and why?

In 1990, a young American named Christopher McCandless gave up his career plans, left behind everyone he knew, including his family, and went off on an adventure. He was 22 at the time. In an act of kindness, he donated all his savings to the famous charity, Oxfam International, and hitchhiked his way through America to Alaska. His decisions were so unusual for his age that Jon Krakauer wrote a book about them called Into the Wild, and Sean Penn directed a film that had the same title.

Of course, this is an unusual story. Most college graduates would not do quite the same thing. However, studies do show that in teenage years, people are more likely to try out new experiences. Instead of following the family career path, for example, and working his way up the same organisation like his grandfather did, a 15-year-old may dream about becoming a traveller - only to find in his early 20s that this fascination with new places is declining and change is less attractive. This age-related trend can be observed in all cultures.

The reason why people all over the world become less keen to change as they get older may be because people's lives generally follow similar patterns and involve similar demands. Most people, wherever they are, aim to find a job and a partner. As they get older, they may have young children to look after and possibly elderly family members. These responsibilities cannot be achieved without some degree of consistency, which means that new experiences and ideas may not have a place in the person's life. New experiences may bring excitement but also insecurity, and so most people prefer to stay with the familiar.

However, not every individual is the same. One toddler may want to play a different game every day and get fed up if nothing changes at the nursery. Another may seek out and play with the same children and toys on every visit. Young children who avoid new experiences will grow up to be more conventional than others. Psychologists argue that those who have more open personalities as children are more open than others might be when they are older. They also suggest that young men have a greater interest in novelty than women, although, as they age, this desire for new experiences fades more quickly than it does in women.

The truth is that, as we get older, we prefer the things we know. We tend to order the same meals in restaurants, sit on the same side of the train when we commute to work, go on holiday to the same places and construct our day in the same way. If you are older than 20, remember that your openness to new experiences is slowly declining.

So you are better off making a new start today than postponing it until later.

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Making a change How easy is it for us to change our lives - and why? - IELTS reading practice test

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Making a change How easy is it for us to change our lives - and why? reading practice test has 6 questions belongs to the General Training subject. All of the questions are YES-NO-NOT GIVEN form

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One day two travelers came upon a bear. After the first had saved himself by climbing a tree, the other, knowing he had no chance against the bear by himself, lay on the ground as if he was dead. The bear came up to him, sniffed him around the ears but thinking him dead walked off. His friend climbed down from the tree and asked, "What was the bear whispering in your ear"
"Oh, he just said I should think twice about traveling with people who run out on their friends."

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to John Horbacz.

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One day two travelers came upon a bear. After the first had saved himself by climbing a tree, the other, knowing he had no chance against the bear by himself, lay on the ground as if he was dead. The bear came up to him, sniffed him around the ears but thinking him dead walked off.

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Two Islands, Two Countries: Uncovering the Secrets of the Diomede Islands

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Diomede Islands, two small islands in the Bering Strait, lying about 2.5 miles (4 km) apart and separated by the U.S.-Russian boundary, which coincides with the International Date Line. The larger island, Big Diomede (Russian: Ostrov Ratmanova [Ratmanov Island]), has an area of 4 square miles (10 square km) and is part of Chukotskiy autonomous district, in Russia. It has no permanent population but is the site of an important Russian weather station. To the east lies Little Diomede Island, a part of Alaska, inhabited by Chukchi people who are skilled seafarers. The islands' first European visitor was the Danish navigator Vitus Jonassen Bering on August 16 (St. Diomede's Day), 1728. Pop. (2008 est.) Little Diomede Island (Diomede city), 146.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Lorraine Murray.

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Diomede Islands | Bering Strait, Russia, & Alaska

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Diomede Islands, two small islands in the Bering Strait, lying about 2.5 miles (4 km) apart and separated by the U.S.-Russian boundary, which coincides with the International Date Line. The larger island, Big Diomede (Russian: Ostrov Ratmanova [Ratmanov Island]), has an area of 4 square miles (10

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Tourism

In this pre-advanced vocabulary lesson about Tourism, you will learn about common places to visit, verbs and idioms related to travel, and adjectives to describe different types of places. Check the pictures below and read the definitions and sentence examples to enhance your tourism-related vocabulary.

Places to go

1 Tourist attractions are places such as monuments, famous buildings, and museums that are popular among visiting tourists. Tourist attractions are often crowded because many people want to see them.

2 A seafront is a coastal part of a town or city that faces the sea. People often walk along the seafront so they can look out to sea. Many seafronts have cafes facing them where one can sit and admire the view.

3 Backstreets are narrow streets behind the busy main streets, often in a poorer area of town. They are usually quieter than main streets as they don't contain many shops and are therefore not usually used by tourists.

4 Amusement parks are outdoor areas where people can enjoy rides, games, and other forms of entertainment. Many are only open at certain times of the year, as they are not usually equipped to deal with bad weather.

5 Ruins are the remains of buildings, cities, or monuments that are in a state of disrepair.

6 Hiking trails are paths through mountains or forest areas that are marked out for walkers. Hiking trails can vary in length, with some stretching hundreds of kilometres.

7 Food markets are covered outdoor areas with many different vendors selling various types of food. People enjoy visiting food markets and sampling the different types of food.

8 Nature reserves are parks, forests, or other outdoor areas that are managed to protect their plants and wildlife. Many people visit nature reserves to enjoy the flowers, trees, and views.

9 A crafts fair is an event where people gather to showcase and sell handmade items, often including artwork, jewelry, pottery, and other unique crafts.

Verbs and idioms

1 If you go off track, you go away from the popular tourist routes. Many tourists often go off track to get a more authentic taste of a place.

2 To make a reservation means to book something ahead of time. People often make reservations at restaurants to ensure that they get a table.

3 To chill out means to relax and take it easy. You can chill out at home by relaxing on the sofa, but you can also chill out on holiday sitting on a beach or in a bar. Unwind is similar to chilling out. When you unwind, you relax and forget about work and the stresses of daily life.

4 To stroll means to walk at a leisurely pace, with no particular aim. You can through the streets of a town, taking in the buildings and sights, or you can stroll down a country lane and enjoy the natural surroundings.

5 If you hit the shops, you go shopping, usually for clothes, presents, or souvenirs. People often hit the shops when on holiday to buy things that they can't get at home.

6 To sample the local cuisine means to taste the food of the area that you're visiting. Many tourists enjoy sampling the local cuisine in markets or local restaurants.

7 If you pack your bags, you put your clothes and belongings in a suitcase or rucksack. People pack their bags when preparing to go on or return from a trip or holiday.

8 To take a detour means to take a different route to a place in order to avoid something or save time. People often take detours because of traffic, road closures, or building work.

9 We use the verb form go on before nouns related to travel, trips or similar, such as holiday, trip, journey, excursion, tour, cruise, safari, etc.

Adjectives to describe places

1 Unspoilt or unspoiled means in its natural state, not ruined or changed by humans. We are more likely to describe the countryside as unspoilt than we are a city or town.

2 Remote is a word we use to describe a place that is isolated and far from transport links. Remote areas are usually unspoilt because very few people visit them.

3 Off the beaten track means away from areas and attractions that are usually visited by tourists. Many people like to find somewhere off the beaten track because they are seeking peace and relaxation.

4 If a place is touristy, it's not very nice because it's full of tourists and things for tourists to buy or do. Areas with monuments, galleries, and famous buildings are usually very touristy.

5 Picturesque and 6 breathtaking are both words that we use to describe a place or view that is very attractive. Picturesque means beautiful, like a scene from a picture or postcard, whereas breathtaking means so beautiful that it takes your breath away.

7 Something or somewhere that is overrated is said to be better than it actually is. Restaurants are often described as overrated when the food is not as good as you expected it to be.

8 Vibrant or lively means full of life, so a city or place that is vibrant or lively usually has many things going on and lots of things to do.

9 Exotic means exciting or unusual because it comes from or is characteristic of a different place. We can describe a place as exotic, but we can also use the word to describe food, music, or people too.

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Tourism - B2 English Vocabulary - Test-English

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Boost your travel vocabulary with the pictures, examples, exercises, and games in this comprehensive English vocabulary lesson about Tourism.

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How does eco-tourism contribute to the conservation of natural resources?

What are some popular eco-tourism destinations around the world?

What are the benefits of engaging in eco-tourism activities?

How can eco-tourism positively impact local communities?

What are some examples of sustainable practices in eco-tourism?

What role does education play in promoting eco-tourism?

What are the potential challenges or drawbacks of eco-tourism?

How can individuals be responsible eco-tourists?

What are some ways to support eco-tourism initiatives?

How does eco-tourism contribute to raising environmental awareness?

What are some innovative eco-tourism projects or initiatives?

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The Ecological Importance of Bees

A Sometime in the early Cretaceous period of the Earth's history, hunting wasps of a certain type became bees by adopting a vegetarian diet: they began to rely more and more on the pollen of plants as a source of protein for themselves and their offspring, as an alternative to insects. In so doing, they accidentally transported pollen on their bodies to other plants of the same species, bringing about pollination. The stage was thus set for a succession of ever-closer mutual adaptations of bees and flowering plants. In particular, flowers began to reward bees for their unwitting role in their reproduction by providing richer sources of pollen and another source of nutrition, nectar.

B Today about 15 per cent of our diet consists of crops which are pollinated by bees. The meat and other animal products we consume are ultimately derived from bee- pollinated forage crops, and account for another 15 per cent. It follows that around one third of our food is directly or indirectly dependent on the pollinating services of bees. On a global basis, the annual value of agricultural crops dependent on the pollination services of bees is estimated at £1,000 million (US$1,590 million). Much of this pollination is due to honey bees, and in monetary terms it exceeds the value of the annual honey crop by a factor of fifty.

C But the apparently harmonious relationship between bees and plants conceals a conflict of interests. Although flowers need bees and vice versa, it pays each partner to minimise its costs and maximise its profits. This may sound like an extreme case of attributing human qualities to non-human species, but using the marketplace and the principles of double-entry book keeping as metaphors may give US some insights into what is really going on between bees and flowering plants. In the real world, both flower and bee operate in a competitive marketplace. A community of retailers, the flowers, seek to attract more or less discriminating consumers, the bees. Each flower has to juggle the costs and benefits of investing in advertising, by colour and scent, and providing rewards, nectar and pollen, clearly a species which depends on cross-pollination is on a knife-edge: it must provide sufficient nectar to attract the interest of a bee, but not enough to satisfy all of its needs in one visit. A satiated bee would return to its nest rather than visit another flower. The bee, on the other hand, is out to get the maximum amount of pollen and nectar. It must assess the quality and quantity of rewards which are on offer and juggle its energy costs so that it makes a calorific profit on each foraging trip. The apparent harmony between plants and bees is therefore not all that it seems. Instead, it is an equilibrium based on compromises between the competing interests of the protagonists.

D This sounds remarkably like the ideas of the 18th-century economist Adam Smith. In his book, The Wealth of Nations, Smith postulated that in human society the competitive interactions of different 'economic units' eventually resulted in a balanced, or 'harmonious' society. One might predict, therefore, that economists would find the relationships between bees and plants of some interest. This is the case in Israel, where economists are collaborating with botanists and entomologists in a long-term study of the pollination biology of the native flora, in an attempt to understand the dynamics of the relationship between communities of bees and plants.

E This sort of study is of more than passing academic interest. It is important that authorities understand the dynamic relationships between plants and their pollinators. This is especially true when, say, devising conservation policies. A good example comes from the forests of tropical South America. Here, as in all rainforests, there is a high diversity of tree species. There may be more than 120 per acre, but in a given acre there may only be one or two individuals of any one species: These trees are pollinated by large, fast-flying bees. There is evidence that certain types of bees learn the distribution of these scattered trees and forage regularly along the same routes. This is called 'trap-lining' and the bees forage for up to 23 km from their nests. The bees are therefore acting as long distance pollinators.

F An issue of current concern in tropical forest conservation is that of trying to estimate the minimum sustainable size of islands' of forest reserve in areas where large-scale felling is taking place. There is much discussion on seed dispersal distances. But this is only one half of the equation, so far as the reproduction of trees is concerned. There is another question that must be addressed in order to calculate whether proposed forest reserves are close enough to the nearest large tract of forest: 'what is the flight range of these long-distance foragers?' We need to know much more about bees and their relationships with plants before this question can be answered.

G Bees, then, are vital to our survival. Furthermore, much of the visual impact of human environments derives from vegetation, and most vegetation is dependent on bees for pollination. Thus, as pollinators of crops and natural vegetation, bees occupy key positions in the web of relationships which sustain the living architecture of our planet.
Complete the sentences below.
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The Ecological Importance of Bees - IELTS reading practice test

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The Ecological Importance of Bees reading practice test has 13 questions belongs to the Recent Actual Tests subject. In total 13 questions, 5 questions are Matching Headings form, 8 questions are Summary, form completion form.

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The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans | Daniel Amen | TEDxOrangeCoast

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50 Word Formation Exercises: CAE

C1 Advanced (CAE) Use of English: Part 3

C1 Advanced (CAE) Use of English: Part 3 Example Test

C1 Advanced (CAE) Use of English: Part 3 question type here is called word-formation.

For each gap you get one word in capitals which you have to change so the grammar and meaning fit in the sentence. Here you have to show how well you know word families and if you can change words by using prefixes and suffixes

50 Word Formation Exercises: CAE

C1 Advanced (CAE) Use of English: Part 3

Strategy

1. Read the text for general understanding.

2. Decide what type of word you need for each gap (e.g. noun, adjective, etc.).

3. Look at the whole sentence, not just al the line containing the gap.

4. You may need to add a prefix or suffix to some words.

5. Read through the text and check that your words make sense.

6. Check your spelling.

Tips

You need to read the whole text to get the writer's opinion on the topic. That's because sometimes a negative prefix will be required. There is usually at least one word requiring a negative prefix, so look out for these.

In the exam always write something. You never know, you might be lucky even if you are not sure of the answer!

C1 Advanced (CAE) Use of English: Part 3 Example Test

Use the word in capitals to form a word that fits in the gap.
For each question, write your answer in the gap.

The story of muscle cars

Muscle cars were never intended to be valuable. In fact, the whole idea behind muscle cars was to make them inexpensive EXPENSIVE and fast. Muscle cars were stripped-down versions of the most utilitarian UTILITY homely, and basic mass-produced cars to ever roll out of Detroit. These rattle trap, bare-bones, crude devices were built to conform to a price point with little regard given to sophistication or longevity LONG, and aimed squarely at the youth YOUNG market. And this market couldn't get enough of them. These were the cars every red-blooded American kid wanted. The image, the speed, the lifestyle were all highly addictive.

Looking back, the muscle car years were relatively RELATIVE brief moment in time that we will never see the likes of again. It was a perfect storm, just what the market wanted, and was presented at the right place at the right time. So how did these seemingly disposable DISPOSE cars, built-in large numbers and owned by kids who literally LITERAL tried to kill them from the first twist of the key, become so valuable? More importantly, why did they become so valuable? Most people are astounded when they hear the recent sales results of the most desirable DESIRE muscle cars. We call them two-comma cars, cars that are worth so much money that you need two commas to separate all the zeroes in the price.

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An essay is the first part of the writing and it is obligatory. The question always has a discursive focus. Discursive writing is a style used in academic writing and it requires the high level of language competence.

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simply that people with tone deafness (or' amusia") are unable to sing in tune, they are also unable to discriminate between tones or recognize familiar melodies.

Congenial amusia , the inability to distinguish pitches.

while most people can easily distinguish differences smaller than that, when listening to melodies which have had a single note altered so that it is out of key with the rest of the melody, do not notice a problem

it might be expected that a musical impairment may be caused by a language impairment. Studies suggest, however, that language and music ability are independent of one another

Moreover, while amusics show deficiencies in their recognition of pitch differences in melodies, they show no tonal languages, such as Chinese, do not report having any difficulty discriminating between words that differ only in their intonation.

New studies, however, have suggested that the deficits in amusics are located outside the auditory cortex. Brain scans of amusics do not show any reaction at all to differences smaller than a half step, when changes in tones are large, their brains overreact, showing twice as much activity on the right side of the brain as a normal brain hearing the same thing.

The more important question now becomes one of normality

Darwin believed that music was adaptive as a way of finding a mate, but who needs to be able to sing to find a partner in an age when it is possible to express your emotions through a song on your IPod?

it must be done to determine whether lack of musical ability is actually detrimental in any way. If no disadvantages can be found of having amusia, then it is no more a disability than having poor fashion sense or bad handwriting.

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What first comes to mind when you hear the word “travel?”

Do you like to travel?

How often do you travel?

Describe the best trip you’ve ever taken.

Where do you most want to go?

Do you prefer a relaxing vacation, or an exciting vacation?

Do you prefer the mountains, or the beach?

Do you prefer going to a beautiful, natural place, or an interesting, cultural place?

If you had a million dollars and a year to travel, where would you go?

How do you feel about coming home after a trip?

What can travel teach a person?

Do you think travel is more educational than school?

Do you like to travel by car, plane, train, bus, or another way?

Have you ever traveled alone? If not, would you want to?

Have you ever gotten lost while traveling?

Have you ever hitchhiked? Do you think it is safe?

Do you play travel games when you have long flights or drives?

Do you think tourism helps or hurts the countries where tourists go?

What advice would you have for tourists coming to your home country?

Do you like airports? Is there any particularly interesting airport you’ve been to?

What do you think of the idea of space tourism? Do you think tourists will ever go to the moon?

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Departure (n) – the act of leaving, often to start a journey

Arrival (n) – the act of arriving somewhere

Transfer (v) – change to another place, route, or means of transportation during a journey.

Reservation (n) – an arrangement whereby something, especially a seat or room, is booked or reserved for a particular person

Breakdown (n) – a mechanical failure

Travel Light (adj. phrase) – to travel without taking much baggage with you.

Check in (phrasal verb) – arrive and register at an airport, station, or hotel

Guide book (noun) – a book for tourists full of information about a place

Off the beaten path

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The Concept of Role Theory

Any individual in any situation occupies a role in relation to other people. The particular individual with whom one is concerned in the analysis of any situation is usually given the name of focal person. He has the focal role and can be regarded as sitting in the middle of a group of people, with whom he interacts in some way in that situation. This group of people is called his role set. For instance, in the family situation, an individual's role set might be shown as in Figure 6. Role set

Figure 6

The role set should include all those with whom the individual has more than trivial interactions. Role definition
The definition of any individual's role in any situation will be a combination of the role expectations that the members of the role set have of the focal role. These expectations are often occupationally denned, sometimes even legally so. The role definitions of lawyers and doctors are fairly clearly defined both in legal and in cultural terms. The role definitions of, say, a film star or bank manager, are also fairly clearly defined in cultural terms, too clearly perhaps.

Individuals often find it hard to escape from the role that cultural traditions have defined for them. Not only with doctors or lawyers is the required role behaviour so constrained that if you are in that role for long it eventually becomes part of you, part of your personality. Hence, there is some likelihood that all accountants will be alike or that all blondes are similar - they are forced that way by the expectations of their role.

It is often important that you make it clear what your particular role is at a given time. The means of doing this are called, rather obviously, role signs. The simplest of role signs is a uniform. The number of stripes on your arm or pips on your shoulder is a very precise role definition which allows you to do certain very prescribed things in certain situations. Imagine yourself questioning a stranger on a dark street at midnight without wearing the role signs of a policeman!

In social circumstances, dress has often been used as a role sign to indicate the nature and degree of formality of any gathering and occasionally the social status of people present. The current trend towards blurring these role signs in dress is probably democratic, but it also makes some people very insecure. Without role signs, who is to know who has what role?

Place is another role sign. Managers often behave very differently outside the office and in it, even to the same person. They use a change of location to indicate a change in role from, say, boss to friend. Indeed, if you wish to change your roles you must find some outward sign that you are doing so or you won't be permitted to change - the subordinate will continue to hear you as his boss no matter how hard you try to be his friend. In very significant cases of role change, e.g. from a soldier in the ranks to officer, from bachelor to married man, the change of role has to have a very obvious sign, hence rituals. It is interesting to observe, for instance, some decline in the emphasis given to marriage rituals. This could be taken as an indication that there is no longer such a big change in role from single to married person, and therefore no need for a public change in sign.

In organisations, office signs and furniture are often used as role signs. These and other perquisites of status are often frowned upon, but they may serve a purpose as a kind of uniform in a democratic society; roles without signs often lead to confused or differing expectations of the role of the focal person.
Role ambiguity
Role ambiguity results when there is some uncertainty in the minds, either of the focal person or of the members of his role set, as to precisely what his role is at any given time. One of the crucial expectations that shape the role definition is that of the individual, the focal person himself. If his occupation of the role is unclear, or if it differs from that of the others in the role set, there will be a degree of role ambiguity. Is this bad? Not necessarily, for the ability to shape one's own role is one of the freedoms that many people desire, but the ambiguity may lead to role stress which will be discussed later on. The virtue of j ob descriptions is that they lessen this role ambiguity. Unfortunately, job descriptions are seldom complete role definitions, except at the lower end of the scale. At middle and higher management levels, they are often a list of formal jobs and duties that say little about the more subtle and informal expectations of the role. The result is therefore to give the individual an uncomfortable feeling that there are things left unsaid, i. e. to heighten the sense of role ambiguity.

Looking at role ambiguity from the other side, from the point of view of the members of the role set, lack of clarity in the role of the focal person can cause insecurity, lack of confidence, irritation and even anger among members of his role set. One list of the roles of a manager identified the following: executive, planner, policy maker, expert, controller of rewards and punishments, counsellor, friend, teacher. If it is not clear, through role signs of one sort or another, which role is currently the operational one, the other party may not react in the appropriate way - we may, in fact, hear quite another message if the focal person speaks to us, for example, as a teacher and we hear her as an executive.

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The Concept of Role Theory - IELTS reading practice test

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Any individual in any situation occupies a role in relation to other people. The particular individual with whom one is concerned in the analysis of any situation is usually given the name of focal person. He has the focal role and can be regarded as sitting in the middle of a group of people, with whom he interacts in some way in that situation.

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Preposition List | Grammar | EnglishClub

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Easy-to-learn short list of 70 of the most important prepositions in English, followed by a full list of 150 prepositions with example sentences. For ESL learners.

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English grammar practice exercise, upper-intermediate (B2 level).

In this exercise you will practise using wish to express hypothesis in the present and the past.

We use wish to express a hypothetical situation. When we say I wish, we are saying that we want something which is impossible or which is highly unlikely to happen.

For hypothesis about the present and future we use I wish + past simple.

I wish I was/were twenty years younger.
I wish I had more time; I'm always so busy.
Don't you wish you could speak a foreign language fluently?

For hypothesis about the past, we use I wish + past perfect.

I wish I hadn't said that.
(= 'I regret that I said it.')
I wish I'd (I had) studied harder at school.
(= 'I regret that I didn't study harder at school.')

Exercise instructions

Choose the correct answer in each of the following.

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Upper-intermediate grammar exercise (B2 level): using "wish" ex. 1

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English grammar practice exercise, upper-intermediate (B2 level).In this exercise you will practise using wish to express hypothesis in the present and the past. Exercise instructions Choose the co...

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It connects USA to Europe and Asia,18 600 ships pass through it every year . Boat transport is an ancient form of transport . First canal was the Egypt's Suez Canal , connecting two sea , Mediterranean and Red Sea. In 19 th century m transport from New York to California started and the French wanted to build the canal , this was in 1881 . There were too many casualties and the work had to stop . In 1904 , Chief  engineer Stevens noticed the problem of the French and decided to build an artificial lake.It is like a water reservoir , 85 feet above the sea , ...how does it work? Panama cargo boat is surrounded by two tugboats that lead the boat into the canal and there it is locked . The ship is protected from scratching by rubber fenders that are hanging down from the walls of the canal. This transport is a gradual process , to allow the water to flow , it takes 11 hours. In 2000 additional locks were built and now there are 4 locks . The ships can carry around  5000 containers but the technology is constantly evolving and today this number is too small , ships now carry 13000 containers .There are some problems , fighting erosion and landslide  , the cost is estimated to 350 million dollars every year to run this magnificent construction.

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Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable - William Pollard

After you have obtained the sponsorship of the executives in your organization, it is time to now move on to selecting projects that will shape your business' transformation program. DMAIC is a problem-solving technique that is an integral part of Lean Six Sigma. The methodology consists of five phases: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. A DMAIC project is the name given to a Lean Six Sigma project that is aimed at solving a problem within an organization (such as waste reduction). So, how can you select the right DMAIC projects for your organization?
Understanding The Phases Of DMAIC

Before we can start discussing how to choose projects, we need to first understand how exactly the DMAIC methodology works so that you can pick more viable projects for the transformation program. Let us take a look at what needs to be done during each stage of a DMAIC project:

This is the first phase of a Lean Six Sigma improvement project in which you define the problem with a "problem statement" and then define the goals that you need to achieve with a "goal statement". The project leader ( Black Belt for exemple) is responsible for creating a Project Charter, developing a process map, and understanding the needs of the customers associated with the process.

The starting point of a project is defined during this phase in which the team is responsible for selecting the right measures and creating a plan for data collection. At the end of this phase, you should have data about the baseline process and an updated project charter.

The data that is collected during the Measure phase will be analysed in this phase to closely examine the process and determine the cause(s) of the problem at hand. In this phase, the data might be visually displayed through the use of data analysis and process analysis tools for better interpretation.

Once you are aware of the cause(s) of the problem, it is time to brainstorm the possible solutions, design the future state process map to project expected outcomes, and then choose (and implement) the solution the meets these outcomes. At the end of this phase, you are expected to measure improvement in the process and check whether it is on par with the expectations.

For assuring that the improvements are sustained, a monitoring and sustenance plan is developed and implemented during the Control phase of the DMAIC project. During this phase, the process improvement infrastructure is passed on to the employees working with the process for continuous improvement using Lean Six Sigma principles.

How To Choose The Right DMAIC Projects

Now that you have an understanding about how the DMAIC methodology works, let us discuss the steps that you need to take for choosing the right projects for your organization:

The purpose of a DMAIC project is to solve a problem that is associated with a process, waste or quality issue within the organization which in turn makes the process more efficient and reliable.

Therefore, the first thing that you need to do is to identify the problems, deficiencies, and inefficiencies that exist within your organization.

These areas of concerns are what becomes the basis for the 'problem statement' in the Define phase of the DMAIC methodology.

One important thing to mention here is that not all problems have to be solved through DMAIC. At certain times, an effective solution to a problem is already known which means that there is no need for applying DMAIC and at other times, a problem can simply be too complex (and may require an entire process redesign) in which case it cannot be solved through DMAIC.

Before you can proceed forward, you must first determine whether a project meets certain criteria for DMAIC. There are 8 key selection criteria that you need to make use of for assessing the viability of a DMAIC project.

1. Customer impact: If the project is successful, will it positively impact the customers and will it increase customer satisfaction?

2. Problem statement: Is the problem well-defined i.e. does it have a specific element or area of concern that needs to be fixed? If not then the project could lose its focus due to lack of clarity.

3. Clarity of solution: Is a solution to the problem already known? If yes then there is no need for continuing with DMAIC for solving the issue.

4. Benefits offered: What is the value of the project quantitatively and qualitatively? A cost-benefit analysis and cash-flow analysis need to be conducted to determine whether solving the problem will benefit the organization or not.

5. Process stability: If the targeted process is new then it has likely not reached a stability yet which means that the impact of the solution could be different than predicted by DMAIC.

6. Sponsorship available: How much support does the project have from the LSS team? Strong sponsorship is what distinguishes between success and failure in a DMAIC project.

7. Project alignment: Does the project (and its objectives) align with the corporate strategy of the organization? If no, then there is less likelihood for the project being funded or supported by the Lean Six Sigma team.

8. Process redesign: If the process that is being examined cannot be improved further without having to be redesigned then the viability of the DMAIC project can be in question, as well.

Organize A Project Selection Workshop

Once you are aware of the problems that exist within your organization, the next step that you need to take is to discuss the projects with the rest of the Lean Six Sigma team.

Arrange a workshop that will be headed by the LSS Leader (or Champion) and will involve the Head Of Divisions, LSS Program Manager, Black Belts, and Green Belts.

Discuss the DMAIC projects with the team and assess each project with the help of the key selection criteria that we mentioned in the previous step. Determine how strongly the administration and executives support each project and make use of this data for prioritizing the projects.

You can make use of tools such as selection charts that list out all the projects with their access time and access resources for determining the viability and importance of a DMAIC project, as well.

The aim of this workshop should be to come up with at least 20 deliverable projects for the first year of LSS implementation that have been ordered in the sequence with which they will be initiated. Once the projects have been decided, the Black Belts will be given the responsibility for analyzing, refining, and implementing them.

The goal should be to gradually increase this from 20 projects in the first year to 83 in the second year, then 184 in the third year, then 293 in the fourth year, and then finally 396 in the fifth year of the LSS implementation. These statistics are for a company of 10,000 people.

This is an optional step that you can take in order to optimize your project selection process. The use of project selection tools will help you balance the selection process so that the risk of project failure is minimized.

The purpose of this additional process for selection is to select projects that best utilize the resources and time that is available to the organization. The tools that should be used for this purpose are the S-C-P Model and the SWOT Analysis.

S-C-P

The S-C-P (Structure-Conduct-Performance) model is a top down approach for determining whether a project will be effective or not. In this model: Structure measures economic value; Conduct measures that ability to exploit maximum value; and Performance measures the potential or chances of success for the project.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is a tool for performing a realistic assessment of the projects through a specified thought process. The Strengths of a project are based on its distinctiveness, competencies, and resources available; the Weaknesses are the unrealistic parts of the project that are the hardest to achieve; the Opportunities assess whether technical and economic trends can produce higher return and value than expected; and the Threats are the barriers to success for the project (management support, buy-in, etc.).

Most usually, the SWOT analysis is conducted after the S-C-P for highlighting the strongest projects (which should be prioritized) and the weakest projects (which should be eliminated).

These results can be further filtered down through processes such as the VRIO (Valuable, Rare, Imitable, Organized) analysis. However, you are not required to go into such depth in the early years of LSS implementation since the number of projects are already limited (and do not require rigorous filtering).

Takeaway

A DMAIC project is responsible for solving a problem that exists within an organization.

The five phases of DMAIC are: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. Each of these phases plays a vital role in the problem-solving methodology of DMAIC.

When you are looking to find the right DMAIC projects for your organization, you should identify the problems, filter the projects, and organize a project selection workshop with the LSS team.

If needed, you can refine the projects further by making use of project selection tools such as S-C-P, SWOT analysis, and VRIO.

The goal should be to start with 20 DMAIC projects in the first year and then gradually increase them to 83 in the second year, then 184 in the third year, then 293 in the fourth year, and then finally 396 in the fifth year of the LSS implementation.

If you enjoyed this post, we would be very grateful if you'd help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you!

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How To Select The Right DMAIC Projects And Build Your Transformation Program [ 3- From Performance To Excellence] - Lean Six Sigma Belgium

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Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change ... How To Select The Right DMAIC Projects And Build Your Transformation Program [ 3- From Performance To Excellence] Read More "

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Expert reveals seven sneaky tactics supermarkets use to make you spend more

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Looking to save a bit of money when you do your food shopping?

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If you're not afraid of ghosts, you could nab yourself a character-filled Shropshire home for just a bargain price.

This former Baptist church is due to go under the hammer for a guide price of £25,000, representing a great conversion opportunity.

However, there are a few major stipulations to the sale.

Situated in the rural village Bucknell, the property was built in 1871 and comprises 1,027 square feet of indoor space.

Although at present it's only got two rooms (a chapel and back room) it's ripe to be renovated, featuring original features like double timber front doors and high, beamed ceilings.

With some creativity and know-how there's the potential to turn it into a stunning home, but it's certainly not somewhere you can move into straight away.

Alongside not having water, electricity or foul drainage, the property's front and back gardens are filled with headstones, as 0.15-acres site served as the church's cemetery.

While we've seen homes with graveyards before, the burial sites are typically centuries old. This chapel was operation until very recently, meaning whoever buys it will be subject to a number of rules.

The new owner will be required to provide access to the cemetery 'at all reasonable times, to all persons wishing to tend particular graves,' and to keep the grounds maintained for visitors.

They must also permit the opening up of existing graves for family members of those already buried there, provide new graves for the former members of Coxall Baptist Church, and allow funeral services to take place on the grounds.

It's not your average garden, so the winning bidder will need to be okay with sharing the space with mourners. A keen interest in gardening is also a plus.

Yet, for the right person, the property has plenty to offer.

'We believe there is a Baptistry Bath beneath the floorboards in front of the pulpit, though we were unable to investigate further as the floorboards are screwed down,' reads the Rightmove listing.

Additionally, estate agent Halls, highlights the building's stained glass window accents, charming iron-railed fencing, and lean-to brick construction (which currently houses a camping toilet) to the rear.

Unfortunately, the pews and organ you see in some pictures aren't included as part of the sale, so you won't get the full Sunday morning experience.

What you will get is a place packed full of history, as well as the chance to make a unique place of worship your own.

The property will be put up for auction on Friday April 28, 2023, at 3pm at Halls Holdings House, Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury.
Check out the listing and enquire to view via Rightmove. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
MORE : 'Shut up!': Mansion used as the school in The Princess Diaries for sale for £7million

MORE : County Down home on the market for £24,950 - but it's 'just a shell'

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Property with garden graveyard on sale for £25,000 - but there are conditions

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If you're not afraid of ghosts, you could nab yourself a character-filled Shropshire home for just a bargain price. This former Baptist church is due to go under the hammer for a guide price of £25,000, representing a great conversion opportunity. However, there are a few major stipulations to the sale.

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sentences and audio

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Customers might not think about competition when they're walking through the grocery store or making an online purchase, but it happens to be a cornerstone of business and the free economy that impacts every single thing that's bought and sold. Technically, competition consists of the cumulative force of actions taken by companies that're designed to improve their market standing, sales, and ultimately, profits. But really, competition is simply what allows businesses to try and get ahead of each other, and consumers to get the best possible value.

Like many business ideas, competition is best explained through an example. Imagine that a company opens a profitable retail location and sells bread at an enormous profit. After another company notices all the profits that're being made through bread sales in this neighborhood, they may open a store of their own and undercut the competition, or sell similar items or services for lower prices. The first company may respond by lowering their own prices (so they sell more bread to their former customers, who're presumably buying the cheaper bread), and the end result is much cheaper bread for consumers. In this way, businesses going head-to-head benefits customers.

Reverse competition, or the tendency of some businesses to purchase items that're being sold below market value (or the price that an item can reasonably be expected to sell for) and reprice them, is also a business practice that's worth considering. Imagine that a bread company, to limit the success of other businesses, sells their bread that's worth five dollars per loaf elsewhere for one dollar per loaf. Instead of being pushed out of the market, a competing business could recognize the discrepancy between the bread's value and its sale price, and then proceed to purchase all the first company's bread for one dollar and resell it for two dollars with their own label.

The effects of not having competition, in a particular professional sphere or entire economies, are devastating to consumers and the wellbeing of citizens generally. Consider the example of railroad companies in Europe and America a couple centuries back that owned a multitude of tracks and land; essentially no other companies existed to create competition (because the major railroad companies bought all the land and kept others from doing so), and they were able to charge whatever high prices they wanted. This described scenario is an example of a monopoly, or a situation when one company has complete control over an industry and its prices due to a lack of competition.

Lastly, an oligopoly is a style of competition wherein businesses are small in number and coordinate with each other to raise prices-thus making goods and services more expensive for consumers. Modern-day examples of oligopolies are satellite television and internet services, which, although they cost companies very little to provide, are billed to consumers for sizable sums. Thus, something of a general understanding has been reached by leading internet and television companies, as they would make far less money if they competed rigorously.

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Customers might not think about competition when they're walking through the grocery store or making an online purchase, but it happens to be a cornerstone of business and the free economy that impacts every single thing that's bought and sold.

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One of the most notorious robberies in English history took place on 8, August, 1963, when a gang of men stole over two million pounds (US$53 million in 2018) from a night mail train in the countryside outside London. The daring audacity of the raid and its meticulous planning have given the heist iconic status.

The story began months earlier when the gang received a tip-off from a post office worker that a mail train would be carrying bags of old banknotes to London for recycling, an irresistible prize for criminals as they would be untraceable.

After careful research, they chose a lonely spot 50 kilometres north of London and stopped the train in the early hours by making a false red signal.

They then swarmed onto the locomotive, hitting the driver over the head in the struggle that followed. After uncoupling the front two coaches containing the money, they drove the train to a bridge 800 metres ahead where the rest of the gang were waiting.

Here they unloaded the 128 mailbags weighing 2.5 tons onto trucks parked in the lane below. These were disguised as military vehicles taking part in a night exercise. The whole operation took just 30 minutes.

Driving slowly through back lanes to avoid detection, they arrived forty-five minutes later at a remote farmhouse which they had bought six weeks earlier. When they counted the money, they found it was far more than they had expected and amid noisy celebrations, they shared out the loot.

By listening in on police radio messages, they soon learned the police had guessed they were still in the area. Concerned that the farmhouse would soon be discovered, they decided to leave immediately and over the next 24 hours went their separate ways. Each man had about £150,000 (nearly US$4 million in 2018). The police found the farm four days later.

It was at this point that things started to go wrong. They had paid a man to clean up the farmhouse to remove all evidence but he never turned up, which meant that fingerprints remained at the farm. These would later lead to the arrest of some of the gang.

Meanwhile, as the story hit the headlines, public reaction was surprisingly sympathetic. People wished the robbers good luck rather than deplore their lawless behaviour, never mind that the driver had been brutally beaten.

The gang were eventually to become victims of their own success. The media frenzy put the police under intense pressure to make arrests, and as leading professional criminals, they were prime suspects. A few weeks later, an unknown informer who was in jail for another crime revealed most of their names, possibly in return for early release. By Christmas, most of the robbers had been caught.

When their trial came early in 1964, the sentences shocked the nation: the defendants were given a total of over 300 years in prison. The government had clearly been embarrassed by the raid - the train had neither security guards nor an alarm system - and was determined to make an example of the men.

Many criticised the harsh sentences, including the detective in charge of the investigation. But as it turned out, none of the gang served more than fifteen years, while a number escaped and four were never caught.

As for the money, to this day only a fraction of it has ever been recovered.

It is sobering to reflect that train driver, who had bravely defended the state's millions, received a mere £250 (US$6,700 in 2018) in compensation. Yet some of the robbers' wives were later paid thousands for their stories by the newspapers.

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The Great Train Robbery | Reading comprehension exercise

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The Great Train Robbery - Reading comprehension exercise for students of English. 606 words. Intermediate B1-B2. One of the UK's best-known crimes, the Great Train Robbery of 1963 was a daring heist that gave the robbers almost celebrity status. PDF download with reading comprehension, vocabulary and grammar exercises.

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Sabzeh - wheatgrass or lentil sprouts grown in a dish.

Samanu - a sweet pudding made from wheat germ.

Senjed - dried oleaster (or dried fruit of a lotus tree)

Seer - garlic.

Seeb - apple.

Sumac - a crushed spice.

Serkeh - vinegar.

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An equinox occurs at the start of the spring and fall. The solstice occurs during the summer and the winter. Occurs on March 21 (Vernal equinox) and on September 23 (Autumnal equinox). Occurs on June 21(Summer Solstice) and on Dec 22 (Winter Solstice).

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'To rewild', or 're- wild', means 'to make something wild again'. The idea is to restore natural environments to their original state, back to how they were before human activity damaged them. Rewilding aims to put nature, not humans, in control.

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What do you call a lazy kangaroo? A pouch potato.

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What do you call a lazy kangaroo? A pouch potato.

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I used to run a dating service for chickens, but I was struggling to make hens meet.

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culprit - reponsible for something - wrongdoer

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culprit - reponsible for something - wrongdoer

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33 ESL conversation questions about business | Learn English Every Day

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Richard Branson famously said: “business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” But we’d argue that the same applies for ESL questions…

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Investing in civil society is critical for ensuring a fairer, human-centred Fourth Industrial Revolution Image: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

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4 questions civil society keeps asking about technology for good

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Investing in civil society is critical for ensuring a fairer, human-centred Fourth Industrial Revolution Image: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Head of Civil Society Impact, World Economic Forum Stay up to date: Fourth Industrial Revolution Follow Don't miss any update on this topic Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

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Jack and Beverly Wilgus, collectors of vintage photographs, no longer recall how they came by the 19th-century daguerreotype of a disfigured yet still-handsome man. It was at least 30 years ago. The photograph offered no clues as to where or precisely when it had been taken, who the man was or why he was holding a tapered rod. But the Wilguses speculated that the rod might be a harpoon, and the man's closed eye and scarred brow the result of an encounter with a whale.

So over the years, as the picture rested in a display case in the couple's Baltimore home, they thought of the man in the daguerreotype as the battered whaler.

In December 2007, Beverly posted a scan of the image on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site, and titled it "One-Eyed Man with Harpoon." Soon, a whaling enthusiast e-mailed her a dissent: that is no harpoon, which suggested that the man was no whaler. Months later, another correspondent told her that the man might be Phineas Gage and, if so, this would be the first known image of him.

Beverly, who had never heard of Gage, went online and found an astonishing tale.

In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman of a crew cutting a railroad bed in Cavendish, Vermont. On September 13, as he was using a tamping iron to pack explosive powder into a hole, the powder detonated. The tamping iron-43 inches long, 1.25 inches in diameter and weighing 13.25 pounds-shot skyward, penetrated Gage's left cheek, ripped into his brain and exited through his skull, landing several dozen feet away. Though blinded in his left eye, he might not even have lost consciousness, and he remained savvy enough to tell a doctor that day, "Here is business enough for you."

Gage's initial survival would have ensured him a measure of celebrity, but his name was etched into history by observations made by John Martyn Harlow, the doctor who treated him for a few months afterward. Gage's friends found him"no longer Gage," Harlow wrote. The balance between his "intellectual faculties and animal propensities" seemed gone. He could not stick to plans, uttered "the grossest profanity" and showed "little deference for his fellows." The railroad-construction company that employed him, which had thought him a model foreman, refused to take him back. So Gage went to work at a stable in New Hampshire, drove coaches in Chile and eventually joined relatives in San Francisco, where he died in May 1860, at age 36, after a series of seizures.

In time, Gage became the most famous patient in the annals of neuroscience, because his case was the first to suggest a link between brain trauma and personality change. In his book An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage, the University of Melbourne's Malcolm Macmillan writes that two-thirds of introductory psychology textbooks mention Gage. Even today, his skull, the tamping iron and a mask of his face made while he was alive are the most sought-out items at the Warren Anatomical Museum on the Harvard Medical School campus.

Michael Spurlock, a database administrator in Missoula, Montana, happened upon the Wilgus daguerreotype on Flickr in December 2008. As soon as he saw the object the one-eyed man held, Spurlock knew it was not a harpoon. Too short. No wooden shaft. It looked more like a tamping iron, he thought. Instantly, a name popped into his head: Phineas Gage. Spurlock knew the Gage story well enough to know that any photograph of him would be the first to come to light. He knew enough, too, to be intrigued by Gage's appearance, if it was Gage. Over the years, accounts of his changed character had gone far beyond Harlow's observations, Macmillan says, turning him into an ill-tempered, shiftless drunk. But the man in the Flickr photogragh seemed well-dressed and confident.

It was Spurlock who told the Wilguses that the man in their daguerreotype might be Gage. After Beverly finished her online research, she and Jack concluded that the man probably was. She e-mailed a scan of the photograph to the Warren museum. Eventually it reached Jack Eckert, the public-services librarian at Harvard's Center for the History of Medicine. "Such a 'wow' moment," Eckert recalls. It had to be Gage, he determined. How many mid-19th-century men with a mangled eye and scarred forehead had their portrait taken holding a metal tool? A tool with an inscription on it?

The Wilguses had never noticed the inscription; after all, the daguerreotype measures only 2.75 inches by 3.25 inches. But a few days after receiving Spurlock's tip, Jack, a retired photography professor, was focusing a camera to take a picture of his photograph. "There's writing on that rod!" Jack said. He couldn't read it all, but part of it seemed to say, "through the head of Mr. Phi..."

In March 2009, Jack and Beverly went to Harvard to compare their picture with Gage's mask and the tamping iron, which had been inscribed in Gage's lifetime: "This is the bar that was shot through the head of Mr. Phinehas P. Gage," it reads, misspelling the name.

Harvard has not officially declared that the daguerreotype is of Gage, but Macmillan, whom the Wilguses contacted next, is quite certain. He has also learned of another photograph, he says, kept by a descendant of Gage's.

As for Spurlock, when he got word that his hunch was apparently correct, "I threw open the hallway door and told my wife, 'I played a part in a historical discovery!' "

Steve Twomey is based in New Jersey. He wrote about map and document thieves for the April 2008 issue of Smithsonian.

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Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous Patient

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Jack and Beverly Wilgus, collectors of vintage photographs, no longer recall how they came by the 19th-century daguerreotype of a disfigured yet still-handsome man. It was at least 30 years ago. The photograph offered no clues as to where or precisely when it had been taken, who the man was or why he was holding a tapered rod.

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Becoming an Expert

1. Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resource to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert.

2. An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to perform that task. Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that test the boundaries of such principles. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would be someone learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to tech her the object of the game, the number of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary conditions for winning or losing the game.

3. In time, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognize patterns of behavior within cases and, thus, becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases, the journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies. Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves, offensive and defensive game - playing strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat.

4. When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences, she begins the next transition. Once she creatively generates knowledge, rather than simply matching superficial patterns, she becomes an expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide - she becomes responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journey man begins competing against experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own cases rather than relying on the cases of others.

5. The chess example is a rather short description of an apprenticeship model. Apprenticeship may seem like a restrictive 18th century mode of education, but it is still a standard method of training for many complex tasks. Academic doctoral programs are based on an apprenticeship model, as are fields like law, music, engineering, and medicine. Graduate students enter fields of study, find mentors, and begin the long process of becoming independent experts and generating new knowledge in their respective domains.

6. Psychologists and cognitive scientists agree that the time it takes to become an expert depends on the complexity of the task and the number of cases, or patterns, to which an individual is exposed. The more complex the task, the longer it takes to build expertise, or, more accurately, the longer it takes to experience and store a large number of cases or patterns. The Power of Expertise

7. An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts. Where a novice perceives random or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the organization of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thousands of cases. Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilize higher -order principles to solve problems. A novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables with different criteria within their domains better then novices.Experts recognized variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables.

8. Experts have better domain -specific short -term and long -term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts perform task in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem solving. Interestingly, experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a solution. Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context for increasing mental models to solve given problems.

9. Better at self-monitoring then novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solutions more often than novices and recognize when they are missing information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domain's heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base. The Paradox of Expertise

10. The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. Since the 1930s, researchers have been testing the ability of experts to make forecasts. The performance of experts has been tested against actuarial tables to determine if they are better at making predictions than simple statistical models. Seventy years later, with more than two hundred experiments in different domains, it is clear that the answer is no. If supplied with an equal amount of data about a particular case, an actuarial table is as good, or better, than an expert at making calls about the future. Even if an expert is given more specific case information than is available to the statistical model, the expert does not tend to outperform the actuarial table.

11. Theorists and researchers differ when trying to explain why experts are less accurate forecasters than statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental models to make predictions. A number of researchers point to human biases to explain unreliable expert predictions. During the last 30 years, researchers have categorized, experimented, and theorized about the cognitive aspects of forecasting. Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of human bias

Questions 6-10

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage?

On your answer sheet please write
if the statement agrees with the writer if the statement contradicts with the writer if there is no information about this in the passage.
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Becoming an Expert - IELTS reading practice test

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Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resource to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert.

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1) | Why do people lie?
(2) | Is it OK to tell lies?
(3) | How often do you lie?
(4) | What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told?
(5) | Children who are good liars often grow up to be very intelligent. Were you a good liar when you were a child?
(6) | Have you ever lied in a job interview?
(7) | Have you told any lies today?
(8) | Who lies more, men or women?
(9) | Has a lie someone told you ever hurt you?
(10) | What do you think of liars?

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Explanations > Behaviors > Lying > Four Colors of Lies

There are four types of lie that can be characterized by naming them with four colors: Gray, White, Black and Red.

Two dimensions

To get the four colors we need to create two dimensions which are each subdivided into two categories. These are about who is affected by the lie.

How it affects me

The forces of evolution naturally push us towards self-preservation, especially when we feel threatened. When basic needs seem at risk we hence become inclined to lie in order to protect ourselves.

We also lie to get less basic needs, for example to fulfil our personal or received goals. Lying always causes values conflict and selfish lies cause even greater dissonance. This hence tends to reduce self as a primary reason for lying (or at least in terms of personal justification).

How it affects others

What we say often has an effect on others, especially when we are directly communicating with them. Lies may help or harm others and the thought of this impacts how or whether we lie.

The decision to lie to others is particularly affected by social values which at least say we should do no harm. As a result, decisions to lie can be a complex balance of who is affected and by how much.

Four lies

The four types of lie can be illustrated by the matrix below.

White lie

In this model, white lies are altruistic as we seek first to help others, even at some cost to ourselves.

In practice, there are shades of white and what we tell ourselves are white lies are often tending more towards gray than pure white.

Even when we lose out significantly, there is arguably always some benefit, for example in the way we feel good about our actions and how others praise or thank us for our selflessness.

Gray lie

Most of the lies we tell are gray lies. They are partly to help others and partly to help ourselves. They may vary in the shade of gray, depending on the balance of help and harm.

Gray lies are, almost by definition, hard to clarify. For example you can lie to help a friend out of trouble but then gain the reciprocal benefit of them lying for you while those they have harmed in some way lose out.

Black lie

Black lies are about simple and callous selfishness. We tell black lies when others gain nothing and the sole purpose is either to get ourselves out of trouble (reducing harm against ourselves) or to gain something we desire (increasing benefits for ourselves).

The worst black lies are very harmful for others. Perhaps the very worst gain us a little yet harm others a great deal.

Red lie

Red lies are about spite and revenge. They are driven by the motive to harm others even at the expense of harming oneself. They may even be carved in blood.

When we are angry at others, perhaps because of a long feud or where we feel they have wronged us in some way, we feel a sense of betrayal and so seek retributive justice, which we may dispense without thought of consequence.

Seek to understand lies and the motivation beneath them. Then respond to the lies in ways that help people tell the truth or otherwise further your aims.

When lying yourself, question your own motives. It is easy to think you are telling white lies when actually they are a certain shade of gray.

See also

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Explanations > Behaviors > Lying > Four Colors of Lies There are four types of lie that can be characterized by naming them with four colors: Gray, White, Black and Red. To get the four colors we need to create two dimensions which are each subdivided into two categories.

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When trying to obtain the truth from a dishonest employee, a suspect involved in another type of criminal investigation, or even a member of your family, we typically see five types of lies. These lies include:

Lies of Denial. This type of lie will involve an untruthful person (or a truthful person) simply saying that they were not involved.

Lies of Omission. A lie of omission is often referred to as the "lie of choice," as the person using this method can blame the interviewer for not asking the right question.

Lies of Fabrication. Fabrication is typically the most difficult type of lie for an individual to tell; the dishonest person needs to make up their "facts" as they are telling them, which of course makes it harder to remember later.

Lies of Minimization. Minimization involves attempts to distort the truth by making statements like "It was an accident" or "It was already damaged, though" in an attempt to minimize what they've done.

Lies of Exaggeration. This type of lie is similar to the lie of minimization in that there is a distortion of the truth; however, the subject will overstate what happened. For example, they might say something like, "Yeah, I am responsible for all the losses here."

It's always important to be aware of all five types of lies when interviewing a dishonest associate, another type of criminal-and yes, even someone in your family.

Every loss prevention investigator should continuously strive to enhance their investigative interviewing skills as part of an ongoing commitment to best-in-class interviewing performance. This includes holding ourselves to an elite standard of interview and interrogation training that is ethical, moral and legal while demanding excellence in the pursuit of the truth. The International Association of Interviewers (IAI) and Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ) provide interview and interrogation training programs and additional guidance to investigators when dealing with dishonest employees, employee theft, sexual harassment, policy violations, building rapport, pre-employment interviewing, lying, denials and obtaining a statement.

By focusing on the latest information and research from experts in the field as well as academic, legal and psychological resources, these video tips provide interview and interrogation training techniques that can enhance the skill sets of professionals with backgrounds in law enforcement, loss prevention, security, asset protection, human resources, auditors or anyone looking to obtain the truth.

To learn more about interview and interrogation training and how you can further develop your professional skill sets, please visit www.w-z.com or www.certifiedinterviewer.com for additional information.
This article was originally published in 2015 and was updated September 3, 2018.

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Interview and Interrogation Training: The Five Types of Lies

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When trying to obtain the truth from a dishonest employee, a suspect involved in another type of criminal investigation, or even a member of your family, we typically see five types of lies. These lies include: Lies of Denial. This type of lie will involve an untruthful person (or a truthful person) simply saying that they were not involved.

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deliberately leave out facts

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Managing cultural diversity is a core component of most masters programmers these days. The growth of Japanese corporations in the sixties and seventies reminded us that there were other models of business than those taught by Harvard professors and US-based management consultants. And the cultural limits to the American model have more recently been underlined by developments in Russia and central Europe over the past decade.

Yet in Britain, we are still more ready to accept the American model of management than most other European countries. As a result, UK managers often fail to understand how business practices are fundamentally different on the Continent. One outcome is that many mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures between British and European companies do not achieve their objectives and end in tears.

Alternatively, managers may avoid a merger or joint venture which makes sense from a hard-nosed strategic point of view because they fear that different working practices will prevent their goals from being achieved. Essentially, Anglo-Saxon companies are structured on the principles of project management.

In the eighties, companies were downsized, with tiers of management eliminated. In the nineties, management fashion embraced the ideas of business process re-engineering, so organizations were broken down into customer-focused trading units. Sometimes these were established as subsidiary companies, at other times as profit-and-loss or cost centres.

Over the past ten years, these principles have been applied as vigorously to-the UK public sector as to private-sector corporations. Hospitals, schools, universities, social services departments, as well as large areas of national government, now operate on project management principles -- all with built-in operational targets, key success factors, and performance-related reward systems.

The underlying objectives for this widespread process of organizational restructuring have been to increase the transparency of operations, encourage personal accountability, become more efficient at delivering service to customer, and directly relate rewards to performance.

The result is a management culture which is entrepreneurial oriented and focused almost entirely on the short term, and highly segmented organizational structures - since 60 employee incentives and rewards are geared to the activities of their own particular unit. This business model has also required development of new personal skills.

We are now encouraged to lead, rather than to manage by setting goals and incentive systems for staff. We have to be cooperative team members rather than work on our own. We have to accept that, in ﬂattened and decentralized organizations, there are very 70 limited career prospects. We are to be motivated by target-related rewards rather than a longer-term commitment to our employing organization.

This is in sharp contrast to the model of management that applies elsewhere in Europe. The principles of business process re-engineering have never been fully accepted in France, Germany and the other major economies; while in some Eastern so European economies, the attempt to apply them in the nineties brought the economy virtually to its knees, and created huge opportunities for corrupt middle managers and organized crime.

Instead, continental European companies have stuck to the bureaucratic model which delivered economic growth for them throughout the twentieth century. European corporations continue to be structured 90 hierarchically, with clearly defined job descriptions and explicit channels of reporting. Decision making, although incorporating consultative processes, remains essentially top-down. Which of these two models is preferable?

Certainly, the downside of the Anglo-American model is now becoming evident, not least in the long-hours working culture that the application of the decentralized 100 project management model inevitably generates. Whether in a hospital, a software start-up or a factory, the breakdown of work processes into project-driven targets leads to over-optimistic goals and underestimates of the resources needed.

The result is that the success of projects often demands excessively long working hours if the targets are to be achieved. Further, the success criteria, as calibrated in performance targets, are inevitably arbitrary, and the source of ongoing dispute. Witness the objections of teachers and medics to the performance measures applied to them by successive governments.

This is not surprising. In a factory producing cars the output of individuals is directly measurable, but what criteria can be used to measure output and performance in knowledge-based activities such as R&D labs, government offices, and even the marketing departments of large corporations? The demands and stresses of operating according to the Anglo-American model seem to be leading to increasing rates of personnel burn-out.

It is not surprising that managers queue for early retirement. In a recent survey, just a fifth said they would work to 65. This could be why labour market participation rates have declined so dramatically for British 50-year-olds in the past twenty years. By contrast, the European management model allows for family-friendly employment policies and working hours directives to be implemented. it encourages staff to have a long-term psychological commitment to their employing organizations. Of course, companies operating on target-focused project management principles may be committed to family-friendly employment policies in theory.

But, if the business plan has to be finished by the end of the month, the advertising campaign completed by the end of next week, and patients pushed through the system to achieve measurable targets, are we really going to let down our 'team' by clocking out at 5 p.m. and taking our full entitlement of annual leave? Perhaps this is why we admire the French for their quality of life.

Resource Link:

Our new home -preparation book- -cracked the most effective shortcut techniques of IELTS writing preparation that many students had been struggling for years to find.

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Managing cultural diversity is a core component of most masters programmers these days. The growth of Japanese corporations in the sixties and seventies reminded us that there were other models of business than those taught by Harvard professors and US-based management consultants.

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Green products are a growing priority among homeowners and buyers in Boston and beyond. Many are becoming more aware of just how environmentally unfriendly building materials like drywall can be. In fact, when it comes to CO2 emissions, 52% of the world's total comes from buildings-the energy they use, and the emissions created when the building supplies that go into them are manufactured.

Drywall in particular is the most popular form of interior wallboard, and its manufacturing requires a lot of energy-which means a lot of CO2 emissions. That's why some homeowners are now looking for eco friendly drywall options. Let's take a look at a few of the options available so that you know what to recommend when homeowners, buyers or developers start asking about green wallboard!

MgO Board as an Alternative

MgO board is a rising star among eco friendly drywall alternatives. Companies like ExtremeGreen produce this unique product, which comes with a lot of benefits. On the environmental side of things, this type of wallboard uses on average 50% less energy during the manufacturing process than drywall production. It's also a recyclable product, and it's one that can be composted to use as plant nutrients, too. Plus, it's made up of non-toxic ingredients, which means that even if it does end up in a landfill someday, it won't leech harmful chemicals into soil and water supplies.

When it comes to building concerns, MgO board is sturdy, making it resistant to impacts, scratches, and dents, which means it's ideal in high-traffic locations. It's also Class A1 fire rated so that it will fit with whatever local building codes require. To learn more about it, check out ExtremeGreen's website!

Agricultural Waste Might Be the Answer

One up and coming eco friendly drywall option are wallboards manufactured from agricultural waste like wheat remnants or straw. Ortech is an Australian company prominent among others manufacturing this type of product. Their Durra Panels not only boast a high level of recycled agricultural waste, but they also have no formaldehyde or other chemical binders to hold the particles and fibers together. The result is a green alternative to drywall, one that homeowners love because since it doesn't release chemical vapors, it doesn't create indoor air pollution.

Look at Companies Like Homasote

Some companies specialize in eco-friendly manufacturing processes. Homasote is one of them. This building supply manufacturer operates on a closed-loop system, which means that all waste products produced by the manufacturing process-water, dust, rejected products, scrap, and more-is all recycled back into product manufacture. Companies with closed loop systems produce virtually no waste material.

What's more, Homasote's products are comprised largely of recycled material. For instance, their DesignWall 440, which is a pre-finished, fabric laminated wallboard, is made of 98% recycled materials. If you'd like to learn about the rest of their product line, here's a breakdown of each product and their recycled material percentages.

This is just a sampling of the eco friendly drywall options available at New England Building Supply. If you're looking for more options-or things like eco-friendly insulation and other products-feel free to take a look at all our suppliers have to offer, or contact us for more information!

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Green products are a growing priority among homeowners and buyers in Boston and beyond. Many are becoming more aware of just how environmentally unfriendly building materials like drywall can be. In fact, when it comes to CO2 emissions, 52% of the world's total comes from buildings-the energy they use, and the emissions created when the building supplies that go into them are manufactured.

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A first-person account in English of one individual's experience of going to work, with most of the details focusing on the one-hour drive--useful for advanced beginners to learn everyday, conversational English about working life. Comprehension questions follow the text so you can check your understanding.

My job is a long distance from my home, almost 50 miles away. I have to wake up early every morning, as I'm always in a rush. There's never enough time for a relaxed breakfast. At exactly 6:00 AM, I get into my car and start the long drive.

I usually like driving on the highway more than in the city. During the morning rush hour, though, it's not very enjoyable. The heavy traffic is a little bit annoying. So I always listen to my favorite classical music CD's in the car - Chopin, Mozart, and Bach. That cheers me up a lot.

The drive to work takes about one hour. Going back home in the evening after work takes even longer, maybe around 70 minutes. Lately I've been thinking about trying to take the train to work instead of driving. That way, I could still listen to my music with headphones, and even read a novel at the same time.

Did you understand the text?

Please answer the following questions of understanding:

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A first-person account in English of one individual's experience of going to work, with most of the details focusing on the one-hour drive--useful for advanced beginners to learn everyday, conversational English about working life. Comprehension questions follow the text so you can check your understanding.

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brook · brooke · chook · cluck · cook · cooke · crook · crooke · duck · flook · gook · hook · hooke · look · mook · muck · nook · pluck · rook · rooke · ruck · schnook · schook · shook · snook · sook · stroock · suck · took · tooke · truck · zook

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give me three hand written sentences for ; who is  an influencer , definition ,
next what can you tell me about Steph
what can you tell me about Mat
was true beauty app good or bad in the end

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1. At what age do young people normally gain their independence in your country?

2. What do you think it takes to be financially independent?

3. Is it possible for a young person to be independent while still living with their parents?

4. Did/Do your parents encourage you to be independent?

5. How old are people in your country when they get their first job?

6. Some people say independence is a sign of maturity. What do you think?

7. How can we teach children about independence?

8. Youth unemployment is high nowadays and prevents young people from becoming independent. What can be done about this?

9. Do you believe people should get married before they move in with their partner?

10. How have family values in your country developed in the last 50 years?

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What if a photo showed how beautiful you were on the inside? Read what happens when people download a new app called TrueBeauty.

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Tres Roeder: A sixth sense for project management

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Tres Roeder is a change agent. As both founder and president of Roeder Consulting and as a Shaker Heights City Councilman, he drives positive change in business, communities, and governments. Since graduating from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management with a Master's degree in Business Administration, he has authored two Amazon best-sellers, A Sixth Sense for Project Management and Managing Project Stakeholders.

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упражнения на времена

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Exercise 2 for the present tenses. Choose the most appropriate answer. Упражнение 2 на времена настоящего времени. Выберите наиболее подходящий ответ.

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The sense of flavour 2

{A} Scientists now believe that human beings acquired the sense of taste as a way to avoid being poisoned. Edible plants generally taste sweet; deadly ones, bitter. Taste is supposed to help us differentiate food that's good for us from food that's not. The taste buds on our tongues can detect the presence of half a dozen or so basic tastes, including sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami (a taste discovered by Japanese researchers, a rich and full sense of deliciousness triggered by amino acids in foods such as shellfish, mushrooms, potatoes, and seaweed). Tastebuds offers a limited means of detection, however, compared with the human olfactory system, which can perceive thousands of different chemical aromas. Indeed, 'flavor' is primarily the smell of gases being released by the chemicals you've just put in your mouth. The aroma of food can be responsible for as much as 90% of its flavor.

{B} The act of drinking, sucking or chewing a substance releases its volatile gases. They flow out of the mouth and up the nostrils, or up the passageway at the back of the mouth, to a thin layer of nerve cells called the olfactory epithelium, located at the base of the nose, right between the eyes. The brain combines the complex smell signals from the epithelium with the simple taste signals from the tongue, assigns a flavor to what's in your mouth, and decides if it's something you want to eat.

{C} Babies like sweet tastes and reject bitter ones; we know this because scientists have rubbed various flavors inside the mouths of infants and then recorded their facial reactions. A person's food preferences, like his or her personality, are formed during the first few years of life, through a process of socialization. Toddlers can learn to enjoy hot and spicy food, bland health food, or fast food, depending upon what the people around them eat. The human sense of smell is still not fully understood. It is greatly affected by psychological factors and expectations. The mind filters out the overwhelming majority of chemical aromas that surround us, focusing intently on some, ignoring others. People can grow accustomed to bad smells or good smells; they stop noticing what once seemed overpowering.

{D} Aroma and memory are somehow inextricably linked. A smell can suddenly evoke a long-forgotten moment. The flavours of childhood foods seem to leave an indelible mark, and adults often return to them, without always knowing why. These 'comfort foods' become a source of pleasure and reassurance a fact that fast-food chains work hard to promote Childhood memories of Happy Meals can translate into frequent adult visits to McDonald's', like those of the chain's 'heavy users', the customers who eat there four or five times a week.

{E} The human craving for flavour has been a large unacknowledged and unexamined force in history. Royal empires have been built, unexplored lands have been traversed, great religions and philosophies have been forever changed by the spice trade. In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail in order to try to find new seasonings and thus to make his fortune with this most desired commodity of that time. Today, the influence of flavour in the world marketplace is no less decisive. The rise and fall of corporate empires - soft-drink companies, snack-food companies, and fast-food chains - is frequently determined by how their products taste.

{F} The flavor industry emerged in the mid-1800s, as processed foods began to be manufactured on a large scale. Recognizing the need for flavor additives, the early food processors turned to perfume companies that had years of experience working with essential oils and volatile aromas. The great perfume houses of England, France, and the Netherlands produced many of the first flavor compounds. In the early part of the 20th century, Germany's powerful chemical industry assumed the lead in flavour production. Legend has it that a German scientist discovered methyl anthranilate, one of the first artificial flavours, by accident while mixing chemicals in his laboratory. Suddenly, the lab was filled with the sweet smell of grapes. Methyl anthranilate later became the chief flavoring compound of manufactured grape juice.

{G} The quality that people seek most of all in a food, its flavour, is usually present in a quantity too infinitesimal to be measured by any traditional culinary terms such as ounces or teaspoons. Today's sophisticated spectrometers, gas chromatograph, and headspace vapor analyzers provide a detailed map of a food's flavour components, detecting chemical aromas in amounts as low as one part per billion. The human nose, however, is still more sensitive than any machine yet invented. A nose can detect aromas present in quantities of a few parts per trillion. Complex aromas, such as those of coffee or roasted meat, may be composed of gases from nearly a thousand different chemicals. The chemical that provides the dominant flavour of bell pepper can be tasted in amounts as low as 0.02 parts per billion; one drop is sufficient to add flavour to the amount of water needed to fill five average-sized swimming pools

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The sense of flavour 2 - IELTS reading practice test

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The sense of flavour 2 reading practice test has 13 questions belongs to the Recent Actual Tests subject. In total 13 questions, 5 questions are TRUE-FALSE-NOT GIVEN form, 8 questions are Summary, form completion form.

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RS008 - Reporting Verbs

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues!

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Klaus Rosmanitz.

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RS008 - Reporting Verbs - English Grammar Exercises

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stillborn - no life after birth (dead)
Broaden your knowledge

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It may seem counter-intuitive that if you want to get ahead at work, you should make time for a life outside of it. But career coaches and business leaders alike say that having a hobby is key to being able to handle work-life stress and thinking creatively.

Take Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example. He says that having a hobby shows a prospective employer that you have passion and drive. In fact, it's a question recruiters for the company will often ask job candidates.

If boosting your chances of landing a job at a company like Facebook isn't enough reason to take up a hobby, here are three science-backed ones:

Having a hobby outside of work could help you perform better 9 - 5. A study of 400 employees published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology finds marked differences between those who engage in creative hobbies and those who do not.

Having a creative hobby is associated with positive work-related traits, like creativity on projects and a better attitude on the job.

Other research shows that employees with hobbies are more satisfied with their jobs and have a lower likelihood of burning out.

Your hobby doesn't have to be physically demanding to correlate with better health.

A study conducted by several psychologists of about 1,400 people found that people who said they engaged in enjoyable leisure activities had lower blood pressure, total cortisol, waist circumference and body mass index.

In other words, even low-movement hobbies like knitting, crafting and guitar are connected to better health.

Engaging in a mentally stimulating hobby reduces stress, according to research by Matthew Zawadzki, a health psychologist at the University of California, Merced.

Zawadzki's study shows that leisure activity can provide immediate stress relief, which has been shown to have numerous health and psychological benefits, like improved focus, happiness and a longer life.

The benefits of engaging in a hobby extend to hours, even days later. Zawadzki's study finds that people with hobbies continue to be happier and to experience lower levels of depression and negative feelings after practice ends.

"We're still talking about the short term, but there was a definite carryover effect later in the day," he says in a university publication. "If we start thinking about that beneficial carryover effect day after day, year after year, it starts to make sense how leisure can help improve health."

Another study comes to a similar conclusion. Research published in the National Library of Medicine shows that regular leisure activities helps a person manage negative feelings like stress.
This is an updated version of a previously published article. Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook. Check out Warren Buffett's reading routine could make you smarter, science suggests

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food truck and ice cream van

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New York times

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about the football disaster

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rowdy fans ,exacerbate=make it worse  , questions careful inversion , no ? needed voice adjustment !, deemed -regarded ,
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Vadim Furmanov -

Ever since 25 people lost their lives at Ibrox stadium in Glasgow when the West Stand collapsed during a match between Scotland and England in 1902, the history of football has been plagued by all manners of stadium disasters. All around the world, from Nepal to Buenos Aires, from Johannesburg to Sheffield, fans have gone to see a game of football and did not come back. Some of the more prominent of these catastrophes are household names to even the casual fan; the Heysel disaster was the catalyst for the banishment of English clubs from European competition, while the victims of the Hillsborough disaster have only recently been vindicated and absolved of the vile allegations brought upon them by The Sun.

The Luzhniki Disaster of 1982 in Moscow is not one such household name. For nearly a decade, even Soviet citizens were unaware that something dreadful had occurred at the stadium on October 20 of that year. It was not until the reforms of Gorbachev that the press began to report on the disaster and the people learned the truth, or as close to the truth as was possible, so many years removed from the tragedy. The Luzhniki disaster, its subsequent cover-up, and the much-delayed unmasking of the truth offer a glimpse into 1980s Soviet society, from the secrecy and tenseness of the late Brezhnev years through the relative openness and liberalism of Gorbachev's glasnost. Its social and political significance was not lost on the football historian David Goldblatt, who has deemed it 'football's Chernobyl.'
The Match
October 20, 1982, was an unseasonably cold autumn day in Moscow. The temperature was −10 °C, just two degrees warmer than the record low for that date, recorded in 1898. Unsurprisingly, Spartak's second round UEFA Cup tie against HFC Haarlem was sparsely attended. Only 16,500 fans showed up, compared to the 68,500 who were at Spartak's 3-2 defeat of Arsenal in the first round in September in much milder conditions. Viktor Kokryshev, then the director of the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, as the Luzhniki was then known, recalls:
"There was a lot of snow, and it was cold, about 10 degrees below freezing. Before the beginning of the match, we were able to clear only two stands: the East stand and the West stand. I called my former classmate from the Institute of Physical Education, Vyacheslav Koloskov, and suggested changing the venue of the match. 'Not enough time, UEFA won't agree to it,' he replied. There weren't many fans, about 16.5 thousand. The majority, about 12,000, decided to go to the East stand and filled it up about halfway. After the recently held Olympics, when the Luzhniki was filled up to capacity, the situation did not look dangerous."
Spartak took the lead in the 16th minute through Edgar Gess and did not relinquish their advantage. Some fans, eager to escape the harsh conditions, began to make an exit shortly before full time. Sergei Shevtsov added a second goal for Spartak to make it 2-0 with seconds remaining. But by then, the tragedy was well underway.

The Luzhniki Disaster

Over 30 years on, it is extraordinarily difficult to separate the truth from the fiction and obtain an accurate picture of what transpired on that day. The only facts are that 66 people lost their lives on that day, and 61 more were injured in a crush on their way out of the stadium. Even these figures are subject to debate but are accepted, including by the late Leonid Romanov, former head of the Spartak fan club.

Beyond the number of casualties, however, the details of the disaster remain muddled by cover-up and misinformation. In an article for The Guardian on the 25th anniversary, Jonathan Wilson writes that Shvetsov's goal was at least somewhat responsible for the Luzhniki disaster because fans who were already on their way out of the ground turned around and were met by "a wall of spectators still set on leaving." Shvetsov himself regrets the goal, saying "it would have been better if I had not scored it."

Aleksandr Shpeyer, the detective, appointed by the Moscow Prosecutor's Office to lead the investigation, vehemently denied that it had anything to do with the disaster. In an interview he gave to the newspaper Izvestiya in 1989, Shpeyer claimed that the goal: "did not exacerbate the situation but perhaps even alleviated it. Many of the fans who were leaving from the upper tier into the passageway ran back [because of the goal] and relieved the pressure on those who were already descending the stairs. Downstairs, among the mass of people, within the crush, it was impossible to even to turn your head, or turn around, or certainly not to go in the opposite direction, as some claim."

When asked about the cause of the tragedy, Shpeyer simply responded: "It was, of course, a tragic accident. It is impossible always to prevent such events. But to do everything possible to prevent them, this is the responsibility of the heads of the sporting and cultural facilities."

Shpeyer, also, contends that all the gates were open; the majority of the fans simply chose to utilise the one closest to the Metro station. Such a simple explanation absolves the authorities of any responsibility and reduces the entire affair to a matter of chance. A convenient one for the officials, admittedly, but how accurate is it? There is another version of events that implicates some of the more rowdy fans but places most of the blame those in charge.

Though not nearly at the level of the organised hooliganism of 1980s Britain, by the time of the Luzhniki disaster crowd trouble was becoming a problem in the Soviet Union as well. It was notoriously easy to bring alcohol into the stadium, and many fans were keeping warm with liquor. During the match a small group of fans, apparently bored by events on the pitch, decided to turn their attention toward the police presence, throwing snowballs, pieces of ice, and empty bottles at the officers. Kokryshev alleges that after the match the police officers were intent on punishing the disorderly contingent:
"There is a version, in my view, the one closest to the truth, that the police officers, slightly shifted the gates. The passageway became narrower - this way it was easier to filter the crowd. Those above did not know this and continued to push on towards those who were below. People descended into the crowd of thousands, a situation that at any moment risked becoming critical. The slippery steps had nothing to do with it; everything was happening in the passageway, where it was dry."
Vladimir Alyoshin, who became the director of the stadium just months after the disaster, supports this view. He contended in a 2007 interview with Sport-Express that the policemen, in their attempt to seise the troublemakers from the crowd, created the dangerous conditions that directly led to the catastrophe. He lamented the fact that though most people now accept that the police were responsible, they have not been brought to justice.

According to some witnesses, the catalyst for the crush was a woman's loose shoe. The massive crowd of fans were descending the stairs toward the only empty gate, allegedly made even narrower by the police to weed out the troublemakers. When the woman's shoe came off, several men slowed down and attempted to help her, enough to create a deadly crush. A witness at the scene, Volodya Andreev, recalls:
"It was awful. We couldn't move, the crowd was pushing from above and from below. There was no way of dealing with the distraught people. I saw how a police officer, a major I think, jumped into the crowd to stop it. But what could he do? It was too late. And he remained in the crowd."
Before it was all over, 66 people had perished. But it would be seven years until Spartak fans and the Soviet people learned of the disaster.

Luzhniki Disaster - The Aftermath

The disaster was hardly discussed in the Soviet press. Both Sovetski Sport and Futbol-Hokey failed even to mention the Luzhniki disaster in their reports of the match, choosing to focus instead on the severity of the weather and Spartak's heroics. Only the local daily Vechernaya Moskva devoted a few lines that hardly do justice to the magnitude of the tragedy, and even manage to imply that the victims are at fault:
"On 20 October, after a football match at the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, an accident occurred as the fans were leaving as a result of disturbances in the peoples' movement. There were injuries. An investigation is underway."
In classic Soviet fashion, news of the Luzhniki disaster was suppressed, and scapegoats were quickly identified. The political situation was tense; Leonid Brezhnev was weeks from death, and Yuri Andropov had not yet been declared his successor. High-level Soviet authorities had more important matters to deal with that the deaths of some football hooligans, but a cover-up was still necessary. Four officials were implicated: the aforementioned director Viktor Kokryshev, stadium manager Yuri Panchikhin, Deputy Director K. Lyzhin and police chief Major Koryagin, who was in charge of the police at the East Stand.

The disaster occurred on a Wednesday. On that Friday a meeting of the Moscow City Communist Party Committee took place. An official of the Ministry of the Interior announced that the investigation was completed, the causes of the disaster were identified, and that the guilty would be punished. The Moscow prosecutor proclaimed that "the preliminary investigation has revealed that, at the fault of the stadium officials, the gates meant to be used as an exit for the supporters were closed."

The so-called preliminary investigation of the Luzhniki disaster took place without interviewing witnesses, gathering evidence, or doing any actual investigatory work. But the Party had spoken. When the Deputy Director of the Sporting Committee of the USSR attempted to defend Kokryshev, he was told by the First Secretary not to protect criminals. Kokryshev was duly expelled from the Communist Party.

The farcical trial of Kokryshev and Panchikhin took place in February of 1983; both were presumed guilty. They each received three years in prison, but as a result of the amnesty on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR, Kokryshev did not serve any time, and Panchikhin's sentence was reduced to 1.5 years. Lyzhin, a World War II veteran, did not stand trial after a heart attack, while Major Koryagin was given amnesty for injuries sustained while attempting to prevent more people from entering the crush.

As for the deceased, they were taken to several morgues around the city. Thirteen days later they were buried at different cemeteries to prevent the construction of a monument and a place of pilgrimage for the victims' families. For that same reason, for the next several years no matches took place at the Luzhniki in late October, though the official explanation for this was the poor state of the grass.

The cover-up was complete. There was little in the way of meaningful dissent, which was simply impossible in early 80s Soviet society. Though Detective Shpeyer's account of the tragedy may be inadequate, his statement that the lack of coverage has less to do with the explicit actions of the authorities, but rather was a result of "the socio-political situation that existed in the country at the time" rings true. But the socio-political situation was about to change drastically.

Glasnost: The Magnitute of the Luzhniki Disaster is Revealed

The late 1980s under the new General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev saw a liberalisation of Soviet society. Two new policies, Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring), paved the way for an unheard-of degree of press freedom. Pressure on the government was rising from all segments of society, especially in the aftermath of the Chernobyl Disaster, the implications of which were too significant for even the Soviet authorities to cover them up.

In 1989, Soviet newspapers finally began to report on the disaster, seven years after it occurred. Just three days after 96 fans lost their lives at Hillsborough, Sovetsky Sport became the first to break the taboo with their article 'The Black Secret of the Luzhniki.' "In history," the article begins, "sooner or later everything floats to the surface." The authors continue:
"We knew and did not know about this tragedy. We believed it, and we did not believe it. How could you believe that at the main stadium of the country, with its vast experience in hosting massive events, scores of people could lose their lives in a matter of minutes?"
And yet, it happened, and, extraordinarily for a Soviet publication, they began to point fingers at the authorities. The officials at Luzhniki were criticised for ushering all the fans into just one stand. But the brunt of their criticism was directed at the police and the nightmarish narrow passageway out of the stadium which the newspaper alleged was the only available exit, an allegation denied by Shpeyer.

Shpeyer also rejected the accusations that the police had anything to do with the disaster whatsoever. In the interview in Izvestiia, which came out shortly after the Sovetski Sport article, he claimed that the police were not even present when the crush took place, a claim he supports by the purported lack of injured officers. Yet Major Koryagin himself was seriously hurt; something about Shpeyer's account seems suspect.

It must be said, that everything written about the disaster so many years after the fact must be taken with a grain of salt. Sovetsky Sport's article proved inflammatory and sensationalist. Their speculations regarding the number of dead being in the hundreds were unfounded, yet were seised upon by the international media to such a rabid extent that somehow the figure of 340 fatalities became accepted as accurate. Even to this day, it is often cited. In his exhaustive football history, The Ball is Round, David Goldblatt refers to "over 300 killed."

Sovetsky Sport later published an article admitting to exaggeration and sensationalism. But the haphazard reporting should not distract from the significance of the moment. The facts may have been distorted, but the sheer existence of such a critical voice in the media is indicative of a sociopolitical environment in the Soviet Union drastically different from that which existed seven years prior.

We will probably never learn who was responsible for the tragedy. Was only one gate open, as Sovetski Sport alleged, or were most of the fans just in a hurry to get home and thus rushed to the closest exit? Did police presence exacerbate the situation, or were they absent entirely? If there is a responsible party, by now, they have surely escaped justice. The only truth we know is that 66 people, many of them adolescents, went to see a football match and never returned.

Memory of the Luzhniki Disaster

After the revelations of the Glasnost era and the fall of the Soviet Union, knowledge of the tragedy of the Luzhniki disaster became more common knowledge. A monument was finally erected in 1992, the ten-year anniversary, and on the 25th anniversary in 2007 a commemorative match was played between former players of Spartak and Haarlem.

The Luzhniki stadium was renovated in the mid-1990s and is now a UEFA Category 4 Stadium. It hosted the 2008 UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea and will host seven matches at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, including the opening match and the final. One hopes that the 66 people who lost their lives on October 20, 1982, will not be forgotten during the festivities.
Vadim Furmanov is a first-year student at the Duke University School of Law. Originally from Ukraine, Vadim has resided in Chicago since 1994 (though currently temporarily relocated to North Carolina) and is a passionate supporter of both Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukrainian national team. He writes primarily about Ukrainian football, as well as the intersection between football, politics, and history. You can follow Vadim on Twitter @vfurmanov.

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The Luzhniki Disaster - The History of Football's Chernobyl - Futbolgrad

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Vadim Furmanov - Ever since 25 people lost their lives at Ibrox stadium in Glasgow when the West Stand collapsed during a match between Scotland and England in 1902, the history of football has been plagued by all manners of stadium disasters.