It was nice to hear from you! Yes, I’ve joined the football team last month. At first I was a little shy to play, because it was all new, but now I’m really enjoying it. I’ve made a few friends and I’m having such a blast! 

I know your birthday is coming soon, because I have it marked on my calendar. Me and Lucy already went to buy you a present! I like your ideas for the party, but I would suggest arranging it inside, because the weather reports say that it will most likely rain that day. We could go see a movie or make a small party in your house. 

Oh, and I’m sorry, but you can’t borrow my sleeping bag. I already gave it to my little sister. She is having a sleepover at her friends house. You can ask Lucy, I think she has one. Don’t forget to tell me all about the camping!

See you soon,

Gabija (165 words)

I’m feeling fine actually! Now that i caught up i can finally relax. You know if you have any problems with school i can give you some tips. Why don't we meet up sometime soon? You can come over to my place, or i can come over to yours. I can show you around the city! We really haven’t explored it together yet.

Anyways that’s all for now, write back soon, really looking forward to hearing from you. If you decide to come over, i’ll have to talk with my parents first.

Bye,
Adrian

It’s so nice to hear from you, thank you for your letter! The football team is great. The team is very friendly, but the coach is a bit intense.

Yes, of course I know it’s your birthday next week! I have it marked on my calendar. 

I think that both of the options are great but if you want to have birthday without your parents I would suggest you to rent some kind of an apartment or a forest cabin. The forest cabin would be a great idea because you could have barbecue there. I remember that Steven knows everything about it so he could help you out. Also, you could invite a lot of friends. I’ll send you a few links I have found for the forest cabin!

 It’s so nice, that you are going camping. I have to disappoint you, but I left my sleeping bag at my uncle’s in the other city. I think, that Joe has one, maybe ask him!

Love,

Daina. 

170words. 

Thanks for your email. Yeah I have joined the football team and actually it's going  great. Everyone on the team is super friendly and the coach is pretty strict but I like him. I think it was a great idea to join this football team. 

Yeah I heard rumours about your birthday party actually one of the football team members said to me and I think he might have said it to the whole team, so yes you are burned. 

I think my suggestion would be to do your birthday party in the garden. We could have a nice barbecue, we could  just sit talk about everything. I think it would be pretty nice. Oh almost forgot, about your dad's help, so you can say to him that I'm experienced in barbecuing so I think we will be alright. 

No, because my brother was playing in the garage where the sleeping bag was and he somehow ripped it apart, so now there is a huge hole in it. Sorry. 

Hope to hear from you soon,

Mari Dominyka

Thank you for your letter. How are you doing? I did join the football team. The football players are so friendly and supportive! We play football almost every day because we enjoy each other’s company.

I know that your birthday is next week. I found out by scrolling through your Facebook page. How are you planning to celebrate your birthday? What would you like to receive as a gift? 

Actually, both of your parent’s suggestions are great. But I suggest you invite only friends closest to you, for example your football team, family members. And I think it’s a great idea to have a barbeque in your garden, maybe even play some music and dance. Or I can suggest you take your friends to amusement park to have some fun. They’ll like it and will always remember about this fun experience. 

I don’t have my sleeping bag right now. I gave it to my aunt and uncle because they are planning to go on a hike. 

Hope to catch up with you soon,

John

(173w.)

 

 

I usually feel very anxious before an exam, because I’m afraid I’ll fail, do something wrong or won’t know enough to get a good mark. It doesn’t matter if I studied really hard and am confident with my knowledge and skills on the subject of the exam, right before it starts I’m a nervous wreck.

I feel all of those emotions, it’s hard not to when you’re in school. I feel disappointed when I get a bad grade or fail in something, I feel happy when I’m succeeding and understand the topic and I feel proud when I get high marks.

(103 words)

What’s the most interesting place you visited?

The most interesting place I have ever visited would be the gypsy compounds in the Sahara desert. It was very interesting to see how they manage to live in the almost unbearable heat everyday.

Which time of the year do you like best?

I would say that spring would be my favorite year. I feel like I'm reborn in spring and have so much motivation to do new things. Usually I end up doing something physical like riding a bike.

How much time do you spend online?

Well usually i spend around five to six hours online. Since it’s quarantine, there are days that I spend more than that on my phone or computer.

Did you do anything interesting last weekend?

No, I haven't done anything of interest I believe. It’s just my same regular routine I do everyday, but on the weekends I get to sleep more.

Do you ever use your English language on holiday?

Yes! Actually i used it a lot last time we went on holiday. My mom is very bad at speaking English so I had to deal with receptionists, hotel staff and restaurant workers on my own.

What kind of job would you like to do in the future?

Well actually i’d like to run my own business. I want to follow my fathers’ footsteps and maybe I'll manage to grow something big. If that doesn’t work out i might become a videogame designer in an IT company.

What do you think are the advantages of living in a cosmopolitan city?

I believe that living in a cosmopolitan city has a lot of advantages. First of all, there’s a lot of leisure centres and shopping places, so you will rarely get bored. There’s also parks, so you don’t get overwhelmed by the city. But what i don’t like the most is the noise, i believe that it would get on my nerves.

How can we learn about other people’s cultures?

Before visiting a country I always like to research on the internet what are cultural norms. This way I can blend in better and not feel like an outsider. We can also explore national heritages of their country. We can even talk with the people living there, because there’s nobody who knows better than them.

172 words

 

·      Living in a cosmopolitan city has a lot of advantages. One of them would be learning about other cultures and being able to communicate with pupils from other countries. Also being able to try so much food restaurants there, because often the people who work there are from that culture or country. The only minus about living in the cosmopolitan country would be differences between cultures, sometimes it can be difficult to communicate with each other because of language, customs or religion differences. 

 

·      Learning about other people’s cultures is really not that difficult. These times we live in has everything we need to do research on other people’s cultures. Almost everyone has a wi-fi at their house and some kind of a device to use. The internet is filled with information and all you need to do is just find it. If you dislike reading something, there is a huge selection of movies about all of the different cultures in the world. There also are a lot of exchange programs like ERASMUS, which gives you great opportunity not just to travel, but also to learn about the differences and similarities of other cultures

I would want to be a cultural ambassador for Lithuania, because i think it would be fun and very interesting experience .
I wouldn‘t want be a cultural ambassador for Lithuania, because I wouldn‘t want to leave my family and friends, it would be harder to live without them. 

What do you think are the advantages of living in a cosmopolitan city?

The advantages of living in a cosmopolitan city in my opinion would be a fun experience, because there would be a lot of attractions and entertainment, so you wouldn‘t be bored to live. Another benefit of living in a cosmopolitan city would be that you would be able to meet new types of interesting people and make friends with them, because it‘s always nice to have a talk about anything, it‘s always nice to have friends. The bad side of living in a cosmopolitan city is that apartament and living there cost way more than any regular city, so you have to spend a lot of money only for living there.

How can we learn about other people‘s cultures?

The easiest way to learn something about a culture you want to know about is meeting people from different cultures, interacting with them, asking questions, make interest etc.
186 words

 

·      I would love to be a cultural ambassador for my country. I believe teaching others about my country’s cultural ethnicity is a very valuable job. I would get to tell everyone about the beautiful traditions, customs of my country. 

·      On the other hand, being a cultural ambassador must be very hard. They have to make interesting arguments about their country and make other people curious, also know a lot about their country’s history.

 

What do you think are the advantages of living in a cosmopolitan city?

 

To my mind, living in a cosmopolitan city means having a lot of choices – there are various job offers. Also, many people from different backgrounds and different cultures live there, which offers a great opportunity to get to know other customs. On the other hand, living in a cosmopolitan city might seem hard since there are many people speaking different languages. 

 

How can we learn about other people’s cultures?

 

To my mind, the best way to learn about a culture is to visit the country. Since visiting another city might be difficult, there are many different ways - researching on the internet, reading books, watching movies.

(171 words)

In my opinion, living in a cosmopolitan city is benefit because you can learn about other people’s culture and also get knowledge how to respect each other. But, living in a cosmopolitan city is not always good because you can forget your culture.

We can learn about other people’s culture by traveling and visiting different countries, wondering about it by yourself, making friends with people from another ethnical group.

128 words.

While living in a cosmopolitan city you can learn a lot of different cultures and their customs. Living in a cosmopolitan city means that environment is more unique because of all the cultures mixed together, city has variety of food, interesting dress codes.  Although, living in cosmopolitan city could also be a disadvantage, these cities are very crowded, everything is very expensive.

We can learn about other people’s cultures by visiting different countries, communicating with them and learning their customs. In my opinion the best way how to learn other cultures is to participate in the exchange projects like Erasmus and more.

I would like to be a cultural ambassador for my country. I think it is a great opportunity to meet new people, show others our art and represent them some of our ideas, customs. People would be really impressed by our artists, their artworks. 

I would not like to be a cultural ambassador for my country. I think other people would not be impressed by our artists and their work. Our ideas and customs are not that impressive and I don’t think that young people will be interested. 

(88words) 

What do you think are the advantages of living in a cosmopolitan city? 

There are many people from different countries in cosmopolitan cities. I think it is a great place to meet new people, learn about their culture and maybe even learn a different language. I would love to meet new people and learn a new language.  

There are a lot of fun attractions and entertainment in cosmopolitan cities. It would be a nice experience to visit them with a friend group or even go on a date.  

Living in cosmopolitan cities is not that exciting. A lot of crowded places, pollution. You can always find rubbish on the street, there are also a lot of homeless people that cannot afford new clothing or food.  

(112words) 

How can we learn about other people’s cultures? 

We can learn about other people’s culture in multiple ways. We can search about the cultures on the internet or we can talk to different people and learn from them. 

(30words) 

 

1.     In the last 50 years availability of goods changed a lot. Today we can buy a variety of goods like desserts, different kinds of dairy and meat products from both our country and abroad. 50 years ago people could only go to a market in their city or grow their own crops and vegetables.

2.     People used to have only the most important services (health care) and usually couldn’t afford anything else. Now we can enjoy every service possible-beauty salon's, transportation, arts.

3.     People could travel 50 years ago but it was very expensive and hard to arrange. Because of that not many people traveled abroad but spent more time exploring Lithuania. Today traveling is a lot easier and not as expensive. We can choose anywhere in the world and simply get there.

4.     People used to only eat what was in the market. They couldn’t choose what they liked because there wasn’t much to choose from. The food was limited to the simplest of products - milk, bread, meat.

5.     5O years ago people used to listen to music that was surrounding them and approved by the Soviet Union. Only a few had a chance to listen to the popular songs of other countries like "The carpenters" or "The Rolling Stones" Today people have the ability to enjoy all kinds of music from abroad and our country freely.

Services have changed a little bit in 50 years, everything now is cheaper than it used to be.

Back then, people were limited where they would go, it was either too expensive or could be forbidden to travel. Right now people can go everywhere they want to with no investing a lot of money into it.

Food was limited 50 years you could get only what you could find, people used to eat same food every day, right now we have so big variety of food, from all different types of meat to fish.

Back then there was no Youtube where you could find any song and play it for yourself, back then only how you could listen to music to go somewhere were music was played at some kind of a party. It went from rock to pop music and mostly it was Russian songs back then. 

Now it’s easy to get goods even by sitting at home, because now you can order shippments to your home from any side of the country, there’s  markets in every town with massive variety of goods. 

50 years ago  services  were mostly in the big cities and were very expensive, although education was free at that time. 

Now everything is cheaper,although now we need to pay for education, services now are  more advanced because of technology. 

50 years ago people could only travel in Soviet union, they couldn’t leave to any other country or it was very very expensive and strict.  

Now we can travel freely around europe without needing any visa. Traveling is also much cheaper now. 

50 years ago food selection was very little, because there were only a few suppliers providing food. 

Now there’s a restourants in every corner of the city with different cuisines, markets are crowded with huge variety of goods. 

50 years ago in Lithuanian people mostly listened to russian music, some people didn’t even had a radio to even listen to the music.  

Now you can listen to music everywhere, there’s many different genres like pop, rap, classic, hiphop and more. 

   

The availability of services was not that good, everything was expensive and took a long time to do. Now everything is cheaper, healthcare services, police department and fire department are of better quality. 

50 years ago, people couldn’t travel much because tickets were highly priced and some people hadn't that money to spend. Now plane, bus tickets are cheaper, and people can easily buy tickets online and go to any country they want.

 People used to eat simple foods that they found in shops. Now people eat everything, they can buy variations of food, they can go to the restaurants and order a dish of shrimps or lobster. 

50 years ago, people used to listen only to music that was made in the Soviet Union. Now you can choose from a lot of music genres and listen to anything.

2)The availability and quality of services also naturally increased with a capitalist economy, because the is more competition in the market.

3)One thing that changed a lot is people’s ability to travel because during the Soviet occupation and the iron curtain, you couldn’t simply go to Canada or west Germany because that was illegal for average citizens. 

4)Food preferences I think haven’t changed all that much in the last 50 years except for fast food which has become quite commonly eaten. 

5)Popular music also shifted from rock music being the most popular to pop.

·      The ability of goods has increased a lot, food is now delivered all over the world. We have all of the exotic fruits we could ever think and in 1970’s the only food sources in Lithuania was just really what we had here, or something from the other country would be so expensive that you couldn’t even think about buying it, for example simple things like pineapples were very rare. 

·      Now we have everything we could think of, the schools are free, we have a lot of hospitals and other services, but my grandparents didn’t have that much in 1970, also till 1950 you had to pay for your education. 

·      People now can travel basically anywhere, we have plaines, trains, busses, cars and all sorts of transportation. You can just get on the plane and in the next 10 hours wake up in Hawaii. In 1970’s you could just dream about going to Hawaii because the only “acceptable” countries to travel was Poland, Belarus, Russia and everything that is very close to Lithuania and even then you had to have a lot of money to do that.

·      Music in 1970 was all about music, people then and people now loved listening to the music. Music now has a lot of beats, special effects and a lot more, sometimes grandparents don’t understand it, because in their time the music was very simple and happy, but there wasn’t just one type of music, they had a lot of pop music, roc music and even hip hop (mostly in other countries)        

2. These days, everyone can simply get various services such as education, health care, social assistance, information services. In the past everything used to be harder and more difficult to reach. Quality of services today is improved.

3. Today, everyone can easily and without barriers travel around the world (let’s not include pandemic situation). During Soviet Union time there was a lot of obstacles to travel abroad because of war and political conflicts.

4. At the present time, we can choose food without any obstacles. Everything belongs from our choices and preferences. In the past, people was not able to choose what they want to eat. There was food shortage and people was not able to choose what they had to eat.

5. Nowadays, music is everywhere and everything. There is a lot of bands, singers and musical groups who create music in the way they understand world around them and people can freely chose to what kind of music they want to listen. Back in the day, people wasn’t able to freely choose music, they were forced to listen music produced in Soviet Union.

2. With time services changed dramatically 50 years ago: everything was cheaper but now everything is expensive , especially car industry services has changed, because more modern cars were built, more harder services it is.

3. Now we can travel around the world with no constraints but 50 years ago in Soviet times your traveling was minimalistic and also there was less capabilities to travel in Soviet times because lack of money.

4. Now when we are in European Union food availability is much better than it was Soviet times for example: bananas before  was very rare food but now it's everywhere. I think now we are obsessed with food, but this does not seem to correlate with good health. The biggest change involving food in the last 50 years just might be the fact that, people have too much food. Before people were happy that they had one pack of milk and slice of bread.

5. With time, more musical instruments were developed and played together which resulted in more sophisticated sounds being produced. The beats, rhythms, tempo and lyrics of songs all changed along. Songs are shorter overall.

It's easier to find out more about different cultures, because we can use the internet, libraries and travel without restraints! There are a bunch of sites on the internet, where you can find people from different countries that can show and teach you some local traditions, give out their traditional food recipes to try out and more! People, from all around the world, are willing to share their culture with others with one click of a button!

Nowadays, it is easier to find out about other cultures than in the past because these days almost everyone has access to the internet, can freely reach information from a variety of books or travel abroad and communicate with people from different cultures.

121 words

 

131 words.

I think that now it is easier to find out about other cultures because these days mankind have internet where can be found a lot of interesting articles and a big number of amazing books about different cultures. Also, now people can travel freely and learn for themselves about other cultures, see their beauty and their traditions.

These days it is much easier to find out about other cultures. Everyone has internet access and can easily find what they are looking for. Also, people can travel around the world to get to know another country’s culture, traditions, and customs. It was much more difficult to do that in the past. Not everyone had internet access to find what they were looking for and they could not travel that easily as we can now. 

(146words) 

2.I believe it is far easier for people to learn and find out about cultures nowadays than in the past. Today you can simply research a country and its culture using the internet or you can travel to that country and experience the culture for yourself, where as in the past you didn’t have internet and travelling was more difficult, long and expensive.

127 words

·      Is it easier to find out about other cultures than in the past? Why?/Why not ?

In my opinion, it is important to keep and save local traditions alive. Because without our traditions we will become not unique and not different from others. Additionally, if people lose and forget their traditions other people's traditions and cultures come, and then assimilation happens. In other hand some traditions can be bad for us from science perspective. Traditions can be unlogical and farther from the truth of our World. For example, heathen people had traditions to pray for gods and they killed kids, adults, animals to get help and support from the gods. In my opinion, now it is far more easier to find out about other cultures than in the past because of the internet, globalization and higher travel opportunities. For example, we can watch films, youtube about other cultures, people, countries, traditions and that was impossible in the past. Now we can easier to travel around the world and see other local traditions from our eyes.

159 words                Andrius Kločiok 

In the past there was no internet, there were no planes that you could travel to other part of the world, so you didn’t have a way to meet people from other cultures. Nowadays it’s much easier to find out about other cultures because there is a lot of cosmopolitan cities where many different cultures are mixed up together living in the same city. You can find everything you need to know about cultures on the internet, you can also talk to people from different cultures online. 

 

 

133 words 

Yes, it is easier to find out about cultures because of the power of the internet. You can connect with people from other side of the world and get to know them and about their country, traditions. In past you would need to travel all around the world to meet native and get to know about them. And actually before you go, you would need to learn their language somehow to understand them, because back in a day it was very rare that people speak multiple languages.
157 words

I think today's every celebrity will be remembered or at least biggest amount of them of course will be. Today we have youtube and many social medias where people can track their work or their social life. 
64 words

I think todays celebrities will be remembered for as much time if not more than Cleopatra mainly because of the internet being able to save this sort of information for generations to come.

68 words.

·      I don’t believe that all celebrities will be remembered, only the most important ones. For example, the presidents, artists or other, less known people who made a difference.

 

69 words.

·        I think that some celebrities will be remembered but not all because some of them donate to charities and leave a lot of amazing work such as movies, books. Some other celebrities care only about money and fame so they will not be remembered for a long time.

(81 words)

I suppose they will be remembered for a long time due to the fact that their work will be passed from one generation to another and most of their works are somehow recorded and perpetuated, for example actors will be remembered because of the movies, singers because of the songs.

84 words.

In my opinion celebrities of today will be remembered for many years, because nowadays everything about them is on the internet, newspapers, TV news and even more. Internet allows everyone to know everything about them by just typing up their name. 

70 words 

I think only a few celebrities today will be remembered for many years to come. There are very talented people who reach to be famous on a global level, but looking at our celebrities realisticly- most of them will be forgotten. (109 words)

·        In a big city there are a lot of ways to entertain yourself and spend your free time because there are many services like theatres, cinemas and attractions. 

·        Health services is a big advantage because in a big city hospitals and clinics are everywhere. If someone had an accident they can easily get medical help.

·        In a big city there are a lot of schools and universities so all people can get diplomas and work the job that they like.

·        Cultural activities and shopping areas are widely spread. Big cities have a lot of shopping areas because demand for them is really big also the museums are very popular.

·        Another advantage of living in a big city is technology because everything is cheaper that countryside. 

Entertainment- There are a lot of entertainment in a big city like festivals, theatres, cinemas and even more, which makes it more enjoyable to live there. 

Health services-  Big cities usually have hospitals and nursing homes where there are good doctors to take care of us when we have diseases or illnesses. 

Education- Big cities have better education opportunities, there is always to learn something new or develop something in a city, the pay is also higher in cities so it’s easier to save money for the child’s education. 

Cultural activities and shopping areas- There are many shopping centers, museums and parks that you can visit in a big city, those activities help you to develop your social and intellectual skills.  

Technology- There are a lot of new technologies in a big city that you won’t see in a rural area, technology keeps getting better and better, because big cities have all the resources they need, to make living there even more enjoyable.  

2. One of the pluses of living in a big city is education. People have a wide variety of choices where they want to study in good conditions.

3. While living in a big city people have a large variety of places where they can spend their leisure time such as museums, theaters, cinemas, clubs or galleries.

4. Benefit of living in a big city is health care institutions. In the big cities health care is more developed than in the rural areas. People can get medical assistance on the highest level.

5. The beauty of living in a big city are cultural activities and shopping areas. There are a lot of museums, galleries in the city. Also, there are a wide choice of shopping areas.
6. The advantage of living in a big city is technology. Science is more improved in the city centre and there are more technology that can improve the quality of life.

Entertainment is a large benefit of living in a city because there is a lot of different activities you can partake in and usually theres a great nightlife too.

Health services are great in cities because you don‘t have to worry about a long journey in the ambulance while being badly hurt.

Education is also better in cities
 because cities are big melting pots of ideas and cultures which will broaden your world view. 

Cultural activities and shopping areas are also plentiful in cities and usually they are of a higher quality since with more people they earn more money.

Technology is a big advantage of a city because they have to constantly adapt and evolve especially if the population grows fast. Also with more people that have different ideas in such a melting pot tend innovate.

In urban areas you can find more activities and spend your leisure time as fun and productive as possible. 

There are more health services in urban areas that can provide medical care and help in need. 

In urban areas there are more schools, universities and educational institutions that can provide you with education that you need. 

There are more cultural activities and shopping areas in big cities where you can educate yourself or buy something new. 

There are more different technologies in urban areas and they are more evolved. 

Entertainment- The entertainment industry in the city has a very wide range of options and services for not only the residents to experience, but newcomers and travelers as well. Big movie theaters and video game arcades, music halls and night clubs certainly have a better working schedule in a big city than compared to the small cities. 

Health services- The health services are a lot better in bigger cities because the hospitals have more newer updated equipment, very well educated and trained doctors and paramedics as well as fast access to everybody. 

Education- Education in bigger cities is a lot better compared to smaller cities, because schools and universities here have a higher quality of educational tools and qualifications for teachers, as well as bigger infrastructures for students to learn. 

Cultural activities and shopping areas-  Big cities have an advantage of growing  a lot of interesting industries. There are many shops for everyone to choose from and enjoy its contents. There are big shopping centers and cultural activities that surely can be very useful and entertaining as well. 

Technology- Technology in bigger cities is one of the best. It is always growing and improving in order to make citizens lives easier and convenient. Not only some of them can help with the ecosystem to fight pollution or global warming, but also improve the quality of life. 

In big city there is a big population, so a lot of people work hard and after work the need to take a break. Not always people want to take a break by themselves and want to hang out more in public or go somewhere else. Public parks, cinemas, huge stores centres are a great way to relax and clear your head. People can have picnics, watch movies or just walk around, go have dinner at restaurant.

People sometimes fall from a bike, get into car crash especially when living in a big city in which leads to injuries, good medicine is a very big con to that, so people can get casts and fully heal themselves. Also there are many diseases and because of many people walking down the streets they spreads quicker than usual so good doctors and a big number of them can solve this problem very fast

Every day there are new people coming into this world, everyone needs education to have a better life , have more opportunities in life. So big cities need to have improved maybe not usual classes where for a child it would be entertaining and so in that they remember the classes and what they learned so it would help them further in life. It’s a huge plus for a city if any person gets popular from that town and it will bring more families to come here to live, it will attract visitors from other countries.

In big city for people to be happy there has to be more activities they can go to. In big cities people like to go shopping very often, not just for food, but for new outfits and clothing. Cultural activities are a good way to clear your mind after hard day of work, so people get gathered have a meal, go to a park for picnic, visit a museum. Also people can go volunteering, attending to sport events.

Technology is a very interesting subject for most of the people these days. Technology is everywhere. The bigger the city is the more technology in it should be because it attracts new people to come live here. Technology also boosts other factors like education or medicine, also the entertainment. In education with technology is more entertaining and if it’s entertaining children will remember it for a good while where it can help. In medicine, it will help determinate what decease people have and maybe produce antibiotics for people to get healthy faster. Technology opens up new entertainments like computer games, which are very popular these days. 

An illiterate person can’t do a lot of the things other people do. They often feel trapped or casted out by the rest of the world. For example, they are a lot more likely to live in poverty, because of the difficulty to find a well-paid job or any job at all.  They find it very difficult to raise children as well.

 I liked the animation and the soundtrack of the video, It discussed serious problems with a positive outlook. 

The video made me feel uneasy, because of all the problems that were shown in it, but I still enjoyed the video, because the issue is seriously acknowledged.