Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verbs

Here are some typical phrasal verbs that you can find in news articles.

Complete the sentence with the words bellow.

Methods             Facts                      New                      Economy

Work                     Wire                      Party                     Government

       Deal with

If you “deal with” a person or organization you discuss things with them or do business with them.

They refused to deal with the opposition                                          until the situation has been resolved.

       Cordon off

If someone in authority “cordon off” an area. They prevent people from entering or leaving that area by putting up a barrier.

The city was split into four zones, and each zone was cordoned off with barbed                                         

       Count on

If you”count on” something you expect it to happen and include it in your plans.

The conservative were counting on the support of the Liberal Democrats in order to form a

                                           .

       Cry out for is

If a system, process, person, etc. is “crying out for” something.

The system simply does not                                            and it is crying out for change.

       Dig up

If someone “digs up” information, they discover it, often as a result of a related search.

They dug up a few                                            about his previous company, which caused him no end embarrassment.

       Disagree with

If you “disagree with” a particular action or proposal, you believe that is wrong and not good.

He is a resigning from the government because he disagree with their plans for the

                                                      .

       Disapprove of

If you “disapprove of” something you do not like it.

The other members of the board disapprove of her                                             and felt she should resign.

       Change over

If you change over to something new, you start using the new thing and stop using the thing you were using before.

The government changed over to the                                             system after years of struggling to make the old system work.

Resources

www.hotenglishmagazine.co.id

Simple Past Tense

Simple Past Tense

Have you heard the soundtrack from the movie of Catatan Akhir Sekolah ? That is a song from Mocca with the title I Remember? What is the lyric tells about?

Now, we will discuss about the grammar point from the lyric I Remember. Before we start the discussion, you have to listen the song carefully.

Enjoy!

It is a nice song, right?

What is the grammar point from that song?

This song tells about something happened in the past. So, the grammar point from this song is Simple Past Tense. Can you mention the sentence from the lyric I Remember which has simple past tense form?

I Remember

By Mocca

I remember...
The way you glanced at me

Yes I remember

I remember...
When the caught a shooting star

Yes I remember

I remember...
All the things that we shared and the promise we made, just you and I
I remember...
All the laughter we shared, all the wishes we made upon the roof at down

Do you remember...?
When we were dancing in the rain in that December
and I remember...
When my father thought you were a burglar

I remember...
All the things that we shared and the promise we made just you and I
I remember...
All the laughter we shared, all the wishes we made upon the roof at down

Yes I remember...
All the things that we shared and the promise we made just you and I
I remember...
All the laughter we shared, all the wishes we made upon the roof at down

I remember...
The way you read your books
Yes I remember...
The way you tied your shoes
Yes I remember...
The cake you loved the most
Yes I remember...
The way you drank your coffee
I remember...
The way you glanced at me

Yes I remember
when we caught a shooting star
Yes I remember...
When we were dancing in the rain in that December

and the way you smile at me
Yes I remember....

The sentences with red highlight is a simple past sentence, and the words with blue color is a verb. In simple past tense, the most simple past verbs are formed by adding –ed at the end of the word (e.g shared, glanced, loved). As you know, it is a regular verb. Some verbs have irregular past formed (e.g drank, caught, made, thought, etc)

The simple past is used to talk about activities or situations that began and ended in the past. You will find the sentences with adverb of time, such as yesterday, three day ago, last night, in 2005, etc.

Forms of the simple past tense

ü  Statement

Subject + Simple Past Verb + Complement

She worked yesterday.

I ate breakfast.

ü  Negative

Subject + did not + Simple Form Verb + Complement

She did not work yesterday.

I did not eat breakfast.

ü  Question*

Did + Subject + Simple Form Verb + Complement

Did she work yesterday?

Did you eat breakfast?

Note:

Did is not used with was and were.

ü  Negative

She was not (wasn’t) busy.

ü  Question

Was he right?

Were you right?

Now, you have mastered the simple past tense. You can apply this grammar point properly. Good luck!

Narrative Text

Narrative Text

Have you heard about The Three Little Pigs story? Could you tell me? What kind of text is it?

We will discuss about it. Before it, I wanna show you the video of The Three Little Pigs story.

Your duty is identify the characteristics, structure, and language features of The Three Little Pigs video.

Let’s watch the video!

   The Three Little Pigs 

What do you think about the video? Is it a great video, right?

Yeeah, The Three Little Pigs is narrative text story.

Definition

Narrative text is a story to amuse or entertain that tells about someone or something. Narrative text which story deals with problematic events and you should write the solution of the problems itself. You have to write narrative text accordance with the sequence event.

Generic Structure

§  Orientation

You have to introduce the characters or participant and informing the plot of the story, that consist of place, time, etc.

§  Complication

You should describe the rising crisis events of the story.

§  Resolution

You have to show the way of actor or participant solved the problems.

§  Reorientation

You might write the message from the story and you could write the moral values of the story at the end of paragraph. It is optional, you can put reorientation on your story or not.

Language Features

A narrative text has these features:

§  Simple past tense

You have to use simple past tense because narrative text tells about the event which already happened.

§  Direct speech dialogues

You should use direct speech to show the conversation in that story.

§  Adverb and adverbial

You should use adverb and adverbial phrases to locate the particular incidents or events.

§  The events are in chronological order

You have to write narrative text with sequence of event, in order to make the story chronological.

Example  of Narrative  Text

Title	Lake Toba
Orientation	Once upon a time, there was a man who was living in north Sumatra. He lived in a simple hut in a farming field. They did some gardening and fishing for his daily life.
Complication	One day, while the man was do fishing, he caught a big golden fish in his trap. It was the biggest catch which he ever had in his life. Surprisingly, this fish turned into a beautiful princess. He felt in love with her and proposed her to be his wife. She said; "Yes, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about the secret that I was once a fish, otherwise there will be a huge disaster". The man made the deal and they got married, lived happily and had a daughter.             Few years later, this daughter would help bringing lunch to her father out in the fields. One day, his daughter was so hungry and she ate his father’s lunch. Unfortunately, he found out and got furious, and shouted; “You damned daughter of a fish”. The daughter ran home and asked her mother. The mother started crying, felt sad that her husband had broken his promise.
Resolution	Then she told her daughter to run up the hills because a huge disaster was about to come. When her daughter left, she prayed. Soon there was a big earthquake followed by non-stop pouring rain. The whole area got flooded and became Toba Lake. She turned into a fish again and the man became the island of Samosir.

Resources

http://understandingtext.blogspot.com/2011/03/contoh-example-of-narrative-text-story.html

James, Peter. (2006). Real English for Senior High School Grade XI. Jakarta: Esis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5hI9U19-m0

Report Text

Report Text

          Do you know what the report text is? What are the generic structure and the language feature of report text? Can you identify the characteristics of report text?

Before we discussed it together, let’s see the video first!

This is a BBC-Wild Indonesia. Enjoy :) 

 BBC-Wild Indonesia Video

What did you get from the video?

What is the information that you get from that video?

Now, you should to identify the function of report text, the structure, and the language features of report text.

Definition

Report text is a kind of text which presented the general information. The purpose of report text itself is to give you factual information.

You have to remember that report text is different with description text. Description is talks about describing something physically and it is more specific. Whereas, report text is more general.

Generic Structure

·         General Classification

Introducing the general information, it is often the definition. You have to write the information generally, it usually introducing the thing that will be explains.

·         Description

Describing the thing in detail, stating what the facts are. If in the first paragraph you just introducing the thing generally, in this case you have to explain that thing specifically.

·         Conclusion or Additional Information

It could be conclusion; here, you can write what you think or decide as a result of the facts.

You also can add information at the end of text. The additional information could be the advantages or the interestingness of the thing that you explain.

Language Features

§  Simple Present Tense

You should use simple present tense to explain or describe things that are true.

e.g Television brings pictures and sounds from around the world into millions of homes.

§  Action Verb

You can use the action verb to describing behavior.

e.g The birds can fly.

Example

Title	Americans
General Classification	The National Geography Society has released a report giving the results a survey of Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. These people were tested on their geographical knowledge of the world in 2006.
Description	The results of the test are both surprising and alarming. They show that 6% of Americans cannot even find America on map of the world. America’s nearest neighbours are Canada and Mexico. Yet 8% of Americans do not know where Canada is and 12% cannot find Mexico. Moving further away from America, 65% of Americans cannot find the UK. 75% cannot find Indonesia. Even Australia, an area of the world with a very distinctive shape was lost to 26% of Americans.
Conclusion	The people who took part in this survey are the most recent graduates of the American educational system. Their results suggest that young people in the United States are not prepared for an increasingly global future. The results suggest that many Americans lack even the most basic skills needed for the international economy. People with such limited skills might have difficulty understanding the serious problems that the world faces today.

Resources

James, Peter. (2006). Real English for Senior High School Grade XI. Jakarta: Esis.

BBC-Wild Indonesia Video