Increase your vocabulary

environmental problems and solutions

教中四作文. 一班完全唔識英文的人去作文. 題目係environmental protection. 預計會考/文憑試會出的大路問題係有什麼環保問題和什麼解決辦法。我叫了他們背五個problems和五個ways to reduce pollution.

以下是五個污染問題句子：

1. The air is being polluted by smoke and gases.
2. Fish stocks are being reduced by over-fishing.
3. Seas and oceans are being contaminated by oil spills.
4. Forests are being wiped out by deforestation.
5. Crops are being destroyed by frequent flooding.

只有咁樣當然會低分，無elaboration,無examples. 但好過一個字都寫唔出。至少有些內容。　

如何去記呢？你可以記天氣一個污染, 海水兩個污染, 和陸地兩個污染.

咁解決辦法呢？我叫佢地背呢５個校園環保辦法：

1. Whenever you leave the classroom, remember to turn off the lights.
2. To help save energy, you can also use the stairs instead of the lift. Besides, walking the stairs is good exercise.
3. Some of your rubbish such as empty plastic bottles and cans can be recycled into useful materials so put them in the recycling bins.
4. Also, develop the habit of writing on both sides of paper- you can save many trees by doing this.
5. In addition, learn to save water. Always turn off the tap completely after using it.

呢5句唔係唔易背. 內容上, 可以記慳電X2, 循環再用X1,慳紙, 和慳水. 難在句型. 這5句主要是imperatives,即命令句子. 但第1 句是complex sentence, 第2句不是,但作者加上一些連接詞,如'to help save energy", 和besides. 第三句係complex sentence, 因為後面有so; 第四句係simple sentence,但加了連接詞also,和 by doing this. 最後一句有simple sentence, 只係有in addition 作連接詞, 也有complex sentence,用after using it作independent clause.

劉迺強論annual budgets

SCMP ONE-SHOT DEALS
Lau Nai-keung
Mar 05, 2010


For three years now, observers have talked about Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's taste for dishing out "candies" - small favours available to all - in his annual budgets. To be fair, this has been the practice ever since the handover, when Hong Kong was hit by the Asian financial crisis and the subsequent 68 months of deflation. Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen used this measure when he was financial secretary, as did his successor, Antony Leung Kam-chung, to some extent.

So much so that it has become an addiction: people tend to expect it around this time of year and politicians get to claim the credit. The government looks good, politicians look good, most people benefit one way or another - it looks like a win-win situation.

John Tsang's candy-sprinkled new budget was a good performance, well received by the general public according to recent polls. Coming from a lame-duck government nearing the end of its term, what else could we expect? Certainly, we couldn't ask him to make any bold moves or long-term commitments.

Candies are, by definition, only sweeteners: they are not nutritious and cannot satisfy hunger. So where do we get the necessary resources to tackle our real problems?

The crux of the matter is that even Premier Wen Jiabao, more than 1,000 kilometres away in Beijing, is aware that there are many deep-seated problems in Hong Kong crying out to be tackled. Some are waiting to explode soon - maybe even before the next chief executive takes over in July 2012. Though Donald Tsang insists that he no longer follows the philosophy of "positive non-intervention", he is still a firm believer in small government, which is more or less the same thing.

He thinks most issues can be solved through market mechanisms and that the government should take on only the few issues that cannot be resolved by the market.

Disciples of this school of thought share the habit of making no changes in the pattern of recurrent expenditures in the budget.

As a one-shot deal, our financial secretaries can spend tens of millions on a single item without even raising an eyebrow but, when it comes to repeated spending, they are extremely miserly.

A typical example is the small amount of monthly pocket money paid to our senior citizens. The government is reluctant to increase it, although such a measure need not cost much.

When it comes to financing health care, for example, it prefers to set aside a large amount of money - to the tune of HK$50 billion. Yet it will not consider any pay-as-you-go programme that would require continuous government commitment.

This attitude is even more conservative than that of the colonial government, which governed in a borrowed place and on borrowed time.

A glaring example is housing policy. The colonial government recognised it had a responsibility to provide decent housing for the masses. But the current administration abstains from the issue and has let the property tycoons take over the whole playing field. Its only concern is the annual income per hectare it gets from land sales.

The amount of land sold in recent years is only a small fraction of that sold during the period of transition to the handover, when the limit was 20 hectares per year.

That mild restriction led to the great property bubble of 1997. Can you imagine the grave ramifications we are going to face not too far down the road as the result of the current, prolonged period of practically zero supply?

The time bomb is ticking, irrespective of some mild reversals in land policy in the budget. Chances are that it may explode before 2012, when some angry mob will shout: "We don't want your candies."

Lau Nai-keung is a member of the Basic Law Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, and a member of the Commission on Strategic Development


1. candy-sprinkled new budget:被糖曬了的新預算案.

2. make any bold moves:有大膽行動

3. The crux of the matter is: 問題的核心

4. deep-seated problems:深層次矛盾

5. take on only the few issues: take on即去承擔,也可解去接受.

6. share the habit: 共同擁有

7. miserly:像miser(財主)般.

8. abstain from the issue:astain from 通常指戒一些東西,如煙酒, abstain from alcohol and cigarettes, 呢度政府abstain from the issue,即政府唔去做提供住屋呢件事.

9. take over:文章出現了兩次take over,第一次係行政長官take over,即就職; 而地產大亨take over,即操控.

10. grave ramification: 很嚴重的後果

11. The time bomb is ticking:計時炸彈已開始倒數

12. Chances are that: 好可能

13. mob:暴民 

SUPPORT AND ELABORATION

呢下這篇文章, 取自:http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/few/685. 作者elaborate咩叫做elaboration,包括故事(narrative writing),和說明文(expository writing)的elaboration的分別. 前者可以寫動作,寫景和寫內心; 而說明文則要有充足(sufficient)和有關係(relevant)的資料:

SUPPORT AND ELABORATION CONSISTS OF THE SPECIFIC DETAILS AND INFORMATION writers use to develop their topic. The key to developing support and elaboration is getting specific. Good writers use concrete, specific details, and relevant information to construct mental images for their readers. Without this attention to detail, readers struggle to picture what the writer is talking about, and will often give up altogether.

Two important concepts in support and elaboration are sufficiency and relatedness.

Sufficiency refers the amount of detail — is there enough detail to support the topic? Any parent who has asked his or her child what happened at school knows how hard it is to get a child to elaborate on a subject. Teachers have a similar problem getting their students to elaborate when they write. Good writers supply their readers with sufficient details to comprehend what they have written. In narrative writing, this means providing enough descriptive details for the reader to construct a picture of the story in their mind. In expository writing, this means not only finding enough information to support your purpose, whether it is to inform or persuade your audience, but also finding information that is credible and accurate.

Sufficiency, however, is not enough. The power of your information is determined less by the quantity of details than by their quality.

Relatedness refers to the quality of the details and their relevance to the topic. Good writers select only the details that will support their focus, deleting irrelevant information. In narrative writing, details should be included only if they are concrete, specific details that contribute to, rather than detract from, the picture provided by the narrative. In expository writing, information should be included only if it is relevant to the writer’s goal and strengthens rather than weakens the writer’s ability to meet that goal.

Teaching support and elaboration

The first step in developing a story or essay is learning to add sufficient information. In many classrooms, the recipe for improving support and elaboration is to “sprinkle” a piece of writing with more details. But randomly adding details without relating them to the overall purpose of the writing rarely improves quality.

Why do students have so much trouble developing and elaborating on their topics? Many of the problems students have with elaboration stem from their inability to take the perspective of their readers. In oral language, children have conversational partners who can ask for more information as it is needed. When students make the transition from oral to written language, they need to learn to provide those conversational prompts for more information on their own. This means they need to learn to think like a reader, to read their own writing from the reader’s perspective, filling in the gaps for an audience that is not physically present.

Conferencing is at the heart of helping students develop support and elaboration in their writing. Students can learn to revise by asking questions about their writing and the writing of others during conferences with the teacher and with peers. Teachers can first model how to ask questions to add more information, from general requests to “tell me more” to more specific “who, what, where, when, why, and how” questions. Once students have learned to ask questions and add information, they can learn to delete irrelevant details that weaken the writing and to make details more specific and concrete.

Show, don’t tell: support and elaboration in narrative writing

The best advice for developing support and elaboration in narrative writing is “Show, don’t tell.” Good writers help their readers imagine the story by describing the action, providing sensory descriptions, and explaining characters’ thoughts and feelings. Poets are especially adept at using precise details to focus on specific, concrete, observable things or experiences.

Some ways that writers “show, don’t tell” include the following:

• Description of action. Students often have difficulty elaborating on action in their narratives. Many beginning writers rush through the action in a story, condensing it into a few short sentences. Just as slow-motion replay helps television viewers understand the action in a sporting event, good writers can slow down a moment, breaking down an event into a moment-by-moment replay of the action. Students can learn to use slow motion replays to slow down a moment and to use action chains to elaborate on the actions in a sentence.
• Description of physical states. Good writers use sensory details to provide their readers with concrete images that help them construct a picture of what is happening in the story. Good writers use sensory details to show readers what things in their story look like, sound like, smell like, taste like, and feel like. Similes and metaphors can also help readers construct a picture by comparing the object being described to something they know. Students can learn to construct images with words by identifying the imagery in poetry and using guided imagery to construct their own word pictures.
• Descriptions of internal states. Although most students would rather watch the movie than read the book, books have an advantage over movies because they let the reader inside the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Beginning writers, though, often neglect to include either their own or their character’s thoughts and feelings when they write. “Thoughtshots” (Lane, 1999) and journals help students get inside the minds of their characters and reveal their inner thoughts and feelings. Thoughtshots and journals can also be used to help students learn to take different perspectives by getting inside the minds of people from different times, places, cultures, and backgrounds. Good writers also use dialogue to reveal a character’s personality, internal thoughts, and feelings and to provide background information about the story.

Finding the right information: support and elaboration in expository writing

Information is the key to developing support and elaboration in the expository genres — informational, critical, and argumentative writing. While writers of narratives can often rely solely on their own observations and inner resources to develop their writing, writers of expository genres have to look outside themselves for the information they need to develop their writing. As a result, in expository writing, the ability to find relevant information is just as important as the ability to effectively use that information to develop a topic. Knowing how to use facts, statistics, examples, and anecdotes to develop a topic is not enough; students also need to learn the research, evaluation, and notetaking skills that will help them find that information.

Finding sufficient information. In the Information Age, students have no trouble finding lots and lots of information on any subject they can type into an Internet search engine. Many students never bother to consider the source of their information, though, giving equal weight to information they find in the equivalents of the New York Times and the National Enquirer. The real challenge, then, is not finding sufficient information, but teaching students to separate the wheat from the chaff.

As a result, teaching students research and evaluation skills is critical to the development of support and elaboration in expository writing. Students need to be taught how to (a) locate multiple sources of information in books, on the internet, and from people in their communities, (b) critically evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of that information, (c) separate fact from opinion, and (d) cite their sources so their readers can make their own judgments about the credibility of their information. In addition, teaching notetaking and summarization skills cuts down on plagiarism by helping students learn to translate ideas into their own words.

Finding relevant information. Knowing who the audience of a piece of writing will be is critical to developing relevant support. When children target their writing to a specific audience, they quickly learn to select only the information that is relevant to that audience. Information that is convincing or useful for one audience may have no effect on a different audience.

Students can learn rhetorical techniques to tailor their support to their audience, asking whether their audience would respond better to using facts, statistics, or personal anecdotes to support their argument. Students can also learn strategies for selecting the information that is strongest and most relevant to their audience, to delete weak, irrelevant information, and to arrange their information from strongest to weakest. Summarizing the same information for different audiences also helps students learn to identify the facts that are relevant to a specific audience.

Guiding questions for support and elaboration

FOR NARRATIVE WRITING:

• Is your story developed with specific details that are related to the main event?
• Do all of the details move the story along?
• Does your story have enough elaboration so that your reader can see and feel what is happening? Can you show me an example where your reader can see or feel what is happening?

FOR INFORMATIONAL WRITING:

• Is your essay developed with specific information (facts, statistics, etc.) that is related to the main topic?
• Does all of the information support the main topic?
• Does your essay have enough information to fulfill your reader’s needs?

FOR ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING:

• Is your essay developed with specific details that are related to the main topic?
• Does all of the information support the main argument?
• Does your essay have enough supporting evidence to persuade your reader?

References

NARRATIVE WRITING

Atwell, Nancie (2002). Lessons that Change Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lane, Barry (1993). After the End. Shoreham, VT: Discover Writing Press.

Lane, Barry (1999). The Reviser’s Toolbox. Shoreham, VT: Discover Writing Press.

INFORMATIONAL WRITING

Harvey, Stephanie (1998). Non-Fiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3-8. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Stead, Tony (2002). Is That a Fact? Teaching Non-Fiction Writing K-3. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Capital Community College Guide To Grammar and Writing. This guide to grammar and writing includes sections on developing an argument and rhetorical devices.

TSA寫作技巧系列:又係要elaborate

這條是2007年第1條題目.以下是問題:

這兩位同學的分別就是一個無elaboration,另一個無:

其實第二篇的作者沒有什麼驚人的論點, 只是他/她會將信上的每一點都「發大」來講. 題目話吸煙harm the health,佢就舉cancer做例子. 題目說佢在losing weight,佢就話咁會唔靚. 跟住再講佢會無朋友和無得打排球, 都用兩三句去「加鹽加醋」.咁樣已經可以攞高分了.

TSA寫作技巧系列: 用mindmap去organise文章

以下是2008年TSA WRITING第二條題目:

"Your teacher has asked you to write an article for the school newspaper telling new students about the clubs/activities at your school."

題目俾了一個mind map, 提示學生要寫什麼,包括不同的club的名, 佢地的information, 和參加的理由.

普通的學生都如此分段: 首先: 寫不同club的名, 跟著介紹它們的information,最後鼓勵同學參加. 例如以下的sample. 這個學生不單有三段, 還有頭尾的introduction和conclusion:

How much do you know about our school clubs and activities? Have you joined any of them? I am going to tell you more about our school clubs and activities.

Our school has many clubs and activities such as Drama Club, Music Club, Computer Club and Girl Guide. Most of our students can join them. However, there is a limit number of students for each club.

These clubs and activities usually take place in classrooms after school. Some of them may be held on Saturday. They will have a meeting once a week. Different clubs and activities have different teachers-in-charge.

You may ask why we have to join school clubs and activities. In fact, there are many advantages after joining these clubs. You may make more friends with the students from other classes as all the students can join them.  You might also learn a lot of new things. Different clubs can teach you some particular knowledge and skills;  for example, you may learn some music theory in the music club or you may learn some first-aid skill in the Girl Guide. Moreover, these clubs may organise a camp and you may learn some knowledge that cannot be learnt in the lessons. It is a very special chance.

After reading this article, you may consider deeply and join school clubs and activities. There are only benefits for you.

弱的學生會唔識用mind map去organise. 會咁樣寫:

TSA寫作技巧系列: 唔好剩係寫prompts, 要elaborate

最近都在研究TSA.TSA中三的英文作文其實係一個幾好的練習.

2008年那年有條題目是這樣的：

"Last week, you went on a three-day trip. You promised your teacher you would write a short article for the school magazine.

To help you write your article, you can use the following pictures. They show what you saw and did during the trip. Describe what happened in about 150 words. "

題目附有５張圖畫和有些提示字(prompts)。包括:putting up a tent, canoeing, mountain climbing/hiking, group games, campfire-singing/telling stories。

大部份學生的問題都是這些：

1. 只懂base on prompts,無elaboration, 無details. 可能因為無ideas,或者無生字(limited range of vocabulary).
2. 句子結構少變化 (simple language patterns).
3. 錯grammar,例如tense錯.
4.唔夠連貫(lack coherence),原因可能係缺乏transition words.

以下是兩個犯了以下毛病的samples(在TSA的網頁可找到):
1.

2.

那麼好的作品呢? 好的作品, 作者會加自己的elaboration. 我underline那些就是作者自己加的details. 他/她不單止加上圖畫以外的節目,例如eat breakfast, sleep,還有佢自己的感想(different feeling):

"When we arrived at the place where we would have our camping, we first put up a tent. Five of our group put up the tent. We spent a lot of time since we often failed to put it up. After some time, we finally put up the tent.

Then it was time for our to prepare our dinner. We put on fire and cooked some canned food. After dinner, we had group games. All of us felt very happy. Although I had played these games many times, I had a different feeling when playing in that atmosphere. It seemed happier than I had played before. After these games, many of us became friends. 

Since we did a lot of things in the afternoon, we had been very tired. We all fell asleep quickly.

After we had our breakfast with sausages and eggs, we had an exciting activity-canoeing. I had never been canoeing before. It seemed very interesting to me. This activity was full of excitement. I really enjoyed it. 

We had campfire after the delicious dinner. Some of us had a beautiful voice, so we invited them to sing for us. Their voice was just amazing. I was good at telling stories, so I told them a ghost story. All of them seemed to be quite afraid! Some people danced and some told jokes. This was just like a talent show. 

The next day was also the last day. We talked about our feeling during these days. I thought this trip was memorable and precious. "

中學提供什麼環境幫學生

 一間學校提供什麼環境給學生去學英文, 對學生的英文成績有很大影響. 以下是一間中學的校長講佢實施什麼措施去促使學生學好英文:

八成英中方案

看完Malcolm Gladwell的Outliers,更加覺得香港學生的英文有無得救,視乎香港提供的環境. 在網上看到天才教育協會有個<八成英中方案>,實在值得看一看. 可惜沒有文字檔,只有pdf file. 大家可在以下網址click來看看:

http://www.giftedcouncil.edu.hk/PDF_files/8sec.pdf

剪報: 三成新高中生英文「肥佬」

圖：教育局昨日公布最新全港性系統評估報告顯示，中三生的中文和數學達標率與去年相若，但當中逾三成學生在英文科「肥佬」（資料圖片）　 【大公報訊】記者李盛芝報道：全港約二十萬名小三、小六及中三學生的全港性系統評估（TSA）昨日公布成績。逾三成本學年升讀新高中一年級、上學年評估時讀中三的學生在英文科「肥佬」。而達標率有六十八點八，較去年下跌百分之零點一。當中百分之八點二更屬小六時達標，但中三時卻「肥佬」。而中三生中文作文更抄襲電視、電影、廣告的故事，更加入「放飛機」、「好掂」、「O咀」等「潮語」。

全港性系統評估每年均會評估小三、小六及中三學生的中、英、數能力，但由於今年爆發甲型流感，教育局在六月宣布全港小學停課，故此小三及小六的學生只接受中、英文科說話評估及視聽資訊評估，而來自四百四十間中學、共七萬五千名中三學生則不受影響。

教育局昨日公布最新全港性系統評估報告顯示，中三生的中文和數學達標率與去年相若，但當中逾三成學生在英文科「肥佬」。考試及評核局追蹤○六年中三生於小六時的表現，發現當中百分之八點二學生於小六時達英語基本能力，升讀中三後英語不達標，按推算約五千二百名今年高一的學生，經過初中三年後英語退步。報告指出，這是反映學生英文能力隨學齡增長，表現優異的學生與成績不逮的學生差距日趨擴大。

構想力低 串字能力弱

但以中三學生的中、數兩科為例，今年達標率較三年前小六時為高，分別上升百分之零點九及百分之一點六。部分中三學生的中、英文寫作水平卻未見提高，中文科更有人抄襲電視、電影、廣告的故事，被批評「內容千篇一律，單薄乏味，連構想的動力也欠缺。」有學生在文章加入「潮語」，如「放飛機」、「好掂」、「O咀」，錯別字亦然，如把「純樸」錯寫成「淳樸」、「聞名」錯寫成「聞明」。英文報告均批評學生文法錯用之餘，串字能力極弱，如「tired」錯串成「tried」、「quiet」錯串成「quite」。

津貼中學議會主席廖亞全認為，全港學生都有急切需要學好英文，尤其今年就讀高一的學生，必須利用三年高中時間惡補英文，以應付二○一二年首屆香港中學文憑。「學界要正視學生的英語水平，不單高中生要加強訓練，初中亦不可忽視。」他建議中學校長可透過詞彙、文法、寫作的遊戲，增強學生對學習英語的興趣。

另外，教育局正考慮在明年的聆聽評估中，加入朗讀題目和選項的環節給非華語學生，以照顧他們語言不通的需要。當局亦會舉辦「促進學習的評估」研討會，以推動教師之間分享優良的教學實例。

這篇報道的重點是, 中三英文TSA在全港合格率在2008-2009那屆是68.8%. 即有約30%的中三學生未達標. 

剪報: 中學文憑試2級 如英高考肥佬

今年讀334的同學, 記住二年半後的考試, 入大學的門檻是中英文要攞3,數和通識攞2. 但競爭如此激烈, 最好都係全部有3.

剪報: 英文會考2級者 76%高考肥佬

上年教中七時,那班學生已經話會考以54321的等級比以前的ABCDE寬鬆了.有些取得2分的同學的英文比以前那班取E的人爛. 但根據這篇報道,我料不到相差那麼大.