Run for the hills..
The weekend here in London was quite humid and a mixture of sunshine and really heavy showers. Not ideal weather, then, for the 10km run which I foolishly agreed to do on Sunday. It was an event held in a beautiful park in North London called Trent Park. My brother-in-law Tim often takes part in these runs - I've done one before so I thought I'd have another go. The weather was sticky when we arrived and the course had lots of hills. My heart sank - as usual, I asked myself 'Why do I do it?'. But I survived! - after I finished I was already looking forward to the next one.
The worst part - waiting around before the start
The best part - finsishing!
Comments (from June 23rd)
Leila – glad you enjoyed the homework. I also remember the weather being great even though I was quite young then. It was the year of the ‘Royal Wedding’, as you say, but also of the Brixton riots, two very different faces of the UK in stark contrast - from the ‘pomp and splendour’ of the wedding to the anger, frustration and violence in Brixton.
Hyoshil – scantily clad women – yes maybe it is a boy thing! It’s funny that your son grunts when he plays – did the opponent complain? I think grunting adds to the drama and excitement – above all, it’s quite funny. In my view, players should be professional enough not to let it disturb their concentration. Yes, I do know about the division between South and North Korea, but I had no idea that they had had joint sports teams – not anymore though right? When was the last one, and what sport was it? Good homework – well done!
Benka – I’m glad you liked the homework. Do factories ‘damp’ waste??
Paulraj, it’s amazing how 20-20 cricket has become so popular in such a short time. There’s no doubt it’s an exciting format and appeals to our desire to have everything more and more quickly. A 5-day test match can be exciting though, as this year’s Ashes series will hopefully show..
Cheikh Vall – you were right in about half your sentences. You might want to look up number 1,4 and 5 again.
Rabail, I love the idea that in Pakistan people cook a special meal when it rains – it says so much about how weather influences our lives. In the UK, as you know, we see quite a lot of rain so getting the umbrella out is certainly nothing to celebrate. It’s interesting to read that you’re not a fan of grunting. Do you think there is anything in cricket which should be outlawed? Really great work for that vocabulary. I didn’t manage to see any of the Twenty20 games but the tournament was a great success and perhaps if it comes back here I might try to get tickets.
YPW – I don’t have a particular favourite. I used to love watching players like Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe – I remember some epic contests between them when I was growing up. Oh, and I like Ana Ivanovic also….
Naheed, do you never get tired of the sunshine in Karachi? Those power cuts must be really irritating, especially if you’re in the middle of writing your blog! Glad you’re enjoying ‘Keep your English up to date’!
Kuldeep, I really appreciate your comments about my blog, thank you. ‘It’s been a while since there was a British man in with a chance of winning the tournament’ means that a lot of time has passed since any British man came close to winning Wimbledon. ‘It’s been a while’ here actually means quite a large amount of time, although it doesn’t denote a specific period of time. ‘Having have’ is not possible grammatically – ‘having had’ is a perfect infinitive and can be found in sentences such as ‘Having had lunch, they decided to have a short siesta.’ It’s a nice way to avoid something longer such as ‘After they had had lunch..’.
Asma, are the fogs a kind of sandstorm? Or are they caused by moisture in the air?
Nice to meet you too Jingjing! Good homework, although ‘mumbling’ isn’t what the tennis players are doing..
Answers to the vocabulary quiz
Smog – this is a ‘portmanteau’ word formed from ‘smoke and fog’ = air pollution.
Infamous – notorious
Slap on – apply/put on
Soak up – enjoy/take in
Grunting – groaning with exertion
Ploy – trick/strategy
Flying the flag – representing a country
In with a shout – to have/stand a chance/have the possibility of…
Some answers to the last quiz…(June 26th)
Prepositions
Concentrate on (although I would probably rephrase it to say something like ‘the course mainly/mostly focuses on adult education’)
Divided into
…happens in organised situations according to some …. (could rephrase this ‘Non-formal learning occurs/happens in an organised context under some kind of supervision…’)
Online/on (the) internet/through (the) internet
In contact with people
From time to time
Looking through a window/seeing a reflection in a weekend
Comments from June 26th
Taru – yes, indeed. July! And ‘flu’! Marianna, I agree with you – grammar explanations can get tiring – that must be why you missed the problem with the Present Perfect sentence ‘When I have read…’! Paulraj, I’m glad that I encouraged you to read Taru’s blog. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s interesting – I think we can all learn from each other. Good homework, just one mistake! Benka, well done for having a go at the grammar exercises, even though they aren’t your cup of tea. It’s always nice to see students thinking and reflecting on their knowledge.
Verb tenses
The problem with the sentence ‘When I have read these theories…’ is really about inconsistency of tenses. You could say 'When I read these theories and try to apply them to practice I realise that...'. But this would change the meaning slightly to mean 'every time I read these theories' - if that is what Taru means, then fine. I think, though, that she means that her reading of the theories at an unspecified time in the past has made her realise (now) that informal learning is what we're doing (now) The problem is the word ‘When’ – it can't apply to the unspecified occasions related to the two verbs in the Present Perfect and also to the present time - this is the 'inconsistency' I mentioned. What would work well here is a perfect participle: Having read these theories and tried to apply them to practice I (now) realise that actually we are doing it (informal learning) here with this blog. Does that make sense Taru? Hope this long-winded explanation helps!
There are lots of good examples of verb tense use in the post. For more on basic tense usage, see the LE Ask about English section on verbs and verb tenses.
Past tenses (Friday’s post)
I arrived at 3pm and was told by a steward that the wait would be 3 or 4 hours! The organisation was military – everyone was given a card, queue jumping was strictly forbidden and no pushing in would be tolerated. To add insult to injury, as soon as I arrived, I called my friend who was already there. He had a ticket and was in the third row of Centre Court watching Maria Sharapova (who was losing her match)… Fortunately it was a lovely, sunny day, I had a book and some grapes so I was happy.
Well done to everyone who managed to identify the dodgy verb tenses…
Comments
Hi everyone, I am addicted to this blog again! Jim, thank you for reminding me about Brixton riots, I do remember them vividly. Those years in London stay with me forever! Including the 1981 Irish hunger strike and soon followed Falkland war, as well as UK Miners' Strike. Britain was then so vibrant but also merciless, at times I remember life being almost as living on an edge. In the other hand, that was a real essence of it all. As I am seeing my daughter tonight, I must rememorize those days me gallivanting around London parks with her. Best to everyone!
Thank you Jim about your clarification about the word "When" I think I understand the mistake of the sentence.
Hi Jim! You are excelent trained in explaining grammar and for being an adornment of any run! The small praise deserved for no homework!
Hi Jim! First of all, I’d love to offer you my big congratulations on your great achievement of 10km run. In terms of running, I think it demands great amount of self-discipline, pain endurance and sheer of determination to finish the run. I swim 1 mile three times a week, and I always need to encourage myself to overcome these difficulties during the swimming. The worst enemy is you and yourself in one-man sports- like marathon or swimming. You proudly proved that you are the fearless master of yourself. To answer some of your questions, it was in June in 1991 when South Korean and North Korean’s footballers, who were under 20, were formed a team and performed together in Portugal. The team came in a memorable quarter-final. Another event was in Japan in April in 1991, and the united women’s team won the table tennis championships. As far as I know that sort of union has not been discussed for a long time but many people in Korea do not desert or lose hope for being together one day again. To move on my son’s grunting, I was his opponent at the game, and I complained it to the referee, who is my son’s father and my soul mate, about his groaning. Do you know what happened? I got a yellow card from the referee and he accused of me having been harassing my son. What nonsense!!Hope you are in good form after the long run!
Hello, Jim! I did write ‘throw away’, then I deleted it and wrote the wrong verb. It must be the bad influence of the American movies. ‘Don’t dump(or incorrectly damp which is also the verb with its own meaning) that on me!’ says Robert De Nero, and then I wrote it and made a mistake. I would like that people here learn how to queue. Our mornings, before the work, and afternoons , after the work, would be less stressful. There is always someone behind, tapping me on the shoulder, asking to let them jump the queue because they are in a more of a hurry than I am. Would you people behave yourself, please? Ana Ivanović is a celebrity in this country, a sports icon and a hero to her people. As a role model to many, she could ask anyone to watch their queuing manners, and the art of queuing would be alive again here. It’s amazing how people are ready to follow the example of their role model, whether it’s a good or a bad one. Why are people blind to the hero’s faults? Because the mistakes and the good deeds are what make them celebrities ? Your explanation of verb tenses has made me realize my mistakes and I hope every time I write I will make less of them and that requires a lot of proofreading.
Hello Jim, I hope you're doing great. I'm glad to hear that you did some kind of warm up over the weekend, however, the weather was not that good. I think in London it's not a surprise to see when the weather isn't perfect. Although I have never been to London, but two of my sisters live there, and when I talk to them on the line , they always tell me about the weather. Do you know that here in Kampala, it always rains. I'd say the year-round. Can you believe that? I know you wouldn't believe, but it's true. Today, I want you to make some kind of comment on my English, you know, as I told you I'm only practising on my own. So, how am I doing so far? Thank you very much for helping us improve our English. And glad to be one of the BBC LE students over the internet. Best wishes to you and your family, Abdisamad.
Hi Jim! No, fogs are not sandstorms; it happens when air of high dew point over the Arabian Gulf sea move landwards, resulting in 'Advective Fog'. 'Sandstorms' also happen here occasionally, when the stong wind blows and stirs up the sand, sandstorm happens. And the severity of the storm depends on the wind, the more stronger the wind the more severe will be the storm. The hot and humid climate also cause the fog and a hazy day, which makes visibility very low.Best regards.
Hi Jim! I didn´t see the naked bike ride because I was at the Star Wars Exhibition here in Brazil and as I´m a huge fan of the classic trilogy I couldn´t miss this exhibition for nothing else in this world :-). The ride got covered in the press, but just few newpapers explained the reason of it. By the way, I enjoyed very much the Bloomsday. The event was held at a beautiful old mansion located at Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, where we attended a presentation about Ulysses followed by a group playing Irish music. Jim, are you going to be with us in July? Well, I hope so. All the best, Ana Paula.
Hi Jim! I didn´t see the naked bike ride because I was at the Star Wars Exhibition here in Brazil and as I´m a huge fan of the classic trilogy I couldn´t miss this exhibition for nothing else in this world :-). The ride got covered in the press, but just few newpapers explained the reason of it. By the way, I enjoyed very much the Bloomsday. The event was held at a beautiful old mansion located at Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, where we attended a presentation about Ulysses followed by a group playing Irish music. Jim, are you going to be with us in July? Well, I hope so. All the best, Ana Paula.
Hello Jim! First of all, I’d love to offer you my big congratulations on your great achievement of 10km run. In terms of running, I think it demands a great amount of self-discipline, pain endurance and sheer of determination to finish the run. I swim 1 mile three times a week, and I always need to encourage myself to overcome these difficulties during the swimming. The worst enemy is you and yourself in one-man sports- like marathon or swimming. You proudly proved that you are the fearless master of yourself. To answer some of your questions, it was in June in 1991 when South Korean and North Korean’s footballers, who were under 21, were formed a team and performed together in Portugal. The team came in a memorable quarter-final. Another sports event, where two countries’ players were brought together, was in Japan in April in 1991, and the united women’s team won the table tennis championships. As far as I know that sort of union has not been discussed for a long time but many people in Korea do not desert or lose hope for being together one day again. To move on my son’s grunting, I was his opponent at the game, and I complained it to the referee, who is our son’s father about his groaning. Do you know what happened? I got a yellow card from the referee and he accused of me having been harassing the little boy as a grown-up. My son insisted that it was one of his tricks for the game!. Thank you for your interests in and asking about the joint sports team! I hope you’re back on great form after the long run!
Hi JIm ! You will certainly allow me to send one message. It was on 23 June 2008 when we got to know from our friend Pary about Women´s day celebration in Iran on the Prophet´s daughter Fatemeh birthday. I promissed I would celebrate the day, so I thought the month would pass in a minute, my wish go on there that women had celebrated it this year, too, there. Best wishes!
Hi Jim, Are you alright after the 10kms run on Sunday? Why did you mention that you foolishly agreed to do so? What for this event has been organized? Before I was posting the some of the home work of your previous blog, I saw your run for the hills blog. How quickly you did that. Many times students are lazy. You Brits are well orgainised and quick. I was wondering how you manage to do all these things Watching Wimbledon, waiting in the queue, participating in the run, spending time with friends and teaching us on line. Wonderful jim. Keep it up.
Your success can encourage the other people to run. Do you go on training after that? You may be surprised to know that I also took part in the 10km run about 6 years ago. Now I jogg 3 times a week.
Hello Jim, it's the first time I write. I'm an eventual follower of the blog. More eventual than I would like to be. I wish I could read it more regularly for I love to learn about English and I always learn a lot when I read the blog. Today, for instance, reading your post I learned, among other things, what sticky weather means. I always make an effort to be a more regular reader, and I'll try again. But, time really seems to work against us. Anyway, I loved your post and thak you for this nice blog. See you soon, Mauricio.
Hi Jim, Well done of 10 km marathon and revising the paragraph of past tense, it's a wonderful experience by revising teacher's passage and , then learning form being revised by teacher's revise. Owesome try.Best wishes, james.
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