Countable & Non-countable Nouns – Free English Lesson

This is a standard topic to teach in ESL/EFL classes. Beginner teachers do not do a good job of it and I have seen students get mixed up or confused in Korea and Kuwait. In essense, a teacher’s job is to classify and explain two lists of words…

COUNTABLES

apples

cookies

bananas

loaves

people


cubes

cups

packets

boxes

bags

cans

cartons

steaks/chops

slices

spoons

bowls

kg/km/g

NON-COUNTABLES

rice

sugar

salt

sand

flour/powder/dust

jelly

oil

water

juice

chopped vegies

stew

spaghetti

meat

milk

gas

soup

butter

soil

After teacher reviews the two lists with the class the students get the hang of it. Then ask the the class to classify the words into groups by circling them in coloured pen. They will need help. Basically, non-countable nouns are very small things like grains and flour and dust, as well as liquids/fluids and wet or messy or finely chopped foods. Countable nouns are big enough to be seen and counted easily and individually or things in containers like packets, boxes, bags,cans or standard units like kilograms. Note that sugar and ice can be be cubed and made countable.

Ask students to provide more examples of nouns and add them to the board.

The next step is to introduce the following English words which are generally used with countables OR non-countables.

*Some rice (non-countable)

*A spoon or plate of rice (countable container)

*Some soup (general non-countable)

*A cup or bowl of soup (more specific amount and in a countable container)

*A few apples, bananas, steaks, people etc. (countable)

*Many oranges/children (countable)

*Several mangos (general countable)

*A bit of flour/sugar/oil/dust (non-countable)

Note that we can say SOME people and also SOME dust. This special word, SOME, is not definite and can be used with both countables and non-countables.

After introducing this subject to a grade 11 Kuwait class I thought the students had a pretty good understanding. But then I gave homework asking students to use:

A few…, Some…. , A little… , A bit…., Several…, Many…. each with three examples of food. Some students made zero mistakes and others botched it badly. It was necessary to go over examples again and show that these words have to be used carefully and sometimes exclusively together with countables/non-coutables.

Finally I told a little canibalistic joke they liked. I said we can use the expressions “a bit and a little people” only if we chop them finely.

I hope somebody finds this useful.

About The Author

Robin Tim Day is an English teacher with experince in Asia and the Middle East. Robin publishes articles and lessons at the
eslteachersboard.com/ eslteachersboard.com/ (free access to ESL resumes, jobs and materials). See more articles and lessons by Robin by visiting: eslteachersboard.com/ eslteachersboard.com/

Please add the above to copy this article.

Blue Spruce

The popular tree the Blue Spruce is the state tree for Utah and Colorado. The Blue Spruce A.k.a. the Colorado Blue Spruce is loved because it is incredibly attractive and espouses the classic Christmas tree triangular shape. Commonly people use this tree when they plan to heavily decorate their Christmas trees in the United States and Europe. These trees grow in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and sometimes as far as Arizona. Though in their younger years famed for their perfect shape, as the Blue Spruce becomes older it will become deformed. Some Blue Spruce trees are known to grow for over 700 years.

When you first view a Blue Spruce it will be an awesome site. Compared to other Christmas trees the Blue Spruce has relatively short needles that are also very sharp and pointy. The needles have a blue and sometimes white coloring giving the tree its name Blue Spruce. Like most of its cousins the Blue Spruce is a self pollinating tree. However this tree is different because its cones stay on for many years and the tree itself has unusually thin bark. This kind of tree can grow best under medium shade and healthy, nutrient rich soil.

Of the Spruce family the Blue Spruce is the most popular. There are more than 70 different types of Spruce trees. Spruce love being near water is their roots grow deep and prevent them from falling in storms and high wind. These trees are somewhat vulnerable to disease and pests and because of that they are carefully bred to only have the strongest species. The Blue Spruce should appear a medium color brown with soft wood and unless pruned improperly, knot free. For you Christmas this year you can’t go wrong with a Blue Spruce.

Tannenbaum’s
premiumchristmastree.com Christmas Trees

Reflecting Telescopes

When people think of telescopes, reflecting telescopes are usually the last things that come to mind. Rather, people tend to think of a straight tube with lenses at either side. This is unfortunate, since there are several ways to bend light so that it is magnified to the point where a person on the ground can make out the features on Jupiter, the billowing gasses of a distant nebula, or the light of distant stars. In fact, if a stargazer wants to peer into the inky voids of space with a scope of manageable size, a reflecting telescope will serve them well.

Reflecting telescopes use mirrors to magnify images, allowing the image to be enlarged a few times before coming through the eyepiece. This is simpler to implement than a standard, straight-through refracting telescope, as it allows several smaller adjustments to the image than a few, very large changes with lenses. And, by doing this with mirrors, the design of the telescope can be made much more compact, allowing more magnifications of an image in a smaller telescope.

In order to understand reflecting telescopes, you must begin by understanding the fact that there are two methods of focusing light so that objects seem closer. The first method is through lenses, which use refracting to bend light and focus it. The second method is with mirrors, which can be shaped to reflect light in such as way that small, distant objects appear to be very close and easily visible.

There are two general designs for reflecting telescopes: the Newtonian and the Cassegrain and its variants. The first type, Newtonian, is a very simple design and it is very popular with amateurs who want to home-build a telescope. In the Newtonian design, there is one large mirror at the base of a long tube, and the mirror is focused onto a flat mirror that redirects the image toward an eyepiece. This design was originally created by Isaac Newton, and it was the first successful design for a reflecting telescope.

The second type of reflecting telescope, the Cassegrain and its variants, uses two mirrors to create the image. One large mirror is set up at the base of a tube, with a smaller mirror facing it at the top of the tube. The light comes in through the top, is focused by the larger mirror, and reflected back by the smaller mirror and sent through a hole in the larger mirror and on to the eyepiece. This makes the Cassegrain telescope look like a refracting telescope, though they function very differently. However, their ultimate aim is the same: to allow people to see things that are very far away.

When looking for a telescope, reflecting telescopes are some of the best that can be found. They are effective, easy to use and, in some cases, easy to build – making them the preferred choice for professional astronomers and backyard hobbyists. So, when thinking about telescopes, don’t just think picture the lenses that usually come to mind, think about remarkable properties of mirrors and reflecting telescopes.

Telescopes HQ telescopeshq.com/ telescopeshq.com/ Your guide to telescopes from buying telescopes, how telescopes work and who invented telescopes.

Performing Arts Online Schools

Performing arts courses are available online. Online Performing Arts Schools can get students started with basic courses, introductory art courses, survey of performing arts courses, public speaking courses, courses in managing a performance art business, music and music issues courses, and courses in the fundamentals of entertaining, among others.

Through distance learning, students can: study performance traditions and new developments in performing arts; examine historic elements of live performance; study planning and implementing events; study business aspects of performing arts; examine and evaluate video and telecourse broadcast musical performances; study music performance courses; and take basic courses toward attaining a degree in performing arts. Through interactive formats, courses introduce artistic components of the performance experience from behind the scenes as well as from the audience perspective.

Students with degrees in performing arts will find doors opening in many areas of performance: theater, dance, story telling, music, motion picture, circus, magic, acrobatics, comedy, or if even busking!

Online Performing Arts students will get a good start toward a degree in this field. Completion of an associate or bachelor degree in performing arts will likely require on-campus courses. Check with your school of choice regarding such requirements.

If you are interested in learning more about Online Performing Arts Schools, please search our site for more in-depth information and resources.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Copyright 2006 – All Rights Reserved
Michael Bustamante, in association with Media Positive Communications, Inc. for SchoolsGalore.com

Notice to Publishers Please feel free to use this article in your Ezine or on your Website; however, ALL links must remain intact and active.

M. Bustamante is a staff writer for Media Positive Communications, Inc. in association with schoolsgalore.com/ SchoolsGalore.com. Find schoolsgalore.com/categories/4/performing_arts_online_schools.html Performing Arts Online Schools at SchoolsGalore.com; meeting your needs as your educational resource to locate schools.

Things To Remember On How To Write A Research Paper

There are a number of different kinds of research and papers, but the basic paper we would write for class requires a few standard elements – this is not to offer us busy work but to help us craft a legitimate piece that is informative and helpful for others. Hence, this is a brief guide on how to write research paper parts, in what order to do them, and, in some instances, why.

HOW to WRITE RESEARCH PAPER BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Notice that this task is first, here. It is for a good reason. You gather the books, periodicals, and articles (online and offline at your local or school library). Nest you will find tons of pages of material that you put into notes then summarize into your paper. Perhaps you return the library books. Or just maybe a website database of articles goes down. Obviously you can’t remember all of the page numbers or other bibliographical information to cite properly…. So…the thing to do is find the right resources, and immediately do the bibliography. As for some people, they still use the old-fashioned way that is putting each source on a separate index card. As for the others they type directly onto their computer. No matter which method you prefer, be sure to get the bibliographical info (author(s); title(s); place and date of publication) and, if you can, jot down page numbers.

HOW to WRITE RESEARCH PAPER OUTLINES

Sure, there are teachers who may ask for an outline early on, before you have your topic narrowed or your resources gathered. But think about this as a freeing exercise: you have a whole world of choices to touch, turn, examine, re-examine, and project on. First think of a concept or event or person, and think of all the possible categories you could include. If you like you can go by time, and do a historical survey; you can even consider cause and effect or problem and solution; you can build up an argument and come up with reasons and reasoning. Block off each part with headers and subheaders…. (Look at a site map for a larger website if you don’t want to use the old Roman numeral system.) You must think in terms of general to specific or largest to smallest (the smaller fitting inside the larger).

CONSULT EDUCATIONAL SITES for HOW to WRITE RESEARCH PAPER CITATIONS, ETC.

Be sure to cite – give credit to – everything you use directly from the text. It is al right to lift the choicest quotes; just be sure to put “ ” around anyone else’s words. Even if you paraphrase, you should use the parenthetical citation method (which is used in MLA, APA, and other documentation styles, anyway. Check Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab), Dartmouth’s Writing Center, or another trustworthy source for your source-citing, outlining, writing and other how-to-write-research-paper advice…cause I am running out of time. Oh, yeah, before I forget START EARLY! Nothing hurts more than putting in hours and hours worth of work and missing out on your deadline!

Luke T. Axton provides readers with up-to-date commentaries, articles, and reviews for

Learning Math With Manipulatives – Base Ten Blocks (Part I)

Base ten blocks are an excellent tool for teaching children the concept of addition because they allow children to touch and manipulate something real while learning important skills that translate well into paper and pencil addition. In this article, I will describe base ten blocks and how to use them to represent and add numbers.

The numbering system that children learn and the one most of us are familiar with is the base ten system. This essentially means that you can only use ten unique digits (0 to 9) in each place of a base ten number. For instance, in the number 345, there is a hundreds place, a tens place and a ones place. The only possible digits that could go in each place are the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9. In this example, the place value of the ones place is 5.

Base ten blocks turn the base ten concept into something children can see and touch.

Base ten blocks consist of cubes, rods, flats, and blocks. Cubes represent the ones place and look exactly like their name suggests – a small cube usually one centimeter by one centimeter by one centimeter. Rods represent the tens place and look like ten cubes placed in a row and fused together. Flats, as you might have guessed, represent hundreds, and blocks represent thousands. A flat looks like one hundred cubes place in a 10 x 10 square and attached together. A block looks like ten flats piled one on top of the other and bonded together.

In order to use base ten blocks to add numbers, students should be familiar with how to represent numbers using base ten blocks. To see what base ten blocks look like, and to try them out, go to the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives:

nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_154_g_1_t_1.html

To represent a number using base ten blocks, make piles of base ten blocks to represent each place value. If your number was 2,784, you would make a pile of 2 blocks, a pile of 7 flats, a pile of 8 rods, and a pile of 4 cubes. It is useful to arrange the piles in a row in the same order that they appear in the number as that will be useful later on when children learn the paper and pencil algorithm.

Another useful skill to practice is trading base ten blocks. Each block can be traded for 10 flats, each flat for 10 rods, and each rod for 10 cubes. Going the other way, 10 cubes can be traded for one rod, 10 rods for one flat, and 10 flats for one block.

One simple use of base ten blocks that translates well to a paper and pencil method of addition is to add by regrouping. To add two or more numbers, start by representing each number with base ten blocks. Put all of the cubes from both numbers in the same pile; do this with the rods, flats, and blocks as well. Next, trade any groups of 10 cubes for a rod. Trade any groups of 10 rods for a flat; then trade any groups of 10 flats for a block. To read the resulting number, count the number of base ten blocks left in each pile and read the number.

To illustrate this procedure, picture the addition question, 568 693. After representing both numbers with base ten blocks and combining the piles of like base ten blocks, you should have a pile of 11 cubes, a pile of 15 rods, and a pile of 11 flats. Trading 10 of the cubes for 1 rod means you now have 1 cube, 16 rods and 11 flats. Trading 10 of the rods for one flat results in 1 cube, 6 rods, and 12 flats. Trading 10 of the flats for one block gives you your final piles of 1 cube, 6 rods, 2 flats, and 1 block. The answer to the addition question, therefore, is 1,261.

If you don’t have base ten blocks, you can use the virtual base ten blocks or make paper versions. If you need addition questions (with the answers included), you can access thousands of free math worksheets at math-drills.com

In future articles, I will describe more uses for base ten blocks including subtraction and multiplication, and I will continue the series with other manipulatives that can help your child or student learn math.

Peter Waycik is the creator of thousands of free math worksheets that can be found on his website, math-drills.com math-drills.com.

Artificial Intelligence Memory Recognition Training

For it artificial intelligence computer system to work properly it must be trained to adapt, move and make decisions based on the input from its sensors. If we are to design unmanned aerial vehicles which seek and destroyed enemy targets of opportunity, then we must train that computer system to recognize shapes and objects for multiple directions, skews and perspectives. One way to do this is to train the artificial intelligence systems memory using a 3-D CAD/CAM device which displays the object and rotates that object around on its axis. In doing so the artificial intelligence memory system must take still photos or digital renderings of each potential perspective.

The information obtained from this exercise in memory input must be coupled with other information in a recognition system. For instance just because it object is a certain shape does not mean that particular object years the real or is the actual target. Because, as soon as the enemy knows that we have program the artificial intelligence system running the unmanned aerial vehicles in this way, they will put up shapes of potential targets in wait until the unmanned fighting vehicle fires upon the decoy and thus gives itself away.

Artificial intelligence robotic systems in future combat fighting forces in the Net-centric battlespace will not be cheap to build and losing such devices in combat will escalate the cost of war. If a nation’s purpose in having a war is to serve its political will over the enemy as Carl von Clauswitz states, then it must be done efficiently otherwise it makes no sense. In some cases it seems nations like the United States will go to war and spend more money than they would have if they had bought the entire country; Afghanistan for instance.

As universities and military contracted research and development facilities work on these problems on target identification with artificial intelligence robotic systems for unmanned vehicles, they must consider getting the data sets in 3D into the system and having a backup system to further verify the target prior to firing upon it and giving away its position. Likewise as other hostile nations program their artificial intelligence weapons systems, we must constantly be tinkering with decoy systems to give their units to fire upon our decoys so we may immediately return fire destroy them. Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/