New Year's Resolutions

                                                     

                                                       

You’ll fail your New Year’s resolutions by this date

Let’s be honest — you’re probably not going to stick to your New Year’s resolution. In fact, there is a specific date when you’re most likely to give up.

Before the first month of the year has even come to an end, most people have given up on their annual commitment to themselves. Research conducted by Strava, the social network for athletes, has discovered that Saturday, January 12 is the fateful day of most New Year’s resolutions. After analysing more than 31.5 million online global activities last January, Strava was able to pinpoint the date when most people report failing their resolution. “Sticking to resolutions is hard and we all know there’s a lot of talk and pressure in January about getting fitter and being healthier,” Gareth Mills from Strava told The Independent. “A key factor in success is motivation and analysing millions of activity uploads, we’ve been able to pinpoint the day your motivation is most likely to waver.”

According to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, just 8 per cent of people achieve their New Year’s goals, while around 80 per cent fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions, says US clinical psychologist Joseph Luciani. Roughly 55 per cent of New Year’s resolutions were health related, such as exercising more, eating healthier and getting out of financial debt, according to the science journal The Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Unrealistic expectations is a big drive in failed resolutions.

But it’s not all grim. There’s hope, it’s just about how you set up resolutions. Dr Carly Moores, associate lecturer at Flinders University and registered nutritionist said if your goal is to lose weight or improve lifestyle habits, try not to make too many changes all at once. “Start with small changes and continue to build on these or try to tackle one change at a time,” Dr Moores said. “Try to set yourself goals, reflect on your progress towards these, acknowledge that changes can be hard, and results won’t happen overnight … or even in the first two weeks of the new year.”

Dr Marcelo Campos, lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said writing goals down can help us to achieve them because it feels like more of a commitment. Writing in a blog post for Harvard Health, Dr Campos explained that answering five specific questions can give you a push in the right direction when it comes to sticking to New Year’s resolutions. The questions are; Why do you want to make the change? Is your goal concrete and measurable? What is your plan? Who can support you as you work toward change? How will you celebrate your victories?

“January 1st is just a day in the calendar. You can reset your calendar every day for a fresh start. Go back to the beginning and revisit that first question to remind yourself of the rewards of making the change,” Dr Campos said.

The Strava study found that if exercising was one of your resolutions, then working with others encouraged more activity, while joining a club boosted people’s activity 46 per cent.

News.com.au

1. Read the text and say if the following sentences are TRUE or FALSE. Write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

1. According to Strava research, most resolutions will be carried out by January 12^th.
2. It’s essential that you’re motivated in order to be able to stick to your resolutions.
3. Most New Year’s resolutions have to do with health and money.
4. Dr Carly Mores advises to make gradual changes.
5. Dr Campos recommends writing down your resolutions in case you forget them.
6. Dr Campos believes that if you answer his five questions you are more likely to fulfill them.

2. Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given.

1. Finish (par. 1)
2. To describe precisely (par. 1)
3. To show doubt or indecision (par. 1)
4. Unpleasant (par. 2)
5. To work on something (par. 2)
6. An obligation, responsibility (par. 3)
7. Compensation (par. 3)
8. To increase (par. 3)

3. If you follow the link below, you can read the original article and watch a video to answer the following questions.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/the-date-most-people-give-up-on-their-new-years-resolution/news-story/91f50b7c5eef040100fcdd04963efd15#.n035u

1. Do most people who meet New Year’s resolutions meet their goals?
2. What’s the best way to achieve something?
3. How long do you need to form a new habit?
4. Is making mistakes a big problem?
5. What should you do if you make mistakes?
6. How is relapse considered?
7. What’s one New Year’s resolutions you need to make?

KEY

a. FALSE. Before the first month of the year has even come to an end, most people have given up on their annual commitment to themselves. Research conducted by Strava, the social network for athletes, has discovered that Saturday, January 12 is the fateful day of most New Year’s resolutions.

b. TRUE. “A key factor in success is motivation and analysing millions of activity uploads, we’ve been able to pinpoint the day your motivation is most likely to waver.”

c. TRUE. Roughly 55 per cent of New Year’s resolutions were health related, such as exercising more, eating healthier and getting out of financial debt,

d. TRUE. try not to make too many changes all at once. “Start with small changes and continue to build on these or try to tackle one change at a time,”

e. FALSE. Dr Marcelo Campos, lecturer at Harvard Medical School, said writing goals down can help us to achieve them because it feels like more of a commitment.

f. TRUE. Writing in a blog post for Harvard Health, Dr Campos explained that answering five specific questions can give you a push in the right direction when it comes to sticking to New Year’s resolutions.

a. come to an end

b. to pinpoint.

c. to waver.

d. grim.

e. to tackle.

f. commitment.

g. rewards.

h. boosted.

a. No, they don’t.

b. Making resolutions.

c. An average of 66 days.

d. No, it isn’t.

e. You should work on ways to get back on track.

f. As part of the process of keeping resolutions.

g. Be kinder to yourself and appreciate that while you might not achieve your goals by January 2^nd, you’re well on the way.

Vocabulary

Complete the sentences with a suitable word to show that you understand the meaning of the bold words.

      1.   The queue is very long. There are so many …………………… .

      2.   Everything in the shop is at a fixed price, so don’t expect any …………………… .

      3.   We’re getting closer. We’ll soon …………………… .

      4.   The …………………… will land in an hour.

      5.   The shop is out of the way. It’s not …………………… to where I live.

      6.   We’re leaving today, so we need to check out of the …………………… .

      7.   Offer her your seat. She shouldn’t …………………… .

      8.   You lead and we’ll all …………………… you.

KEY

Possible answers

      1.   people                                 5.   close

      2.   discounts                            6.   hotel

      3.   arrive                                   7.   stand

      4.   aeroplane                            8.   follow

Causative use of Have

Complete the sentences with the verbs in brackets. Use the causative form.

      1.   Jack and Amanda always get home from work late at night. That’s why they …………………… their dog …………………… (walk) every day by a dog walker.

      2.   Their children found a kitten on the street and brought it home. Yesterday, we …………………… the kitten …………………… (check) by the vet before adopting it.

      3.   I received a letter in French, but I couldn’t read it. I …………………… the letter …………………… (translate) as soon as possible.

      4.   I stepped on a piece of glass and it’s very painful. I …………………… it …………………… (must / removed) as soon as possible.

      5.   Our dog doesn’t obey us. We …………… it …………… (not train) as a puppy.

KEY

1. have / get … walked

2.   had / got … checked

3.   will have / get … translated

4.   must have / get … removed

5.   didn’t have / get … trained

Active Passive forms

Complete the sentences with the verbs in brackets. Use the active or passive form.

      1.   We watched a film in school about how wild animals ……………………………… (trap) in countries in Asia, so they ……………………………… (can / sell) as pets around the world.

      2.   His sense of smell ……………………………… (affect) since the accident, so he no longer ……………………………… (enjoy) food.

      3.   You ……………………………… (shouldn’t / threaten) by my dog’s size. He’s not as dangerous as he ……………………………… (look).

      4.   When I ……………………………… (attack) by a dog, I ……………………………… (taken) by ambulance
to hospital and ……………………………… (treat) for rabies.

      5.   Be careful! There are poisonous snakes that ……………………………… (blend in) with the surroundings and it ……………………………… (know) that several hikers ……………………………… (bite) last year.

      6.   I ……………………………… (order) the tickets online last month, but they still ……………………………… (not sent) them to me.

      7.   The dog ……………………………… (must / train) by its previous owner because it ……………………………… (respond) to commands.

KEY

1. are trapped, can be sold

2.   has been affected, enjoys

3.   shouldn’t be threatened, looks

4.   was attacked, was taken, was treated

5.   blend in, is known, were bitten

6.   ordered, haven’t sent

7.   must have been trained, responds

Fined parents for school absence

Fewer parents were fined last year for taking their children out of school without permission despite unauthorised absence rates in England reaching a record high, new Government figures show.

Around one in six (16.9 per cent) pupils missed at least half a day of lessons during the 2016-17 school year, up from 14.7 per cent, the Department for Education data shows.  However, the number of fines issued to parents for taking their children out of school without permission fell by 5.4 per cent. More than three-quarters of fines were for unauthorised holidays.

The figures cover the period after a father won a High Court case in May 2016 for taking her daughter on a trip to Disney, without permission. This suggests that more parents took the decision to take term-time holidays following the ruling as they believed they were less likely to face a fine. 

Today’s figures show the unauthorised absence rate is at its highest level since records began. “This increase in unauthorised absence is due to an increase in absence due to family holidays that were not agreed by the school,” the report said. 

Justine Roberts, chief executive of parenting forum Mumsnet, said: “It’s possible that some parents saw coverage of a High Court judgment and thought they had official permission to book term-time breaks.” But she added that “other parents will have spotted that the decision couldn’t be interpreted that broadly”.

”When the Supreme Court has to weigh in on what should be a straightforward matter of home/school communication, and when parents are poring over the judgment to assess its relevance to their situation, it feels like an indication that something isn’t working optimally,” Ms Roberts added. 

Government regulations amended in 2013 state that term-time leave may only be granted in exceptional circumstances, which was expected to lead to more penalty notices issued. 

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Children only get one chance at an education and evidence shows that every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chances of achieving good GCSEs. Therefore, we believe that no child should be taken out of school without good reason and the Supreme Court agrees with us. The rules on term-time absences are clear and we have put schools back in control by supporting them to use their powers to deal with unauthorised absence.”

Adapted from The Independent March 2018

Question 1: Indicate whether the following statements are true or false and write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

a) The Department of Education fined fewer parents because less students were absent.

b) Most parents were fined because they took their children on vacation.

c) School unattendance redords had never been so high.

d) All parents think they are backed by the High Court decision.

e) The more you attend lessons, the better results you may get.

f) Schools do not have the help of the government in terms of nonattendance.

Question 3. Find words or phrases in the text that correspond to the words and definitions given.

1. To penalise, to charge
2. To deliver
3. Numbers, statistics
4. Probable
5. Largely
6. To add
7. Direct
8. To study cautiously
9. To complete
10. Manage, handle

KEY

a) FALSE

“Fewer parents were fined last year for taking their children out of school without permission despite unauthorised absence rates in England reaching a record high”

b) TRUE

“More than three-quarters of fines were for unauthorised holidays.”

c) TRUE

“Today’s figures show the unauthorised absence rate is at its highest level since records began”

d) FALSE

“other parents will have spotted that the decision couldn’t be interpreted that broadly”

e) TRUE

“ every extra day of school missed can affect a pupil’s chances of achieving good GCSEs”

f) FALSE

"we have put schools back in control by supporting them to use their powers to deal with unauthorised absence.”

1. To fine, fine
2. To issue, issued
3. Figures
4. Likely
5. Broadly
6. To weigh in
7. Straightforward
8. To pore over
9. To achieve
10. To deal with

Confusing words 2

Choose the correct word for each sentence

1. The audience / spectators cheered when he scored the goal
2. What happened had no affect / effect on the result.
3. They live in a beautiful hose beside / besides the sea.
4. I want to introduce the subject briefly / shortly now, and then discuss it in detail next week.
5. I must know your answer by / until 5 o’clock.
6. I did very little work because of the continual / continuous interruptions.
7. They controlled / inspected the luggage with X-ray equipment to see if there was a bomb inside.
8. The newspaper headline / title said “Famous writer killed”
9. We haven’t seen him during / for 6 years.
10. Did you notice / remark what she was wearing?

Key

1.spectators 2. Effect 3. Beside 4. Briefly 5. By

6. continual 7. Inspected 8. Headline 9. For 10. notice

SUFFIXES (adjectives)

Fill in the gaps with suitable adjectives

1. You must be very (care) ………………………………………………………. when you drive in wet weather.
2. It was so (fog) ……………………………………………………… this morning that I couldn’t see more than twenty metres in front of me.
3. Everyone in my country has heard of her; she’s very (fame) ……………………………………………
4. The people in the tourist information office were very (help) ………………………………………… and answered all our questions without any problems.
5. This is a very (danger) ……………………………………………………… road; there were at least three serious accidents on it last year.
6. It was very (pain) ……………………………………………………… when I hit my leg against the corner of the table.
7. This bag is very (use) ……………………………………………………… because I can use it for work or when I go on holiday.
8. The factory is in the middle of the (industry) ……………………………………………………… part of the city, surrounded by other factories.
9. I made some coffee but it was horrible. In fact, my sister said it was not (drink) ……………………………………
10. It seems terrible to me that there are so many (home) …………………………………………………… people living in a city with thousands of empty houses.

KEY

1. careful
2. foggy
3. famous
4. helpful
5. dangerous
6. painful
7. useful
8. industrial
9. undrinkable
10. homeless

Student at the centre of the landmark US civil rights case

      The US supreme court’s 1954 decision in Brown v Board of Education proved a landmark in the struggle for civil rights in America, and Linda Brown, who has died aged 75, was at its centre. It began in September 1950, when seven-year-old Linda walked with her father Oliver to enroll for third grade at Sumner elementary school, a few blocks from their house in an integrated neighbourhood in Topeka, Kansas.

Linda had been attending Monroe elementary in a black neighbourhood a bus ride away. She wanted to go to school close by with her friends and, as her mother Leola recalled, “her daddy told her he was going to try to do his best to do something about it”. But Topeka’s primary schools were segregated.

Oliver Brown, a welder for the Atchison Topeka and Sante Fe railroad, was also a pastor at their local African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, and he was one of 13 black parents who were encouraged by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) to try to enroll their children from Topeka’s four black schools in some of the 18 all-white schools. He was, of course, turned away, and Linda recalled as they walked briskly home “how I could just feel the tension in him”.

The NAACP filed a suit, with Brown, first alphabetically, the named plaintiff in Oliver Brown et al v Board of Education of Topeka.

Similar suits in Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia were added, and three years later, the supreme court, including one repentant former member of the Ku Klux Klan, ruled unanimously in favour of the Browns. They overturned 1896’s Plessy v Ferguson, which had endorsed “separate but equal” facilities for the races, on the grounds such provisions were inherently unequal and violated the protections guaranteed by the 14th amendment.

The following year, Rosa Parks would challenge the segregated seating on buses in Montgomery, Alabama. And in the wake of Brown, which was supposed to be implemented with “all deliberate speed”, came a series of dramatic school integration confrontations: the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas in 1957; Ruby Bridges in New Orleans, 1960, as immortalised in Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With; James Meredith in 1962 at the University of Mississippi.

By the time of the supreme court decision, Linda was already attending an integrated middle school in Topeka; shy and quiet, she was the focus of unwanted press attention. She did find it funny that her school classmates “didn’t believe it was me” who had been so influential. But it was not until 1959, when she was in high school in Springfield, Missouri, to which her family had moved, that she realised that “gee, someday I might be in the history books!”.

     In 1961 her father died of heatstroke while welding, and her mother returned to Topeka. Linda studied early education at Washburn College, Topeka, and Kansas State University, married and raised two children.

In 1979, on behalf of her children, she joined the American Civil Liberties Union in re-opening Brown v Board of Education, arguing the desegregation of Topeka’s schools remained incomplete. It was not decided until 1989, when the supreme court let a lower court ruling in the ACLU’s favour stand; a new plan for integration was not implemented until 1993. In 1994, on the 40th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education, Linda told an interviewer: “We feel disheartened that 40 years later we’re still talking about desegregation. But the struggle has to continue.”

She taught young children and gave piano lessons, and played for the choir at St Mark’s, the church where her father had been a pastor. Her sister, Cheryl, started the Brown Foundation, for which Linda worked as an educational consultant and taught in Head Start programmes for underprivileged families. Despite her reluctance to take the spotlight, she was an accomplished public speaker on civil rights and educational issues.

Her first marriage, to Charles Smith, ended in divorce. Her second husband, Leonard Buckner, and third, William Thompson, predeceased her. She is survived by her mother, two sisters, Cheryl and Terry, and a son, Charles, and daughter, Kimberly, from her first marriage.

The Guardian 28^th March 2018

Question 1: Indicate whether the following statements are True or False and write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

1. Linda Brown lived in a block of flats far from Sumner school.
2. Topeka’s schools accepted both white and black children.
3. Linda’s father preferred her to continue at the school for black children.
4. One of the members of the supreme court used to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
5. Linda started middle school after the favourable court decision.
6. Although Linda didn’t like the attention her case had at first, she saw a positive side later.
7. By 1979 there were not segregated schools left in the USA.
8. Linda was reluctant to speak in favour of civil rights in public.
9. She died after her last husband but before her mother.

KEY

Question 1

a) False. Seven-year-old Linda walked with her father Oliver to enroll for third grade at Sumner elementary school, a few blocks from their house in an integrated neighborhood in Topeka, Kansas.

b) False. But Topeka’s primary schools were segregated.

c) False.  She wanted to go to school close by with her friends and, as her mother Leola recalled, “her daddy told her he was going to try to do his best to do something about it”.

d) True. The supreme court, including one repentant former member of the Ku Klux Klan.

e) False. By the time of the supreme court decision, Linda was already attending an integrated middle school in Topeka.

f) True. Shy and quiet, she was the focus of press unwanted attention. But it was not until 1959, when she was in high school in Springfield, Missouri, to which her family had moved, that she realised that “gee, someday I might be in the history books!”

g) False. In 1979, on behalf of her children, she joined the American Civil Liberties Union in re-opening Brown v Board of Education, arguing the desegregation of Topeka’s schools remained incomplete.

h) False. Despite her reluctance to take the spotlight, she was an accomplished public speaker on civil rights and educational issues.

i) True. Her second husband, Leonard Buckner, and third, William Thompson, predeceased her. She is survived by her mother.