martes, 19 de febrero de 2013

Decluttering

Look at these four groups of words:

1 cluttered untidy dishevelled messy
2 keep hoard hang onto collect
3 dispose of get rid of throw away discard
4 tidy up declutter clean out
5 junk rubbish garbage trash

Which group contains four adjectives?
Which two groups have verbs with the opposite meaning?
Which group contains four nouns for stuff people throw away?
Which 2 verbs in group 3 are more formal?
Which two words in group 5 are used more in American English?
Which words are phrasal verbs?

Complete the sentences with words from 1-4:

They spent the day …………………. the garage. They …………………… old magazines, furniture and toys.

Key
Group 1 are all adjectives
Group 2 contains verbs meaning the opposite of the verbs in group 3.
Dispose of and discard are more formal.
Garbage and trash are used more in American English.
hang onto, throw away, tidy up and clean out are all phrasal verbs.

Which person are you?
1. Everything in my room is in the right place.
2. I notice immediately when my things are out of place.
3. There are lots of papers and clothes on top of the furniture in my room.
4. I find it difficult to find things in my room.
5. I find it difficult to throw things away.
6. I never keep things I don’t use.
Would you describe yourself as:
a tidy or untidy person?
organised or disorganised
Are you usually on time or late?


Do you think that tidiness can help people be successful in life?


Read on to find out!


De-clutter your desk if you want a successful career

      According to a leading expert, having a cluttered environment reflects a cluttered mind and tidying up can help you be more successful.
Jayne Morris, “life coach” for NHS Online, said: “Having an untidy desk covered in clutter could be stopping you achieving the business success you want."
     However, some of history's biggest achievers lived and worked in notoriously messy conditions. Churchill was considered untidy throughout his life, and the lab where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin was famously dishevelled.
Briton has long been a nation of hoarders and a survey showed that more than a million are compulsive about keeping their stuff.
     Brains scans have also confirmed that victims of hoarding disorder have abnormal activity in regions of the brain involved in decision making – particularly in what to do with objects that belong to them.
      A US study by the Institute of Living, in Hartford, Connecticut, showed for the first time that a particular brain region becomes overactive when hoarders are asked to dispose of their own possessions. However, the same part of the brain is underactive when hoarders are asked what to do about items not belonging to them.
      Prof David Mataix-Cols, from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, said ‘The difficulty to discard possessions, even those of little apparent value, is one of the landmark features of the newly proposed Hoarding Disorder (HD).

Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text.
a) If your work or study area is not tidy, it could affect your success at work.
b) British people are good at getting rid of things they don’t use.
c) Scientists were able to detect hoarders’ reactions to throwing things away.
d) Not being able to throw away belongings is a key part of Hoarding Disorder.

Find words in the text to complete the columns
Noun Adjective Verb Prefix
clutter ……….……… …………………….. de
tidiness ……….……… …………………….. un

The prefix ‘de’ is used with words to form the opposite process.
‘Hydration’ is the process of adding liquid to something. If you exercise and don’t drink water, then your body can become ‘dehydrated’.
Click on this link to learn more words with the prefix ‘de’:
And what about a prefix rap?
Click here to listen:

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