English Verb Tense Resources

Learning verb tenses is one of the most important tasks in any language learning. There are a number of resources at the site that will help you learn tense rules, practice using verbs in different tenses, read sample sentences in a variety of tenses, teach tenses in class, and more. For an overview of conjugation of all these tenses, use the tense tables or the visual guide to tenses for reference. Teachers can use theses guides on how to teach tenses for further activities and lesson plans in class Tense Use Rules and Explanations These explanation resources provide the rules for each tense, as well as examples of proper tense use. Use the time expression commonly used with the tense, as well as the example sentences to help you get started. Present Simple Every day - When do you get up? / Tom usually eats lunch at home.Present Continuous Now - Shes watching TV at the moment. / Im not working, Im reading a newspaper.Past Simple Yesterday - They went on vacation last July. / Where did you meet Tim?Past Continuous Yesterday, at X oclock They were watching TV at 5 oclock yesterday. / What were you doing when he came home?Present Perfect Since / For - Ive lived here a long time. / Have you ever seen that film?Past Simple vs. Present Perfect Ive lived here for many years. vs. I lived there before I moved to New York.Present Perfect Continuous Since / For Time - Weve been working since 8 this morning. / What has she been doing recently?Past Perfect Already - They had already eaten when she arrived. / Had you finished the report by the time he asked for it?Future with Will Tomorrow, Next week - Well get together next week. / Will you be able to come tomorrow?Future with Going to Tomorrow, Next year, semester, etc. - Theyre goi ng to study Russian next semester. / Where are you going to stay?Future Perfect By, By the time - Ill have finished by the time he arrives. / Will you have done the work by six?Future Continuous At X oclock, This time next year, month, week / What will you be doing this time next year? - Shell be working tomorrow at 10 oclock.Conditional Forms If questions - What would you do if you had enough time? / If she is in town, shell come to the meeting.Alternate Conditional FormsModal Forms Asking Permission, Giving Advice, etc. - May I help you? / He should see a doctor.Modal Verbs of Probability Stating guesses - He must have stayed at home today. / She might be downstairs. Tense Use Rules For Beginners These tense explanations cover basic tenses and are especially for beginners. They include easier English as well as example dialogues of tense use. Present SimplePast SimplePresent PerfectFuture with WillFuture with Going toModal Form Basics Tense Quizzes Once you understand the tense use, these quizzes will help you test your knowledge. The more you practice, the more confident you will feel using various tenses. Past Tenses ReviewSimple Past or Present PerfectPresent Perfect or Present Perfect ContinuousAdvanced Tense IdentificationConditional FormsPassive Forms Quiz Tense Review If you have a good understanding of tense use, these pages will help you review tenses as they relate to each other. The resources include a tense timeline, and a special section focusing on auxiliary verbs - the key to verb conjugation. English Tenses TimelinePresent Tense Auxiliary VerbsPast Tense Auxiliary VerbsFuture Tense Auxiliary VerbsSimple vs. Progressive VerbsExample Sentences in All Tenses Tense Use Lessons These lesson plans can be used in your classes. Each lesson plan includes an introduction, a step by step guideline to teaching tense use, and class exercises to be used during the lesson. A Difficult Situation: Using Modal Verbs of Probability in the PastA VIP - Present Perfect Simple and Continuous Lesson PlanConditional StatementsIntegrating Past ContinuousPassive VoiceTense ReviewTime Expressions and Simple Past or Present PerfectReported Speech: Developing Production SkillsTense Review for Advanced Levels

The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Essay - 1896 Words

Cultural Diversity in the U.S. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down or quag dab peg is said to mean â€Å"a soul stealing dab; peg means to catch or hit; and quag means to fall over with one’s roots still in the ground, as grain might be beaten down by wind or rain† (Fadiman, 1997). The Lee family belonged to the Hmong tribe, which was the basis of their differing beliefs in comparison with modern medicine. Lia’s parents believed that when she was three months of age, she had been startled when her older sister, Yer, slammed the door of the Lee family’s apartment. This resulted in Lia’s first seizure which her parents believed made Lia particularly fit for divine office. The Hmong believed epileptics became shamans or medicine men and†¦show more content†¦Dee naturally fell in love with baby Lia and still had room in her heart to love on Nao Kao and Foua who were Lia’s worn out parents. She treated the Hmong people with more empathy than the sum of all of Lia ’s doctors combined. An outstanding example of Dee’s selflessness was when she carried Lia in a backpack while she carried her own youngest child on her front; she also let her sleep in her bed, and breastfed her along with her own baby. Out of all the children she ever cared for, Mrs. Korda only ever recommended Lia to be reunited with her family. When she entered Lia’s hospital room for the first time, she was immediately seen by American people and doctors as the smart white woman which was in stark contrast to the way the Lee family was viewed among Western doctors. After the Lees were given back custody of their little girl, their family and children still remained friends with the Kordas and their children with frequent visits. Often when Dee would take Lia to her doctor’s appointments, she would leave her own youngest in the care of Foua. In my honest opinion, this was one of the purest forms of trust and the fact that she displayed this kind of fellowship with Lia’s tired and worn out parents was a beautiful picture of two different cultures learning how to live in harmony. Lastly, I admire how the Kordas did not ask nor receive any recognition or praise for how they helped the Lee family although it was surely no easy feat to take care of a childShow MoreRelatedThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Essay876 Words   |  4 PagesSpirit Catches You Essay The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a book by Anne Fadiman about a Hmong family (the Lee’s) that moved to the United States. It deals with their child Lia, her American doctors, and the collisions of those two cultures. In Fadiman’s unbiased book I learned that there are many cultural differences between Hmong and Americans concerning opinions, stubbornness, and misunderstandings. To begin with, a cultural difference between Hmong and Americans are theirRead MoreThe Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Essay1293 Words   |  6 PagesEach and every culture is unique in it’s own way. From cultural practices, beliefs, values, biases, attire, to past history and experience, our world is shaped in many dissimilar ways. The book â€Å"The Spirit Catches You, You Fall Down† highlights how diverse the Hmong people are compared to that of American people. In this paper, I will examine the impacts of multiculturalism within the Western health care system, particularly, how the care Lia and her family received after fleeing their home inRead MoreEssay The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down3417 Words   |  14 Pagesand physical ailment. According to Fadiman (1997), â€Å"†¦the noise of the door had been so profoundly frightening that her soul had fled her body and become lost. They recognized the resulting symptoms as qaug dab peg, which means ‘the spirit catches you and you fall down’†(p.20). To the Lee family, Lia’s condition was as revered as it was frightening. While a person with qaug dab peg was traditionally held in high esteem in the Hmong culture, it was also terrifying enough that the Lee’s rushed LiaRead MoreEssay On The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down1927 Words   |  8 PagesOverview of the book In the book â€Å"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,† author Anne Fadiman presents a character who suffered from epilepsy as a Hmong child who born on July 19, 1982, in Merced, California. Being the fourteenth child of Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee, Lia Lee was their favorite daughter. They spoiled her and treated her like a princess; believed that her epilepsy marked her as special; and that she might someday become a shaman, which is a person regards as having access to. BecauseRead More The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman Essay1868 Words   |  8 PagesThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is about the cross-cultural ethics in medicine. The book is about a small Hmong child named Lia Lee, who had epilepsy. Epilepsy is called, quag dab peg1 in the Hmong culture that translates to the spirit catches you and you fall down. In the Hmong culture this illness is sign of distinction and divinity, because most Hmong epileptics become sham an, or as the Hmong call them, txiv neeb2. These shamans are special people imbued with healing spiritsRead MoreThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman Essay examples1611 Words   |  7 PagesBook Report The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman This book addresses one of the common characteristics, and challenges, of health care today: the need to achieve a working knowledge of as many cultures as possible in health care. The Hmong population of Merced, California addresses the collision between Western medicine and holistic healing traditions of the Hmong immigrants, which plays out a common dilemma in western medical centers: the need to integrate modern westernRead MoreFadiman Case Study: the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Essay1601 Words   |  7 PagesSummary of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down In ‘The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down’, Lia, a Hmong baby girl, is born to a Hmong family living in California as refugees away from their war torn land in Laos. In Laos the Lee’s where farmers and lived in the country according to their Hmong traditions and beliefs. In California they barely understood the language, much less Western culture or medicinal practices. In Hmong tradition, illness was seen as a spiritual problem rather thanRead MoreAnne Fadimans The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down And Waste Away Essay1312 Words   |  6 PagesThe interviews in Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and Joshua Reno’s Waste Away both have their fair share of barriers to overcome, even though their research could not be more different. Anne Fadiman conducts interviews in two drastically different topics, Hmong culture and medicine. Joshua Reno favors a landfill in Michigan; interviewing residents living next to Four Corners Landfill. However different these two areas of research may be, both books show that interviewingRead MoreThe Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Addresses Experiences And Decisions1018 Words   |  5 PagesFadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down addresses experiences and decisions we may all relate to in some degree through the point of view of a journalist. It offers a different perspective and insight that has been used as an acceptable resource on cultural competence. As a passive reader, our understanding of cultural competence has grown more humanistic, because we feel the healthcare provider’s frustration and their concerns becoming more salient, while we see how a breakdown in communicationRead MoreThe Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Essay1566 Words   |  7 PagesThe book titled The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Talks about a Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures written by Anne Fadiman. Anne Fadiman is an American essayist and reporter, who interests include literary journalism. She is a champion of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Salon Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. In the book, Anne Fadiman explores the clash between a county hospital in California

The Great Gatsby-Compare/Contrast Gatsby and Tom and Explain Why Daisy Stayed with Tom free essay sample

In this time period the war has just finished and the people are living in a time of prosperity and celebration. The novel takes place in New York City where the ‘old rich’ and ‘new rich’ live in two separate islands named ‘East Egg’ and ‘West Egg’. Jay Gatsby, who was formerly James Gatz, was the child of â€Å"shiftless and unsuccessful farm people† (The Great Gatsby book page 94) and who dreamed of something bigger in his life. He wanted to break free from his parents and become wealthy. This dream intensified after he met Daisy and fell in love with her wealth, class, and sophistication. It was then that he decided he would do whatever it took to woe Daisy and make her his wife. He returned from the war to find that she had not waited for him as she said she would, and had married the wealthy Tom Buchanan instead. His situation, unlike Tom Buchanan, was that of a poor man who could only work his way to the class of the ‘new rich’ and was therefore unable to reach Daisy’s sophisticated class. Tom Buchanan, on the other hand, lived his life in luxury, enjoying the riches of his parents. He had an easy life, and was used to controlling everything around him and being the one in power. In the book he is often portrayed negatively and described as being cruel. To him, Daisy was someone up to his standards and in league with his higher class. He had no troubles in getting the woman he wanted, and this is probably the greatest difference of all between Gatsby and Tom. Tom was the one who had the girl, the class, and the easy life, while Gatsby was the one who worked, though illegally, for his wealth and who never got the girl of his dreams. Though these two characters come from different backgrounds and are of different classes, it can be noticed that they are similar in various ways. One distinctive characteristic that they both seem to share is an unwillingness to accept defeat. Gatsby, who through out the story is trying to win Daisy over, cannot stand the fact that Daisy has moved on and refuses to accept that there is no way to change the situation. Tom also refuses to let go of Daisy when he finds out that she is having an affair with Gatsby, and instead decides to confront Gatsby and Daisy about this. Another way in which they are similar is that they both feel the need to be in control. Gatsby wishes to recreate the past or turn back time; he wishes he could control time itself. This is evident when Nick confronts him about the situation and tries to reason with him by saying, â€Å"You can’t repeat the past† (page 106). â€Å"‘Can’t repeat the past? ’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can! ’† (Page 106) is how Gatsby chooses to reply to Nick. This is one of the things that destroys him in the end when he realizes that his dream is slipping away, and that it is not possible to bring back the past. Daisy, after finding out the truth behind Gatsby’s wealth, begins to lose her resolve about leaving Tom for him. His loss of control over the situation is what makes him lose himself and lash out at Tom by saying that Daisy never loved him after Tom calls him â€Å"a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on her (Daisy’s) finger† (Page 127). Tom also displays similar characteristics when faced with a loss of control when he realizes that his wife, Daisy, is having an affair with Gatsby. He speaks to Gatsby with an open hostility that up until then was hidden behind a social, civil facade. ‘Self control! ’ repeated Tom incredulously. ‘I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that’s the idea you can count me out†¦Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and the next they’ll throw everything overboard and have i ntermarriage between black and white. ’†(Page 124) This shows that the moment he loses control over his wife, he lets go completely of any social pretenses he had been putting up before and reveals just how prejudiced and racist he is. Not only does he look down on Gatsby due to his class, but also on all black people due to his belief that he is better than everyone else. Gatsby and Tom also both do whatever they want without thinking of the consequences. In Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy, who is a married woman with a child, he blatantly disregards the fact that if he succeeds in wooing Daisy, he will have ruined a marriage and left a child to deal with an unstable home. Tom also disregards the importance of his own family and has several affairs. It is actually ridiculous that he expects Daisy to remain faithful to him when he wasn’t even faithful to her on their honeymoon. Even though Tom and Gatsby share these characteristics, they are also unalike one another in several ways. Even though Gatsby gained his wealth by illegal means, he still carries a kind of gentlemanly courteousness that makes it hard to dislike him. When the author introduces Gatsby in the book, it can be noticed that he is a shy, introverted person who means well. He has a goal that he is trying to reach in his life and this gives him a seriousness that Tom lacks. He has meaning in his life; a purpose, and unlike the rest of the characters in the book other than Nick, he was deep. Tom is a brute. He’s racist, sexist, self-centered, and, most importantly, shallow. These are statements that are made throughout the book. Daisy says exactly this when she discovers a bruise on her knuckles: â€Å"‘you did it, Tom,’ she said accusingly. ‘I know you didn’t mean to, but you did it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man. A great, big, hulking physical specimen of a-† is what she said before she was cut off by Tom, who said that he hated the word hulking (Page 17). This shows that he at least has some consciousness of the fact that he is a brute and he dislikes being called one. This is something that really separates Tom and Gatsby, as unlike Tom, Gatsby decides to do something about the things he doesn’t like about himself and he constantly works for self-improvement. Also, his sexist views are apparent when he says, â€Å"By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish,† after finding out that Daisy knows Gatsby. This is incredibly unfair and sexist due to the fact that he himself is having an affair, yet complains about his wife having a mere acquaintance who just so happens to be a man. After looking through the similarities and differences between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, it is easy to understand why Daisy fell for the both of them. They have several similar qualities that relate to each other. Maybe she fell in love with Tom due to his resemblance in characteristics to Gatsby, though his manners may have been lacking, and accepted him as a replacement that had the benefit of status with money. Even so, most people find it hard to understand why she would stay with Tom when he treats her so poorly and Gatsby is right there; this can be easily explained. Daisy, though she had feelings for Gatsby, was too obsessed with status and class to leave Tom for Gatsby. She did not like that Gatsby’s money was made illegally, and she didn’t want people to look down on her. Moreover, she was a shallow person. She cared more about class and status than she did about love. Her own characteristics and overall attitude fit perfectly with Tom, and they deserved each other. Though Gatsby worked harder than Tom and tried to better himself, unlike Tom, he ended up being murdered in the end while Tom ended up with Daisy. Maybe that was Fitzgerald’s way of displaying to us what happens when you don’t try to think about and care for yourself. Or maybe it was to show how his dream was his downfall. Either way, in agreement with what Nick said, Gatsby was too good for Daisy, and it’s just sad that he didn’t see it.

Water for Elephants Book Club Discussion Questions

'Water for Elephants' Book Club Discussion Questions Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a must read a story about a 90-year-old man remembering his days with a circus during The Great Depression. Use these book club discussion questions on Water for Elephants to lead your book clubs conversation on the story.Spoiler Warning: These book club discussion questions reveal important details about Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Finish the book before reading on. Book Club Questions Water for Elephants moves between a story about a circus and a story about an old man in a nursing home. How do the chapters about the older Jacob enrich the story about Jacob’s adventure with the circus? How would the novel be different if Gruen had only written about the younger Jacob, keeping the story linear and never describing Jacob’s life as an old man?Did the chapters about the nursing home change how you think about older people? In what ways are the doctors and nurses condescending? How is Rosemary different? How do you treat older people?In chapter two, the twenty-three-year-old Jacob starts his story by telling us he is a virgin. From the cooch tent to the erections the older Jacob gets when being bathed, sexuality is woven into the whole story. Why do you think Gruen added these details? What role does sexuality play in Water for Elephants?When you first read the Prologue, who did you think murdered the man? Were you surprised by who the actual murderer was ?The book begins with a quote from Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss: â€Å"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant†¦An elephant’s faithful- one hundred percent!† What is the role of faithfulness and loyalty in Water for Elephants? How do different characters define loyalty? (Jacob, Walter, Uncle Al). Why does Jacob get so mad about Mr. McGuinity lying about carrying water for elephants? Do you see any similarities of temperament between the young Jacob and the old Jacob?In what ways is Water for Elephants a survival story? A love story? An adventure?Water for Elephants has a happy ending for Jacob, but not for many other characters. Discuss Walter and Camel’s fates. How does tragedy fit into the story?There is an â€Å"us and them† mentality in the circus between performers and workers. How does Jacob bridge these two classes of people? Why does each group hate another group? Does the circus merely mirror society in an exaggerated way?Are you satisfied with the end?In the Author’s Note, Gruen writes that many of the details in the story are factual or come from circus workers’ anecdotes. These true stories include the hippo pickled in formaldehyde, the deceased fat lady being paraded through town and an elephant who repeatedly pulled out her stake and stole lemonade. Gruen did extensive research before writing Water for Elephants. Was her story believable? Rate Water for Elephants on a scale of 1 to 5.