the Third week of March

Writing

This week I learnt about how to write argument essay. I am going to concluse in this article

1. Read the topic and decide what kind of topic ( comparasion or opinion essay )

2. Underline the vocabularies and try to find other vocabularies which are the similar meaning

3. Plan your opinion what do you think and what is the reason which is strongly support your idea

4. decide lay out there are 3 part : the introduction , the body and the conclusion (in part of body should have less three main reasons and explain by support sentences)

introduction

In an argument essay, it usually describes or summarizes both sides of the present situation and says what you are going to do in your essay.

The Body

the body is the main part of the essay. In an argument essay, it is divided into two or three paragraphs, giving your opinion and reasons. Each paragraph in the body is between FIVE and SEVEN sentences long

The conclusion

the Conclusion is the end of the essay. It is a short paragraph - about THREE sentences. It often has the same idea as the Introduction, only in different words.

5. writing your essay and examine again Is it correct word , grammar and your reason is strongly support your idea.

Linking words
There are three main types of linking words:
1 conjunctions
2 sentence connectors
3 subordinators

Conjunctions

They are in the middle of sentence. We use when we want to connect two sentence.

For eample and but so or for nor yet.

Sentence connectors

They are placed at the beginning of a sentence. They are used to introduce, order, contrast, sequence ideas, theory, data etc. The following table lists useful connectors.

For example

Logical / sequential order
Firstly, secondly, thirdly etc
Next, last, finally
In addition
Furthermore
Also
At present / presently

Order of importance
Most / more importantly
Most signiciantly
Above all
Primarily
It is essential / essentially

Comparison
Similarily
Likewise
Also
Reason
The cause of
The reason for

Subordinators

They are used at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence. A clause is a group of words that must contain a subject and predicate. There are two types of clauses:
independent clauses - these can stand alone as a sentence by themselves
dependent clauses - these make no sense by themselves

for eample
Comparison & Contrast
Although
Though Even though
While Whereas
Cause / effect
Since So that
Because After
Time

When
Until
Whenever
Before
Possibility

if
as if
whether
unless
Place & manner
Wherever
Where
How

second week dairy on March

Listening and Reading Skill



This week I read and listen the Goldfinger which is the book that Ian fleming is writer. this article ,I am going to summarise this story
James Bone meet Mr. Du Pont by chance. He was asked to find how Mr. Goldfinger cheat Mr Du Pont on the card game. This situation make Mr. Bond interested in Mr. Goldfinger.Although Mr. Goldfinger have an excellent tactic in cheating , his strategy is revealed by Mr. Bond. After that , Mr Bond is order to arrest Mr. Goldfinger because the government are convince that he smuggle gold from Britain but anybody can not find evidences to arrest him. Mr. Bond try to work hard for long time.In the final,he find the true that Mr Goldfinger smuggle by change the gold to make the door of his car and an amount of gold was adapted to the seat of his plane.



Vocabulary
coincidence
when seperst things happen the same time , or in the same way
passkery
a key which opens all the doors in the rooms of a hotel
binoculars
you hold a pair of binoculars in front of your eyes so thet you can see things that are far away more easily.
vaults
a room or a small building with very strong doors and walls .Valuable things like gold and money are kept in vault
tee
you put your golf ball on this small peg before you play long shot
tuft
a piece of long , thick grass
curtyard
a flat and area of ground that has buildings or walls around it

mission
if you are going somewhere to do something, or find out about something, you are going on mission

gloomy


a dark thing or place tht makes you feel sad or a little afriad


blast furnances


large containers for heating and melting metal


panel


a flat, squqre pieces of wood or metal that fits into a door.


stripe of film


long, thin pieces of material which look like plastic.


slots


long and narrow holes


cine-cameras


cameras that produce many picture of moving people and things onto strips of film


banister

a kind of fence on the side of stairs


tortured


to hurt someone in very cruel way to get information


Original article

Cure for killer nut allergies moves a step closer


Scientists are one step closer to curing severe nut allergies that affect thousands of people across the UK, according to research published today.
Doctors at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge said they had developed a successful desensitisation programme which builds up tolerance in patients by slowly exposing them to tiny doses of peanut.
Four children who took part in the trial, which is published in the Allergy medical journal, were fed minute doses of peanut flour over six months. Researchers said the children, who risked fatal anaphylactic shock from contact with traces of peanut, were started on an initial dose of 5mg but by the end were able to tolerate 880mg - the equivalent of five peanuts.
Dr Andy Clark, who led the research, said: "Every time people with a peanut allergy eat something, they're frightened that it might kill them. Our motivation was to find a treatment that would change that and give them the confidence to eat what they like."
He said peanut allergy affected one in 50 young people in the UK. "Unlike other childhood food allergies like cow's milk, it rarely goes away," he said. "For all our participants, a reaction could lead to life-threatening anaphylactic shock - but now we've got them to a point where they can safely eat up to 10 whole peanuts or more. It's not a permanent cure, but as long as they go on taking a daily dose they should maintain their tolerance."
Kate Frost, whose nine-year-old son Michael had suffered non-stop vomiting and hives from a 16th of a nut, said the family were "over the moon" at the results of the trial at the Wellcome Trust clinical research facility. "It's hard to describe how much of a difference it's made. I feel I've been playing Russian roulette with my child's life. It's absolutely fantastic."

The summarisation

This is the article about the way that can cure the allergic nut. Recently, the research showed that the way to help many people who allergy with peanut. They suffer with anaphylactic shock. And they can not eat something that they want. The treatment is called desensitising programe. It is taking a slight peanut in everyday that help the pateints can tollerance with allergic. Although it can not cure permanently, many pateints are satisfied with result of this therapy

Original Article

Children who spend hours in front of the TV are more likely to get asthma

The more television a child watches the less likely they are to be exercising their lungs. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
Children who spend hours in front of the television are at greater risk of developing asthma than those who are more active, a study has found.
Youngsters who watched more than two hours of TV a day were twice as likely to get the respiratory condition as children who watched less, according to research by British scientists.
The greater risk of asthma was not directly caused by watching television, which was used only as an indicator of how sedentary the children's lifestyles were.
The finding builds on recent work that points to a link between asthma and low levels of physical activity. Some scientists believe that inactive children do not inhale deeply and regularly enough, which helps to stretch the airways and may make them less prone to asthma.
Ian Sample on the link between television and asthma Link to this audio
The condition develops when small airways called bronchioles become inflamed and swollen, restricting how much air can enter and leave the lungs. More than five million people in Britain take asthma medications, including around a million children.The study by researchers at Glasgow University drew on the medical records of 14,000 children who were followed from birth until the age of eleven-and-a-half years. Throughout, the parents were asked whether their children had shown signs of wheezing, and if their GP had diagnosed asthma.
Andrea Sherrif and her team found that overall 6% of children whose breathing was healthy at 39 months went on to be diagnosed with asthma by the age of eleven-and-a-half. But children who watched more than two hours of TV a day at 39 months were twice as likely to have developed the condition. The study appears today in the journal Thorax.
Doing little exercise caused an equal increase in asthma in boys and girls, and was not related to their weight.
Elaine Vickers at the charity Asthma UK said: "The findings add to a wealth of evidence linking a lack of exercise and being overweight with an increased risk of asthma, but this study is the first to directly link sedentary behaviour at a very young age to a higher risk of asthma later in childhood.
"We have one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the world so it is especially important that parents in the UK try to prise their kids away from the TV and encourage them to lead an active lifestyle. This includes children with asthma, who can also greatly benefit from regular exercise

The summarisation

This article is about the children who spend hours in front of the TV are more likely to get asthma. Although some experts had the evidence for supposing this argument, the fact is the main reason that make child get athma is their lifstyle such as less exercise. Whatching TV is only a factor which make the children do not exercise. However, Many parents try to encourage their children to do an exercise and go outside instead of watching TV

Grammar

If clause conditional

Typ I

Structure
if-clause + main clause
If / Unless / If .......not future I + present tense shall / will / can / may / might + verb
If I learn my vocabulary,I'll get a good mark

or the other way round:
main clause if-clause
shall / will / can / may / might + verb if + present tense simple present
I'll get a good mark if I learn my vocabulary

Function

Probable action/result in the future according to a real condition

example You'll catch the train if you leave before ten.

Type II

Structure
if-claus + main clause
If / Unless / If .......not+ past tense, + condition I + should / would / could / 'd / might + verb
If I learnt my vocabulary,I'd get a good mark.

Function
Possible action/result according to a less probable condition in the future We'd have enough money for a new car if you found a good job.
Fantasized result or action according to an unreal (untrue) condition in the present We'd buy a Rolls Royce if we were rich.

If-clauses in front position are more emphatic. If-clauses in front position get a comma.

Typ III
if-clause + main clause
If / Unless / If .......not + past perfect, + conditional II
If I had + -ed or 3rd form + should / would / could / have verb+ed or 3rd form
If I had learnt my vocabulary, I would have got a good mark.

or the other way round:

main clause + if-clause
should / would/ could / might + have + verb -ed or 3rd form if I had + -ed or 3rd form
I would have got a good mark if I had learnt my vocabulary

Function

If- clause:unreal condition: the condition can't be fulfilled any longer, because it should have happened in the past, but didn't. main clause: the consequence can't take place any more, because the condition couldn't be fulfilled.
If I had learnt more (but I didn't learn=unreal condition), I would have got a better mark. (So I didn't get a better mark= impossible consequence) or the other way round: I would have got a better mark (So I didn't get a better mark= impossible consequence) if I had learnt more (but I didn't learn=unreal condition)

Speaking skill

I learn to pronounce at www. bbclearningenglish.com and I work at Oxfam shop to pactice my speaking skill.

Diary first week on March

Listening and Speaking skill

In this day, I tried to practice listening skill by watching some programs. I watched The Waterloo Road from BBC iplayer by the internet. I am going to outline that espisode in each episode.

Episode I

At the first day of term, Rachel come back to school after she got an accident . Moreover, she got four new pupils from a poor family who have just move in this area. One of whom is dangerous pupil his name is Earl. He bring gun in to school and use it to coerce other pupil. When Rachel know that there is the gun in the school she and the teachers try to find whose gun and the gun. Unfortunately, the true covered up. Earl send the gun to his younger brother so that he is caught by polices.

Episode II

Rachel's sister Melissa is be trainer of adult education by Rachel because she need someone that she can trust and she do not want to face the risks of loses control of her adult education class again.While Eddie is furious when he discovers that Rachel has gone behind his back, but it is between Eddie and Melissa are falling in love. Moreover, Security,Dave try to get Strept to be his girlfriend. It makes Strept have to lie stupidly that is she and her colleague are an affairs. On the other hand, Earl and Maxin are lovers, she do not realise that everybody try to warn about bad behavior of him and he do not love her like that she love.

Episode III

Davina is accused of racism by a colleague and Tom is pushed to breaking point by a pupil. Their students want to live in other area for getting more private. Moreover, they get neighbours on their nerve because the neighbours are Earl's family. While, Strept is facing to terrible problem from her lie , it leads to breakhome of her colleague.

Episode IV
Stept's colleague and his wife get back together by Stept and Mellisa .While, the feud between Tom and Earl Kelly intensifies when a falconry day at Waterloo Road goes badly wrong.

Episode V
Drugs awareness day is organised on Waterloo Road. Governor Ralph Mellor who is Flick's duagher is inspectetor of this projectwants. He want Marley Kelly out of the school and away from his daughter so he pressure them to be voluntary drugs tests. But, he found the true that Flick is drug addict while result of Marley Kelly's test is negative. Then, he try to switch result of their test. It fails when Flick tell the true to protect lover,Marley Kelly.

Speaking Skills
Pronunciation

I practiced my accent in websit
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-k/load.htm?f
www.esl4kids.net/tongue.html
www.fun-with-words.com/tongue_twisters.html

and I am valunteer in oxfam shop to develop my speaking and listening skills by face to face


Reading and Writing Skill

original article

Care system for elderly must be made fairer, says report

• Number of over-85s will double by 2050• Long-term care funding 'must increase substantially'
Staff and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 March 2009 11.14 GMT
Article history
The present long-term care system is struggling to cope, says the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Photograph: Getty
Spending on long-term care must increase fourfold by 2050, a report claimed today.
The publication by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) proposes a four-step plan to make the care system for elderly people fairer.
Options For Care Funding: What Could Be Done Now? suggests the interim solutions would help those struggling under the current system.
It details findings from consultations by the foundation in which the system was described as "unfair, unclear and unsustainable".
The report states that by 2050 the number of over-85s will double. It proposes:
• Equity release, whereby older homeowners would be able to pay for home-based care by deferring the costs until their home is sold (an estimated cost of £33m a year)
• Increasing the capital limits for care home fees that dictate whether an individual in a care home receives support from a local authority from £22,250 to £42,500 (£280m a year)
• Doubling the £21.90 personal expenses allowance for people in care homes supported by local authorities (£250m a year)
• Free personal care for anyone requiring nursing care to remove inconsistencies between whether or not care is funded by the NHS or the individual (£212m a year)
The JRF said the solutions drew on evidence and research collected over a number of years, including information from Caring Choices, a 2007 public consultation carried out across England and Scotland.
Sue Collins, author of the report and the foundation's lead on its long-term care programme, said: "Everyone, including the government, agrees that the UK needs a new long-term care funding system. But it may be a decade before a new system is in place.
"These reforms could quickly make a difference to older people and their carers struggling to cope under the present system."
The government is due to publish a green paper on its long-term plans to reform the care funding system later this year.
The report, however, warns the recession could cause the reforms to "lose momentum".
"Without changes, older people – including those on very modest incomes – will increasingly have to pay more out of their own pockets," it states.
The foundation's chief executive, Julia Unwin, said: "It is especially important in the current economic crisis that the government stays on track and commits enough resources towards creating a system that works.
"It is vital that we continue to engage with people – not just the professionals but service users, carers and all of us who will be facing this issue in the future."

Vocabulary
Fund
source of supply; stock
Substantial
of or having substance;material
Struggle
to make a strenuous effort;strive
Cope
to contend or strive,especially successfully
Foundation
the act of founding or the condition of being founded
Fourfold
having four units or aspects;quadruple
interim
an intervening period of time
foundation
the act of founding or the condition of being founded
Equity
the condition or quality of being just,impartial, and fair
Whereby
by which or by means of which
home-based
a base of operations;headquarters
defer
to put off, postpone
dictate
to say or read aloud for transcription
authority
the right and power to command, enforce laws ,determine influence
inconsistent
incompatible, contradictory
reforms
to improve by correction of error or removal of defects
recession
the act of withdrawing , a moderate, temporary
modest
having or showing a moderate estimation of oneself ,shy ,reserved
chief
one who is highest in rank or authority
commits
to do, perform,or perpetrate
engage
to hire; employ
to attract and hold

Reading skill

Don't blame amateur keepers for declining bees
The reason the buzz of bees was quieter last summer is because the government's bee inspectors can't keep tabs on us hobby beekeepers. That, at least, was the conclusion of a report yesterday from the National Audit Office.
One in three hives were wiped out by a blood-sucking parasite that feeds on the bees and their larvae and spreads nasty viruses. Unless they are controlled, infested colonies can die out - and we're being accused of letting this varroa mite run riot.
But hang on a minute. All the beekeepers I've met since taking up this hobby three years ago care deeply about their bees. Why would they fail to take precautionary measures against the bees' assailant? Lack of knowledge perhaps?
Well, anyone who has read a beekeeping manual, or gone on a course - and let's face it, donning your beekeeping suit and confronting a 50,000-strong colony without some preparation would be pretty daft - will be well aware of the pesky mite, which no hive in the UK is free from. You can spot the tiny brown dot on the bees, or more easily on the white larvae. Feeding your bees a natural jelly-like substance made from thymol in the autumn is the best protection.
Tracking down the estimated 20,000 beekeepers at large wouldn't be difficult; those collecting a swarm of bees from an association or a commercial apiary could be required to register them. But this won't solve the problem of our bees dying at an alarming rate. For one thing, there simply aren't enough bee inspectors to go round because of government cuts to its National Bee Unit.
The truth is that the jury's still out on what is killing our bees. What about the role of pesticides? The European parliament and the Co-op supermarket thinks there is enough of a case against bee-toxic chemicals to ban some of them. What we need is more funding for research in this area - rather than attacking the very people who are trying to help save our bees.

Vocabulary

amateur

one who engages in an activity as a pastime rather than as a profession
buzz

to make a low droning or vibrating sound ike that of a bee

to move quickly and busily ; bustle

hives

a skin rash marked by itching welts , usually caused by an allergic reaction

wiped out

to destroy completely ; annihilate

larvae
the wingless,oftenwormlike form of a newly hatched insect

nasty
digustingly dirty;filthy;foul

mite
any of various small
riot
public uproar or disturbance

assail

to attack with violence

confront

to come or bring face to face with

pesky
annoying;troublesome

The forth week dairy On February

On Monday 23/02/09
practice reading skill from Guardian newspaper and vocabulary

Original Data

Blue Monday? That's just too depressing
Ah yes, Dr Cliff Arnall's equation for the most depressing day of the year - the third Monday in January. This started life as a corporate puff for Sky Travel (end of January, perfect time to book a holiday). But now Blue Monday has slipped out of Sky's ownership and become part of the canon of pseudoscientific media myth. Most alarmingly, last year it was used by the Samaritans, and this year by the Mental Health Foundation. These people, apparently, think it's okay to use bullshit to promote awareness of mental health issues.The Sun said: "It is officially the most depressing point of the year. The misery of Blue Monday was worked out by psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall." The Express loved it. The Mirror too. "Experts have worked it out," said Channel 4. CBBC fed it to children: "Researchers say the third Monday in January is when people are more unhappy than at any other time."When I last criticised Arnall in 2006 (he also has a formula sponsored by Walls for the happiest day, which is in June), Cardiff University asked us to point out that he had only been a part-time tutor and had left. These efforts to distance themselves felt disingenuous since they were also, at the same time, quoting Arnall's ridiculous appearances in their monthly roundups.I hope they are disabusing everyone else this year, including the Daily Mail, of course: "Today - January 19, 2009 - is the most depressing day in HISTORY."Meanwhile Martin Hird, a senior lecturer in mental health and psychological therapies at Leeds Metropolitan University, told the Telegraph: "I would guess there is something in it based on the daylight hours and people's social circumstances." Right. You'd guess.And is there good evidence? Seasonal affective disorder is its own separate thing. If you look at the evidence on the population's mood, depression, and suicide changing over the seasons, you do, in fact, find a glorious mess.Back in 1838 Esquirol commented on the higher incidence of suicide in spring and early summer. Swinscow showed the same thing with all UK suicides from 1921-1948. So that's not winter blues.What about elsewhere? A 1974 study on all suicides in North Carolina (3,672) showed no seasonal variation. A 1976 Ontario study found peaks of suicide and admissions for depression in spring and autumn. Suicide is highest in summer, says a paper from Australia in 2003.Maybe you want data from the general population on mood. A study in 1986 looked at 806 males from Finland and found low mood more common in the summer. Some studies do find higher rates of depressive symptoms in the winter but some find the opposite results, like a peak in the spring (Nayham et al 1994) or summer (Ozaki et al 1995).I'm not claiming to have done a thorough review. I'm just saying it's possibly a bit more complicated than everyone getting depressed in winter. Making up stupid stuff about the most depressing day of the year doesn't help anyone, because bullshit presented as fact is simply disempowering.Please send your bad science to bad.science@guardian.co.uk
• This article was amended on Friday 30 January 2009. The French psychiatrist Jean-Étienne-Dominique Esquirol commented in 1838, not 1883, on the higher incidence of suicide in spring and early summer. He died in 1840. This has now been corrected

Vocabulary

Corporate - Formed into a corporation
puff - forceful discharge ,as of air or smoke
slipped - To move quietly and stealthily
canon - a law or code of laws established by a church
myth - a traditional story presenting supernatural
Alarmingly - frighteningly
misery - prolonged or extreme suffering
disingenuous – not straightforward
ridiculous - Deserving or inspiring
roundups - the gathering together of cattle on the range
disabuse - free from a falsehood or misconception
circumstance - one of the conditions or facts attending an event
glorious mess – having, deserving
incidence - the extent or frequency with which something occurs
admissions - the act or process of admitting or the condition of being allowed to enter
stuff - The matterial out of which something is made or formed
Amend - to correct ,rectify

Practice Lintening Skill

from www.bbclearningenglish.com the topic is Babieshttp://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/6minute/6minute_090218_barbie.pdf

Vocabulary from the programme

global brand - a product made by a particular company which sells successfully and is recognised all over the world Barbie is a global brand.

role model - a person or figure who is admired and whose behaviour others try to copy average - typical or usual

stereotype or stereotypical -a fixed idea that people have about what someone or something is like (which is often wrong)

image an idea or mental picture about how something or someone is

portraying representing or showing

skinny very thin body type - often used in a negative or disapproving way

politically correct or 'pc' the belief that language and actions which could be offensive to others, especially those relating to sex and race, should be avoided

Tuesday 24/02/09

Practice Reading Skill and Vocabulary

Painful memory? Forget it
Take a pill, re-invoke a bad memory and it disappears. Sounds great, but it's not a new idea
Wouldn't it be nice if we could get rid of unhappy or unsettling memories? A simple memory eraser that would delete the pain of having been mugged, or the sad end to a love affair? Or to erase the guilt of the soldier who kills or rapes civilians? How about going further, and with a simple drug enable the politician to forget that he promised to abolish boom and bust, or take us to war on a lie?
George Orwell's 1984 had its memory hole, in which past news was buried and false pasts created. But that involved armies of desk workers. More recently, in Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, erasing memories of a relationship gone sour involved clamping the sad lover's head into a helmet and passing a strong magnetic field across his skull. Actually that might even work, though it didn't in the film; love proved stronger than mere technology. But in the US the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is more than mildly interested in trans-cranial brain stimulation (Darpa, for short, with its inadvertent echoes of Star Wars, has been funding this sort of stuff for decades).
Science fiction apart, one reason for wanting to erase memories could be the belief that people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) can have their symptoms relieved by reliving and coming to terms with their traumatic experience and an small army of professional grief and stress councillors has emerged, especially in the US. Now a group of Dutch researchers has hit the media with the suggestion that a commonly available pill, a blood pressure-lowering beta-blocker, might help do the trick. In fact, the idea isn't new. For some decades it has been known that emotional memories engage a region of the brain called the amygdala and a neurotransmitter related to the hormone adrenalin. Blocking the effects of adrenalin with a beta-blocker also impairs the emotional memory (I've even done experiments of this sort myself).
But why might one want to do such a thing? The idea is to give a person the drug and then re-invoke the painful memory, in the hope that the drug will erase it. While most memory research has focused on developing drugs that might improve memory – so-called cognitive enhancers – the thought that if one drug improved memory, another that blocked the effect of the first might impair it attracted a number of small start-up biotech companies interested in cashing on the potential PTSD market. But even before the current market collapse at least two such companies, well bankrolled and with scientific luminaries on their boards, went belly-up.
So is it even such a good idea? Some psychotherapists argue that it is better to enable people to come to terms with bad memories rather than erase them; others might urge suppression. But for sure, as long as the pharmaceutical industry keeps generating new drugs, some people – and some state agencies – are going to want to mess with the mind

Vocabulary

invoke - to call upon for help or inspiration
unsettle - to make unstable , disturb
erase - to remove by or as if by rubbing
mugged - to wayley and beat severely , usually with intent to rob
guilt - the fact of being responsible for a crime or wrongdoing
soldier - One who serves in an army
rapes - the crime of forcing a person to submit to sexual intercourse
civilians - one not serving in the armed forces
politician - one actively involved in politics, especially party politics.
Abolish - to do away with , put an end to
boom - to make a deep, resonant sound
bust - a sculpture of a person’s head and torso
bury - to place in the ground and cover with earth
clamp - a device used to join , grip, support ,or compress mechanical parts
helmet - a protective head covering of metal,leather,or plastic
skull - the bony framework of the head
inadvertent - Not duly attentive.accidental
relieved - to lessen or alleviate,ease
relive - undergo again
grief - deep sadness, as over a loss,sorrow
trick - a device or action designed to achieve an end by deceptive or fraudulent means
collapse - to fall down or inward
bankrolled - a roll of paper money
luminary - an object,as a celestial body ,that gives light
urge - to push or drive forward forcefully
suppress - to put an end to forcibly,subdue
mess - a disorderly mass or accumulation,jumbling

Listening Skill

I practice listening skill from http://www.bbclearningenglish/ .The topic is teacher http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/the_teacher/

I learnt about 3 phase
1. I've got itchy feet
if you have a strong feeling that you'd like to travel
2. I got cold feet
if we make a plan, but then decide not to do it because we are too nervous
3. I shot myself in the foot
if you do something that ruins a situation for you

The third week dairy On February

On Monday 16/02/09
Writing and Reading Skill and Grammar

I am starting to be valunteer in Oxfam. In there, I can practice speak English with other staffs who came from different countries. When I came home, I read about how to write argumentative essay. I am going to explain organisation of argument essay.


In this kind of essay, we not only give information but also present an argument with the PROS (supporting ideas) and CONS (opposing ideas) of an argumentative issue. We should clearly take our stand and write as if we are trying to persuade an opposing audience to adopt new beliefs or behavior. The primary objective is to persuade people to change beliefs that many of them do not want to change. There are three models.
Pattern 1:
Thesis statement:

PRO idea 1
PRO idea 2
CON(s) + Refutation(s)

Conclusion

Pattern 2:
Thesis statement:

CON(s) + Refutation(s)
PRO idea 1
PRO idea 2

Conclusion

Pattern 3:
Thesis statement:

CON idea 1 -----> Refutation
CON idea 2 -----> Refutation
CON idea 3 -----> Refutation

Conclusion




And after that, I read the relative clauses of a grammar book. I am going to outline about relative pronouns

First of all, I will explain about meaning of relative clauses.
who
subject or object pronoun for people
Example I told you about the woman who lives next door.
which
subject or object pronoun for animals and things
Example Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof?
which
referring to a whole sentence
Example He couldn’t read which surprised me.
whose
possession for people animals and things
Example Do you know the boy whose mother is a nurse?
whom
object pronoun for people, especially in non-defining relative clauses (in defining relative clauses we colloquially prefer who)
Example I was invited by the professor whom I met at the conference.
that
subject or object pronoun for people, animals and things in defining relative clauses (who or which are also possible)
Example I don’t like the table that stands in the kitchen.

On Tuesday 17 / 02/09
Writing and Reading Skill





In this day, I praticed my reading skill. I read guardian newspaper and I found that there were some interesting news . The topic that I am going to summarise is Even 'fake' acupuncture reduces the severity of headaches and migraines.

The original article

Even 'fake' acupuncture reduces the severity of headaches and migraines.
In traditional Chinese acupuncture, needles are pushed into the skin at specific points. Photograph: AP Acupuncture can help people who suffer from headaches and migraines, even when the needles are put in the "wrong" place, according to a major review of medical studies.
Volunteers who were treated with the traditional Chinese technique, in which thin needles are pushed into the skin at specific points, had fewer headaches and migraines, and experienced less pain if a headache came on, researchers found. Scientists working for the Cochrane Collaboration, which publishes gold standard reviews on the effectiveness of medical treatments, confirmed the beneficial effect of acupuncture after analysing 33 separate studies involving nearly 7,000 patients in total. Researchers led by at the centre for complementary medicine research at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, reviewed published evidence for acupuncture as a treatment for tension headaches, which usually affect both sides of the head, and migraines, which tend to affect only one side. Eleven trials involving 2,317 patients found many experienced fewer headaches after having acupuncture, though a similar improvement was seen in those who had "fake" acupuncture, where the needles were either inserted at incorrect points or did not puncture the skin. A further 22 trials involving 4,419 patients who suffered migraines were assessed. Again, those who had acupuncture, even when it was faked by placing the needles incorrectly, reported having fewer migraines afterwards.
"The studies suggest that migraine patients benefit from acupuncture, although the correct placement of needles seems to be less relevant than is usually thought by acupuncturists," the researchers report. "Much of the clinical benefit of acupuncture might be due to non-specific needling effects and powerful placebo effects, meaning selection of specific needle points may be less important than many practitioners have traditionally argued," said Linde.
Overall, after an eight-week course of treatment, patients who had acupuncture and no painkillers suffered fewer headaches compared with those who were given only painkillers.
Linde said the results suggest acupuncture could be given to patients who do not wish to take drugs, but he added that more research was needed. "Doctors need to know how long improvements associated with acupuncture will last and whether better trained acupuncturists really achieve better results than those with basic training only," he said.

Summarization

This newspaper article about the fake acupuncture help people recover from migrains and headaches

In recently, Many researches have claimed that the acupuncture help people who have suffer from migrains and headaches. However, Linde found some interesting informations.The experiment explained that many pateints can recover from migrains and headaches by fake acupuncture.They did not treated by pushing needle on the right face area. this research found that the pateints can take acupuncture if they do not to take medicines. It maybe mean the
specialists in acupuncture are reduced important in treatment.But the most important is the doctor should know how long for training practices to be acupuncturists.

On Wednesday 18/02/09

Grammar and Reading Skill

I read a chapter from English Grammar for in Use.This chapter explain how to use "must" and "have to"

Must - comes from the personspeaking

Have to - comes from outside (rule or a law)

Example : I must go to the toilet

Structure

Have to

subject + auxiliary verb + have + infinitive (with to)

more example
In France, you have to drive on the right.
In England, most schoolchildren have to wear a uniform.
John has to wear a tie at work.

Must

subject + must + main verb

more example
I must stop smoking.
You must visit us soon.
He must work harder.

After that I practice grammar in Structure of sentence from this webside

http://a4esl.org/q/h/grammar.html

On Thursday 19/02/09

Writing Skill (Comparative Essay)
I learnt about how to write comparative essay from Internet. I am going to outline the pattern of essay and some examples.
There are two pattern of comparative essays. The first pattern is blog format
pattern of Blog Format
1. introduction - start with the interesting sentence (situation or opinion of many people)and show about 2 subjects are important difference or extremely similarity or they are important difference and similarities
2. paragraph 2 describe the first subject include some example to prove the similarity or difference
3. Paragraph 3 show differences or similarities comparing in the second subject
4. Conclusion give a brief rethesis show your opinion and what will be happend in future if this event happened

The second pattern is point by point
1. introduction -start with the interesting sentence (situation or opinion of many people)and show about 2 subjects are important difference or extremely similarity or they are important difference and similarities
2. paragrph 2 Transitions beginning each paragraph are made by repeating ideas, phrases or words. Without transitions, the essay will sound choppy and disjointed.
Discuss how both subjects compare on feature one.For each comparison, use compare/contrast cue words such as like, similar to, also, unlike, on the other hand.
Be sure to include examples proving the similarities and/or differences exist.
3.Paragraphs Transitions beginning each paragraph are made by repeating ideas, phrases or words. Without transitions, the essay will sound choppy and disjointed.Continue the pattern set in paragraph 2 discussing a new feature in each new paragraph.For each comparison, use compare/contrast cue words such as like, similar to, also, unlike, on the other hand.Be sure to include examples proving the similarities and/or differences exist.
4. Conclusion In this paragraph, give a brief, general summary of the most important similarities and differences.End with a personal statement, a prediction or another snappy clincher.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/inthenews/

Friday 13/02/09
I got homwework from Helen .It is practices in listening skill on http://www,bbc.co.uk/skillswise/inthenews/ I decided to listen the news about genetics and disease. http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/skillswise/inthenews/all_quizzes/quizengine?quiz=0502;templateStyle=all_quizzes;platform=pc-internet;filter_1_type=poolchoice;filter_1_data=5-seenandheard&year=2002
http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/skillswise/inthenews/all_quizzes/quizengine?quiz=0502;templateStyle=all_quizzes;platform=pc-internet;filter_1_type=poolchoice;filter_1_data=5-seenandheard&year=2002

My diary in the second week on February

on Monday 9/02/09

Listening and Writing Skill
In this evening, I listened continue on www. bbclearningenglish.com. I learnt some conversation usually use for introducing situation.It should be informal language to help new person is relaxed(example following below). After that I read some academic writing essays.It helps me to get important information in process of writing(example following below).At the first,I started with a sentence. At 10.00 pm I watch TV for practicing in listening skill. I am going to describe the science program in BBC`1`. It involved appearance attraction that woman preferred.It depend on sex hormone (estrogen and progesterone). It has claimed that during menstruation most of women prefer strong appearance. Contrast in another time, some women like gentle appearance. However, this research still is proving in difference time.

Example conversation for introducing situation
- Nice to see you. Did you get here alright? Ask about the journey.
- I’ll give you a quick whizz round. I’ll show you round.....
- If you need to use it, give me a call .
- if you need anything, take it from there.
- if you need any help, just call me. Use "just" to make it is easy.
- let me introduce you to someone.
-It’s really straightforward = it’s really easy.
-let me show you
-let me show how the photocopier works
-let me show you where the canteen is
-let me show you how the phone system works
-what I’ll do now is … :what I’ll do now is, introduce you to Gary
-if you need anything, just ask
-I think that’s about it, really : thinking about something leave out from introduce.

For practice writing skill.
A sentence
a sentence can be divide into 3 kinds
1. simple sentence
2. compound sentence
3. complex sentence

Simple sentence
-has one independent clause and expresses one idea
-A simple sentence must have one subject - verb combination but the subject may be compound
-A simple sentence can have a compound verb construction
Compound sentence
-simple sentence +joining word+ simple sentences
-joining word is and but so or for nor yet
Complex sentence
-Independent clause + linking word+ dependent clause
or linking word,dependent clause + independent clause
independent -show a complete idea, a sentence
dependent - does not show a complete idea, it is a part sentence
example linking word :while after though because as soon as
whereas wherever when before as

On Tuesday 10/02/09

Writing and Reading Skill
In this day,I read a method of summarising . and after that I tried to find definition of phrasal verbs. then I summarised that I learnt in this blog.
Way of summarising
1. You have to read more one times to make sure you get a clear understanding.
2. Make a note in your own word .It have to be important point in original information
3. Write summarising from your notes
4. Read your summarise and read original data again to ensure you do not lose some main points.

Example

Original data
So That Nobody Has To Go To School If They Don't Want Toby Roger Sipher
A decline in standardized test scores is but the most recent indicator that American education is in trouble.One reason for the crisis is that present mandatory-attendance laws force many to attend school who have no wish to be there. Such children have little desire to learn and are so antagonistic to school that neither they nor more highly motivated students receive the quality education that is the birthright of every American.The solution to this problem is simple: Abolish compulsory-attendance laws and allow only those who are committed to getting an education to attend.This will not end public education. Contrary to conventional belief, legislators enacted compulsory-attendance laws to legalize what already existed. William Landes and Lewis Solomon, economists, found little evidence that mandatory-attendance laws increased the number of children in school. They found, too, that school systems have never effectively enforced such laws, usually because of the expense involved.There is no contradiction between the assertion that compulsory attendance has had little effect on the number of children attending school and the argument that repeal would be a positive step toward improving education. Most parents want a high school education for their children. Unfortunately, compulsory attendance hampers the ability of public school officials to enforce legitimate educational and disciplinary policies and thereby make the education a good one.Private schools have no such problem. They can fail or dismiss students, knowing such students can attend public school. Without compulsory attendance, public schools would be freer to oust students whose academic or personal behavior undermines the educational mission of the institution.
Has not the noble experiment of a formal education for everyone failed? While we pay homage to the homily, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink," we have pretended it is not true in education.Ask high school teachers if recalcitrant students learn anything of value. Ask teachers if these students do any homework. Quite the contrary, these students know they will be passed from grade to grade until they are old enough to quit or until, as is more likely, they receive a high school diploma. At the point when students could legally quit, most choose to remain since they know they are likely to be allowed to graduate whether they do acceptable work or not.Abolition of archaic attendance laws would produce enormous dividends.
First, it would alert everyone that school is a serious place where one goes to learn. Schools are neither day-care centers nor indoor street corners. Young people who resist learning should stay away; indeed, an end to compulsory schooling would require them to stay away.
Second, students opposed to learning would not be able to pollute the educational atmosphere for those who want to learn. Teachers could stop policing recalcitrant students and start educating.Third, grades would show what they are supposed to: how well a student is learning. Parents could again read report cards and know if their children were making progress.
Fourth, public esteem for schools would increase. People would stop regarding them as way stations for adolescents and start thinking of them as institutions for educating America's youth.
Fifth, elementary schools would change because students would find out early they had better learn something or risk flunking out later. Elementary teachers would no longer have to pass their failures on to junior high and high school.Sixth, the cost of enforcing compulsory education would be eliminated. Despite enforcement efforts, nearly 15 percent of the school-age children in our largest cities are almost permanently absent from school.Communities could use these savings to support institutions to deal with young people not in school. If, in the long run, these institutions prove more costly, at least we would not confuse their mission with that of schools.Schools should be for education. At present, they are only tangentially so. They have attempted to serve an all-encompassing social function, trying to be all things to all people. In the process they have failed miserably at what they were originally formed to accomplish.

Summarisation
Roger Sipher makes his case for getting rid of compulsory-attendance laws in primary and secondary schools with six arguments. These fall into three groups—first that education is for those who want to learn and by including those that don't want to learn, everyone suffers. Second, that grades would be reflective of effort and elementary school teachers wouldn't feel compelled to pass failing students. Third, that schools would both save money and save face with the elimination of compulsory-attendance laws.

After that I practiced to summarize the news article from the newspaper which I present vocabulary in last week . Today I will going to present my summarise

On Wednesday 12/02/09

Grammar and Writing Skill
Because of I confused with using article ,today I decided to read grammar book to make me clearly understand.
For example.
1. 'the' - it is a specific thing.
- it is clear in situation ,other persons known
- There is only one something

- usually use with 'go to'
- can not use with breakfast,lunch,dinner
2. 'a' - it is used in quantity for example once a week, three times a day
- when you want to say kind of something
- a + adj+breakfast,lunch,dinner
After that, I practise to summarize the newspaper article from Guardian Newspaper.
The Original Data
The things you can perk up with a cup of coffee
'Danger from just seven cups of coffee a day," said the Daily Express on Wednesday. "Too much coffee can make you hallucinate and sense dead people, say sleep experts. The equivalent of just seven cups of instant coffee a day is enough to trigger the weird responses." The story appeared in almost every national newspaper. This was weak observational data. That's just the start of our story, but you should know exactly what the researchers did. They sent an email inviting students to fill out an online survey, and 219 agreed. The survey is still online (in all its time-consuming glory, I just clicked answers randomly to see the next question). It asks about caffeine intake in vast detail, and then uses one scale to measure how prone you are to feeling persecuted, and uses another, the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS), 16 questions designed to measure "predisposition to hallucination-like experiences". Some of these questions are about having hallucinations and seeing ghosts, but some really are a very long way from there. Heavy coffee drinkers could have got higher scores on this scale by responding positively to questions like: "No matter how hard I try to concentrate on my work, unrelated thoughts always creep into my mind"; "Sometimes a passing thought will seem so real that it frightens me"; or "Sometimes my thoughts seem as real as actual events in my life". That's not seeing ghosts or hearing voices. There could have been alternative explanations for the observed correlation between caffeine intake and very slightly higher LSHS scores. Maybe some students who drink a lot of coffee are also sleep deprived, and marginally more prone to hallucinations because of that. Maybe they are drinking coffee to help them get over last night's marijuana hangover. Maybe people who take drugs instrumentally to have fun and distort their perceptions also take drugs like caffeine instrumentally to stay alert. You can think of more, I'm sure. The researchers were keen to point out this shortcoming in their paper. The Express and many others didn't seem to care. If you read the academic paper you find that the associations reported are weak. For the benefit of those who understand "regression" (and it makes anybody's head hurt), 18% of the variance in the LSHS score is explained by gender, age and stress. When you add in caffeine, 21% of the variance in the LSHS score is explained: only an extra 3%, so caffeine adds very little. The finding is statistically significant, as the researchers point out, so it is unlikely to be due to chance, but the fact is that it's still weak, it explains only a tiny amount of the overall variance in scores on the "predisposed-to-hallucinations" scale.
Lastly, most newspapers reported a rather dramatic claim, that seven cups of coffee a day is associated with a three times higher prevalence of hallucinations. This figure does not appear in the paper. It seems to be an ad hoc calculation done afterwards by the researchers, and put into the press release, so you cannot tell you how they did it, or whether they controlled appropriately for problems in the data, like something called "multiple comparisons".
Here is the problem. Apparently this three times greater risk is for the top 10% of caffeine consumers, compared with the bottom 10%. They say that heavy caffeine drinkers were three times more likely to have answered affirmatively to just one LSHS question: "In the past, I have had the experience of hearing a person's voice and then found that no one was there."
Now this poses massive problems. Imagine that I am stood facing a barn, holding a machine gun, blindfolded, firing off shots whilst swinging my whole body from side to side and laughing maniacally. I then walk up to the barn, find three bullet holes which happen to be very close together, and draw a target around them, claiming I am an excellent shot. You can easily find patterns in your data once it's collected. Why choose 10% as your cut-off? Why not the top and bottom quarters? Maybe they have accounted for this problem. You don't know, I don't know, they say they have, to me, in emails, but it wasn't in the paper, we can't all see the details. I don't think that's satisfactory for a headline finding, and the first claim of a press release.
There is another problem: putting a finding in the press release but not into the paper is a subversion of the peer review process. People will read this coverage, they will be scared, and they will change their behaviour. But the researchers' key reported claim, with massive popular impact, was never peer reviewed, and crucially the technical details behind it are not in the public domain.
I'm sorry to see academics not blameless in this dreary situation

Summarisation

This article is about a drinking 7 cups of coffee per day can hallucinate. It was on www. guardian .co.uk.
Nowadays, this claim is spreading and make people are scared. However,this research was wrong.The first reason is the researcher did not use overall data to conclude. They use some data which was fascinating. Moreover, there were many effects from coffee. For example, some case confused reality with dreams. It was not a illusion of hearing and seeing. The second reason is the claim appeared in the newspapers but it was not in an academic data. Therefore, the claim is wrong.

On Thursday 12/02/09

Listening Skill

Today, I would watch TV if it had not damage. I have to change my plan to read a grammar book. I learnt about how to use "use to".In this diary, I will conclude some parts.
1. Something used to happen= it happened regularly in the past,but no longer to happen
2. we also use this word for things that true,but are not true any more
3. The normal question form is did(you) use to in this country......?

Comparing between "I used to" and"I am used to doing"

"I am use to doing" is not new or strange for me

for example : I am used too driving on the left because I have lived in Britain a long time.

It is different meaning with : I am used to the weather

Plan days out in London

I would like to take my friend visit at the Britsh Meuseum. It is one of the best gorgeous museums. We can get information about prehistoric to modern times.In fact,it exhibit particularly ancient Eyptain life. Moreover, this museum is more absolutely fastinating than the meuseum in Thailand. Indeed, in the Thai replica meuseum, it told us important documents by the replicas and lots of papers while we can learn necessary knowledge by some original instruments and get the ways how they got these education. Finally, it is very useful and convenience to visit there.It is the excellent way to get outline about London, it open every day (10.00-17.30pm) and quite near my house.

First Diary weekly of at the second month(in February)

Thursday 5/02/09

Synonym Vocabulary for writting skill

Today, I read about how to write academic essay as well ,at first I need to practice some interest vocabulary. It very important to make my writting get better. this day ,I will explain by example topic that I studied.
Ex. Should governments spend money on space exploration, or should they spend the money on problems here first?
Governments = nations, countries, authorities, politicians
Spend = allocate, give, allot, provide, budget, make available, waste, award
Space exploration = space program, trips to the moon, the international space station,planets, planetary voyages
Money = budgets, taxes, resources,
Problems = concerns, issues, worries, disasters, threats, threatening, war, famine, poverty, education, homelessness, drugs, global warming
Here = on earth, in our own countries, closer to home, in developing countries, foreign aid,


Ex.Are zoos cruel to wild animals?
Zoos = nature reserves, wildlife parks, animal sanctuaries, circuses, wilderness areas, tasteless exhibitions, stuffy, crowded, exciting, interesting, fascinating
Cruel = psychologically damaging, insulting, frightening, stressful, brutal, restricting, noisy, dirty, hot, overcrowded, unnatural, not normal, (Opposite)conservation, kind, well-treated, saved from extinction, well looked after
Wild = nature, natural, proud, free, endangered, not pets for man, should be free, in danger, habitat, ecosystem, environment, natural home
Animals = animals, plants, natural environment, birds, big cats, predators, extinct, in trouble, not enough land.

After that, I practice grammar in weblearn in first file "first test". I foud that ,Both levels, at Elementary and Intermediate level, These are a piece of cake. I got 9/9.However, in Upper-intermediate level , it is very difficult , my score is 1/9.I should practice more grammarthan now.

Friday 6/02/09



Today, I will outline some activities help me to practice in my English language skills.First of all, I practiced in strong adjective.It help me to do my assessment easily. I found http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/intermediate/i_games/gotoschool/nef_int_games_gts01/an It was the excellent website and I tried to do the practicd in this website. Then,I listening the BBC news at www. bbclearningenglish.com.It is about how we can get jobs and explains some phase which we can use in interviews, following some useful phases below. After 10.00 pm I read the science news in the guardian newspaper. And I try to find definition of voabulary.
Example some interesting phase that useful to interview
1. why do you want this job?
Ans : The answers should be postive thinking ,try to avoid some opinion in negative thinking. it ,for example , is time to move on .
2. if you had moved up the ladder what would be your priorities in approaching the job?
Ans : It is a hypothetical question (second conditional). It mean
what would you say .. if you faced this situation? how would you cope if
you dealt this problem? This is guide for using if I faced that situation I would behave in this way, if I had to deal with that problem, Iwould do this....
3. what are your strengths and weaknesses, what are your good points and bad points.
Ans: we should have few disadvancetages with some ways that we try to develop them.







Homeopathy: Sometimes a dose of nothing can do you a power of good
Homeopathic remedies such as essence of crop circle and 'F sharp minor' may sound daft but they have a vital role to play in modern medicine, writes Michael

Should homeopathy be available on the NHS? Absolutely – it's possibly the safest, most ethical and most effective placebo there is. Where money is truly wasted is in trying to find evidence that homeopathy works.
If you think that what passes for homeopathy today can be properly assessed by modern science, it should only take a visit to a homeopathic pharmacy to change your mind. As part of my research for my book 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, I did just that. On the shelves I found remedies made from "F sharp minor", "Gog and Magog, Oaks at Glastonbury", "Flapjack" and "Crop Circle".
Also stored somewhere at that pharmacy - I didn't see it, but I had read about it - was a homeopathic remedy made from the blood of an HIV positive man. There were remedies made from more conventional substances too, plants that any herbalist might use. But where do you draw the line when trying to assess this field? Whatever you do, there is going to be a hell of a lot of noise in the data.
The same is true for the legions of people who say homeopathy works for them. During my research I came across perfectly sane people whose initial scepticism had been blown away after their reluctant use of homeopathic treatments was followed by dramatic improvements in their symptoms. But anecdote, however impassioned, is not scientific evidence – there are always too many unknowns behind each success story.
Having said all that, you might think that I'm against homeopathic treatments being funded on the NHS. I would certainly agree with the vast majority of scientists who say that homeopathy is almost certainly no more effective than placebo. But there are two qualifications I should make about that statement – and they make all the difference.
The first qualification is that the claim homeopathy doesn't work is a prejudice, not a scientifically proven fact. The second qualification is much more important. I don't actually know what "no more effective than placebo" means. And neither does anyone else.
In fact, the phrase's negative connotations are undeserved. Let's not forget that placebos are medically useful, and doctors know it. Let me give you some figures to support that heresy.
In 2003, a survey found that 48% of Danish GPs use what they regarded as a placebo intervention – mostly antibiotics for viral infections or vitamins for unspecified fatigue – 10 or more times per year. A 2004 study of Israeli doctors, published in the British Medical Journal, found that 60% had prescribed placebos. Of those, around two-thirds did so once a month or more, and lied to the patient about the "medication". Some 94% of these doctors found placebos to be an effective means of treatment. Roughly half of US physicians admit to regularly prescribing placebo – usually vitamins or analgesics – in their clinical practice, and believe this to be ethical. The American Medical Association has advised doctors that it's OK to use placebos if they can avoid the deception that tends to go with it.
Homeopathy is perfect for this. In fact, its consultation process, combined with the homeopath's and the patient's faith in it, can make it an extremely powerful placebo.
The placebo effect, you see, kicks in on a sliding scale. Last year, a Harvard Medical School study compared the efficacy of various methods of consulting with patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
It found that patients given "extreme placebo" – basically, they were listened to at length, and fully consulted about their symptoms, feelings and treatments – reported an improvement that was equivalent to that achieved by drugs commonly used to treat IBS. The irony is that, in order to be licensed, those drugs would have had to performed "better than placebo" in standard clinical trials.
Giving a placebo is not the same as doing nothing, which means that sometimes prescribing a placebo is better than doing nothing. People are not biochemical versions of computer programs, where a particular input will give a particular output. Being a doctor isn't about being handcuffed by evidence-based medicine, it's about using skilled judgement in tandem with the best available evidence – including evidence about the efficacy of placebos.
Perhaps it's time to restate that medicine should be considered an art, not a science.
Using placebos effectively is difficult, however. Regulations governing cost and evidence-based prescribing prevent a pharmacy from dispensing something recognised as a placebo. Curiously, the Americans are ahead of us here, too. A 2001 article in the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association provides a script for the pharmacist's role in the deception which neatly deflects any responsibility. Realising that a doctor has prescribed a placebo, the pharmacist should deliver the medication with these words: "Generally, a larger dose is used for most patients, but your doctor believes that you'll benefit from this dose."
With homeopathy, that problem is side-stepped. Homeopaths tend to believe in what they are doing, so there's no deception – and their conviction reinforces the placebo effect. It costs money, but so do IBS drugs, which are no more effective.
And even opponents of homeopathy must concede that, if the remedies are essentially nothing more than water or lactose pills, adverse side effects are pretty unlikely.
So, yes, I think doctors should be allowed to refer patients to small homeopathic practices, with fee caps, if the doctor believes a placebo is the best course of action. I would point out, though, that even placebos can be taken too far. I'm not keen on funding hugely costly "homeopathic hospitals", for example. To me, they just seem silly.

Vocabulary

conventional : following accepted practice

herbalist : one who grows or deals in herbs

scepticism : variant of skepticism

reluctant : unwilling, averse

anecdote : a short account of an interesting or humorous incident

impassioned : filled with passion(a powerful emotion or appetite), ardent

connotations : a secondary meaning suggested by a word in addition to its literal meaning

undeserved : to be not worthy of , not merit

fatigue : weakness or weariness

deception : inability to feel pain while conscious, a condition usually produced by a drug

irony : the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.

tandem : two or more persons or objects placed one behind the other and working or acting in conjunction

dispense : To deal out in portions

curiously : extradinary or unusual

neat : tidy ,clean

deflects : to cause to swerve, turn aside

opponents : one that oppose another or others