Science & Vocabulary: Litmus Test

From the last entry, I used the term “Litmus Test”, I wondered how many of you put in effort to find it out. Hopefully a lot, I am an optimistic person.

This term actually originates from Chemistry, and litmus is a so everyday indicator for all kinds of pH (acidity and alkalinity) test. It is a water-soluble mixture of different dyes extracted from lichens and it is often absorbed onto filter paper before using. Basically, it is used to test whether a solution, meaning a mixture of liquid, is acidic or alkaline.

When I was still in school in Singapore, I did a lot of experiments in the Chemistry laboratory. Most of the time, the students were given blue litmus paper to test the acids. The red litmus paper, which is used to test alkalis, was less often used. I have never really got to understand why that was the case; maybe testing acids was a more fun thing to do?

Because of the property of the litmus paper or the litmus solution, and the use of litmus as an indicator of acidity or alkalinity, it is now used in the English of politics and some other means.

Cambridge has the following explanation which I don’t really like:

litmus test noun [C usually singular]

someone's decision or opinion about something which suggests what they think about a wider range of related things:

The President's policy on abortion is regarded as a litmus test of his views on women's rights.

I prefer the explanation in the Dictionary.com Unabridged:

A crucial and revealing test in which there is one decisive factor.

Or in the WordNet 3.0 by Princeton University:

A test that relies on a single indicator; "her litmus test for good breeding is whether you split infinitives" 

So in even more simple words, it means “an important indicator to sth”, and it has a synonym, “acid test”.

This is such a common word and you can easily find tonnes of news that uses this word. Try typing "litmus test, news" in your favourite search engines for more examples of using.

"Inability to succeed is just a litmus test for greater courage." -- Locky

Picture source: http://www.sciencestuff.com/Merchant2/images/Chem1290.gif

Coming soon: Grammar, grammar, and more grammar

Reply to comments & readers:

1. Many thanks to Phy and Bo Bo.
2. Sorry to my students of the last Thursday class because I felt asleep in the staff room and was late for 10 minutes. Too tired. I hope you don't mind my 15 mins extension of that lesson. That was to pay you back the time.

Learning Psychology: Regularity VS Irregularity -- Is English difficult to learn?

Most people dislike grammar and think it is a very boring part of English (or other languages, or all languages), but I just think it is the greatest part of it! I have been teaching it for 2 years before I joined Prime English, and I just can't get enough of it. Why is that the case? Well, because I am able to see grammar from a systematic, structured perspective.

I guess I can say most languages on this planet have exceptions, and most people are discouraged by the large amount of exceptions. Some of my students even told me that English is a very difficult language! And my response was,

"Do you know how complicated are some other European languages?"

When I was studying Italian, the beginner level was already killing lots of my brain cells. For example, the present tense for regular verbs already looks like this:

• Conjugation 1 contains verbs with an infinitive ending in -ARE


• Conjugation 2 contains verbs with an infinitive ending in -ERE


• Conjugation 3 contains verbs with an infinitive ending in -IRE

	1 PARLARE	2 SCRIVERE	3 DORMIRE	3 CAPIRE
1st pers. sing.   I	parlo	scrivo	dormo	capisco
2nd pers. sing.  you	parli	scrivi	dormi	capisci
3rd pers. sing.  he, she, it	parla	scrive	dorme	capisce
1st pers. plur.  we	parliamo	scriviamo	dormiamo	capiamo
2nd pers. plur.  you	parlate	scrivete	dormite	capite
3rd pers. plur.  they	parlano	scrivono	dormono	capiscono

So, when in English, when we say, "I/you/we/they speak; He/she/it speaks", in Italian, everyone will spell differently. In English, at most, you need to worry about using 's' or 'es' after the verbs, but in Italian, sorry! It's 7 x 4 = 28 different look. Imagine the Chinese art of Bian Lian, or face changing  (This will take you to information of Bian Lian.)

Well, don't get too excited and think it is that easy! The regularity of the irregular verbs goes as such:

	avere	to have	essere	to be
1	ho	I have	sono	I am
2	hai	you have	sei	you are
3	ha	he/she/it has	è	he/she/it is
1	abbiamo	we have	siamo	we are
2	avete	you have	siete	you are
3	hanno	they have	sono	they are

avere = to have	essere = to be	venire = to come	uscire = to go out	andare = to go	dare = to give
ho	sono	vengo	esco	vado	do
hai	sei	vieni	esci	vai	dai
ha	è	viene	esce	va	dà
abbiamo	siamo	veniamo	usciamo	andiamo	diamo
avete	siete	venite	uscite	andate	date
hanno	sono	vengono	escono	vanno	danno

fare= to do; make	sapere = to know	stare = to stay; be	potere = can	dovere = must	volere = to want
faccio	so	sto	posso	devo	voglio
fai	sai	stai	puoi	devi	vuoi
fa	sa	sta	può	deve	vuole
facciamo	sappiamo	stiamo	possiamo	dobbiamo	vogliamo
fate	sapete	state	potete	dovete	volete
fanno	sanno	stanno	possono	devono	vogliono

And you think that's all? You have yet to see the past tenses, future tenses, etc.

If you want to know how lucky you are, please visit this great website to learn Italian:

http://www.gwc.org.uk/ModernLang/hotpot/Italian2/GrammarIndex.html

(all tables above are kindly provided by the above website)

Guess what, Italian is already considered as one of the easier languages to learn because it is a syllable-timed language, just like Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese!!!

As a learner of a language, you should always 'stay cool' and 'chill out' in terms of facing difficulties in the process of learning. I understand that sometimes it can really get frustrating, but you can look at the obstacles from a positive point of view. 

Maybe in the past, you will tell yourself, "Learning English is so difficult."

Now you can ask yourself, "Is learning English that difficult?"

Then answer yourself, "Lucky that I don't need to learn XXX language."

And you should immediately feel better.

Emotional Quotient (EQ) is a key in learning English, as it is also in any other parts of our life.

"Learn to cure yourself, and be willing to be cured, and you will be cured." -- Locky

It is just another Litmus test on "Is the glass half empty or half full?" situation.

Coming soon: More on the term 'Litmus Test'.

Reply to comments & readers:

1. I would like to thank Phy for the care and support. I will sleep more.
   
2. I expect all readers to take note of or check meanings of the words in bold.

Technology: Google Earth 5.0

Have you watched the movie "Jumper"? No? I've got a trailer and a poster for you to recall your memory.

Picture source: http://www.moviexclusive.com/review/jumper/poster.jpg

It is a movie that talks about a group of people who has special power to teleport to anywhere on this planet at any time. Not to forget that the Chinese story protagonist plus Japanese manga hero Son Goku (the monkey king) can do just the same! He is heating up the cinema all around the world these days!

Image from tmft.net

But you don't need to know how to teleport to travel around the world. Actually, you don't even need to get up from your seat, all you need is a computer connected to the internet, and download the Google Earth 5.0 from the following website:
http://earth.google.com/index.html

Watch how it works on Youtube!

Or take a tour in the website: http://earth.google.com/intl/en/tour.html

I have found my old home in London and a few places I have visited in Hokkaido as well as the Millenium Hilton hotel I stayed in twice in Bangkok!


Hey, what about learning English? Well, how about learning more names of different countries and then plan where to go on your next holiday after sneaking a nice detail preview with this software? Learning English can be done when you go travelling, right?


Apart from visiting different places, there are many things relating to English, and those are the buttons provided in the software, but I can't tell you now as you really need to check this out first by yourself.


Enjoy being a jumper and your teleporting!

(I've been sleeping at 2am every night because of updating this blog, dark circles starting to form)

Animal: Humpback Whales

I have been a shark and whale lover since I was 2 and could paint a very realistic whale at the same age of 3. I still remember very vividly that my teacher didn't believe that I drew such a picture and requested to see my mum. My mum told my 3 teachers and the principal, who were there to interrogate me, that I really drew it. They didn't believe me and would only let me go if I could paint one more right on the spot. At last, my mum and I walked out of the school with a gift toy car of my choice after painting a picture of a whale right in front of them.

And so the anecdote ends here, but my passion for whales and sharks continues.

Recently, there was a humperback whale in the Hong Kong waters and I really wanted to go and see it!!! However, as you all know that this whale should have been left alone so that she could find her way back to the deep, I only took the effort to chase her on the news. (picture source: Discovery News)

Humpback whale is one of my favourite whales because it is a singer whale and it sings the best whale songs.

Click on the movie below and listen for yourself.

Don't you think they are just amazing?

The humpback whales are also really nice dancers. Their dances express their joy and their superior artistic minds. When they are jumping out of the water, or breaching, you can see the movements of their fins like they are really dancing ballet!

From this clip above you can see the bond between the mother and the cub, the cub was so attached to the mother and the mother was ever more protective. Aren't they behaving just like human beings? I absolutely think that these amazing animals should be well-conserved and at the same time, kept in distance from any man's activities. Man has already done enough of disturbance and created too much pollution in their natural habitat, it's high time for man to make some compensations.

Whale meat is considered as one of the most prestigious delicacies in the Japanese society. Their fondness for dolphin and whale meats have led to the large decline in the number of whale populations. Pictures can be easily found abundantly in any search engines by typing "whale meat".

Quoting from Wikipedia, "In 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted on a moratorium on commercial whaling to go into force in 1986. Japan has maintained its interest in the resumption of commercial whaling, but has not succeeded in persuading the IWC to lift the ban." Nonetheless, from what I have read from the news, every once in a while the Green Peace will have to hold tough fights to stop illegal "data-collection" of the Japanese whalers.

Resourceful encyclopedia Wikipedia has a list of whale songs sung by different types of whales, you can listen to them from the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whale_songs


If you still want to hear these lovely whale songs, or if you want your next generation to have a chance to hear and see these awesomely beautiful mammals, you can help Green Peace or WWF by making some donations whenever you feel like it. I personally do that every now and then.




Lastly, thanks to those of you who have read my entries and even more thanks to those of you who left comments and tried the exercises.

I really appreciate your effort and passion. Hope you can continue to learn with me. Next time I will talk about sharks. Well, after a few other different entries first.



Answers for the previous entry:

1. What is the meaning of ‘plus’ in the second paragraph? (and)
2. In paragraph 3, can you list a few examples of each tea type? (I'm sure you can find)
3. Why did I use double-quotes for the word “fermented”?
(it is not a true fermentation: it is not caused by micro-organisms, and is not an anaerobic process)
4. In paragraph 4, what is the range on pH scale that shows acidity? (below 7)
5. What is the name of the book that China’s Lu Yu wrote? Which dynasty did he live in? (Cha Jing or the Classic of Tea; Tang)
6. Who said “Tea is the ultimate mental and medical remedy and has the ability to make one’s life more full and complete”? (famous Zen priest Eisai)
7. In paragraph 9, I used 4 different verbs to show my preference for different types of tea, can you list them? (love, fancy, have enjoyed, like)

Health and Fitness: 'English' Tea

Do you drink tea?

I went to the dentist to have my scaled and polished last Saturday and the doctor told me not to drink anymore tea because tea marks stains on the teeth. If you do go to the dentist twice a year, you won’t care much about the stain, will you? Plus, tea is such a healthy drink!

The sense of coolness while drinking tea is what I like best about tea. No matter I’m drinking Japanese green tea or the English milk tea, I always feel relieved and mellow.

There are five types of tea which are most commonly found in Hong Kong, they are the black tea (or red tea), green tea, white tea, Oolong tea and flower tea. They are of different colours due to different ways they were processed, or “fermented”.

Tea bushes generally prefer acidic soils and the high-quality tea plants are normally grown on high land, up to some 1500 metres.

China is among the most famous countries in terms of consuming tea, as well as the earliest, but not to forget the likes of Indian, Sri Lanka, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Recently, in the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, the main protagonist Jamal was a chai boy before he went on the show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ The word isn’t so difficult for us to understand because it is another variation of the word ‘cha’. Different countries will have different ways of calling it, but they all resemble to the words, ‘tea’ or ‘cha’.

Tea forms a very important part of many cultures, and almost every country has their unique version of ‘tea’. The studies, the wisdoms, the rituals, the beliefs, can be all seen through the ways they enjoy this wholesome drink.

Personally, I love Jasmine tea the best because of its elegance, purity and the slight fragrance of flower. For the sweet tea, I fancy lemongrass tea alone or with jasmine because it offers an extra scent of ‘mint’ and the cooling aftertaste. As for milk tea, I have always enjoyed simple Sri Lankan Ceylon (from Marks & Spencer) with a small tablespoon of sugar and higher-fat-content milk. It is not exactly the milk tea of the English, as the English either prefer Earl Grey for breakfast or milk tea with a lower fat content, but I like the richness of milk together with the smoothness of the tea, without the dryness of course.

Finally, I strongly recommend green tea, or Matcha in Japanese, for the ultimate relaxation, best served with the presence of greens and quiet lakes accompanied by a cool breeze, and brown-rice tea, or Genmaicha, for the perfect drink to be served with sushi and sashimi – nothing goes better than this tea with raw Japanese delicacy.

Oishi desu!!!!”

Information taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea#Japanese_green_teas

Pictures from:

http://todaysseniorsnetwork.com/tea,%20herbal%20tea,%20green%20tea.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/14/travel/14tea.01.jpg

http://www.kajiasostudio.com/webroot/images/holding-tea.jpg

Questions for readers (research is needed):
1. What is the meaning of ‘plus’ in the second paragraph?
2. In paragraph 3, can you list a few examples of each tea type?
3. Why did I use double-quotes for the word “fermented”?
4. In paragraph 4, what is the range on pH scale that shows acidity?
5. What is the name of the book that China’s Lu Yu wrote? Which dynasty did he live in?
6. Who said “Tea is the ultimate mental and medical remedy and has the ability to make one’s life more full and complete”?
7. In paragraph 9, I used 4 different verbs to show my preference for different types of tea, can you list them?

Comics: Online English Manga (free)

Hi guys! This time I have found something really special to share. It is a comic (or Manga from Japanese) that is FREE to read online!!!! And it is in English!!! For those of you who are sick or scared to read books, here is something that might make a difference.

It is called Mega Tokyo, details can be found in the following website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_tokyo

Image source from http://unhealthyobsession.com/

And the comic can be found here,
http://www.megatokyo.com/archive.php#1192

Personally, I haven't read more than 2 pages of the comic, so I don't really know if it is good for learning English or not, but quoting from Wikipedia,

"Megatokyo originally emphasized humor, with continuity of the story a subsidiary concern. Over time, it focused more on developing a complex plot and the personalities of its characters...Megatokyo has received praise from such sources as The New York Times"

I guess it is a decent comic to read and it shouldn't have anything sexual or too violent inside. It's FREE anyway! Worth a try!

Let me know if it is any good!

Enjoy!!!