Saturday, April 11, 2009

Improve My English

Improve My English
Not like many of the other students in NUS, I am from a non-English speaking country. Strategically, Isuppose, the only way to improve English is to use it. As they say, you either use it or lose it. Hence, I think that the key to improve my English ability is just to stay motivated, keep working on it and keep practicing it.

However, from the experience of lots of my friends, tactically there are many ways to polish my English, as "all roads lead to Rome". Therefore, I hope to set a more effective way for my own situation. In fact, what problems I am faced with is generally concern with English writhing.

First of all, reading becomes one of my choices. From my point of view, it is the easiest way to "feel" English. It is not painful, but helps a lot. Although, there are many materials to read, I hope to find the most useful ones. Just as this course, my purpose is to improve my academic writing. As a result, I find that the academic level reading and knowledge base reading are of the best choices. Besides, for interests, newspapers and magazines are highly prefered for extensive reading, because the things reported are always changing, and I would never get bored of that.
Besides printed materials, sometimes I also do Web reading. With these reading, I could get myself familiar with the ways of speaking, narrating and thinking in English rather than in Chinese which is my mother tongue. Sometimes, I could just memorize some words, phrases or sentences. Then I felt like to use them no matter in my writing or speaking. Furthermore, reading could also contributes to my comprehension. As an university level student, an more critical way of thinking is required. In my opinion, if I read more on self ability improvement or current affairs, I can get more than expected.

Besides, one of the other way I chose to improve my English is more relaxing. I watch English movies and English television frequently. Except just watching, I will always recite some of the subtitles from the movies impressed me. And also those classical dialogues. By the way, imitating how they pronounce the words excited me as well. There are something else I have tried, though they are not my most favored, is to watch the TV news, because I can learn about how to discuss current events and talk with others in English.

However, there is still a lot of problems with my English. It is not easy for my to apply and use what I have learned. Simultaneously, speaking and writing are still two of the most troublesome parts and blocks. Then I think I am going to find my friends and teachers, who are native speakers, to talk to. I am trying to find people to practice English. As everyone knows that language is for communication, which is an interactive process. Reading books, watching TV or listening to music only improve my understanding and word choice. Practice makes perfect. The best practice is conversation. I have to socialize with those proficient in the language. The more I speak, the more comfortable and confident I feel with English. And also, I want to find someone critical so that my faults can be pointed out directly.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Three Of My Common Grammar Mistakes

My Three Common Grammar Mistakes:
It has been quite a long time since the beginning of my learning English. Generally speaking, it is not a easy work. One of the reasons is that Chinese is my mother tongue, and there are plenty of difference between these two languages, grammar in particular. After finish my two writing assignments, I find three common grammar mistakes of my assignment writting.
First of all, there comes the problem of word form. For instance, there is a sentence in my essay: "When comparing with previous or existing energy supply, solar power is much more clean and less polluted." Here, what I wanted to do is to compare the two kinds of energy supply and let people figure out the environmental benefit of solar energy. However, there is word form problems with the word comparing and polluted. Since it is passive voice for solar energy which is the subject and the word polluted is of passive meaning, the sentence should be changed into the correct one:"when being compared with previous or existing energy supply, solar power is much more clean and less polluting." There are quite a lot of word form mistakes in my essay, and mainly it is because I have problems with catching the exact and extent meanings of the words I used. From my point of view, memorising will be a good way.
Secondly, I notice that I have some mistakes on subject verb agreement. In my essay, one of the incorrect sentences is "Moreover, solar power need to be generally applied." Here, solar power is singular, then the verb after it should agree with a singular form. Then the correct one is "Moreover, solar power needs to be generally applied." Generally, the mistakes are due to carelessness. However, there are often some other conditions in which SVA mistakes happen easily, like the subjects have different meaning on both singular and plural, the subjects can act as both countable and uncountable, or the subjects and verbs separated by some other patterns.
Besides, another mistake which often appears in my essays is article mistakes. This is the kind of mistake that happens much more commonly, such an "Hybrid engine vehicle technology, the opponents clam, is not economically worthwhile to most of the consumers who are currently using the conventional engine vehicles."(conventional engine vehicles is referred for the first time) and "Nevertheless, the potential problems of driving HEV, claimed by those big car companies, have been minimized to the lowest extent." Here, each of the sentences has the problem of article. In the first one, as I marked, conventional engine is mentioned for the first time, so there should be a "the" ahead because "the" is used for none that everyone has known. And so does the second sentence.
After summarising all my common grammar mistakes, I realize that so many easy mistakes are there in my English writing. It seems there is a urgent need to improve it. Hope to improve and refine my grammar skills by taking this course.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Summary Of Four Roundtable Discussion

Summary Of Roundtable Discussion
During the roundtable discussion, there are four topics being assigned respectively.
Group 4: By discussing the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid engine vehicles(HEV), group 4 focused on whether it is benefit or not to use HEV to mitigate the climate change. The side which support promoting HEV provides the benefits of HEV. Firstly, HEV is environmentally friendly for the less consumption of fossil fuel cut down the emission of CO2 comparing to the conventional vehicle. Then, the opponents argued that applying HEV will cause a large amount on initial cost. They claimed that HEV is not economic beneficial. Furthermore, by providing the increasing price of petrol, the supporting side rebutted that HEV could save quite a lot of money afterwards. Moreover, the opposite side argued that the problem of cost will limit the adoption of HEV. And also, HEV is not a way to directly solve the problem of climate change because it cannot decrease the amount of CO2 rapidly like carbon dioxide capture and storage.
Group 3: This group debated on the topic of regulations on the use of brain scan technology. This supporting side firstly raise the view that the use of such technology would violate a person's privacy since it is able to predict what is the person thinking of. On top of this idea, the opponents rebutted that it would be too troublesome for either the government or institution to regulate. After that, the supporting team argued that based on the previous opinion, young children would be send for brain tests to see if he or she is capable of attending certain courses by their parents and this would trigger some ethic issues. Hence, the opposite side raised that there are still too much uncertainties now since the brain scan technology is still in the infancy stage and is not mature enough. Therefore, it would be impossible to regulate it at this point of time.
Group 2: The third group of discussed the topic of the green chemistry in this contemporary era. The for side of supported that Singapore should take advantage of green chemistry in its own region, and this is an opportunity to enrich the field of green chemistry industry. However, the opponents argued that Singapore is facing population shortage and the current economic crisis will not get Singapore more benefit to apply this green chemistry as the pioneer. They thought that Singapore would need other models of success in green chemistry from overseas to follow. Then, the supporting side provided that Singapore has the industrial capacity and technology capability in this area. Finally they give the conclusive idea which is Singapore should take the challenge as the opportunity to apply green chemistry.
Group 1: The last group of the roundtable discussion session was assigned the topic of stem cell technology on research and applications. The supporting team taking the stem cell research is beneficial since it can provide medical technology. For example, using stem cell technology to clone organ could provide organ transmission. This gives the chance to mitigate the time that patients need to wait. However, the opponents argued on the moral issues. They oppose the stem cell technology for reproducing cell is a technology to change the right of life of every creature. It is beyond the right limitation of human being.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Summary: Hybrid Engine Vehicle

Summary of Roudtable Discussion:
Hybrid Engine Vehicle
According to the expert, the change of climate change becomes increasingly serious. In regard to this problem, more and more people realize that the change of climate, which can be seen from global warming, is mainly due to those greenhouse gases. In order to mitigate the problem of climate change, generally there is a need to control and cut down the emission of Carbon dioxide.
In regard to the emission of CO2, the widely used vehicles over the world contributes quite a lot. A report shows that more than 10 percent of CO2 emission comes from fossil fuel processing and distribution(IPCC 2007). Therefore it is a possible way to mitigate Carbon dioxide emission by changes on vehicle engine to decrease the consumption of fossil fuel. Consequently, hybrid engine comes to be a good choice.
A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles, which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors. It includes a propulsion system additional to the electric motors, to be not hampered by range from a charging unit like a battery electric vehicle. Hence, hybrid engine vehicle does have yields of advantages on mitigating the climate change.
Firstly, using hybrid engine vehicles could cut down the consumption of fossil fuel, which is one of the good ways to cut down the emission of CO2. Although some still say that hybrid engine also cost carbon dependent fuel, mitigate the emission is the first step to decrease the total amount of Carbon dioxide. Furthermore, aim at the increase of cost for the new vehicle which is considered by lots of people, hybrid engine shows its economic benefit on a large scale improvement of whole environment. Moreover, hybrid engine increases the utilization ratio of the energy. It takes advantage of the mechanical energy or heat from the engine itself so that less fuel is costed.
Therefore, in order to control and then mitigate the gradual change of climate, hybrid engine is the good choice.
http://www.allhybridcars.com/hybrid-car-problems.html
http://www.hybridcars.com/forums/honda-accord-hybrid-t377.html
http://hybridreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/hybrid-engine.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117091633.htm
http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/aug2002/special.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news146140027.html
http://www.bionomicfuel.com/eco-car-industry-hybrid-engine-cars-biodiesel-vehicles-and-more/
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kevin-ohannessian/not-quite-conversation/past-imperfect

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Reflection of the lecture on 30th January

Report to the lecture on 30 January
In the lecture, all of the three lecturer present information of how to reduce the emission of Carbon dioxide. Also the purpose of the lecture is to inform us of climate change on the fields of technology and policy, and it generally focuses on global warming. There are quite a lot of new system approaches to mitigate this serious problem of climate change which are interesting to me. Here, I would like to summarize base on my own understanding.
The first lecturer, professor Palmer, talks much about reducing of Carbon dioxide on new technologies and policies. That is Carbon dioxide capture and storage. He gives plenty of information of the effect of Carbon dioxide as the greenhouse gas and the response that people should have to the emission of Carbon dioxide. In this part, he does show some ways of solving the problem, like switch the conventional source to some advance renewable ones. After that, he gives us a few policies on reducing the emission of Carbon dioxide. And a couple of examples are provide like the actions in UK government can take such as to tax petrol heavily. Then, it is something on Carbon dioxide capture. He gives details of its process and result. Also there is reasons why it is not widely applied.
Then comes the second lecturer, Dr. Sovacool. He talks about using STS (Science & Technology Studies) to address energy and technological problems. The whole presentation he makes, from my opinion, is about the systematical approaches. What he states is that solving the environmental problem is not simply about technology. He start his talk by assigning the traditional and society science methods as a introduction of STS. Consequently, he starts his thought that the political approach is needed and the conventional behaviour, culture, economy and technology should be challenged. He ends up with the use of STS.
Finally, the third lecturer, Dr Rajasekhar Bala, present his topic "Climate Change". His main point is to talk about how the greenhouse gas will affect the nature and environment of the earth (global warming). Firstly, the graphs he provides as evidence convinces that the greenhouse gas is causing a global change of temperature. Furthermore, he shows simple model of how to determine the average temperature and the condition of greenhouse gas in atmosphere. Then he rises the question "How to prevent global warming". Lastly, he suggests the response and action on both political and individual.
From my point of view, I find there are a few things the government can do, when I am thinking about professor Palmer's and Dr. Sovacool's topics. For instance, a policy of changing the conventional source in to the renewable ones like solar energy should be published. Moreover, what Dr Rajasekhar Bala talks really gives me a thought of how should we do as individuals. Just like those environmental interest groups, what they are doing is setting demonstration for us. Maybe taking the public transportation is one of them. As in sum, the problem of global warming can be solved if and only if everyone plays a role of participant.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth

What are the existing or possible roles of environmental and special interest groups in contribution to or solving global warming?
"Future generations may will have an occasion to ask: 'what our parents think of, and why don't they wake up?' " those words are appearing in the documentary "an inconvenient truth" which moves people a lot. When people consider about the saying in deed, surely the idea will occur that is what the reason someone speak like these is. All these stuff is about global warming which is a serious problem staring us in face. And it is also a problem which need everyone concerns. However, nowadays a couple of environmental and special interest groups are trying their best to figure this out. Recently, more and more people are thinking about what roles the groups are playing regarding this environmental problem. Generally, they are among two fields.
First of all, what these have done do help the society to get a few solutions facing global warming, and they have made a great contribution to bring those measures into effect. With time passes by, all the governments gradually realize that it is not only the work which the government should do to settle this problem. There is a need of everyone in the world to participate for each step needs each one to make a change. Consequently, since these environmental and special interest group consist of the ordinary people, they could help a lot. For instance, the participants in the groups will hold closely activities to get people know the phenomenon and persuade them. Hence, being close to others is the advantage for the groups when try to solve global warming.
Furthermore , their work done is of great importance to warn the others beside them, even in this whole world. Now global warming is such a great problem, whereas plenty of people still cannot realize this issue. The increasing of the level of seawater, for example, is not easily felt by ordinary people. As a result, the environmental and special interest groups will help to let they learn or know the states of affairs.
In sum, all these environmental and special interest groups may not solve the issue of global warming directly, but they do help effectively and efficiently. All the kinds of roles they are playing is focus on get everyone else involve for this is the only way to figure the problem out radically, and everyone living in this society is the biggest motivation to put this in to progress.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Expanding World of Engineer

As an engineer who is living in this highly developed society, the ability is to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions becomes increasingly significant. Hence, in order to be an engineer who is described above, the key points, which I think, are the creative thinking, and circumspect consideration.
First of all, being creative contributes to the understanding of the things and their various environments. Since all the engineers are in an expanding world, those one hundred percent new things or techniques are coming into being every now and then. Consequently, cultivating an environment of creative thinking affects a lot. No matter the analysis of confused information or getting the most efficient ways of solving the problems, an open mind gives engineers plenty of ideas which frame their fundamental solution. From my appreciation, the more thoughts engineers hold in mind, the more favorable their solutions will be.
Besides, the circumspect consideration also acts as an essential part of approaching the level of successful engineer. Whenever a problem or trouble comes about, there's a need of fully understanding of the current circumstance. Then, the one who is able to have the circumspect consideration appears to be the seasoned engineer. In virtual of the importance of being able to deal with sudden occurrence, circumspect analysis becomes evenly effective. For instance, none of those bioengineering participants could success without a careful analysis before working on the new techniques. Therefore, an engineer training needs to get the engineers the basic rules of circumspect consideration.
In sum, to train the engineers to be able to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions, it is necessary to get them the creative mind and circumspect consideration. All these make a great contribution to their self-improvement.