Friday, December 08, 2006

Insurance Words

Technical words to study for the final. You should be able to define these words (in an insurance context) using simple English:

actual cash value
adjuster
casualty
collision insurance
copayment
deductible
exclusions
hazard
health maintenance organization
investment income
liability
liquidity
policy
premium
tort

test study sheet

Questions to consider about The Insider:

Why was it important for the filmmakers to depict Jeffrey (the scientist) explaining to his daughter how the lungs work after her asthma attack?

What did the scientist mean when he told the 60 Minutes producer this issue is just the "drop in the bucket"?

In the scene where Jeffrey is called into a meeting with his old boss to discuss signing a new confidentiality agreement, why are the lawyers seated behind him?

Why was it important to the producer (played by Al Pacino) not to "burn people" (i.e., betray their trust)?

What did Jeffrey mean when he said "I always thought of myself as a man of science."

Why did the scientist go to work as a teacher?

How were shadows used in the movie in scenes such as at the golf course and in the backyard (when he discovers the footprint)?

Why did the scientist tell the news producer, "I'm just a commodity, aren't I?"

What is a whistleblower?

In some scenes, the filmmakers used a documentary-style handheld camera. Why do you think this is?

What effect does going public have on Jeffrey's personal life?

Why does the CBS lawyer tell the 60 Minutes crew that the tobacco company "owns the information"?

What are some of the difficult choices that characters in the movie face?

How is music used to set the tempo in the movie?

Why is Jeffrey, the scientist, called an "insider"?

What would you do if you were in Jeffrey's shoes?

What would you have done if you were the TV producers?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Verb Quiz (Nov. 16)

Your homework for next week (Nov. 16) is to prepare for a quiz on simple past and present verb tenses. To help you get ready, I have found an online quiz. The online quiz will use the same format as the test you are given next week in class. The link for the quiz is here: http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_pastorperfect1.htm. It consists of 30 multiple choice questions. Use your mouse to click on the circle representing the best answer, then click the "next question" box to go to the next question. After you have answered all 30 fill-in-the-blank sentences, the website will provide you with a score and feedback on how to improve. Practice well. If you are able to get a high score on this practice test, you will certainly score high on the exam in class. The text in class will include 10 questions similar to the ones on this practice exam.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Film dialogue/skit (for Nov. 9)

Assignment: Work in a group of 2 or 3 students. Write a dialogue or skit related to what kinds of movies you like/dislike. Your dialogue should be at least three minutes and no more than five. It must include the following eight vocabulary words:

epic
dialogue
prop
talent
hype
camera angle
slapstick
chick flick

These are technical words common in discussing movies.

If you need an explanation of any of the words, I recommend this website: http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms1.html.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

"Axe Handles" by Gary Snyder

One afternoon the last week in April
Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet
One-half turn and it sticks in a stump.
He recalls the hatchet-head
Without a handle, in the shop
And go gets it, and wants it for his own.
A broken-off axe handle behind the door
Is long enough for a hatchet,
We cut it to length and take it
With the hatchet head
And working hatchet, to the wood block.
There I begin to shape the old handle
With the hatchet, and the phrase
First learned from Ezra Pound
Rings in my ears!
"When making an axe handle
the pattern is not far off."
And I say this to Kai
"Look: We'll shape the handle
By checking the handle
Of the axe we cut with—"
And he sees. And I hear it again:
It's in Lu Ji's We Fu, fourth century
A.D. "Essay on Literature" - in the
Preface: "In making the handle
Of an axe
By cutting wood with an axe
The model is indeed near at hand."
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
Translated that and taught it years ago
And I see: Pound was an axe,
Chen was an axe, I am an axe
And my son a handle, soon
To be shaping again, model
And tool, craft of culture,
How we go on.

"John Muir on Mt. Ritter" by Gary Snyder

After scanning its face again and again,
I began to scale it, picking my holds
With intense caution. About half-way
To the top, I was suddenly brought to
A dead stop, with arms outspread
Clinging close to the face of the rock
Unable to move hand or foot
Either up or down. My doom
Appeared fixed. I MUST fall.
There would be a moment of
Bewilderment, and then,
A lifeless rumble down the cliff
To the glacier below.
My mind seemed to fill with a
Stifling smoke. This terrible eclipse
Lasted only a moment, when life blazed
Forth again with preternatural clearness.
I seemed suddenly to become possessed
Of a new sense. My trembling muscles
Became firm again, every rift and flaw in
The rock was seen as through a microscope,
My limbs moved with a positiveness and precision
With which I seemed to have
Nothing at all to do.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

"My Hometown" (Whiskeytown)

On back down in my hometown

Everybody's feelin' it bad

No new breaks, whatever it takes

Not to have to sway it on a classified ad



Hey there Ma and Pa here I am

Money's running out all the same

I just close my eyes and bring it on home again



Up real late in New York state

Talkin' to my baby at night

She keeps me warm and protects me from harm

Love just keeps on rollin' when the money gets tight



Hey there Ma and Pa where I am

Money's running out all the same

I just close my eyes and bring it on home again



Oh Mrs. Memory just take me on down

Back to the shanties and the cars by the lake

Oh Mrs. Memory just take me on back

Back to my baby and make it okay

Yeah just make it okay



On back down in my hometown

Everybody's feelin' the same

Good money spent on keepin' the rent

Sent in to the man under a week late



Hey there Ma and Pa were I am

Money's running out all the same

I just close my eyes and bring it on home again

I just close my eyes and bring it on home again

"Heaven of My Heart" (Jim White)

"Heaven of My Heart"

By Mike Pratt and Jim White


Radio song, playing in the car, don't even know where we are...

don't know the time of day or the color of the clothes I'm wearing.

Would you look at that sky, pretty little stars twinkling far above in heaven

sorta makes me feel like dancing, right here in the moonlight.

But this little girl, well she's so shy,

she won't even look up, into the sky... ..

At the shiny stars, guiding stars pointing the way to the heaven of my heart...

guiding stars pointing the way to the heaven of my,

the heaven of my heart.


Got a funny-bone, laugh like a mule, always did pretty good in school

but still I cannot decipher her arithmetic.

Cause I'd walk to the moon, I'd lick a spittoon,

I'd wear wooly underwear in a sauna,

just to show her how much I wanna be her loveable lunatic.

But she's so demure, that it's no surprise

when I tell her I love her, well she just closes her eyes... .

To the shiny stars, guiding stars pointing the way to the heaven of my heart...

guiding stars pointing the way to the heaven of my, the heaven of my heart.

Yes she's a brainy girl, that is good. She's smarter than me but then so is wood,

but that don't mean I should submit to her authority...

'cause I wanna make her laugh, I wanna make her sing,

but she won't do a doggone thing, and don'tcha know

when she don't it makes her even more adorable.

I guess that's why, it's the way she fights me... .

it makes them stars burn extra brightly

Them shiny stars, guiding star pointing the way to the heaven of my heart,

guiding stars pointing the way to the heaven of my heart ETC.