Present Continuous Tense

Structure

I                     +             am + V-ing he/she//it       +              is    + V-ing we/they/you  +              are + V-ing

 

Applications

1. Actions happening at the time of speaking

e.g. Please do not make the noise. We are studying now.

2. Actions happening not exactly but around the time of speaking

e.g. (Two people having tea in a tea shop) We are building our own house. Can you suggest any decoration plan for us?

3. Changing situations

e.g. The price of fuel is increasing. I think people are getting more and more angry because of this.

4. Certain actions in the near future

e.g. I am flying to New York tomorrow afternoon.

5. changing habit or actions happening around current specific time period

e.g. It is raining all day.

     He is getting angry easily these days.

Fixed expressions: with adjectives

The following are common fixed expressions used with adjectives.

1. The + cardinal number + Noun + to V_inf

The + cardinal number + w/wo Noun + to Vinf

e.g – Whenever we launch a new product, you will be the first person to know.

e.g – Mary will be the last person to be evacuated from the island.

e.g – Aung Aung is the fourth person in his family to join the military service in the same year.

 

2. One of + the + superlative adjective + Noun (plural)

one of + the + superlative adjective + Noun (plural)

e.g - Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the most respected democracy advocates in the world.

e.g – I think she has to make one of the hardest decisions in her life.

Fixed expressions: Purpose

The following are fixed expressions used to express purpose.

The purpose of/ the objective of/ the aim of/ the intention of + to + V_inf (V_inf = infinitive verb)

The purpose of/ the objective of + Purpose (noun) + Vbe + to + Vinf

e.g – The purpose of current study is to evaluate the effect of late marriage on child’s education.

Fixed expressions: Reason and Result

The following are fixed expressions used to express “reason and result” and “cause and effect”.

Because, since and as

Result (clause) + because/since/as Reason (clause)

e.g – I went home early today because I was feeling a bit tired.

Because/since/as Reason (clause), Result (clause)

e.g Since I came back late last night, my wife was angry.

e.g. – As two heavy trucks spilled 20 tons of carbolic acid into a river that supplies drinking water, customers are stocking cartons of bottled mineral water on Monday in a supermarket in Hangzhou. (Source: International Herald Tribune article)

Because of/ due to / owing to

Because of / due to / owing to + Reason (noun), Result (clause)

e.g. Because of world economic crisis, there are few chances for foreigners to get a job in Singapore.

So or so that (in one sentence)

Reason/Cause (clause) + so (/that) + Result/Effect (clause)

e.g Please provide us the necessary information so we can work out the quotation.

Therefore, as a result (separate sentences)

Reason/Cause (sentence). Therefore, as a result, consequently, accordingly, Result (sentence).

e.g – World economic crisis also hits Singapore. As a result, Singapore industries have to cut employment. Consequently, it is very hard for a foreigner to get a job in Singapore.

Compiled

by

Ko Khaing Zaw Lin

Source (English Vocabulary in Use: Pre-intermediate Level)

Sample essay: Social Ecological Impact of Irrawaddy Hydropower Project

Social Ecological Impact of Irrawaddy Hydropower Project; should it be continued?

Starting from northernmost mountainous part of Burma, the two tributaries, May Kha and Malikha form the River Irrawaddy at the confluence near Myitkyina, a town in upper Burma near China. The Irrawaddy continues to flow through the middle plain until it finally enters into the Adman Sea at the Bay of Bengal. Along the way, it spans almost two-third of the country providing freshwater, arable land, nutritious freshwater species and a transportation passage. Hence, Irrawaddy is an indispensable part of Burma and becomes its lifeblood. Therefore, it is the duty of all Burmese people to safeguard Irrawaddy, the most important geographical feature of our country.

Recent news on the Irrawaddy said that since December 2009, construction works have been started by China Power Cooperation and the Asia World Co. Ltd. to build a very large dam with the size of Singapore near its confluence, Myitsone and at six other locations. It is a joint project between Burmese government and the Chinese government. The main objective of this project is to harness hydropower to quench the thirst of power-hungry China. It is estimated that about 3,600 to 6,000 megawatts of electricity will benefit energy needs in industries in Yunan, China. Construction works are still underway regardless of recommendations not to continue the dam project by the environmental and political activists and ethnic Kachin people. Recently, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also raised international awareness on the social and ecological impact of the dam projects by issuing a statement to review it before proceeding.

However, Burmese government defended that the dam project can provide 2,600 employment opportunities for the local Burmese. Thousand employment opportunities actually are still low compared to the high unemployment rate. Besides this benefit, the government claims that the country will benefit foreign capital from selling hydropower. However, there is no transparency on to whom and what sectors will the benefits go. Another claim by the government is that part of hydropower will also be available for local use although there is also no transparency on the quota. So far there has not been any public announcement of local availability. Another possible reason why the Burmese government let China to implement the dam project is to further improve the relationship with China. Burmese government needs better relationship and trade with China to counter western economic sanctions and to earn hard currency, and to have veto-holding China’s backup in UN not to be inquired for a crime against humanity. By making huge hydropower available for power-hungry China, Burmese government has played a complete trade-in game with its economically and politically powerful neighbours for mutual benefits. Therefore, the questions remain if the Burmese government really cares about the social and ecological impact of the dam project on the Burmese people and environment or if they are only simply implementing it for their own political interest.

However, such a controversial dam project has become a political and national cause for every ordinary Burmese citizen. That is why almost all Burmese both at home and abroad are reviewing the social and ecological impact of the dam project. Since the dam is quite large in size comparable to the size of Singapore, a large volume of water will be consumed for storage in the dam. This may somehow affect the navigation along the river. Recently, several small islands have been appearing along the river blocking and shifting navigation path. Once the dam is complete and large volume of water is stored, those islands may even become bigger and the river’s flow path may gradually shift. As a result, river bank will be eroded threatening lives on the river bank. Moreover, the gorges may become narrower and the flow past these gorges becomes very fast making navigation difficult and dangerous. Therefore, all these will affect water navigation in Burma since Irrawaddy is the largest water passage in the country.

This is not the only effect that the dam project brings. Another possible effect by the large dam size is that floodplain by the Irrawaddy will be smaller. This will reduce the sediments in the land degrading the soil quality. The lower soil quality would result in the decrease in agricultural product. Therefore, it can make life difficult for the farmers along the Irrawaddy plains. Besides these, a large body of sea water may sweep inland at the river mouth since the river downstream will also be affected. The salty water in the Irrawaddy Delta will also result in soil quality degradation which can result in lower economic growth by the farmers. All these are threatening the country’s economy since Burmese economy is mainly depending on agricultural exports.

Besides the effects on agriculture and navigation systems, the dam projects may also cause some water contamination in the river. According the local ethnic people, Chinese companies are not only building the dam but are also secretly digging gold in mines. There are also some reports that say that many gold mines along Irrawaddy river bank dispose the waste directly into the river. Therefore, the river will be contaminated by wastes from construction works and gold mines. This contamination may be harmful for both the people who rely on the river for drinking water and the freshwater species, which is a main food supply for most Burmese. Rare freshwater species such as Irrawaddy dolphins, which is one of the main tourist attractions in Burma, are no exception to this, hence resulting in lower tourism income. Therefore, river contamination can also lead to social and economic impacts on the people and economy.

Besides these serious effects of the dam project on agriculture, navigation and ecological systems, perhaps the most serious and direct impact is the forced mass dislocation of local residents for the dam site. According to the reports by environmental NGOs, 15,000 neighbouring Kachin natives and millions of people living downstream of the dam construction location will be affected because of inundation. This is one of the most serious human right abuses and has resulted in more intense public disbelief in the government. It has also created more tensions between Kachin ethnic army KIO and the government.

To sum up, it seems that the dam project brings more disadvantages than advantages to the people because of the government’s lack of responsibility and transparency. Therefore, Burmese government should be more transparent while both governments should be more responsible for the social and ecological lives. Both sides must be aware of all these impacts. Moreover, there should be a complete review of the project with a lot of negotiations with local people who suffered the direct consequences and consultation and dialogue with all the parties such as environmentalists and political oppositions if the dam project is really for the benefit of the people.

Outlining: Sample outline

Social Ecological Impact of Irrawaddy Hydropower Project

Should it be continued?

Paragraph I: Introduction

Overview

Idea 1: Where and what is Irrawaddy? How important is Irrawaddy in Burmese life?

Idea 2: Overview of dam project: who, aim, cooperation, location, size

Paragraph II: advantages

Idea 1: employment opportunity

2600 job opportunities –

Comment 1, very minor

Idea 2, foreign currency from sale of electricity

Comment 1, in what sector and how it will be used?

Comment 2, any transparency to show it benefits the public sectors?

Idea 3, increasing power availability locally

Comment 1, how much proportion of total?

Comment 2, any allocation decided?

Idea 4, Improve relationship

Comment 1 counter economic sanctions and get a back-up in UN?

Comment 2, mutual benefits.

Comment 3, care for people or just political game?

Paragraph III: disadvantages

Idea 1, effect on navigation system,

Link 1 to size, Comment 1, several islands appearing,

Comment 2, changes in flow path and bank erosion, comment 4, more gorges may appear. All comments resulting in navigation lock

Idea 2 effect on irrigation

Link 1 to idea 1 and Link 2 to size, Comment 1, smaller floodplain

Comment 2, a large body of sea water may sweep inland at the river mouth,

Comment 3, resulting in soil quality degradation,

Comment 3, big negative social and economical impact since Burma is an agricultural land.

Idea 3 effect of contamination

Link 1 to aim, many gold mines along Irrawaddy river bank with waste thrown directly into the river.

Comment 1, river will be contaminated by wastes from construction works and gold mine.

Comment 2, result in degradation of freshwater species, which is a main food supply for most Burmese.

Comment 3, including the Irrawaddy dolphin which is a rare species, lower tourism income

Idea 4 force dislocation

Link 1 to size, mass dislocation by force one of the most serious human right abuses.

Comment 1, result in more intense public disbelief in the government,

Comment 2, more tensions between KIO and the government

Paragraph IV: conclusions

Idea 1, advantages overweighs.

Comment 1, Burmese government should be more transparent while both governments should be more responsible for the social and ecological lives.

Comment 2, before proceeding, there should be a complete review of the project with a lot of negotiations with local people and dialogue with all parties such as environmentalists, political oppositions concerning the long life of Irrawaddy.

Unit 1: Structure of a good talk (Higher level communication)

A good talk should have been well structured with the following elements.

1.    Provide overview (an introduction)

2.    Talk one idea at a time

3.    Link ideas

4.    Link with the people (listener)

5.    Transition (summary of recent ideas + link to the next idea)

6.    Provide final closing (a summary or conclusion)

The details of each element will be discussed below.

1. Provide an overview

You should give an overview of the whole conversation or speech, i.e. what you are going to talk next. In other words, you give your audience a hint of what they can expect in your talk.

This can be a set of topics of several ideas that you are going to talk soon.

2. Talk one idea at a time

Next, you start talking real points of our talk. One of the most important points to note here is that you should never talk too many ideas at the same time. If you do it, ideas will be mixed up and audience may find it difficult to understand or catch them. Therefore, just talk one idea at a time. Also, you always start with what the idea is about, i.e. the topic or overview of an idea. Next, you provide evidences for your idea. These may be explanations, factual information, famous quotations or even opinions by others. The most important point here is always talk one idea at a time; start with overview of an idea followed by evidences.

3. Link ideas

Once you have finished talking one idea, you have to switch yourself to a next idea. Sometimes, two ideas may not be related. However, most of the times, two ideas are somehow related to one another. Therefore, if you find yourself hard to move to a new idea, you just try to summarize the idea that you have just discussed. Next, find a way to link it up with the next idea. This will provide a smooth transition for both you and your ideas.

However, if you suddenly shift to a new idea without linking up with the recent idea, audience may find it hard to follow you because they are still in thinking of the recent idea. Therefore, providing a transition with linking between recent and new ideas is important for better and effective communication between you and your audience.

4. Link with the people (listener)

  What happens when you lose yourself during talking an idea? You may have definitely experienced this before in the middle of your talking. It may be because you are not well-prepared, or you just do not have enough factual information to provide to convince your audience, or you are just too overwhelmed by your big audience etc. If you find this kind of situation during your talk, the best way to avoid such kind of sudden stop during talk is to link yourself or yours ideas with your audience. You may try to link by using phrases such as "Oh, what is your idea on this?", "How do you think about it?", "I think Mary has some points to highlight on this", "I am sorry that although I have written it down somewhere, I could not find it now, so could you please refresh me what I have just talked about?", "I think we have seen it before together", etc.

Therefore, to make your talk more lively, Rule 4 is link with your audience and it will make you easy for moving to a next point and you will have better understanding from the audience.

Of course, this may not be useful if the part of the ideas that you are talking is mainly your responsibility. In other words, if you have to provide credentials so that the audience can judge you, in this case, you cannot ask their opinions by linking up with them.

However, it must finally be reminded here that too much use of linking with your audience is also not good. If you overdo it, the audience may think that this guy is not well-versed on what he is talking and always asking helps from audience!

5. Transitions

As we have seen above, transition is very important during your talk. This can be done by linking your own ideas, with your audience and with their ideas. Actually, Rule 5 is the summary of Rules 3 and 4. It is put here again so that you can see its importance. To repeat it here, smooth transitions are very important so that you audience can catch your ideas easily and quickly. You can use the phrases such as "This kind of problem (summary of recent idea) needs a special way of approaching to solve it (heading to a new idea).", "So far we have just discussed the advantages of late marriage (summary of recent idea), but (transition word) there are also some drawbacks (moving to a new idea) in late marriage", "I think that what Mr. Smith has just pointed out is absolutely true (linking with audience). Actually (transition word), I have planned to talk about it in next slide (shifting to a new idea)."

It is hoped that you have now seen the importance of different linking styles to provide a smooth transition. Therefore, please use these techniques to enrich your conversation skills.

6. Provide a closing (a summary or conclusion)

Now, you have just given an overview followed by different ideas with different smooth transitions and links. However, what comes next? How can you stop your talk? If you think that well, I have just provided all my ideas with good links, it should be enough, and then you are hanging your ideas and your audience in the air. They are still with your ideas and you need to sum them up properly so that they can see what your stand is and what they can bring home. You can fulfil this by providing a conclusion for each of your ideas. Then, link each conclusion and provide final main conclusion. This will nicely sum up your talk. You may use phrases such as "All these points (a summary of all of your ideas) lead to (transition word) a conclusion that late marriage has both good and bad points (main conclusion). However, (transition word) we have found that there can be no specific rules or advices on whether the couple should get married early or late (another main conclusion). It really depends on each individuals (providing final take-home gift for the audience). I hope now you have seen how important your conclusion is to sum up your talk.

In this unit, we have studied the structure of a good talk with different elements. The most important points are (i) provide an overview, (ii) talk an idea at a time, (iii) link your ideas, (iv) link with audience, (v) provide smooth transitions, and (vi) provide a summary of the whole talk. You can visit or return this unit again if you need the details of each element. I hope that this unit is really useful for you and you may use these techniques to have a higher level communication skill.