Verb Quiz (Nov. 30)

On November 30, you will have a verb tense quiz. You will be responsible for studying the material online. A practice quiz can be found here: http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_pastorperfect1.htm. The in-class exam will use the same format as the practice test (but different questions). If you take this practice test (30 questions) and study the answers at the end, you should be able to attain a perfect score in the class quiz.

Additionally, I would recommend reading the following two review pages. Pay attention to the past tense forms used in the dialogue:
http://esl.about.com/library/beginner/blwhatdid.htm
http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blpresperfect.htm

Film terms

Here are some useful words for discussing movie styles:

action
bio-pic
comedy
documentary
drama
epic
horror
martial arts
science fiction
classic
coming-of-age film
spaghetti western
film noir
chick flick
character study
cinematography
dialogue
cameo
special effects
buzz
editing
scene
closeup
suspense
anti-hero

For an explanation of these terms, consult: http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms1.html.

A reminder on next week's homework (due Nov. 9): Write a 350-word essay responding to the question "Do you believe the friends you had when you were 12 were the best you ever had?"

Marketing Project (due Dec. 7)

For this project, find a partner. You and your partner will design a five-minute multimedia presentation in English together to propose a new product. Your presentation should follow the format of a persuasive speech and make use of at least one visual prop.

It should also include the following elements:

1) Details about the product you plan to bring to the market (e.g., function, look, design, etc.).
2) An explanation of your "target market" (planned customer base). The more specific this target market is, the better.
3) An explanation of how your product is different from comparable products already on the market (i.e., why will your product be successful?).
4) A plan for advertising and/or promoting the product.
5) A celebrity pitchman/pitchwoman. You should explain why you have chosen this particular celebrity and why you believe they will be effect for your product.
6) A jingle (song clip to accompaniment advertisements for the product). For this clip, you are welcome to use a song of your own or a famous song. Like in #5 (above), you should explain why this jingle will help promote your product.

This project will be graded on the following criteria: 1) Ability to communicate effectively in English, 2) Originality, and 3) Following the directions well.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask (the sooner, the better).

The presentations will be due on December 7. Good luck! I look forward to seeing your work.

Bonus Question (for Nov. 2 homework)

The following quote is the beginning to Don McLean's "American Pie" (recently covered by Madonna):

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

What historical event was he referring to here? I.e., which day is called the "day the music died"?

Homework Questions (due Nov. 2)

Some of these questions have multiple parts. Please use Google to research the questions and hand in your answers on Nov. 2.

1) Who is Stephen King? Where is he from? What movies has he been involved with? What do the critics say about his work?
2) Who is River Phoenix? What happened to him?
3) Who is Kiefer Sutherland? What well-known TV series is he currently starring in?
4) Where did the title Stand By Me come from?
5) Who was Buddy Holly?

Upcoming Schedule

Here is the schedule of our sessions for the next few weeks. All of these sessions are mandatory.

Thursday, Oct. 26-Picnic/Hike beginning at noon. Meet at the library steps. We will be finished around 1:30-1:45.

Wednesday, Nov. 1-Movie showing of "Stand By Me" at 2 p.m. Location: JC205.

Thursday, Nov. 2-Regular class at 2 p.m. We will discuss the movie and poems. The five homework questions are due at this time.

Marketing Terms

The following words are some of the most useful English words for marketing. They are likely to be on the Final so be sure you 1) understand them in a business context, and 2) are able to define them using your available English vocabulary:

PR
campaign
poll
survey
graph
chart
jingle
presentation
promotion
profit
soundbite
pitch
spokesman/spokeswoman/spokesperson
market/market share
e-commerce
budget
brand
narrowcasting
slogan
target audience
word of mouth
ad copy
proof
demographics
generic

"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.

"At Tower Peak" by Gary Snyder

Every tan rolling meadow will turn into housing
Freeways are clogged all day
Academies packed with scholars writing papers
City people lean and dark
This land most real
As its western-tending golden slopes
And bird-entangled central valley swamps
Sea-lion, urchin coasts
Southerly salmon-probes
Into the aromatic almost-Mexican hills
Along a range of granite peaks
The names forgotten,
An eastward running river that ends out in desert
The chipping ground-squirrels in the tumbled blocks
The gloss of glacier ghost on slab
Where we wake refreshed from ten hours sleep
After a long day's walking
Packing burdens to the snow
Wake to the same old world of no names,
No things, new as ever, rock and water,
Cool dawn birdcalls, high jet contrails.
A day or two or million, breathing
A few steps back from what goes down
In the current realm.
A kind of ice age, spreading, filling valleys
Shaving soils, paving fields, you can walk in it
Live in it, drive through it then
It melts away
For whatever sprouts
After the age of
Frozen hearts. Flesh-carved rock
And gusts on the summit,
Smoke from forest fires is white,
The haze above the distant valley like a dusk.
It's just one world, this spine of rock and streams
And snow, and the wash of gravels, silts
Sands, bunchgrasses, saltbrush, bee-fields,
Twenty million human people, downstream, here below.

"Mississippi" by Bob Dylan

Every step of the way we walk the line
Your days are numbered, so are mine
Time is pilin' up, we struggle and we scrape
We're all boxed in, nowhere to escape

City's just a jungle, more games to play
Trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away
I was raised in the country, I been workin' in the town
I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down

Got nothing for you, I had nothing before
Don't even have anything for myself anymore
Sky full of fire, pain pourin' down
Nothing you can sell me, I'll see you around

All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime
Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Well, the devil's in the alley, mule's in the stall
Say anything you wanna, I have heard it all
I was thinkin' about the things that Rosie said
I was dreaming I was sleeping in Rosie's bed

Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees
Feeling like a stranger nobody sees
So many things that we never will undo
I know you're sorry, I'm sorry too

Some people will offer you their hand and some won't
Last night I knew you, tonight I don't
I need somethin' strong to distract my mind
I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind

Well I got here following the southern star
I crossed that river just to be where you are
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Well my ship's been split to splinters and it's sinking fast
I'm drownin' in the poison, got no future, got no past
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free
I've got nothin' but affection for all those who've sailed with me

Everybody movin' if they ain't already there
Everybody got to move somewhere
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interesting right about now

My clothes are wet, tight on my skin
Not as tight as the corner that I painted myself in
I know that fortune is waitin' to be kind
So give me your hand and say you'll be mine

Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay
You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

"Seven Curses" by Bob Dylan

Old Reilly stole a stallion
But they caught him and they brought him back
And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With an iron chain around his neck.

Old Reilly's daughter got a message
That her father was goin' to hang.
She rode by night and came by morning
With gold and silver in her hand.

When the judge he saw Reilly's daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head,
Sayin', "Gold will never free your father,
The price, my dear, is you instead."

"Oh I'm as good as dead," cried Reilly,
"It's only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all.
Get on your horse and ride away."

"Oh father you will surely die
If I don't take the chance to try
And pay the price and not take your advice.
For that reason I will have to stay."

The gallows shadows shook the evening,
In the night a hound dog bayed,
In the night the grounds were groanin',
In the night the price was paid.

The next mornin' she had awoken
To know that the judge had never spoken.
She saw that hangin' branch a-bendin',
She saw her father's body broken.

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:
That one doctor will not save him,
That two healers will not heal him,
That three eyes will not see him.

That four ears will not hear him,
That five walls will not hide him,
That six diggers will not bury him
And that seven deaths shall never kill him.