Just a quick message to anybody reading this blog. If you have been wondering about the apparently impossible spelling of words in English, this is THE BOOK.
Spell it out by David Crystal. David Crystal is a famous linguist and lexicographer (i.e. he makes dictionaries) and his book on spelling is very informative because he explains in detail how English spelling resulted the way it did.
I always give some general ideas about that process when my students ask me, but if you want to know more, here's the book you should be reading over Christmas!
And in case you were wondering you can find it on amazon, on ibooks, and even on Mr. Crystal's website.
miércoles, 19 de noviembre de 2014
martes, 18 de noviembre de 2014
Prepositions: ON vs. OFF (Obama vs. Taylor Swift)
The meaning of prepositions often puzzles learners of English. However, it is one of the things I like about english grammar. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that prepositions in English, compared with Spanish, are wonderful.
Why? Because they make sense. Prepositions in Spanish often have a vague meaning or they are too flexible. However in English they have coherent meanings that are rarely contradicted. To put it in rules:
a) A preposition in English always (every rule has its exceptions) has the same meaning.
b) that basic meaning can be elaborated on, but it will remain basically the same.
c) as a consequence with a little common sense, the meaning of prepositions can be predicted... and so can phrasal verbs.
So, what is the meaning of ON and OFF? These two prepositions which are clearly opposites, are often misunderstood by many students and approached incorrectly by too many teachers. Any possible meaning of on falls within the category of "in contact". Any possible meaning of off can be reduced to "no contact".
Both meanings have to be interpreted broadly. But the basic meaning remains. Let's take the expression "that's on me" which apparently makes no sense. Where is the contact here? The contact here is the connection between the person who says that sentence and the payment to be made.
"That's on us, not on them."
Here, Obama is using it even more metaphorically: he is discussing Obamacare and its failings and he is taking the blame, as if it were the bill at a bar. So, he can still use "That's on us." Even here, on means contact, in the sense of belonging which is a type of connection.
Now to off. Recently american singer Taylor Swift provided us with a very good example of using "off" in a metaphorical way, actually a phrasal verb (phrasal verbs are more or less elaborated metaphores).
The name of the song is shake it off. If you think about it this phrasal verb is ingenious and straightforward at the same time: the message is to stop worrying about stupid problems which are really unimportant. This is something that happens a lot when you are a teenager. The idea of separation is there, separating from those problems. This is a metaphorical turn on the original use of shake off, which is what you do with snow, dirt, dust, etc... when they accumulate on your clothes.
A good exercise would be to take any sentence you can think of that includes on or off and figure out how these prepositions retain the original meanings. If you can't figure it out, you are welcome to post it as a comment!
Why? Because they make sense. Prepositions in Spanish often have a vague meaning or they are too flexible. However in English they have coherent meanings that are rarely contradicted. To put it in rules:
a) A preposition in English always (every rule has its exceptions) has the same meaning.
b) that basic meaning can be elaborated on, but it will remain basically the same.
c) as a consequence with a little common sense, the meaning of prepositions can be predicted... and so can phrasal verbs.
So, what is the meaning of ON and OFF? These two prepositions which are clearly opposites, are often misunderstood by many students and approached incorrectly by too many teachers. Any possible meaning of on falls within the category of "in contact". Any possible meaning of off can be reduced to "no contact".
Both meanings have to be interpreted broadly. But the basic meaning remains. Let's take the expression "that's on me" which apparently makes no sense. Where is the contact here? The contact here is the connection between the person who says that sentence and the payment to be made.
"That's on us, not on them."
Here, Obama is using it even more metaphorically: he is discussing Obamacare and its failings and he is taking the blame, as if it were the bill at a bar. So, he can still use "That's on us." Even here, on means contact, in the sense of belonging which is a type of connection.
Now to off. Recently american singer Taylor Swift provided us with a very good example of using "off" in a metaphorical way, actually a phrasal verb (phrasal verbs are more or less elaborated metaphores).
The name of the song is shake it off. If you think about it this phrasal verb is ingenious and straightforward at the same time: the message is to stop worrying about stupid problems which are really unimportant. This is something that happens a lot when you are a teenager. The idea of separation is there, separating from those problems. This is a metaphorical turn on the original use of shake off, which is what you do with snow, dirt, dust, etc... when they accumulate on your clothes.
A good exercise would be to take any sentence you can think of that includes on or off and figure out how these prepositions retain the original meanings. If you can't figure it out, you are welcome to post it as a comment!
Spanish actors and their English pronunciation
Spanish people have a reputation abroad for speaking languages terribly. They are not alone in that, and there are even worse examples, but that's the reputation. What about spanish artists, like actors or singers. In the case of actors, the reference is Hollywood, of course, and to enter Hollywood as an equal, you have to be accepted and that is hard work. Fame costs!
Now, in the last few years, things have changed for the better. Now I am going to focus on three different stages of that process. The interesting thing is these three people know each other very well: Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The reason I have chosen them is because they exemplify three very clear stages of pronunciation development in foreign learners of English. First, Mr. Banderas:
In this interview you can notice that his English is very fluent, he has no problem getting his message across and he understands the journalist very well. However if you look at his acting career, he seems to be doomed to playing the latino character in every film. Why is that? Because the way he sounds is completely foreign. He is pronouncing English with the minimum changes necessary to become just understandable. His vowel sounds, most of his consonants and most suprasegmental features (the things that happen over more than one sound) are brought in from the spanish language. And that's his glass ceiling. Which both Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem have broken for themselves.
My second example is Penélope Cruz. Both her and Javier Bardem have learnt from people like Antonio Banderas who came first, so they have improved a lot their learning process. Merciless immersion brought Antonio only so far. They needed to get a little more professional about it and has been using a voice coach for years. Her progress from virtually speaking no English is praiseworthy. Let's listen to her:
She has gone beyond Antonio Banderas in one significant feature: consonant sounds. Her pronunciation in that sense goes away from Spanish, incorporating many sounds which would not be there in Spanish. However she has two areas to work on: her vowels, which continue to be spanish throughout and the overall impression (what is technically known as suprasegmental features) which still sounds too foreign. Which the audience loves, apparently both in her and in Antonio Banderas.
Finally, we get to Javier Bardem, the best pupil of the three. If my sources (google) are correct, his coach for "No country for old men" was Howard Samuelsohn. Let's hear how he spoke after Vicky Cristina Barcelona:
We can very easily this is a different level, and it is higher: vowels may not be perfect, but they definitely sound much more english, consonants are mostly correct and he has a good grasp of intonation and conversational cues. You still notice he is a foreigner, but an accomplished one.
All this goes to show that for all the talk about how natural, sink-or-swim immersion, to achieve fine-grain advanced quality, coaching and hard work are definitely needed. The videos I have used are deliberately not recent. So I expect the three of them have continued to improve. Keep the good work!
Now, in the last few years, things have changed for the better. Now I am going to focus on three different stages of that process. The interesting thing is these three people know each other very well: Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The reason I have chosen them is because they exemplify three very clear stages of pronunciation development in foreign learners of English. First, Mr. Banderas:
In this interview you can notice that his English is very fluent, he has no problem getting his message across and he understands the journalist very well. However if you look at his acting career, he seems to be doomed to playing the latino character in every film. Why is that? Because the way he sounds is completely foreign. He is pronouncing English with the minimum changes necessary to become just understandable. His vowel sounds, most of his consonants and most suprasegmental features (the things that happen over more than one sound) are brought in from the spanish language. And that's his glass ceiling. Which both Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem have broken for themselves.
My second example is Penélope Cruz. Both her and Javier Bardem have learnt from people like Antonio Banderas who came first, so they have improved a lot their learning process. Merciless immersion brought Antonio only so far. They needed to get a little more professional about it and has been using a voice coach for years. Her progress from virtually speaking no English is praiseworthy. Let's listen to her:
She has gone beyond Antonio Banderas in one significant feature: consonant sounds. Her pronunciation in that sense goes away from Spanish, incorporating many sounds which would not be there in Spanish. However she has two areas to work on: her vowels, which continue to be spanish throughout and the overall impression (what is technically known as suprasegmental features) which still sounds too foreign. Which the audience loves, apparently both in her and in Antonio Banderas.
Finally, we get to Javier Bardem, the best pupil of the three. If my sources (google) are correct, his coach for "No country for old men" was Howard Samuelsohn. Let's hear how he spoke after Vicky Cristina Barcelona:
We can very easily this is a different level, and it is higher: vowels may not be perfect, but they definitely sound much more english, consonants are mostly correct and he has a good grasp of intonation and conversational cues. You still notice he is a foreigner, but an accomplished one.
All this goes to show that for all the talk about how natural, sink-or-swim immersion, to achieve fine-grain advanced quality, coaching and hard work are definitely needed. The videos I have used are deliberately not recent. So I expect the three of them have continued to improve. Keep the good work!
martes, 21 de octubre de 2014
Learning English when you least expect it!
Over the years I have developed an instinct. I am always on the lookout for new words and expressions of course, but also novel ways to learn English. And increasingly, I am reflecting on how I actually learned English in the first place.
I love and miss the 80s and 90s. However I envy those born in the late 90s and later because the resources available to them for learning English - or for that matter anything that can be learned - have skyrocketed. They have multiplied in quantity and quality. The same can be said about the quality and quantity of those channeling that learning process: less and less traditional teachers and more and more facilitators and coaches.
I keep telling my students that the only thing you can not really do without another speaker is maintain a real conversation. But every other step of the learning process can be made alone. For example improving your pronunciation - along with your vocabulary and others, even your grammar - by focusing on things you like in English.
And this can happen when and where you least expect it. For example watching this video on MTV or youtube:
Now here are the lyrics. As usual my comments will be in blue. All the credit goes to the artists (Kelly Rowland and DJ David Guetta) and to the BBC for the interview I found on youtube.)
Head under water
This line and the text two are a metaphor and a paradox at the same time: she is describing an uncomfortable feeling: she can not breathe because her head is under water. Paradoxically she says she feels extraordinarily well.
Now I can't breath
It never felt so good
Cause i can feel it coming over me
In formal speech you would say "because" but in everyday informal English you often hear people drop the first part and say "cause" and write it "cos" or even "coz".
I wouldn't stop it if I could
Could is a modal verb: that means a number of things, including it can be used for very few things. But could in that sense is an exception. It can be used in three ways:
1) I could walk when I was eleven months old. (Podía/sabía caminar cuando tenía once meses)
2) I could help you but I will not. (Podría ayudarte pero no lo haré.)
3) If I could help you I would. (Si pudiese ayudarte lo haría). Explanation: in English we use the past simple to express subjunctive (pudiese). Could is a past simple. So it can be used as subjunctive.
So that's what is happening in this sentence.
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
"over": See above the rules for pronouncing the /r/ in Britain and parts of southern US.
You are probably familiar with this song, want it or not because it was on heavy rotation for months a few years ago on radios and TV stations. What I like about this song first of all is the clear pronunciation of the singer, Kelly Rowland. Although she is an American, her pronunciation has a lot in common with British pronunciation, because she is originally from Atlanta, and that part of the South of the US has a lot of features in common with British English.
I had to do a little research about this - I am not so up to date about all her comings and goings. She was chosen to be one of the members of the jury at X-factor in the UK, and later in the US. Now here she is in a BBC interview and she perfectly blends in with the British presenters. She's quite the British lady. Maybe she could join the cast at Downton Abbey (OK, maybe not so ladylike).
And this is all for today! Don't forget of course to listen to the music and enjoy while you learn English!
I love and miss the 80s and 90s. However I envy those born in the late 90s and later because the resources available to them for learning English - or for that matter anything that can be learned - have skyrocketed. They have multiplied in quantity and quality. The same can be said about the quality and quantity of those channeling that learning process: less and less traditional teachers and more and more facilitators and coaches.
I keep telling my students that the only thing you can not really do without another speaker is maintain a real conversation. But every other step of the learning process can be made alone. For example improving your pronunciation - along with your vocabulary and others, even your grammar - by focusing on things you like in English.
And this can happen when and where you least expect it. For example watching this video on MTV or youtube:
Now here are the lyrics. As usual my comments will be in blue. All the credit goes to the artists (Kelly Rowland and DJ David Guetta) and to the BBC for the interview I found on youtube.)
Its complicated
This line is actually very simple. The only thing to comment on is the sound of the "t" in complicated, which is similar to the spanish "simple r"
It always is
(why not "it is always"? Because by changing the standard, neutral order, you underline the meaning of the words you have moved. Also notice how the words "it" and "always" blend (mix) so they feel like one word.
Thats just the way it goes
A common expression in English (that's the way it goes) which would translate into Spanish as "así son las cosas".
Feels like I waited so long for this
Predictability in English is used to avoid unnecessary repetitions. In this case, the sentence is grammatically incorrect in the sense that it should be "it feels like...". But it still works well because everybody knows that was is implied is "it feels like" because it can't be confused with anything else.
I wonder if it shows
This line in the song is very interesting. We find two expressions which are not reflexive in Spanish: "I wonder if" (in Spanish "Me pregunto si") and "It shows" (In Spanish "Se nota").
The first thing we have to do is be open minded: you can say things in different ways in different languages and still transmit the same idea. If you have problems with this kind of expressions, go to my post on "reflexive vs. non reflexive".
Additionally, notice what she does with the "r" in "wonder". As I mention in my comments below, in her accent (Atlanta, Georgia) speakers show a characteristic which is typically british: not pronouncing the "r" when it is after a vowel and before other consonant (e.g. "Turn") or in final position ("Driver").
Following this rule and n normal conditions she would not pronounce the "r" in the word wonder. So what's happening here? What's happening is that there is another rule that is the "linking r". This rule is very simple: if you have two vowels (for example I wonder if) and it is difficult to pronounce them in normal speech without making a clear stop, then, an "r" sound is pronounced to "lubricate" even if it is not there originally. This rule applies, as far as I know, to all dialects of english. It is practical because it makes your life easier. So you would say things like "AustraliarandNewZealand" instead of stopping to make a clear separation between "Australia" and "and".
This line is actually very simple. The only thing to comment on is the sound of the "t" in complicated, which is similar to the spanish "simple r"
It always is
(why not "it is always"? Because by changing the standard, neutral order, you underline the meaning of the words you have moved. Also notice how the words "it" and "always" blend (mix) so they feel like one word.
Thats just the way it goes
A common expression in English (that's the way it goes) which would translate into Spanish as "así son las cosas".
Feels like I waited so long for this
Predictability in English is used to avoid unnecessary repetitions. In this case, the sentence is grammatically incorrect in the sense that it should be "it feels like...". But it still works well because everybody knows that was is implied is "it feels like" because it can't be confused with anything else.
I wonder if it shows
This line in the song is very interesting. We find two expressions which are not reflexive in Spanish: "I wonder if" (in Spanish "Me pregunto si") and "It shows" (In Spanish "Se nota").
The first thing we have to do is be open minded: you can say things in different ways in different languages and still transmit the same idea. If you have problems with this kind of expressions, go to my post on "reflexive vs. non reflexive".
Additionally, notice what she does with the "r" in "wonder". As I mention in my comments below, in her accent (Atlanta, Georgia) speakers show a characteristic which is typically british: not pronouncing the "r" when it is after a vowel and before other consonant (e.g. "Turn") or in final position ("Driver").
Following this rule and n normal conditions she would not pronounce the "r" in the word wonder. So what's happening here? What's happening is that there is another rule that is the "linking r". This rule is very simple: if you have two vowels (for example I wonder if) and it is difficult to pronounce them in normal speech without making a clear stop, then, an "r" sound is pronounced to "lubricate" even if it is not there originally. This rule applies, as far as I know, to all dialects of english. It is practical because it makes your life easier. So you would say things like "AustraliarandNewZealand" instead of stopping to make a clear separation between "Australia" and "and".
Head under water
This line and the text two are a metaphor and a paradox at the same time: she is describing an uncomfortable feeling: she can not breathe because her head is under water. Paradoxically she says she feels extraordinarily well.
Now I can't breath
It never felt so good
Cause i can feel it coming over me
In formal speech you would say "because" but in everyday informal English you often hear people drop the first part and say "cause" and write it "cos" or even "coz".
I wouldn't stop it if I could
Could is a modal verb: that means a number of things, including it can be used for very few things. But could in that sense is an exception. It can be used in three ways:
1) I could walk when I was eleven months old. (Podía/sabía caminar cuando tenía once meses)
2) I could help you but I will not. (Podría ayudarte pero no lo haré.)
3) If I could help you I would. (Si pudiese ayudarte lo haría). Explanation: in English we use the past simple to express subjunctive (pudiese). Could is a past simple. So it can be used as subjunctive.
So that's what is happening in this sentence.
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
"over": See above the rules for pronouncing the /r/ in Britain and parts of southern US.
You know you can't deny
/t/ and /d/ are almost the same sound phonetically. So it makes sense than they will be become one, longer sound.
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
Cause something's here tonight
/t/ and /d/ are almost the same sound phonetically. So it makes sense than they will be become one, longer sound.
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
Cause something's here tonight
Give me a reason
I gotta know
"gotta" means "have got to", from which is has been phonetically reduced in colloquial speech for linguistic economy reasons. This kind of process happens when the word or group of words is predictable. And English as a language uses this system continuously.
Do you feel it too?
Cant you see me here on overload
"cant you" sounds almost like "cantcha" (see gotta above)
And this time I blame you
Looking out for you to hold my hand
It feels like I could fall
Now love me right, like I know you can
"love me the right way, correctly"
"like I know you can": strictly speaking, it should be "as I know you can" but in colloquial English it is very common to find people using like in this way.
We could lose it all
it all = everything
I gotta know
"gotta" means "have got to", from which is has been phonetically reduced in colloquial speech for linguistic economy reasons. This kind of process happens when the word or group of words is predictable. And English as a language uses this system continuously.
Do you feel it too?
Cant you see me here on overload
"cant you" sounds almost like "cantcha" (see gotta above)
And this time I blame you
Looking out for you to hold my hand
It feels like I could fall
Now love me right, like I know you can
"love me the right way, correctly"
"like I know you can": strictly speaking, it should be "as I know you can" but in colloquial English it is very common to find people using like in this way.
We could lose it all
it all = everything
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
You know you cant deny
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
Cause something's here tonight
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight (keep saying)
You know you cant deny
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
Cause something's here tonight
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight (keep saying)
I'll be loving you all the time
it's true.
Cause I wanna make it right
"Wanna" (see "gotta" above)
with you
...
it's true.
Cause I wanna make it right
"Wanna" (see "gotta" above)
with you
...
When love takes over(x6)
when love takes over over over over over
over over over over over over!
when love takes over over over over over
over over over over over over!
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
You know you cant deny
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
Cause somethings here tonight
You know you cant deny
When love takes over (yeah-ah-eah)
Cause somethings here tonight
You are probably familiar with this song, want it or not because it was on heavy rotation for months a few years ago on radios and TV stations. What I like about this song first of all is the clear pronunciation of the singer, Kelly Rowland. Although she is an American, her pronunciation has a lot in common with British pronunciation, because she is originally from Atlanta, and that part of the South of the US has a lot of features in common with British English.
I had to do a little research about this - I am not so up to date about all her comings and goings. She was chosen to be one of the members of the jury at X-factor in the UK, and later in the US. Now here she is in a BBC interview and she perfectly blends in with the British presenters. She's quite the British lady. Maybe she could join the cast at Downton Abbey (OK, maybe not so ladylike).
And this is all for today! Don't forget of course to listen to the music and enjoy while you learn English!
jueves, 26 de junio de 2014
Chlorine: From toxic chemical to household cleaner
Hello again! Here's yet another interesting article I found. This time it is about one of the most common chemicals around us. It is massively used for cleaning and disinfection. We can say that we have mastered the beast, because it is a very dangerous chemical. However, we use it every day.
This article is as dense as it is interesting. So I split it in paragraphs for easier digestion.
This is the link to the original article, in case you want to read it directly:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27057547
BBC News Magazine 18 April 2014 Last updated at 23:26 GMT
Chlorine: From toxic chemical to household cleaner
By Justin Rowlatt BBC World Service
Few chemicals are as familiar as table salt. The white crystals are the most common food seasoning in the world and an essential part of the human diet. Sodium chloride is chemically very stable - but split it into its constituent elements and you release the chemical equivalent of demons. The process is brutal. Vast amounts of electricity are used to tear apart the sodium and chlorine atoms in salt molecules through the process of electrolysis. It happens at vast industrial sites known as chlor-alkali plants, the biggest of which can use as much electricity as a small country. Which is why the price of both chlorine and sodium tend to track the price of electricity very closely. It also explains why Industrial Chemicals Ltd's chlor-alkali plant in Thurrock, Essex, is right next to an electricity substation.
David Compton, ICL's chief chemist, shows me a huge mound of pure white salt. It comes, he tells me, from the rock salt deposits buried under Cheshire, in the north of England, a resource that was first mined by the Romans. And it's at least as pure, he says, as the salt you sprinkle on your dinner. It is mixed with water in huge basins to make a concentrated brine, which is pumped into a big industrial barn that contains what looks like a giant chemistry set. A series of huge tanks are connected by a web of pipes painted in different colours, all leading back to a big black tank. This is the business end of the process, the electrolyser. It exploits an equivalence between chemistry and electricity that was first codified by Michael Faraday.
Sodium and chlorine are both highly reactive - bring them into contact with each other and an electron passes between them, gluing them together to become salt. Reverse the process - by creating an enormous electrical current in the opposite direction - and you can split them apart again.
Inside the electrolyser, the brine is fed into a series of cells each separated by a membrane. Chlorine gas is produced at one electrode, and hydrogen gas - split off from the water molecules in the brine - at the other, leaving behind a solution of sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda. Until fairly recently the process used mercury as one of the electrodes. This produced chlorine-free sodium hydroxide, but released tiny traces of mercury, which is very toxic, into the environment. So mercury cells are gradually being phased out around the world.
Inside ICL's laboratory, Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London, hands me a fragile-looking glass balloon. It is an evil-looking greenish-yellow colour. "That's chlorine," says Professor Sella, with a wicked grin, "one of the most ferociously aggressive materials out there." I grasp the bulb of lethal gas more carefully. Andrea describes chlorine as aggressive because it is very reactive. That makes it extremely useful, but also very dangerous. It takes its name from its sickly colour - chloros is the Greek word for green. As all chemists know, you need to be very careful with chlorine. Its reactivity makes it very toxic. If you inhale chlorine, it reacts with the water in your lungs, converting it into powerful acids.
The effects can be horrific, as the World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, witnessed first-hand. "Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning."
In his poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen describes the effects of the deadly chlorine gas used by both the German and British armies during World War I. It was particularly effective as a chemical weapon because it is heavier than air and, on still days, would collect in the trenches. "Drowning" very accurately describes what happened to soldiers who were exposed to the gas. Their bodies responded to the irritation caused by the acid by filling their lungs with liquid. Many died from suffocation.
But while chlorine may have been put to some dastardly uses over the centuries, its reactivity has also been incredibly useful to humanity. It means chlorine is relatively easy to incorporate into other materials and often makes compounds more stable. "That's because," says Andrea with relish, "chlorine hangs on like grim death to the atoms it bonds with." One of the best examples is polyvinylchloride, or PVC, which consumes a third of chlorine. This incredibly versatile and durable plastic celebrated its centenary last year. PVC crops up everywhere - packaging, signage, old-fashioned vinyl records, the leatherette effect of many car seats.
But it is the construction industry that is by far the biggest end-user of this plastic. Over 70% of PVC ends up in everything from drainpipes to vinyl floors, roofing products to double-glazed window-frames. "We call it the construction polymer," says Mike Smith, chlorine market expert at the consultancy IHS. "Chlorine also goes into construction in other forms," he adds. "Polyurethane, which is a great insulation material." And that has the odd consequence that the demand for chlorine rises and falls in line with property booms and busts.
And because the supply of sodium is inextricably tied to that of chlorine, it has an even odder consequence. A collapse in the housing market - as Spain suffered in recent years - can make it more expensive to manufacture staple products like soap and paper, which rely on sodium. But PVC is just one of chlorine's many industrial applications. Chlorine is one of the most versatile and widely used industrial chemicals. "It is a real workhorse," says Mike Smith, adding that much of the chemical industry would be impossible without it. Something like 15,000 different chlorine compounds are used in industry, including the vast majority of pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals.
Often chlorine is used during the production process and doesn't actually turn up in the final product. That's true of the production of two vital elements. From a battered cardboard box Andrea produces a cylinder 15cm long and 3cm wide, encrusted with crystals of a beautiful silver-coloured metal. It is, he tells me, titanium. Titanium is the basis of much of the paint industry. It is used in hi-tech alloys for aircraft and bicycles as well as in dental implants and chlorine is an indispensable part of the purification process. Similarly the incredibly high-purity silicon essential for the production of computer chips and solar panels is only possible thanks to a process that uses chlorine.
But it was chlorine's cleansing power that led to the first commercial applications of the element. Its efficacy as a disinfectant was discovered thanks to an early 19th Century effort to clean up the gut factories of Paris. The "boyauderies" processed animal intestines to make, among other things, strings for musical instruments. A French chemist and pharmacist called Antoine-Germain Labarraque discovered that newly-discovered chlorinated bleaching solutions not only got rid of the smell of putrefaction but actually slowed down the putrefaction process itself. Within a few decades chlorine compounds were being used to disinfect everything from hospitals to cattle sheds as well as to treat infected wounds in patients. Chlorine is credited with deodorizing the Latin Quarter of Paris, until then infamous for its terrible stench.
The early advocates of chlorine did not know how chlorine worked, they just knew that it helped clear the "miasmas" thought to spread contagion. It would be half a century before the microbes that chlorine destroys would be identified. Chlorine is used around the world to treat water to ensure it is safe to drink. It is the basis of many disinfectants and a key ingredient of the bleach you use to clean surfaces in your home and to purge any microbes from your toilet bowl.
It is also used to keep swimming pools free of bacteria, hence the distinctive smell. But here's something you probably didn't know, and if you are a regular swimmer, may not wish to know. That smell isn't chlorine, at least not the element. It is actually a chlorine compound called chloramine, which is created when chlorine combines with organic substances in the water. So what are those organic substances? We are talking about sweat and urine. So if you've ever noticed that the "chlorine" smell is stronger when the pool is full of kids, well now you know why.
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This article is as dense as it is interesting. So I split it in paragraphs for easier digestion.
This is the link to the original article, in case you want to read it directly:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27057547
BBC News Magazine 18 April 2014 Last updated at 23:26 GMT
Chlorine: From toxic chemical to household cleaner
By Justin Rowlatt BBC World Service
Few chemicals are as familiar as table salt. The white crystals are the most common food seasoning in the world and an essential part of the human diet. Sodium chloride is chemically very stable - but split it into its constituent elements and you release the chemical equivalent of demons. The process is brutal. Vast amounts of electricity are used to tear apart the sodium and chlorine atoms in salt molecules through the process of electrolysis. It happens at vast industrial sites known as chlor-alkali plants, the biggest of which can use as much electricity as a small country. Which is why the price of both chlorine and sodium tend to track the price of electricity very closely. It also explains why Industrial Chemicals Ltd's chlor-alkali plant in Thurrock, Essex, is right next to an electricity substation.
- Seasoning: products like spices, used to improve or change the flavour and taste of some food.
- Constituent elements: the parts of something.
- vast amounts: very big quantities
- tear apart: to separate by breaking something which is very strongly connected. For example a piece of cloth, paper, cardboard or meat (for example a roast chicken leg).
- right next: immediately next to something, very very close.
David Compton, ICL's chief chemist, shows me a huge mound of pure white salt. It comes, he tells me, from the rock salt deposits buried under Cheshire, in the north of England, a resource that was first mined by the Romans. And it's at least as pure, he says, as the salt you sprinkle on your dinner. It is mixed with water in huge basins to make a concentrated brine, which is pumped into a big industrial barn that contains what looks like a giant chemistry set. A series of huge tanks are connected by a web of pipes painted in different colours, all leading back to a big black tank. This is the business end of the process, the electrolyser. It exploits an equivalence between chemistry and electricity that was first codified by Michael Faraday.
- mound: an accumulation of something like salt, sugar, sand...
- buried: kept under the surface, for example, dead people in a cemetery.
- resource: something needed to do something else. For example oil, wood, gas...
- sprinkle: to distribute something in a way that it will not be concentrated, for example salt over a piece of meat. In many office buildings there are sprinklers on the ceiling, which spray water in case of fire.
- basin: a container for liquids which is open at the top. For example, in a bathroom you have a washbasin, at which you brush your teeth, wash your face and your hands.
- brine: water with a very high concentration of salt. Often used in the past as a preservative for foods such as meat, fish or others.
- barn: a storage building in a farm, where food for the animals or farming equipment are stored.
- to exploit: to use something to your advantage.
Sodium and chlorine are both highly reactive - bring them into contact with each other and an electron passes between them, gluing them together to become salt. Reverse the process - by creating an enormous electrical current in the opposite direction - and you can split them apart again.
Inside the electrolyser, the brine is fed into a series of cells each separated by a membrane. Chlorine gas is produced at one electrode, and hydrogen gas - split off from the water molecules in the brine - at the other, leaving behind a solution of sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda. Until fairly recently the process used mercury as one of the electrodes. This produced chlorine-free sodium hydroxide, but released tiny traces of mercury, which is very toxic, into the environment. So mercury cells are gradually being phased out around the world.
- to glue: to put to things together so they will not separate, by using glue (e.g. "Loctite")
- by: this preposition introduces some instrumental meaning. e.g. if you travel by car, it means you use the car to carry yourself from one place to another.
- split them apart: to split means to break. to split apart means to break and separate.
- brine is fed: (see brine above). to feed means to introduce some material (solid or liquid) into a system. This includes food and drink in animals and people. You can also use it with things, such as "I fed the printer more paper".
- split off: same meaning as split apart. Off means separation or disconnection.
- tiny traces: very small quantities.
- to phase out: to gradually stop producing or using some product. For example mercury-cadmium batteries or CFC gases have been phased out.
Inside ICL's laboratory, Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London, hands me a fragile-looking glass balloon. It is an evil-looking greenish-yellow colour. "That's chlorine," says Professor Sella, with a wicked grin, "one of the most ferociously aggressive materials out there." I grasp the bulb of lethal gas more carefully. Andrea describes chlorine as aggressive because it is very reactive. That makes it extremely useful, but also very dangerous. It takes its name from its sickly colour - chloros is the Greek word for green. As all chemists know, you need to be very careful with chlorine. Its reactivity makes it very toxic. If you inhale chlorine, it reacts with the water in your lungs, converting it into powerful acids.
- evil-looking: if something is evil it might have a negative effect or intention. Something evil-looking is something whose image gives you that impression.
- wicked: a wicked person is a very bad person.
- grin: a face gesture between a laugh and a smile.
- to grasp: to hold something. Metaphorically you can grasp concepts or ideas.
- sickly: something with the appearance of being sick or causing sickness.
- inhale: to absorb through the nose or mouth some gas or smoke. The opposite is to exhale.
The effects can be horrific, as the World War One poet, Wilfred Owen, witnessed first-hand. "Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning."
- dim: if something is dim, it means it is difficult to see clearly, for example if there is a lot of smoke. If light is dim, it means it is not strong enough to help you see clearly. If you ask someone to dim the lights, it is because they are to intense for you. Finally if you say someone is dim, it means their intelligence is limited.
- misty: as if you see something through the mist. So not very clear or defined. If someone has misty eyes it is because they are full of tears.
- panes: each section of glass in a window.
- to plunge: to throw something or someone (including yourself) into some liquid or substance. e.g. As soon as I arrived home, I changed into my swimsuit and plunged into the swimming pool.
- to gutter: to cry tears so they make gutters (channels) down your face.
- to choke: to have difficulty breathing because something is in your mouth or throat.
- to drown: to die of asfixiation caused by a liquid. e.g. he could not swim, so he drowned in the river.
In his poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen describes the effects of the deadly chlorine gas used by both the German and British armies during World War I. It was particularly effective as a chemical weapon because it is heavier than air and, on still days, would collect in the trenches. "Drowning" very accurately describes what happened to soldiers who were exposed to the gas. Their bodies responded to the irritation caused by the acid by filling their lungs with liquid. Many died from suffocation.
- deadly: something that can kill you
- still days: days when the wind doesn't blow.
- accurately: with precision.
- suffocation: not being able to breathe.
But while chlorine may have been put to some dastardly uses over the centuries, its reactivity has also been incredibly useful to humanity. It means chlorine is relatively easy to incorporate into other materials and often makes compounds more stable. "That's because," says Andrea with relish, "chlorine hangs on like grim death to the atoms it bonds with." One of the best examples is polyvinylchloride, or PVC, which consumes a third of chlorine. This incredibly versatile and durable plastic celebrated its centenary last year. PVC crops up everywhere - packaging, signage, old-fashioned vinyl records, the leatherette effect of many car seats.
- dastardly: intentionally bad or cruel. (in my opinion, very unusual, literary word)
- relish: pleasure, enjoyment
- hang on like grim death:ok let's go one word at a time: a) hang on: to continue hanging, to insist on hanging from something. grim: sad, sinister. So to hang on like grim death means that something sticks to you so strongly that you can compare it with death (because death hangs to you forever... ) In Spanish you would say something like "hang on like a piece of chewing gum in your hair".
- to bond: to connect in a solid way.
But it is the construction industry that is by far the biggest end-user of this plastic. Over 70% of PVC ends up in everything from drainpipes to vinyl floors, roofing products to double-glazed window-frames. "We call it the construction polymer," says Mike Smith, chlorine market expert at the consultancy IHS. "Chlorine also goes into construction in other forms," he adds. "Polyurethane, which is a great insulation material." And that has the odd consequence that the demand for chlorine rises and falls in line with property booms and busts.
- by far: this means there is a very big, clear difference between two things. So it is not only the biggest user, but the second is very clearly below.
- end-user: final user in a production chain. This expression appears a lot in software products. (End-user agreement.)
- drainpipes: pipes (conducts) used to evacuate liquids from places, for example a roof or a kitchen sink. If they are open they can be called gutter (see gutter as a verb above).
- double-glazed window: a window which has two layers of glass to offer protection against temperature changes.
- insulation: double glazing is an insulation system. Insulation is protection against factors such as noise, heat, cold, humidity...
- odd: strange, unusual.
- in line: in parallell, at the same time.
And because the supply of sodium is inextricably tied to that of chlorine, it has an even odder consequence. A collapse in the housing market - as Spain suffered in recent years - can make it more expensive to manufacture staple products like soap and paper, which rely on sodium. But PVC is just one of chlorine's many industrial applications. Chlorine is one of the most versatile and widely used industrial chemicals. "It is a real workhorse," says Mike Smith, adding that much of the chemical industry would be impossible without it. Something like 15,000 different chlorine compounds are used in industry, including the vast majority of pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals.
Often chlorine is used during the production process and doesn't actually turn up in the final product. That's true of the production of two vital elements. From a battered cardboard box Andrea produces a cylinder 15cm long and 3cm wide, encrusted with crystals of a beautiful silver-coloured metal. It is, he tells me, titanium. Titanium is the basis of much of the paint industry. It is used in hi-tech alloys for aircraft and bicycles as well as in dental implants and chlorine is an indispensable part of the purification process. Similarly the incredibly high-purity silicon essential for the production of computer chips and solar panels is only possible thanks to a process that uses chlorine.
- staple products: basic products used by the vast majority of the population, such as soap, paper, milk, bread, eggs...
- workhorse: something or someone who will do a lot of heavy-work.
- to turn up: to appear, to be present.
- alloy: a mix of metals, for example, steel is an alloy of iron with different proportions of other metals.
But it was chlorine's cleansing power that led to the first commercial applications of the element. Its efficacy as a disinfectant was discovered thanks to an early 19th Century effort to clean up the gut factories of Paris. The "boyauderies" processed animal intestines to make, among other things, strings for musical instruments. A French chemist and pharmacist called Antoine-Germain Labarraque discovered that newly-discovered chlorinated bleaching solutions not only got rid of the smell of putrefaction but actually slowed down the putrefaction process itself. Within a few decades chlorine compounds were being used to disinfect everything from hospitals to cattle sheds as well as to treat infected wounds in patients. Chlorine is credited with deodorizing the Latin Quarter of Paris, until then infamous for its terrible stench.
- cleansing: to clean or purify.
- to clean up: to clean something completely.
- gut factories: guts are things such as the intestines. These factories make their products with the intestines of animals.
- newly discovered: discovered recently.
- cattle-sheds: small buildings, usually made of wood, where you keep cattle. There are other kinds of sheds, like the garden shed, which many people have and where you keep your gardening tools.
- to be credited with: what happens when someone recognizes you did something, usually good things.
- infamous for: the opposite of famous for. Being famous for a negative thing.
- stench: a very penetrating smell, like food in bad condition, or something putrid.
The early advocates of chlorine did not know how chlorine worked, they just knew that it helped clear the "miasmas" thought to spread contagion. It would be half a century before the microbes that chlorine destroys would be identified. Chlorine is used around the world to treat water to ensure it is safe to drink. It is the basis of many disinfectants and a key ingredient of the bleach you use to clean surfaces in your home and to purge any microbes from your toilet bowl.
It is also used to keep swimming pools free of bacteria, hence the distinctive smell. But here's something you probably didn't know, and if you are a regular swimmer, may not wish to know. That smell isn't chlorine, at least not the element. It is actually a chlorine compound called chloramine, which is created when chlorine combines with organic substances in the water. So what are those organic substances? We are talking about sweat and urine. So if you've ever noticed that the "chlorine" smell is stronger when the pool is full of kids, well now you know why.
- advocate: someone who defends an idea or a cause. Not to be confused with "abogado" which is to be translated as lawyer, attorney, barrister and others...
- bleach: cleaning liquid extensively used to clean and disinfect floors and other elements. It's main element is chlorine. It is also used to make clothes white, so the process of making something white by using bleach is "to bleach". This verb is also used for intense hair lightening processes.
- toilet bowl: an element in the bathroom where you sit and... do I need to explain more?
- hence: therefore, for that reason
- sweat: liquid coming out of your skin pores when it is very hot or you are performing some intense activity.
- urine: waste liquid from the body that usually goes into the toilet.
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viernes, 20 de junio de 2014
Spanish ghost towns
Here's yet another article. This time the topic I chose is the Spanish housing bubble. It is always interesting to know the view from the outside about any problem, in this case, a foreigner's point of view about the housing bubble in Spain.
I did not write this article so here is the link to the source, in Fortune magazine:
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/15/the-road-to-demolition-inside-a-spanish-ghost-town/
The road to demolition: Inside a Spanish ghost town
November 15, 2013: 12:08 PM ET
There are still about 750,000 unsold new housing units in Spain. Now that the real estate bubble has popped, the
question is what happens to all the excess housing.
By Ian Mount
FORTUNE -- On the outskirts of Zaragoza, a provincial capital on the semi-arid plains 200 miles north of Madrid, fields of huge electricity generating windmills surround the tiny town of La Muela. One might think that, in the land of Don Quixote, these giants would serve as a prosaic warning of the dangers of engaging in flights of fancy.
Walking the streets of La Muela, it quickly becomes clear that they have not. Barely two blocks outside of the village center, historic stone houses give way to condo complexes that have been finished, boarded up, and left empty. Further out, tin fences surround windowless townhouses and condos, and at the edge of town, where it returns to scrub, a half-finished concrete skeleton features stairways to nowhere.
There is finished, empty housing for some 2,000 people and unfinished housing for another 1,000 just in the center of the 5,000-person town, according to Enrique Barrao of La Muela's town planning department.
"There are so many empty houses;; thank god people haven't gone in like in the big cities, where there are squatters," says Victor Canales, 49, as he gestures at a shuttered building across from his row house. Canales brought his family from Zaragoza to La Muela in 1999, attracted by the quality of life of the small town, which then had about 2,500 residents.
Like many towns in Spain -- not to mention Nevada, Florida, California, and Ireland -- La Muela tried to ride a speculative real estate boom during the 1990s and 2000s. With money coming in from the windmills and real estate developments, mayor María Victoria Pinilla -- since brought up on real estate-related corruption charges -- built a bullring, a concert hall, a sports stadium, an aviary, and three museums. (The museums are "temporarily closed for technical reasons," according to a sign on the town's tourism office, which is also closed.)
La Muela is not alone. Even with a 38.9% drop in home prices since a 2007 peak, according to real estate consultancy Tinsa, there are still about 750,000 unsold new housing units in Spain.
Now that the bubble has popped, the question is what happens to all the excess housing. And the answer to the problem may be simple, and ugly: demolition.
"If you can't anticipate demand for housing within a manageable period, say five years, the cost of mothballing houses, even completed ones, to keep them serviceable and habitable for the future is very expensive," says Alan Mallach, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. "And if you don't, it gradually turns into an eyesore and blight for people who live around it."
While it's hard to pinpoint the economic effects of vacant houses, a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study finds that having a vacant property within 500 feet reduces a house's selling price by at least 1.4%.
I did not write this article so here is the link to the source, in Fortune magazine:
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/11/15/the-road-to-demolition-inside-a-spanish-ghost-town/
The road to demolition: Inside a Spanish ghost town
November 15, 2013: 12:08 PM ET
There are still about 750,000 unsold new housing units in Spain. Now that the real estate bubble has popped, the
question is what happens to all the excess housing.
By Ian Mount
FORTUNE -- On the outskirts of Zaragoza, a provincial capital on the semi-arid plains 200 miles north of Madrid, fields of huge electricity generating windmills surround the tiny town of La Muela. One might think that, in the land of Don Quixote, these giants would serve as a prosaic warning of the dangers of engaging in flights of fancy.
- Unsold: Something that has not yet been sold.
- Housing units: houses, flats.
- To pop: when a bubble pops it explodes and disappears.
- Outskirts: the outer areas of a town or city. For example in Madrid, Las Tablas, Montecarmelo or the "P.A.U. of Vallecas"
- Semi-arid: not completely desertic, but with few plants and trees.
- Windmills: Don Quixote thought they were giants and wanted to fight them.
- Tiny: very small.
- Prosaic: realistic, not imaginative.
- to engage in something: to spend time and effort in doing something.
- flight of fancy: something impossible and impractical to achieve.
Walking the streets of La Muela, it quickly becomes clear that they have not. Barely two blocks outside of the village center, historic stone houses give way to condo complexes that have been finished, boarded up, and left empty. Further out, tin fences surround windowless townhouses and condos, and at the edge of town, where it returns to scrub, a half-finished concrete skeleton features stairways to nowhere.
- Barely: it expresses a very small quantity of something, a very small distance or time. e.g. I had barely arrived home when the phone rang.
- Condo complexes: a condominium is a block of flats where each flat is owned by a different family and they have to decide by voting. The most common form of real estate ownership in Spanish cities.
- Boarded up: to prevent people from breaking them and entering empty or abandoned houses, windows are covered with wood boards.
- Tin fences: metallic walls that usually surround areas where something is being built.
- Windowless: the space fo the window exists, but the window has not been installed.
- Townhouses: A townhouse is a traditional kind of quality row-house, which used to be common in places like cities in the US. Here is an example.These were typical for - rich - people who lived in the country but kept a house in the city for their visits.
There is finished, empty housing for some 2,000 people and unfinished housing for another 1,000 just in the center of the 5,000-person town, according to Enrique Barrao of La Muela's town planning department.
"There are so many empty houses;; thank god people haven't gone in like in the big cities, where there are squatters," says Victor Canales, 49, as he gestures at a shuttered building across from his row house. Canales brought his family from Zaragoza to La Muela in 1999, attracted by the quality of life of the small town, which then had about 2,500 residents.
- Housing: buildings or parts of them dedicated to live in them, in contrast with factories, offices, warehouses or other structures.
- Squatters: people who live in buildings without a legal right to do it. Usually they live in abandoned buildings such as factories or warehouses.
- to gesture: to make a movement with the face or other part of the body such as a hand, to indicate something.
- Shuttered: closed with shutters. Shutters are elements added usually to the outside of a window. When these elements are closed, light and noise are mostly or completely blocked.
- A row house: also known as terraced house, is a house that is part of a long line - a row - of usually identical houses.
Like many towns in Spain -- not to mention Nevada, Florida, California, and Ireland -- La Muela tried to ride a speculative real estate boom during the 1990s and 2000s. With money coming in from the windmills and real estate developments, mayor María Victoria Pinilla -- since brought up on real estate-related corruption charges -- built a bullring, a concert hall, a sports stadium, an aviary, and three museums. (The museums are "temporarily closed for technical reasons," according to a sign on the town's tourism office, which is also closed.)
La Muela is not alone. Even with a 38.9% drop in home prices since a 2007 peak, according to real estate consultancy Tinsa, there are still about 750,000 unsold new housing units in Spain.
- To ride: to stay on top of something while it moves (for example: a bicycle, a motorbike, a horse or a wave)
- Speculative real estate boom: an economic period of growth and prosperity motivated by a lot of activity in the real estate market. Real estate: property like land, or buildings.
- Real estate developments: building projects from one building or a few houses to places like Seseña or Marina D'or.
- Mayor: the highest authority in a town or city. Compare the pronunciation of Major, Mayor and mare (a female horse)
- Brought up on: faced with court charges (on introduces the reason she was brought up (to court) (to bring up: to make someone go up, get near)
- Corruption charges: official accusations of being corrupt.
- Bullring: the place where bullfighters fight the bulls. e.g. Las Ventas in Madrid.
- An aviary: a place where exotic birds are kept an exhibited.
- A drop: a sharp, quick fall. As with thousands of words in English, "drop" can be used both as a noun and as a verb. To "drop" means to fall, "a drop" means the action of something falling from a higher level. Finally, that explains why a drop is a very small amount of liquid.
- Peak: the top of a mountain. Figuratively, the highest point in something, for example, house prices.
- Real estate consultancy: a company that offers advice and help on matters connected with real estate (property, see definition above).
- Unsold housing units: houses or flats that have not been sold.
Now that the bubble has popped, the question is what happens to all the excess housing. And the answer to the problem may be simple, and ugly: demolition.
"If you can't anticipate demand for housing within a manageable period, say five years, the cost of mothballing houses, even completed ones, to keep them serviceable and habitable for the future is very expensive," says Alan Mallach, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. "And if you don't, it gradually turns into an eyesore and blight for people who live around it."
- Within: inside. commonly used to refer to periods of time.
- manageable: that can be managed
- "say five years": a colloquial way of saying "for example five years".
- To mothball: to keep something in good condition while it is not being used, so that it can be used in the future.
- Serviceable: that services (like water, gas, electricity) can be provided because the necessary infrastructure is in working condition.
- Eyesore: literally a visible infection in your eye. Also something so ugly that seeing it you feel that way.
- Blight: deterioration, in this case deterioration of urban areas.
While it's hard to pinpoint the economic effects of vacant houses, a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study finds that having a vacant property within 500 feet reduces a house's selling price by at least 1.4%.
Of course, making the decision to demolish housing is dangerous for a politician, especially during a crisis when many
people have lost their homes to foreclosure. This may explain why so little excess housing has been demolished and why
those overseeing Spain's housing problems are not touting it as a top option.
Spain set up a "bad bank," known as Sareb, to take over bad real estate assets during its financial crisis, and it now has an inventory of about 90,000 properties (including 55,000 housing units). The entity has set aside 103 million euros (about $140 million) for demolition, but Sareb's communications head, Susana Díaz, stresses that the entity has no definite plans for demolition and would never demolish housing with value (though this hasn't stopped the country's demolition companies from preparing for business).
Still, some governments and banks have come around to demolition. Ireland's "bad bank," NAMA, demolished a 12-unit apartment block in County Longford last year. And there have been isolated demolitions of new and partially built houses in California. In some situations -- especially in the case of unfinished, isolated developments -- there may be no alternative.
"If you have a development far from any town, forget about it. It will never bounce back," says Antonio Argandoña, a professor of economics at Barcelona's IESE Business School.
On a bluff overlooking the highway to Zaragoza, five miles from La Muela, deteriorating concrete skeletons mark what was once supposed to be Ciudad Zaragoza Golf, a golfing community housing development. Of the 2,316 units planned for the first phase, only 36 have been granted occupancy licenses, says La Muela town planner Enrique Barrao. The development's handful of residents complain about non-existent municipal services, and when I ask the driver of the Zaragoza-La Muela bus line how these people get home, she shakes her head. "No bus goes there," she says.
In downtown La Muela, however, residents are not yet thinking about demolitions;; they're still coming down from a boom in which the town even subsidized their vacations. "The town paid, wherever you went," says Victor Canales, who took subsidized trips to the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. "We were a famous town for our quality of life."
There still may be hope for La Muela. A passel of new residents have moved in, attracted by small town life and low real estate prices. At the edge of town, where the sidewalk goes to dirt, Susana Escaño straps her baby into a car seat in front of a new, sparsely occupied complex. She moved from Zaragoza three years ago, because her family couldn't afford anything in the city.
"Now, you hit yourself in the head because what you bought is worth so little, but, oh well, I like it," she says. Why?
"Mucha tranquilidad."
- To pinpoint: to signal something with precision, as if using a pin.
- A recent Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland study: notice that some words (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland) are written with initial capital letters. This means that it is an official name. The Federal Reserve of the United States is the equivalent of Banco de España and is structured in districts as you can read on the wikipedia article here. Each district has a branch of the Federal Reserve, in this case in Cleveland. The same as Banco de España or the European Bank, they make economic studies.
- Vacant property: land or buildings ("real estate") which are not being used.
- Within 500 feet: inside a space located at a maximum distance of 500 feet. (1 foot= 30.48 cm)
- Foreclosure: the administrative process of canceling a mortgage (a loan obtained to buy real estate) before the time originally planned, because the owners can not meet the monthly payments. This includes evicting people, that is, forcing them to leave their foreclosed home.
- To oversee: To supervise in order to control.
- To tout: to promote.
Spain set up a "bad bank," known as Sareb, to take over bad real estate assets during its financial crisis, and it now has an inventory of about 90,000 properties (including 55,000 housing units). The entity has set aside 103 million euros (about $140 million) for demolition, but Sareb's communications head, Susana Díaz, stresses that the entity has no definite plans for demolition and would never demolish housing with value (though this hasn't stopped the country's demolition companies from preparing for business).
- To take over: to assume control. (In driving, to move the car's position from behind other vehicle to in front of the same vehicle.)
- To set aside: to separate something in order to use it for a specific purpose, different from the rest.
- To stop someone (or something) from: to make it impossible for someone or something to do some specific task. another example: Her mother stopped her from crossing the street because a big truck was coming. This verb works in the same way as others such as "prevent someone from something" which is a synonym.
Still, some governments and banks have come around to demolition. Ireland's "bad bank," NAMA, demolished a 12-unit apartment block in County Longford last year. And there have been isolated demolitions of new and partially built houses in California. In some situations -- especially in the case of unfinished, isolated developments -- there may be no alternative.
- To come round: to be convinced about something, often after having an opposite opinion in the past.
- A 12-unit apartment block: a block containing 12 appartments.
- Isolated: separated from everything else. (notice: not to be confused with "insulated" which means deliberately separated from something [cold, heat, water, noise...] by using specific methods or materials.)
"If you have a development far from any town, forget about it. It will never bounce back," says Antonio Argandoña, a professor of economics at Barcelona's IESE Business School.
On a bluff overlooking the highway to Zaragoza, five miles from La Muela, deteriorating concrete skeletons mark what was once supposed to be Ciudad Zaragoza Golf, a golfing community housing development. Of the 2,316 units planned for the first phase, only 36 have been granted occupancy licenses, says La Muela town planner Enrique Barrao. The development's handful of residents complain about non-existent municipal services, and when I ask the driver of the Zaragoza-La Muela bus line how these people get home, she shakes her head. "No bus goes there," she says.
- Development: in real estate the word development means a group of housing units or industrial facilities built at the same time as a group. In some cases it could be similar to the spanish concept of "urbanización".
- to bounce back: the movement of something elastic as it goes back to the original or previous position. For example if you throw a tennis ball against the wall it will bounce back towards you.
- Bluff: a higher place, often a rocky place, from which you can see the area around you, which is usually flat and at a clearly lower level.
- to overlook: to look at something from a high place (so you look over it).
- Once: this word has two meanings:
- 1) "one time" (on one occasion) example: He only tried a cigarette once and he didn't like it. 2) "in the past, in contrast with the present) example: Detroit was once a big industrial town. Now there are thousands of empty buildings and the town is bankrupt.
- to grant: to give an official permit.
- Occupancy licences: an official document that states that a house is in good condition to live in.
- Handful: a quantity of something that can fit in your hand. Compare with a "fistful" which is what you can keep inside your fist, your closed hand. Ironically where in English you use "handful" in Spanish you would use "fistful" ("puñado").
In downtown La Muela, however, residents are not yet thinking about demolitions;; they're still coming down from a boom in which the town even subsidized their vacations. "The town paid, wherever you went," says Victor Canales, who took subsidized trips to the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. "We were a famous town for our quality of life."
There still may be hope for La Muela. A passel of new residents have moved in, attracted by small town life and low real estate prices. At the edge of town, where the sidewalk goes to dirt, Susana Escaño straps her baby into a car seat in front of a new, sparsely occupied complex. She moved from Zaragoza three years ago, because her family couldn't afford anything in the city.
- Downtown: the central area of a town, as opposed to the "outskirts".
- Subsidized: paid with public money (subsidies).
- Passel: (very rare) a big number, a lot.
- Sidewalk: area in a street where pedestrians can walk.
- Dirt: waste material. If something goes to dirt it means it is not properly maintained and it is deteriorating.
- To strap: to fix something or someone in place by using straps. Straps: long narrow pieces of material made of some fabric or plastic. The safety belt in a car is made of straps. Interesting for women when they go buying underwear: strapless bra
- Sparsely occupied: very few houses are occupied, and people are not concentrated in one place.
"Now, you hit yourself in the head because what you bought is worth so little, but, oh well, I like it," she says. Why?
"Mucha tranquilidad."
- To be worth: to have some value (no necessarily economic value). A famous slogan from L'Oreal: Because I'm worth it.
viernes, 6 de junio de 2014
Tamiflu: was it a fraud?
Hello everyone! A long overdue update on my blog. Today I want to share with you this piece of news about medication for the flu. This is an excuse to see some medical vocabulary! Once again, Thanks to the wonderful journalists at BBC for their wonderful articles... and wonderful English!
Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26954482
BBC News Health 10 April 2014
Tamiflu: Millions wasted on flu drug, claims major report
By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News
Hundreds of millions of pounds may have been wasted on a drug for flu that works no better than paracetamol, a landmark analysis has said.
The UK has spent £473m on Tamiflu, which is stockpiled by governments globally to prepare for flu pandemics. The Cochrane Collaboration claimed the drug did not prevent the spread of flu or reduce dangerous complications, and only slightly helped symptoms. The manufacturers Roche and other experts say the analysis is flawed. The antiviral drug Tamiflu was stockpiled from 2006 in the UK when some agencies were predicting that a pandemic of bird flu could kill up to 750,000 people in Britain. Similar decisions were made in other countries.
Hidden data
The drug was widely prescribed during the swine flu outbreak in 2009. Drug companies do not publish all their research data. This report is the result of a colossal fight for the previously hidden data into the effectiveness and side-effects of Tamiflu. It concluded that the drug reduced the persistence of flu symptoms from seven days to 6.3 days in adults and to 5.8 days in children. But the report's authors said drugs such as paracetamol could have a similar impact. On claims that the drug prevented complications such as pneumonia developing, Cochrane suggested the trials were so poor there was "no visible effect".
Another justification for stockpiling was to slow the spread of the disease to give time for a vaccine to be developed. The report's authors said "the case for this is simply unproven" and "there is no credible way these drugs could prevent a pandemic". It also claimed that the drug had a number of side-effects, including nausea, headaches, psychiatric events, kidney problems and hyperglycaemia.
Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford and one of the report's authors, told the BBC: "I think the whole £500m has not benefited human health in any way and we may have harmed people. "The system that exists for producing evidence on drugs is so flawed and open to misuse that the public has been misled." Dr Tom Jefferson, a clinical epidemiologist and former GP, said: "I wouldn't give it for symptom relief, I'd give paracetamol."
The Cochrane Collaboration researchers have not placed the blame on any individual or organisation, instead saying there had been failings at every step from the manufacturers to the regulators and government.
'Wrong statistics'
However, there is disagreement about the findings and accusations that a simultaneous campaign to open up drug research is influencing the findings.
The pharmaceutical company Roche said "we disagree with the overall conclusions" and warned they could "potentially have serious public health implications". Its UK medical director, Dr Daniel Thurley, told the BBC News website: "The definitive piece of research stands as the randomised control trials, which were shared with the regulators, which led to them in 100 countries around the world approving Tamiflu for treatment and prevention of flu."
He said the Cochrane group had used the wrong statistics, which "systematically underestimate the benefits" of the drug, and used "unorthodox" methods to analyze the side-effects. He concluded: "One of the challenges we have here is actually knowing what they've done." Prof Wendy Barclay, who researches the influenza virus at Imperial College London, said reducing symptoms in children by 29 hours would be "pretty beneficial". She told the BBC: "Tamiflu works as well as any drug we have now or [that] is on the cards. "Yes, I think they should replenish the stockpile. What else can you do if a pandemic strikes? We won't have a vaccine for the first six months."
She also questioned the validity of the research as it analysed the impact during seasonal flu: "If it works a little bit in season flu, the chances are they'll work quite a lot better in a pandemic situation and get more people back to school and work." Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said it was an "impressive" piece of work. He said: "It is a potential limitation of this study that the work has been carried out alongside campaigning on access to trial data. "The writers of the review have a clear position in this controversy, and, although I personally do generally agree with their position, I feel it does at times lead to some confusion between reporting the results of the review of these particular drugs and commenting on the general position on access to and use of unpublished data."
The Department of Health, which took the lead for the UK, said Britain was recognised as "one of the best prepared countries in the world for a potential flu pandemic" and "our stockpile of antivirals is a key part of this. "We regularly review all published data and will consider the Cochrane review closely." The World Health Organization, which classes Tamiflu as an essential medicine, said: "We welcome a new and rigorous analysis of available data, and look forward to consideration of its findings after it appears."
Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26954482
BBC News Health 10 April 2014
Tamiflu: Millions wasted on flu drug, claims major report
By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News
Hundreds of millions of pounds may have been wasted on a drug for flu that works no better than paracetamol, a landmark analysis has said.
- To waste (something) on (something): to spend money or time unnecesarily on something.
- Flu: everyday name in English for "Influenza" a very common illness similar to but stronger than the common cold. The most common symptoms are fever (higher than usual body temperature), congestion, sneezing and coughing.
- Drug: as in spanish this word has usually a negative connotation. However in English there are two classes of drugs: prescription drugs, which are prescribed by doctors to their patients and "recreational drugs" which people take with the aim to enjoy themselves including "legal drugs" like tobacco and alcohol.
- To claim: to say something. It is often used to insinuate that what has been said may not be true.
- Landmark: usually about buildings or monuments that become a reference for people, e.g. the Eiffel Tower or the Big Ben. However when some event is really relevant and changes the previous situation, it is also called a landmark.
The UK has spent £473m on Tamiflu, which is stockpiled by governments globally to prepare for flu pandemics. The Cochrane Collaboration claimed the drug did not prevent the spread of flu or reduce dangerous complications, and only slightly helped symptoms. The manufacturers Roche and other experts say the analysis is flawed. The antiviral drug Tamiflu was stockpiled from 2006 in the UK when some agencies were predicting that a pandemic of bird flu could kill up to 750,000 people in Britain. Similar decisions were made in other countries.
- To stockpile: to pile (to accumulate) in order to create a stock (reserves).
- Spread: (verb and noun) to spread means to extend something over some surface or space. Spread is also the abstract noun for this concept, for example the spread of an illness in a country.
- slightly: slight is an adjectives that means something is superficial or not strong. For example if you have some information about something, you can have a "slight idea". Slightly is the adverb from this adjective.
Hidden data
The drug was widely prescribed during the swine flu outbreak in 2009. Drug companies do not publish all their research data. This report is the result of a colossal fight for the previously hidden data into the effectiveness and side-effects of Tamiflu. It concluded that the drug reduced the persistence of flu symptoms from seven days to 6.3 days in adults and to 5.8 days in children. But the report's authors said drugs such as paracetamol could have a similar impact. On claims that the drug prevented complications such as pneumonia developing, Cochrane suggested the trials were so poor there was "no visible effect".
- Hidden: not visible.
- Widely: generally, not only in specific conditions or specific places.
- prescribed: to prescribe is what doctors do with medicines. They will write a document which is the prescription. This document says which medicine you have to take, how often and what the dosage is (how much of it each time).
- swine flu: Swine is an old-fashioned term to refer to pigs (the farm animals) and other wild animals of the same or similar species, like the wild boar. Since this kind of flu originated in these animals, that is why it was given this name. Swine is also a term used by women to refer to men who are disloyal or unfaithful to their women. If a man is simply unhygienic, then they will be called pigs.
- Outbreak: noun from the verb to break out, meaning the explosive start of a massive infection in a population group, e.g. the flu. in contrast with a normal situation when the illness occurs ocassionally and its spread (see above) is controlled and very slow.
- Effectiveness: the capacity to generate a desired effect. For example to cure an illness or control the symptoms.
- Side-effects: unexpected effects of something (usually medication) that happen with no intention or by accident and usually are negative.
- To conclude: to reach a conclusion after thinking or investigating something.
- On claims that: in connection with those claims (see above "to claim").
- Trials: a trial is a process to determine if something is true or false (legal trials) or if it is effective and safe (medical trials).
Another justification for stockpiling was to slow the spread of the disease to give time for a vaccine to be developed. The report's authors said "the case for this is simply unproven" and "there is no credible way these drugs could prevent a pandemic". It also claimed that the drug had a number of side-effects, including nausea, headaches, psychiatric events, kidney problems and hyperglycaemia.
- To slow: to reduce the speed.
- For a vaccine to be developed: this is a sentence in the passive voice. Vaccines and other drugs are developed (=medical scientists develop vaccines and other drugs) - To develop: to create following a process.
- The case for this is simply unproven: "case" is a word often used in "legal English" to refer to the reasons to defend a position in court. Here the sentence means: there is no proof (no evidence) to believe this is true.
- Headaches: "Ache" and "pain" are the two main words in English to describe the physical signal you get when something is wrong in your body. "Ache" is usually combined in the same word with organs or clearly defined parts of your body like "headache", "toothache". It also usually refers to dull, recurring or cronic situations. In contrast pain is usually something stronger, ocassional and atypical. For example you can say your legs "ache" (yes, it can be used as a verb) to describe the feeling after running or standing up for a long time. However if you have some traumatic situation such as an injury, you would say I have a pain in my leg. Is it clear now? I hope so...
- Kidneys: body organs (two) whose function is to filter body liquids and eliminate toxins. Located around the lower-back area.
- Hyperglycaemia: a medical condition where the glucose-in-blood levels are too high.
Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford and one of the report's authors, told the BBC: "I think the whole £500m has not benefited human health in any way and we may have harmed people. "The system that exists for producing evidence on drugs is so flawed and open to misuse that the public has been misled." Dr Tom Jefferson, a clinical epidemiologist and former GP, said: "I wouldn't give it for symptom relief, I'd give paracetamol."
- To harm: to do something negative to someone or something.
- Flawed: imperfect, defective.
- Misuse: incorrect or inadequate use.
- Misled: adjective referring to people who have been affected by wrong instructions, directions or informations. It comes from the verb to mislead which means to guide someone in the wrong direction or make them come to the wrong conclusion.
- relief: feeling of comfort after the symptoms of an illness or problem have disappeared.
The Cochrane Collaboration researchers have not placed the blame on any individual or organisation, instead saying there had been failings at every step from the manufacturers to the regulators and government.
- To place (or put) the blame on (someone or something): to indicate that someone (not yourself) is responsible for something negative. e.g. In Spain politicians put the blame on each other for the country's problems, but they don't offer any solutions.
- Failing: something has not been correctly done. For example food poisoning in a restaurant is a failing in hygiene controls in the kitchen.
'Wrong statistics'
However, there is disagreement about the findings and accusations that a simultaneous campaign to open up drug research is influencing the findings.
The pharmaceutical company Roche said "we disagree with the overall conclusions" and warned they could "potentially have serious public health implications". Its UK medical director, Dr Daniel Thurley, told the BBC News website: "The definitive piece of research stands as the randomised control trials, which were shared with the regulators, which led to them in 100 countries around the world approving Tamiflu for treatment and prevention of flu."
- Findings: information found during research, investigation or exploration.
- overall: general.
- Research: to try to find more about some issue such as science. Not to be confused with investigation, which is what the police and detectives do.
- Randomised: set in a random (disorganized, chaotic) way.
He said the Cochrane group had used the wrong statistics, which "systematically underestimate the benefits" of the drug, and used "unorthodox" methods to analyze the side-effects. He concluded: "One of the challenges we have here is actually knowing what they've done." Prof Wendy Barclay, who researches the influenza virus at Imperial College London, said reducing symptoms in children by 29 hours would be "pretty beneficial". She told the BBC: "Tamiflu works as well as any drug we have now or [that] is on the cards. "Yes, I think they should replenish the stockpile. What else can you do if a pandemic strikes? We won't have a vaccine for the first six months."
- To underestimate: to predict a result which is finally higher than expected.
- A challenge: some difficult activity that requires the best of your abilities or power.
- As well as: in this sentence it is an "equality" comparison based on the adverb "well". Other meaning of as well as is "too". e.g. He brought his wife and children as well as his parents and his dogs.
- To replenish: to make something full again after it has been emptied. In this case the reserves (stockpile) of Tamiflu.
She also questioned the validity of the research as it analysed the impact during seasonal flu: "If it works a little bit in season flu, the chances are they'll work quite a lot better in a pandemic situation and get more people back to school and work." Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said it was an "impressive" piece of work. He said: "It is a potential limitation of this study that the work has been carried out alongside campaigning on access to trial data. "The writers of the review have a clear position in this controversy, and, although I personally do generally agree with their position, I feel it does at times lead to some confusion between reporting the results of the review of these particular drugs and commenting on the general position on access to and use of unpublished data."
- Seasonal: that happens only in a specific season (winter, summer...)
- The chances are: the probability of something happening is...
- quite a lot: you use quite when using an expression alone sounds too strong. In this case, to avoid saying a lot. So it means "a little less than a lot, but still a very positive result".
- impressive: a positive adjective meaning something is admirable.
- piece of work:
- a review: an evaluation of something, often used in scientific research.
- to lead: to guide someone or something in a specific direction, either physically or in a figurative sense.
- position on access to and use of...: the key in this expression is "and". It coordinates two elements "access to unpublished data" and "use of unpublished data". Since the final part is common, english grammar rules allow to make the coordination in this way, avoiding the repetition of the final part. It sounds very strange for spanish people, but it is perfectly correct.
The Department of Health, which took the lead for the UK, said Britain was recognised as "one of the best prepared countries in the world for a potential flu pandemic" and "our stockpile of antivirals is a key part of this. "We regularly review all published data and will consider the Cochrane review closely." The World Health Organization, which classes Tamiflu as an essential medicine, said: "We welcome a new and rigorous analysis of available data, and look forward to consideration of its findings after it appears."
- Department of health: the equivalent of "ministry".
- to take the lead: to be the first to take an initiative, in this case buying drugs against the flu.
- A key part: a very important part
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