25 September 2008 - Written by Lyle

Sometimes there can be some confusion as to which verb or phrasal verb is best to use when describing your birth and growth. Here are a few useful expressions.

Bring up – A transitive phrasal verb which means to raise. Usually used for humans.

Eg: She brought up 3 children by herself.

Grow up – An intransitive phrasal verb which means to grow/become an

adult.

Eg: When I grow up I want to be an astronaut.

Grow can also be used as a transitive verb, often used when the object is a plant.

Eg: He grows strawberries in his garden.

Breed and Rear can be used like Raise but are more common to use when the object is an animal. Here are a few exercises. Try to choose the best verb or phrasal verb to complete the sentences.

1. I was born and ___________ in Dublin.
2. She ___________ Irish Wolfhounds for a living.
3. I _____________ in a small town.
4. __________ children can be a difficult job.
5. My father __________ me to be polite to elders.
6. Have you heard about the girl in India who was _____________ by wolves?
7. If I had a bigger yard I’d _________ vegetables.
8. Shut the door! Were you ___________ in a tent?

09 July 2008 - Written by Rob

Sometimes, verbs are used as nouns, and when this is the case they become known as ‘gerunds’. If we say ‘He is fishing’, the main verb in this sentence is fishing (it is in present continuous form; subject + auxiliary verb ‘to be’ + main verb with ‘ing’). However, if we say ‘He likes fishing’, ‘fishing’ in this case is not a verb; it functions as a noun - fishing as a concept, a sport, a ‘thing’. The verb in the sentence is ‘likes’. The gerund is formed by adding ‘ing’ to the infinitive (or root) of the verb.

Some of the most common circumstances when gerunds can be used include the following:

- After verbs that mean liking or disliking: like, love, enjoy, hate, dislike etc.

Eg. We really love yodelling

- After verbs that indicate the end or beginning of an action: begin, start, finish, end etc.

Eg. She started combing her nephew’s hair

In some cases it is not permissible to use a gerund, and the to-infinitive must be used (to eat, to go, to follow). In other cases the bare infinitive is used (eat, go, follow).

Fill in the blanks in these sentences with the gerund form :

1. Have you ever seen anybody _______ (throw) a boomerang. (Gerund used after verb of sensation - see)
2. I remember _______ (put) the papers somewhere on the table.
3. I’m really looking forward to _______ (taste) one of those cakes of yours.
4.She remembers _______ (go) out of school and _______ (have) tea with her friends.

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The car has become a big part of our daily lives. The biggest developments in car making were made by Henry Ford for the Ford Motor Company. It was on this day October 1st 1908, that Henry Ford introduced his model T which changed the way we travel, work and live.

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile changed transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As owner of the Ford Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He created “Fordism”, that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line which could finish a car in 98 minutes, and also high wages for his workers—especially the $5.00 per day pay he introduced in 1914.

• Founder - one who starts a company.
• Assembly line - an arrangement of workers, machines, and equipment in which the product being assembled passes consecutively from operation to operation until completed.
• Mass production - the production of large amounts of standardized products on assembly lines.
• Prolific - producing a lot of works or results.
• Award - something given for victory or superiority in a contest or competition.
• Patent - a document granting an inventor rights to an invention.

Ford was born on July 30, 1863, on a farm next to a small town west of Detroit, Michigan. His father, William Ford, was born in County Cork, Ireland. His mother, Mary Litogot Ford, was born in Michigan; she was the youngest child of Belgian immigrants.
Henry took this passion about mechanics into his home. His father had given him a pocket watch in his early teens. At fifteen, he had a reputation as a watch repairman, having dismantled and reassembled timepieces of friends and neighbours many times.
In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company, and after his promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893, he had enough time and money to devote attention to his personal tests on gasoline engines. These tests ended in 1896 with the completion of his own self-propelled vehicle named the Quadricycle, which he test-drove on June 4. After many test-drives, Henry Ford thought of ways to improve the Quadricycle.

• Passion - strong feeling or emotion.
• Mechanics - design, construction, and use of machinery or mechanical structures.
• Teens - the time of life between the ages of 12 and 20.
• Reputation - the general opinion that the public has for a person.
• Dismantle - take off or remove.
• Reassemble - to fit or join the parts of (something) together again.
• Promotion - progress, growth.
• Devote - to give or apply (one’s time, attention, or self) entirely to a particular activity, cause, or person.
• Self-propelled – having the ability to move alone.

At age 40, Ford, with 11 other investors and $28,000, started the Ford Motor Company in 1903. In a newly-designed car, Ford gave an exhibition on the ice of Lake St. Clair, driving one mile (1.6 km) in 39.4 seconds, setting a new land speed record at 91.3 miles per hour (147.0 km/h). Convinced by this success, the race driver Barney Oldfield, took the car around the country, making the Ford brand known around the United States.
Ford surprised the world in 1914 by offering a $5 per day wage which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers.
The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908. It had many important innovations—such as the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and gearbox were enclosed.

• Invest - to commit money hoping to gain a financial return.
• Exhibition - a public showing.
• Record - the known history of performance, activities, or achievement.
• Convinced - very sure.
• Double - to make twice the size.
• Innovation - something introduced for the first time.
• Steering wheel - a wheel that controls the course of a boat or automotive vehicle.
• Copy - an imitation or reproduction of an original.
• Gearbox - an automotive assembly of gears and associated parts by which power is transmitted from the engine to a driving axle.

The car was very simple to drive, and—more importantly—easy and cheap to fix. It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 (the price fell every year) that by the 1920s a majority of American drivers learned to drive on the Model T.
Always looking for more good production and lower costs, in 1913 Ford introduced the moving assembly belts into his plants, which enabled an enormous increase in production.
By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T’s. As Ford wrote in his autobiography, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”. Until the development of the assembly line which used black because of its quicker drying time, Model T’s were available in other colours including red. The design was passionately promoted and defended by Henry Ford, and production continued as late as 1927; the final total production was 15,007,034. This was a record which stood for the next 45 years.
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson personally asked Ford to run for the United States Senate. Although the nation was at war, Ford ran as a peace candidate and was a strong supporter of the suggested League of Nations. In December 1918, Henry Ford turned the presidency of Ford Motor Company over to his son Edsel Ford. Henry, however, kept final decision authority. Henry and Edsel bought all other parts from other investors, giving the family ownership of the company.

• Autobiography - the biography of a person written by that person.
• Candidate - a person who seeks or is nominated for an office, prize, or honour.
• Ownership - the state or fact of being an owner.

By the mid-1920s, sales of the Model T began to go down because of rising competition. Other auto makers offered payment plans through which customers could buy their cars, which usually included more modern mechanical features and style not available with the Model T. Despite pressure from Edsel, Henry refused to add new features into the Model T or to form a customer payment plan.
By 1926, slowing sales of the Model T finally convinced Henry to make a new model car. Henry entered the project with a great deal of technical experience in design of the engine, chassis, and other mechanical parts, while leaving the body design to his son.

• Feature - a prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic.
• Payment plan - a credit system by which payment is made in small amounts over a fixed period of time.
• Chassis – the part that holds the body and motor together

Henry Ford was a pioneer of “welfare capitalism” designed to employ and keep the best workers . On January 5, 1914 Ford announced his five-dollar per day program. The revolutionary program called for a lowering in the length of the workday from 9 to 8 hours, a 5 day work week, and a raise in minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5.
Ford had been criticized by businesses for starting the 40 hour work week and a minimum wage. He showed, however, that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing and so be good for the economy. Ford called the higher compensationprofit-sharing rather than wages.

• Pioneer - one who opens up new areas of thought, research, or development.
• Welfare capitalism - the practice of businesses providing services to employees.
• Announce - to make known publicly.
• Program - a system of services, opportunities, or projects, usually designed to meet a social need.
• Revolutionary – making a big change.
• Criticize – To find a problem with.
• Minimum wage - the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that employers may legally pay to employees or workers.
• Enable – make possible.
• Compensation - Something, such as money, given or received as payment or reparation, as for a service or loss.
• Profit-sharing - various plans introduced by businesses that give direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company’s profits in addition to employees’ regular salary and bonuses.