THE ENGLISH CLASS THROUGH MY EYES

 Today’s class was intellectually intense! There was no time to fool around. We even finished a few minutes late…

We were distributed a recent article and each of us had to read out a small paragraph. While going through it, the difficult words were looked for on the web dictionaries. Our teacher showed how to use the ‘wordreference.com’ dictionary. As she said, the forums of this site are very interesting but must be used intelligently. I like this online dictionary and others like www.synonym.com and www.dictionary.reference.com because it helps saving time and money.  Time because I am really bad at using the traditional big and heavy tangible dictionary and money because a good dictionary costs a lot. With dictionaries found on the net, all you need is an internet connection and a computer.

  The article that we read was a recent one from the NewScientist of February 18^th entitled “All charged up and raring to go…” At first, by reading the title only, no clue is given on what is treated here. It can be summed up as follows:

Devices like backpack, piezoelectric clothing and leg brace, each using the simple motion of the body can generate power to make certain electrical gadgets work.

The pair of leg braces weighs 1.6 Kg and extends from mid-thigh to mid-calf. On it, there is a gear that twists while walking and this enables power (around 5watts) to be harnessed by spinning an electric generator. In the future, researchers will aim at lowering the weight of the brace and finding a way to make the gear function without altering the normal walking of the users. Many applications can arise from this new technology: getting power for a cell phone or a motor in prosthetic arms.

The backpack weighs 38kg and generates power (7 watts) from the up and down motion of the hips and shoulders as we walk. It is designed for people like soldiers (strong people not afraid of carrying heavy loads).

The piezoelectric clothing or ‘T Shirt power’ uses the bending of its component threads through natural movement to generate power. The output is around 80milliwatts.Vocabulary from this article:

Strap on a pair of leg braces…	Strap on :Fasten with a strap (piece of cloth) Braces: an appliance for supporting a weak joint or joints(medical use)
A gear on the brace…	gear: A toothed machine part, such as a wheel or cylinder, that meshes with another toothed part to transmit motion or to change speed or direction
as you stride along	to walk with long steps
…it harnesses the loping up and down motion…	Harness: exploit the power ofLope: a slow pace of running
Extend to mid-thigh to mid-calf	Thigh: “cuisse”(French) Calf: “mollet”(French)
Run on a treadmill while wearing…	Treadmill: an exercise device consisting of an endless belt on which a person can walk or jog without changing place
Useful dribbles of power…from subtler motion	Dribbles: the formation and falling of drops of liquid like saliva(figurative) Subtle: So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe(e.g.: a subtle smile)
…like bristles on a pipe-cleaner.	Bristle: a stiff fiber (coarse hair or filament);
…a prickly feeling	Prickly: very irritable; bristly
Raring to go	very eager or anxious; enthusiastic to go

 This article made me look for 2 things: how to name all parts of the body and the vocabulary for the different ways of walking.

After that, we were given other articles to read in groups of 4. My group read one entitled ‘deposition improves medical implants’. The exercise here was different, we had to pick the relevant points from the paper and present it to the class on the overhead projector afterwards.

We prepared our transparent and then while waiting for our turn to expose it, we listened to our friends’ presentation and took some notes.

This is the type of exercise I found the most difficult: listening, reading and writing at the same time. I could grasp the general idea of each exposé not really by listening to what my colleagues were saying (sorry guys!) but by reading their transparent.  Right now, I am finding the notes that I took indecipherable! Shame on me! If I had read my notes and written this post once back home from class, maybe fresh ideas would have sprung from my mind. I’ll have to wait on next Monday to see if someone had taken notes correctly and finish this post.