Merry Christmas!

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

Hamilton Wright Mabie

How to have a British Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Some idioms with 'BY'

Refresh your idioms!

     IDIOMS with ‘BY’

Try to match the idioms with the right definitions.

By heart	Through people telling each other
By hand	On the whole, very generally
By chance/ coincidence	Tremendously and quickly
By mistake / accident	From memory
By the book	Not by machine
By and large	Following the rules very strictly
By leaps and bounds	Without planning
By word of mouth	Not on purpose

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Check here if you got them right:

IDIOMS ‘BY’

By heart	From memory
By hand	Not by machine
By chance/ coincidence	Without planning
By mistake / accident	Not on purpose
By the book	Following the rules very strictly
By and large	On the whole, very generally
By leaps and bounds	Tremendously and quickly
By word of mouth	Through people telling each other

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If you didn’t, keep on trying.

If you want to watch a short video with the explanations and some examples, click here:

Idioms with 'BY'

 

Just in case you are spending your Christmas holiday in London

Ten of the best last-minute Christmas and New Year activities in London 

The run-up to the big day doesn’t have to be all shopping malls and panto: we pick cool, offbeat and cultural events and gift-buying opportunities across the capital

 Lose yourself in Kew Gardens, Richmond

It’s magical enough at the best of times but for Christmas Kew Gardens becomes a magical wonderland of light - from a flickering fire garden to laser beams shooting from the iconic Palm House. A trail through the grounds is lit by over a million lights, and the North Pole village is home to Santa and his elves, and plenty of toasted marshmallow.

Click here to continue reading: The_Guardian_Christmas

 

Facebook admits it poses mental health risk – but says using site more can help

Company acknowledges ‘passive’ consumption of material can make people ‘feel worse’ but argues more engagement could improve wellbeing

Facebook has acknowledged that social media use can be bad for users’ mental health, a sign the company is feeling pressure from a growing chorus of critics raising alarms about the platform’s effect on society.
Researchers for the social network admitted in a blogpost Friday that studies have found that spending time on Facebook “passively consuming information” can leave people “feeling worse”, but also argued that part of the solution is to engage and interact more with people on the platform.
The company’s public recognition of some of its platform’s detrimental effects came days after a former Facebook executive made headlines with a speech slamming the corporation, saying: “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.”
 
The blogpost, which also announced new tools meant to mitigate some of the negative experiences on Facebook, came at the end of a year of intense scrutiny and bad press for the company. Facebook has repeatedly been accused of spreading Russian propaganda and fake news, providing a platform and network for white supremacists, enabling hate speech and offensive ads and censoring critics of oppressive governments.
The company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has asked for forgiveness and claimed his new mission was to “bring the world closer together”.
Studies have repeatedly found that Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites can damage the emotional wellbeing of heavy users, particularly younger people. The new post from Facebook’s director of research, David Ginsberg, and the research scientist Moira Burke painted the literature on the subject as mixed and inconclusive, arguing that Facebook use can also have positive mental health impacts.
Ginsberg and Burke claimed that “actively interacting with people – especially sharing messages, posts and comments with close friends and reminiscing about past interactions – is linked to improvements in well-being”. They cited one study suggesting that students who scrolled through their own Facebook profiles experienced “boosts in self-affirmation” compared with others who looked at strangers’ pages.
The authors, however, also pointed to a study finding that people who clicked on four times as many links as the average person on Facebook reported worse mental health. The blog further acknowledged that reading about others online might lead to “negative social comparison” and that some theorize that the internet takes people away from in-person social engagement.
The post also referenced a psychologist’s claims that mobile phones have redefined modern relationships, making people “alone together”, and another expert’s arguments that an increase in teen depression is linked to technology use.
On Friday, Facebook launched a new feature called Snooze, which allows users to hide a person, page or group for 30 days without having to unfollow or unfriend them: “This will give people more control over their feed and hopefully make their experience more positive.”
The company also unveiled a tool called Take a Break, meant to help users going through break-ups, recognizing that seeing an ex-partner’s social media activities can be emotionally painful. The new feature gives people control over what they can see of their exes on Facebook and what their exes can see on their pages.
“In sum, our research and other academic literature suggests that it’s about how you use social media that matters when it comes to your well-being,” the blog authors wrote, adding a quote from Zuckerberg, saying: “We want the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions.”
Zuckerberg also claimed last month that he believed “protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits”.
Facebook, however, has continually prioritized features designed to make the platform addictive and has allowed users to instantaneously purchase harmful ads without scrutiny. The company has also struggled to stop the spread of offensive live videos on the platform, some featuring graphic abuse and violence.
On Thursday, Chamath Palihapitiya, the former executive who criticized the company, walked back his comments, saying: “I genuinely believe that Facebook is a force for good in the world.”

                                                                                    By Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, Dec 2017

Once homeless under a bridge, now working high up on a roof

Sharon's life was rock bottom when she was homeless and sleeping under a bridge. But now she has a bright future in the solar industry.
She participates in a local job training and solar installation programme for low-income workers called Solar Works DC.

Watch this short but really stunning video about this former homeless lady and how she got a new life:

BBC_ homeless_video

My shock at discovering I was a donor child

Things can get complicated when you find out where you really come from. Some people can accept it without any problem. For others, it is really  hard to cope with it.

Read this interesting article about some real cases.

When parents tell a child that he or she was conceived from a donated egg, or donated sperm, it can come as quite a shock.

After Elaine Chong wrote about donating her eggs to help other couples have a child, two readers got in touch to explain how the revelation that they were donor children affected them - one said it split his family, the other said it drew hers even closer together.

'My entire existence is a lie'

I found out I was donor-conceived when I was 22. The conversation was not planned. When my younger sister discovered she was pregnant she asked my parents if there were any hereditary family conditions that she needed to be mindful about. Then my parents told her that they couldn't answer her question that she had been born as a result of gamete donation.
My social father (this is what we call the parents who raise us) then told me that was also the case for me. He said they had gone to a doctor at Harley Street who had helped them conceive both myself and my sister, who is three years younger. But that was all he was willing to talk about and neither he nor my social mother wanted to discuss the subject any more.
As I was conceived in the early 80s it's impossible to find records as to who the egg and sperm donors, my biological parents, are. It was rare for that information to be kept on file then.
I'd often wondered why I looked so different to the people that raised me. I'm tall, hairy, with dark eyes and features. My parents are shorter, pale with light eyes. I started wondering if maybe I could be of a different ethnicity. Suddenly my whole existence felt like a lie.
My relationship with my social parents deteriorated and I spent years moving around, doing a number of odd jobs. I also battled with gambling issues. I felt like a gypsy. I should add that my sister had a different reaction to me. She maintains a good relationship with our social parents, whereas mine has almost entirely broken down.
Even though I am now married, with a young child of my own, I am still against gamete donation. We shouldn't be playing around with science like this. If I had been adopted, it would be easier to trace the story of how I came to be and easier to find roots. As it stands it's unlikely that my egg or sperm donor parents knew each other, and I don't know the motivations of why they chose to donate.
I feel that donor conception is a trade in human beings and very few people consider the effects it has on a child.
John, 35, UK

'I also want to be an egg donor'

My sister and I have always been almost opposites - which was the main reason why I could tell something was different between us. She was slim, smart, and a rule-abider. I was more of a wild child with an athletic build. Throughout our childhood, it was always a joking topic, but it was never addressed until I was 11.
My dad and I were in the car and I had brought up again how my sister and I were so different. He said: "Yeah, we can talk about it when we get home." I was like, what? After all this time, now there's an explanation! In a way it was satisfying to know that my premonitions were correct.
At home, it was a full family conversation. My mom cried when she confirmed my suspicions that my sister and I weren't fully related.
She'd had a problem with her IUD implant in the 70s that affected her uterus and the transport of her own eggs. She had never told anyone in her family except for her mother because of the stigma against not being able to get pregnant.
My parents told me that my sister was an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) baby, with my mom's egg and my dad's sperm, and that I was conceived from an egg donor with my dad's sperm.
It was very emotional. I can vividly remember that.
It's such a fragile state to be in, to have your own kid question where they're from. It was one of those things where my mom thought if I knew that I wasn't necessarily related to her, I would push her away - that's what she conveyed to me.
After, I remember sitting in my room and I felt like I had known it was true the whole time. I had grown up with these differences and my parents never loved me any less. I've never felt betrayed - I've just felt grateful for the chance to be given life.
My mom and I have gotten closer because of it. I think it is the bravest thing she has ever done. I began to see how it had shaped her as a mother too - every night she would tell my sister and me: "We did everything to have you, we're so grateful for you in our lives." Now I understand that they really did do everything.
As I got older, I became more intrigued by IVF. I thought it was very interesting to see how my parents had taken this very new technology and applied it to their lives.
I want to be an egg donor once I finish college because it would make me feel so proud.
I want to represent a successful story of in-vitro. My mom is very supportive of me becoming an egg donor. I think it would make her feel like she has continued the process of family completion in a way.
Donor conception is still seen as a very secretive process, but I think if it were to have more light brought to it, things might change. If I could help at all to de-stigmatise the idea, I would feel very proud.
Elizabeth, 21, US

When to tell the children

If children have been conceived from a donated egg or sperm it's good to tell them early, says Nina Barnsley, director of the Donor Conception Network. Ideally at the age of five, and no later than 10.
This allows them to get used to the idea as they grow, and averts the possibly traumatic experience of a sudden revelation later on. "It ends up being just an exciting story of how they came into the world," she says. "Parents should see it as an open door to continuing the conversation as the child wishes and ages."
If parents wait until their child is an adult, they may be asked why they hid the truth for so long. But late is better than never, Barnsley says, and better than a deathbed confession. "We've had children in their 30s with parents in their 70s when they have the conversation. It can go very well."

                                                                                                                  BBC stories

Key to the grammar exercises

You can click here to get the key to the review and the future exercises:

review_unit1_future_key