Showing posts with label Daniel Gauss English Tutor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daniel Gauss English Tutor. Show all posts

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Horses, Decay, Romantics


I like horses in artwork.   

_____(Q) For example, it takes you from a place of turmoil and conflict to your own hearth.  

_____(R) So, symbolically, the horse often represents what gets you from one (rotten) place to another (better) place.   

_____(S) One reason is that, to me, the horse is a symbol of transition. 

_____(T) Or, it leads you into and out of battle; it helps you escape, engage in some adventure or find new ways.  

_____(U) By transition, I mean transition within our inner reality as well as transition in our external reality. 


  Copyright – Daniel Gauss



‘Decay’ might be a somewhat misleading term as it is used in regard to subatomic particles.  

_____(Q) This then gives you a more stable Nitrogen atom (the difference between types of atoms depends on the number of protons in the nucleus – gain a proton and you become something else). 

_____(R) Atoms experience this type of change due to their ‘instability’ and become more ‘stable’ afterwards.   

_____(S) For instance, C14 has 6 protons and 8 neutrons and this is an unstable state for Carbon.  

_____(T) So, poof, a neutron spontaneously can change to a proton and now you get 7 neutrons and 7 protons.  

_____(U) If we are talking about beta decay, for instance, this simply describes a process in which an atom with an overabundance of neutrons experiences the spontaneous change of a neutron into a proton, creating another element completely while also discharging a fast moving electron (a beta particle). 


 Copyright – Daniel Gauss



The artists of the Romantic Movement could see science coming, and it wasn’t pretty.  

_____(Q) There was the outer world (stuff to be perceived, measured and used) and the inner world (perception, thought and emotional responses).   

_____(R) Science seemed to bring an ideology along with it (a technological justification of the worst forms of capitalism) and, schematically, it divided the world into two.  

_____(S) The Romantics, however, believed the mind and body to be a part of nature and connected to nature.  

_____(T) Science, therefore, meant our minds were separate from nature and were to be used to control nature, as if we were secular wizards.  

_____(U) Friedrich Schelling went so far as to say that nature was visible spirit and spirit was invisible nature.

Copyright – Daniel Gauss




Answers are below:









Horses ----à 4,3,1,5,2     Q=4, R=3, S=1, T=5, U=2

Decay --à 5,2,3,4,1

Romantics -à 2,1,4,3,5

Monday, October 5, 2015

Minhwa, The Potato Famine


Minhwa is a traditional Korean art form. 

_____(Q) These are insights that would never have been publicly promulgated through the media of the dominant culture. 

_____(R) Minhwa is basically, therefore, the raw, insightful and passionate ‘real’ people (magpies)attacking the established and respected hacks (tigers) in power who control things through connections, quid pro quo arrangements and whatever other forms of shadiness they can think of to try to seem relevant and important. 

_____ (S) Minhwa has represented the experiences and desires of the common people, revealing insights only the people could know about life and society. 

_____ (T) Therefore the tigers aren’t really tigers in Minhwa, they are buffoons just as the aristocracy and power-brokers were, or have been, overwhelmingly, buffoons. 

_____(U) Because it is from the relatively powerless common people, there is often sarcasm and humor in Minhwa, and perhaps some secret social symbolism and criticism, as with magpies mocking vicious and powerful tigers who suddenly look stupid and ridiculous.

copyright: Daniel Gauss  2015




While over one million people starved to death in Ireland from 1845 – 1850, boatloads of grain regularly arrived from Ireland, through the port of Liverpool, to feed the citizens of England.  

_____ (Q) The Irish people had been colonized by the English and most Irish worked for various wealthy (mostly English) landlords.  

_____ (R) Thus, the tenant farmers who were dependent on the potato starved while the wealthy landowners reaped tremendous profits from the Irish grain they exported.  

_____ (S) These landlords never even considered stopping the transport of food from Ireland to England so that the Irish themselves might be saved while the potato crop was decimated by a fungus.  

_____ (T) Yet, a famine is when there is no food – there was an overabundance of food…the Irish just weren’t allowed to eat it. 

_____ (U) This was free market capitalism at its most transparently inhumane, but it has come down to us through history whitewashed as the potato ‘famine’.

Copyright: Daniel Gauss 2015


Answers are below:












Minhwa: 2,4,1,5,3 ----> Q=2, R=4, S=1, T=5, U=3
Potato Famine: 1,3,2,5,4




Monday, July 13, 2015

2 more scrambled paragraphs: Grief, Summer of Love,

Notice:  All of the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes. By using the site you agree not to reproduce this material on another site.


Why do animals grieve and why do we see grief in different species of animals? 
_____(Q) Whatever its value, grief is the price of commitment, that wellspring of both happiness and sorrow.
_____(R) It's been suggested that grief reactions may allow for the reshuffling of status relationships, the filling of a reproductive vacancy left by the deceased, or for fostering continuity of the group. 
_____(S) Whatever the reasons, it's likely that grief evolved to serve different functions in different species.
_____(T) Some further theorize that perhaps mourning strengthens social bonds among the survivors who band together to pay their last respects. 
_____(U) This may enhance group cohesion at a time when it's likely to be weakened. 






On January 14, 1967, counterculture leaders called for a “human be-in” in San Francisco, California.


_____(Q) The Summer of Love boasted music festivals, poetry readings, speeches, and even theater.


_____(R) Thousands of people answered the call, gathering in Golden Gate Park to promote peace, happiness, and love.


_____(S) For the most part, the Summer of Love proved successful in its ability to spread the counterculture message, but by the fall of 1967, increased incidents of crime and drug abuse by hippies gathered in Haight-Ashbury signaled a change in the movement. 


_____(T) The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco quickly became the gathering place and home for many displaced youth who came to celebrate the counterculture event.


_____(U) During the spring, more disillusioned youth traveled to San Francisco upon hearing a declaration that the summer of 1967 would be the “Summer of Love.”


http://www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/summeroflove.asp








Answers are below:







Answers:
grief - 5,1,4,2,3  Q=5, R=1, S=4, T=2,, U=3 (this one is tricky because the final sentence is a concluding sentence that does not follow logically from the previous four.) 



summer of love - 4,1,5,3,2

Monday, March 23, 2015

Bubble-wrap, Ukiyo-e, Red - 3 new scrambled paragraphs

Notice:  All of the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes. By using the site you agree not to reproduce this material on another site.



Bubble wrap was originally designed to be used as wallpaper.

_____ (Q) However, this wallpaper idea didn’t sell too well.

_____ (R) The two were not, however, trying to make a product to be used as packaging material.

_____ (S) It was invented by two engineers: Al Fielding and Swiss inventor Marc Chavannes, in Hawthorne, N.J. in 1957.

_____ (T) They started out by sealing two shower curtains together in such a way that it would capture air bubbles which would make the textured appearance for their wallpaper. 

_____ (U) Rather, they were trying to create a textured wallpaper.




The Japanese art of Ukiyo-e developed in the city of Edo (now Tokyo) during the Tokugawa or Edo Period (1615-1868).

_____ (Q) Thus, with their political power effectively removed, the merchant class turned to art and culture as arenas in which they could participate on an equal basis with the elite upper classes (warriors, farmers, and artisans).

_____ (R) Although the cultural status of Ukiyo-e was initially considered "low" art, by and for the non-elite classes, its artistic and technical caliber is consistently remarkable. 

_____ (S) It was, indeed, the collaboration among the merchants, artists, publishers, and townspeople of Edo that gave Ukiyo-e its unique voice.

_____ (T) The social hierarchy of the day, officially established by shogun rulers, placed the merchants, the wealthiest segment of the population, at the lower end of the scale.

_____ (U) In turn, Ukiyo-e provided these groups with a means of attaining cultural status outside the sanctioned realms of shogunate, temple, and court.





Recently more research has focused on the relationship between color and psychological functioning.

_____ (Q) Two further experiments establish the link between red and avoidance motivation as indicated by behavioral (i.e., task choice) and psychophysiological (i.e., cortical activation) measures.
  
_____ (R) Four experiments, in fact, demonstrate that the brief perception of red prior to an important test (e.g., an IQ test) impairs performance, and this effect appears to take place outside of participants' conscious awareness.  

_____ (S) Red impairs performance on achievement tasks, because red is associated with the danger of failure in achievement contexts and evokes avoidance motivation.  

_____ (T) All of these findings suggest that care must be taken in how red is used in achievement contexts and illustrate how color can act as a subtle environmental cue that has important influences on behavior. 

_____ (U) Indeed, startling findings occurred in regard to the relationship between red and performance attainment. 





Answers below:







Bubble wrap:  Q=5,R=2,S=1,T=4,U=3
Ukiyo-e: 2,5,3,1,4
Red: 4,3,2,5,1

Saturday, January 31, 2015

2 scrambled paragraphs: Pottery, The Peasants Revolt

Notice:  All of the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes. By using the site you agree not to reproduce this material on another site.


Welcome to the best scrambled paragraph site on the internet. Answers are below the scrambled paragraphs.


In one of the standard methods of primitive potters, rings or coils of clay are built up from a circular base.

_____ (Q) It is not known when or where the potter's wheel was introduced.

_____ (R) When a pot is built up from the base by hand, it is impossible that it will be perfectly round.

_____ (S) The walls of the pot are then smoothed and thinned (by simultaneous pressure on the inner and outer surfaces) before being fired in a bread oven or in the most elementary of kilns - a hole in the ground, above which a bonfire is lit.

_____ (T) The solution to this problem is the potter's wheel, which has been a crucial factor in the history of ceramics.

_____ (U) Indeed it is likely that it developed very gradually, from a platform on which the potter turns the pot before shaping another side (thus avoiding having to walk around it).


http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab98










In 1381, some 35 years after the Black Death had swept through Europe decimating over one third of the population, there was a shortage of people left to work the land. 
_____ (Q) In addition to this, extra revenue was required to support a long and drawn out war with the French, and so a poll tax was introduced.
_____ (R) Recognizing the power of ‘supply and demand’, the remaining peasants began to re-evaluate their worth and subsequently demanded higher wages and better working conditions.
_____ (S) Not surprisingly the government of the day, comprised mainly of the land-owning Bishops and Lords, passed a law to limit any such wage rise. 
_____ (T) Things appear to have come to a head when in May 1381 a tax collector arrived in the Essex village of Fobbing to find out why the people there had not paid their poll tax and the villagers promptly threw him out
_____ (U) It was the third time in four years that such a tax had been applied and this crippling tax meant that everyone over the age of 15 had to pay one shilling - a significant amount to the average farm laborer! 





Answers are below:




Answers:

Pottery:  -->4,2,1,3,5   ------> 4 = Q, 2 = R, 1 = S, 3 = T, 5 = U

Peasant's revolt of 1381 ----> 3,1,2,5,4


Please enjoy a cool video. it's time to smile again!





Wednesday, October 22, 2014

3 new scrambled paragraphs

Notice:  All of the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes. By using the site you agree not to reproduce this material. 

Answers are below the exercises.


We need marine algae a whole lot more than they need us. 

_____ (Q) Trees and other land plants are very important, no doubt about it. 


_____ (R) Think about it, 70 to 80 percent of all the oxygen we breathe comes from algae! 

_____ (S) Without them we would really be sucking wind, but not for long! 

_____ (T) But for pure survival, we couldn’t make it without algae.

_____ (U) At this point, you may be saying, “Yo! What about the trees and other land plants?” 


http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/12/important-organism/


Tim Beatley has long been a leader in advocating for the "greening" of cities. 

_____ (Q) While these are important aspects of re-imagining urban living, they are not enough, says Beatley.

_____ (R) But too often, he notes, urban greening efforts focus on everything except nature. 


_____ (S) And any vision of a sustainable urban future must place its focus squarely on nature, on the presence, conservation, and celebration of the actual green features and natural life forms.

_____ (T) Instead, elements such as public transit, renewable energy production, and energy efficient building systems are emphasized. 

_____ (U) We must remember that human beings have an innate need to connect with the natural world (the biophilia hypothesis). 

http://islandpress.org/biophilic-cities


In mid-19th century America, most abolitionists were willing to move slowly toward their goal of ending slavery. 

_____ (Q) John Brown saw the cause in a different light.

_____ (R) Brown was unrepentant at trial, stating: "Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done."

_____ (S) After U.S. Marines (commanded by Robert E. Lee) stormed the armory, a wounded Brown was captured.

_____ (T) He thought that "slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States, is none other than the most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens against another portion," and he was willing to pursue just about any means at his disposal to stop the practice.

_____ (U) On October 16, 1859, Brown, hoping to obtain weapons for a slave uprising, led a raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), but Brown and his men were surrounded before they could escape.






The scrambled paragraphs King: Daniel Gauss
Answers:
algae - 4,1,2,5,3 -  Q=4, R=1, S=2, T=5, U=3
bio-friendly cities - 3,1,5,2,4: Q=3, R-1, S=5, T=2, U=4
john brown - 1,5,4,2,3 - Q=1, R=5, S=4, T=2, U=3

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

3 more scrambled paragraphs: Ghazali, Balloon Dog, John Coltrane

Notice:  All of the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes.  They are 100% legal under the Fair Usage Law.  (Basically I took properly cited source material and meaningfully changed it into a unique educational tool.) No commercial entity has the right to remove and display this content. By using this website you tacitly agree to the terms that this material cannot be reproduced for distribution via the internet or other means.


Answers to the exercises are below all the exercises. Good luck!


By the age of 33 Ghazali was appointed a professor in Baghdad, where he became recognized as an authority on canon law. 

_____ (Q) His greatest work of synthesis was in The Revivification of the Religious Sciences, which also argues that only the Sufi emphasis on inner devotion can fulfill the strict demands of the Qur’an. 

_____ (R) In spite of his success, Ghazali entered a period of spiritual crisis. 

_____ (S) Therefore, in 1095 Ghazali became a wandering ascetic, returning to the Sufism of his youth, spending 11 years in meditation and retirement, until a Sultan persuaded him to teach again. 

_____ (T) As he wrote in his autobiography: “I examined my motives in my work of teaching, and realized that it was not a pure desire for the things of God, but that the impulse moving me was the desire for an influential position and public recognition." 

_____ (U) In the public teachings and writings which followed his retirement, Ghazali set forth a synthesis of orthodox theology and mysticism. 





Perhaps Jeff Koons' most famous work of art is his ‘balloon dog,’ a giant polished steel structure which looks like a long inflated balloon twisted and shaped into the image of a dog.

_____ (Q) The Balloon Dog is, in fact, ‘eternally optimistic’ while simultaneously creating a dialogue between its interior and exterior surroundings through its reflective surfaces.

_____ (R) Indeed, he reveals that the design inspiration for his inflatable pieces stems from the human body and how a breath of air can become a symbol of optimism. 

_____ (S) Jeff Koons has, in fact, been into ‘inflatable’ art since the beginning of his career as an artist.

_____ (T) The huge reflective surfaces give the dog a light, airy balloon feel, while, in reality, the sculpture weighs an immense amount.

_____ (U) He often speaks about the concept of inflatable objects and their symbolic meaning for life itself.


http://www.ignant.de/2014/01/06/jeff-koons-balloon-dog/

The Whitney Museum in Manhattan currently has a Jeff Koons show: http://whitney.org/Visit/Hours



While A Love Supreme is a recognized musical masterpiece, it had enormous personal significance for Coltrane.

_____ (Q) In the spring of 1957, his dependence on drugs and alcohol lost him one of the best jobs in jazz.

_____ (R) Alternately catatonic and brilliant, Coltrane's behavior and playing became increasingly erratic and Davis fired him after a live show that April.

_____ (S) Soon after, Coltrane resolved to clean up his act.

_____ (T) He was playing sax and touring with Miles Davis' popular group when he became unreliable and strung out.

_____ (U) He would later write, in the 1964 liner notes to A Love Supreme, "In the year of 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening, which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life."


http://www.npr.org/2000/10/23/148148986/a-love-supreme





Here Coletrane is without Miles doing "Alabama" - which was created after 4 African American children were killed by racists in Alabama in a church fire.







Answers:


Ghazali:   5,1,3,2,4   (Q= 5, R=1, S=3, T=2, U=4) 
Balloon Dog:  4,3,1,5,2     
John Coltrane   1,3,4,2,5  

Friday, August 8, 2014

3 new scrambled paragraphs - Fioravanti, High Heels, Cyrus the Great

Notice:  All of the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes.  They are 100% legal under the Fair Usage Law.  (Basically I took properly cited source material and meaningfully changed it into a unique educational tool.) No commercial entity has the right to remove and display this content. By using this website you tacitly agree to the terms that this material cannot be reproduced for distribution via the internet or other means.


Answers are below the exercises. Good luck.


Fioravanti continued his work in Rome and in Bologna, but an event occurred which would change his life forever, derailing his Italian career and playing a part in his eventual decision to relocate to Russia. 

_____ (Q) The shocked Italian was promptly arrested and relieved of all his previous privileges and titles, even though the accusations would eventually prove false. 

_____ (R) Fioravanti’s work in Moscow began with removing the remains of the previous Dormition Cathedral. 

_____ (S) It was at this pivotal moment, however, in 1474 that he met the Russian ambassador Semyon Tolbuzin, who had been sent to Italy to search for architects to work in Moscow.

_____ (T) In June of 1473, Fioravanti was unexpectedly accused of counterfeiting false coins. 

_____ (U) The meeting between Fioravanti and Tolbuzin most likely occurred in Rome, and after signing a contract in 1475, the 60 year old architect left for the Principality of Moscow with his son Andrey and his servant Pietro. 





At the end of the 16th Century, Persia's Shah Abbas had the largest cavalry in the world.

_____ (Q) A wave of interest in all things Persian passed through Western Europe and Persian style shoes were enthusiastically adopted by aristocrats, who sought to give their appearance a virile, masculine edge that, it suddenly seemed, only heeled shoes could supply.


_____ (R) As the wearing of heels filtered into the lower ranks of society, the aristocracy responded by dramatically increasing the height of their shoes - and the high heel was born.
_____ (S) He was keen to forge links with rulers in Western Europe to help him defeat his great enemy, the Ottoman Empire.

_____ (T) In the muddy, rutted streets of 17th Century Europe, these new shoes had no utility value whatsoever - but that was the point: one of the best ways that status can be conveyed is through impracticality.
_____ (U) So in 1599, Abbas sent the first Persian diplomatic mission to Europe - it called on the courts of Russia, Germany and Spain.


So the video above states that high heels might be bad for your feet, yet I found a blog entry that points out that high heels are OK as long as you don't over-wear them and as long as you massage your feet after-wards: http://ohshoedesigns.com/blog/175/



The victory over Babylonia expressed all the facets of the policy of conciliation which Cyrus had followed until then.

_____ (Q) Indeed, Cyrus had no thought of forcing conquered people into a single mold, and had the wisdom to merely remove the often corrupt leadership of a conquered territory, replacing it with his 'tolerant' dictatorship.

_____ (R) He presented himself not as a conqueror, but as a benevolent and forgiving liberator of a foreign people.

_____ (S) This liberating step was in line with his policy to bring peace to mankind through the toleration of numerous national identities within a Persian empire.

_____ (T) He not only removed corrupt leaders and left familiar institutions unchanged, but he also freed peoples conquered by others, as evidenced in 539 BCE, when he allowed more than 40,000 Jews to leave Babylon and return to Palestine.

_____ (U) This step also showed a new wind was blowing from the east, carrying away the cries and humility of defeated and murdered victims, extinguishing the fires of sacked cities, and liberating nations from slavery.








Answers:

Fioravanti - 2,5,3,1,4  Q=2, R=5, S=3, T=1, U=4
High Heels - 3,4,1,5,2  
Cyrus --> 2,1,4,3,5




Please enjoy Mungo Jerry. Wow, this has been a very hot summer, hasn't it?



Monday, September 23, 2013

4 new scrambled paragraphs

Notice:  All the scrambled paragraphs on this blog are a free, non-commercial resource purely for educational purposes.  They are 100% legal under the Fair Usage Law.  No commercial entity has the right to remove and display this content. By using this website you tacitly agree to the terms that this material cannot be reproduced for distribution via the internet or other means.
Answers are below the exercise:

Nobunaga first heard of Yasuke when the news reached him in 1581 of the great crush that had occurred when Valignano had brought him to Kyoto where his skin color and height attracted a huge crowd.

_____ (Q) Nobunaga ordered the Jesuit to bring Yasuke to his court so that he could see this sensation in the flesh.

_____ (R) Ultimately Nobunaga became so fond of Yasuke that he was given the honor of being made a member of the samurai class, a rare honor among foreigners.

_____ (S) Upon seeing Yasuke Nobunaga allegedly ordered him stripped to the waist and scrubbed, believing that his skin was painted.

_____ (T) Nobunaga was further intrigued by the fact that Yasuke could speak Japanese and ordered Valignano to leave Yasuke in his care when the Jesuit prepared to leave again.

_____ (U) Yasuke, thus, became a permanent fixture in Nobunaga’s retinue, his size and strength acting as a deterrent to assassination, not to mention a flavor of exoticism to accompany the warlord’s other Western possessions.

(The Daily Beagle is an interesting blog where you can learn tons of interesting things.)


Your eye produces a clear fluid called aqueous humor in the chamber at the front of the eye and this fluid nourishes nearby tissues and helps to maintain proper pressure balance within the eye. 

_____ (Q) As the normal level of fluid builds up, it can trigger an increase of pressure within the eye and this condition, called high IOP, can lead to open-angle glaucoma.  

_____ (R) For reasons that are not fully understood, the drainage canal can become clogged over time. 

_____ (S) In a healthy eye, it flows through a tiny drain called the trabecular meshwork in the front of the eye. 

_____ (T) Open-angle glaucoma represents at least 90% of all glaucoma cases – making it the most common form of the disease. 

_____ (U) Other times, your eye can produce too much fluid, which can result in elevated intraocular pressure (IOP).   






In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act.

_____ (Q) The MCLG for benzene is zero. 

_____ (R) These non-enforceable health goals, based solely on possible health risks and exposure over a lifetime with an adequate margin of safety, are called maximum contaminant level goals (MCLG).

_____ (S) This law requires the EPA to determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur.

_____ (T) The EPA has set this level of protection for benzene based on the best available science to prevent potential health problems.

_____ (U) Contaminants are any physical, chemical, biological or radiological substances or matter in water.

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/benzene.cfm

Though it is a remarkable piece of rhetoric, inspiring his men to an unexpected victory at the Battle of Agincourt, the attentive reader or playgoer will notice that Henry's speech is transparently untrue.

_____ (Q) His speech is a means to that end — he is rallying his troops because he needs them to make himself famous and he is lying to them even as he asks them to give up their lives on his behalf.

_____ (R) After all, the play is called Henry V for a reason — because it is Henry, and Henry alone, who is remembered for the victory at Agincourt. 

_____ (S) Henry readily admits, “...if it be a sin to covet honour,/I am the most offending soul alive.” 

_____ (T) They are fighting for Henry’s glory, not their own. 

_____ (U) The men that make up his “band of brothers” are almost all unnamed in the play and have been forgotten by history. 

Answers are below:


Answers:
Yasuke -------->  1,5,2,3,4
glaucoma -------> 4,2,1,5,3  -------------->  Q=4, R=2, S=1, T=5, U=3
Benzene ---------->  4,2,1,5,3
(The tough part about this one is that you have to realize what "non-enforceable health goals" refers back to.)
Band of Brothers -----> 5,1,4,3,2