What is special about the 29th of February?

Today is the 29th of February, which is the leap day.

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year which is not a leap year is called a common year.

Leap Year has been the traditional time that women can propose marriage. In many of today's cultures, it is okay for a woman to propose marriage to a man. Society doesn't look down on such women. However, that hasn't always been the case. When the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years. That day was February 29th.

St. Bridget's Complaint
It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.

February 29th in English Law
According to English law, February 29th was ignored and had no legal status.

Folks assumed that traditions would also have no status on that day. It was also reasoned that since the leap year day existed to fix a problem in the calendar, it could also be used to fix an old and unjust custom that only let men propose marriage.
The first documentation of this practice dates back to 1288, when Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose marriage to the man of their choice in that year. They also made it law that any man who declined a proposal in a leap year must pay a fine. The fine could range from a kiss to payment for a silk dress or a pair of gloves.

Sadie Hawkins Day
In the United States, some people have referred to this date as Sadie Hawkins Day with women being given the right to run after unmarried men to propose.
Sadie Hawkins was a female character in the Al Capp cartoon strip Li'l Abner. Many communities prefer to celebrate Sadie Hawkins Day in November which is when Al Capp first mentioned Sadie Hawkins Day.

Greek Superstition
There is a Greek superstition that claims couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.

Opinion Essay Sample 1

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Grades (marks) encourage students to learn. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Grades Encourage Learning

Exams and assignments have always been regarded as integral parts of education, and so have grades. While many students tend to see them as something they fear, teachers stand that grades are very good indicators of knowledge. On the other hand, do grades help students in their learning process? For several reasons that I will mention below I believe that grades encourage students to learn.

By showing their level of achievement and letting them have some kind of competition among each other, grades stimulate students’ learning. First of all, grades show students' knowledge. If a student gets a high grade on an exam it means that he understands that subject very well. Conversely, a low grade means that he does not understand it completely. Second of all, students have some kind of competition among each other for higher grades. When a student gets a higher grade then another one, the second student asks himself: "Why do I not have this grade? Is he better then me? ". So, in order to get a higher grade the next time, he tries to spend more time and study more effectively, which makes him learn better. Some people, on the other hand, believe that grades are obstacles that negatively affect learning. They claim that grades cause stress, thus discouraging students’ learning. However, they miss an important point: when a student gets a low grade, he feels that he has some obstacles to overcome and new goals to achieve, and when he does this by getting a higher grade, he feels stronger and more self-confident.

To sum up, I think there is no doubt that grades encourage students to learn, gain more experience and knowledge, and to be more self-confident and persistent. Moreover, I am sure that these small victories will help students to win and succeed in the future.

Written by Gürcan Öztürk, English Instructor at İTÜ

Discussion Subject for the 28th Feb, Thursday

Please read and study this article.

We are going to discuss it on the 28th Feb, Thursday. However, before that date, you can answer the survey question of the week on the right hand side.

What do you know about Euthanasia?

Euthanasia is the practice of medically-assisted death. It is illegal in most countries.

Euthanasia is a controversial subject, not only because there are many different moral dilemmas associated with it, but also in what constitutes its definition. At the extreme ends of disagreement, advocates say euthanasia, also known as physician aid in dying, or physician assisted suicide, is a merciful method of death. At the other end are opponents of euthanasia, who may consider this method as a form of murder.

Euthanasia can be conducted in various ways. In order to distinguish certain methods, more specific terminology may be used when discussing euthanasia.

Arguments for and against voluntary euthanasia
Since World War II, the debate over euthanasia in Western countries has centered on voluntary euthanasia (VE) within regulated health care systems. In some cases, judicial decisions, legislation, and regulations have made VE an explicit option for patients and their guardians. Proponents and critics of such VE policies offer the following reasons for and against official voluntary euthanasia policies:

Reasons given for voluntary euthanasia:

Choice: Proponents of VE emphasize that choice is a fundamental principle for liberal democracies and free market systems.

Quality of Life: The pain and suffering a person feels during a disease, even with pain relievers, can be incomprehensible to a person who has not gone through it. Even without considering the physical pain, it is often difficult for patients to overcome the emotional pain of losing their independence. Moreover, despite modern painkillers, there is little available to deal with the problem of 'breathlessness', which makes many ailing patients feel they will suffocate.
Economic costs and human resources: Today in many countries there is a shortage of hospital space. The energy of doctors and hospital beds could be used for people whose lives could be saved instead of continuing the life of those who want to die which increases the general quality of care and shortens hospital waiting lists. It is a burden to keep people alive past the point they can contribute to society.

Pressure: All the arguments against voluntary euthanasia can be used by society to form a
terrible and continuing psychological pressure on people to continue living for years against their better judgment. One example of this pressure is the risky and painful methods that those who genuinely wish to die would otherwise need to use, such as hanging.

Sociobiology: Currently many if not most euthanasia proponents and laws tend to favor the dying or very unhealthy for access to euthanasia. However some highly controversial proponents claim that access should be even more widely available. For example, from a sociobiological viewpoint, genetic relatives may seek to keep an individual alive (Kin Selection), even against the individual's will. This would be especially so for individuals who are not actually dying anyway. More liberal voluntary euthanasia policies would empower the individual to counteract any such biased interest on the part of relatives.

Reasons given against voluntary euthanasia:

Professional role: Critics argue that voluntary euthanasia could unduly compromise the professional roles of health care employees, especially doctors. They point out that European physicians of previous centuries traditionally swore some variation of the Hippocratic Oath, which in its ancient form excluded euthanasia: "To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.." However, since the 1970s, this oath has largely fallen out of use.

Moral: Some people consider euthanasia of some or all types to be morally unacceptable. This view usually treats euthanasia to be a type of murder and voluntary euthanasia as a type of suicide, the morality of which is the subject of active debate.

Theological: Voluntary euthanasia has often been rejected as a violation of the sanctity of human life. Specifically, some Christians argue that human life ultimately belongs to God, so that humans should not be the ones to make the choice to end life. Orthodox Judaism takes basically the same approach, however, it is more open minded, and does, given certain circumstances, allow for euthanasia to be exercised under passive or non-aggressive means. Accordingly, some theologians and other religious thinkers consider voluntary euthanasia (and suicide generally) as sinful acts, i.e. unjustified killings.

Feasibility of implementation: Euthanasia can only be considered "voluntary" if a patient is mentally competent to make the decision, i.e., has a rational understanding of options and consequences. Competence can be difficult to determine or even define.

Necessity: If there is some reason to believe the cause of a patient's illness or suffering is or will soon be curable, the correct action is sometimes considered to attempt to bring about a cure or engage in palliative care.

Wishes of Family: Family members often desire to spend as much time with their loved ones as possible before they die.

Consent under pressure: Given the economic grounds for voluntary euthanasia (VE), critics of VE are concerned that patients may experience psychological pressure to consent to voluntary euthanasia rather than be a financial burden on their families. Even where health costs are mostly covered by public money, as in various European countries, VE critics are concerned that hospital personnel would have an economic incentive to advise or pressure people toward euthanasia consent. While VE proponents concede that personal and even socialized economic costs may add to the motivations for consent, they point out that health systems offer sufficient exceptions so as to relieve the pressure on hospital personnel.

Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Essay Plan

Sample Essay

Istanbul, which was the capital of lots of civilizations, is the most important city of Turkey because of not only its geographical location and its beauty but also the job opportunities it provides. Because of these reasons, millions of people have been migrating to Istanbul. Today, the population of Istanbul has already reached about 20 million. Such a crowd, naturally, leads to problems like traffic jam and environmental pollution at dangerous levels. (There are mainly two severe problems caused by overpopulation in Istanbul. One is the terrible traffic jam and the other (one) is environmental pollution.)

Because of the severe traffic jam in Istanbul, it is very hard to live in this metropolitan city. Firstly, people spend a long time on the road. For example, anyone who lives in Maltepe and works in Levent has to set off at six o'clock in the morning to go to work. Similarly, a lot of people waste lots of time in traffic. Secondly, people can be aggressive during traffic jams. For instance, taxi drivers suffer from psychological distress as they are always stuck in traffic and behave aggressively towards others. Some drivers can easily start fights and some yell. In brief, living in Istanbul is very difficult because people become aggressive and violent, and a lot of time is wasted in traffic.

In addition to the traffic jam, environmental pollution has also reached dangerous levels, due to overpopulation in Istanbul. Air pollution comes first among other pollution types in Istanbul. The reason why air pollution is at dangerous/serious/severe levels is that there are thousands of factories and millions of cars without exhaust filters. As a result, factories emit carbon dioxide, high amount of hazardous pollutants, and toxic chemicals, and all these contaminate the air of Istanbul. Next, chemical and radioactive wastes which are thrown out from chemical plants and industries cause water pollution. Therefore, it is impossible to have clean, uncontaminated water at homes.

In conclusion, overcrowding is gradually making Istanbul an unbearable place where the roads are not enough for so many cars, and where the air and water are too polluted for the citizens to lead a healthy life. However, population growth in Istanbul can be avoided by only spreading the business and industrial areas to other cities in equal amount.

Written by a class of Semra Gönel, English Instructor at İTÜ

1^st ASSIGNMENT WARNINGS

1. Please use pencil not pen, so that you can erase instead of crossing out.

2. Please bring a notebook, don’t keep your notes on separate papers.

3. Please keep a vocabulary list and a useful phrase list at the end of your notebook.

4. Please bring a file with lots of little bags in it. You are going to bring it for every writing course.

5. On the top or at the bottom of your paper, please indicate your name, date, the number of work, and the number of draft.

6. Have one, two, or three points (supporting ideas) to discuss in your paragraph. It is not easy to discuss only one; three is too many to keep short; so, try two points. Example papers: Çağatay (three), Sefa (two), Seda (two), Kıvanç (one), Salih (one),
   

7. A paragraph plan:

   Topic Sentence

   Point 1

   Detail 1a, 1b, 1c.

   Point 2

   Detail 2a, 2b, 2c.

   Conclusion

8. Discuss your points in balance as much as possible.

9. Please for every point you are writing, look at your topic. Is it about your topic. Can it answer your topic?

Example:

Topic: Air pollution is an effect of people who have not been educated.

Supporting point: We should not use deodorants, because they are dangerous for ozone layer.

9. There is a serious problem with the vocabulary and on how to use the vocabulary.

What can we do? This requires a great deal of studying and time. Please look at bbc’s web site for learning English. This site will give lots of reading and exercise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/index.shtml

10. Please read graded story books, which are available at the library.

11. Do not make empty statements. For example:

First of all, waterlessness, global warinng and the hall on the ozone.

12. Do not state too many points in one paragraph, because you have to explain them and this will make your paragraph too long. For example:

Some of them are global warming, illness of aspiration system, polluted drinking water, no fresh air and etc.

13. Timing of the proficiency test:

2 hours for the multiple choice part

1 hour for writing:

5 minutes for deciding the subject and brain storming

10 minutes for Introduction (30-50 words)

15 minutes for Body 1 (100 words)

15 minutes for Body 2 (100 words)

5 minutes for Conclusion (20-30 words)

10 minutes for revision

You don’t have one hour to write only one paragraph!

14. My question mark ‘?’ means either I don’t understand it, or it is not understandable.

15. problems with PASSIVE

16. Don’t use past tense, if you are not talking about past. Example:

When people breathed, people’s health gets worse.

17. Please use pronouns for the same nouns you are repeating.

Turgut  he, Şaziye  she, table  it, people  they

When people breathed, people’s health gets worse.

18. The difference between: “to find drinking water” and “finding drinking water”.

19. go bad  go worse, worsen, is made worse, grow worse

20. big  bigger, the biggest

21. We must take a precaution.  We must take some precautions.

Some precautions should be taken in order to prevent the air pollution from threatening the world.

22. Air pollution destroys animals, so balance of the nature disappears. Humans are destroyed, too. Some body sprays have caused the ozone layer to be punched. X-rays come into the world.

Air pollution destroys animals, so balance of the nature disappears. Humans are destroyed, too. In addition to this, some body sprays cause the ozone layer to be punched. Therefore, x-rays from the sun can easily come into the world.

Reading passages to study vocabulary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/index.shtml

Some more vocabulary and grammar activities are available in:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/