Portfolio 2

Portfolio 2: Li Lu
Tense
Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs. Since I first began to learn English, verb tense has become a great problem to me. So I will introduction something about tense in English now.
In English, there are three basic tenses: present, past, and future. Each has a perfect form, indicating completed action; each has a progressive form, indicating ongoing action; and each has a perfect progressive form, indicating ongoing action that will be completed at some definite time.
Here is a list of examples of these tenses and their definitions:
Simple Forms Progressive Forms Perfect Forms Perfect Progressive Forms
Present take/s am/is/are taking have/has taken have/has been taking
Past took was/were taking had taken had been taking
Future will/shall take will be taking will have taken will have been taking
Present Tense Simple form
Present tense expresses an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring action or situation that exists only now. It can also represent a widespread truth.
Example Meaning
The mountains are tall and white. Unchanging action
Every year, the school council elects new members. Recurring action
Pb is the chemical symbol for lead. Widespread truth

Past Tense
Past tense expresses an action or situation that was started and finished in the past. Most past tense verbs end in -ed. The irregular verbs have special past tense forms which must be memorized.
Example Form
W.W.II ended in 1945. Regular -ed past
Ernest Hemmingway wrote "The Old Man and the Sea." Irregular form

Future Tense
Future tense expresses an action or situation that will occur in the future. This tense is formed by using will/shall with the simple form of the verb.
The speaker of the House will finish her term in May of 1998.
The future tense can also be expressed by using am, is, or are with going to.
The surgeon is going to perform the first bypass in Minnesota.
We can also use the present tense form with an adverb or adverbial phrase to show future time.
The president speaks tomorrow. (Tomorrow is a future time adverb.)

Progressive Forms

Present Progressive Tense
Present progressive tense describes an ongoing action that is happening at the same time the statement is written. This tense is formed by using am/is/are with the verb form ending in -ing.
The sociologist is examining the effects that racial discrimination has on society.

Past Progressive Tense
Past progressive tense describes a past action which was happening when another action occurred. This tense is formed by using was/were with the verb form ending in -ing.
The explorer was explaining the lastest discovery in Egypt when protests began on the streets.

Future Progressive Tense
Future progressive tense describes an ongoing or continuous action that will take place in the future. This tense is formed by using will be or shall be with the verb form ending in -ing.
Dr. Jones will be presenting ongoing research on sexist language next week.

Perfect Forms
Present Perfect Tense
Present perfect tense describes an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past or that began in the past and continues in the present.This tense is formed by using has/have with the past participle of the verb. Most past participles end in -ed. Irregular verbs have special past participles that must be memorized.

Example Meaning
The researchers have traveled tomany
countries in order to collect more At an indefinite time
significant data.
Women have voted in presidential elections since 1921. Continues in the present

Past Perfect Tense
Past perfect tense describes an action that took place in the past before another past action. This tense is formed by using had with the past participle of the verb.
By the time the troops arrived, the war had ended.

Future Perfect Tense
Future perfect tense describes an action that will occur in the future before some other action. This tense is formed by using will have with the past participle of the verb.
By the time the troops arrive, the combat group will have spent several weeks waiting.

Perfect Progressive Forms
Present Perfect Progressive
Present perfect progressive tense describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. This tense is formed by using has/have been and the present participle of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).
The CEO has been considering a transfer to the state of Texas where profits would be larger

Past Perfect Progressive
Past perfect progressive tense describes a past, ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. This tense is formed by using had been and the present perfect of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).
Before the budget cuts, the students had been participating in many extracurricular activities.

Future Perfect Progressive
Future perfect progressive tense describes a future, ongoing action that will occur before some specified future time. This tense is formed by using will have been and the present participle of the verb (the verb form ending in -ing).
By the year 2020, linguists will have been studying and defining the Indo-European language family for more than 200 years.




Exercise:
The Great St. Bernard Pass 1 (connect) Switzerland to Italy. At 2473 meters, it is the highest mountain pass in Europe. The famous monastery of St. Bernard, which 2 (found) in the eleventh century, 3 (lie) about a mile away. For hundreds of years, St. Bernard dogs 4 (save) the lives of travelers crossing the dangerous Pass. These friendly dogs, which 5 (be) first bought from Asia, 6 (use) as watchdogs even in Roman times. Now that a tunnel 7 (be) built through the mountains, the Pass is less dangerous, but each year, the dogs 8 (be) still sent out into the snow whenever a traveler is in difficulty. Despite the new tunnel, there 9 (be) still a few people who rashly 10 (attempt) to cross the Pass on foot. During the summer months, the monastery is very busy, for it 11 (visit) by thousands of people 12 (cross) the Pass in cars. As there are so many people about, the dogs have to 13 (keep) in a special enclosure. In winter, however, life at the monastery is quite different. The temperature 14 (drop) and very few people 15 (attempt) to cross the Pass. The monks 16 (prefer) winter to summer for they have more privacy. The dogs 17 (have) greater freedom, too, for they 18 (allow) to wander outside their enclosure. The only regular visitors to the monastery in winter are parties of skiers who go there at Christmas and Easter. These young people, who love the peace of the mountains, always receive a warm welcome at St. Bernard’s monastery.

KEY:
1. connects 2.was founded 3.lies 4.have saved
5. were 6.were used 7.has been 8.are
9. are 10.attempt 11.is visited 12.crossing
13.be kept 14.drops 15.attempt 16.prefer
17. have 18.are allowed


The above is a simple explanation of the verb tenses. As long as we pay enough attention when we use them, I am sure we can learn it very well sooner or later!

Portfolio 1

Detection of Earthquakes: A Great Challenge for Human Beings
On May 12th, 2008, a terrible earthquake happened in Sichuan, China. When people are engaged in helping the unlucky compatriots, they all have the same questions in their hearts: “Didn’t we notice any exceptional things happening before the earthquake occurred? Why couldn’t we predict it?” After reading passage 1, I have some ideas about the detection of earthquakes. Actually, an accurate detection of earthquakes has long been a dream to people all over the world and no country has found anything really associated with the occurrence of earthquakes till now because of the insufficient convincing symptoms before an earthquake. There are two aspects to explain this. One is because that the gestation of an earthquake is extremely complicated and we have not fully understood its intrinsical principles yet just at the current technological level. As is known to all, to detect a particular earthquake is to predict the accurate time and location of it, and also we have to estimate its magnitude and the damage it will bring to us. However, all these things still rank high on the list of unmet challenges now. The other reason is that since the slight change caused by an earthquake usually happens in an underground circumstance and it is always of low probability, a reliable signal to show when and where an earthquake will occur is still unavailable because the existing predictions are mostly based on people’s living experiences, which are born with unavoidable limits. Even though we have noticed something strange happening before an earthquake, we cannot tell that an earthquake is about to come because some human behaviors, the change of environment and climate may also result in uncommon things. Although we are not able to make perfect detection of earthquakes at this moment, fortunately, with the development of science and technology, we are gradually getting to know more about such natural disasters and trying to find ways to avoid them or decrease their damages. I believe that it will not take long before we solve this global problem completely. Modern technology will surely overcome this challenge!