2015-07-02 Core: 11 first contact project

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
(This is the Core class.)
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Homework: p. 171 practice 1 and 2
also: make a list of some questions to ask an uncontacted tribe or aliens, and of some communication difficulties you’d probably have in that situation
p. 171 practice 1 - the people said these things in 2013 in Chicago
2 Anita said (that) she would read the news report the next day.
3 Joe said (that) he had visited the Amazon rain forest on his trip to South America the year before.
4 Mai asked if she could give me a donation for charity.
5 Nasrin said (that) she had just seen the documentary about endangered languages of the world.
6 Miguel said (that) he had been reading the paper the day before.
7 Simon asked if I had ever met anyone from Peru.
8 Manuela said (that) they were meeting at nine the next day.
The teacher explained that present continuous is for present and some future actions.
(The teacher explained this in the past, but I believe it is true now, so I don’t change the tense.)
practice 2
2 Sarah asked if she could borrow my laptop the next day. / Sarah asked to borrow my laptop.
  Sarah asked me to lend her my laptop.
3 Jhumpa told me to download those photos to his cell.
4 Martin reminded me to take my laptop. (= Martin told me to remember to take my laptop.)
5 Juan promised to connect me to the Internet the next day. (Juan promised that he would connect…)
  (Juan offered to connect me…)
6 Lin invited me to stay with her the next week.
7 Adam realized that he had been wrong the night before. / Adam admitted that he had been wrong...
8 Martina asked me where I was going on Saturday.
admit: say something you’re embarrassed to say (She admitted that she had overslept.)
brag/boast: say something you’re proud to say (She bragged that she had gotten 100%.)
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say/tell, ask: these are the basic reporting verbs, which you can use in almost every situation
The other verbs above give some additional information about the function of the speech (is it an offer or a promise? is it an instruction or an order?).
There are also verbs that give additional information about how the speech sounded: whisper, shout, cry, scream, laugh, yell, mumble, etc.
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Questions to ask aliens:
Where are you from?
Can you change me into an alien?
How does your planet look? / What does your planet look like?
What’s your story?
Why are you here?
Can I travel in your ship?
Is there anything you like about the human race?
What are your beliefs?
How did you get here?
How do you breathe? (“How do you breed?” is a little bit too personal for the first meeting.)
Questions to ask an “uncontacted” tribe:
How do you survive?
What do you do in your free time?
What do you eat?
Do you understand me?
Do you have a religion?
What rules do you have?
What’s the name of your leader or representative?
Why don’t you wear clothes?
What are your traditions?
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Communication difficulties with first contact:
no common language
aggressive aliens or aggressive humans
gestures aren’t recognized
each looks strange to the other
fear
quiet voice
maybe the aliens are telepathic or communicate with colors or smells
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With your group, make a short play/skit (including gestures and actions as well as words) about first contact with aliens. (Assume that there is a translator, but maybe gestures and cultural information are extremely different.)
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BREAK
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Finish preparing your skits and present them to the class.
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“How to Serve Man” - real science fiction story, but also on a Simpsons Halloween special
People thought it was like, “How to Serve Your Country” (a guide for helping us)
But it was really like, “How to Serve Pork” (a cookbook).
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In science fiction, stories about this situation are called first contact stories.
http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/first-contact-science-fiction.php#crowd - a list of books about first contact
(You should read books for young adults / teenagers if you want to practice your English.)
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p. 131 Wordbuilding: un-
un- + adjective = not [adjective]
unbelievable, unfaithful, uncountable, uncomfortable, unusual, uncontacted, unseen, undefined, uninteresting, unavailable, unnamed, unaimed, unknown, unowned
disconnected = disconnect+ed = it was connected and then someone disconnected it
unconnected = un+connected = it was never connected, there is no connection
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He said, “Thank you.”
He thanked us.

He said, “Hi everyone. Good morning.”
He greeted us.

He said, “This is my friend Tom.”
He introduced Tom. (He said (that) that was his friend Tom.)
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The books we had have writing in them. (“we had” is a relative clause about the books)
With relative clauses (and noun clauses), it is possible to make correct English sentences with almost any two verbs next to each other, including things that are always incorrect in other structures.
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clause: a group of words that include a verb and its subject (the subject is understood to be “you” in imperative sentences)
phrase: a group of words that is not a clause
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Homework: write a newspaper-like report about your “first contact” skit (use reported speech)
“… and then the human asked if he could pilot our ship. I told him it would smell bad for one year, and he decided he wanted to stay on Earth.”
- You do NOT need to remember every detail exactly, just the basic description
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https://www.facebook.com/events/1608549076095752/ - Facebook event about July 4. I will be at the location in the event by around 2pm, but I will come back to the school at 5pm to walk with students.