The Owl who was God

Once upon a starless midnight, there was an owl who sat on the branch of an oak tree. Two ground moles tried to slip quietly by, unnoticed. "You!" said the owl. "Who?" they quavered, in fear and astonishment, for they could not believe it was possible for anyone to see them in that thick darkness. "You two!" said the owl. The moles hurried away and told the other creatures of the field and forest that the owl was the greatest and wisest of all animals because he could see in the dark and because he could answer any question.

"I'll see about that," said a secretary bird and he called on the owl one night when it was again very dark. "How many claws am I holding up?" said the secretary bird. "Two," said the owl, and that was right. "Can you give me another expression for 'that is to say' or 'namely?'" asked the secretary bird. "To wit," said the owl. "Why does a lover call on his love?" asked the secretary bird. "To woo," said the owl.

The secretary bird hastened back to the other creatures and reported that the owl was indeed the greatest and wisest animal in the world because he could see in the dark and because he could answer any question. "Can he see in the daytime, too?" asked a red fox. "Yes," echoed a dormouse and a French poodle. "Can he see in the daytime too?" All the other creatures laughed loudly at this silly question, and they set upon the red fox and his friends and drove them out of the region. Then they sent a messenger to the owl and asked him to be their leader.

When the owl appeared among the animals it was high noon and the sun was shining brightly. He walked very slowly, which gave him an appearance of great dignity, and he peered at him with large, staring eyes, which gave him an air of tremendous importance. "He's God"" screamed a Plymouth Rock hen. And the others took up the cry "He's God!" So they followed him wherever he went and when he began to bump into things they began to bump into things, too.

Finally, he came to a concrete highway and he started up the middle of it and all the other creatures followed him. Presently a hawk, who was acting as an outrider, observed a truck coming toward them at fifty miles an hour, and he reported to the secretary bird. "To wit?" said the owl, The secretary bird told him. "Aren't you afraid?" He asked. "Who?" said the owl calmly, for he could not see the truck. "He's God!" cried all the creatures again, and they were still crying "He's God!" when the truck hit them and ran them down. Some of the animals were merely injured, but most of them, including the owl, were killed.

Moral: You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

THE THURBER CARNIVAL, JAMES THURBER 1894-1961

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Writing CAE Formal Letters 3: Formal Language

HubSpot - Class 1

The biggest question - what is Inbound and why?

Companies that use traditional marketing techniques are focusing on finding customers. They use interruptive techniques like cold-calling, print advertising to TV commercials and junk mail. Also, all of those techniques are expensive nowadays. 

"Inbound Marketing is about Empowering potential customers."

 

"Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they might create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they could create a business blog that people would look forward to reading. And instead of cold calling, they create useful content so that prospects can contact them when they want more information"
"Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers. It’s customer-focused. It’s helpful. Wouldn’t you prefer to deal with a business that is focused on your needs instead of
their own?"

It's called Inbound because the real purpose, is to drag people (in), be part of the conversation, and creating marketing that people love. Nowadays, nobody asks for a salesperson when buying things, firstly they do some research on the web about what they need. What, where, when, how, how much, are some of the questions that people are doing on the web every day.

The four stages that make up the Inbound Marketing are: Attract, Convert, Close and Delight.

Attract - bring strangers to your site and turning them into visitors. One the tools that you can use is blogging, optimising your website, and social media;

Convert - after you've attracted, you need do convert some of the visitors in leads by gathering their contact information. It's essential to have contact information. In order to have it, you have to offer something in return to your visitor (ebooks, whitepapers, or tip sheets);

Close - it's time to transform those leads into customers. "In the Close stage, tools like email and a CRM can be used to help sell to the right leads at the right time;"

 
Delight - "Just because someone is already a customer doesn’t mean that you can forget about them! Inbound companies continue to delight and engage their customer base, turning them into happy promoters of the products and services they love". At the end of this process, it all begins again, like a circle, the whole methodology starts back at the beginning.

The final part of the process - Analyze - "Anything you do, any piece of content you create, any campaign you launch, or any marketing action you undertake, should be analyzed."

 

See you in the next class - What are the fundamentals of the Inbound Success?

HubSpot - Why?

Hi, everyone! I am here on the first day of 2017, writing about something which I think will help my career. A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend and he told me that I should have a look in a subject. It's called Inbound Marketing. I've never had heard something about this.

He told me that there was a site called HubSpot which I could attend a course. It was what I did. Now, I am studying and I finished the second class. It has been amazing, with plenty of new knowledge that I think will help me a lot. Also, I pretend to apply what I am learning on my blog.

So, I decided to post what I am learning. I will start to post this week. Thus, it will another topic on the blog.

See you!!

CAE - Exercicies - Collocations 2

Multiple Choice Cloze

Collocations 2

Complete each of the following sentences by choosing either A, B, C or D.

1) During the discussion, the speaker showed an excellent....... of all the issues.
A Knowledge
B Grasp 
C Comprehension
D Skill

Grasp - Comprehend fully:

‘the press failed to grasp the significance of what had happened’

 

2) It is widely....... that computer can make our lives easier.

A Accepted

B Agreed

C Allowed

D Affirmed

Accept - Believe or come to recognize (a proposition) as valid or correct:

‘this tentative explanation came to be accepted by the men’

[with clause] ‘it is accepted that ageing is a continuous process’

 

3) Those cupboards are looking a bit scruffy. They could do with a fresh....... of paint.

A Layer

B Cover

C Coat

D Film

Coat - A single application of paint or similar material on a surface:

‘apply a final top coat of varnish’

 

4) He may not look suspect to you but he is in fact a....... dangerous criminal.

A Totally

B Highly

C Strongly

D Largely

Highly - At or to a high degree or level:

[as submodifier] ‘a highly dangerous substance’

‘highly paid people’

 

5) My teacher is great. I have a very high........ of him.

A Opinion

B Regard

C Thought

D Respect

Opinion - An estimation of the quality or worth of someone or something:

‘I had a higher opinion of myself than I deserved’

 

6) She is a gifted linguist and is able to....... easily from English to French.

A Convert

B Revert

C Move

D Switch

 

Switch - Substitute (two items) for each other; exchange:

‘after ten minutes, listener and speaker switch roles’

 

7) You paid 30 euros for the jacket? That was a real........

A Deal

B Bargain

C Value

D Buy

Bargain - A thing bought or offered for sale much more cheaply than is usual or expected:

‘the table was a real bargain’

[as modifier] ‘a bargain price of 99p’

 

 

See you!!!!

CAE - Exercicies - Collocations

From Flo - Joe.

Collocations

Exercice 1

Complete each of the following sentences on the left with one the words on the right.

I'm glad to see that you've recovered from your - ILLNESS

My uncle suffers from heart - DISEASE

She picked up a rather nasty stomach - BUG

She has to take drugs every day for her heart - CONDITION

Vocabulary - From Oxford Dictionaries and Cambridge Dictionary

ILLNESS - A disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind:

‘he died after a long illness’
‘I've never missed a day's work through illness’

DISEASE - A disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury:

‘bacterial meningitis is quite a rare disease’
‘heart disease’

BUG - An illness caused by a microorganism:     

‘he'd just recovered from a flu bug’

CONDITION - An illness or other medical problem:

‘a heart condition’   

RATHER -  Quite - to a slight degree:

‘ it's rather cold today, isn't it?’

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The Jungle Book Official Big Game Trailer

F1 2016 - Fernando Alonso onboard start compilation

Wuthering Heights - Plot Overview - Part 1

Hi, everyone! I am reading Wuthering Heights as part of my English studies. I found some interesting notes about it on SparkNotes.

<<<<<< SPOILER ALERT >>>>>>

 Plot Overview - Part 1

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.

Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.

Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.

When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there.

 See you!

Wuthering Heights - Context

Hi, everyone! I am reading Wuthering Heights as part of my English studies. I found some interesting notes about it on SparkNotes.
 

 

Here, there is a compilation of the best parts:

Context.

Wuthering Heights, which has long been one of the most popular and highly regarded novels in English literature, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847, selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews. Victorian readers found the book shocking and inappropriate in its depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty (despite the fact that the novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually ignored.

Emily Brontë lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. She was born in 1818, two years after Charlotte and a year and a half before her sister Anne, who also became an author. Her father worked as a church rector, and her aunt, who raised the Brontë children after their mother died, was deeply religious. Emily Brontë did not take to her aunt’s Christian fervor; the character of Joseph, a caricature of an evangelical, may have been inspired by her aunt’s religiosity. The Brontës lived in Haworth, a Yorkshire village in the midst of the moors. These wild, desolate expanses—later the setting of Wuthering Heights—made up the Brontës’ daily environment, and Emily lived among them her entire life. She died in 1848, at the age of thirty.

Yet the sisters knew that the outside world would not respond favorably to their creative expression; female authors were often treated less seriously than their male counterparts in the nineteenth century. Thus the Brontë sisters thought it best to publish their adult works under assumed names. Charlotte wrote as Currer Bell, Emily as Ellis Bell, and Anne as Acton Bell. Their real identities remained secret until after Emily and Anne had died when Charlotte, at last, revealed the truth of their novels’ authorship.

Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the canon of world literature and Emily Brontë is revered as one of the finest writers—male or female—of the nineteenth century. Like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century, a style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. But Wuthering Heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety. As a shattering presentation of the doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of the literature. 

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Jon Stewart on President-elect Trump, hypocrisy in America