English Lessons

EXCERCISE #1
Directions: Discuss the italicized verbs. Do they expree present time or past time? Do the Verbs describe an activity or situation....
a. is in progress right now?
b. is usual or is a general statement of fact?
c. began and ended in the past?
d. was in progress at a time in the past?

1. Jennifer works for an insurance company.
2. When people need help with their automobile insurance, they call her.
3. Right now it is 9:05 A.M., and Jennifer is sitting at her desk.
4. She came to work on time this morning.
5. Yesterday Jennifer was late to work because she had a minor auto accident.
6. While she was driving to work, her cell phone rang.
7. She answered it. It was her friend Rob.
8. She was happy to here from him because she likes Rob and always enjoys
her conversations with him.
9. While they were talking, Jennifer, who is allergic to bee stings, noticed two bees in her car.
10. She quickly opened the car windows and swatted at the bees while she was talking to Rob on the phone.
11. Her hands left the steering wheel, and she lost control of the car. Her car ran into a row of mailboxes beside the road.
12. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the accident.
13. Jennifer is okay, but her car isn't. It needs repairs.
14. When Jennifer got to work this morning, she talked to her automobile insurance agent.
15. That was easy to do because she works at the desk right next to hers.

EXCERCISE #2
Directions: Write the correct pronunciations and practice sayin the words aloud. / T / D / ED /
1. cooked= T                          6. dropped= drop/    /              11. returned= return/   
2. served = D                          7. pulled= pull/       /               12. touched= touch/   /
3. wanted= ED                        8. pushed= push/  /                13. waved= wave/      /
4. asked = ask/    /                  9. added= add/     /                 14. pointed= point/    /
5. started= start/  /                 10. passed= pass/  /                15.agreed= agree/     /

Directions: Read the following the paragraphs and answer the questions?

News reporters are taught to start their stories with the most important information. The first sentence, called the lead, cantains the most essential elements of the story. A good lead can convey a lot of information, as in these two leads from srticles that won awards from the American Society of Newpaper Editors: A healthy 17-year -old heart pumped the gift of life through 34- year -old Bruce Murray Friday, following a four- hour transplant operation that doctors said went without a hitch.
1. Is this story about?
A. Child
B. Cat
C. News reporters
2.How old are the people in the story?
A. 17-year -old 34- year -old
B. 21-year -old  72-year -old
C. 28-year -old  82-year -old
DIRECTIONS: Read the following and answer the questions?
http://www.americanenglishconversation.com/
http://www.freeenglishconversation.blogspot.com/
http://www.grammar-help.blogspot.com/
Many market participants believe the end of the Federal Reserves quantitative easing program in June will signal the government's exit from the extraordinary interventions made during the financial crisis. After a healthy earnings season, they say, it is time now for our free market to stand on its own two feet.Not so fast, says Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman. He and others believe that the incredible amount of borrowing by the U.S. and the European Union to get out of the credit crisis will force governments to stay involved to ensure an orderly decline of this debt load.
It's a concept called financial repression, akin to what occurred after the Great Depression and WWII. Financial repression refers to official actions that run counter to the market-based incentive structure, said Chandler in a note to clients. The ostensible goal is to support the government bond markets. Moral suasion, the cajoling of investors are soft forms of financial repression, where the government can impose such cooperation by fiat.
The Federal Reserves second round of quantitative easing, the purchase of $600 billion longer-dated Treasury securities, is scheduled to end June 30. Despite successfully keeping interest rates low, the program didnt stop housing prices from hitting a new post-recession low, according to Case-Shiller data released Tuesday. Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner had visions of Tina Turner in a burlap outfit and cage matches in Thunderdome  especially when the AIG situation exploded on them right after the Lehman bankruptcy, said Alec Levine of WallachBeth Capital. The hindsight lesson is not that we overreacted, but that we were this close to the abyss. So-called free market countries will be much less free for a longer time than people realize.Over in Europe, a second aid package to Greece is being put together to avoid the default of Greek bonds, which could set off a catastrophic domino effect for the European banks holding the debt.
The US debt hit its legal limit of $14.3 trillion last month. Congress is currently fighting over an increase in the so-called debt ceiling, with Republicans wanting such a vote linked to heavy spending cuts. Congress has no choice, but to ultimately pass the increase in order to avoid a U.S. default.
Spending cuts, tax increaseseven organic growth wont do much of anything to solve a debt load of this magnitude, according to an NBER working paper referenced by Chandler on financial repression. 
Earlier this year, Standard & Poors put Americas triple-A rating on negative watch in part because of concerns about Congress not having the political will to instill strict austerity measures. It may all be a moot point Hoping that substantial public and private debt overhangs are resolved by growth may be uplifting, but it is not particularly practical from a policy standpoint, states an NBER Working Paper by Carmen Reinhart and M. Belen Sbrancia entitled The Liquidation of Government Debt. The evidence, at any rate, is not particularly encouraging, as high levels of public debt appear to be associated with lower growth.
Once QE2 has ended, regulation may be used to force large institutions to reduce risk and hold more of the safest assets (i.e. Treasurys), said BBHs Chandler. Economists have been downgrading their second half growth estimates recently on fears that high unemployment may be here for a while and that manufacturing growth is slowing. This makes it all the more likely that the governments hand, and not an invisible one, will stay involved in this market to keep interest rates low and allow for the country to refinance this debt load.
The U.S. could still win under this scenario as long as it doesnt get too drastic in its continued intervention efforts and inflation doesnt explode, some investors said.
Despite this, the U.S. is still running at a much more free market mechanism vs. other market regulations, namely those in Europe and Asia where official controls and quotas are even more comprehensive and daunting and effect all asset classes, said Ron Shah of Jina Ventures in an interview from India.
 Many market participants believe the end of the Federal Reserves quantitative easing program in June will signal the government's exit from the extraordinary interventions?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE

The Federal Reserves second round of quantitative easing, the purchase of $600 billion longer-dated Treasury securities, is scheduled to end June 30?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
DIRECTIONS: Read the following and answer the questions?
http://www.americanenglishconversation.com/
 http://grammar-help.blogspot.com/
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy has weakened in recent weeks, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted Tuesday. But he stuck with a message he's delivered since April: The slowdown from high gas prices and Japan's crises is temporary, and growth should pick up later this year.
Bernanke made no mention of any new steps the Fed might take to boost the economy. The Fed's $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program is ending this month. The program was intended to keep interest rates low to strengthen the economy. But critics said it raised the risk of high inflation.
The Fed chairman said the economy still needs the benefit of low interest rates. The Fed is scheduled to meet in two weeks and is all but certain to keep those rates at record lows.
Stocks fell after Bernanke began speaking. The Dow Jones industrial average erased gains made earlier in the day and closed down for the fifth straight day, as did broader indexes.
"The market was disappointed," said David Jones, head of DMJ Economic Advisors, a private consulting firm. "Wall Street investors were hoping for the promise of another round of credit easing, and they didn't get it."
Bernanke noted the May jobs report released last week was a setback. It showed the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 percent and the economy added just 54,000 jobs, the fewest in eight months. But he said he expected job creation and overall economic growth to rebound in coming months.
"The economic recovery appears to be continuing at a moderate pace, albeit at a rate that is both uneven across sectors and frustratingly slow from the perspective of millions of unemployed and underemployed workers," he said at a banking conference in Atlanta.
Bernanke said the central bank would not consider the recovery well-established "until we see a sustained period of stronger job creation."
He repeated a pledge that central bank officials have been making for more than two years: that they will keep interest rates at record lows "for an extended period."
Bernanke said that consumer inflation has jumped 3.5 percent in the six months ending in April -- well above the average of less than 1 percent over the preceding two years. But he noted that most of the increase had been caused by higher gas prices, which have been creeping down in recent weeks. Excluding food and energy, inflation has been tame, he noted.
He also noted that supply disruptions stemming from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan have hampered growth in the April-June quarter. But he said the effect on manufacturing output will likely ease in the coming months.
Bernanke disagreed with critics who say the Fed's policies are raising inflation risks by weakening the dollar and contributing to the jump in oil and commodity prices. He said that slow growth in the United States and a persistent trade deficit were the fundamental reasons for the dollar's decline, and not the Fed's interest rate policies.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., asked Bernanke if he was concerned that rules from last year's financial overhaul law will take effect just as the economy is slowing.
Bernanke responded that the worst financial since the Great Depression "revealed a lot of weak spots" that needed to be addressed. But he said regulators were trying to make sure financial institutions would not be overburdened with costs to meet the rules.
Did he also noted that supply disruptions stemming from the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan have hampered growth in the April-June quarter?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
The economy has weakened in recent weeks, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted Tuesday?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
DIRECTIONS: Read the following and answer the questions?
http://www.freeenglishconversation.blogspot.com/
http://www.americanenglishconversation.com/
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street bounced in light volume on Tuesday, a day after the S&P 500 fell to its lowest in over two months, with some describing the S&P's losses in the past five weeks as overdone.
The S&P 500 has fallen 4.9 percent since a recent high at the start of May. On Monday, the benchmark index closed at its lowest level since March 18.
Tuesday's move "is just an uptick off some oversold levels," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.
"Friday set us up with a low close. We had a cascading, selling kind of situation that got, in my opinion, a little bit overdone in the very short term."
Recently battered energy shares bounced back despite a drop in U.S. crude prices, though Brent crude rose, helped in part by a weaker U.S. dollar. Healthcare and utility stocks also ranked among the leaders.
Some investors are seeing an opportunity after weeks of soft economic data failed to create a panic in the U.S. stock market. Expectation of strong earnings reports in July could bring in buyers who want to get ahead of the expected move up next month.
"We are doing as typical a market move as you could possibly imagine," Pado said.
"We have no base at this point so we need to bounce and construct a base, then you can make the case for the next bull leg to start."
The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - News) gained 63.72 points, or 0.53 percent, to 12,153.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - News) rose 6.87 points, or 0.53 percent, to 1,293.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - News) added 8.87 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,711.43.
Bank stocks, heavily sold in recent weeks, were among the biggest gainers. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM - News) rose 1.9 percent to $41.28, while the KBW bank index (^BKX - News) was up 1 percent.
But not all market participants were ready to call the end of the downturn. Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey, said light volume and lack of buyers could mean any bounce is short-lived.
"The problem for institutions on a day like today is the volume being light. Any concerted effort to raise funds (sell positions) could have a disproportionate impact on pricing as buyers will be on the thin side," he wrote in a note to clients.
In company news, International Paper Co (IP - News) launched a $3.3 billion unsolicited offer for rival Temple-Inland Inc (TIN - News). Shares of Temple-Inland shot up 40.4 percent to $29.50, while IP's stock rose 1.3 percent to $30.05. Temple-Inland said it adopted a stockholder rights plan to fend off the hostile takeover.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is due to speak on the U.S. economic outlook at a banking conference in Atlanta.
Did the Fed officials have said recent data was a disappointment, with Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Fed, suggesting it could delay the Fed's exit from its extremely easy monetary policy. Bernanke is set to start speaking shortly before the market closes?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE
Did the Recently battered energy shares bounced back despite a drop in U.S. crude prices, though Brent crude rose, helped in part by a weaker U.S. dollar?
A. TRUE
B. FALSE