这英语课真没什么好上的。

# 02-18

In class: James
In written communication: Mr. Philpott

8:00 - 9:30 Reading & Writing
10:00 - 11:30 Listening & Speaking

# Periodicals

4-types:

• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Trade journals (depends on which journal)
• Scholarly journals (academic)

Fill in the table below:

Professionals, Lots, Common language, Some, Complex language, Colourful, Current events, General public, Academics, Research & development

# What's your day?

• 5-8 pm evening
• 10 pm night

# ideas of electronic devices

Electronic devices are highly prevalent in the modern world. How do they impactt our lives?

positive:

1. Easy to find and spread information
2. Shopping and traveling are more convenient
3. Programs can correct our mistakes
4. Automated tools improve productivity and efficiency
5. Information and behaviours are more unified and easy to be controlled.

negative:

1. imformation online is not always reliable
2. Loss of control over data
3. Less need to learn or practice things ourselves
4. Connection between people is less
5. Maybe harmful to health
6. Divert attention than reading books

conj: However, Overall

If we use them for long time, then...

responsibly

# Cohesive devices

Use to link clauses => sentence.

To begin:

• First of all...
• To begin with...
• Firstly...
  To add an idea

First of all, I think electronic devices do have the positive effects of our lives. For example, there are many automated tools that can improve productivity and efficiency. However, there are also negative effects of electronic devices. For example, information online is not always reliable, and it can weak the connection of people. Also, if we use them for long time, then it may be harmful to our health. Therefore, we should use electronic devices responsibly.

# 02-25

# Academic Readig Skills

1. Skimming and Scanning
   1. skimming: extensive reading, looking for general information, top-down process
   2. scanning: intensive reading, looking for specific information, bottom-up process

Quotation. 引用

下面是一个阅读练习

# Journals

• Trade journals
  • limit use of jargon
  • may conain in-text citations
  • not peer reviewed
• Scholarly journals
  • jargon used
  • contain in-text citations
  • usually peer reviewed

Jargon: special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.

Paraphase: ideas from the source but written in your own words.
Direct quotation: double quotaiton marks are used. The page number must be used to show the location of a direct quote, but optional in paraphase.

Scholarly journals

Two main types of artical:

1. Original research articals: detail laboratory research and/or data analysis
2. Review articals: summarise and evaluate published literature

However, articals often contain elements of both types.

Homework: skim-read 3 articals which we will use in future lessions.

1. trade journal
2. research article
3. review article

# Speaking

Are the 'new ways' better than the 'old ways'?

paper books & tickets: for collecting.

• I play with my phone all the time.
• I play games on my phone.
• They will play with their phone rather than concentrating.

# Academic listening skills

1. Listening vs Reading.
2. Verbal signposts.
3. Distinguishing main ideas.

# Listening vs Reading

• extensive listening
  • listening for the topic and orher general information
• intensive listening
  • listening for specific words or phrases

# Verbal signposts

Signpost: 路标。

• Introducing the topic:
  • The purpose of this lecture is...
• Outlining the structure:
  • The topics we will cover are...
• Introducing sections:
  • Firstly... Next... Finally...
• Summing up:
  • Let's conclude by...

# Distinguishing main ideas

• Before:
  • Look at the title
• During:
  • Listen for the verbal signposts.
  • Listen for intonation slowing down, speaking louder.
  • Listen for repeated terms.
• After:
  • Look back at your notes and highlight the key details.

# The Urban Landscape

是一段听力练习。

Two areas of focus:

• the effect of vegetation on the urban climate
• ways of planing our cities/environment better

Large-scale impact of trees

• they can make cities more or less windy
• in summer they can make cities cooler
• they can make inland cities moore humid

Local impact of trees

• they can make local areas:
  • more shady
  • cooler
  • more humid
  • less windy
  • less dangerous

Comparing trees and buildings

1. Temperature regulation:
   • trees evaporate water through their leaves
   • building surfaces
2. Wind force:
   • tail building ground
   • filter
3. Noise
   • trees have a small effect on traffic noise
   • low frequency noise passes through trees

Important points

• room

# 03-04

# Sentence Structures

# Punctuation marks

标点符号。

# Parts of Speech

Determiner usually go before a noun, including 'a', 'the' and etc.

# Groups of words

s -> z (pronunciation)
eg: nose

# Structures

• Simple Sentence 简单句
  • one independent clause
  • The dog barks.
• Conpound Sentence 复合句
  • two or more independent clauses
  • coordinating conjunction
    • including and, or, but, so, yet, for...
  • the alternatives of conjuction include colon(😃, semi-colon(😉, and dash(-).
  • That dog is barking, but it looks happy.
    • The comma before conjunction is necessary.
• Complex Sentence 复合句
  • one independent clause and one or more dependent clause
  • subordinating conjunction
  • The dog is barking bucause it is hungry.
    • The conjunction is the part of the dependent clause.
    • No comma here when the independent clause is the first one. But when the dependent clause is the first one, a comma is necessary. For example: Because it is hungry, the dog is barking.
  • Subordinating conjunctions + alternatives:
    • because, if, since, unless, so, until, even though, whereas, although, since, etc. (et cetera)
    • relative pronouns: that, whose, which etc.
    • relative adverbs: where, when, why, how etc.

'So' can be a coordinating or subordinating conjunction.

• where 'so' = 'therefore', 'so' is a coordinating conj.
  • I said I would not give you homework today, so I won't. (Coordinating conjunction)
  • I stayed up late yesterday, so I'm tired today.
• where 'so' = 'in order that', 'so' is a subordinating conj.
  • I got up at 7am so I could go jogging before breakfast. (Subordinating conjunction)
  • I stayed up late yesterday so I could go to bed early today.

The important thing of PhD is to know where to put the comma.

# Passive voice

• Active voice
  • Subject does the action.
  • James added 250ml of water to the glass.
• Passive voice
  • Action is done to the subject.
  • 250ml of water was added to the glass by James.
  • Using verb 'to be' and past participle of the verb.

Passive voice is used in academic weiting:

• to maintain the objectivity
• where the 'actor' is unimportant
• to emphasise something

In most passive sentences, the 'actor' is removed.

• 250ml of water was added to the glass.

# Public Speaking

Public speaking is speaking to an audiance, usually a speech or a presentation.

# Prearartion

1. Developing ideas
   • How many?
   • Examples?
2. Organising ideas
   • Linking words.
   • Refer to the title/topic.

# Delivery

1. Notes:
   • key points only.
2. Rehearsing:
   • Practice with different audiences.
   • Reduce reliance on notes.
3. Presenting
   • Loud and clear at a suitable speed.
   • Maintain eye contact.

Introduce a place you have travelled to (30 seconds).

• location.
• interesting facts.

Vancouver port city

Gas Bell. big ben

powered by steam

the age of steam and industry

# Common problems

1. Poor delivery
2. Volume too low
3. Issues of notes
4. Good notes to good speech.
5. Errors in vocabulary or grammar, such as spelling, verb conjugation, part of speech, etc.

example new & old ways:

positive:

• Programs can correct our mistakes
• Automated tools improve productivity and efficiency
• Information and behaviours are more unified and easy to be controlled.

workflow

negative:

• Less need to learn or practice things ourselves

• Connection between people is less

• Maybe harmful to health

• Divert attention than reading books

• two-edged sword

• present attention, AI student

• On the positive side:

  • automated tools
    • make us efficient
    • keep
  • workflow
  • software help concentrate

• negative

  • divert ~
    • switch the state easily
    • short videos, games, shopping
    • spend money easily

Oral test: individual presentation.
Homework: group presentation.

# 03-11

# Figure of speech

Language used in a figurative rather than a literal way.

Where can you see them?

• Very common in novels and poems.
• Common in magazines, newspapers, trade jurnals.
• Rare in scholarly journals.

# Sounds

• Alliteration (头韵):
  • Repetition of sounds at the beginning of words.
  • Example:
    • big business
    • quick question
• Assonance:
  • Repetition of vowel sounds
  • Example:
    • I have a need for speed!
    • Just go with the flow!
• Homoeoteleuton (尾韵):
  • Repetition of sound at eht end of words
  • Example:
    • Correlation does not imply causation.

# Words

• Word repetition
  • Repetition of words
  • Example:
    • Let's have a heart-to-heart conversation.
• Polyptoton
  • Repetition of words from the same root
  • Example:
    • Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton

# Phrases

• Simile (明喻)
  • Compares two similar things, often contains 'like' or 'as'.
  • Example:
    • Watching that film was like watching paint dry.
• Metaphor (暗喻)
  • Declares that two things are so similar as to be the same.
  • Example:
    • Time is money.
• Analogy
  • Metaphor or simile which describes and explains an idea.
• Metonymy (转喻)
  • Referring to something via a thing associated with it.
  • Example:
    • The White House is calling a press briefing tomorrow.
• Synecdoche (提喻)
  • Referring to something via part of it or part of something via the whole.
  • Example:
    • He showed off his new wheels.
• Hyyperbole (夸张)
  • Describing something as greater that it really is.
  • Example:
    • I could sleep for a week!
• Understatement (轻描淡写)
  • Describing something as less than it really is.
  • Example:
    • There's been a slight issue with your paperwork.

# Speech Presentation

# Vocabulary building

• Derivation
  • a word which has been formed from another word
  • Example:
    • convenient -> convenience
• Collocation
  • words which commonly apprear together
  • Example:
    • have lunch

# 03-18

# Trade Journals

1. Scholarly journals vs Trade journals
2. Organisational structures
3. Which structure should I use?

# Scholarly journals vs Trade journals

What's the section of scholarly journals?

• Abstract

• Introduction

• Literature review

• Methodology

• Conclusion/Discussion

• Scholarly journals articles: Structure and format common across all scholarly journals.

• Trade journals articles: Structure and format hoghly varied.

# Organisational structures

A pet can be defined as an animal which is of a suitable size to fit into an average home. Some common pets are good examples, such as cats, dogs and goldfish.

Theory then examples: known as a 'deductive structure'.

Animals which are too large to be kept in the home, and therefore cannot be pets include: lions, elephants and whales.

Multiple opposing examples: known as a 'compare and contrast structure'.

1. Compare and Constrast
2. Descriptive
3. Chronological
4. Problem and Solution
5. Cause and Effect

# Written test

• Sec 1: True or False.
• Sec 2: Filling in the blank spaces. 1 blank 1 word.
• Sec 3: Answering each questions with a few words. No need to write a full sentence.

Sec 1:

1. T
2. F
3. T
4. F
5. F

Sce 2:

1. bone
2. officials
3. mainstream
4. melodies
5. original
6. literautre
7. Beijing
8. appreprciated
9. compose
10. herding

Sec 3:

1. The government
2. Martial Arts
3. academic achievement
4. 2025
5. foreign investment

Another one:

Sec 1:
1 F
2 F
3 F
4 T
5 T

Sec 2:
1 trends n.
2 consuming v.
3 concerned v.
4 curious adj.
5 raise v.
6 primarily adv.
7 interest n.
8 calories n.
9 additives n.
10 organic adj.

Sec 3:
1 60 percents
2 vast size
3 speed and duration
4 edible oil
5 argiculture

# 03-25

# Reading Comprehension

What should you write?

1. Subject: a short title for the passage
2. Statement: s sentence to explain the conclusion of the passage
3. Logical relations: 3-5 sentences detailing the key points of the passage. Write these as bullet points or number them.

# Academic Conferences

• Lectures, seminars and other events
• more than two days
• who attends?
  • academics (inc. students)
  • professionals from related businesses

1. Events
2. e-mail etiquette
3. video conference etiquette

# Events

• Lectures
  • 1-2 speakers
  • non-interactive
  • large group
• Seminars
  • multiple speakers
  • interactive
  • medium size group
• Session
  • Plenary session
    • general info
    • keynote speaker
    • beginning or end of the day
    • everyone should attend
  • Parrallel session
    • specific topics
    • various speakers
    • during the day at the same time
    • only attend if interested
• Workshop
• Poster session

For example, NeurIPS 2025:

• Overall topic: NeurIPS 2025 is an interdisciplinary conference that brings together researchers in machine learning, neuroscience, statistics, optimization, computer vision, natural language processing, life sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and other adjacent fields.
• Location: San Diego Convention Center
• Tuesday Dec 2nd through Sunday Dec 7th

# e-mail etiquette

Useful phrases:

• If you can't see/hear the other person:
  • Sorry, I can't see you. Could you check your camra please?
  • Sorry, I can't hear you. Could you check your microphone please?
• If you need to leave the call:
  • Could you just hold on a second while I get my notebook?
• At the end:
  • Thank you for your time today. Goodbye!

# Role-play

Write the script for a video conference with a professor.

I'll revise the script to focus specifically on an AI conference theme. Here's the updated role-play script:

AI Conference Role-Play Script:

Setting: A video conference call for an upcoming AI industry conference

Characters:

• Sheng - AI Conference Organizer
• Anyi - Conference Co-Organizer
• Shengjie - Potential Attendee/AI Professional

Duration: 1-2 minutes

SCENE 1: Conference Call

[Video conference begins with all three participants joining]

Sheng: Good morning! Thank you for joining today's call. I'm Sheng, the lead organizer for the upcoming AI Horizons Summit. Anyi and I wanted to take a few minutes to share what you can expect as an attendee this year.

Anyi: Hello Shengjie! Great to meet you. I'm Anyi, the co-organizer responsible for our technical workshops and speaker coordination. This year's summit is focused on generative AI applications across industries.

Shengjie: Thanks for having me. I've been following developments in generative AI and looking for a conference that goes beyond the basic concepts. What makes AI Horizons different?

Sheng: That's exactly the right question. Unlike broader tech events, we're exclusively focused on cutting-edge AI implementations. Our keynote this year features the lead researchers behind the latest large language model breakthroughs, with sessions on responsible AI deployment.

Anyi: We've organized specialized tracks on multimodal AI systems, reinforcement learning from human feedback, and AI governance frameworks. Based on your background in computer vision, our Thursday workshops on visual foundation models might be particularly valuable.

Shengjie: That sounds promising. Will there be opportunities to discuss real implementation challenges? Most conferences I've attended stay theoretical.

Sheng: Absolutely! Half of our sessions are practical case studies presented by AI engineers who've deployed these systems at scale. We also have dedicated problem-solving roundtables where attendees discuss specific technical challenges they're facing.

Anyi: And our evening networking events are structured around AI specializations - natural language processing, computer vision, and AI ethics all have dedicated meetups with relevant industry leaders present.

Shengjie: What about the latest research on AI safety? That's becoming crucial in my work.

Sheng: We have an entire track dedicated to AI safety and alignment, featuring researchers from leading AI safety institutes. The registration options include standard access and premium passes with priority workshop seating and 1:1 sessions with AI experts.

Shengjie: That addresses my main concerns. This sounds like exactly what I've been looking for.

Anyi: Wonderful! We'll email you the full agenda and registration details today. Any other questions we can answer?

Shengjie: Not right now. I appreciate the overview.

Sheng: Thank you for your interest in AI Horizons, Shengjie. We look forward to hopefully seeing you there!

[Video call ends]

This script focuses specifically on an AI conference theme with relevant AI topics, technical details, and professional interactions between the organizers and a potential attendee within the 1-2 minute timeframe.

# 04-01

# Author Introduction

• Name
• Title
• Affiliation
• Academic achievements
• Contact details

Other details:

• It must be written as a single paragraph within 150 words.
• It must be written in 3rd person point of view.
• Use your real name, title, affilication and contact details.
• Use your real academic achievements, 2 is enough.
• The word count is 150 words.

Mr. Anyi Li is a PhD student at the Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence, Renmin University of China. In 2024, he received his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Taishan College, Shandong University. His research focuses on the interdisciplinary field of AI and Chemistry, applying machine learning techniques such as graph neural networks and Transformer-based models. Specifically, his current research involves predicting the properties of multi-component electrolytes and the yield of chemical reactions. He contributed to research on the expressivity of geometric GNNs on symmetric graphs, which was published in NeurIPS 2024. He can be contacted via email at lianyi@ruc.edu.cn.

# 04-15

# Scholarly journal

• Types of Articles
• General Layout
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion/Conclusion

# Types of Articles

• Original research articles: research and/or data analysis
• Review articles: summarise and evaluate published literature

# General Layout

• heading
• subheading

# Introduction

• Broad context
• Previous research in this area
• Specfic problem or topic covered in the article
• Outlines what later parts of the article are about

# Methods

Details how the research was done, including

• Subjects
• Apparatus
• Procedure
• Statustics

# Results

Reports relevant and interesting results in two forms:

• Table
  • Usually numbers
  • Legend placed above
  • Variables:
    • Independent placed on left
    • Dependent placed on right
• Figure
  • Anything pictorial or graphical that is not a table. e.g. graphs, charts, photos, etc.
  • Legend placed below
  • variables:
    • Independent on x axis
    • Dependent on y axis

# Discussion/Conclusion

• Summary of main findings or discussion points
• Improvements to the methods, conclusions etc.
• Ideas for further research
• Links back to the wider field or even world events

Future directions:

1. How AI revolutionize the patient care in emergency medicine.
2. The patient perspectives of AI techs in healthcare.
3. AI need to improve health care outcomes, health care delivery, and the health care workplace for more applications in emergency medicine.
4. More information of AI knowledge for emergency medicine.

# Academic Presenataions - What to say

Is life ecoming safer or more dangerous?

safer/dangerous:

• definition of safe/dangerous
  • Traditional
    • no death or illnesses
  • More precisely
    • physical safe
    • psychological safe
  • human rights - juristic aspect
    • healthcare
    • property rights
    • get education
    • personal data
• statistial data
  • average lifetime
  • incidence of main canser... (not independent, influenced by age)
• case study
  • healthcare
    • more dimensional of illnesses
    • more techs of healthcare
  • transportation
    • faster, higher
    • safer
  • work
    • more dangerous job will be replaced by robots
  • eating
    • more techs in food industry
    • more additive in food

# Main points

• 2-5 main points
• use the same words
• balance time spent on each point
• keep ideas separate

# Supporting materials

• Examples
  • Example will vary depending on their purpose:
    • event, situation, story etc.
    • brief or detailed
  • Reinforce the example with statistics or testimony
• Statistics
  • Use reliable sources and reference them
  • Round off complex stats
  • Use visual aids e.g. charts, graphs, photos etc.
• Testimony
  • Quote or paraphase?
    • If orginal quotation is short and eloquent -> Quote
    • If orginal quotation is long, obscure, boring -> Paraphrase

# Connectives

• Linking words
• Verbal signposts
• Previews
  • Mini-introduction or mini-sumary
  • Especially useful for longer presentations
  • e.g. Let's sum up what we have discussed so far...

# 04-22

# Reading Comprehension

Logical relations:

• State naub contents of passage
• Use bullet points or numbers
• Do not make reference to the author
• Do not refer to sections as 'introduction' etc.
• Do not discuss organisation of text

# Scholarly journal

# Abstract

# Functions of an abstract

• Twwo functions:
  • Explain which research area this study is related to
  • Present the most important results
• Not a detailed summary

# Features of an abstract

• Sentences are long and multi-clausal
• Jargon and abbreviations used
• about 100 words as a paragraph
• about one sentence for a section

# Writing an abstract

• Write it after writing the article but before writing the title or key words
• Some journals have requirments on length or format

# Practive

What do the speaker's hand movements represnent?

• Imaginary boxes: 3 parts of a Chinese culture
• Hands coming together: tea combines all of them
• Imaginary teacup: drinking tea

# Academic Presentations

# Visual aids

General tips:

• KIS: Keep It Simple
• Remember that you are still the presenter
• Check the equipment in the room
• Have a backup plan
• Memorisation vs Notes vs Spontaneity
• Voice
  • Don't fill paises with ummmm
  • Articulate clearly
• Body
  • Tidy appearance
  • Natural gestures

Group delivery

• 1 person speaks at a time
• Those not speaking should be silent and look at the audience
• Do not all stand in the same spot

# 05-06

# Title

# Type of titles

1. Literal: states research area, results, conclusions, etc.
2. Figurative: uses creative language e.g. figures of speech.
3. Mixed: contains both literal and figurative elements.

# Colons in titles

Colons are used to:

• Give examples
• Show sub-groupings
• Elaborate

# Writing a Title

• Literal titles are easier to write but less attractive
• Grammar is very important
• Look at the titles of articles written by native speakers for idea

# Choosing Key Words

• Finish the article first
• Look through your article and select
• Use the most important words
  • jarggon you used a lot
  • main topics you discussed