Blog and Review around the World
Posts tagged Crazy English
Integrated Pest Management
Jul 25th
Agricultural pests are winning the battle against the poisonous chemicals in pesticides. As each new chemical pesticide is used, the insects or rodents gradually become used to it. The pests change themselves so that they are not killed by the poison. Therefore, farmers, scientists, and food planners are trying a new method to control the pests that attack crops. This method is called Integrated Pests Management, or IPM.
Integrated Pest Management is a plan that combines several different methods to destroy insects and rodents. These methods are specifically developed for individual areas and crops. The control methods include using the pests’ natural enemies, controlling the pest’s breeding environment, and developing stronger varieties of seeds. Chemical poisons are used only when necessary. The IPM method accepts the fact that it is useless to try to destroy pests completely with chemical poisons. Its aim is to control pest populations so that crops can still grow well.
About Intelligence
Jul 23rd
What is intelligence anyway? When I was in the army I received an intelligence test that all soldiers took, and, against an average of 100, scored 160.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man designed questions for some intelligence tests. By every one of them I’d prove myself a fool. In a word, where I have to work with my hands, I do poorly.
Consider my auto-repair man again. He had a habit of telling jokes. One time he said,”Doc, a deaf-and-dumb man needed some nails. Having entered a store, he put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering movements with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him some nails. He picked out the right size and left. Well, Doc, the next man who came in was blind. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?”I lifted my right hand and made scissoring movements with my first two fingers. He burst out laughing and said, “why, you fool, he used his voice and asked for them. I’ve been trying that on all my customers today, but I knew for sure I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you are so god damned educated, Doc. I knew you couldn’t be very smart.”
And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.
The Differences between Policemen in Real Life and on TV
Jul 1st
Real policemen hardly recognize any resemblance between their lives and what they see on TV.
The first difference is that a policeman’s real life revolves around criminal law. He has to know exactly what actions are crimes and what evidence can be used to prove them in court.
Little of his time is spent in chatting. He will spend most of his working life typing millions of words on thousands of forms about hundreds of sad, unimportant people who are guilty of stupid, petty crimes.
Most television crime drama is about finding the criminal: as soon as he’s arrested, the story is over. In real life, finding criminals is seldom much of a problem. Except in very serious cases like murders and terrorist attacks, little effort is spent on searching.
Having made an arrest, a detective really starts to work. He has to prove his case in court and to do that he often has to gather a lot of different evidence.
A third big difference between the drama detective and the real one is the unpleasant pressures: first, as members of a police force they always have to behave absolutely in accordance with the law. Secondly, as expensive public servants they have to get results. They can hardly ever do both. Most of the time some of they have to break the rules in small ways.
Sleep and Dream
Jun 4th
It’s clear that everyone needs to sleep. Most people rarely think about how and why they sleep, however. We know that if we sleep well, we feel rested. If we don’t sleep enough, we often feel tired and irritable. It seems there are two purposes for sleep: physical rest and emotional and psychological rest. We need to rest our bodies and our minds. Both are important in order for us to be healthy. Each night we alternate between two kinds of sleep: active sleep and passive sleep. The passive sleep gives our body the rest that’s needed and prepares us for active sleep, in which dreaming occurs.
Throughout the night people alternate between passive and active sleep. The brain rests, then it becomes active, then dreaming occurs. This cycle is repeated several times throughout the night. During eight hours of sleep, people dream for a total of one and half hours on average.