Describing characters

Describing characters
Match the adjectives in the “Positive” column with its correspondent opposite in the “Negative” column

Positive Negative
1. hard-working a. tense
2. clever b. weak
3. relaxed c. shy
4. generous d. narrow-minded
5. cheerful e. lazy
6. flexible f. cruel
7. strong g. miserable
8. self-confident h. easy-going
9. stubborn i. rigid
10. kind j. stupid
11. broad-minded k. mean





KEY
1-e
2-j
3-c
4-k
5-g
6-i
7-b
8-c
9-h
10-f
11-d

Describing characters

Describing characters
Match the adjectives in the “Positive” column with its correspondent opposite in the “Negative” column

Positive Negative
1. hard-working a. tense
2. clever b. weak
3. relaxed c. shy
4. generous d. narrow-minded
5. cheerful e. lazy
6. flexible f. cruel
7. strong g. miserable
8. self-confident h. easy-going
9. stubborn i. rigid
10. kind j. stupid
11. broad-minded k. mean





KEY
1-e
2-j
3-c
4-k
5-g
6-i
7-b
8-c
9-h
10-f
11-d

Eating chocolate is good for maths

Scientists reveal how eating chocolate can help improve your maths
Eating chocolate could improve the brain's ability to do maths, a new study suggests. Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate, called flavanols, in a hot cocoa drink. They were also less likely to feel tired or mentally drained, the findings, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton show.
Prof David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University, and a co-author of the study, said that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks. The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so. The flavanols, part of a group of chemicals called polyphenols, work by increasing the flow of blood into the brain.
For the study 30 volunteers were asked to count backwards in groups of three from a random number between 800 and 999 generated by a computer. The findings show that they could do the calculations more quickly and more accurately after they had been given the drink. However, the same was not true when the group was asked to count backwards in groups of seven, which the researchers described as a more complex task, requiring a slightly different part of the brain. The findings also show that the volunteers did not get as tired doing the calculations if they had been given the cocoa drink, despite being asked to do them over and over for an hour.
The researchers gave the volunteers a total of 500mg of flavanol. Although the amount was too great to be found naturally in the diet, researchers said that people should ensure that they have lots of flavanols, also found in fruit and vegetables, on a regular basis. Dark chocolate contains higher quantities of the chemical than plain or milk chocolate.
Prof Kennedy said: "The amount that we are giving is more than in the diet but there is quite a lot of evidence that general amounts are protective. The more fruit and vegetables and things that are high in polyphenols the better that is for your brain in the long run.”

Question 1 (2 points) Indicate whether these statements are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text.
a. The study took place at a conference in Brighton.
b. Chocolate contains a substance which makes blood flow more easily.
c. People normally eat around 500mg of flavenol every day.
d. There is more flavenol in dark chocolate than there is in milk chocolate.
Question 2. (2 points) Answer these questions in your own words.
a. Why is it more difficult to count backwards in groups of seven than in groups of three?
b. Which foods does Professor Kennedy suggest that we should eat to help us perform mental activities and why?
Question 3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that mean the same as:
a. to eat a lot of something (p.2) b. repeatedly (p.3) c. contain a lot of (p.5)
Question 4 (1.5 points) Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning.
a. Eating chocolate could improve the brain’s ability to do maths.
The brain’s ability ..........................
b. Students who eat a large amount of chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so.
If ............................................
c. Professor Kennedy said “The amount that we are giving is more than in the diet but there is quite a lot of evidence that general amounts are protective. “
Professor Kennedy said that ..................................................
Question 5 (3 points) Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic.
So many different people tell us what to eat and what not to eat. Should we listen to their advice?

Eating chocolate is good for maths

Scientists reveal how eating chocolate can help improve your maths
Eating chocolate could improve the brain's ability to do maths, a new study suggests. Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate, called flavanols, in a hot cocoa drink. They were also less likely to feel tired or mentally drained, the findings, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton show.
Prof David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University, and a co-author of the study, said that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks. The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so. The flavanols, part of a group of chemicals called polyphenols, work by increasing the flow of blood into the brain.
For the study 30 volunteers were asked to count backwards in groups of three from a random number between 800 and 999 generated by a computer. The findings show that they could do the calculations more quickly and more accurately after they had been given the drink. However, the same was not true when the group was asked to count backwards in groups of seven, which the researchers described as a more complex task, requiring a slightly different part of the brain. The findings also show that the volunteers did not get as tired doing the calculations if they had been given the cocoa drink, despite being asked to do them over and over for an hour.
The researchers gave the volunteers a total of 500mg of flavanol. Although the amount was too great to be found naturally in the diet, researchers said that people should ensure that they have lots of flavanols, also found in fruit and vegetables, on a regular basis. Dark chocolate contains higher quantities of the chemical than plain or milk chocolate.
Prof Kennedy said: "The amount that we are giving is more than in the diet but there is quite a lot of evidence that general amounts are protective. The more fruit and vegetables and things that are high in polyphenols the better that is for your brain in the long run.”

Question 1 (2 points) Indicate whether these statements are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text.
a. The study took place at a conference in Brighton.
b. Chocolate contains a substance which makes blood flow more easily.
c. People normally eat around 500mg of flavenol every day.
d. There is more flavenol in dark chocolate than there is in milk chocolate.
Question 2. (2 points) Answer these questions in your own words.
a. Why is it more difficult to count backwards in groups of seven than in groups of three?
b. Which foods does Professor Kennedy suggest that we should eat to help us perform mental activities and why?
Question 3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that mean the same as:
a. to eat a lot of something (p.2) b. repeatedly (p.3) c. contain a lot of (p.5)
Question 4 (1.5 points) Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning.
a. Eating chocolate could improve the brain’s ability to do maths.
The brain’s ability ..........................
b. Students who eat a large amount of chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so.
If ............................................
c. Professor Kennedy said “The amount that we are giving is more than in the diet but there is quite a lot of evidence that general amounts are protective. “
Professor Kennedy said that ..................................................
Question 5 (3 points) Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic.
So many different people tell us what to eat and what not to eat. Should we listen to their advice?

5 Free Flash video and audio (mp3) players for the web

Are you looking for a custom and simple solution to embed your videos or MP3 files into your web pages using a custom Flash player? Take a look at this collection with the most popular, useufl and free Flash video and audio players ready to use in your web site or blog.

1. Flowplayer
Flowplayer is an Open Source (GPL 3) video player for the Web. Use it to embed video streams into your web pages. Built for site owners, developers, hobbyists, businesses and serious programmers.


2. JW FLV Player
The JW FLV Player is the Internet’s most popular and flexible media player. It supports playback of any format the Adobe Flash Player can handle (FLV, MP4, MP3, AAC, JPG, PNG and GIF). It also supports RTMP, HTTP, live streaming, various playlists formats, a wide range of settings and an extensive javascript API.


3. Flash Video Player Plugin for WordPress
This Flash Video Player Plugin for WordPress is ideal to embed quickly your video into your Wordpress Blog. It supports custom skin, watermark logo, poster frames and floating controls.

In order to use this plugin unpack it and transfer the flash-video-player folder into your wp-contents/plugins folder and activate the Flash Video Plugin in your WordPress admin panel. You can find more info here.


4. WP Audio Player
WP Adudio Player is a WordPress Plug-in to play MP3 file directly into your post. It's simple to use and customize. This is the default skin:

You can also use this plug-in in a non-WordPress website following this tutorial.


5. XSPF Web Music Player
XSPF Web Music Player is a flash-based web application that uses xspf playlist format to play mp3 songs. XSPF is the XML Shareable Playlist Format. The software is written in Actionscript 2.

My Tiny TodoList | A simple open source todolist written in PHP and jQuery

My Tiny TodoList is a totally free, simple open source todolist written in PHP and jQuery released from Max Pozdeev and based on my original MyToDoList application.

Using MyTiny TodoList you can add, modify or delete tasks, mark a task as completed and set task priority. Max improved a lot the interface with some nice jQuery effects and other general improvements. The result is very interesting and I suggest you to take it a look.

Max Pozdeev MyTinyTodoList Website
MyTinyTodoList Demo




Some screenshots:

Install My Tiny TodoList

1. Download, unpack and upload to your site.
2. If you want to use Mysql database instead of Sqlite - uncomment the line begining with $config['mysql'] in file 'init.php' and specify your settings as described in file.
Otherwise sqlite database file 'todolist.db' will be created in directory 'db'. If no - create it manually and make it writeble for webserver/php.
3. Open in your browser file 'dba.php' from your site and create tables in databse.
4. Open 'index.php' in your browser to run the application.

How to skin HTML form elements in seconds

In the past weeks I received some requests from my readers which asked to me to suggest a simple way to skin HTML form elements. There are a lot of ways to do that and a lot of posts with interesting resources about this topic. But if you want to save time and obtain a nice result I suggest you to use jqTransform or NiceForms.


Both scripts are very useful and simple to use. If you want to use a "native" script which doesn't use an external JS framework (such as jQuery or MooTools) I think a good choice is NiceForms otwerwise, if you use jQuery, a good alternative is jqTransform. Take a look how they work.

1. jqTransform
jqTransform is a jQuery styling plugin wich allows you to skin quickly form elements in a very easy way. The only thing you have to do is to add a javascript inclusion to this plugin in the header section of your web page, create your form and add two lines of JS code to apply the transformation to your form.

Use this code to add a javascript inclusion to jqTransform:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.jqtransform.min.js">
</script>

...now create a form with class property equal to jqTransform:

<form class="jqTransform">
<!-- Add form elements here... -->
<form>

...then add this JS code to apply the transformation:

<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$("form.jqtransform").jqTransform();
});
</script>

2. NiceForms
Niceforms is a script that will replace the most commonly used form elements with custom designed ones. You can either use the default theme that is provided or you can even develop your own look with minimal effort.

To implement form style transformation you have to add a javascript inclusion to NiceForms in your web page using this code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="niceforms.js">
</script>

...then create a form with class property equal to niceform:

<form class="niceform">
<!-- Add form elements here... -->
<form>

It's all. Really simple and fast!

Any suggestion? Please leave a comment.