John Hartford

One of my favorite musicians is John Hartford. He was a fiddler and a banjo picker, and could fiddle and sing at the same time, which is difficult. He is very associated with the Mississippi River; he loved steamboats and made many songs about them. He went to Nashville and became famous, but then he came back to the river and just played in various towns like Murphysboro, where I saw him in the late '90's. He died in 2001- too bad! Fortunately he still has a lot of fans and you hear his music once in a while!
-TL

Extra Credit assignment links

Good Reading
Earth Network News

Good Audio Broadcasts
Living on Earth
Earth News Radio

Assignment:
Read an article or listen carefully to a broadcast
Write what it is about
Respond in at least one well-developed paragraph
Relate it to our class and your life if possible!

Good luck! It must be done by TUE.

Yo EAP2!

Put your Music Picks here!!!

And don't forget the ART PARAGRAPH CHALLENGE.....

Have your pictures taken.

Dear Students,

In the past, we have had many great essays and weblog postings posted on CESL's weblogs. But, most of the works are only regonized by name. We wish our students to be regonize for their accomplishments. So, come and have your picture taken and be known for who you are along with your work ! Let people see who you are too ! If you do not wish to have your pictures posted on weblog, that is okay too. If you would like to have your pictures taken (so we can put it on our website) please contact John or Marie to schedule an appointment.

thanks and have a great day,

CESL writing assistants~

Conversation Hours

The conversation hour provides CESL students with the opportunity to practice and gain experience in speaking english. We welcome those who would like to join us. Our conversation times for this term are: Mondays 3 p.m. to 3:40 p.m for every skills level, Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 3:40 p.m. for beginners, and Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 4:40 p.m. for advance students. Please come and join us and obtain the knowledge of oral communications.

Problems Harass Water-Rich Russia

In the article,” Problems Harass Water-Rich Russia,” from the Ria Novosti, the author introduces water problems causing in Russia and surrounding regions. Lake Baikal is the biggest lake in the world and contains 20 percent of water resources of the world. (Sinitsyna, 2005, para1). Ms. Sinitsyna points out that Russians have been using plenty of drinking water by lake Baikal and other rivers. So they tend to waste water. The author also states that the regions like Moscow use an unlimited supply but some regions such as the Kalmykia-autonomy and the Littoral Territory experience suffering from lack of water. And the author presents possibility of the world facing shortage of water. I agree with those who believe that Russians waste water and they should protect the lake Baikal and other rivers because it is very important resources to us and we might pay more expensive cost due to lack of water later.
To begin with, water is one of the most important resources so we have a duty to protect it. If it were not for water, we cannot alive any more. For instance, someone who lives in desert has a lot of petroleum and gems but dose not have any water. He cannot definitely survive without water. Water is necessary resource to us to live life. Therefore, even though Russians have lots of clear water, about one five water of world, they should not waste water. The more clear water they have, the more preserve they should.
Moreover, the nations of lack of water are increasing more and more now. They are suffering from shortage of water and have many problems depend on it. Someday we may pay expensive cost about using water like the petroleum. Now using the water is free but if we reach serious condition of lack of water, we might discharge far more expensive cost than paying in order to we protect water.
Consequently, I believe Russians should protect lake Baikal and other rivers and should not waste water. We could hardly live without water and water might pay expensive cost when we would use it unless preserve water. It is no use crying over spilt milk. Therefore, they do not know how it is important resource to them right now because they have plenty of clear water but as time goes by they would know its value and feel keenly their foolish act.

by youjin

Summary and Response

Russia Looks to Baltic Neighbours over Oil Spill

In “Russia looks to Baltic neighbors over oil spill” by Aleksandr Naumov from BBC new talks about a huge number of waterfowl died on the Baltic shores because of massive fuel oil slick. (Naumov, 2005, para. l ). This is the largest amount of birds died collectively have ever seen( para. 3). Almost of them are migratory birds. The correspondent explains it is difficult to protect birds to live in water with oil( para. 5). However, investigators cannot find out the truly source where is the oil from. If they find out the chief offender, Russia government will punish huge money of fines.
In my opinion, I think there maybe some possible reasons that why birds died. First, There is too much different between Russia and the area where the bird migrates from, then the bird may not adapts to heavily polluted environment in Russia. Maybe they come from the environment is very clean, and suddenly they contact the pollution in Russia and group of them died together.
Second, birds eat the toxic fishes and aquatic grasses then died. The sea is polluted. Then all aquatic grasses and fishes are suffered toxic element. When birds drink water and eat food every day, toxic element is continued cause damage to birds. Then one day they will die and nobody knows the reason.
Finally, Russia’s government should have more environmental knowledge. Russia is a developing country. They think economy is the most important thing in this day. They ignore the importance of environment. Later in the future, they just have to pay more money to recover environment like developed countries.
In conclusion, no matter the reasons of died birds. The result is there are a huge number of birds died is that means it also threaten human live. This is a potential environment intact. Human also drink water every day. Maybe we have to worry about that the toxic element comes with groundwater. First it killed all the birds, next time it will threaten the lives of our human beings. Russia’s government should have to pay more attention in their environment.

Reference: Naumov, Aleksandr. (Feb. 16, 2005). Russia looks to Baltic neighbors over oil spill. BBC News. Retrieved from Lexis Nexis.

by Mandy

Air Pollution in Russia-Summary Response

In the article entitled “Russia: Environmental Issues”, the DOE website, the author introduces that Russia is an important place in ecosystem because Russia has plentiful natural resources. Russia inherited environmental problems from Soviet Union. The author states that “Russia’s economy dependent on a military-industrial complex that is highly energy-intensive” (http://www.eia.doe.gov/, 2004, par.2). Therefore, Russia government has considered about economic growth more than protection of environment for 10years ago. Now, awareness of environment grows in Russia but air quality of Russia remains low. Air pollution is an important problem in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and some cities. The one cause of air pollution is Russia’s factories of aging and lack of equipments that can control pollution. Also, other cause is Motor vehicles because it makes main matters of air pollution such as “carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides” (par.6).
To begin with, air pollution of Russia is serious problem because there is important part in world of biological balance. Although Russia has a lot of resources, Russia do not protect well because most plants of aging and lack of modern equipments for control of air pollution. Therefore, these situations make hard to repair or clean up damage of environment.
There are solutions that Russia should make a lot of modern equipments, and the governments of Russia should know about importance of environmental protection. If Russia develops useful equipments, Russian can live good air condition and do not get diseases such as asthma. Also, if Russia government makes laws that consider about both environmental protection and economic growth, Russia will have good environment and good economic growth.
Consequently, Russia should try to invent good equipments for air environment, and make law for improving air quality because Russia’s air quality is below rather than US and Europe. In addition, Russia is important place that has a lot of resources. Therefore people should protect Russia environment.
Russia: Environmental Issues
By Rina

Welcome to the 05-2 term.

EAP 2 students, welcome to your ’05-2 class weblog. Please feel free to post creative writing as well as homework assignments, make links, add pictures, and have fun developing this weblog.

If you need help with the class weblog or would like to make a weblog of your own, please attend a weblog workshop or see one of the writing assistants at any time.