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Series 1
- Study English S1 Ep1: Electronic Crime
- Study English S1 Ep2: Vitamin D
- Study English S1 Ep3: Company Growth
- Study English S1 Ep4: Rising Dollar
- Study English S1 Ep5: Global Warming
- Study English S1 Ep6: Greenhouse Gases
- Study English S1 Ep7: Enviro-Loo
- Study English S1 Ep8: Crocodile Tourism
- Study English S1 Ep9: ADHD
- Study English S1 Ep10: Solar House
- Study English S1 Ep11: Events in the past
- Study English S1 Ep12: Carbon Cycle
- Study English S1 Ep13: Under the sea
- Study English S1 Ep14: Junk DNA
- Study English S1 Ep15: Sea Floor
- Study English S1 Ep16: DVT
- Study English S1 Ep17: Water and ageing
- Study English S1 Ep18: Salinity
- Study English S1 Ep19: Weather report
- Study English S1 Ep20: Torres Strait
- Study English S1 Ep21: Watching Birds
- Study English S1 Ep22: Finance Report
- Study English S1 Ep23: Octopuses
- Study English S1 Ep24: Perfect Siesta
- Study English S1 Ep25: Copyright
- Study English S1 Ep26: Classification
Study English S1 Ep17: Water and ageing
In this episode we will look at some of the features of formal, written English.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to Learn English. I’m Margot Politis.
Today on Learn English, we’re going to look at some of the features of formal, written English.
In our clip, we’ll hear from a man who believes that drinking water is the key to being healthy and living a long time.
He’s going to talk about how he came to his conclusion, and how he tried to get some support for his project.
How does nature do it? What keeps body cells going and how can we improve on that process so that we eliminate disease altogether and we live a long and healthy life? I don’t think death and disease is inevitable.
We stumbled on the fact that they weren’t actually getting rid of carbon dioxide out of their bodies, they were neutralising the carbon dioxide in their bodies, and we found out it was from the water they were drinking.
When we looked at these animals and saw what they were doing, it was exactly as we’d hypothesised and that was a great feeling. A real feeling of elation.
I tried and I tried and I tried to be conventional in that sense. I went to one hundred people. I wrote one thousand letters. I spoke to the Australian Academy of Science. I spoke to the American Academy of Science. I spoke to hospitals. I spoke to professors of medicine, because I wanted to do work independently. I couldn’t get anywhere, so I had to do it other ways.
This is a food substance, this is something that’s been drunk for thousands of years. This is probably where the mythology of the fountain of youth came from. There would have been natural springs somewhere bubbling out magnesium bicarbonate at an alkaline pH value. And people that drank these springs lived longer.
But I want everybody to have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life, and that’s been my life’s work, and we’re getting somewhere, we’re getting somewhere.
大自然是如何做到的?是什么使人体细胞保持运转,我们如何在这一过程中进行改善,从而完全消除疾病,并享有健康长寿的生命?我认为死亡和疾病并非不可避免。
我们偶然发现他们实际上并没有从体内清除二氧化碳,他们正在中和体内的二氧化碳,我们发现这是他们喝的水。
当我们看着这些动物并看到它们在做什么时,正是我们所假设的那样,那真是太好了。真正的兴高采烈的感觉。
在这种意义上,我尝试了并且尝试了,并且尝试了常规。我去了一百个人。我写了一千封信。我在澳大利亚科学院讲过。我在美国科学院讲过话。我去医院了我曾与医学教授交谈,因为我想独立工作。我什么都做不了,所以我不得不以其他方式去做。
这是一种食物,已经喝了数千年了。这可能是青年之源神话的起源。在碱性pH值下会冒出碳酸氢镁的地方冒出天然泉水。喝了这些泉水的人寿命更长。
但是我希望每个人都有机会过上长寿而健康的生活,这就是我一生的工作,我们正在某个地方,我们正在某个地方。
One of the most important areas for students to master is the difference between informal spoken language and formal written English, including academic language.
There are many differences between formal and informal English.
Firstly, in written language, all words must be spelt correctly. There should be no words in written English that you can’t find in a dictionary.
Another important difference is that contractions are not used in formal written English. We only use contractions in written English if we’re trying to represent the way that people speak.
The clip we’ve heard today is, of course, spoken English. Listen to part of it again and see if you can identify the features of informal English.
But I want everybody to have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life, and that’s been my life’s work, and we’re getting somewhere, we’re getting somewhere.
When Dr Beckett is speaking he uses a number of contractions.
He says ‘That’s been my life’s work’, and ‘We’re getting somewhere’.
‘That’s’ is short for ‘that is’, and ‘we’re’ is short for ‘we are’.
So if we were writing these statements, we’d write:
‘That has been my life’s work.’
‘We are getting somewhere.’
There are many common contractions. By using them in your spoken language, you will sound more natural. But be careful to write them out in full in formal situations. Watch for ‘not’ words like:
‘couldn’t, could not’,
‘wouldn’t, would not’,
‘shouldn’t, should not’,
‘won’t, will not’,
and ‘don’t, do not’.
Another common feature of informal English is the use of phrasal verbs, or two word verbs.
Phrasal verbs consist of a ‘verb’ and a ‘preposition’. They are commonly used in spoken English, and their meanings are idiomatic, giving the verb a special, new meaning.
Listen for some phrasal verbs in this clip.
We stumbled on the fact that they weren’t actually getting rid of carbon dioxide out of their bodies. They were neutralising the carbon dioxide in their bodies, and we found out it was from the water they were drinking.
This is probably where the mythology of the fountain of youth came from.
He uses the phrasal verbs “stumbled on’, ‘get rid of’, ‘found out’ and ‘came from’.
In formal written English, it’s best to use single word verbs.
So instead of saying:
‘They weren’t getting rid of carbon dioxide’,
we would write:
‘They weren’t eliminating carbon dioxide’,
and then we’d get rid of the contraction, so it would read:
‘They were not eliminating carbon dioxide.
Instead of saying:
‘We found out it was from the water’,
we would write:
‘We discovered it was from the water’.
‘This is probably where the myth came from.’
‘This is probably where the myth originated.’
Let’s look at some other examples of common phrasal verbs.
Instead of ‘look into’, we would write ‘investigate’.
Instead of ‘cut down’, we would write ‘reduce’.
‘Keep on’ could be ‘continue’.
‘Point out’ could be ‘indicate.’
All of these words are more formal than using phrasal verbs.
Another important part of formal written English, is understanding how to use conjunctions.
‘Short sentences’ are less formal than ‘compound or complex sentences’. If you can, it’s good to try to link short sentences together.
Listen to this clip, then we’ll try to turn it into good formal English using coordinating conjunctions.
I went to one hundred people. I wrote a thousand letters. I spoke to the Australian Academy of Science. I spoke to the American Academy of Science. I spoke to hospitals. I spoke to professors of Medicine, because I wanted to do work independently. I couldn’t get anywhere.
He uses a number of simple sentences in a row.
I spoke to the Australian Academy of Science.
I spoke to the American Academy of Science.
I spoke to hospitals.
I spoke to professors of Medicine.
These could become:
‘I spoke to the Australian Academy of Science, the American Academy of Science and hospitals.
I also spoke to professors of Medicine.’
There are some rules to be aware of when you’re using conjunctions.
In formal English, we don’t start sentences with coordinating conjunctions.
Words like ‘and’ and ‘but’ are joining words. They are not used to begin sentences.
Listen to Dr Bechett again. Notice how he uses conjunctions to start his sentences.
There would have been natural springs somewhere bubbling out magnesium bicarbonate at an alkaline pH value. And people that drank these springs lived longer. But I want everybody to have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life, and that’s been my life’s work.
He uses the word ‘and’ to begin a sentence.
If we were writing a formal report or essay, we would have to find other words to replace ‘and’.
We could begin the sentence with:
‘Furthermore’,
‘In addition’, or
‘Moreover’.
We could replace the word ‘but’ with the word ‘however’.
You should make lists of these alternative words, so you use a variety of them in your written language.
It’s important to avoid repetition in your formal written English.
Of course repetition can be used to add emphasis in spoken English.
You might hear people say things like ‘I really, really like that’.
But in formal academic writing, you should find other ways of adding emphasis.
Listen to the way Russell uses repetition.
I tried and I tried and I tried to be conventional in that sense. I went to one hundred people. I wrote one thousand letters. I spoke to the Australian Academy of Science. I spoke to the American Academy of Science. I spoke to hospitals. I spoke to professors of medicine, because I wanted to do work independently. I couldn’t get anywhere.
Russell says ‘I tried and I tried and I tried.’
To make this sentence more formal, you could either just drop the repeated verb, or use an adverb like ‘repeatedly’.
We could just write:
‘I tried.’
or,
‘I tried repeatedly.’
Another way you can make your language more formal is to use the prefix ‘re-‘ to indicate a repeated action. This doesn’t apply to all verbs.
Look at this sentence.
‘He played and played the song again and again.’
We could write formally:
He replayed the song repeatedly.
And why don’t you try practising ways of making spoken language more formal, or looking at ways that you can take formal, written language, and turn it into conversational English!
That’s all for today, I hope I’ll see you next time on Study English. Bye bye.
Study English S1 Ep17: Water and ageing Study Notes
Study English S1 Ep17: Water and ageing Activity Sheet
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