International Students NZ

Today’s picture: Fog in Christchurch

For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.

From In Memory of W.B. Yeats by W.H. Auden

Part 1: Today's word

If you nurture a person, a plant or a project, you give it/them the care and support, needed to develop. It’s important that an organisation has a culture which nurtures young talent, so that new members feel encouraged to learn, to be creative and to contribute to the organisation. The ‘nature versus nurture’ debate is an important one in philosophy and sociology. It is about what is more responsible for the way people are – is it their nature or is it the way they have been ‘nurtured’ by their parents and society?

Click here for interactive exercises on academic vocabulary and writing.

Part 2: Test

Here are FOUR sentences with the word of the day. But only THREE are correct. Which is the Odd One Out?

The young tomato plants are carefully nurtured in a greenhouse before being transported to the garden centre.

The club has a reputation for nurturing young players, but lacks the resources to keep them once they become successful.

He was remarkably gifted as a young pianist, but failed to nurture into a professional musician, due perhaps to a lack of motivation and encouragement.

As a teacher, I try to nurture a sense of self-esteem, respect for others and intellectual curiosity in my pupils.

Part 3: Practice Questions:

In relation to criminals, which side of the nature-nurture debate do you tend to take?

Did your teachers nurture your sense of self-esteem and curiosity?

Part 4: Vocabulary focus

there’s nothing to it
nothing ventured, nothing gained
it’s nothing to write home about
have nothing to show for ...
have nothing to lose

Part 5: Kiwi Quiz Question

How are people raising money for Men’s health as part of Movember this month?

Part 6: Today’s online listening

This is an interview from Radio New Zealand with the philosopher Anne Kirwin, from AUT University, Auckland. She’s talking about the idea of ‘nothing’ in past and present day thinking.

Vocabulary for the article:

void
analogy
phenomenon
martyr
habituated

Questions for the article:

1) Which of these does Anne Kirwin use as an analogy to explain the importance of intervals?

music
sports
study

2) What is it called when there are a few seconds of silence on the radio?

frozen sound
information gap
dead air

3) Which of these systems of belief focuses on the importance of emptying the mind?

Nihilism
Taoism
Confucianism

4) In Zen Buddhism, the ability to experience nothing is considered ...

a significant challenge
an impossible goal
a common phenomenon

5) Cognitive psychologists have shown that people have a natural tendency to notice ...

additions more than deletions
missing people rather than new people
inferences more than deductions

6) The Christian view of the value of worldly experience is shaped by a belief in ..

martyrs
work
an afterlife

7) Having less to do as a result of the recession has made people more

anxious
content
depressed

8) Modern life has relatively little ...

extra time
play time
down time

9) Situational habitualisation explains how people

adjust their rate of speaking to their conversation partner
wish they could move to a more tranquil location
feel pressured because they don’t have enough to do

10) The example of conversations in hospitals illustrates ..

the postponement of people-rich times
the inability of people to communicate sincerely
the stories people tell to avoid thinking about death

11) One practical application of Anne Kirwin’s philosophy is ..

sharing her most profound thoughts with her students
paying more attention to small things
talking more slowly to friends and family

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Grammar Focus: Two different ways to use ‘would’

In a previous podcast, we looked at the most common meaning of ‘would’ – for imaginary or unreal situations. Here is an example from today’s listening:

If it wasn’t for the recession, most people would be getting busier and busier.

In fact, there is a recession and people are not so busy – so this sentence is about imagining a different situation.

However, ‘would’ can be used in a completely different way, to talk about past habits. Here is another example from today’s listening:

Harold Pinter would make his lines so that the pause between the words was the most significant.

Here, ‘would make’ means that he normally did this in the past. This use of ‘would’ is quite common when we talk about our childhood, but it can only be used with actions. So, you can say, ‘When I was a child, my granddad would take me fishing every weekend’ but you can’t say, ‘When I was a child, I would have a toy car’ – ‘take me fishing’ is an action, but ‘have a toy car’ is not.

Which of these uses of ‘would’ are correct?

1) When I was at University in the 1980’s, I would grow a beard just to see what it was like.

2) For my first job, I would cycle about 10km to work every morning and evening, whatever the weather.

3) When I first came to New Zealand, I would drive from Auckland to Invercargill, so that I could see the whole country before deciding where to settle down.

4) My favourite teacher, Mr Paul, would start nearly every lesson with some kind of game based on what we had studied in the previous lesson.

5) I used to spend a lot of time with my grandmother because she would like to tell me funny stories about the old days.

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Today’s Video suggestion 1:
A mindfulness session given to staff at Google by Jon Kabat Zinn

Today’s Video suggestion 2:
Seinfeld: a show about nothing
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