The very common verbs lend and borrow are confusing
for many learners of English. One reason this happens is
because lend and borrow have the same basic meaning,
but are used for different "directions" in English.

If B needs ___ and A gives it to B for a limited time
(expecting that B will return it), A lends ___ to B (or
A lends B ___ ) and B borrows ___ from A.

Examples:

Anne lent $150 to Bill. Anne lent Bill $150.
Bill borrowed $150 from Anne.

Aaron often lends his car to Brenda. /
Aaron often lends Brenda his car.
Brenda often borrows Aaron's car.

B: May I borrow your typewriter?
A: Of course. I'll be happy to lend it to you. /
(Of course. I'll be happy to lend you my typewriter.)

_____________________________________________

Remember:

Lend shows that something is (temporarily) given to
another person. Borrow shows that something is
(temporarily) taken from another person.

lend ----> someone

someone ----> borrow

wrong: right:		*I borrowed $10 to Jeff I lent $10 to Jeff.
wrong: right:		*I lent $10 from Jeff. I borrowed $10 from Jeff.

 

http://www.laughandlearnenglish.com/strangenews.html

People are going to Mars - level 3

The search has begun for volunteers for a mission to fly to Mars.

The only slight catch is that if you go, you can't come back. It's part of a plan by a not-for-profit Dutch company called Mars One who wants to establish a permanent human colony on the Red Planet.

"Today, the Mars One Foundation starts to search for

Mars inhabitants. A search for people from all nations who want to settle on Mars. Mars One is a not-for-profit organization that is working on landing the first crew on Mars in 2023 and another crew every two years after that."

Take off, landing and various parts of the mission will be streamed on the internet with Mars One claiming an estimated potential audience of four billion. Successful applicants will have to undergo seven years’ training before the flight which will take seven months. The one-way nature of the mission has raised questions from some over whether or not it's ethical.

"Any big step that you take will always mean that there's risk. Space missions always include risk and this mission will not be different. When you send humans to Mars, there will be risks. But we will select the people and we will tell those people the risks. They will understand the risks and they will have to weigh the risks.

'Do I want to take these risks to make my dream come true or do I not?' And it's up to the people who are going to determine if it's worth it for them."

The first crew is due to lift off in 2023 with another one joining them every two years after that. Each one will be made up of two men and two women. Whether or not they choose to increase that number once they arrive on their new planet, will be left up to them.

"It will be a dangerous environment and any prospective parents should always ask themselves, 'Is this the right time and place where to have children?' These are responsible people that we're sending to Mars. So they will certainly come to the conclusion that it's, especially in the first years, not the right place to have children. But maybe when there's twenty or thirty people on Mars, that could become a possibility."

Anyone between the age of 18 and 40 can apply with a 38-dollar-application fee going towards the six billion dollar cost of the mission.

Interesting words: inhabitants (people who live in some place), streamed (showed), estimated (guessed), undergo (go through), determine (decide), conclusion (final decision).

For or to + infinitive: individual purpose

For is commonly used with nouns to express individual purpose:

I popped into the supermarket for some apples on the way home.

(Not: I popped into the supermarket for buying some apples…)

I stopped by at his office for a chat about our marketing strategy.

(Not: I stopped by at his office for having a chat about marketing.)

I decided I would save up for a new computer.

(NOT: I decided I would save up for buying a new computer.)

If we want to express individual purpose with a verb pattern, we are obliged to use to + infinitive:

I stopped by at the supermarket to buy some apples on the way home.

I popped into his office to have a chat about our marketing policy.

I decided to save up to buy a new computer.

For + verb-ing: the purpose of an object

However, if we are talking about the purpose of an object or an action, we normally use the for + verb-ing pattern. Note that this pattern commonly answers the question: What are they (used) for? Compare the following:

Schools are for educating children not for entertaining them.

Schools are for learning. Life is for living.

This kitchen knife is especially useful for slicing vegetables.

What's this for? ~ It's for opening oysters. It's much better than a knife.

What's this fifty pound note for? ~ It's for buying food for the weekend.

Note that when the subject of the sentence is a person rather than the thing described, the to + infinitive pattern is also possible:

I use this small knife to slice vegetables with.

I use this gadget to open shellfish with.

In order to / so as to

Note that, as an alternative to to + infinitive, we might use in order to, or so as to, to express individual purpose when we want to be more formal or explicit about the reason for doing something. All of these structures answer the question: Why…?. Compare the following:

I went to bed early in order to get enough sleep before the exam.

After four weeks of exams, I went to the seaside to rest.

After twenty days of exams, I went to the seaside for a rest.

After all those exams, I went to the seaside so as to have a good rest.

The in order to and so as to structures are particularly useful with stative verbs such as be, have, know, appear, and before negative inifinitives:

So as not to appear foolish, I learnt all I could about the company before going for the interview.

I'm going to move to the city centre in order to be near where I work.

In order not to have to commute, she bought a flat in the town centre.

In order to know more about him, she studied his movements carefully.

First amphibious ice cream van HMS Flake 99 marks Ice Cream Week

You’ve heard of a Coke float right? Well, this is similar (but different) as the world’s first amphibious ice cream van set sail on the River Thames.

 

Ice cream man Jamie Campbell serves from the world’s first amphibious ice cream van, the HMS Flake 99 (PA)

Marking the beginning of National Ice Cream Week, ice cream man Jamie Campbell captained the vessel – helpfully dubbed HMS Flake 99.

It has a top speed of five knots on water and has chimes that play the opening bars of Rod Stewart ‘s crooning classic ‘We Are Sailing’.

 

Battersea Power Station gets a look at the ice cream van (PA)

Owners Fredericks, makers of Cadbury’s ice cream, said they have big plans for their rather unusual creation.

‘We are considering taking the remarkable vehicle across the Channel and onto the canals of Venice to champion Britain’s beaches and give our continental cousins the ultimate taste of the British summertime,’ the unnecessarily triumphant PR blurb said.

 

The HMS Flake 99 passes the Houses of Parliament (PA)

There appears to be no evidence whatsoever that Mr Campbell sold any ice creams while on the Thames, so we suspect his business model could sink without a trace before long.

National Ice Cream Week ends on Sunday June 5th.

It is an embarrassing scenario for many in a social situation but British scientists have offered a potential explanation into why we forget people's names but remember them hours later.

Scientists have offered a potential explanation into why we forget people's names but remember them hours later Photo: Alamy

By Andrew Hough10:00AM BST 22 Apr 2013

Neuroscientists found that memories in all animals can be recalled several hours after learning them despite being forgotten for brief periods of time after being formed.

While it is not fully understood why such lapses occur, it is thought to be a necessary part of the brain's ability to consolidate long-term memories.

University of Sussex researchers discovered that causing a disturbance during these memory lapses disrupts the process and appears to prevent the memories from being formed.

Their study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, may offer reasons why such a phenomenon has left many of us feeling red-faced and rude.

“Scientists have long wondered why the brain shows these memory lapses,” Dr Ildiko Kemenes, who led the study.

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"Here we showed that lapses in memory coincide with periods when consolidation of memory is susceptible to disturbances from outside the memory network.

"Changes in the molecular pathways underlying consolidation are responsible for these periods of vulnerability."

In their study, the researchers introduced snails to an unfamiliar substance during feeding so that the animals would learn to recognise it as food.

When they were fed later, scientists found the snails responded to the stimulus, with memory lapses after 30 minutes and two hours, before the memory became consolidated at about four hours.

But if the snail received another different stimulus during the memory-lapse periods, the memory consolidation became disrupted, it was discovered.

Dr Kemenes added: "Memory formation is an energy-consuming process. The brain would need to decide if it was worth expending energy for the consolidation of that particular memory.

"The brain has a restricted capacity to learn things and preventing some memory formation would be a way to avoid overload."

The next stage of the study, titled Susceptibility of memory consolidation during lapse in recall, will investigate what happens to the brain during the memory disruption.