Fun with Phrasal Verbs

Fun With Phrasal Verbs from Janet Bianchini

Longman English Practice for Intermediate Students by L.G.Alexander

 

78982085 Longman English Grammar Practice for Intermediate Students

English Vocabulary in Use. Pre Int & Int 2nd Edition

English Vocabulary in Use

Test Your English Vocabulary in Use. Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate by Stuart Redman and Ruth Gairns

Test Your English Vocabulary in Use PRE-Intermediate & Intermediate

Phrasal Verbs in Use by Michael McCarthy & Felicity O'Dell

Phrasal Verbs in Use

German Commercial

Funny commercial for Berlitz showing why you should improve your language skills...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f_FFaOya5Nw

PHILADELPHIA - Background Information

What is the difference between HIV and AIDS?

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS. This virus severely damages the immune system by infecting and destroying certain white blood cells. HIV is passed from person to person via blood, semen or mucous membranes. Pregnant women may pass HIV to their baby during pregnancy, delivery or breast feeding. Some people will develop AIDS as a result of their HIV infection. An HIV positive test result does not mean a person has AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is developed after a person has been in contact with HIV. AIDS is a collection of infections and cancers that people with HIV might develop. AIDS weakens the immune system making it difficult for a person to fight illness. If a person gets one of these infections or cancers after they are HIV+ they are said to have AIDS. Many of these infections that cause AIDS are harmless to a healthy immune system.

How is HIV/AIDS transmitted? Does HIV/AIDS only affect certain types of people?

HIV/AIDS can infect anyone regardless of age, race or sexual preference.

Transmission People can contract HIV in multiple ways.
o Unprotected sex with an infected person
o Sharing a needle with someone who uses intravenous drugs
o Transmission from a mother to her unborn fetus

However, you cannot get HIV through daily social contact such as:
o Hugging
o Shaking hands
o Sharing a swimming pool or toilet
o Coughing sneezing, tears or insect bites
People living with HIV/AIDS, to varying degrees, are stigmatized throughout the world. What is the root cause of discrimination? Why do you think people who have HIV/AIDS suffer from discrimination?
Discrimination is to make a distinction between people on the basis of a class or category (i.e. gender, race, ethnic origin, religion, socio-economic status, sexual preference) without regard to individual merit. HIV/AIDS discrimination is the unfair treatment of people who may or may not be infected with HIV/AIDS or be associated with people who are considered likely to contract HIV. Discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS exists because of a lack of information. Fear tends to come from wrong information about this epidemic.

Useful vocabulary:

Epidemic, Discrimination, Vaccine, Human Rights, Discrimination, Developing World, Poverty, homosexuality, homosexual, gay/s, prostitution, prostitute, condom
Technology, Survival, Fairness, Defense/Protection, Epidemic,
Public Health, Acceptance/
Rejection, International
Cooperation, Collaboration, International Law,
Civil Society, NGOs (non-
governmental organizations)

PHILADELPHIA - Questionaire

1. What reason did Charles Wheeler and his partners give on why Andrew was fired?
He misplaced an important complaint. Of course he was fired for having AIDS, but there was no way Wheeler and his partners would admit that.

2. Was Joe Miller the first lawyer Andrew went to for representation?
No, Andrew went to nine other lawyers.

3. When did Andrew start working for the firm?
He was recruited when he graduated from law school.

4. Before Andrew walked into Joe's office, what was Joe talking to his first client about?
The client fell in a hole on the street. The first client had a broken arm and was seeing how much he could collect.

5. Why was Joe reluctant at first to take Andrew's case?
He says that because he couldn’t ‘see ’a case but in fact it was because he was homophobic.

6. When did Joe Miller change his mind?
When he realized a crime was committed and his wife reminded him she had relatives who were gay and when at the library he saw how Andrew was being discriminated.

7. How did the firm find out that Andrew had AIDS?
He had a lesion on his forehead.

8. What did Andrew say about it?
Andrew said the lesion was from when he got hit with a racquetball.

9. When Joe delivered the summons, what famous basketball player were Wheeler and his partners talking to?
Julius Erving (Dr. J).
10. What did Joe tell the sportsman?
Joe told him if he's ever injured, give him a call.

11. How long did it take to bring the case to court?
7 months. Joe made his opening statement about how wrong it was to fire an employee for having an illness.

12. What analogy was Joe using when Mr. Laird said Andrew's performance went from satisfactory to mediocre?
The baloney sandwich / caviar one.
He was questioning that Andrew's performance was like caviar seven months before his dismissal and then it was like a baloney sandwich. He also asked them to explain it to him like he was a 4 year-old.

13. What happened when Joe went inside the drug store?
A gay pre-law student attempted to pick him up. The football player assumed that because Joe was representing a gay client that he was gay himself.

14. Why did Andrew think his partner, Miguel, was upset with him while giving him his home treatment?
Miguel was worried they didn't have much time left.Andrew decided then to start his memorial. Miguel told him to think about it but Andrew was adamant.

12. What did Joe tell Andrew he prayed for?
His baby girl was healthy (This was when they were going over the Question/Answer sheet at Andrew’s place)

13. What made Andrew think he was an excellent lawyer?
He knew and loved the law
When Joe was cross-examining Andrew, Andrew said, "I know the law, I love the law, I excel at the law

14. Who was Joe cross-examining when Andrew collapsed?
Mr. Wheeler. This was after he asked Andrew to show the court the lesions on his stomach.

15. After winning the case, how much money was Andrew awarded altogether? $5,025,000. $143,000 for back pay and loss of benefits. $100,000 for mental anguish and humiliation. $4,782,000 for punitive damages.

PHILADELPHIA - Summary plot

The book tells the story of Andrew Beckett, an easygoing homosexual senior associate at the largest corporate law firm in Philadelphia. Although he lives with his partner Miguel Alvarez , Beckett hides his homosexuality and his status as a person living with AIDS from the other members of the law firm.

On the day he is assigned the firm's newest and most important case, a partner in the firm notices a small lesion on Beckett's forehead. Although he attributes the lesion to a racquetball injury, it is actually due to Kaposi's Sarcoma, a form of cancer marked by multiple tumors on the lymph nodes and skin.

Shortly thereafter, Beckett stays home from work for several days to try to find a way to hide his lesions.

While at home, he finishes the paperwork for the case he has been assigned and then brings it to his office, leaving instructions for his assistants to file the paperwork on the following day, which marks the end of the statute of limitations for the case. Later that morning, he receives a frantic call asking for the paperwork, as the paper copy cannot be found and there are no copies on the computer's hard drive. However, the paperwork is finally discovered in an alternate location and is filed with the court at the last possible moment.

The following day, Beckett is dismissed by the firm's partners, who had previously referred to him as their "friend."
Beckett believes that someone hid his paperwork on purpose to give the firm an excuse to fire him, and that in fact he was fired because of his disease. He asks several attorneys to take his case, including personal injury lawyer Joe Miller , whom he had been involved with in a previous case.

Miller is homophobe and knows little about Beckett's disease. After declining to take the case, Miller immediately visits his doctor to find out if he could have contracted the disease through shaking Beckett's hand. The doctor explains the methods of AIDS infection.

Unable to find a lawyer willing to represent him, Beckett has to act as his own attorney. While researching a case at a law library, Miller sees Beckett at a nearby table. After a librarian announces that he has found a book on AIDS discrimination for Beckett, others in the library begin to first stare and then move away, and the librarian suggests Beckett retire to a private room. Disgusted by their behavior, Miller approaches Beckett, reviews the material he has gathered, and tells him that he will take the case.

Upon receiving a summons by Miller, the head of the firm worries about the damage the lawsuit could do to his business and reputation, although one associate unsuccessfully tries to convince them to settle out of court with Beckett.

As the case goes before the court, the partners of the firm take the stand, each committing perjury by claiming that Beckett was incompetent and that he had deliberately tried to hide his condition. The defense repeatedly suggests that Beckett had invited his illness through his homosexual acts and was therefore not a victim. In the course of testimony, it is revealed that the partner who had noticed Beckett's lesion had previously worked with a woman who had contracted AIDS after a blood transfusion and so should have recognized the lesion as relating to AIDS. According to that partner, the woman was an innocent victim, unlike Beckett, and further testified that he did not recognize Beckett's lesions.

To prove that the lesions would have been visible, Miller asks Beckett to unbutton his shirt while on the witness stand, revealing that his lesions were indeed visible and recognizable as such.
During cross-examination, Beckett is confronted with his inactions of concealing his illness, his supposed incompetence, and the origin of his contracting AIDS; the latter of which has gone unexplained to everyone, including Miguel, until this point. He admits that he was originally planning to tell his partners that he was gay, but he soon changed his mind after hearing them make off-colour homophobic jokes in the sauna of a health club.

When asked about the truth of how he got infected, he confirms that he engaged in anonymous sex with another man at a pornographic movie theatre. However, he and Miller gain an advantage when the one member of the firm who suggested settling out of court confesses he knew Beckett had AIDS but never said anything, and how he regrets his inaction.

Beckett eventually collapses in court shortly after finishing cross-examination. During his hospitalization, the jury votes in his favor, awarding him back pay, damages for pain and suffering, and punitive damages.

Miller visits the visibly failing Beckett in the hospital after the verdict and overcomes his fear enough to touch Beckett's face. After Beckett's family leaves the room, he tells Miguel that he is ready to die. Immediately afterwards Miller gets the word that Beckett has passed away. The ends with a reception at Beckett's home following the funeral, where many mourners, including the Millers, view home movies of Beckett as a healthy child.