The Learn Bytes

Reading Comprehension Instruction: Read the passage below and answer the questions. “Something is very wrong,” says the detective. “I know!” says Ms. Gervis. “It is wrong that someone has stolen from me!” The detective looks around Ms. Gervis’ apartment. “That is not what I am talking about, ma’am. What is wrong is that I do not understand how the robber got in and out.” Ms. Gervis and the detective stand in silence. Ms. Gervis’ eyes are full of tears. Her hands are shaking. “The robber did not come through the window,” says the detective. “These windows have not been opened or shut in months.” The detective looks at the fireplace. “The robber did not squeeze down here.” The detective walks to the front door. He examines the latch. “And since there are no marks or scratches, the robber definitely did not try to break the lock.” “I have no idea how he did it,” says a bothered Ms. Gervis. “It is a big mystery .” “And you say the robber stole nothing else?” asks the detective. ...

Irregular Verbs Instruction: Choose the correct form of the verb in the following sentences. 1) She always (put, puts, putted) lots of cream in her coffee. 2) He (hit, hits, hitted) his head last night. 3) His head (hurt, hurts, hurted) after he hit it. 4) The children (play, plays, played) soccer last weekend. 5) The arsonist (set, sets, setted) fire to several houses in our neighborhood last year. 6) The door is (shut, shuts, shutted). 7) The audience (laugh, laughs, laughed) at the joke. 8) My father (split, splits, splitted) lots of wood so that we could make a fire. 9) The chef has (bake, bakes, baked) three wedding cakes. 10) The trip is (plan, plans, planned). 11) I have never (like, likes, liked) chocolate. 12) The boy (touch, touches, touched) the painting while it was still wet. 13) My mother (let, lets, letted) me stay up late last night. 14) The kitten (try, tries, tried) to drink the milk every time I eat cereal. 15) The men (bet, bets...

Reading Comprehension Instruction: Read the passage below and answer questions. Canopy of Nature Dad decided last Sunday that we should all go on a camping trip. He read an article in the Sunday paper about camping and how it “brings families together under the canopy of nature.” “Overrated,” I joked. “What about the canopy of television or the canopy of restaurant food?” “This will be good for us,” Dad said, sliding the magazine across the coffee table. “Let’s go next weekend.” I shot a quick look over at my little brother, Paul. He gave me a slow eyebrow raise which meant, “This will probably not go off completely as planned.” My smile back said, "But it will surely be fun." I started to think back. Once Dad decided we should all learn how to canoe. We borrowed two canoes from our friends, hoisted them on the van and drove for three hours to a secluded lake in Virginia. Alone in the middle of nowhere, we discovered that we had forgotten the paddles. Paul and I ...

Spot the Error Instruction: Read the passage below. Then answer questions about errors in the passage. Marta is a 1) sophomore college . She is working on a degree in Special Education. She works as a camp 2) counsillor every summer. The camp is a special camp for children with 3) physical and mental disadvantages . Marta helps the kids get exercise and 4) make better their social skills. She takes the kids swimming every afternoon in the summer. 5) They goes bowl once a week. The children really 6) like the camping out in tents. Marta 7) always have wanted work with kids with disabilities. 8) She is looking forward to a career in Special Education. 1)                                                     ...

Professional Skills Instruction: Read the paragraph below and prepare a to-do list of the skills you need in a 21 st century workplace. We need to develop all kinds of skills to survive in the 21 st century. Some, like ICT skills and knowledge of the digital world, are taught explicitly in schools in the UK. Here are some less obvious ones for you to think about. These are the sorts of skills that employers may ask you questions about in interviews so it’s a good idea to think about how good you are in these areas. What are your strengths and weaknesses? In the age of technology that we are living in now, it is no longer enough to keep on making the same products. Employers need people who can imagine new approaches and new ideas. Think of an object or gadget you use every day. How could it be improved? Can you think of some improvements? Next, employers will value workers who are able to see problems before they happen and come up with creative solutions. Imagine you are or...

Critical Analysis Instruction: Read the website review and list its pros and cons. One of my favourite websites is lyricstraining.com. It’s great because you can learn English while you listen to your favourite songs. You choose a song and then listen to the song and complete the lyrics. You can also watch the video of the song. The good points include the fact that there are lots of up-to-date groups you can listen to such as The Script or One Direction. In addition, you can choose the level: beginner, intermediate or expert, depending on your level of English. Another good feature is that you can repeat a line of the song as often as you want, until you know the missing word. Also, the website is very easy to navigate and you can listen to songs in different languages, for instance, Spanish, German or Italian. One of the drawbacks is that some songs are not on the website. Another bad point is that there is a lot of advertising on the website. However, you can just ignore it...

Critical Thinking Instruction: Give an appropriate title to the story and write the end of the story in maximum 10-15 sentences. Use your imagination! It was Syahirah’s 20 th birthday and she was looking forward to seeing her friends. They were supposed to meet at Mamma Mia’s, her favourite Italian restaurant, for a special birthday dinner. Syahirah was excited and got to the restaurant at exactly 7 o’clock, the time they had decided to meet. She looked around for a familiar face, but no one had arrived yet. So she decided to wait outside and stood patiently in the warm evening sunshine. The restaurant quickly filled up with customers, but none of them were Syahirah’s friends. “Where are they?” she thought. At half past seven she was still waiting, so she called her best friend Nabilah but didn't get any response. “Why doesn’t she answer the phone?” Syahirah asked herself. Then she called Harris, Alan and Norita, but they didn’t answer either. “What’...

Data Collection and Organization Instruction: List the information on flamenco dance from the paragraph below. The world of flamenco interests me greatly. That is why I decided to find out more about it, to discover more about where it comes from. Flamenco is originally from Andalusia, a region in southern Spain. It was originally the dance of Spanish gypsies who came to southern Spain through Iran, Iraq, Greece and Turkey. The gypsies used all of these different cultures to create the flamenco dance and music. The gypsies were very different from the Spaniards. They spoke not Castilian but their own language. Their clothes were also different, and for these reasons Spanish society tried to reject them. The gypsies used Moorish, Jewish and African influences to form flamenco. Flamenco music often sounds sorrowful, reflecting the hard lives of the gypsies who had to do manual work to get by. The roots of flamenco therefore lead us back to lives of hardship and sadness. However,...

Problem Solving Instruction: Identify and list all dos and don’ts of customer handling situations from the conversation below. Customer:  Good morning. I purchased a computer from your company last month. Unfortunately, I'm not satisfied with my new computer. I'm having a lot of problems. Customer Care Representative: What seems to be the problem? Customer: I'm having problems with my Internet connection, as well as repeated crashes when I try to run my word-processing software. Customer Care Representative: Did you read the instructions that came with the computer? Customer: Well, yes. But the troubleshooting section was no help. Customer Care Representative: What happened exactly? Customer:  Well, the Internet connection doesn't work. I think the modem is broken. I'd like a replacement. Customer Care Representative: How were you using the computer when you tried to connect to the Internet? Customer: I was trying to connect to the Internet! W...

Tense Instruction: Identify and list all the types and sub-types of tenses from the conversation below. Rich: Hi, my name's Rich. What's your name? Peter: How do you do. My name's Peter. Rich: Nice to meet you. I'm from the United States and I live in San Diego in California. Where are you from? Peter: I'm from Cologne, Germany. What's your job? Rich: I'm a teacher and I work online every day. What do you do? Peter: That's interesting. I'm a bank teller. What do you like doing in your free time? Rich: I like playing golf and tennis in my free time. How about you? Peter: I enjoy reading and hiking on the weekends. What are you doing now? Rich: At the moment, I'm working on my web site. What are you doing right now? Peter: I'm having a conversation with you! Why are you tired? Rich: I'm tired today because I got up early. I usually get up at six o'clock. When do you usually get up? Peter: I usu...

Storytelling Learning through storytelling is fun, interesting, interactive and enlightening too! Storytelling can be included in language learning to meet the following objectives: To learn the appropriate use of grammatical elements To practice appropriate stylistics and other linguistic elements To improve language proficiency - mainly writing - in social, professional as well as creative ways Here is an exercise for you to hone up your skills, knowledge and proficiency on the above. Main characters Aliyah, David, Harris and Samaira (They are Engineering/Management students and best of friends) Instruction: This is a group activity. The starting lines of the story are provided, which learners groups have to develop using their own imagination, vocabulary skills, and of course the grammatical elements mentioned below so that each week the story develops with its own twists and turns to a fine and interesting ending. Each group must have at least one p...