It is July, the season of separation, thinking for the future, and decision making. But, it is also the holiday season. Let's enjoy the sunshine, relaxed and enojoy ourselves!!!

 

Noticed many people on my MSn talking about their future, career, changing jobs, setting goals for the life.... Too many tough questions which no one can really give the right answers to. Try not to think too hard, and  do not forget to enjoy the summer!!!

 

I am trying not to do too many things but concentrate on my project at the moment. Hoping to get a distinction for the MSc.

 

As for the future after graduation. I decided to stay in UK for one more year after I graduate in the Sep. The updated science and engineering graduate scheme put CS on the list, guess I will stay here for one more year at least. But do not know where I will be based yet. Always too many options in our life, and you will never know which one will work out the best for you.

 

Well, I will just think less and do more! Need to get some project work done. Will try to make my project published!

 

Probably, you can tell my mind if not very clear, I might have too much in my mind as well at the season of though! : )

 

Good luck to all my friends with your future.Hope you will work out a best way for yourself in your life. Cheer up! I might ignored many old friends for long time as I have been busy with my life in Lboro. Keep in touch!!!

 

 

 If something is 'well and truly stuck' you really can not move it. So for example if your car breaks down and you try to push it and it won't move it may be well and truly stuck. So 'well and truly' here means absolutely stuck, you can't move it. And really when we say something is well and truly stuck it shows that we are actually a little bit frustrated or we really aren't very happy about the fact that we can't move it. So for example if I come home and I want to have a biscuit and I look in the biscuit tin and there are none there I can say 'well they are well and truly finished'.

However 'well and truly' is a very difficult phrase to use because it doesn’t go with lots and lots of different adjectives. If you were to say the words 'well and truly' to someone in Britain they would imagine that the next word would be stuck. 'Well and truly' is an adverbial phrase to describe the adjective stuck. And they just go together.

There are no clear rules to for why certain adverbs go with certain adjectives, they just do. So, for example, if you say to someone in Britain the adverb – 'stunningly' – the adjective they're most likely to think of is 'beautiful'. These are what we call fixed phrases. They're phrases which just go together, they collocate – co locate – they go together. It's not just adverbs and adjectives which go together in this way. We often find nouns and nouns go together. So for example 'fish and …. chips'. Or adjectives and nouns, for example we can say - 'heavy smoker', someone who smokes a lot, or 'heavy drinker' someone who drinks a lot. But someone who eats a lot? No it's not a 'heavy eater' it's a 'big eater'. Basically these phrases which go together form patterns, there are no real rules to learn. You just have to be able to work out what the patterns are.

So how do you learn these phrases which go together? Well the two best things you can do are to read and to listen. When you're reading a newspaper or a book try to work out phrases that you see coming up more than once. If you see a phrase which goes together maybe two or three times then you can think 'mmm I think those go together, I think those collocate.'

And similarly if you're listening to the radio, when you're listening to the BBC World Service if you hear the phrase two or three times, make a note of it, because then you know 'mmm this is a collocation, this is a phrase which goes together.'