READING NO. 9: 6 Career-Killing Facebook Mistakes

With more than 400 million active visitors, Facebook is arguably the most popular social networking site out there. And while the site is known for the casual social aspect, many users also use it as a professional networking tool. With that kind of reach, Facebook can be a valuable tool for connecting to former and current colleagues, clients and potential employers. In fact, surveys suggest that approximately 30% of employers are using Facebook to screen potential employees – even more than those who check LinkedIn, a strictly professional social networking site. Don't make these Facebook faux-pas – they might cost you a great opportunity.

1. Inappropriate Pictures
   It may go without saying, but prospective employers or clients don't want to see pictures of you chugging a bottle of wine or dressed up for a night at the bar. Beyond the pictures you wouldn't want your grandparents to see, seemingly innocent pictures of your personal life will likely not help to support the persona you want to present in your professional life.
2. Complaining About Your Current Job
   You've no doubt done this at least once. It could be a full note about how much you hate your office, or how incompetent your boss is, or it could be as innocent as a status update about how your coworker always shows up late. While everyone complains about work sometimes, doing so in a public forum where it can be found by others is not the best career move. Though it may seem innocent, it's not the kind of impression that sits well with a potential boss.
3. Posting Conflicting Information to Your Resume
   If you say on your resume that your degree is from Harvard, but your Facebook profile says you went to UCLA, you're likely to be immediately cut from the interview list. Even if the conflict doesn't leave you looking better on your resume, disparities will make you look at worst like a liar, and at best careless. (Social networking can also be used as its own job. Learn more in Make Money With Social Networking Sites.)
4. Statuses You Wouldn't Want Your Boss to See
   Everyone should know to avoid statuses like "Tom plans to call in sick tomorrow so he can get drunk on a Wednesday. Who cares that my big work project isn't done?" But you should also be aware of less flamboyant statuses like "Sarah is watching the gold medal hockey game online at her desk". Statuses that imply you are unreliable, deceitful, and basically anything that doesn't make you look as professional as you'd like, can seriously undermine your chances at landing that new job.
5. Not Understanding Your Security Settings
   The security settings on Facebook have come a long way since the site started. It is now possible to customize lists of friends and decide what each list can and cannot see. However, many people do not fully understand these settings, or don't bother to check who has access to what. If you are going to use Facebook professionally, and even if you aren't, make sure you take the time to go through your privacy options. At the very least, your profile should be set so that people who are not your friend cannot see any of your pictures or information. (These rules apply to Twitter as well, and you can also use Twitter to find a new job. Find out more in Tweet Your Way To A Sweet Job.)
6. Losing By Association
   You can't control what your friends post to your profile (although you can remove it once you see it), nor what they post to their own profiles or to those of mutual friends. If a potential client or employer sees those Friday night pictures your friend has tagged you in where he is falling down drunk, it reflects poorly on you, even if the picture of you is completely innocent. It's unfortunate, but we do judge others by the company they keep, at least to some extent. Take a look at everything connected to your profile, and keep an eye out for anything you wouldn't want to show your mother.

Facebook Can Help You Get Hired … Or Fired
The best advice is to lock down your personal profile so that only friends you approve can see anything on that profile. Then, create a second, public profile on Facebook purely for professional use. This profile functions like an online resume, and should only contain information you'd be comfortable telling your potential employer face to face. Having a social networking profile is a good thing – it presents you as technologically and professionally savvy. Just make sure your profile is helping to present your best side – not the side that got drunk at your buddy's New Year's party.

After reading the book, how many of these mistakes you can remember?

READING NO. 8: Effects of Global Warming

The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions. And the effects of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future. They’re happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move.

Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.

• Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
• Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
• Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
• Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
• Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.

Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.

• Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
• Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
• Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
• Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
• Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
• Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
• Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct. Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier. Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.

Source for climate information: IPCC, 2007

VOCABULARY

far-flung: /ˌfɑːˈflʌŋ/ US /ˌfɑːr-/ adj literary

describes places that are a great distance away, or something that is spread over a very large area

e.g. The news spread to all corners of our far-flung empire.

shifting (to shift):/ʃɪft/ v

• [I or T] to (cause something or someone to) move or change from one position or direction to another, especially slightly

She shifted (her weight) uneasily from one foot to the other.

The wind is expected to shift (to the east) tomorrow.

Media attention has shifted recently onto environmental issues.

• [T] mainly US to move the gears of a vehicle into different positions in order to make it go faster or slower

In cars that are automatics, you don't have to bother with shifting gears.

breeding: /ˈbriː.dɪŋ/ n [U]

• the keeping of animals or plants in order to breed from them

The family's business was horse-breeding.

We used to keep pigs for breeding purposes.

• when animals have sex and reproduce

The penguins' breeding season has begun.

bark: /bɑːk/ US /bɑːrk/ n

[U] the hard outer covering of a tree

boomed: /buːm/ v

[I] to increase or become successful and produce a lot of money very quickly

OFTEN in continuous tenses

The leisure industry is booming.

booming

adjective /ˈbuː.mɪŋ/

chewed: /tʃuː/ v [I or T]

• to crush food into smaller, softer pieces with the teeth so that it can be swallowed

This meat is difficult to chew.

You don't chew your food enough - that's why you get indigestion.

• to bite something with your teeth, usually in order to taste its flavour

Would you like some gum to chew?

She gave the children some sweets to chew (on) during the long car journey.

She sat in the dentist's waiting room, nervously chewing (at) (= biting) her nails.

out of sync: (in/out of sync)

If two things are in/out of sync, they reach the same or related stage at the same time/at different times.

bloom: /bluːm/ v [I]

When a flower blooms, it opens or is open, and when a plant or tree blooms it produces flowers

These flowers will bloom all through the summer.

droughts: /draʊt/ n [C or U]

a long period when there is little or no rain

This year (a) severe drought has ruined the crops.

cap: /kæp/ n [C]

• a small usually protective lid or cover

The camera has a lens cap to protect the lens surface.

• an artificial protective covering on a tooth

• a mass of ice and snow that permanently covers a large area of land (e.g., the polar regions or a mountain peak)

• a soft flat hat which has a curved part sticking out at the front, often worn as part of a uniform

• a thin hat that stops your hair getting wet when swimming or taking a shower

a shower/swimming cap

• UK a hat given to someone who plays for their national team in a particular sport, or a player who receives this

Davis has 17 Scottish caps (= has played for Scotland 17 times).

The team contains five international caps.

spread: /spred/ v [I or T] (spread, spread)

• to (cause to) cover, reach or have an effect on a wider or increasing area

The fire spread very rapidly because of the strong wind.

It started off as cancer of the liver but it spread to other areas of the body.

The redundancies are spread across the clothing, banking and building industries.

We spread the picnic rug out on the ground and sat down to eat.

The AIDS virus is spread (= given to other people) through contact with blood and other body fluids.

Are you spreading (= telling a lot of people) gossip/rumours again?

If we spread (= divide) the work between us, it won't seem so bad.

She spread her toast with a thick layer of butter./She spread a thick layer of butter on her toast.

It's a special sort of butter that spreads easily even when cold.

The suburbs spread (out) for miles to either side of the city.

Slowly a smile spread across her face.

skinnier (skinny): /ˈskɪn.i/ adj

• (mainly disapproving) very thin

You should eat more, you're much too skinny.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

1. What effects that are currently happening because of global warming can you remember?

2. What animals have been mentioned in the text?

3. How many effects of the global warming can you remember that may happen in this century?

4. How much will sea level rise?

5. How may polar bears be affected?

READING NO. 2: Who is Susan Boyle?

READING NO. 2

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READING NO. 1: The Secrets of Adam Khoo

In our session today, we will read about "success". Below you will find an interesting extract about someone who claims to know how to become successful in life. Click on the link and read the extract:

http://secretsofadamkhoo.com/

Let's know have a look at some new vocabulary:

To face (be facing) = having to deal with something, usually a problem

Work your socks off (idiomatic expressions) = You have to work so hard that your socks get too old

Debt = the "b" is not pronounced /det/

To be stuck = to be in one place and not to be able to move out

Underachiever = someone who is not successful but could be

Revenue = total amount of money a company makes

To walk one's talk (he walks his talk) = to act following what you say

To back it up = to support

paycheck = the money you get at the end of the month (salary)

Rat race = to be in a problem that never ends

Breakthrough = a salvation, a solution

To bounce back = what the ball does when you bounce it against the floor