English

Everyone makes mistakes

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Sarah:

Fatima:

Sarah:

Fatima:

Sarah:

Fatima:

Sarah:

Fatima:

Sarah:

Fatima:

Sarah:

What did you do on Thursday night?My family took me out because I graduated.Oh no! I forgot that you graduated last week. I'm so sorry!Why?I should have gotten you something for the occasion. I should have at least called you. Don't worry about. it It's no big deal.No big deal? Of course, it's a big deal. It was your graduation. I don't know how I forgot about it. Come to think of it, I was so focused on studying for final exams, your graduation must have just slipped my mind. I feel awful about it. Can you forgive me?You're making too much of it. Forget about it. Anyway, you were studying for finals. That's a good excuse. Don't sweat it.But I feel like such a flake.No more apologies! You're making me wish I hadn't mentioned it to you. Sorry!

Conversation

(no) big deal = (not) something of great importanceSlip (one's) mind = forget about somethingMake too much of (something) = exaggerate the importance of something Don't sweat it = don't worry about itFlake = irresponsible person

Real talk

Fatima thinks that Sarah is making too much of it and that she should forget about it.

She was focused on studying for her final exams that the graduation must have just slipped her mind.

Because she forgot about Fatima's graduation and she regrets not getting Fatima a gift or giving her a call.

About the conversation

1. why is Sarah apologizing ?2. What is Sarah's excuse ?3. What is Fatima's response to Sarah's apologies ?

Apologizing

Responding to an apology

Don't sweat it.Don't worry about it.Forget about it.It's no big deal.That's ok.

Can you forgive me?I feel awful about this.I'm so sorry.I'm sorry. I should (not) have.......Please excuse me for.......

a. Found everywhereb. Harmc. A material that causes two materials to stick together d. Something done without thought, as is done by a machinee. Forgetful, distractedf. Thrown away

Vocabulary building

1. ....e....absent minded2. ....c...adhesive3. ....d...automatically 4. ....b...damage 5. ....f...discarded6. ....a...ubiquitous

Reading

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Happy Accidents

When we make a mistake, often our first instinct is to say, "oh no!" and to feel regret and maybe even embarrassment at our failure. But mistakes and accidents are not always a bad thing. In fact, they sometimes give rise to extraordinary ideas. In 1492, Christopher Columbus set out ot discover a new route to Asia. He did not reach Asia, but this failure resulted in his discovering the New World!There are many stories of such happy accidents throughout modern history. For example, one of the greatest medical discoveries of the 20th century was antibiotics, a kind of medication used to kill bacteria that cause disease. Since the discovery, antibiotics may have saved millions of lives.Yet, the discovery of the first antibiotic happened by accident.

In 1928, a Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming was researching a knid of bacteria called staphylococcus. He conducted experiments with the bacteria in dishes. Fleming was brilliant, but he was messy and absent-minded. When he left his laboratory to go on vacation, instead of cleaning up, he left the bacteria in the dishes. When he returned, he noticed that mold had grown in the dishes while he was gone. He could have just thrown the dishes away. Fortunately, instead, he looked at them under a microscope. Fleming found that the area around the mold was free of bacteria. He realized that the dangerous bacteria must have been dissolved by the mold. These dirty dishes led to the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic. Today, this life-saving drug is used around the world. Each year there are over 80 million prescriptions written for penicillin in the U.S alone!Not all lucky accidents have changed the way we live in dramatic ways. Some fortunate accidents have just made life a little more convenient. But many of these conveniences have become such a part of our everyday lives that we've come to take them for granted.

The discovery fo Velcro® is one such fortunate accident. One summer day in1948, a Swiss inventor named George de Mestral went for a hike. When he returned, he was covered in burrs-seed-sacs that cling to clothes. Nature designed burrs to do this in order to spread seeds to new areas. De Mestral became curious about how these burrs attached themselves to clothes and hair. He inspected one of the burrs from his pants under a microscope. He saw that it had countless tiny hooks that clung to the tiny loops in the fabric ofhis pants. This gave him the idea to design a new kind of fastener. The fastener would be made of two nylon strips, one side with stiff hooks like the burrs and the other side with loops like the fabric of his pants. His invention, Velcro, has since become ubiquitous. It can be found on everything from shoes to wallets to blood pressure cuffs to space shuttles.

Another modern invention we owe to a happy accident is Post-it Notes, those small pieces of notepaper that can be stuck and unstuck again and again. In 1970, Spencer Silver wasworking in a research laboratory, trying to create a strong adhesive. He created a new adhesive that stuck to objects, but it could also easily be lifted of them. Because the adhesive was so weak, Silver considered it a failure. He shouldn't have. A few years later, a co-worker of Silver's was looking in a book. He used scraps of paper to keep his place in the book, but the scraps kept falling out. Remembering Silver's invention, the co-worker put some of hte adhesive on the scraps. It was perfect! The scraps stayed in place, but came of easily so they didn't damage the book. Post-it Notes were introduced in 1980, and quickly became an essential office product around the world.All of these stories show that accidents are not always a bad thing, and that not all mistakes should automatically be discarded. Instead, perhaps we should take a closer look at our accidents and mistakes. They just may reveal the solutions to a problem, or pave the way to an extraordinary new idea.

After reading

1. T Mistakes sometimes lead to great new discoveries2. F Antibiotics have been in existence since the 1800s3. T The idea for Velcro came from nature 4. F Post-it notes have a strong adhesive

Answer true or false. Rewrite the false statements to make them true

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