The Quasi-adjective Couple

The Quasi-adjective Couple The Quasi-adjective Couple The Quasi-adjective Couple By Maeve Maddox Many English speakers cringe to hear the following construction: Jack has a couple tickets for the play. Counting myself among the cringers, I prefer the standard construction: Jack has a couple of tickets for the play. I prefer the latter usage because I cant accept couple as an adjective describing tickets. To me the dropped of comes across as slovenly speech. As a noun couple means a union of two. It had its origin as a hunting term for a leash for holding two hounds together. In modern usage it often means a man and woman united by love or marriage. Well, now it can also mean a man and man or a woman and a woman etc. As a verb couple means to tie or fasten together in pairs, or to join or connect in any way. The OED offers two main entries for couple, one as noun and one as a verb. The adjectival use is noted under the noun entry: quasi-adj. a couple more (..), two more (colloq.). All of the OED examples given for this colloquial use of couple are used with the word more: Just you hang on for a couple minutes more a couple more cops to hold them at a decent distance I wonder if I could dictate a couple more letters Its going to be a couple more months..before we decide what to do. The dropping of the of in expressions in which couple is followed by a word other than more is described as a U.S. colloquialism. The spelling coupla is also documented and given an entry as a U.S. colloquial form of couple of. One of the examples is from the writing of English writer Dorothy Sayers: 1934 Nine Tailors III. II. 276 Hed had nothing to eat..for a coupla days. It seems to me that the spelling coupla has a certain merit. At least it sounds like an adjective, whereas a couple tickets just sounds incorrect. Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats couple as a genuine adjective meaning two and gives the examples a couple more oaths and a couple nights ago. If couple in these examples means two, I wonder why the article a would be necessary: a two more oaths; a two nights ago. No amount of carping will alter the fact that the a couple tickets construction is here to stay, but you wont catch me using it. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should Know15 Types of DocumentsDealing With A Character's Internal Thoughts

Use Bond Energies to Find Enthalpy Change

Use Bond Energies to Find Enthalpy Change You can use bond energies to find the enthalpy change of a chemical reaction. This example problem shows what to do: Review You may wish to review the Laws of Thermochemistry and Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions before you begin. A table of single bond energies is available to help you. Enthalpy Change Problem Estimate the change in enthalpy, ΔH, for the following reaction: H2 (g) Cl2 (g) → 2 HCl (g) Solution To work this problem, think of the reaction in terms of simple steps: Step 1 The reactant molecules, H2 and Cl2, break down into their atoms H2(g) → 2 H(g)Cl2(g) → 2 Cl(g) Step 2 These atoms combine to form HCl molecules 2 H (g) 2 Cl (g) → 2 HCl (g) In the first step, the H-H and Cl-Cl bonds are broken. In both cases, one mole of bonds is broken. When we look up the single bond energies for the H-H and Cl-Cl bonds, we find them to be 436 kJ/mol and 243 kJ/mol, therefore for the first step of the reaction:​ ΔH1 (436 kJ 243 kJ) 679 kJ Bond breaking requires energy, so we expect the value for ΔH to be positive for this step.In the second step of the reaction, two moles of H-Cl bonds are formed. Bond breaking liberates energy, so we expect the ΔH for this portion of the reaction to have a negative value. Using the table, the single bond energy for one mole of H-Cl bonds is found to be 431 kJ: ΔH2 -2(431 kJ) -862 kJ By applying Hesss Law, ΔH ΔH1 ΔH2 ΔH 679 kJ - 862 kJΔH -183 kJ Answer The enthalpy change for the reaction will be ΔH -183 kJ.

The impacts of EU Policy on Sustainable Energy Essay

The impacts of EU Policy on Sustainable Energy - Essay Example The European Union has recognised the citizens of the member countries need to be responsible and generate a reliable supply of sustainable energy which is also cheaper to afford so that the living standards are maintained. Furthermore the union also advocates for the reduction of the negative effects of the fossil fuels on the climate and the regional environment at large. The EU policies are designed to create a competitive internal energy market that would offer quality and cheaper services. This would mean that there would be enhanced development of renewable energy sources and cut down reliance on imported energy sources. The European Union has targeted to use features that address energy education, conservation of energy, environment resource protection, energy policies, renewable energy, and distribution of energy (Mcgowan & Mansell 1992), dissemination of useful information and maintainability of energy from producers to consumers. The sustainable energy addressed includes solar power, wind power, geothermal power, tidal power, bio-fuels and wave power. Nuclear fission is some times included but it usually presents the risk of disposal problems and peak uranium levels (Haughton & Counsell 2004). The EU has The EU has not been taking the energy conservation as a serious issue until the approval of the European Energy Policy in the year 2005 in London. EU had to come up with a strategy to fund the research to exploit sustainable energy. The seventh frame program (FP7) was formed to finance the research that is underway from 2007 to 2013. The FP7 fell short of the main intention of its formation and is currently also funding Fusion research which will not achieve results on the climate change until beyond the year 2050 (Lovegrove & Dennis 2006). Currently the strategic energy technology plan is in the lead and has put up plans for the EU technology procedure to develop and enhance the use of low carbon energy technologies. Some of the initiatives in the SET plan include the European Wind Initiative where turbine s will be used to generate energy. This is dependable on the daily whether variations though it can be used to provide base load electricity together with tidal wave energy. The European solar Initiative is also another type of energy that is dependent on whether and can be stored in water as heat, thermo-chemicals as ammonia and in rocks (Lovegrove & Dennis 2006). European also works under the carbon dioxide, transport and storage initiative to address the requirements of safe production of the energy implying that there should be zero emission, the sustainable nuclear fission is very important and has been put under way so that the generation of the type IV reactors are achieved. Energy Research The European Union has established an energy research alliance to facilitate the capabilities of the EU energy research which would achieve world class performance thorough sharing of the global facilities. This strategy will be the major driving force to achieve low carbon technologies and help reduce global warming. The research alliance is the chief player in development of the new energies to ensure that European Union achieves the low carbon

Social Care Policies in Global Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Care Policies in Global Society - Essay Example The ageing of the population poses a remarkable challenge to all European welfare states and here the question of care becomes fundamental. Also the many changes taking place in family structures e.g., the increasing divorce rate, the growing number of children born out of marriage, the decreasing proportion of older people living together with their children, all generate new social assemblage where care has to be arranged in new ways. The high participation of women in paid work has contributed to changing care from 'just a women's business' to a major issue of public social policies. A functioning labor market presupposes functioning care arrangements. Even if a welfare state does not itself directly supply a broad variety and coverage of care services, it still remains responsible for providing the required support and guiding to enable families, voluntary and commercial organizations to provide the care that is needed.( Thomas ,1993)(1) Recently, it has become widely recognized that social care policies affect in various field of life of the people -children, family, workers, elderly people, disables, health of the people, education etc -whether it is globally or it is related to the particular countries. Wherever they exist, flexible care services are a major support for the reconciliation of work and family responsibilities. Under these circumstances, we shall analyse some of the fields where the social care policies applied by the government of UK and also we shall scrutinize how these policies differ from other European countries. To better understand, we shall take up the European country of Sweden to compare with UK.   Child care and Fostering   In Europe it is considered that the major cross-national differences are related to the extensiveness of the public sector role; the predominance of the education, health and social welfare systems in delivering the services; the proportion of children of different ages served by these programs; whether services are limited to the children of workingmothers; and the quality of the childcare provided. (Kamerman (1991, 180),).   

Topic selection and statement of problem Assignment

Topic selection and statement of problem - Assignment Example ystem can be defined as a personnel system applied in the process of hiring and promoting government employees based on merit to obtain the highest efficiency in public personnel functions. The application of the merit system in the public education sector has brought about unending controversies especially with the merit pay issue. The merit pay systems emphasizes on the fact that teachers are to be paid for their achievement in the classroom as opposed to their seniority or the number of ed-school credits that they have collected as it has been done from the 1920s period. Reformers in the education system including the government have emphasized that the merit pay will encourage high performing teachers to do well and drive the lazy ones away, thereby improving the performance of public schools. However, teachers’ unions have continually opposed the move stating that there is no objective way of measuring the classroom performance of a teacher. In addition to this, opposing views have pointed to the fact that the merit pay system has a high chance of failing especially because of issues of supervisor bias or favoritism (Gratz, 2009). The merit pay has proven to be productive especially in the private sector where it has been applied since the 1980s. The growth of international economic competition made U.S. corporations to measure indicial worker performance and introduced pay incentives based on work output to motivate employees to perform better. This practice has gone on up to the present day where new performance criteria have been implemented with multi-faceted compensation plans for the highly performing employees (Ritter & Barnett,  2013). The public education monopoly has resisted the merit pay proposal because of the fears that it may lead to biases and unfair treatment of teachers. However, pilot studies carried out, such as those done in Cincinnati’s public school system have proven successful. The merit pay system is relevant for the study of

Current Even Topic on the Current USA Market & How it May Affect Term Paper

Current Even Topic on the Current USA Market & How it May Affect Students & Other Cultures Around the World - Term Paper Example Students typically enjoyed the use of new and innovative products and participated in the new revolution which has revolutionized the world. What is critical about these technological innovations is the fact that they have radically changed the culture of not only US but of other countries also. By redefining the way personal computers and internet is used, Steve Jobs was able to drastically change the way we now interact with the technology. Such an unprecedented achievement therefore requires special attention and treatment because the loss of Steve Jobs is not only the loss of a visionary business leader but also of a great personality who have propelled the society in an entirely new direction. This paper will therefore discuss the news of Steve Jobs Death and how this death might have an impact on the students as well as other cultures of the world. Steve Jobs- a Brief Introduction Steve Jobs was born on 24th Feb 1955 in San Francisco, California and died on 5th Oct 2011 after h is long battle with cancer. He was the chief executive officer and co-founder of American company Apple Inc. He along with Steve Woznaik successfully developed and marketed one of the earliest commercially produced brands of personal computers. They were both also behind the invention of the graphical user interface for the operating system to be run on any personal computer besides developing a device called Mouse for clicking the GUI icons. Steve Jobs however shot to the fame when he re-took the charge of Apple Computers and completely revamped and revived what was a dying company. His business style was considered as that of a perfectionist because he always wanted his firm and products to be at the forefront of the competition. It was this quest for perfection which has ultimately resulted into the development of some of the best products in the market. (POTTER, CURRY and JAMES) Most notable products of Apple include a portable music and video player with the name of IPOD which could not only play the music on the go but can also play videos. His second most notable innovation and product development was the creation of a smart phone with the name of Apple IPHONE. This smart phone became an overnight sensation as based on touch screen technology; this phone has been sold in millions. Lastly, Apple’s major product rolled out was a touch screen tablet computer with the name of Apple IPAD. Steve Jobs’s death and impact on students and other cultures One of the key features of these products is based on the fact that these products have related allowed the freedom to the young students and consumers. The music, videos and internet surfing on the go has allowed a much needed freedom to everyone because it has made people to shy away from the use of desktop computers and use mobile computers and devices. Due to this change a relatively new breed of consumers emerged – mostly students- which found a new level of freedom. Traditionally music o r videos could be listened to or seen while using a desktop PC or other audio and video devices however, the rolling out of the Apple IPOD has traditionally changed the way we used to listen to music or videos. Apart from this, these products were relatively cheaper and came with different varieties thus adding to the overall choice of the students. These products were designed in such a manner that they allowed almost everyone with

Week 12 - reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 12 - reflection paper - Essay Example Another lesson I learnt is the need of engaging all the stakeholders of an organization into the management of its affairs. This is because it is important to collaborate in order to ensure that the policies of the organization are met. These stakeholders are the investors, the employees, partners of the organization, and regular clients of the organization. Due to this, I managed to acquire skills that gave me the capability to open a decorative company. For instance, my role in the formation of the company was to conduct market research, and identify the various needs of customers in relation to decorating their homes. In the formation of this company, I realized the need of consultations with my fellow investors for purposes of developing a policy that would effectively address the needs of the customers that I interviewed. On this basis therefore, I would give myself grade A. This is because I managed to apply the lessons I learnt from class, by forming a