Last Friday, after seven high school sophomores in a row had demonstrated that they could not utilize the concepts "same" and "different", I noticed that one of my Polish immigrant students was looking extremely depressed. I asked her why and she came over to my desk and said, "The kids in this school are stupid and this school is dumb." She has been in the U.S.A. for three years. She told me that Polish schools are far more rigorous. I mentioned that Polish immigrants have been coming to our area in large numbers for about twenty years and asked her if they had been writing to Poland explaining that the students are stupid and the schools are dumb. She said that such letters were sent to Poland regularly. I asked her why Polish people kept coming here with their children. She replied, "They never believe our letters." Cheers, Bob Reis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carolyn Hartnett" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 10:08 PM Subject: Re: Verb Tense David Mulroy asked if a linguist would agree with his explanation: >My explanation is the present perfect is used to characterize an action that is complete ("perfect") but was completed so recently that it is still relevant to one's understanding of the present moment. "The Chinese have refused to return our spy plane," but not "Brutus has assassinated Caesar." < I am a linguist (of the Hallidayan functional type) who has spent many years teaching college composition, including the grammar that such a course entails, and I have long used a similar explanation. Present perfect refers to past actions that still have an effect in the present. Carolyn Hartnett [log in to unmask] To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/