Correct the mistakes, please :) The motivation crisis During all of human history most people had to work hard. They were forced by other people or by fear of starvation and poverty. Lot of people were ready to risk their lives on dangerous journeys, fight or suffer at unnormal hard work in order to reach a better life. Lot of such instances were described in classic novels by J.London, R.Kipling etc. However, nowadays the situation has changed. In a lot of places on our planet, especially Europe and North America, you should not work hard for survival. If you worked free days a week you could earn enough money to pay your bills and to buy food. No doubt, your financial abilities would be limited and you could not afford expensive wear or food and medical insurance - but anyway your life would be much better than it was for people of previous ages. So far, we have lost the motivation “to avoid” problems - I mean avoid punishment, starvation, poverty. But the over one type of motivation is suggested nowadays - motivation “to achieve”. Advertisements encourage us to spend money on good houses, cars, clothes, and food. In order to achieve perfect life conditions we should study and work very much. However, it is a bit weird to me that a significant number of people prefer to be satisfied by small salaries and do not have motivation rather than try to look up their lifestyle. They prefer to waste their time with video games and go for cheap fast food rather than earn money for amazing journeys and restaurants. My take on that is we should , on the one hand, keep work/life balance - and, on the other hand, we should try to promote ourselves in our careers and skills so as to live an interesting life.

Can anyone explain to me the difference between 1. The manager told me that my order could not be delivered and 2. The manager told me that my order could not have been delivered I suggest that the meanings of these sentences are the same but a bit different in context. At the first one the manager points out that it was impossible to deliver the order. At the second one the manager points out that he had no ability to deliver the order. Am I right?

One of my favorite books is a novel ‘Hard to Be a God’ by Arcady and Boris Strugatskiy. It describes a distant future. The human race discovered the space and found a lot of inhabited planets. One of it is inhibited by people with technical, intellectual and mental levels about the Earth Middle Age. The nobeles there are cruel, arrogant. greedly and thoughtless. They force peasants to serve, they humiliate and kill intellectuals for religious reasons. The earthmen are worried and sad about it but they understand they can’t do anything. If they had brought more food to that planet then the nobles would have captured all of the goods. If they had killed nobeles then the most powerful humble would have become nobeles and continue to force others. If they had controlled everyone to protect people they would have stopped the mental evolution of that civilization. Disputable conclusion of the novel is that it is not impossible to make people’s civilization intellectual and progressive from outside. The people should grow themselves - it is a hard, cruel process with lots of victims, but if you force people to leave perfectly they will be perfect slaves but they will not grow their human qualities. The novel suggests the communist idea ‘Force humanity to perfect word’ and criticize it subtly. However, a lot of readers disagree with such point of view and think that ‘laissez-faire policy’ was shown by novel authors as a mistaken choice. I think the authors do not give a single correct answer and just indicate ethical problems. The book is very popular in Russia (I think it is comparable to ‘Strange in a stranger word’ in the US) and it has several movie adaptations but for me no one film is as good as the original novel.

I can't feel the difference: present perfect continuous vs past continuous <ul><li>I was reading a newspaper all day yesterday</li></ul><ul><li>I have been reading a newspaper all day yesterday</li></ul>

I’ve tried to use different times here I am learning English grammar and I wonder did I get it conception. Please, check this phrases - I’ve tried to use different variants here because I wanted to check I understand it. Russian translation is presented too. 1. I phoned him yesterday but I could not reach him. 2. I phoned him yesterday and I have reached him at last. 3. I have been phoning him all the day yesterday but I did not reach him. 4. I had been phoning him from Monday to Saturday but I had not reached him. I have reached him just now. 1. Я звонил ему вчера но не мог дозвониться. 2. Я звонил ему вчера и наконец дозвонился. 3. Я звонил ему весь день но не дозвонился. 4. Я звонил ему с понедельника по субботу но не дозвонился. Я дозвонился ему только что.

"have you been playing" vs 'have played' ? <ul><li>The lock on this case is broken. Have you played about it?</li></ul><ul><li>The lock on this case is broken. Have you been playing about it?</li></ul>

Usage ‘had’ in past perfect continuous? <ul><li>Lisa cut her hair short. I was surprised because she had always had long hair  (past perfect)</li></ul><ul><li>I was sad when I sold my car. I had had it for years.(past perfect)</li></ul><ul><li>Anna woke up in the middle of the night. She had been having a bad dream.  (past perfect continuous)</li></ul>

Essay: Ridiculous extravagance or elaborate investment? (Please, check errors) Moscow officials are criticized by civilians for expensive costs for city beautification and holiday carnivals. Last years item of expenditure in Moscow budget on beautification is comparable to federal expenses for army and navy. For example, this New Year and Christmas holidays Moscow was decorated by illumination, numerous ice and plastic figures, natural or synthetic Christmas trees. Manmade snow was thrown on central streets. Total cost of “Christmas beautification” is about 2 billions Russian rubles (approximate 30 million dollars). Some people say it is not good to throw money on carnivals in capital while lot of people in province have no enough money for food. Opposition offer spend money for more necessary things, such as medical services - building hospitals, increasing payment for medical workers, procurementing medical devices and medicaments in clinic. Officials say beautification is not extravagance but investment. Illumination, carnivals and ice figures attract tourist. So far tourist stream in Moscow was increased about four times - form 5 millions per year in 2013 to 20 millions in 2019. Tourism brings money for city budget. Opposition answer they are not against tourists or holidays but against groundless and expensive customs. They blame officials for suspicious customs in organization which looks related with officials.