To learn proper pronunciation, you must first hear proper pronunciation. If your teacher is not speaking natural English, you must find material that does speak natural English. The very best way would be to find a native English speaker to talk to. Unfortunately, if you cannot find a native English speaker, the only other way to learn proper pronunciation will take a lot of extra work. You will need to find a recording of a native speaker. This part is easy, either find an English TV show or movie, or you can go online to youtube.com and choose from millions of amateur videos with native English speakers for free. Listening is the first step. The second step is to try to reproduce the sounds. Find a sentence spoken in native English, listen to it, pause the recording, and then try to repeat it. The key thing to listen for is rhythm. English is spoken with stresses and unstresses that, taken together, will form a noticeable rhythm, like in music. After you practice, try to repeat the recording, and speak along with the recording. Try to match your rhythm to the native speaker. It may help if you record your own attempts, so that you can replay them and compare to the native speaker. I hope this helps!

"Alway" is incorrect, except in some poetry. Always use "always". Depending on context, I think your sentence should say "I threw it a long time ago."

This quotation makes use of the very rude idiom, "I don't give a shit". This expression means that you do not care about something. Likewise, some people modify this idiom to say "I don't give two shits about ~~~", which basically means the same thing. "Shit" is a swear word that literally means feces, or as a verb, it means the act of creating feces, such as you do on a toilet. (Rudely and colloquially, "shit" can also simply mean "thing" or "stuff", but this is not the usage in this expression). The expression suggests that the thing being discussed is of so little interest to you that you would not even give away your (worthless, repulsive) shit in order to obtain it. Or two shits, in the case of the latter expression. Please note, as a reminder, that since "shit" is considered a swear word-- I would not recommend that anyone learning a language use swear words, as their usage can be complicated, and even using them correctly can cause offense. But to continue the explanation: The speaker is explaining that if he were to use the expression "I don't give two shits about this" it would not be a correct statement, because even though shit is worth more than the thing they are discussing, saying I wouldn't give one suggests that the value of shit and the value of the thing are comparably similar. Instead, he is saying, the thing they are talking about is so worthless, that even shit is too nice, too kind a thing to compare it too. This is, of course, an exaggeration for emphasis.

In this sentence, the key phrase is "off the charts", which is an idiom or expression. This expression is supposed to make you think of a "line chart", a measurement of something over time. For example, let us imagine we are measuring the temperature outside every day, and placing each measurement on a line graph (the chart). My chart is labeled so that the bottom of the chart is "freezing" temperature, or 0 degrees Celsius, known as 32 degrees Fahrenheit in the USA. The top of the chart is the hottest it ever gets around here, labeled 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. However, this summer, one day, we measure an amazing 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit)! This is hotter than our chart actually allows us to draw, so it is "off the chart"! In your quotation, Davidson is not measuring temperature, but his happiness. He is happier than the chart expected was possible, so his "brainwaves were off the happiness charts".

This is an idiom, or expression, so it does not need to be taken literally. That said, think of it this way: Each "time" in this sentence is a particular point in time. "From time to time" measures an amount of time between these two points. But we didn't say when those points were! Because we don't know when the two points of time are, we don't know how long is between them. We do know, however, that there is more than one time being mentioned, so it didn't happen only once. So, "from time to time" means that it happens more than once, but the amount of time between each event is unknown. Not only is it unknown, but it's not even consistent. If I say that "I eat sushi from time to time," maybe I ate sushi twice last month, but three times in the month before that, and four times this month. The time between eating sushi is not regular, it's just "sometimes".

"Clearcut" has multiple meanings. In this context, it means "to cut down all the trees within an area, leaving the area completely clear." If an area is clearcut, it means that the area used to be a forest, but now all the trees have been cut down and there is nothing left behind. "Degree" in this context means "amount". Think of a thermometer, which is measured in degrees. The greater the degree, the hotter the temperature. Anything that can be measured by a number can be referred to as a degree-- not mathematically, but as an expression. In this case, the area of land that has been clearcut is a number, and so the writer can say "greater degree".

This is not correct. There are many ways to tell the time. When listing the numbers, you can use 12 hour time, or 24 hour time. 24 hour time is often known as "Military Time". 0030 Military Time is 12:30am in 12 hour time, and is the most common way to say it in the USA. 12:30am would be spoken as "Twelve Thirty 'A' 'M' ". Using 12 hour time, you can also start using "quarters" and "halves". If it was 3:15pm, I could say "Quarter past three". If it was 3:45pm, I could say "Quarter 'till four" (or Quarter to four, regionally). However, at 3:30pm, I can only say "Half past three", I cannot say "Half 'till three". Half is only past, never 'till, unlike the quarters which can go either way. In 12 hour time, there are two special times that have names. 1200 in 24 hour (military) time is known as "Noon". 0000 in military time is known as "Midnight". We almost always say Noon or Midnight because people would often get confused saying 12 o'clock, even when adding 12 AM or 12 PM-- people just kept mixing them up. This confusion is only for the exact time of 12 o'clock, and if you have 12:01am or 12:01pm, people always understand. If using "half past" or "quarter past/quarter 'till", you would use "noon" or "midnight", unless it was obvious which you meant from the context. I could say "Lunch with be at quarter past twelve," for instance, and everyone would know I mean past noon. So, putting this all together! The answer to your question is: "The time is now half past midnight," or "The time is now 12:30am."