Hi, 

Today, I'm going to learn the next new words at http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/lions-can-swim-level-3/. 

A group of little lion (1) cubs passed their swimming test, as they were introduced to the water by keepers at a zoo in Washington.

The cubs were (2) tossed into a (3) moat by staff at the National Zoo and, although irritated by the unexpected (4) dunk, they all managed to swim safely to the side.

The baby lions successfully passed their swim reliability test, which lions and tigers at the zoo must pass to demonstrate their maturity and potential dangers of their outdoor exhibition area.

All four 10-week-old cats held their heads above water, and three (5) paddled to the shallow end and climbed on to dry land. Apart from one little one, who took a short cut instead, (6) scampering out the same way that he entered.

Read more: http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/lions-can-swim-level-3/

It's Thursday now! How quickly the time is passing...
The funny part is, the closer it is getting to the rainy season, the hotter it is becoming.
And it becomes a daily task of mine to find a cooling shelter to get away from excessive sweating >"<

Anyway, here I go with another 7 words for another boiling hot day on Men & Women :D

1. Some people think that in the workplace, women never do as well as their (1) male counterparts.

2. Some believe that women are only good for changing babies' nappies and other tedious aspects of (2) child-rearing.

3. In mordern household there should bea clearly-defined (3) gender roles/role divisions. Men should be the (4) breadwinner, providing food and shelter for his family.

4. A lot of people believe in traditional (5) social convention; the man goes out to work while the woman stays at home. 

UHm, ok. Maybe just 5 works for today, I just can find anything else :")

Have fun !!

1. At the interview, the manager was impressed by her (1) astute comments.

2. In the (2) power struggle between men and women, neight side will win.

3. After the takeover, the staff hoped that things would improve, but the new manager was just as (3) ruthless as the man he replaced.

4. Our boss is a (4) male chauvinist and believes that women should get less money than men for the same job. 

5. Our company is (5) male-dominated, all the top management positions are occupied by men.

6. Maureen is a (6) versatile worker. She is able to do a number of different jobs, often at the same time.

7. He hold (7) egalitarian views and believes that everybody should be treated equally. 

Ok, in the last two days, I have learnt 14 new/good words/ phrases that can be used in academic writing and speaking. 

Now, let's review these words by doing the following task :D

Now read this essay and complete the gaps with one of the words and expressions from the two previous posts on Work! You may need to change the form of some of the words.

'Some people live to work, and others work to live. In most cases, this depends on the job they have and the conditions under which they are employed. In your opinion, what are the elements that make a job worthwhile?'

In answering this questoin, I would like to look first at the elements that combine to make a job undesible. By avoiding these factors, potential A______________ are more likely to find a job that is more worthwhile, and by doing so, hope to achieve happiness in their work.

First of all, it doesn't matter if you are an B______________ worker cleaning the floor, a C_______________ D_________________ worker on a (1) production line in one of the E__________________ or a F________________ worker in a bank, shop or one of the other G_________________: if you lack H_________________, with the knowledge that you might lose your job at any time, you will nevver feel happy. Everybody would like a I__________________ in which he or she is guaranteed work. Nowadays, however, companies have high (2) turnover of staff, J_______________ new staff and K_____________ others on a weeky basis. Such companies are not popular with their workers.

The same can be said of a job in which you are put under a lot of L_______________ and worry, a job which is so M______________that it (3) takes over your life, a job where you work N_______________ and so never get to see your family or friends, or a physical job in which you do the same thing every day and (4) end up with the industrial desease that is always in the papers nowadays - O____________.

With all these negative factors, it would be difficult to believe that there are any elements that make a job worthwhile. Money is, of course, the (5) prime motivator, and everybody wants a good P___________. But of course that is not all. The chance of Q____________, of being given a better position in a company, is a motivating factor. Likewise, R_____________ such as a free lunch or a company car, an S____________ scheme to make you work hard such as regular T_____________ above the rate of (6) inflation, U_____________ in case you fall ill and a company V___________ scheme so that you have some money when you retire all combine to make a job worthwhile.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find all of these. There is, however, an alternative. Forget the office and the (7) factory floor and become X____________ and work for yourself. You future may not be secure, but al least you will be happy

Ha! Still, I can find 7 new words or common phrasal verbs to be learnt today :)

Have fun learning !!

Match sentences 1-6 in box A with one of the sentences A-F in box B. Use the words in bold to help you.

Box A.

1. Samantha is the assistant manager of a bank and she works from 8.30 to 5.30 every day.

2. Tracy works on the production line of a factory which makes cars. She uses a machine to spray paint onto the finished car parts.

3. Jane works for herself. She is a photographer. She works every day for about eight or nine hours.

4.Jeanette is a cleaner for a company in Birmingham, but she only works there for three or four hours a day.

5. Claire has a powerful job in the personnel office of a large multinational company. She is responsible for employing new people and getting rid of those that the company doesn't want to employ any more.

6. Marie works in the finance department of an international college in Oxford.

Box B

A. She is a (1) semi-skilled (2) blue-colar worker in a (3) manufacturing industry.

B. She is a self-employed and work full-time. She likes to describe herself as freelance.

C. She is responsible for (4) hiring and firing.

D. She calculates the wages, salaries, (5) pension contributions and medical insurance contributions of all the staff.

E. She is a full-time (6) white-collar worker in a (7) service industry.

F. She is an unskilled part-time employee.

Hi,

Tomorrow is Monday, so let's talk about Work! :D [make sense, right? :")]

How would you generally feel, A happy or B unhappy, if you are in the following situations. Use the words in bold to help you decide.

1. You were suddenly (1) made redundant.

2. You were given an (2) increment.

3. You worked (3) unsociable hours.

4. You took time off work because of (4) repetitive strain injury.

5. Your boss announces that there is going to be some (5) downsizing of the workforce.

6. You company has a generous (6) incentive scheme.

7. You receive a (7) commission for the work you have done.

Hi,

Today, I'll continue learning 7 new words about "beauty".

Hmm, so what adjectives can I use describe a building or to say our feeling towards it?

beautiful, breathtaking, impressive...? what else?

Well,it's time to adopt some new words before I get annoyed with my limited vocabulary :D

Now, when you evaluate a building you can:

A describe it physically

B say how effect it has on you

Look at the adjectives below and decide which category they fit in, A or B.

evocative (1)    overawed (2)  melancholic        thoughtful       ancient         spacious    

 humbling (3)        ecstatic (4)  overjoyed  (5)    nostalgic (6)        overwhelmed

dazzling (7)         majestic

Hi friends,

I'm back after the trip to Thailand. That was an amazing experience that gave the chance to meet new friends and enjoy breath-taking scenery.

I want to write a lot more about this trip but before that, I think I should learn some more good words/ phrases about this topic.

Yes, Let's talk about beauty! :D

Complete the gaps below with a word made from these adjectives: beautiful, humbling, awesome, melancholic, evocative

1. I was filled with __________ (1) at the sight of the Himalayas. I was taken aback (2) by their majesty.

2. When I look at the photographs of my home country they _________ (3) so many memories and usually make me homesick.

3. They tried to ____________ (4) the town centre by putting flowers in baskets, and painting, and renovating (5) the building, but it didn't work.

4. Thinking of places that I love sometimes filled me with ___________ (6), but this is not a negative feeling.

5. Standing next to the Sphinx make me feel very __________ (7).

The answers will be given tomorrow ;)

Hi friends!

I hope that you find the previous posts useful in the way that you are now a bit more confident in talking/ writing about crime and the law :) Sometimes in the future, I may mention this topic again to revise those words as well as add some more new words. 

But now, let's move on to something more thrilling!

Love? Hmm.

Or maybe Travel :D

Yeh, I'll go for Travel because tomorrow I'll fly to Thailand and get so excited right now hihi \m/ \m/

I find this exercise in a book for Ielts. So let's do it together!

Look at the following sentences and decide if they are true or false. If they are false, explain why.

1. When passengers (1) embark, they get off an aeroplane or ship.
When passengers (2) disembark, they get on an aeroplane or ship.

2. The opposite of a (3) package tourist is an independent traveller.

3. A flight from London to Paris could be described as a (4) long-haul flight.

4. (5) Mass tourism can have a negative effect on the environment.

5. (6) Eco-tourism is tourism which has negative effect on the environment

6. An (7) all-inclusive holiday is a holiday in which the price includes flights, transfers, accommodation, food, and drink.

Another 7 words !! Yeye \m/

Hmmm...I think many of you may find those words quite familiar, but don't skip them unless you are confident that you can use them effectively when the context requires. It's not about how many words you know but how many words you can retrieve and utter in real life situations. That's what I think :)

p/s: During one week in Thailand, maybe I cant write the blog post daily or any post at all.
But I definitely keep it up after the trip :)

Have fun, friends ! :D

How is it going, guys?

In the last post, I wrote that we should learn 7 words a day.
But how many times do we need to see/learn a word to remember and retrieve it later?
As far as I'm concerned, that number roughly ranges from 12 to 14 times :)

Too many times you may say. But who says learning languages is easy ;)
We keep learning and forgeting and learning and forgetting...until it becomes a part of us [cheers]

And the point is we never give up :D

Ok? :)

Now, hit it !! \m/

Today, we will continue the last topic Crime & The Law with another bunch of new words or phrases. Have fun learning ;)

Now, these sentences are in wrong order, try to put them back to the right order to make a logically meaningful paragraph ;) I will give the answer tomorrow ;)

Jim Smith was released after 18 months in prison. 

A. Unfortunately, prison failed to (1) rehabilitate him and after his release he continued with his   (2) misdeeds, attacking an old woman in the street.

B. Jim promised to (3) reform and the pensioner withdrew her call for more severe retribution.

C. With this in mind, instead of passing a (4) custodial sentence, he fined him a lot of money and ordered him to do community service.

D. He was re-arrested and returned to court.

E. His new victim, a pensioner, thought that the judge was being too lenient on Jim and called for the reinstatement of (5) corporal punishment and (6) capital punishment!

F. At his second trial the judge agreed that prison was not a (7) deterrent for Jim.

My favorite English teacher once said that it would be effective the most if we learn 7 words per day. He said that scientists call this the magic number. An article published by Cambridge also says the same thing.
So, here we go!

Each day, I will post here 7 new words or useful phrases through examples (from books, articles or dictionary) . I think persistence is the key to master anything in life. Let's make this become the new habit :)

The topic for today is Crime and The Law. Let's read the text, try to guess the meaning of the words/ phrases in bond and check dictionary if needed:

One night, JS committed a serious crime. The next morning, the police arrested him and formally (1) charged him with the crime. 

When the trial began and he appeared in court for the first time, he (2) pleaded his innocence. His lawyer also said he was innocent and asked the court to (3) acquit him.

However there were some witnesses, and the evidence against him was overwhelming. Having all the proof the needed, the (4) jury (5) returned a guilty verdict. As the result, the judge (6) sentenced him to two years in prison. 

While he was in prison, he applied for (7) parole. He was released after 18 months.

Ok, that's it. Have fun ! :D