Search results for 'tag:Learning English tag:Articles' matching tags 'Learning English' and 'Articles'

Somebody Please! help me here!!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:16:21 GMT

Hi, I'm learning English as a second language, and a few days a go, I, and my study mates, studied this article I found at a NEWSWEEK.COM.
Here's the address of the article.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/148925

and this is the article we studied. This is little bit long but, Please don't push the back button on the keyboard.
I'm not asking you to TRANSLATE this into Korean or something like that.

Just read this casualy and then, anwer my question below.^^;

Games Countries Play

If the 1960 Rome Olympics didn't change the world, it did reveal a changed one. Beijing is next.

By Andrew Bast | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 26, 2008

On the final evening of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, a little-known Ethiopian stepped to the starting line of the marathon, barefoot. He raced in the shadows of ancient ruins, including the Axum Obelisk, which Mussolini's Army had looted from his country more than two decades earlier. "In bare feet, dark red trunks, bright green shirt, the two vertical lines of No. 11 defining his narrow, bony backâthat was Abebe Bikila," writes David Maraniss in his fact-packed new book, "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World" (Simon & Schuster. 496 pp.). Bikila set a world best of 2:15:16 and became the first black African to win a gold medal.

Since the modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens, the international Games have regularly made historyâand not always for what happened on the track or playing fields. In 1936, Nazis shrouded the games in swastikas despite prohibitions of propaganda in the Olympic Charter. Massive social protests in Mexico City in 1968 culminated in the Tlatelolco massacre. And in the second week of the 1972 Games in Munich, the radical group Black September took Israeli athletes hostage, prompting a standoff that ended with 17 dead. As for Rome, Maraniss makes his case in the subtitle: the 1960 Games "changed the world."

That may be pushing it, but they certainly reflected the dramatic ways the world was changing. The 1960 Olympics were the first ever to be televised. Light heavyweight Cassius Clayâyears before he would become Muhammad Aliâwon boxing gold for the United States. Rome's Games were also corrupted by the first doping scandal. On a sweltering Friday, Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen dropped dead. It wasn't the heat, though; before the race, his trainer had given him Roniacol, a drug designed to increase blood circulation. An uproar ensued. Consequently, Maraniss writes, "imperfect and controversial as it was, a system evolved over the decades for testing Olympic athletes for banned substances."

The Games also magnified a charged geopolitical moment. Bikila's barefoot marathon victory (his new shoes, bought in Rome, apparently hurt his feet) came at an unprecedented time for Africa. Decolonization was giving rise to a crop of new states. "The world order was transmuting, with nations being born, regressing, progressingâand out of all that an unprecedented eighty-three National Olympic Committees were sending a record total of 5,338 athletes to Rome," Maraniss writes. The cold war had filled the city with spies, and the Games served as a constant showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong's People's Republic of China withdrew from the Games entirely after a long and arduous political row with the IOC.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Washington Post, Maraniss writes in great detail, chronicling the 18 days of the Games. While at first it may seem gratuitous to go so far as to review the passenger manifest for each planeload of American athletes departing New York, the work pays off when he writes that Clay's "fear of flying was so strong that it took the persuasion of all his teammates to get him to board the plane."

Maraniss's previous sports books have centered on personalities like baseball player Roberto Clemente and American football legend Vince Lombardi. But with the Beijing Games looming, his account of the 1960 Olympics seems especially apt. In Rome, CBS was the first network to televise the Games, broadcasting 20 hours over two weeks. NBC promises this summer's will be the biggest broadcasting event in history, with 3,600 hours of coverage. Reading Maraniss's vivid history makes clear that the tectonic shifts underway todayâChina's growing global power, America's lagging leadership and the spreading economic recession around the globeâwon't be transformed as much as elucidated by the acts of human greatness on display. Rome welcomed the athletes of several new nations; in Beijing it may well be their time to shine.

Â© 2008

You read it all? Okay. then,

1. the first underlined sentence. What does the author of this article mean by that?
We thought it would be "Beijing will also reveal a changed world." <- was that right?
In that case, What MEANING this CHANGE word has? Does it mean that the world is still under changing? or, This CHANGE is done. So, there will be no more change in this tubulent world situation.
I mean that Rome Olympics revealed a changed world. So, it became better than it's previous condition. So, there is no need to change. ???? WhaTTTTTT???

2. the first paragraph is introduction. He mentioned about the 1960 Rome Olympics, and it's historical value of the Olympics.(Sorry, My enlish is too short to express clearly what I want to say.^^ anyway, the questins will be continue.....) and the second to the fifth paragraph he told us the detail of that the1960 Rome olympics. and finally!!!! last paragraph, that REDDDDD AND BLUE ONE. ã .ã . OKAY. This is the critical questions that I wanted to know deadly.

He, Mr. Bast, continually refer Maraniss's book and His opinion about connection between Rome and Beijing Olympics. So, (We almost finished just hang on second, My teacher!) that RED UNDERLINED sentence.

Could it's original meaning be this? :
"the tectonic shifts will not be transromed by the acts of human greatness on display AND!!!
the tectonic shifts will not elucidated by the acts of human greatness on disply."

or "the tectonic shifts will not be transformed by the acts of human greatness on display AS MUCH AS
they(the tectonic shifts) are elucidated by the acts of human greatness on disply."

I konw that even this posting has countless mistakes and not easy to read but also I know that YOU can understand what I want to know. (well... I hope so.)
well, that's that. Please somebody there, help me~~!!

Re: What motivates you to learn English?

The utopia — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:28:47 GMT

Hi Peaceblinkfriend ,how are you doing???

As for me, learning English is an obsession, therefore, I don't need any motive to push me towards this language..

In the first place, English has become a lingua franca around the globe.

It is, needless to say, that everybody living in the 21 century should master the main skills of English: writing, reading, listening and speaking.

Otherwise, they would be considered illiterate according to this era's standards..

And since you surf the net, you can easily figure out the potential importance of having the ability of to understand and to be understood without paying much effort..

Suffice to say, the ecstasy we feel after reading a book in English or even an article is invaluableâ¦

So, it goes without saying that learning English is crucial and inevitable to be an active person either in your work, or even in your daily life..

As I mentioned, I am not looking for things that give me more reasons to enjoy studying English because it is simply in the blood running through my veins..

Re: Is English the Next Latin?

Kooyeen — Sat, 17 May 2008 15:56:58 GMT

Cool article Barb!

Ruslana
By the way, Tanit, I knew a Chinese once, and he told me Chinese was not so difficult as it might seem at first sight.

Yeah right, Lana, LOL! A Chinese said so! Did you ever find an American who started learning Chinese after high school and said... "Oh, yeah, it's so simple!" Pretty much impossible!
Seriously, my opinion is that English is already an international language and the most important one for global communication, and I don't think anything is going to change soon. Because I know tons of Chinese people who are learning English, are improving, use it for work, study it in school because it's mandatory... How many Americans do the same, learning Chinese? And Europeans? And if you want to be a famous singer or band, are you going to sing in English or... another language? Chinese? Nope, everyone is singing in English, even if it's not their native language.
Chinese seems the only language that is likely to become very important, as of now, but there are so many difficulties in learning it that it seems almost impossible that all the world will try to learn Chinese well, and become fluent, and making it the most important and used global language for international communications.
What I think is likely to happen is that English will be spoken throughout the world, also as a second language, and there will be lots of dialects: Chinglish, Arabenglish, Spanish-English... And not all of them will be mutually intelligible. But hopefully there will be a couple of dialects that will be the mainstream ones, used in international communications, etc. Now the most important dialects are American English and British English... One day maybe Chinese-English will be the most influential and important one, who knows?

Re: articles with ordinal numbers

Pter — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:03:28 GMT

She started learning English as a second language when she was eight. English is her second language. English is the second most popular first language on the planet. Speaking English is now like second nature to her.

To determine if you need an article and what article to use, take away the ordinal numbers and see what or if articles are required. Of course, by taking away the ordinal numbers, you change the meaning of the sentence, but this is an easy way to check if your sentence is grammatical.

Re: articles with ordinal numbers

Pter — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:56:21 GMT

Damir
I thought that ordinal numbers can have only a definite article.

There is no such rule.

You are learning English as *a* second language, aren't you?

A second look. A second opinion. A second chance.

Re: 'He has, on occasion, made (small mistakes)a small mistake.' ?

Mr Bojangle — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:27:46 GMT

Hi Yoong Liat,

How are you ?

Ok ...Although it is correct that the word small should not be used with the word mistake...It is generally accepted in English...the majority of people learning English do not actually know this rule.

But if you want to use it ..use it, because millions of English speakers would say small before minor [small mistakes are only minor mistakes and they wont change the world...] but ...

The true difference to your enquiry is this.. the article Â´aÂ´ it denotes the quantity of the object in the sentence...[the object in this sentence is a mistake]...so if you want to use mistake in a plural form , then do not us a. If you want to use the singular form of mistake then use the article a.

'He has, on occasion, made a small mistake.singular

'He has, on occasion, made small mistakes.plural

Hope that helps.

Mr. Bojangles

Re: Are the following sentences correct? 1:...such as Longman

Avangi — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:20:56 GMT

Hi Jackson,

1: We say, "I'm learning English; I'm studying the English language." You could say, "This is an English Language Dictionary," but you'd say, "This is a dictionary of the English language. Are you gonna make me tell you why? I hope not! And yes, your example is incorrect with no "the."

English is a subject of study. Like, "I'm studing History." I believe it's a proper noun in this case. In the phrase, "the English language," I think "English" is simply an adjective. (I could be wrong.) It's like "the red dog." You need the article.

2: You're setting off the expression "as in 'Jackson Heights'" because it's in apposition to "Heights" (I think). (It's not like setting off fireworks; it's like separating.) I believe you could put it in parentheses instead, and then it would be called a parenthetical expression.

Best wishes, - A.

Re: Gramatical Mistakes Common to Chinese English-speakers

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:01:29 GMT

If we really want to split hair, Iâll say a mistakes is something done incorrectly, because of not knowing how to do it correctly, or simply misunderstanding the proper method or procedure. On the other hand, an error is the result of oversight or carelessness which is different from a mistake. These are subtle distinctions that requires different remedies.

In English, we learn the grammar rules which we try to apply conscientiously in our writing or speech. Depending on the individual, his background, learning environment and the level of enthusiasm, progress and the kinds of errors experienced vary from person to person. The ones I pointed out are the ones I personally experienced and noticed among the follow Chinese learners. The problems which Hao mentioned are much deeper than the âcommonâ variety in my view. and are more of the grammatical variety. Observations from various English forums have convinced me that preposition, article and participle usage are difficulties commonly shared by almost all learners. Unless one is exposed to a completely English speaking environment and immersed in complete usage, meaning using English only, eliminating these problems seems almost impossible. Itâs only when we use and expose to natural English long enough, that we will get a hang of what is or sounds correct.

If I may apply the same comparison in ballroom dancing to learning English, I âd like to confess that I have the same problem in ballroom dancing as the English learners do in English. My dance instructor taught us different variations and forms of a dance each week and weâve practiced and practiced in the class which seemed fine at the time. A week went by and we went to the next session, the variation and moves which weâve learned and practiced were partially forgotten or executed incorrectly. But if we review and practice each night for 15-21 minutes, we can feel the difference and do much better as a result of repetitions, exposure and practice. The point of this is, if we really want to be good at something, we have to keep pushing forward until we reach a level of âsecond natureâ. I understand, what works for Tom may not work for Ted. But it worked for me. This is only my opinion but I hope it helps.

Re: Free english learning sites

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:10:42 GMT

Dj Bueno wrote:

Antimoon.com - Focus on effective methods for learning English.

Breaking News English.com - Ready-to-use EFL / ESL lesson plans based on current affairs. Graded news articles, listenings and communicative activities uploaded daily.

English Language Teaching Web
Index of English Language Resources

TalkEnglish.com
Free web site to learn how to speak English with over 5000 audio clips.

Re: Please help me proof it. Thanks

Cheese1987 — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 04:39:46 GMT

Julielai wrote:

Some parts in red for you to fix

Cheese1987 wrote:

Thank you!

Account of the recent language learning experience and insights gained through the course both inside and outside of class

      I have learnt some useful skills in the course in these months.(incomplete sentence) The most impressing (missing three letters) lesson teach me how to write a composition in an (article) appropriate (sp.) style. I do know it is important to choose the appropriate style and tone when writing. I also understand that language style can be classified as formal, neutral and informal before. However, I do not know how I can write in an appropriate style correctly. The skills are not taught when I am in secondary school. After the lesson, I understand choice of vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar, use of transitional words and phrases, use of punctuation and use of abbreaviations and short forms affect the language style. I feel happy that I know how I can write in an appropriate style now. I believe that I can match the type of writing more correctly and therefore, my writing will _not__ _be__ (Insert words here) awkward or unnatural.

      Reading English newspapers also helps me to improve my English. I am not used to reading English newspaper before. But I am required to buy South China Morning Post from the courses. From then on I try to make reading South China Morning Post to be my daily routine. I find that it is an effective way to learn more vocabularies. It also helps me to broaden my horizon(Review your use of not only but also) Now I read South China Morning Post form Yahoo. So I can read South China Morning Post everyday. I deeply believe that South China Morning Post is worth reading.

Personal changed feelings/opinions/attitude towards English language learning

    I am convinced that English language learning are stressful and frustrating before. I feel nervous when everyone is focus on me and when teacher is listening carefully. I believe this feeling comes from my self- doubt. I think classmates are step ahead of me. I also cannot correctly pronounce some sounds and sets of sound. To be frank, I have thought that English is no more important because I am in Chinese Language and Literature Programme. I no need to improve my English anymore.

However, my friends told me that mastery of the English language is important. Hong Kong being a service - oriented economy, the advantage of having a competent English-speaking work force has become all the more improtant. I know that being a Chinese Language and Literature student is only an excuse to avoid learning English (You shouldn't think like that! Nothing wrong with being a Chinese major.). This thought only badly affects my interest and progress of learning English. I do know that if I lose the interest of learning English, my English cannot improve anymore. I need to find some ways to prevent feeling so embarrassed.

     There are ways for me to prevent feeling so embarrassed. I think the most practical way is to improve English. I should study English continuously. When I find some words that I cannot pronouce, I will check the electronic dictionary immediately. I will also try to speak English with my friends. I believe I can speak English fluently if I often do that. My friends can also kindly point out my grammatical mistakes. They will not laugh at my absurd mistakes. Therefore, I will not feel embarrassed anymore.

Personal Learning Plan

Long term goals:

a)         To get a C grade in Use of English in Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination

b)        To get a band score of 7 in IELTS

Short term goals:

a)         To finish all the exercises in Advanced Grammar in Use.

b)        To keep reading South China Moring Post and Hong Kong Standard

c)        To write compositions

Materials to use:

a)         Advanced Grammar in Use Exercise book

b)        South China Morning Post

c)        Hong Kong Standard

Activities to engage in:

a)         To join some workshops held by ITC

b)        To exchange oversea in Summer

How often:

a)         Doing 3 exercises everyday

b)        Reading Newspapers everyday (Look up the difference between "every day" and everyday)

c)        Writing a composition every 2 weeks

Mode of learning:

a)         Keep doing exercise and composition

b)        Keep reading newspapers

Mode of assessment:

a)         To sit for Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination.

b)        To sit for IELTS.