Voice of America's English Learning Service 03 December 2010
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Welcome to VOA’s Classroom! Whether you are teaching English or learning English as a foreign language, VOA’s Classroom will guide you in your journey through the English language.
Our primary objective is to take all your language needs into consideration, so each complete lesson plan incorporates activities, lessons and exercises that are tailored to specific goals. The lessons show a progression in skill level starting with beginner, intermediate or advanced levels. In the future, the downloadable lesson plans will be complemented by video, audio and additional activities. We need to hear from you!
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The goals of this week’s Classroom lesson (#3) are to learn more about adjectives. Adjectives are useful words to describe people, places, situations, and things. In this lesson, you will learn how to recognize, create and use adjectives in formal and informal real-life situations.
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link) Read and listen to the article. Then open the activities on the right side of the page to improve your English!
Half of American teenagers don’t get enough sleep on school nights. They get an average of 60- 90 minutes less than they need, experts say.
One problem is biology. Teens are programmed to go to sleep later and wake up later than other age groups, but many schools start classes as early as 7:00 a.m.
Many students go to class feeling tired. One student, Danny, says that getting up in the morning is terrible. He feels tired. During his first classes of the day, it’s difficult to stay awake.
Michael Breus is a psychologist. He’s an expert in sleep problems. He says that teenagers need eight to ten hours of sleep a night. He feels that sleepy teens can become depressed. This can also affect their ability in sports and driving. Michael Breus says a tired driver, especially a tired teenage driver, is dangerous.
What can schools do? Psychologists say schools can start classes later in the morning. Studies show that students’ grades improved by starting classes later.
St. George’s School in Rhode Island wanted to try this. They started classes just thirty minutes later.
Visits to the health center by tired students decreased by half. Late arrivals to first period decreased by one/third. Students felt less sleepy during the day. The teachers also noticed that students were happier and more awake.
Voice of America's Special English 08 October 2010
Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link) Read and listen to the article. Then open the activities on the right side of the page to improve your English!
The video sharing website, YouTube, was created in 2005 and became an overnight success. Google bought YouTube for more than $1,600,000,000 the following year. In May, YouTube announced that two billion videos were watched each day.
In June, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City announced it would hold a competition among YouTube videos. Now, the judges have chosen the top 125 videos. Mario Ritter has more.
The Guggenheim and YouTube launched the competition called “YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video.” The information technology companies HP and Intel are supporting the event. 23,000 videos entered the competition. They represented 91 countries and every possible style of movie making.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
YouTube Play: A competition of creative video.
The rules of the competition were few. Video makers had to be eighteen years or older. They could enter only one video. It had to be no more than ten minutes long. Any language, subject, sound, and style were considered.
Eleven people are judging the videos. They include artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Laurie Anderson is all three. She says all her art starts with a story, so she looks for a story as she judges the videos.
Other judges include the filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the band Animal Collective, and artist and filmmaker, Shirin Neshat.
New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed’s video is one of the finalists. She used the camera in her computer to record herself describing her daily food desires for one month. The video is simple, short, and interesting.
A frightening, but beautiful video came from Chile. The video by Niles Atallah, Joaquin Cocina Varas, and Cristobal Leon is called “Luis.” It is an animated ghostly story of a tense, angry boy. It is very dark, but impossible to stop watching.
“Mars to Jupiter” is a video from Canada by Sterling Pache. It is about a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The video explores how her past still haunts her.
Other chosen videos are from France, Spain, Taiwan, Australia, and Israel. Almost thirty countries are represented. You can see them if you link to YouTube Play from our website at voaspecialenglish.com.
People can also see the 125 videos at the Guggenheim museums in New York; Bilbao, Spain; Berlin, Germany; and Venice, Italy.
On October 21, the YouTube Play judges will announce the final twenty winning videos at a special event at the Guggenheim in New York. The videos will be on view there until October 24.
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link) Read and listen to the article. Then open the activities on the right side of the page to improve your English!
In the United States, about six out of ten students in graduate schools are women. The same is true of today’s young adults who already have a degree beyond college. As a result, the Census Bureau expects that more women than men will hold professions such as doctors, lawyers and professors.
Men had faster growth rates than women in going to graduate school in 2009. Still, women earned 60% of the master’s degrees. That was the level of about 90% of all the graduate degrees awarded.
But a new report says the 2008-2009 academic year marked a change. Women also earned 50.4% of the doctorate degrees. The Council of Graduate Schools says this was the first year ever that women earned more doctorates than men.
The largest share of all doctorates that year - 42% – were in education, engineering, and biological and agricultural sciences. But the report says between 1999 and 2009, graduate enrollment increased in all subjects. The fastest growth was in health sciences, business and engineering.
In 2009, graduate schools reported strong growth of 6% in first-time students from the United States. But enrollment of new international students decreased by about 2% -- the first drop since 2004. The share of foreign new students in graduate schools fell from 18% to 16.5%.
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Visit this site for one month everyday and read valuable content just for 15-20 minutes. Give a test after one month. If you get 60% marks in the test you will get a certificate. In case you are unable to pass in the test you can request for re-test after ten days.
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# Observe the Mouth MovementsClick Here for Conversations
Whenever you watch television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech. # Being a Beginner Speak Slowly
If you speak too quickly in the beginning, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.
Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood. # Prepare a list of frequently Used Words
Prepare the list of those words which you feel problem to pronounce than ask some one to pronounce for you or try to catch those words from T.V. # Pronounce the Ending of Each Word
Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English. # Have Pateince
You can learn the art of good speaking but it won't happen overnight. People often expect quick results and give up too soon. Adopt the never say die policy and work harder to get better results.
Improving your English speaking skills will help you communicate more easily and make you successful in life. Here are some ways to enhance your skills: Practice Whenever You Get Time: The Golden Formula of English "The more you practice the better you would be". Set Achievable Goals: Set a goals related to speaking English which you can achieve. You can do few things given here: Join a good English institute, watch new English movie every week and listen to the dialogues carefully, learn 3-5 new words daily, speak in front of the mirror when getting ready for your office, read a news article daily if possible. Be with the People Who speak English: If you spend your most of the time with those people who speak good English, it will help you a lot. You will get new words and an art of speaking English. Make English speaking your habit: Make speaking English a habit. Find at least 20 minutes a day to speak English. Find a native speaker or talk with your friend. Always Try to Respond People: Get clues from people's questions and answer them effectively. Don't Worry if You Forget Something: If you forget a word, try using um, or er. After Completing Short Goals Give Yourself Rewards: It is very good technique to learn or gain something. Set short goals and reward yourself with a new dress, dinner at restaurant etc.
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Mark Shea explains the origin, meaning and use of the expression 'staycation'. Click below to listen:
A holiday in Britain
Staycation
These days people have less and less money to spend on luxuries, things like holidays, for example. So, when they have some time off work, some are choosing to stay at home, instead of flying, or driving perhaps to the beach or mountains, maybe to another country. It’s a staycation, a combination of the words stay and vacation.
Particularly if you live in a big city, you might not get time to enjoy everything that it has to offer in terms of entertainment – to go to the theatre, to concerts or just to go sightseeing. So a staycation might be an attractive idea.
Other reasons to take a staycation might be having very young children, or perhaps you want to make some home improvements, like redecorating. In any case, a staycation will almost certainly save you money! I have some friends from the US who come over to London every year or so and stay with me – so I regularly take some time off and have a staycation. Sometimes I visit them in Seattle, and they have a staycation.
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