1-2mm speech topic：Pick one book that you have read.
What is it about?
Why do you like it?
問題：How much time did you spend on watching TV when you were little?
Do you like to read?
Do you think reading is important?
Have you ever traveled by train?
What do you think about train travel?
Do you think watching TV is a good thing?
Do you think there will be more people reading in the future?
- listening
1. a telephon conversation
btw a monther and a persona from a children's recreation center
(regarding the location / the price / the dressing code / the party venue)
2. a conversation between 2 art students who prepare their profolios
3. a lecture on designing the experimentto find out the relation
btw trust and risk-taking
- reading
(I found the similar contents online and here are the links.)
1. http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_freeman_evol_3/0,8018,849374-,00.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coins
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_simulation
- writing
Task 1：2 diagrams of a present office building plan and the future one.
Task 2：thoughts on congestion tax
2014年5月29日 星期四
Irene 推薦 IELTS 7.5!
恭喜Irene雅思7.5分，並取得劍橋大學財經系的入學許可
IELTS Test results
IELTS Test date: 17/Mar/2012
- Overall 7.5
- Listening 8.5
- Reading 8
- Writing 6.5
- Speaking 7
Irene給流利英語的話：
年初為了準備學校面試，在家附近找到了流利英語學苑。還記得那時距離面試僅有兩個星期，但Amber老師細心了解我的需求，給我專業的建議。我報名了一對一的教學課程，Ben老師在英文面試給我的幫助很大，從最基本的自我介紹開始練習，並逐堂課進階至專業領域的問答，面試前的最後一堂課Ben老師更直接模擬面試，讓我在面試之前信心增加不少，也讓我的面試順利過關!
之後需在短時間內準備雅思考試，由於之前只考過托福考試，我又選擇報名Stephen老師的一對一雅思說跟寫教學，雖然只有短短幾堂課，但Stephen老師有效率地讓我了解雅思考試的出題方向跟答題技巧，每堂課都有很紮實密集的口說練習及寫作檢討，讓我一次就能考到需要的成績。除此之外，申請的最後階段須通過學校的語言測驗，Ben老師在學術英文上也給我許多專業的指導，讓我順利通過!
不僅如此，Amber老師總是會主動關心學生的學習跟考試情況，假如學生有任何困難，也總是會耐心瞭解，提供專業的解決辦法。我想我整個申請過程能夠在最後順利完成，真的要感謝流利英語學院的幫助!
2014年5月18日 星期日
雅思考古題分享 (5/15)
寫:TASK1: 兩個BAR CHARTS,有三個點可以寫,horizontal axis是月份
vertical axis是雨量和溫度
TASK 2: 現在的公司允許員工每年休假4個禮拜,同意或不同意
問題:
1喜歡早上念書還是晚上念書?
2 有沒有去過動物園啊?
3 喜歡聽哪種音樂?
PART 2:
敘述你在某個地方遇見某個老朋友,感覺如何?說了什麼?
PART 3:
你覺得國際友誼怎樣?
什麼事情會摧毀友誼
什麼東西能增進友情?
現代電器用品有幫助增進友情嗎?
不同國家的人能當朋友嗎?
不同國家的人不能當朋友是為什麼?
vertical axis是雨量和溫度
TASK 2: 現在的公司允許員工每年休假4個禮拜,同意或不同意
問題:
1喜歡早上念書還是晚上念書?
2 有沒有去過動物園啊?
3 喜歡聽哪種音樂?
PART 2:
敘述你在某個地方遇見某個老朋友,感覺如何?說了什麼?
PART 3:
你覺得國際友誼怎樣?
什麼事情會摧毀友誼
什麼東西能增進友情?
現代電器用品有幫助增進友情嗎?
不同國家的人能當朋友嗎?
不同國家的人不能當朋友是為什麼?
雅思考古題分享 (5/17)
Writing:
Task1:
two maps that depict the changes in a city from 1960 to now.
久違的地圖題…陷阱應該是now
Task2:
It is argued that watching television can be an effective way for children in
the terms of learning so many people have claimed that children should be enco
uraged to watch television regularly at home and at school.
Agree or disagree.
大意是這樣，單字沒很記得
Speaking:
Part 1:
City you live, why you like to live in this city.
Do you know your neighbors?
Is your place a good place for children to live in?
Do you like museums or art gallery?
What museum or art gallery did you visit when you were a child?
Do you think to go to museums can be a good way to teach students?
do you like taking photographs?
what did you do after you take photographs?
would you be interested in learning more skills in taking photos?
Part2:
Describe an indoor activity you played in your childhood.
Who, what, when, how to play, why you enjoyed.
Part3:
What's the popular indoor game to children now?
Do you think video games are harmful?
Do you think there're benefits for playing video games?
Do you think teenagers should do more outdoor activities?
Task1:
two maps that depict the changes in a city from 1960 to now.
久違的地圖題…陷阱應該是now
Task2:
It is argued that watching television can be an effective way for children in
the terms of learning so many people have claimed that children should be enco
uraged to watch television regularly at home and at school.
Agree or disagree.
大意是這樣，單字沒很記得
Speaking:
Part 1:
City you live, why you like to live in this city.
Do you know your neighbors?
Is your place a good place for children to live in?
Do you like museums or art gallery?
What museum or art gallery did you visit when you were a child?
Do you think to go to museums can be a good way to teach students?
do you like taking photographs?
what did you do after you take photographs?
would you be interested in learning more skills in taking photos?
Part2:
Describe an indoor activity you played in your childhood.
Who, what, when, how to play, why you enjoyed.
Part3:
What's the popular indoor game to children now?
Do you think video games are harmful?
Do you think there're benefits for playing video games?
Do you think teenagers should do more outdoor activities?
2014年4月28日 星期一
雅思考古題分享
Part 1
[The city you live]
1. Where do you live now?
2. What are the reasons you dislike the city?
3. Do you want to live in this city for a long time in the future?
[Clothes]
1. What kind of clothes do you wear at college?
2. Did you like to wear special clothes at parties?
3. Do you think people spend too much on clothes nowadays?
4. Do you think you will change your clothing style when you leave the college
and go back to your hometown?
Part 2
[Event]
Describe an event that changes your life in a good way.
When?
Why?
One additional question:
Are you a person who likes change?
Part 3
[Job]
1. Do you think nowadays people like to change their jobs several times in the
ir lives? Why?
2. Do you think the working environment in Taiwan will get better in the future?
[The city you live]
1. Where do you live now?
2. What are the reasons you dislike the city?
3. Do you want to live in this city for a long time in the future?
[Clothes]
1. What kind of clothes do you wear at college?
2. Did you like to wear special clothes at parties?
3. Do you think people spend too much on clothes nowadays?
4. Do you think you will change your clothing style when you leave the college
and go back to your hometown?
Part 2
[Event]
Describe an event that changes your life in a good way.
When?
Why?
One additional question:
Are you a person who likes change?
Part 3
[Job]
1. Do you think nowadays people like to change their jobs several times in the
ir lives? Why?
2. Do you think the working environment in Taiwan will get better in the future?
2014年3月12日 星期三
雅思不懂單字也能閱讀
Reading IELTS articles is hard because there are a lot of complex or unusual phrases.
1. Read the article once. Look at the highlighted words phrases in yellow. Try to match them with the choices under each paragraph. Note: the word form may be different! This is a close meaning to help your reading comprehension.
2. Read the article again. This time try to answer the comprehension questions the end.
3. Exploit the article. Don’t just do the questions and move on! There is a lot of language in an article you can use to develop. Notice how these phrases were used. Write them out again in your own sentences in a summary of the article.
You can print the original article here.
Thaliaceans and the carbon cycle
The jelly cycle
May 21st 2009
From The Economist print edition
A hitherto unknown way of burying carbon at the bottom of the sea
Swim or sink
A
IN 2006 Mario Lebrato and Daniel Jones of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, were using a remotely operated deep-sea vehicle to study the sea floor near an oil pipeline off Côte d’Ivoire. What they found surprised them. It was a thaliacean graveyard. And its discovery throws into question1 the received wisdom about2 one important aspect of climate change, namely how much carbon from the atmosphere ends up at the bottom of the sea.
1.
A) challenges
B) criticizes
C) changes
2.
A) what people are told
B) what most people believe
C) what wise people think
B
Despite their unfamiliarity to most people, thaliaceans (a colony of which is pictured) are abundant creatures in many parts of the ocean. Their bodies are transparent and gelatinous3, like those of jellyfish. They are not jellyfish, though. They are actually chordates—in other words, part of the same group of animals as humans, even though they do not have backbones. The thaliacean graveyard off Côte d’Ivoire came as a surprise because not much was known at the time about what happens to animals with gelatinous bodies, whether chordates or jellyfish, after they have died. And it set Mr Lebrato and Dr Jones thinking4, because if thaliaceans are falling to the bottom of the sea in large numbers, they might be taking a lot of carbon with them5.
3.
A) solid and rigid
B) milky and firm
C) clear and squishy
4.
A) started … thinking
B) encouraged … to think
C) stopped … from thinking
5.
A) encouraging carbon to move to the sea floor
B) carrying the carbon in their dead bodies to the sea floor
C) preventing the carbon from reaching the sea floor
C
Until then gelatinous animals had largely been ignored by researchers studying the carbon cycle (the way that element moves through land, sea, air and living creatures) because gelatinous bodies were thought to contain a lot of water and thus relatively little carbon6. However, as Mr Lebrato and Dr Jones report in Limnology and Oceanography, when they analysed thaliacean tissues7 they found that the creatures were one-third carbon by weight. That was much more than they expected. Jellyfish, by comparison, are 10% carbon, and diatoms (single-celled algae that are common in plankton) 20%. It also helps explain why thaliaceans are so dense8—and thus sink so quickly after they die.
6.
A) very little carbon
B) a similar amount of carbon as water
C) not much carbon compared to the amount of water
7.
A) bones
B) the liquids in the body
C) skin, flesh etc.
8.
A) heavy
B) firm
C) common
D
Hitherto9 it was assumed that the main way carbon gets from the top to the bottom of the ocean was as part of dead planktonic algae sinking to the seabed. But the discovery of just how carbon-rich10 and prone to11 sinking thaliaceans are may change that assumption. Because they gather by the billion in feeding swarms around the world (they eat single-celled algae), the amount of carbon thaliaceans are taking to the bottom of the sea is by no means trivial12, according to Mr Lebrato. He admits it is difficult to make accurate comparisons, because the research is still in its infancy13. But he estimates that the “jelly pump”, as he refers to it, sinks almost twice as much carbon as algae do.
9.
A) Before this
B) Recently
C) A long time ago
10.
A) no carbon
B) some carbon
C) lots of carbon
11.
A) rarely
B) sometimes
C) tends to
12.
A) it is small
B) it is significant
C) it is large
13.
A) beginning
B) mature
C) old news
E
The question is, does that carbon stay down once it has arrived? That is unclear. The one sure way14 of keeping carbon on the seabed is in the form of calcium carbonate, the main ingredient of most animal shells. But thaliaceans have no shells. Nevertheless, some thaliaceans get buried before they have completely decomposed, and other researchers have found evidence that dead jellyfish sometimes accumulate15 in trenches without much decomposition, so perhaps thaliaceans do, too.
14.
A) One of several methods
B) We can’t be sure which method
C) There is only one 100% method
15.
A) fall apart
B) grow in amount
C) stay in one piece
F
Even if the carbon is not permanently buried, the lack of mixing16 between deep and shallow water in the ocean means that it is likely to stay down there for a long time—something that will have to be added to computer models of how the climate works. The carbon cycle has thus acquired another epicycle, and become even more complicated to understand than it was.
16.
A) it never combines
B) it often mixes
C) it is mostly separate
Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
Comprehension Questions
Note: These are not IELTS style questions. They are just to check your understanding of each paragraph. Answers are below.
Paragraph A
Q1. How has the discovery changed scientists’ theories on climate change?
Paragraph B
Q2. How are thaliaceans different from Jellyfish?
Q3. Before the discovery of the graveyard, what did scientists probably believe about the numbers of thaliaceans?
Paragraph C
Q4. Why hadn’t climate change scientists previously thought about thaliaceans?
Paragraph D
Q5. How did scientists used to believe carbon was transported to the bottom of the sea?
Q6. Compared to algae, to what extent do thaliaceans affect the carbon cycle?
Paragraph E
Q7. Is there evidence that the carbon from thaliaceans remains on the sea floor?
Paragraph F
Q8. Why is it clear that more carbon is stored in the ocean than previously thought?
Q9. After this discovery, what do scientists know about the carbon cycle?
Vocabulary Guessing Answers
1 A
2 B
3 C
4 A
5 B
6 C
7 C
8 A
9 A
10 C
11 C
12 B
13 A
14 C
15 B
16 C
Reading comprehension answers
1 They have to re-calculate how much carbon from the atmosphere is stored on the sea floor.
2 They have backbones.
3 That their numbers were small.
4 That their bodies contained mainly water and very little carbon.
5 That it was carried down to the sea floor by the bodies of dead planktonic algae.
6 They affect it twice as much because they carry twice as much carbon to the bottom of the sea.
7 No. But scientists guess that it does because they have found the buried bodies of jellyfish, which still haven’t decomposed.
8 Because even if the bodes of thaliaceans do decompose in the water. Deep water usually stays separate from shallow water, and therefore it is not released into the atmosphere.
9 It is more than they previously thought.
I hope this helps!
Please let me know what you think of this exercise. Email me or comment.
1. Read the article once. Look at the highlighted words phrases in yellow. Try to match them with the choices under each paragraph. Note: the word form may be different! This is a close meaning to help your reading comprehension.
2. Read the article again. This time try to answer the comprehension questions the end.
3. Exploit the article. Don’t just do the questions and move on! There is a lot of language in an article you can use to develop. Notice how these phrases were used. Write them out again in your own sentences in a summary of the article.
You can print the original article here.
Thaliaceans and the carbon cycle
The jelly cycle
May 21st 2009
From The Economist print edition
A hitherto unknown way of burying carbon at the bottom of the sea
Swim or sink
A
IN 2006 Mario Lebrato and Daniel Jones of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, were using a remotely operated deep-sea vehicle to study the sea floor near an oil pipeline off Côte d’Ivoire. What they found surprised them. It was a thaliacean graveyard. And its discovery throws into question1 the received wisdom about2 one important aspect of climate change, namely how much carbon from the atmosphere ends up at the bottom of the sea.
1.
A) challenges
B) criticizes
C) changes
2.
A) what people are told
B) what most people believe
C) what wise people think
B
Despite their unfamiliarity to most people, thaliaceans (a colony of which is pictured) are abundant creatures in many parts of the ocean. Their bodies are transparent and gelatinous3, like those of jellyfish. They are not jellyfish, though. They are actually chordates—in other words, part of the same group of animals as humans, even though they do not have backbones. The thaliacean graveyard off Côte d’Ivoire came as a surprise because not much was known at the time about what happens to animals with gelatinous bodies, whether chordates or jellyfish, after they have died. And it set Mr Lebrato and Dr Jones thinking4, because if thaliaceans are falling to the bottom of the sea in large numbers, they might be taking a lot of carbon with them5.
3.
A) solid and rigid
B) milky and firm
C) clear and squishy
4.
A) started … thinking
B) encouraged … to think
C) stopped … from thinking
5.
A) encouraging carbon to move to the sea floor
B) carrying the carbon in their dead bodies to the sea floor
C) preventing the carbon from reaching the sea floor
C
Until then gelatinous animals had largely been ignored by researchers studying the carbon cycle (the way that element moves through land, sea, air and living creatures) because gelatinous bodies were thought to contain a lot of water and thus relatively little carbon6. However, as Mr Lebrato and Dr Jones report in Limnology and Oceanography, when they analysed thaliacean tissues7 they found that the creatures were one-third carbon by weight. That was much more than they expected. Jellyfish, by comparison, are 10% carbon, and diatoms (single-celled algae that are common in plankton) 20%. It also helps explain why thaliaceans are so dense8—and thus sink so quickly after they die.
6.
A) very little carbon
B) a similar amount of carbon as water
C) not much carbon compared to the amount of water
7.
A) bones
B) the liquids in the body
C) skin, flesh etc.
8.
A) heavy
B) firm
C) common
D
Hitherto9 it was assumed that the main way carbon gets from the top to the bottom of the ocean was as part of dead planktonic algae sinking to the seabed. But the discovery of just how carbon-rich10 and prone to11 sinking thaliaceans are may change that assumption. Because they gather by the billion in feeding swarms around the world (they eat single-celled algae), the amount of carbon thaliaceans are taking to the bottom of the sea is by no means trivial12, according to Mr Lebrato. He admits it is difficult to make accurate comparisons, because the research is still in its infancy13. But he estimates that the “jelly pump”, as he refers to it, sinks almost twice as much carbon as algae do.
9.
A) Before this
B) Recently
C) A long time ago
10.
A) no carbon
B) some carbon
C) lots of carbon
11.
A) rarely
B) sometimes
C) tends to
12.
A) it is small
B) it is significant
C) it is large
13.
A) beginning
B) mature
C) old news
E
The question is, does that carbon stay down once it has arrived? That is unclear. The one sure way14 of keeping carbon on the seabed is in the form of calcium carbonate, the main ingredient of most animal shells. But thaliaceans have no shells. Nevertheless, some thaliaceans get buried before they have completely decomposed, and other researchers have found evidence that dead jellyfish sometimes accumulate15 in trenches without much decomposition, so perhaps thaliaceans do, too.
14.
A) One of several methods
B) We can’t be sure which method
C) There is only one 100% method
15.
A) fall apart
B) grow in amount
C) stay in one piece
F
Even if the carbon is not permanently buried, the lack of mixing16 between deep and shallow water in the ocean means that it is likely to stay down there for a long time—something that will have to be added to computer models of how the climate works. The carbon cycle has thus acquired another epicycle, and become even more complicated to understand than it was.
16.
A) it never combines
B) it often mixes
C) it is mostly separate
Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
Comprehension Questions
Note: These are not IELTS style questions. They are just to check your understanding of each paragraph. Answers are below.
Paragraph A
Q1. How has the discovery changed scientists’ theories on climate change?
Paragraph B
Q2. How are thaliaceans different from Jellyfish?
Q3. Before the discovery of the graveyard, what did scientists probably believe about the numbers of thaliaceans?
Paragraph C
Q4. Why hadn’t climate change scientists previously thought about thaliaceans?
Paragraph D
Q5. How did scientists used to believe carbon was transported to the bottom of the sea?
Q6. Compared to algae, to what extent do thaliaceans affect the carbon cycle?
Paragraph E
Q7. Is there evidence that the carbon from thaliaceans remains on the sea floor?
Paragraph F
Q8. Why is it clear that more carbon is stored in the ocean than previously thought?
Q9. After this discovery, what do scientists know about the carbon cycle?
Vocabulary Guessing Answers
1 A
2 B
3 C
4 A
5 B
6 C
7 C
8 A
9 A
10 C
11 C
12 B
13 A
14 C
15 B
16 C
Reading comprehension answers
1 They have to re-calculate how much carbon from the atmosphere is stored on the sea floor.
2 They have backbones.
3 That their numbers were small.
4 That their bodies contained mainly water and very little carbon.
5 That it was carried down to the sea floor by the bodies of dead planktonic algae.
6 They affect it twice as much because they carry twice as much carbon to the bottom of the sea.
7 No. But scientists guess that it does because they have found the buried bodies of jellyfish, which still haven’t decomposed.
8 Because even if the bodes of thaliaceans do decompose in the water. Deep water usually stays separate from shallow water, and therefore it is not released into the atmosphere.
9 It is more than they previously thought.
I hope this helps!
Please let me know what you think of this exercise. Email me or comment.
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