22/04
Aliona's listening...

Hi everyone!

To practice my listening I chose the video from ESLvideo.com under the title Martin Luther King, Jr. A legendary person, he was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennesse.

After watching I did the Quiz and got 82%.

Then I went to ESL-lab and chose the audio track from medium level called Traffic Ticket. It was a conversation between a driver and an officer Smith. They were talking about driver's speeding in a school zone, that he was going 50 miles per hour zone in a 20 miles per hour zone. Also a driver was not wearing a seat belt, AND his driver's license expired six months ago.
So after that tense conversation I did tests and got 100%.

Written by Aliona Tonkonih

22.04 Dasha's listening

   I've just listening to the audio track "Just a Haircut, Please!". It was a conversation between a customer and a beautician. the man came to the barbershop to make a laying to improve his appearance for an interview for new employment. But a beautician offered the man a special proposal to shampoo, cut, and style his hair for one unbelievable low price of $9.99. The man agreed...
   But the result was disappointing...The beautician didn't know how "that thing" works, got shampoo in his eyes and, finally, spoiled his former hairstyle. Moreover, when he wanted to complain to the manager, it was found that he is taking time off from work. So, you see the service of that barbershop is unacceptable and i wish you not to visit such a disgusting barbershos.

    Recently, I have stumbled upon the song "Family Portrait" (Pink). By the way, it's one of my favourite songs. It is a story of a little girl, who is tolerating a distruction of her family. Her parents always swear and father is going to leave them, the mother always cries...
 The girl, trying to save the family, promises to be better. Their life is lke World War III now... She looks at their family portrait, where they look pretty and happy, and asks to go back to that...
   It's really one of the most hardest periods in every person's life and not everyone can cope with it..

                                                                Alina's latest listening!
Helllo everyone.
            Firstly I decided to practise my listening with ESLvideo. It is called "The Eiffel Tower SM". It is one of the tallest buildings in Paris. The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid movement in the world. Millions of people ascend it every year. The Tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France. Asd one of the most iconic images in the world, the Eiffel Tower has been the inspiration for the creation of over 30 dublicates and similar towers around the world. Today, almost all parisians love the Tower. After watching a video I did a test and got 80 %
         Then I listened to the audio track from Randall's ESL Cyber.  It is called "Job hunting". It was a conversation between man and woman. They were talking about today's jobs. A man told about the most crucial factors, when looking  for a new job: paid vacation, opportunities for promotion and insurance. After listening I did a test and got 80%.
     
                         Thanks a lot.

22.04Natasha's Listening

Good afternoon, everyone!

     I chose ESLlab.com to practice my listening today. The audio under the title ''Haven't we met before" from Medium was that one I listened to. It was the conversation between man and woman, who were trying to call to memory whether they met before. I think that a really typical situation was shown in this video and to my mind the phrases from this episode may be useful for me. After listening, as usual, I did some tests and got 80%.

     Then I went to ESLvideo.com, High Intermediate and chose there a video under the title "How to Dress for a Job Interview", because I thought that might be very interesting to listen to. And, frankly speaking, I was right! The expert was telling some ideas of how to look like having a job interview. It was rather understandable, but important things to remember. By the way, I did a test after watching the episode and got 86% of correct answers. Here I have a picture from the video I watched:

     In general I liked both extracts I payed attention to today, because I found them useful and curious.

     Thank you.

     Written by Nataliya Hlushachenko.

08.04 Dasha's listening

   Yesterday I listened to the audio track "Flower Shop". It was a conversation between a florist and a customer.
   The man didn't remember the day he got married and that's why to atone guilt he wanted to buy a dozen roses with some greenery.
   It was obvious that he had forgotten their anniversary.
   The florist said that he need at least 2 dozen roses. a dozen balloons and a romantic evening at an expensive restaurant.
   But the man had only 12.32 $. In spite of this fact, the florist agreed to help him and made a pretty bouquet.

   The second thing I done yesterday is watching the video "Ultrarunning" by Rabndall. It was really interesting and useful, I've learned that ultramarathon is any distance between 50 and over 200 kilometers.
   As for Randall, he runs shorter distances because it's difficult to find the time to train for longer runs. Randall advises ultrarunning because it's really useful for health. Moreover it's a great chance to be out in nature. So, it's both good for the soul and the mind.

Aliona`s listening last time

Hello, everybody!

It was a terrible weather yesterday, so I decided to see something funny to cheer up. To my surprise, I found at "EcEnglish" the video from very popular show "Britain's Got Talent", where people show their talents. In this video one guy named Donald came to the show to claim that he can sing greatly. I prepared to listen carefully, but after the first three words I only burst out laughing! It was very bad, and jury tried to stop him, but he was so confident in his talent, that began to sing another song, then other one! It was really funny, because he seemed very upset by the words of judges. His face expressed a complete surprise and when he went away from the stage, he was nearly angry.

So, after having pleasure from watching such a funny video, I`ve done some exercises connected with lexical material. For example, use of the words "keep up" or "carry on", which are similar and so on.
 
In general, I always like such combining business with pleasure, what our blog allows me to do.

Thanks.
Aliona Kovalinska.

Natasha's latest listening

Hello everyone!

To practice my listening today I chose two video episodes from ESLvideo.com. The first one was under the title 'China Says 'Ole' to Spain. This video shows how Chinese people get acquainted with Spanish culture. They dance flamenco, sing Spanish songs and even have the year of Spanish culture in China. I think that is a really good way for two countries to become closer in different aspects. I liked the video very much.
After I finished watching it, I did some tests and got 90%. Rather good result, isn't it?

Here is the picture with Chinese people singing Spanish songs.

Then I watched another episode under the title 'Inventions and Inventors'. The top 10 inventions of 20th century were mentioned there: television, automobiles, airplanes, nuclear technology, cellphone and so on... The narrator tells some words about all that great inventions and comes into their history a bit.

The most important invention made in 20th century, as it is told in this episode, is the computer. Modern generation can' imagine their lives without the computers, because they are practically everywhere!

I must say that the video episode was very interesting and full of new facts. I liked it so much. By the way I tried myself in answering the questions and reached 80%.


Thank you.

Written by Nataliya Hlushachenko.

Aliona's listening...

Hello everyone!

Today I decided to practise my listening with ESL video. So, when I opened it the first video on the screen was called "Someone like you". It is a song of one of my favourite singers Adele. That's why without any hesitation I started to watch it. It is really a nice song where Adele tells us how to rise from the ashes of a broken love. After my listening I did some tests and I got 96%. And now you can also watch this video clip with me, because I am going to enjoy it once again right now!!

Then I went to ESL Lab to listen to the audio track named "Professional Babysitting" from difficult level. It was a conversation between a man and a girl - a Professional Babysitting as she told. Mr. Adams was impressed when Kelly gave her own business card. Also according to the girl's financial consultant (her mom), she should charge more for babysitting because she does some housework while the parents are out. And finally now she is a certified babysitter with training in CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: a medical procedure used to restart the heart and breathing again in emergency situations). Then I did some tests and got 80%.

And of course I did some exercises from Business English Vocabulary.

Grammar Revision

Hello, dear students!
Let's review First /  Second / Third / Zero Conditionals.
Follow this link and you will find a lot of useful information there.

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/conditional-sentences

Good luck,
Yelena Valerianovna

Quotation of the day

Hello, dear students!

Here is a quote about meetings:

"A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted.”

                                                                                                              James T. Kirk

Would you comment on it, please?

 

Yelena Valerianovna

Aliona`s listening today

Hello, everyone!

Today is the 1st of April, everybody tries to have fun, so I decided to listen something connected with it. So, the tape I`ve listened to was from the site "Listen a Minute" named just "FUN". It`s about the man, who tries to have fun everywhere and he remembers what a funny life he had before. It was interesting to hear in every sentense a word "fun" and it sounded really amusingly! I understood, that we need to have fun just now, because when we start working, there won`t be enough time for entertainment. So I decided not to waste my time and went to pin on my friends (after doing all the tests under the tape, of course). It was FUN!

Then I`ve done a lot of tests from Business English Vocabulary, because I really liked this site, and it`s really useful!

Thanks!

Aliona Kovalinska.

                                                   Alina's latest listening
Hello everyone!
           Today I chose a video from ESL. It is called "How to remember what you read". There are some really   good pieces of advice for people who can not remember information. According to this video it is a good idea  to categorize information while reading. Also the first thing you need when reading is techniques. You can recall what you read if you decide it matters enough if you remember.It is important to take notes and say words out loud  and try to highlight only important key words. I think these pieces of advice can help you to train your memory!
After watching a video I did a test and got 78%.
                  Then I listened to audio track from Listen a minute. It is called "Quality of life". This text is about something we try to improve - it is our quality of life. The biggest things that affect how happy you are: friends, job, holidays and etc. Of course it is quite difficult to change these things but we should always remember that quality of life  is important to all of us. After this listening I did some tasks.

1.04 Dasha's listening =)

   I've just listened to the audio track named "Wedding Anniversary". It was a conversation between a husband and his wife. He tried to congratulate her on the wedding anniversary, but it was late... Indeed, it had been a week before!
   To correct his mistake he agreed to do everything she wanted! Using the opportunity, a wise wife said that she wanted a trip to Europe! Moreover she wanted to fly first class and stay at 5-star hotels!
   The second thing she wanted was a new kitchen stove because the old one had taken its last breath weeks before.
   Then she asked for a new wardrobe and said that she was not going to wear his grandmother's old secondhand pants again.
   The man was confused and he had nothing else to say than: "Wow. I'd better ask the boss for a huge raise."


   I've also just watched a video "Learning English" by Randall.
   According to him students often feel like their learning has come to a dead end, and there are several things that students can do to improve their learning.
  At first, students might need private instruction a couple of times a week.  Randall's second point focuses on organizing your study routine. In other words, you have to have some type of plan. And the last thing is that getting out into the community can help students use the knowledge they have learned.
   Learning is really tough; it takes a lot of work, and you have to decide if you're going to break the ceiling of English. In other words, go beyond where you already are, and that takes a new strategy often for many students.

Natasha's listening

Hello, friends!

Today I decided to go to 'Listen a Minute' to practice my listening skills. I chose the extract under the title "Family", which is dedicated to the problems of modern family life. After having listened to the track, I tried to go to 'Quizes'. As for Quize 1, it was very easy and I passed it with 100% of right answers. Quize 2 took a lot of my time, but it was really very interesting! I had to try to guess all the words from the track "Family". I must say that was a great chance to train my memory! I liked doing that very much.

Then, as usual, I went to ESLvideo.com, because, frankly speaking, it has already become my favourite source. I chose a video under the title "Easter around the world" from Intermediate, because Easter is coming.

The episode was about Easter celebration in different countries of the world. I found a lot of new facts connected with this great holiday. For example, in Germany they burn the Christmas trees on Easter. Could you imagine that? Americans can't imagine Easter holiday without their traditional Easter chocolate bunnies. So, practically every country has its own special traditions of celebrating this holiday...
After watching the video I tried myself in answering questions and got 75%. To be frank, questions were rather difficult, because every small detail was important.  But in general I liked my today's listening.