Saturday, November 7, 2015

English: Writing. Plan Your Russian Vacation.

Task: Your friend is moving to your country and has never been there before. Write a letter of advice and suggestions to him/her about the transition.

Hi Tom,
You asked me FOR advice about visiting Russia and I decided to describe a few places which you need to see:  
  1. Moscow Kremlin is one of the most historically interesting placeS in the world. Being there YOU CAN SEE old churches AND imagine how russian tzars organised significant events there.
Screen Shot 2015-11-07 at 16.32.02.png
  1. Sankt Petersburg is a great city/museum IN THE open air. Try to walk there early morning and you WILL feel THE magnificent atmosphere of this place.
Screen Shot 2015-11-07 at 16.34.10.png
  1. Visit a countryside somewhere for instance IN the North of Russia. I’m sure it would be very different from what you saw in your country.
Screen Shot 2015-11-07 at 16.35.05.png
Don’t forget to visit me. We will speak about your journey and discuss about my plans to visit your country next year.

Anatoly
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Written for Anatoly’s blog http://item1000.blogspot.com during Audrey Ross’s class.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Using Modern Tools For Preparing Exams

Using Modern Tools For Preparing Exams

This week I passed the professional exams and there is one thing which helped me very much in this deal. It is IPad and a very useful program” Good Reader”. Probably the technic of using this tool might be interesting for readers and I decided to dedicate to it this post.

First of all I recommend to read instruction of this program and “How-Tos” very carefully (“how-tos” is a plural form the informal adjective “how-to” which means “providing detailed and practical advice about the way to do something”). It is important to understand  two main features:
1. synchronization with cloud’s services and
2. skills of work with pdf-files.

We can classify  cloud’s services as:
1.) When customers manage their files in the cloud. A very good example is Google Drive.
2.) When synchronization organize without customers. One great example of it is photo synchronization from Apple between IPad, IPhone, IMac.
3.) And “intellectual synchronization” (my term) as we have in Good Reader.

Intellectual synchronization

We can link Good Reader on the tablet with accounts on cloud services as Google Drive, Dropbox etc.

What is how it looks like:




We can see on the picture that the tablet program can be linked with several accounts. When we click on the button “synchronization”,  all files inside folders synchronize with relevant folders on Google Drive.

Working with pdf-files

Pdf-files are the most suitable format because it gives possibilities to  highlight letters, add bookmarks and comments. I especially like searching feature there. If I didn’t have gadget, I would carry a very big suitcase with Study Books and Study Notes and technic of work wasn’t perfect.

I refer 50% success in passing exams to the features of this technology and recommend to use it.

Anatoly
 











Sunday, June 28, 2015

English: Writing: Flight Delay Compensation

Task: You are a business manager. Write an apology email to a client about a problem with the service and how it will be resolved.
Additional task: Don’t mention the word “apologies” in you letter.

Flight Delay Compensation


Screen Shot 2015-06-28 at 19.26.18.png
Dear Sir,

We received your complainT about THE FLIGHT DELAY which happened last month.

We ARE aware that it could be very inconvenient for passengers and we are doing EVERYTHING TO DECREASE THE number of FLIGHT DELAYS for the future.

We wrote an agreement with the airport's administration about free coffee and snacks for passengers in case of FLIGHT DELAYS.

Let us as compensation for your inconvenience, give you a twenty percent discount for the tickets for the next flight.

We appreciate your understanding and we hope that you’ll decide to use our service again.

Your quality manager
Anatoly
Screen Shot 2015-06-28 at 19.30.55.png

PS:
5 Reasons Why Some People Will Never Apologize

Written for Anatoly’s blog http://item1000.blogspot.com during Audrey Ross’s class.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

English: Writing. Desktop In the Cloud

Task:
Your favorite company made a huge mistake. Write a complaint letter to the CEO of this company.


Screen Shot 2015-06-14 at 19.40.57.png

Flexibility. It is a new trend which can improve a work performance in the company.

I tried last time to move my virtual working place (desktop of my computer) to the server. And now I’m completely independent of the place where I Am now in terms of doing my job. My files, office programs, accountING programs, they are all in the cloud.

WHILE I WAS on A business trip last month I shared with my colleagues that WHEN I AM  in front of A computer I feel LIKE I’m in my office because my computer's desktop IS with me. “Only the furniture is different” THEY JOKED.
Screen Shot 2015-06-14 at 19.43.43.png
It is reasonable to use as a local computer the cheapest one and install there free software, I recommend the linux system - Ubuntu.

Using the resources of the one server and programs which have BEEN bought for one computer, the company can keep A LOT OF money for developing THE business.

Written for Anatoly’s blog http://item1000.blogspot.com during Audrey Ross’s class.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

English: Writing: The Longest Street in Moscow

Task:
Write a brochure for tourists in your town explaining all the great places to see and things to do.

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Probably tourists imagine Moscow as A crowdy mEgapoliS. And it is true but Moscow is also a very beautiful place and comfortable TO LIVE AND RELAX IN.

This photo was taken by me a few days ago on THE Moscow River.  It is a large green area in the centre of Moscow. Tourists like to walk there, to ride on the ships, on rollersKATES or bicycles.

Let’s come back to the history of Moscow. This city was set up in the forest. People found IT AND SETTLED where the river bends.

During A trip on the shores of Moscow River the sun is constantly changing direction, because the river bends. It seems that thESE beautiful landscapes GO ON FOREVER.

IN ONE SONG, this river was called the longest street of Moscow, I invite everybody who visitS Moscow to see this place and if the weather is good to ride there on bicycles.

And don’t forget that you are in the centre OF one OF the biggest citIES IN THE WORLD - Moscow
Screen Shot 2015-06-13 at 15.39.13.png
This photo was taken by me On June 12, 2015 on THE Moscow-River

Anatoly
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Written for Anatoly’s blog http://item1000.blogspot.com during Audrey Ross’s class.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Interesting way of teaching English from Stefanie Linguistiko

It is an interesting idea to give students to prepare part of presentation. The title of the class was “Adjectives that End in “Y” and this is our presentation:










This masterpiece was created by students during Stefanie’s class on linguistiko.com

Sunday, June 7, 2015

English: Idioms and Writing


smell a rat = fell that something is wrong

The exam was going fine before I received this unexpected task. “I smelled a rat” I thought.

Note: This idiom uses as personal attitude. We can’t use phrase “It smelled a rat”.
But there is a book which title is also appropriate.



go to the dogs = become run-down

The stock market fell. It’s awful! Everything is going to the dogs!!!

fishy = strange and suspicious


This man looks like an honest person but look at his biography. He was in prison many times. And his behavior at yesterday’s party was fishy.
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take the bull by the horns = take decisive action in a difficult situation.

They have been trying to keep their relationship many years and finally Susan took the bull by the horns and suggested divorce.



Written during Stephanie’s class on verbling.com



Saturday, June 6, 2015

English: Writing. Traveling in time

Task: Write a letter to a company suggesting that they offer a new product you would like to purchase.

Traveling in time

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The tourist industry can offer much more now for people than in the past. And TAKING historical trips is a trend now. This is A picture which I took in the Roman Forum (Rome, Italy) in May 2015. It was A very rainy day, it seemed not so comfortable for walking between the ruins but it was A very memorable event. Maybe because there was no crowd during the rain.

The atmosphere of this place was UNforgettable. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS USE A LITTLE imagination and you are in the past.

So, my idea is to suggest the historical trips to customers. Having so many sources of information and considering the great interest of tourists about history, it would be a good business idea.

Anatoly

Written for Anatoly’s blog http://item1000.blogspot.com during Audrey Ross’s class.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

My experience of the cheapest traveling


I read about low-cost airlines and I thought that the cheapest products WERE always bad quality. But after I TOOK a trip through Europe on A low-cost AIRLINE my opinion about this WAY of travelling had changed dramatically.

I FLEW on the planes of EasyJet from Vienna to Rome and from Rome to Paris and didn’t notice any shortcomings. THE ONLY difference from regular flights is THE absence of free food and drinks on board. But it doesn’t matter.

I found google offers a very good service for choosing aircraft companies. It is here http://www.google.com/flights/ TO ILLUSTRATE it I CHOSE a TRIP from Rome to Paris and I received just 1 MINUTEAGO this result:

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The price is 99$ ! It is cheaper than TAKING A taxi from A remote suburb to THE centre of Moscow!

And Google gave AN OPTION to estimate our choices visually
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We can see on the map the destination, price, scale of prices for all days of the month on A separate board and A picture of our desired destination.

After Google suggested to us a list of AIRLINES we can go to the AIRLINE SITES and buy the tickets there.

Cheapest tickets by the way !!!

Anatoly

PS: It is NOT AN advertisement, just AN English-writing practice

Written special for Anatoly’s blog http://item1000.blogspot.com during Audrey Ross’s class.
The capital letters show some mistakes which were corrected by teacher Audrey Ross

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Marga’s Reading Lounge Weekly on Saturday (Open Event for Practice English)




This event was in Second life on April 4, 2015 inside virtual world Second Life secondlife.com . Marga chose for that day a little bit challenging text.


The strategy of the class is reading the whole text for each person, choosing some words and creating our sentences with them.


Here are some benefits of this method:
  • Repeating new words is improving vocabulary. The link to the image of new word might be also useful.
Example:
boarded-window


  • If the text difficult repeating reading give us more sense of meaning it. We can see an example which proves this statement in the script of our chat during the class
[22:51] Anatoly Learner: yes I also start to like this story


  • We can practice a little bit in writing skills.
  • Grammar practice takes place when our sentences are being corrected.
Here is an example when Marga suggested to use singular form of pronoun (this instead of those) and to use more common expressions “pop in” or “show up” instead of appear.  
[23:04] Anatoly Learner: Sparse strangers appear in those Sim in Second Life
[23:05] Anatoly Learner: Sparse strangers appear in this Sim in Second Life
[23:05] Marga : pop up
[23:05] Marga : show up


  • And the discussion could be fun. For instance when put in the chat my example of using word “indigence”:  
[22:58] Anatoly Learner: Indigence and richness are what we need to avoid
Marga noticed that she would be agree to avoid indigence but doesn’t mind to live in richness. :)


Here is the link to Google calendar of this Sim for people who are interested in participating in this event for the future


And the class material is also below in this post:


April 3rd, 2015 Reading #50


Instructions: Please read aloud the short story below and look at the requirements that follow it. Each of you reads the story once. In this reading comprehension activity there are three parts; each part has its own instructions.


*** The Boarded Window***
by Ambrose Bierce (Adapted)


In 1830, only a few miles away from what is now the great city of Cincinnati, lay an immense and almost unbroken forest. The whole region was sparsely settled by people of the frontier--restless souls who lived in homes out of the wilderness and attained to that degree of prosperity which today we would call indigence. They abandoned all and pushed farther westward, to encounter new perils and privations in the effort to regain the comforts which they had voluntarily renounced.


Many of them had already forsaken that region for the remoter settlements, but among those remaining was one who had been of those first arriving. He lived alone in a house of logs surrounded on all sides by the great forest, of whose gloom and silence he seemed a part, for no one had ever known him to smile nor speak a needless word. His simple wants were supplied by the sale or barter of skins of wild animals in the river town, for not a thing did he grow upon the land which, if needful, he might have claimed by right of undisturbed possession. There were evidences of "improvement"--a few acres of ground immediately about the house had once been cleared of its trees, the decayed stumps of which were half concealed by the new growth that had been allowed to repair the ravage worked by the ax.


Apparently the man's zeal for agriculture had burned with a failing flame. The little log house, with its chimney of sticks, its roof of warping clapboards supported and weighted with traversing poles and its "chinking" of clay, had a single door and, directly opposite, a window. The latter, however, was boarded up--nobody could remember a time when it was not. And none knew why it was so closed; certainly not because of the occupant's dislike of light and air, for on those rare occasions when a hunter had passed that lonely spot the recluse had commonly been seen sunning himself on his doorstep if heaven had provided sunshine for his need. I fancy there are few persons living today who ever knew the secret of that window, but I am one, as you shall see.


The man's name was said to be Murlock. He was apparently seventy years old, actually about fifty. Something besides years had had a hand in his aging. His hair and long, full beard were white, his gray, lusterless eyes sunken, his face singularly seamed with wrinkles which appeared to belong to two intersecting systems. In figure he was tall and spare, with a stoop of the shoulders--a burden bearer. I never saw him; these particulars I learned from my grandfather, from whom also I got the man's story when I was a lad. He had known him when living near by in that early day.


One day Murlock was found in his cabin, dead. It was not a time and place for coroners and newspapers, and I suppose it was agreed that he had died from natural causes or I should have been told, and should remember. I know only that with what was probably a sense of the fitness of things the body was buried near the cabin, alongside the grave of his wife, who had preceded him by so many years that local tradition had remember hardly a hint of her existence.


***The End***


Part A: Vocabulary: Please see the list of expressions/words below and try to understand the meaning from the context . After you understand the meaning , please make up your own sentence for each word, write it in the public chat and share it with the group.


• indigence ( noun) - a state of extreme poverty.


• sparse (adjective) - thinly scattered or distributed: not thick or dense; thin


• peril ( noun )  - something that causes or may cause injury, loss, or destruction.


• privation (noun) - lack of the usual comforts or necessaries of life:


• to forsake ( verb) - to quit or leave entirely; to abandon


• gloom ( noun) - total or partial darkness; dimness.


• to  conceal ( verb ) - to hide; withdraw or remove from observation; cover or keep from sight


• zeal ( noun) - fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.


• stoop ( noun) - the act or an instance of stooping; a stooping position or carriage of body ( like bending )


• coroner ( noun) - an officer, as of a county or municipality, whose chief function is to investigate by inquest, as before a jury, any death not clearly resulting from natural causes.


Part B: Reading Comprehension: After reading the story, choose the best answer for each question.
1. As it is used in paragraph one, the word indigence most nearly means…


A. sustenance
B. wealth
C. influence
D. poverty


2. As it is used in paragraph three, the word traversing most nearly means…


A. traveling
B. crossing
C. shifting
D. holding


3. As it is used in paragraph four, the word lusterless most nearly means…


A. dull
B. broken
C. barren
D. alarming