Traits Of A Successful Person (Writing Exercise With Englishtown)

Topic: Write about the traits and habits of a successful person you admire.

I remember the story which our guide told us when we were on an excursion in The Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg  (school) where the most well known Russian poet, Aleksandr Pushkin studied. She said that if pupil demonstrates a success in all disciplines he hardly appears a genius in the future. But if he concentrates on one subject and he shows distinctly better results than in other disciplines it would lead to true success.

Alexander Pushkin didn't pay attention to mathematics and physics but he was passionate about poetry in the school. His talent has been noticed by teachers and this fact inspired him for improving his skills in literature.

This example demonstrates to us how important it is to find one area where our possibilities can be realized.

But it is also necessary to keep basis knowledges in other areas. In case of unpredictable circumstances we could change our occupation.

And general level of culture is also important for people even if it seems not necessary for everyday life. I think a studying of foreign language is a good example for it.

Conclusion:

Be excellent only in one discipline

Comment from teacher Stacey A:

Articles are used to differentiate between things or ideas – usually expressed by nouns. The speaker/writer may be referring to a specific thing or idea, or a general one. A and an are used to refer non-specific nouns.

This topic was written and corrected in online school http://englishlive.ef.com (former englishtown)

Marga's Reading Lounge 1405 2016

Marga's Reading Lounge 0705 2016

Marga's Reading Lounge 3004 2016

English class in virtual Venice

This class was managed by Giovanni Tweak (online English school http://www.drive-through-esl.info ) on the 3-td of April,2016 and dedicated to Venice.

The link for visit this place in Second Life is here:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Yumix%20Prada/120/86/30

The started point was a very famous place - the Rialto Bridge from which we could see the Grand Canal.

There are a lot of canals in Venice, water is everywhere. That was a reason why our teacher Giovanni asked us to give a definition shallow water what means an opposite of deep water.

We discussed a little about making cappuccino and gelato as a Italian name of ice cream.



We enter to the ferry which has similar role for Venice as a bus stop for others cities.

We could find here in the first part of the building a bank office for currency exchange and in the second part we saw freshly baked. That kind of shops is called a bakery.

There are many tailor shops near Rialto Bridge. It is reasonable to sell souvenirs here but choosing this place for selling fabric looks a little bit illogical (just my opinion).

Then we came to the most crowdy place in Venice and the teacher asked me what is this place, I answered San-Marco plaza and I was wrong because the right answer San-Marco square. We should use plaza for smaller open space and it is the biggest one. The square is covered by the water during the time of high water in Venice.



The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as well as a very important center of commerce and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century. This made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history.

We talked about Marco Polo, the famous Venetian merchant who explored the World. Venice was not just city in the Middle Ages but also a state. Only when Portuguese and Spanish navigators conquered new colonies, the era of the Great Venice passed.



We looked to the beautiful frescos in the church there and colonnade around caffe' Cipriani

The winged lion is a symbol of Venice we found it on the bell tower which we reached on elevator.



How do ordinary people live here, we asked. Look to this apartment building. The clothes and sheets hung out to dry but on the back side of the building.



Front side look more pleasant.

Staying on the tile roof we discussed about architecture preferences. Venice is listed as a World Heritage Site.



It is a good time to visit Venice during carnival. We stayed near composition of clowns who wear masks.



Thanks this class I refreshed my memories about fabulous place - Venice.

Marga's Reading Lounge 0904 2016

More Confusing Words With Madelyn

The teacher gave us a clue how to remember differences between two words desert and dessert.

Madelyn asked students how many pieces of cake do we usually take. Michail answered two and Madelyn replied "remember that you need to use two letter s in this word”.

I noticed that if I took one pieces of cake before, for remembering this word I would change my habit. Joke helps us to remember, this is a fact.

More confusing words from this class:

isle

aisle

piece

peace

course -3 possibilities in one word

coarse = rough, not smooth

confidant

confident

curb = to stop or restrain

kerb = near pavement

currant (I used to drink as a midicine raspberries)

current

device

devise

die

dye

draft

draught

envelope

envelop

Iminent

Eminent

forth

fourth = 4 th

Flammable = inflammable

forward

foreword

These notes were written on March 27, 2016 during the class in online school amilingo.com