Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts

Monday, April 26, 2010

GRE Practice Argument: Forestville Speed Limit

Six months ago the region of Forestville increased the speed limit for vehicles traveling on the region's highways by ten miles per hour. Since that change took effect, the number of automobile accidents in that region has increased by 15 percent. But the speed limit in Elmsford, a region neighboring Forestville, remained unchanged, and automobile accidents declined slightly during the same six-month period. Therefore, if the citizens of Forestville want to reduce the number of automobile accidents on the region's highways, they should campaign to reduce Forestville's speed limit to what it was before the increase.
Outline:
  • drivers
    • region population number vs percent
    • approvals of driver's licences for callow young
  • business
    • logistics efficiency and benefits
  • period
    • accidents caused by external traffic from Elmsford
  • place
    • traffic routes become more dangerous
  • potential problem
    • lowering the limit may cause more accidents

Sunday, April 25, 2010

GRE Practice Issue C100

Both the development of technological tools and the uses to which humanity has put them have created modern civilizations in which loneliness is ever increasing.
Outline:
  • modern civilizations
    • biz success and convenience
    • loneliness
      • solidify social relationship
      • loneliness measure
      • relationship effectiveness
      • distraction management
      • win-win life

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

FW: Communications with the ETS

NOTE: this article is mainly forwarded from the webpage, and is authorized by the author for educational use only.

Communications with the ETS

寄件者:Hsuan Yuanyu [yy.hsuan@msa.hinet.net]
寄件日期:2007/5/10 (星期四) 上午 03:33
收件者:customer.service@mcgraw-hill.com; os_internet@ets.org

Dear Sirs:
I'm about to start teaching TOEFL Reading using the McGraw Hill "Official Guide to the New TOEFL iBT," International Edition 2006, printed in Singapore. I've spotted a possible mistake in the book, which is potentially very serious. I've attached my explanations in a Word document.
I'll start teaching around May 25. I'll appreciate it very much if you can reply to me before that. Thank you very much.

Best regards,
Hsuan Yuanyu, Taipei, Taiwan


Attachment

Friday, August 21, 2009

Young People Enjoy Life More

Question:
Do you agree the following statement?
Young people enjoy life more than older people.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Young People Enjoy Life More

There are plenty of activities important in life. It goes without saying that the most essential is whether a person can enjoy his or her life. While some guys may think that older people enjoy life more than young people do since they are experienced and can observe the world from many different perspectives, I disagree this opinion for several reasons.

First, young people are ususally healthier than older ones without wasting time taking medical care. It's a given that a healthy person is easily filled with energy to take actions but those older people always need to pay more attention to the body and tend to spend so more time worrying about actions not taken that they cannot totally devote themselves to enjoying life. For example, an older man may reject an journey invitation in consideration of the strength cost and energy reduction since it requires much more time to recover.

Second, learning more and experiences are obstacles to enjoy life. Although older people have observed and been aware of lots of stuffs in the world, this causes them to incline to imagine the results of taking actions to enjoy life rather than just to do that. For instance, even if diving into the sea is so much fun, an older man may still refuse the plan considering that he is probably in danger of a shark.

In conclusion, I agree that young people enjoy life more than older people do because they are physically fit and never easily get confined to the past observations and knowledge.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Best way to Learn Independence

Question:
Some young adults want independence from their parents as soon as possible. Other young adults prefer to live with their families for a longer time. Which of these situations do you think is better?
Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.


Best way to Learn Independence


Even though a person has grown adult, there are still many things and experiences to learn. The most important of all should be independence. I think to live independently is the best way to learn it for several reasons.

First, making a living on his or her own is the fundamental part of independence. Since by living alone, young adults are forced to earn money, tackle problems in life immediately, such as negotiations with neighbors or a landlady. They will soon experience the effort made by their parents and learn to cherish what he or she possesses now because it is never easy to gain anything they want without the support of their parents.

Second, removing reliance on and influence of parents can speed up young adults to derive the true independence of their own. While some people may argue that parents living together will give appropriate advices to young adults when there is a problem, I should point out that each advice also means a hint or suggestion putting influence on the decisions and the consideration of young adults. This causes reliance and imitation which restrict the creativeness of the young to invent new solutions and subsequently slow down the progress made by the young generation.

To sum up, the best and fastest way to learn independence is to live alone. Not only a young adult can experience the real difficulties in life but also get rid of the reliance and influence from parents to derive true independence which help them think more innovatively. For these reason, I highly inspire those young adults to live independently as early as possible.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Punctuation Notes

This article authored by a renowned Taiwanese English professional Hsuan Yuanyu is an excerpt quoted from the webpage as punctuation notes for my self-study.

Comma [ , ]

Comma在平行對稱結構中代表省略:
You will take the first cab and I, the second.
Bert always brings his lunch; Susan, hardly ever.

標示出句中元素不正常的調動:
That they would accept the money, none of us seriously doubted.

以括弧性的逗點隔開句中一個插入的片段:
The apples, though freshly picked, were spoiled in shipment.

以括弧性的逗點隔開成對比的元素或同位格:
Jesse, not Frank, was the first to arrive.
Chen Shuibian, our President, is a very lucky man.

以括弧性的逗點隔開一個非限制用法的關係子句或片語:

My gun, which is now over the mantelpiece, hasn't been used for years.
Such a device, known as a scanner, senses the data and enters it into the computer.


Dash [ -- ]

表示句意的突然轉折或中斷(可取代對等連接詞):
He is—how shall I put it?—an obnoxious fool.
She said, 「I am at a loss to understand—」

引導同位格,尤其用於已經有許多逗點的情況:

The three R's—reading, writing, and arithmetic—are again being stressed.

引導一個作歸納之用的片語或子句:

Educating citizens, improving the human environment, and planning rural society in the 21st century—these are some of the goals.

Semicolon [ ; ]

在較長、較複雜、含有較多逗點的句子中,用於隔開對等子句:

Unconsciously, native English-speakers develop a way of associating certain words such as helium, heliotrope, heliocentric, and heliograph; but a systematic study of the internal structure of those words would show that the common element is helio-, a combining form meaning 「the sun,」 「bright,」 「radiant.」

用於呈現 a, A; b, B; and c, C 之類的系列:
The tour included Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Kingston, Jamaica.