Week Fourteen Study Sheet, homework, writing assignment

What  a sad day!  A lot of students have been leaving in the past few weeks, but today we lost seven wonderful students: JongSun, Yunju, Dhefaf, Sundus, Minah, Oswaldo, and Hyung Jin.  Thank you for all your hard work, your cheerfulness, your imagination, and your friendship.  Good luck in all you do.  I hope you check this page from time to time and see what we're up to.  And leave some messages to let us know what you're up to!

Please visit this site again, as I'll let you know our room at the YMCA as soon as Kaplan lets me know.  As you know, Monday is a national holiday, but we'll have our usual test on Tuesday.  The Specific Skills classes will be on the Tuesday schedule.

For those who are still here (and not taking a week off), here's the homework due on Tuesday.

We finished unit 6, doing Focuses 6, 7, and 8.  however, you only have to do Exercises 10  (p126-7) and 13 (p130).

And here is the vocabulary that you'll be responsible for.  It's more than last week, but as we've gone over it quite a bit, don't panic!

Writing Assignment

1   Find an article in English that you are interested in.   This could be about something in the news, a famous performer, an local issue, something related to your home country--anything you like.

2   Read it carefully.

3   Write an essay based on this article.  Your essay must, of course, be in essay form with an introduction, body, and conclusion.  One body part should be a good summary of the article.  Another body part should be your opinion about this article.

4   In your essay, probably but not necessarily in the "summary" section, include three paraphrases taken from the article.  Use the techniques we learned in class, especially from the handout I gave you from Academic Connections: synonyms, changing sentence structure, changing active to passive or passive to active, change part of speech (nouns to verbs, verbs of adverbs, etc.)

The essay should be at least 300 words.   Focus on the paraphrases and do your best to use more than one technique when you change.  Also pay attention to referents!  And if possible, use vocabulary that we have been studying in class.

You have an extra day for this, so I think you'll have enough time.  Good luck!

AM PROFICIENCY WEEK 14 STUDY SHEET

 

Grammar Dimensions Unit 6

the former:  refers to the first of two referents

the latter: refers to the second of two referents

Boston and San Franciso are similar in size and atmosphere; the former is on the East Coast and the latter is on the west coast.

 

Grammar Dimensions, p110

variation

phonology

semantics

respectively

gender

an upbringing

to bring up ( a child)

status

to be of interest to

 

Grammar Dimensions, p111-112

a tendency

authority

a linguist/linguistics

pitch (in sound—high pitched, low-pitched)

to assert; an assertion; assertive

to dominate

 

Grammar Dimensions p114-115

revised/to revise

vaporization/vaporization

a dimension (an aspect/a measure of depth)

grief/to grieve

disgust/to disgust

contempt/to hold in contempt

whereas (to show contrast)

shame/to shame/shameful

classification/to classify

to dictate/a dictator/dictation

intensity/intense

fury (anger)/furious/furiously (with great energy)

posture (body position)

 

Grammar Dimensions p117

a march (a group protest)

to appeal to s.o.

segregation

to reprimand

NEURO (related to nerves or the brain)

neurologist/neurology/neurotic

(a bodily) organ

 

Grammar Dimensions p118-119

prosperity/to prosper

drama

stimuli (plural of stimulus)

buzzing/to buzz

to urge

disgraceful

 

Grammar Dimensions p121-2

strenuous

warm-up/to warm up

hotly

infancy

a frown/to frown

to shrug (one’s shoulders)

to stem from

 

Grammar Dimensions p123-4

a bibliography [BIBLIO: book]

“comfort food”

a casserole

labor-intensive

discarded/to discard

instinctive

credibility

a cartoon

 

Grammar Dimensions p125

whole grains

burglary/a burglar/to burgle

a field (of study, work)

reform-minded

 

Grammar Dimensions p126-7

to impart

an advanced age (old)

to portray

to rattle

(tree) sap/to sap

 

 

Academic Connections

Academic Connections p75

 to deteriorate: to become worse

As he became older, his health deteriorated.

 

Academic Connections p76

to break down 1) to reduce to smaller parts

                           2) to break or become worse

fragmented/to fragment/a fragment

to hover

a repercussion

monochromatic [MONO-one]  [CHROM-color]

subtle

dissected/to dissect

far-reaching

an implication

 

Academic Connections p 77

abstract (art)

to usher in

unthinkable

 

Academic Connections p78

The Renaissance/a renaissance

(one/two point) perspective

irrevocably/irrevocable

fixed

 

 

The Influence of Cubism

 

radical

lingering/to linger

to fluctuate/fluctuation

a likeness

“the bare minimum”

indecipherable/ decipherable

    a cipher

    to decipher

obscure/to obscure

to stand for (to represent)

to incorporate

a depiction/to depict

 

 

Thursday Homework

Hey, does anyone have any photos from the Cheesecake Factory?  Send them to me and I'll post them here.  If you were here a few weeks ago, please check out the photos from the farewell party in our classroom--Soo sent me a couple and you can view or download them.

Thanks, Youran, for your amazing tour of Seoul.  It made me want to go back and see all the places I'd missed. 

We are continuing our investigation of referents and have covered two more focus points in Grammar Dimensions, Focus 4 or 5.  Accordingly, our homework is Exercise 7 on page 119-120 and Exercise 8 on pages 121-122.

Also, finish reading the handout section on paraphrasing.  If writing is important for you, it's especially important!

I can't wait for Can's presentation.  What do you think it will be about?  Lately, students have been introducing their countries or cities, so maybe it'll be about Nanjing.  If you want to find out, be sure to come on time tomorrow!

And tomorrow will be a sad day as it will be the final day for a lot of students.  Let's try to get all our studying in so we can spend a few moments at the end of class to say goodbye!

Wednesday Homework

Oh dear, sorry to be so late but I was busy this afternoon.

I hope it's not too late for anyone who missed the class to check what we did and what you have to do.

First of all, Afnan did a wonderful job with her first presentation--good speaking, good visuals, and good organization.  We learned a lot about Saudi Arabia today and I think everyone wanted to learn some more.

However, we had to check our homework and then go over Focus 2 and 3.  There's a little more homework tonight than yesterday:

Exercise 4 and 5 on pages 114-5, and Exercise 6 on page 117.

Also, we covered the vocabulary in Academic Connections on page 74 (which I handed out today), so please sort out the synonyms.  If you're an excellent student, you'll also read pages 77 through 79.  But if you didn't come to class today, you won't have the material!

Tomorrow ,Youran will make her first presentation.  She always comes on time, so be in class by 8:00!

Tuesday Homework, Cheesecake Factory

We finally had our field trip, although it was completely lacking in educational value--just a chance to sit and talk together at Cheesecake Factory.  And unfortunately, we were missing some very important people!  Thanks for coming to help say goodbye to the people who are leaving and to special guests Soo and Ohana, who are still in Boston but leaving here very soon.  We're going to miss them and aren't looking forward to losing great students like Oswaldo, Dhefaf, Sundus, Minah, JongSun, Yonju and Minah. 

In the first part of class we went over the test pretty extensively.  It was a tough grammar section, and if you made some mistakes don't worry.  It's an opportunity to focus on what you missed and make what used to be weak points into strong points!

We also began Unit 6 of Grammar Dimensions and studied reference words and phrases.  This is a school very important in good writing--I realize that this point is equally important for everyone, but I think that good (formal) speaking is based on good writing, so please bear with us.

The homework for tonight is Exercise 2 on pages 111-112.   We'll go over it in class tomorrow.

We also began Unit 4 of Academic Connections, in which we will focus on paraphrasing.  This is an essential skill not only in academic writing, but also general fluency.  If you can rephrase something, that means you have the vocabulary and knowledge of grammar to express the same idea in more than one way.  For TOEFL test takers, it can be the difference between a good and great score.  So do your best!

Tomorrow Afnan will make her first presentation, so let's get there early and give her a lot of support.

Latest Presentation Schedule

Actually, I should say tentative presentation schedule, as there is still a big hole in it!

We have no one for tomorrow, but that's OK.  We can go over the test a bit, which might be necessary!

As for this week:

Wednesday, Aug. 28: Afnan
Thursday, August 29: Youran
Friday, August 30: Can

And then there's a BIIIIIIG hole, with nobody until September 10.  As I mentioned before, wouldn't it make sense if we moved up the students who signed up from Sept 10th? 

I'll verify this with you tomorrow, but let's have the week after next as follows:

Tuesday, Sept 3: Rawan
Wednesday, Sept 11: Danbee
Thursday, Sept 12: Jungmin
Friday, Sept 13: Ayaka

And then we can expand it a bit, adding Mohammed and anybody else who wants to do another one.  Let me know what you think!

Cheesecake Factory tomorrow at 1:30, No Picnic on Wednesday

Hey, everybody!

I just saw an email from the Kaplan office about our picnic on Wednesday.  Because bad weather has been predicted, we're going to postpone the event.  I'll give you more information when I learn the new date.

The bad weather will have no effect, however, on our farewell party tomorrow, Tuesday August 27.  We'll meet at Cheesecake Factory at the Prudential Center at 1:30.  Hope you all can make it.

Week 13 Study Sheet, Homework, Forest Fires

 

 

 

It's Friday already!  Today we said goodbye to Ohana and next week there will be huge evacuation of students.  Maybe they think a forest fire is coming to Boston!  How sad, but that's life at Kaplan...

 

We also talked about having a lunch party for all the people who will be leaving next week, and for Ohana as well.  Let's vote on it!  Bring your ideas on Monday and we'll decide.  We mentioned Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang, as they are both popular and nearby.  However, bring your ideas and we'll present them all and then decide.  Then we'll get together next Tuesday at 1:30. Also, don't forget about the picnic next Wednesday.  Wow, a lot of activities!

 

We covered the rest of the Focus points, but in particular, Focus 5.  Do Exercise 8 for homework. 

 

In particular, pay attention to the structure of  no sooner  + had S + p.p. than S + Vpast

 

For example, No sooner had I arrived than the party ended.

 

In other words, very soon after I arrived, the party ended.

 

Also, be careful of the difference between

 

   Not only Boston but also Philadelphia is a historical city.  (Both Boston and Philadelphia are   

    historical cities).

                                                                    and

 

   Not only is Boston historical, but it also is a center of education.  (Boston is both historical and a    

    center of education.)

 

We cannot say or write, even in the most informal English,

 

        XXX   Not only Boston is historical, but also a center of education.    XXX   

 

 

I mentioned that there are some forest fires in the news now, and here is a report about a big one in Idaho.  They seem to think that it's important because the second or third  homes of some famous actors are being menaced!

 





 

 

Finally, here is our vocabulary list.  If there are any that you don't understand or don't know how to use, be sure to ask me on Monday.

For our new students, the test is usually held in the first part of class from (I hope!) 8:45.  Study the focus points from the Grammar Dimensions (Unit 24, focus points 1 - 5), and vocabualry from the handouts (about forest fires and trees) and be prepared to listen to the lecture about forest fires and answer some basic questions in complete sentences.  Also, master ALL the vocabulary words on the sheet!

Have a productive weekend and see you bright and early on Monday.

AM Proficiency Week 13 Study Sheet

 

This week we studied Unit 24 of Grammar Dimensions.

Grammar Dimensions

Page 419

a resort

   [ to resort to (to do or use something that under normal circumstances you would not)]

                ex.  “Unable to communicate by words, I resorted to using gestures.”

dreadful

a shrub

a howl, to howl

sultry

eerie

to peek, a peek

a mansion

to assemble (v.i., v.t.)

a rumor, to rumor

a curse, to curse, cursed

to retrieve, a retriever

to romp, a romp

longingly

a lead

a walkway

aimlessly

 

p421

“let me tell you…”

a pack (backpack)

dusk

gorgeous

to pitch (a tent)

a stake

to pound

to get soaked

to get away from

pristine

 

p422-3

to sort

to sort out (organize, analyze)

to venture out

a paraphrase, to paraphrase

 

p424

a nook

“nooks and crannies”

a feat

a slope

to collide

to mutter

 

p429

an episode

“have access to”

 

p432-3

linens

to squint

a peephole

long-lost

 

 

p435

to gross, grossing

 

Academic Connections

 

p48

to retreat

a retreat

to regenerate

“at all costs”

to erupt

to overlap

detrimental

 

p49

a branch

   to branch out

a canopy

a (pine) cone

a crown, to crown

an herb

soil, to soil

a stand of trees

a twig

 

p50-51: The Beneficial Effects of Forest Fires

 

1   a menace, to menace

     a habitat

2   irreparable

     a beneficiary

     to flourish

     a pest

3   to enrich

      litter

      to decompose

4    a mammal

      to thin out

      “long-term effects’

      a practice

      to reflect (to show)

 

Listening

 

sober, sobering

When we heard the sobering news, we became much more serious.

a lifecycle

*bushlands

*eucalyptus

bark  (the skin of a tree)

ironic

a microorganism

to infest, infested with

moose

biodiversity

 

 

 

Thursday Homework, The Oklahoma Shooting

Today we had two presentations, a first in our class.  The first was by Ayaka, who showed us how beautiful Okinawa is and some how the US Army bases cause some trouble there. 

And then we learned all about Jongsun and his wonderful family.  It's funny, I could recognize him when he was a baby, but not when he was a soldier not so long ago.  How about you?

Tomorrow we'll get so see Minah's presentation, so get to class on time because I'm sure you won't want to miss anything.  I'll post the new schedule tomorrow.  Because there a big gap between the the people who signed up, I might have to move up the "second group" one week.  I hope they won't mind!  Also, a couple of people haven't signed up yet.

Not so much homework today!  We studied Focus  4, so please do exercise 6 on page 429.   Also, read the essay about the beneficial effects of forest fires and identify the elements that give it good cohesion (between clauses and  sentences) and coherence (between paragraphs).

Here is a link to the story about the horrible shooting in Duncan, Oklahoma.
If you're not sure where Oklahoma is, this video will give you a good idea.

Wednesday Homework, Bear Attack!

Hello everybody, and welcome to the new students!

I apologize for the confusion about the presentation, so tomorrow we'll have a double presentation with Ayaka and JongSun.  It'll be great!  Remember, rarely if ever should the presentations last longer than 15 minutes, so keep that in mind as you prepare!

In the grammar section today we covered Focuses 2 and 3; your homework is to do Exercise 2 on page 424 (this one's a little tricky--you'll have to write 20 sentences) and exercise 3 on page 425.  Also, please do Exercise 4 on page 427.  Be sure to write it on a piece of paper to hand in tomorrow.

We also discussed the beneficial and detrimental effects of forest fires, whether or not people should live in forests, and bear attacks.  Also, we went over the vocabulary related to trees and forests on page 49 of Academic Connections (which I copied and handed out to you).   For homework, I asked you to answer the questions on page 49 part 3) and read "The Beneficial Effects of Forest Fires, page 50 and 51 of the handouts.

Wow...today, you got pounded with homework! 

Since Ohana asked to see the story about the girl who was recently attacked by a bear, here it is.  Let me know if you have any problems opening it.  In case you do, here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_1OVjwjg04

Tuesday Homework

I learned a lot today.  I can write my name in Hangul, thanks to Yunju.  I think this is a good topic for students from other countries, too.  It would be interesting to know more about how Arabic is written, the Japanese writing system, Chinese, etc. 

We welcomed a lot of new students today.  Sorry that you had to move to the morning class if you're not a morning person, but do try to show up on time!

Hello to some students that I've known from my Health and Fitness or other specific skills class (Can Afwan, and Youran), welcome to students that I haven't met yet (Rawan and Danbee) and I'm still looking forward to meeting a couple of others.

Also, welcome back to Mohammed, who was in Saudi Arabia for Ramadan. 

Tomorrow, we're looking forward to a great presentation by Ayaka, so please be sure to be on time so we can start at 8:10.

In class, we mainly focused on Unit 24 of Grammar Dimensions (p418-), which deals with fronting.    Never before have you seen so many cases of inversions in sentences!  Little did you know that you could change the order of words for dramatic effect, right?  Not for anything would you move to another class!

Your homework today was to do Exercise One on page 420-1. 

Also, we began Academic Connections Unit 3 on Forest Fires.  Please read the first page of the handout and think about way which forest fires might be beneficial!

Thanks, and see you all tomorrow!

August 16 Farewell Party Pictures

Here's a picture that Oswaldo took of our farewell party.  If you have other pictures, please send them to my Kaplan email address (jfzkaplan13@yahoo.com) and I'll add them here so that everyone can enjoy and/or download them!

 

Week 12 Study Sheet, Homework

What an action-packed day!  We had a tour of South Korea led by JungMin (a little late, a little long, but good job!), checked our grammar homework, went through four focus points, checked our reading homework, learned some essential new vocabulary, then had time for a party at the end.  What great food!  Thanks so much to Soo for all the wonderful Korean delicacies and to Dhefaf for the delicious coffee and sweets.
I'm very sorry not to have been able to attend the farewell meeting--we had a teachers' meeting at the same time (I thought the meeting was to have taken place after the usual meeting).  If it had been at all possible to attend I would have!

If you have any pictures that you took at the end of our class, please send them to my Kaplan email address  (jfzkaplan13@yahoo.com) and I can post them here so that everyone can download a copy.

Our homework, which we will check on Monday before the test--be on time if you want to review everything--is Focus 6, exercise 11 (p363); Focus 7, exercise 13 (p366); Focus 8, three sentences using the expression "Subj. + need to have p.p."; and Focus 9, exercise 17.

Also, please read the text on page 28 of the Academic Connection handout, "The Turnaround at Yellow Corporation."  I will base some reading and writing questions for the test on this, so the more closely you read it and the more questions you ask about it before the test, the better you'll be able to do on the test itself.

Now, here's the study sheet.  Of course, we didn't get to the listening, and we didn't dicuss the Grammar Dimensions p 363 vocabulary, so that won't be on the test. 

Week 12 AM Proficiency Study Sheet

 

Grammar Dimensions Unit 19

Grammar Dimensions p353

to roam

to accompany

 

Grammar Dimension p355

elderly

to claim

outlandish

‘far from the truth’

a promotion (an advancement in position)

 

Grammar Dimensions p 357

continent/continental

to yield/to yield to/a yield

melancholy

endurable/unendurable

wisdom

 

Grammar Dimensions p 358-9

bravery

a celebrity

funding

to turn up

 

 

Grammar Dimensions p 364

haste/hasty/hastily

a hedge

 

Grammar Dimensions p 366

a (train) conductor

a bystander

to misdiagnose

continental drift

a suspension bridge

preliminary

on the verge of…

 

Grammar Dimensions p 367

to sustain (an injury)

 

Summertime

one of these (days, times)

 

 

 

 

Academic Connections

Academic  Connections p24

 

charismatic

ruthless

cunning

persevere/persevering

 

Academic Connections p 25

to head (to lead, be the head of)

a reservoir

personable

sound

to extract

to falter/faltering

an asset

delivery (doing what is expected)

 

Academic Connections, p28

to haul

‘at every turn’

a warehouse

‘to fall victim to’

before long

a firm

across-the-board

to turn s.t. around

mediocrity/mediocre

to divulge

to defect

‘whopping’

enviable

to implement

‘period’  (I won't divulge my secret to you, period!)

Thursday Homework

Today we had Soo's final presentation, a retrospective of her year here in Boston.  It was wonderful to be have been able to share her many memories and it's hard to imagine our class without her.  Thanks for the chocolate, Soo, and we'll celebrate your and Pete's final day tomorrow with a few snacks at the end of class.  Anybody who would like to brings something, please feel free!

Our homework is Focus 3, Exercise 6 on pate 358-9 and Focus 4, Exercise 7, page 360. 

Also, please do the "Organizational Structure" exercise on pages 26-7 of the handout.  It's a piece of cake.

Wednesday Homework, Billie Holliday

Hi everybody.  Sorry to have let yesterday's post slip my mind.  I won't do it again!

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Sundus and Dhefaf for their fine presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We learned a lot from both of them, and I think I learned a lot myself from Dhefaf's presentation.  It's nice to have different teaching techniques, and I should be more creative!

For those of you who enjoyed listening to Billie Holliday singing "Summertime," here's a link to a Youtube site. 

                














   Summertime

Smmertime, and the livin' is easy,
Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high.
Your Daddy's rich, and your Ma is good lookin'
So hush little baby, don't you cry.

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing,
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take the sky.
But 'til that morning, there's nothing can harm you
With Daddy and Mammy standin' by.


Our homework yesterday was Exercise 1 and 3 on pages 354-355.  We'll check it tomorrow in class, but I will check, so be sure to do it!  I have to give everyone a grade for homework, you know!

Our homework for today is Exercises 4 and 5 on page 357.  Also, please read the paragraph about Linda Cook on page 25 of the copies that I gave you today.  Then do the six vocabulary questions (Exercise 3).

See you tomorrow, and be sure to be on time.  Soo is leaving this week, so she'll give her last presentation.

Week 11 Study Sheet Writing Assignment

Wow, what a day!  We had a epic presentation by Ohana and learned so many things about Brazil in general an her home town of Salvador in particular.  Looks like a really fun place!  And imagine winters in which the worst weather was weather like we're having today, rainy and in the low 20s!

We also said goodbye to Atsushi (Sushi) and Carlos.  We're going to miss them a lot and wish them both the best of luck. 

Finally, we had a little Eid celebration in our class.  Thanks to everyone who brought some yummy food, especially Soo who prepared some amazing maki sushi, Dhefaf who brought a lot of Saudi sweets, Yunju who treated us to puffed rice, and Ohana for the sweet chocolatey desert with sprinkles.  (can't remember the name!).  Did I miss anyone?  If I did, sorry! 

Our Writing assignment is a 300 word compare and contrast essay in which you should show the similarities and differences between your home town/city and Boston.  If you're from a small town, perhaps you should use a Boston sized city that you're familiar with.  You can organize it in several ways: half about Boston, half about your town; point by point, dealing with Boston and your town in each paragraph; and half comparing, half contrasting.  There are other ways, too, but I think these are the most common.  Your essay should be handed in on Monday or sent in to my email address at jfzkaplan13@yahoo.com by Monday evening.  As usual, try to use as many vocabulary words that we are learning as possible in your essay, organize well, and support your points with reasons and examples.   If you're practicing for the TOEFL, I recommend that you limit yourself to 30 minutes total.  If you do that, write a note to me so I can take that into consideration in your writing grade.

Finally, here is the study sheet.  For grammar, we studied Units 7 and 8 in Grammar Dimensions, so study all the Focus Points in those units.  As we had no time to prepare any listening, I won't include a listening section but will ask you to write a  paragraph about a selected topic related to this week's topic of cities and crime.


And finally, here is our study sheet.  Please note that I have removed the listening vocabulary and the final pages of Grammar Dimensions.

AM Proficiency Week Eleven Study Sheet

 

Unit 7, p136-7

to modify

valid

a realtor

 

p138

catch fire

to put out (a fire)

a pulley

a pup

a cradle/to cradle

to soothe/soothing

a stool

 

p141

a (light) switch, to switch

 

p142

to evaporate

a board (committee)

credentials

 

p143

to lean (towards)

authoritative

determination/to be determined

 

Unit 8 (p150)

to be acquainted with/an acquaintance

to pat

to pile/a pile

 

p151

plain

clumsy

plain

fancy

to mingle

to flee/fled/fled

fellow (adj)

starve/starved

a preoccupation/to be preoccupied

to resemble

to last

prestigious

to liberate

“believe it or not”

a cottage

 

p154

to stuff

a pouch

awkward

 

p154

a carcass

 

 

 

Academic Connections Unit 1

metropolitan

metropolis

rural

the suburbs, suburban

 

p6

a corridor

to sprinkle

subtle

volatile

 

to dismiss (an idea, a theory)

to foster

visionary/a visionary

 

p7

to diminish

bedrock

a vendor

to augment

to discredit

to prevail

a slum

at all cost(s)

vandalism

territory

to insulate

 

p8

an insight

a buzzer

to drop in

to drop out

to arrive at (a vision, a conclusion)