2017/10/25

SAT Writing- 句子的連接邏輯

Writing 能考到 280 的學生,基礎文法通常沒太大問題,剩下要克服的題型有句間邏輯和兩文間指涉關係的問題。

句子次序要不要調整?句子要不要刪除,because ...?學生在時間壓力下,出錯率很高。

要如何克服?

熟悉  transitional words and phrases 是基本功Similarly, however, by contrast, ... 大約有幾十個 '語義邏輯元件‘ 要整理出來單獨練習。

再來是根據段落的主題和目的,判讀句子之間該有的語義邏輯關係。見句句關係有 正/負,支持/衝突,通性/特性,概念/實例,前提/暗示 ... 等。

最後要壓抑跳 tone 的中文習慣。

2017/02/17

Winston Churchill 如何學好英語寫作- 熟練 parts of speech

Churchill remembered how he learned writing

From 'A Roving Commission' by Winston S. Churchill
Page 16-17

I continued in this unpretentious situation for nearly a year. However; by being so long in the lowest form I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that. But I was taught English. We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English. Mr. Somervell—a most delightful man, to whom my debt is great—was charged with the duty of teaching the stupidest boys the most disregarded thing—namely, to write mere English. He knew how to do it. He taught it as no one else has ever taught it. Not only did we learn English parsing thoroughly, but we also practised continually English analysis. Mr. Somervell had a system of his own. He took a fairly long sentence and broke it up into its components by means of black, red, blue and green inks. Subject, verb, object: Relative Clauses! Each had its colour and its bracket. It was a kind of drill. We did it almost daily. As I remained in the Third Fourth (beta) three times as long as anyone else, I had three times as much of it. I learned it thoroughly. Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing. And when in after years my schoolfellows who had won prizes and distinction for writing such beautiful Latin poetry and pithy Greek epigrams had to come down again to common English, to earn their living or make their way, I did not feel myself at any disadvantage. Naturally I am biassed in favour of boys learning English. I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat. But the only thing I would whip them for would be for not knowing English. I would whip them hard for that.


dunce /dəns/, dunces
a person who is slow at learning; a stupid person.

pithy: clever and expressive
epigram: a clever and expressive saying

2017/01/14

TOEFL 英語聽力練習- 植物分類 Plant Classificatin

I.) Diagram

For more explanation of this diagram, see the source of this diagram: byjus.com



II.) Youtube 

Hi everybody we're going to talk about some basic plant classification today
and apologies in advance for any Latin words that I butcher.

The first way we classified plans is by whether or not they have vascular tissue.

2017/01/08

高中生出國留學英語- US Geography for US History (update)

by Mr. Raymond's Civics and Social Studies Academy

(0:00 Introduction of Topic)
Hi and welcome to Mr. Raymond Social Studies Academy for US history, the first in our series for those taking early United States history.

And today we will look at how the geography of the United States helps shape US history.

The U.S. is the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada with over 3.8 million square miles made up of flat coastal plains, rolling hills, mountains, deserts and productive farmland.

The U.S. shares land borders with Canada to its north and Mexico to its south.