Since TOEFL resources seem to be a popular topic around here, I thought I would post links to a few TOEFL reading tests I designed. They should be pretty similar to the iBT questions you would find on ETS' real TOEFL. Check them out. Even if you aren't preparing for the TOEFL, the tests should be good reading comprehension practice in English.

At the end, you will get a summary of how many you got right and how many wrong, and a chance to review each question. I tried to cover a variety of academic subjects from science to economics to anthropology.

As always, I appreciate feedback.

• Greenhouse Gases
  
• Jon Frum Cult
  
• Budget and Expenses
  

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With the holidays and this and that, I've had a lot of time off from this blog. So to reinvigorate the blog, and hopefully help people learn English, I've decided to publish some of my worksheets and lesson plans on this site. It's an obviously useful resource for teachers of ESL but I also will try to choose lesson plans that students can study by themselves.

So here are two worksheets I put together on describing people. The first is a list of adjectives and expressions by category and the second is a list of basic and advanced words for parts of the face including lips and the bridge of the nose. A fun party game is to use this vocabulary to describe someone you and your friends know and see if they can guess who you mean. For teachers, you can do this exercise in class, with everyone describing a classmate or a famous person.

Worksheets in thumbnail after the jump; just click on them to open up and print out the fullsized sheet:

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Found a great blog for learning about American life and culture: Ted Landpahir's America. Ted Landphair is a journalist for Voice of America and his posts, while few and far between, provide nice coverage of what's going in America. For foreigners, I suspect it is a very interesting insight into American life from the point of view of an average American.

His most recent post, Michigone?, talks about the auto industry bailout
and goes on to discuss the history of the economy of Michigan and automobile companies in the US.

Some excerpts:

But what could be worse if you live and work – or worked – there now that unemployment in “the Motor City” is north of 18 percent and about to spill past 10 percent throughout Michigan?

Journalists and politicians speak of “Detroit,” meaning not just our beleaguered “automobile capital” but the entire embattled U.S. auto industry, whose influence reaches well beyond Michigan.

There’s not a lot of ho-ho-ho on the lots of car dealers this Christmas
One in ten jobs nationally – one in three in Michigan – is tied to the auto industry. When Virg Bernaro, mayor of Lansing, the state capital, recently led a delegation of 35 mayors and other elected officials on a trip to Washington to support an industry rescue plan, its members represented towns from coast to coast that depend not just on assembly plants or huge dealerships, but also on “Tier One” and “Tier Two” suppliers.
...
We admire these “salt of the earth” people who are some of our last countrymen, or so it seems, who still actually “make stuff” with their hands and backs. They don’t deliver things or trade things or sell can’t-miss paper schemes. They go to work each day and make stuff. If we lose the auto companies and these automakers, we wonder and worry what America will make any more.
...
“You know how you pass someone you know on the street and say, ‘How ya doin?’” Ronald Dzwonkowski asked me. He directs the editorial board at the Free Press.

“We don’t do that here anymore. We don’t want to hear the answer.”

It’s bad enough that the auto industry teeters, but the Detroit Lions pro football team has assembled an abject 0-13 record as of this writing, the Tigers baseball team – picked to waltz to the American League pennant – finished last in its five-team division, and the once-mighty University of Michigan football team, which had played in 33 straight post-season “bowl” games, will compete in none this year after a 3-9 season that ended with a stomping by Ohio State, its archrival to the south. These are not trivial matters in a blue-collar state where sports are a useful distraction, especially now.

Did I mention that the state of Michigan just announced that it will cut its budget by $200 million? That’s hardly surprising. Many other states that rely on sales tax revenues have done likewise as Americans zip up their wallets in response to the ongoing recession. But the loss of good government jobs on top of hemorrhages in the auto industry is a crippling body blow.
...
There are danger signs ahead. Fearful Michiganders are putting off medical appointments, slashing their church and charitable donations, turning inward, avoiding friends lest they ask Ronald Dzwonkowski’s question: “How ya doin’?” Even small talk is to be avoided, since it is sure to touch on the weather (lousy again), the job (gone or imperiled), a vacation or home improvement (canceled), or the kids (likely stressed and depressed, too).

Down in Ohio, in my hometown of Cleveland, which has been buffeted by its own waves of steel plant closings over the years, Case Western Reserve University's Mark Chupp, a professor of social work, knows the drill. “Probably the worst long-term effect of economic downturn and hardship in a Rust Belt city is cynicism about the good life,” he says. “People are pessimistic and have been lowering expectations of the good life for a long time.
...
Long-term, the people with whom I talked envision a less-populated but more economically diverse state. Ron Dzwonkowski thinks Michigan’s future should be hinged to its abundant natural resources as a source of energy, enjoyable retirement, and recreation. Michigan has more fresh water, and not just from the three Great Lakes that touch it, than any other U.S. state, including neighboring Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Michigan may not have 10,000, but it has so many that everybody in the state lives within 75 kilometers of a good-sized one.

The lakes aren’t going anywhere. But, especially if one or more of the auto giants collapses, some of the people who own cottages on them could be.

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Sorry this blog has been dead for the past month. Mr. Computer died and no one knew what was wrong with it. It seems to be working now, but I still don't have a clear diagnosis of what the problem is/was. If any readers are tech-savvy and have suggestions about why a laptop will refuse to switch on, or switch on and then shutoff spontaneously, I'd be eternally grateful.

On to news. As you may have heard, Harvard lost $8 billion in the first quarter of this financial year. That's 22% of their endowment. Before you get too sympathetic, remember that these are mostly unrealized losses-i.e. stock prices fell so the worth of their investments dropped but until Harvard sells the stock, they don't actually lose any money. In other words it's a bit like saying I lost $100 because I bought an iPhone for $199 and now Walmart is planning to sell them for $99.

Also note that if $8 billion is 22% of the endowment, then the total endowment was $36 billion. So they still have $28 billion. Further note that $8 billion is more money than all but 6 universities in the US have total. So their loss is bigger than what almost every university has to work with.

One interesting lesson from all this comes from the President of Bard who says rich universities have been using money to avoid reform. First of all, he points out that universities aren't supposed to get rich. They should use money to educate instead of storing it away. just as banks aren't supposed to teach people astrophysics.

Second, and more importantly:

...the wealthiest universities have “endless tiers of overlapping management” and lack a tradition of making tough choices. “Instead of figuring how to cooperate [within universities], wealth let everyone do their own thing. Creativity was that you never subtracted, you added."...

The reason this issue matters so much, Botstein said, is that leading universities are “trying to be even less risk averse” and are “learning the wrong lesson” from what’s going on. Many wealthy institutions are announcing hiring or salary freezes and doing so largely across the board, assuming equal value for most or all programs and justifying the approach by pointing to losses of 25 or 30 percent or more in their endowments.

In other words, when universities can afford to do anything, they do everything and never question whether they are developing programs and methodologies that teach students well. For examples, look at the failure of most online degrees even at highly regarded universities, or the dumbing-down of education by using Facebook, Myspace and cellphones as pedagogical tools just because the uni can afford the latest software or toy!

So here's hoping American universities are like Rocky; when times get tough, they will become lean and mean fighting machines.

Thanks to UD for posting on President Botstein.
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I just read a fascinating post on English in Singapore. Specifically, how they love to use modal verbs.

For example, answering requests with "can":

Could you please get me a copy of this document when you return?'
'Can!'

'Would you be able to make it for dinner tonight?'
'Can!'

That's actually kind of wonderful in its literalism. It reminds me of the old joke teachers and older siblings often play.
An unsuspecting student asks, "Can I go to the bathroom?"
"I don't know. Can you?
This eventually results in the more polite and accurate question: "May I go to the bathroom?"


Another commenter on Singaporean in London notes that,

Singaporeans also like to use the words 'Never', 'Must', 'Have to' which considered absolutes and very strong words by non-Singaporeans. A korean colleague, when he first arrived in Singapore had a taxi-driver telling him that he must go to Sentosa. He found it a tad complusive, almost like an order

Check out this earlier post, English for Britons and Singaporeans for some quirks of the British as well as great comments on Singaporish.

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The problem with learning anything is that you need proper motivation. A natural talent for languages will help you learn English for example, but if you don't dedicate time to studying you will never master the language. And frankly studying languages can be extremely boring. So how about if you could pick up new vocabulary by learn interesting facts about the history of words? Not enough fun? What if you could learn new vocabulary, learn interesting facts about new and old words from the girl pictured on the right?

Marina Orlova, better known as hotforwords on YouTube, is a serious student of philology, a European field of study that is something like linguistics (Nietzsche was one so don't sneeze at it), with a degree from the Russian State University of Nizhni Novgorod Region. She also happens to be really, really sexy. On her videoblog she explains the etymology and usage of words and expressions while dressed in skimpy outfits. It's actually an interesting idea and the explanations are really good (I had to force myself to watch all of them as research for this post. Some of them I had to watch 3 or 4 times! The agony!

So check out her latest entry on the origin of music:



Then check out the discussion at hotforwords vlog.

As for the etymology of her tagname, the expression "too hot for words" means someone who is too sexy to be described in words. But to be "hot for" something means you like it, it makes you excited. So she has pretty cleverly merged these two expressions to say she is excited by words, and also extremely sexy.

Boy, writing this blog is rough sometimes. I think I need to do some more research.

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I've been planning a conversation lesson around the 2008 US presidential election and I thought I would share some resources I found.

With any conversation class, you want to make sure you have lots of background information. When dealing with something as complicated as the US election for president, the class is going to have a lot of questions. So you either need to read up and bring materials to look up anything you didn't memorize. Or you need resources that the students can read and research themselves.

Here is some great material to work with:
Article II of the Constitution which defines how a President is elected and the powers of the President. Links to relevant amendments are provided in the text.

Wikipedia also has the text of Article II with explanations in plain English. I wouldn't recommend giving beginner or pre-intermediate students the original text of the Constitution because it is difficult. Better to summarize for them.

Presidential and VP Debate transcripts from 2008 to 1960. Provided by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit that sponsors the debates. An interesting conversation topic there--should debates be sponsored by an independent organization or not?

Simplified readings on the candidates and the election process including a good explanation of the electoral college system.

If you have computers with the Internet in the classroom, All About Electing a President is a pretty good slideshow summary of the process from primary to election. And OneVote2008:Election Playbook has more in-depth guides to various topics like delegates and primaries.

On to lesson plans:
The New York Times provides lesson plans based on relevant issues and linked to articles. Good materials and interesting ideas. I particularly like the ones on political humor and cariactures because here in Kazakhstan, they love political humor but it's a bit taboo in the mainstream media.

This plan involves in-depth research on the political process in the US. It's best for intermediate-advanced students where your school has either access to the Internet or a good library. However the worksheets that students are expected to fill in also work well to guide questions or for a teacher to evaluate how much he/she knows.

Some conversation questions from Heads Up English on: Election 2008, Politics, and Freedom.

Finally a couple of quizzes I thought were fun: US Election Facts Quiz and a quiz to find out if you are a Democrat or a Republican.

If anyone has any other resources, feel free to leave a comment.

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This week (Sept. 27th to Oct 4th) is National Banned Book week in the US. This week is dedicated to celebrating freedom of speech by reminding people of what happens when books are banned. Societies and communities that refuse to let people read suffer from stagnation. Unless we are exposed to ideas from all sources we can never learn to think critically, to develop innovations, or to be exposed to a wide range of perspectives.

Living in a former Soviet country where banning literature that didn't meet state standards of ideology, and where authors were put on public trials, exiled to gulags, even executed, makes this freedom even more precious to me.

To see why freedom of speech is important, try this thought experiment. Think of a principle that you hold dear, a value that you believe is absolutely true and vital to people's lives. It could be a faith in God, or a faith in no God. It could be a political belief or a moral value like honesty, honor or justice.

Now imagine a society that rejected this value. Imagine furthermore that that society banned all books that promoted or discussed that value or even showed that value or belief in a positive light. The people of this society have never been exposed to this idea that you hold in your heart or mind so dearly. Perhaps they have even been taught to believe this value is evil and wrong through propaganda.

Now how would you have a dialogue with someone of that society? How would you try to convince them that your belief is right? How could you encourage them to reform themselves to embrace this idea that you know would improve their lives? Without books or free speech, the only way would be brute force. If the US banned Karl Marx and Lenin, the only way the USSR could convince Americans of the goodness of socialism would be through absolute propaganda and political or military force. So freedom to read means the possibility of reasonable dialogue and diplomacy.

So read a banned book today. Under the cut is a list of some books that have been banned and why. It's a great list to read because it also shows how silly book-banners can be. Also, note that almost every great classic was banned somewhere for some stupid reason.

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll. Banned in China (1931) for portraying animals and humans on the same level, "Animals should not use human language."
  
  
• The Bible. William Tyndale, who partially completed translating the Bible into English, was captured, strangled, and burned at the stake (1536) by opponents of the movement to translate the bible into the vernacular. Beginning around 1830, "family friendly" bibles, including Noah Webster's version (1833) began to appear which had excised passages considered to be indelicate
  
  
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl. Removed from a locked reference collection at the Boulder, Colo. Public Library (1988), where it had been placed because the librarian thought the book espoused a poor philosophy of life.
  
  
• Earth Science. American Book. Challenged at the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Mich. (1987) because it "teaches the theory of evolution exclusively. It completely avoids any mention of Creationism...The evolutionary propaganda also underminds {sic} the parental guidance and teaching the children are receiving at home and from the pulpits."
  
  
• The Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie. Banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Malaysia, Qatar, Indonesia, South Africa, and India due to its criticism of Islam. Burned in West Yorkshire, England (1989) and temporarily withdrawn from two bookstores on the advice of police. Five people died in riots against the book in Pakistan. Another man died a day later in Kashmir. Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, stating, "I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the prophet, and the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, have been sentenced to death." Challenged at the Wichita, Kans. Public Library (1989) because it is "blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed."
  
  
• Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Airmont; Bantam; Harper; Houghton; Macmillan; NAL. Challenged in the Waukegan, Ill. School District (1984) because the novel contains the word "nigger." Never mind that the novel is often credited with raising public antislavery sentiment which ultimately led to the emancipation of American slaves.
  
  
• The Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith. Banned in communist nations for its capitalist content. Now they probably regret that since the communist nations are all free-market economies!
  
  
• Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings. D.T. Suzuki. Doubleday. Challenged at the Plymouth-Canton school system in Canton, Mich. (1987) because "this book details the teachings of the religion of Buddhism in such a way that the reader could very likely embrace its teachings and choose this as his religion."
  
  
• And my favorite from this year: The Higher Power of Lucky. Susan Patron. For using the word "scrotum". Here's the quote: “Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much. It sounded medical and secret, but also important.” Notice that the book doesn't define scrotum or describe a sexual scene or anything. It just mentions the word as a word, highlighting how kids pick up on words they don't know. But that was enough to get this award-winning children's book taken off the shelves by librarians all over the US!
  

The Forbidden Library has a more comprehensive list.

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In a recent post, I talked about mondegreens and silly lyrics in pop music. Last night while watching Mama Mia, I came across another pop song that serves as a fabulous teaching tool because it illustrates a very common error for ESL students.

ABBA's "Money, Money, Money" has the lines:

Money, Money, Money
Must be funny
In a rich man's world

I think they mean that it must be fun in a rich man's world. It's a common mistake to assume that fun is the adjective form of fun. There's also the problem that fun doesn't translate well in a lot of languages - It says something about the Russians that there really is no word for fun in Russian.

So fun is an adjective that describes something that you do for the sake of doing it, because it makes you happy, because it is entertaining. Funny describes something that makes you laugh, something humorous or amusing (In other contexts it can also mean something strange or unusual).

So I think ABBA meant to say that it must be fun, not funny. Unless she means that rich people can hire Jim Carrey or Stephen Wright to tell them jokes all day.


The video of "Money, Money, Money", in case you care:



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Some Business English for you guys. One of my classes the other day had a really hard time understanding the difference between:

• A budget
  
• To budget
  
• To budget for
  
• To be on budget
  

So, I'll briefly explain how we use these terms. It's important because using them incorrectly can definitely lead to confusion

A budget is a financial document that lays out how you plan to use your money OR how you did use your money. A budget can refer to reality or to a future plan. It contains budget items which are the individual things or services or programs and how much you spent or will spend on them. My typical monthly budget looks something like this:

• Paper $5
  
• Print cartridge refills $10
  
• New textbooks $20
  
• Pens $1
  

So I have budget items for paper, refills, textbooks, and pens. Anything else is off the budget which means I haven't planned for those expenses. But there is money in the budget for new textbooks, even though I only buy new books every two or three months.

To budget means to make a budget, or a plan. At the beginning of the year I budgeted my expenses. In other words, I made that little plan you see above.

Especially when we talk about people, and not businesses, to budget can also mean to limit your expenses. I budgeted $1 for pens. That means I will not spend more money than that on pens. Or if my friend invites me to go to an Ace of Base concert, I can say, "Sorry, the tickets are too expensive. I only budgeted $50 for concerts this month."

Which brings us to to budget for something. In this case, I mean that I only plan to spend $50 on concerts, for the purpose of going to concerts. I can also budget for situations, or things that may not happen. I budgeted $30 for textbooks, but I may not actually spend that money. Or I can budget for emergencies. That means that I set aside some money in case something bad happens. When you ask your boss if there will be a New Year's Party at work, he or she may say, "Sorry, we didn't budget for that." That means we didn't set aside money for that purpose. We didn't put it in our budget as an item. There may be some extra money lying around, but that money may also be budgeted for something else!

Finally to be on budget means that you are spending as much money as you planned to spend, or even less. So if my company budgets $1000 for a new website by October, and at the present moment we have only spent $600, I can say we are on budget. Or if we have spent $600, but I realize we will need to pay another $600 to the webmaster in September, then we are not on budget. In fact we are off budget, because while we still haven't spent the full $1000, we plan to spend more than that.

Got it?

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