June 22, 2013

Weekly Finds: June 22, 2013

A Man With Magnifying Glass by digitalart
Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Every week, we’ll be sharing a list of posts, stories, news, or opinions that we've run across the Internet during the past week or two. We won't be discussing them in detail here, but we do encourage you to check them out as they could contain valuable ideas and insights for your IELTS exam.

If you're ready, here we go...

LISTENING


11 Common Words You're Probably Mispronouncing

Ever feel embarrassed when you don't know how to say a word? Don't be. Even the most fluent English speakers—and, ahem, political figures—stumble. Besides, pronunciations change over time. See if you've been mispronouncing these common words.

READING


IBM's Watson Memorized Entire Urban Dictionary, Then His Overlords Deleted It

When IBM's famous artificial intelligence, Watson, he/she/it of Jeopardy-winning fame, was in development, its head researcher had a great idea.

WRITING


Keep calm, and say it plainly

What is plain English, and why should you use it?

SPEAKING


Utahns who drop the T in words like 'mountain' not so unusual, Y study says

Utahns are known for their unique English. However, linguistic habits in the Beehive state — like dropping the T in mountain — may not be as uncommon as many think.

GRAMMAR


5 Verbose Sentences Made Shorter

The author shares this great piece of advice: "When you write, think tight. The goal is not to reduce every sentence to its most concise form but to avoid distractingly extraneous wording and phrasing."

VOCABULARY


LIVE, LIFE, ALIVE, LIVING

I make a living by making some people’s lives easier to live. Because English can be confusing, it’s sometimes better to get live instruction that will make the language come alive. In this lesson you will learn new vocabulary by really learning one word.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT


4 Reasons Why Today is Going To Be Awesome

Focus on why today is going to be great day.