December 21, 2013

Weekly Finds: December 21, 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


22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other

Check out how small lobsters are named in different parts of the US.

READING


Study: Reading novels makes us better thinkers

New research says reading literary fiction helps people embrace ambiguous ideas and avoid snap judgments.

WRITING


Essay Writing Tips: Essays Are Like Sandwiches!

If you want to write a good essay, it helps to think like a sandwich-designer. Like good essays, good sanwiches have organization by parts, strong introductions, and tight detail.

SPEAKING


12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms

English has changed a lot in the last several hundred years, and there are many words once used that we would no longer recognize today.

GRAMMAR


Confusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns

How do you decide which form of a pronoun to use, as in the choices of the wording in “John is as fast as him” and “John is as fast as he”? Knowing the varieties of pronouns will help you choose the correct form.

VOCABULARY


Throne Soup: Our Favorite Words from ‘Game of Thrones’

Check out the author's favorite words from the show's past season.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT


How to Learn from Mistakes

Check out the author's how-to guide with an accompanying mind map that will explain step-by-step how to learn from mistakes you make.