EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

One of the new things in the TOEFL ibt is the inclusion of what is known as Integrated Skills. There are Integrated Skills in the Speaking and in the Writing sections.  An Integrated Skill is actually an activity where skills other than the one that is being tested are brought into the context of the exercise, e.g. if a  test taker is in the Speaking section of the exam, question 3 to be more precise, for he or she to respond to that question first there is a short text to be read (usually a memo to college students) and next there is the recording of a conversation between two students making comments about that text.   The Speaking section contains four exercises with Integrated Skills. Questions 3 and 4 integrate Reading and Listening whereas questions 5 and 6 integrate Listening only. Questions 1 and 2 are not Integrated Skills. The Writing section, the last in the test, contains only one Integrated Skill and it integrates Reading and Listening.  Ex...

I do not really understand how this happened but I would like to refer to one name in particular which is precisely that of the person who could have become Queen of England one day: the late  lady Diana of Wales.  The problem with this name is how it sounds. It sounds quite different from the Spanish version to start with: DAYANA. If we check the books written long ago there is no reference in the Spanish culture of such name, meaning that there were Dianas but not DAYANAS. Coincidentally the name spelled that way began appearing in the Latin American culture when the influence of the U.S. culture on ours became notoriously strong and now is everywhere. In fact in my country the name DAYANA is more popular than DIANA. For us they are not the same name because though their spelling is similar the way they are pronounced (in Spanish) is not. So, you can easily find two women sitting side by side, one named DIANA and the other DAYANA, without realizing they actually have t...

Here is one activity you can have in class which is great at helping students understand and also present their own view of literary characters. They should of course have read one book or at least a good portion of it so they can offer a perspective of who the characters in the story are and what their motivations could be. Next, tell them you are going to proceed with a review of the story they have been reading but focusing on the two or three most important characters. On the board draw figures resembling the human body. No need to be artistic: a basic sketch will do. You have to emphasize two organs though (preferably use a different ink to draw them), and those would be the brain and the heart. Ask your students to write inside the brain what is in that character's mind and in his or her heart what is in his or her heart. Have them also work in pais or in groups. Set a time limit and once the time is up ask one person pr group to come to the board and write their respon...

Let's be clear about this. Django Unchained is not a good movie. It is a good Quentin Tarantino movie which is perhaps a better thing to say. Tarantino here tells the story of a German bounty hunter called Dr. Schultz (Christopher Waltz) who in his quest to nab three criminals he does not know, seeks the help of a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who knows those criminals because they tortured him and his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). Django does help Dr. Schultz who asks Django to stay with him and help him in other bounty cases. In exchange the doctor will help Django find his wife so the former slave accepts and for an entire season (winter) the doctor is helped by Django who receives training in shooting and bounty hunting. When the term of their deal expires Dr. Schults and Django look for Broomhilda in Mississipi and find she is now a slave in Candyland, a farm that belongs to Calvin J Candie (Leonardo Di Caprio) who is assisted by his loyal black butler, Stephen ...

Ever wondered where her name comes from?  To start with, BARBIE is not really a name. It is a nickname, just like Sam for example which is short for Samuel or Liz is short for Elizabeth. Both Sam and Liz are also nicknames. many of the words we believe to be names are nicknames actually, and here are some more examples:  Alexander - Alex Amanda - Amy Andrew - Andy Anthony - Tony Bartolomew - Bart Bénédict - Benny Charles - Chuck Edward - Eddy James - Jimmy John - Johnny Joseph - Joe Kenneth - Ken Lawrence - Larry Margaret - Maggie Michael - Mike Philbert - Phil Robert - Bob Samuel - Sammy Thomas - Tom Wallace - Wally And what about Barbie? Well, Barbie is the short for Barbara, for this famous doll apparently even has a name all of her own: Barbara Millicent Roberts.

One of those movies that I watch over and over again and I don't get tired of is Forrest Gump. Perhaps this quality is what makes this 1994 film to be among the best movies ever made.  Forrest Gump is a man who is not very bright so to speak which is why many of the people around him believe him to be stupid. Forrest might be retarded but his heart and his spirit are ten times bigger than anyone else's. We meet Forrest when he is a child, we see the extraordinary mother he has, we witness the problems he has since then because the other kids mocked himall the time  and also how he met the girl he would love forever. Forrest is apparently also quite lucky and while he never tries the way he is opens a lot of opportunities to him which he grabs always inadvertently and thereforein the story we see how he becomes a college football star, goes to Vietnam and survives, becomes a Ping Pong international champion, enters the shrimp business and becomes rich, gets to meet import...

The Interlopers by Saki (1870-1916) is one of those short stories that stand out because of their simplicity and elegance in leading the reader to the belief that the story is going on one direction when actually is following another, The most amazing thing is that the writer is completely honest and puts all the clues there as the story progresses so if you pay attention you can actually tell what the writer´s real intentions are but the reader fails to see them and is then pleasantly surprised by the ending which is lcompletely unexpected. Two men Ulrich and Georg are by right the heads of their respective families that for years have quarrelled over s forest that lies in the middle of their respective properties. One night they run into each other in that forrest, both alone, when suddenly they are accidentally trapped under an enormus tree branch. no one comes ot rescue them but they patiently wait and in the meantime they decide to talk. As their conversation continues they ...