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IELTS Sample Questions For Writing Task 2 #2

2016-12-27T04:50:00.001-08:00

Question 1:
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:

It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport and music, and others are not. However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words.

Answer:

It is argued that sport players and artists claimed their talent is genetic origin.They did not have to learn music or sport to become that talented. Having said that, a growing number of people believe they any child can be the best singer or the fastest swimmer in the world as long as he receives the right teaching and proper direction. In this essay, I will look at both sides argument and give my opinion.

Firstly, few people was born with certain talent for instance, a two years old child can play multiple drums parallel like a professional musician. I'm confident that a child cannot learn such skills at the age at two sometimes people inherit such skills from their ancestors. The other hand, there are a considerable the amount of people who are different from their family. For example, a golf world champion belongs to the singer's family. It is an evidence that with rigorious training everything can be achieved.

In my opinion, I support the second statement, though no one can rules out the role of natural talent. A person can be born with good voice tone and quality, but he cannot achieve harmony, scale, and rhythm without learning. Every innate talent requires encouragement and teaching. The consistency and hard work can then make you perfect.

In conclusion, talent always play a key role in our success but self-development, hard work, and tander care are also required to maintain the inherent talent and through practice, we can make impossible into possible.

Word count: 255 words

Question 2:
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:

As most people spend a major part of their adult life at work, job satisfaction is an important element of individual wellbeing. What factors contribute to job satisfaction? How realistic is the expectation of job satisfaction for all workers?

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words.

Answer:

Job satisfaction is believed to be an important aspect in overall good life. To be satisfied with a job it needs many thing to be met and it is a metter of debate whether a job satisfaction exist or not.

Being satisfied could be different mean to different individuals. Many people would be agree that satisfaction is determined in a discrepancy between what one wants and what one has in job. In this way, one tends to feel satisfied when his expectations are met, and disappointed when they are not. They are, however, other influences that could also determine how content a person could be with his job. A major factor is the relationship between supervisors and their subordinates. Worker who think negatively of their chiefs are often less satisfied, while employees who find their bosses friendly and expensive are usually more content with their work.

Most people work in order to earn salary and they would probably not choose to spend eight or more hours each day doing their jobs if they did not need the money. The need to earn to pay mortgages, bills and everyday living costs if of much greater concern than job satisfaction. In fact, I would agree that the majority of people dislike their jobs and are unhappy about their salaries, working hours, workloads, or their bosses.

In conclusion, it is difficult to imagine a world in which everyone is truly happy with their employment. Moreover, many people are forced to work in stressful and even financially unrewarding careers out of necessity, not choice.

Word count: 259 words

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IELTS Sample Questions for Writing Task 2 #1

2016-12-27T04:33:00.000-08:00

Question 1:
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:

Some people say that the only reason for learning a foreign language is in order to travel or to work in a foreign country. Others say that these aren't the only reasons why someone should learn a foreign language.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words.

Answer:

It is argued that foreign language studied only for traveling or working in a foreign country. The other side, it is believed that studying foreign language should be done by any other reasons. I will look at both sides argument and give my opinion.

Firstly, foreign language is one of the key for socializing across the globe, expecially English language because it is international language which has been used almost around the world. People who have working and traveling to foreign country is needed to learn foreign language so that they would be able to socialize very well. Although learning foreign language for these reason are correct, a number of people is believed that there are several reasons why someone should learn a foreign language such as to understand world news and to get more knowledge from different sources.

In my opinion, I support the second statement. Even though traveling and working were the major reason to learn foreign language, any other reasons such as to understand world news and to get more knowledge from different sources were also strong background why people should study foreign language such as English language. Moreover, if we want to know what happening in the whole world, we must learn foreign language. Other reason is to get more knowledge from different sources. A lot of knowledge sources used international language so that these sources could be access to everyone. International knowledge sources usually contained many studies in many ways. Therefore, if we can understand what is written, it is made our knowledge improve dramatically.

In conclusion, learning foreign language is not only for traveling or working, but also for understanding world news and international knowledge sources.

Word count: 268 words

Question 2:
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:

Many goverments think that economic progress is their most important goal. Some people think that other types of progress are equally important for a country.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Write at least 250 words.

Answer:

Economic is believed to be the most important part for government outcome having saying that, it is argued that other parts have the same important for a country. In this essay, I will look at both sides argument and give my opinion.

Firstly, economic is an essential part in many government. A number of presidential candidates gave their vision about how to make economic increase dramatically and they think it is the best way to do for seek public sympathy. The other hand, there was an argument that other types in government ought to increase together. The other parts such as education and health care have also an important in a country. For example, a child who have a great education will give right impact in economic progress for the country in the future.

In my opinion, I support the second statement. The other part such as education and health care must be increased equally with economic in a country. The success of government can be seen from how their people life. If people in a country have poor quality in education, it will effect to their government in the future. In the same way, health care should provide great services for their people. Good services from health field can increase quality of lives a person and lead them to more productive in works, moreover, economic's country will also increase.

In conclusion, the progress of economic is an important outcome for governments. But other sectors such as education and health care must be increase equally, therefore public welfare can be achieved.

Word count: 270 words

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IELTS Sample Questions for Writing Task 2 #2

IELTS Listening : Common Problems With Numbers

2016-12-26T10:02:00.000-08:00

In this lesson we are going to look at something that is very common for IELTS Listening. In the listening test you often need to listen and write down a number. IELTS Knows all problem that many student have with numbers in English. One of the common problem is the different between fifteen and fifty. Even for us sometime it can be difficult to hear the different between fifteen and fifty or sixteen and sixty. So IELTS Often give you those number in the test to test your ability, to hear and understand in english. Let me give you a little test. I am gonna give you some numbers and I would like you to listen and write them down. After that I will give you the answer. I am gonna give you ten numbers. If you are ready, klik play in the video bottom.

So how did you do? did you get more of them right or did you get a lot of them wrong? Well, if you didn't do very well, continue watching and I'm gonna go through the prounounciation of the numbers.

Now lets have a look. We get as an example: thirteen and thirty. The different between thirteen and thirty is in the sound. The sound in thirteen is longer while the sound in thirty is shorter. Klik play and listen this video.

So hopefully you have learn a little bit about the different between numbers. Please practice, it is important because you can get this in the test. And hopefully you will get that correct. Well that is so for this lesson. I will see you again in another IELTS lesson.

Click link below if you want to know about how to answer multiple choice questions easily for IELTS Listening

IELTS Listening : Answer Multiple Choice Questions Easily

How to Register Your Blog to Google Adsense

2016-12-17T22:57:00.002-08:00

Google adsense is Google's advertising network that is provided to the owner of the website in order to generate some money from website. The working principle of the program is the presence of advertisers who put their ads on Google Adsense. Then the website owner who serves as the publisher will display the ad on the website. The amount of money paid by advertisers will be split for Google Adsense and Publisher with conditions of Google Adsense.

If you want to be a Google Adsense Publisher and you feel that you are qualified or policy provided, you can try to apply. Don't be afraid of being rejected because of google adsense still gives the opportunity for you to fix the blog that you have if the status of your application is rejected.

Register your blog to google adsense

If your blog setting language is not English, change the language settings of your blog into English language.

On the Blogger dashboard, select menu "settings" → "language and formatting"
Then change the language into English (United States) and click "Save settings"
Please refresh your dashboard page. By changing the language into English (United States), the earnings page will appear. Klik your Earnings page → Adsense
Then you will go to the Blogger page + Google Adsense. Please click on "register"

Or register your blog to google adsense (Custom domain)

Please go to page www.google.com/adsense
After the first page of google adsense is open, please click Sign Up Now.

...........................

Next, please login or create an email that will be used to sign up for Google Adsense

Then input your URL (blogspot or custom domain) that will be listed, specify the primary language on your website, check the box approval, and click continue.
Then complete the form about your area, identity, and email. Fill out the form carefully. When you are finished filling out the form, please click "Submit application"

Please wait for notification email from Google Adsense whether your account is accepted or not. Sometimes your adsense account can be accessed without any notification email in advance. You can check your adsense account at Blogger dashboard on earnings page → adsense, then click the link "Visit AdSense for my income details". Or you can directly open at www.google.com/adsense and sign in to adsense if you register for a custom domain.

If you sign up for Blogspot, your adsense account will have the status of hosted. Your adsense account will have the status of a non hosted if you sign up for custom domains. Then once received, your adsense account is not fully active. You must pass a second phase review and the adsense will ask you to put your ad code on the blog.

The ad that will be displayed by google adsense is an empty ad. At the time, google adsense will do the second review for your blog. So do not remove the ad on your blog although it is an empty ad. At this review, you must often make new postings on an ongoing basis. The goal is to make your google adsense account is fully accepted.

Well, that's all about how to register your blog to google adsense. Before you register your blog to google adsense, I recommend you to read about 10 tips to make your blog are received by google adsense. See you on the next post about blogging. If you have any question, please contact us or leave a comment.

9 Tips to Increase Google AdSense CTR on your Blog

2016-12-16T03:35:00.001-08:00

Register for Google Adsense is just the first step for those who want to make money from Google AdSense. Here is some tips to make your blog are received google adsense.

The next step is to increase visitors and also optimize the AdSense ads on your blog. The aim is making a lot of visitors to click on your AdSense ads.

Well, in this post I will discuss about how to increase Google AdSense CTR.

What is CTR?

CTR (Click Through Rate) or in Indonesia called RKT (Rasio Klik Tayang) is the percentage amount of total display from ad impressions.

For example, if your ads on your blog are viewed 1000 times and there are 10 people who click on your ad, it means you get a CTR of 1%.

How many Google AdSense CTR which is reasonable?

A reasonable Google AdSense CTR is Generally between 1% to 3%. Your blog may be Able to get a larger or smaller CTR. That is Because The number of CTR Depends on many things. One of them is the topic on your blog. There are some topics a blog that can get a high CTR. In addition, there is also the topic of a blog can only get a CTR under 1%. One of the blog topics that usually get a low CTR is a blog with hodgepodge topic.

How to increase Google AdSense CTR?

There are a few things that you can do to increase Google AdSense CTR.

1. Use a simple template and not colorful

Try to use the blog template that has a simple layout and also not too much color. Why should be like that? Because the look of the blog are simple and not too many trinkets will make the ads could appear more prominently and attracted the attention of visitors to click it.

2. Do not install too many widgets

Remove widgets that are not too important, for example a widget of calendar or blog stats and etc. If you are not put too many widget, it will get better. The reason is the same as point number 1.

3. Use a template that is not too wide

4. Use a blog design that is responsive

More internet users that use mobile devices rather than desktop. It means having a responsive design blog is a must. In addition, Google AdSense has provided the type of ads responsive.

5. Use the recommended ad size

Google AdSense provides quite a lot of ad sizes to choose from, you can even create your own ad size. But there are only few ad sizes that have a good CTR performance. Generally the larger the size of the ad, it will be the higher the value of its advertising because the CTR of the bigger will be more easily seen by visitors.

6. Put the ads in the right place

If the placement of the ad is wrong, then it certainly will not be effective. Even though you have selected the right ad sizes. The following is the proper ad placement recommendation so getting high CTR:

Under the title of the posting: 300 × 250 or 336 × 280.
In the middle of posting: 300 × 250 or 336 × 280.
Under posting: 300 × 250 or 336 × 280.
In the sidebar: 300 × 600, 300 × 250, or 160 × 600.
In the header: 728 × 90.

7. Use advertising combination of type image, text, and link units

Google AdSense provides 3 types of advertising namely advertising this type of image, text and link units. Use combination of all three so that advertisements that appear more varied.

8. Reduce the number of ads

One other way that can be done to increase Google AdSense CTR is reducing the number of ads that are attached. attach your ads on sites that get a high CTR values. For example, under the title of the posting or in the middle of posting.

9. Do not mix AdSense ads with other ads

Google AdSense does not prohibit you to mix AdSense ads with ads from other programs. But it will be better if you are not to mix it up.

IELTS Listening : Strategy to Answer Listening English About Times

2016-12-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

In this lesson I am going to test you on part of IELTS listening section 1. I am gonna test you on the time. I hope you remember how to tell the time in English. Before we do the test, Lets show quickly review a little bit about how to tell the time. We can see the clock at the picture. What time is it?

Well, the time is one fifty (1.50). That is quite easy. But in English, there is often two different ways to say the same time. Can you think the another way to say that time? The other way is ten to two. That means ten minutes before two o'clock. So there are two different ways to tell the same time. In your IELTS listening test, IELTS would often try to test you on that and trick you. Lets have a look at the test I am going to give you now.

For this test you are going to have 5 questions. You can see them at the picture above. For question 1 and question 3, I want you to listen to the time I tell you and write it in your paper. So you must prepare a pen and paper. Remember to write it in numbers, not words. For question 2, 4 and 5, I want you to choise the right option. So you can choise a, b or c. I am only going to say the time once. Just like in the test. So listen carefully and let's start.

The answers are :
1. 5.20
2. 7.45
3. 4.40
4. 6.30
5. 2.35

So how did you do in your test? Did you get all of them right? well don't worry if you didn't. This is not your real test. This is only a practice. If you didn't get all of them right, you need to practice. Practice makes perfect. That is all for this lesson. I will see you again in another IELTS lesson. Read Also about IELTS Listening : Strategy to Answer Listening English Names.

10 Tips to Make Your Blog Are Received Google Adsense

2016-12-12T21:14:00.003-08:00

Google Adsense is one of the ways to earn money from the internet. In addition to potentially earn a lot of money, the blog monetized in this way is highly desirable when it sold in Flippa. Unfortunately, not everyone is approved as google adsense publishers. The reasons are diverse ranging from blogs that have yet to comply with the policy of the webmaster, navigation is not clear until the content is lacking. If you want to become a google adsense publisher, you should follow these tips.

1. Create a blog that contains "tips" or "how to"

You should make the article about "tips" or "how to", If you want your blog is approved as Google Adsense publishers. For instance, if your blog's topic is the car, then the articles that you can create are as follows.

How do I choose the best car?
How to check the car engine
4 tips to keep your car engine

2. The number of articles at least 10

The number of articles which should exist on the blog to be registered to Google adsense is still unclear. Some say a minimum of 10, 20, and so on. However, I have interesting experience when a blog contains 5 articles are approved by Google Adsense. You should publish at least 10 articles (each a minimum of 400 words). If less, there's a chance that your blog enter the category of "less content" so it rejected by Google Adsense.

3. Create articles that are 100% get away with CopyScape

Now this is not an era of "copy paste". In addition to violating copyright person, "copy paste" article will likely be hard to enter the Top 10 of Google. Therefore, you should make the article 100% get away with CopyScape.

Don't worry if you can't write in english language, you can order the articles at article writing services locally or abroad. For those of you who are interested in wearing a foreign article writing services, I recommend iWriter.

4. Create an article with a good grammar

Your article is not only 100% get away with CopyScape, but also it must have good grammar. Why? Because a Google adsense specialists will be assigned to review your blog. If he does not understand the intent of your article because the grammar of the language is not correct, then she would recommend to refuse your application as google adsense publishers.

5. Create a blog navigation simple and clear

Blog navigation can be internal links, menu header, related articles, and a sidebar menu. You have to make all the navigation with simple and clear.

6. Add videos that are relevant

Visitor satisfaction is the goal that you have to accomplish when publishing articles. Therefore, you need to add videos that relevant to the topic you discuss. You can use your own video or video of other people from YouTube. Not all articles must have videos. The percentage of its existence can be 30-50% of the total of your article.

7. Make a logo blog

One of the factors to become a professional blog is a logo. Therefore, your blog must have a logo in order to have a professional impression. You can order it at Fiverr or make it by yourself with photoshop.

8. Create a page "about" that is informative and trustworthy

Your blog should have a page "about" that is informative and reliable. In my view, informative means with information about the purpose of the creation of the blog. Reliable means that it is a must to write the identity of the owner on the blog. Remember, the identity that is in the page "about" must be equal to the identity that you submit to google adsense.

9. Create a page of contact, privacy policy, and DMCA

In addition to the page "About", you must also create a contact page, privacy policy, and DMCA. The contact page will facilitate your visitors to contact you. If they have any questions, they would ask. Privacy Policy page shows that you respect the privacy of visitors to your blog. While the DMCA page was the statement that your blog does not violate the copyrights of others.

10. The age of the blog more than 3 months

As with any number of articles, the blog age registered to Google adsense is still no guideline (except the India blog must be at least 6 months). However, from my experience and some other bloggers, age 3 months is an ideal age. Why? because you can publish many articles in 3 months so that your blog indexed and have visitors from search engines.

Do you want to know how to increase your blog visitors? It is important for your blog.

6 Tips to Increase Your Blog Visitors

2016-12-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

You probably know that the number of visitors, usually called traffic, can determine the success of your blog. The more visitors you have, the more successful your blog. Of course it can make your earnings rise. Unfortunately, your blog visitors tend to diminish day by day even though you diligently published posts. Therefore, I will share you 6 Tips to preven it. Not only to prevent it, you can increase your blog visitor with this tips.

1. Evaluate the blog speed

Evaluate the speed of your blog with using Pingdom Website Speed Test. If the time to access it quickly, you can move to the next tip. Otherwise, you need to find the cause and the solution. If hosting is the cause, you need to move your blog to another hosting provider so that your blog more quickly opened. Remember that the speed of your blog influence on your blog ranking in Google search results. Why? Because Google has placed the speed of blog/website as one of the factors in the ranking algorithm.

2. make sure you make a quality post

The best way to increase the traffic is with making quality posts. If you think it's hard, you must throw away the reason because you can easily create quality posts from your experience.

Example:
If you are a blogger that explore the topic about personal development, you can make a post about your success in managing time. If you still have problems with time management (eg procrastinate), you can also make a post about the reasons why you like to procrastinate. The reasons discussed in the post are the reason why you like to procrastinate. It is so easy, isn't it?

3. Write an interesting post title

Your quality post must have an interesting title. The more interesting the title, the more people who curious to read it. Otherwise, Your quality post will be "lonely" because no one reads.

4. Interact with visitors

You should also interact with visitors if your blog is a blog authority. You can do this by responding to comments or emails from visitors. Otherwise, the visitors will be disappointed so it is not impossible that they no longer want to visit your blog. Consequently, your blog visitors will be reduced.

5. Using social media

Be active in social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Update your status on both the social media with inform your postings. The more posts you inform, the more your friends visit your blog. In addition, this activity will help diversify your visitor sources so you are not depend on the search engines.

6. Commented on other people's blogs with good

The last step is commented on other people's blogs to the same topic as well. The goal is to attract the attention of owners and visitors of the blog to visit your blog. In addition, this activity will increase the number of backlinks to your blog, both dofollow and nofollow.

So, that's all 6 Tips to increase your blog visitors. If you do all of the tips above consistently, your blog visitors will increase. See you on the next tips.

IELTS Writing : How to organise your writing

2016-12-10T21:56:00.002-08:00

Let's have a look at the structure that you need to use for your IELTS writing test 1 report. The structure is very important. You have to organise all the information into a logical order and put them into different paragraph. This is very important and the examiner will check your structure and your organization. There are 4 main paragraph that you need to use for task 1.

The first paragraph is introduction. It contains a decsription of the graph what it shows. IELTS will always give you a description and you can use that information for your introduction. But don't copy it. That is a mistake. You need to paraphrase it. So writes again using your own english.

The next paragraph after the introduction is the overview. The overview is a very important paragraph. It is often not too long, but it contains all the key feature of the graph or the chart. All main feature you put in your overview after the introduction.

After that you got a body paragraphs. We got body paragraph A and body paragraph B. This is where you put the detail information. So all the dates and the numbers or the comparisons, you can put that in the body paragraph.

So there are the four main paragraphs that you need to use. The overview statement, I know mainly put that after introduction because it is important. I like the examiner to get that information as soon as his start reading after the introduction. It is possible to also put it at the end. But make sure that you have enough time to make it because the overview is very important.

Well that is the structure of your report. If you want more IELTS lesson, just follow me on twitter or instagram. I will see you again in another IELTS lesson. Don't forget to read also about how to using the official answer sheet in writing for IELTS exam. Bye.

Advance Technology in The Future

2016-12-08T21:13:00.002-08:00

Technology is a milestone in the success of a country. With useful technology human life would be easier. For example, the community can grow their business, conduct interactions with people away from them, increase productivity of their work. Even with technology, we can travel a long way to go out of the country easily. That's why the development of technology has always been a very exciting news.

1. Jet Pack

Jet pack is a tool that we see in the movies about science fiction. This tool is typically used for flying. The fuel for jetpack used in the form of gas or water.

The first company that produces these tools is a company named TAM. The company manufactures this tool with a complete package of costumes designed by Rocket Belt and it was equipped with aerospace materials to be able to produce the fuel hydrogen peroxide of jet.

2.Virtual Goggles
An experiment conducted for decades has resulted in tangible results. You can watch it at home on your own now. Technology has brought the world into a virtual computer that can be had by all.

3. Quantum Teleportation
The research of quantum teleportation could be done only on small objects. with this technology the researchers could destroy an object and then make it back. The technology is truly amazing. Although this technology is not able to move the whole living things or else die perfectly, or overall physical. However this tool can create a replica of an object and put it elsewhere. When it happens, the original object will disappear for a while.

4. Light Saber
Laser swords consist of a metal and a plasma blade with a length of 1 meter. this sword is typically found in science fiction movies that can cut an object without a fight. but the sword is also still could be repulsed with shield.

5 Tips to Improve Your English Listening

2016-12-08T08:57:00.001-08:00

In this lesson, I want to share 5 of these strategies or secrets for improving your listening skills. So let's get right to it.

1. Mindset
The way that you think, whether it's positive or negative, makes a huge difference in your abilities to take action or to understand what you're hearing. So if you go into a situation with a negative mindset, trust me, you won't do as well and you won't feel as confident. If you go into a situation with the positive mindset, "yes I can do it. I am able to understand what I hear in English. I do have the skills and I have the motivation to improve my skills. I see myself improving every day". These are the kinds of phrases, these are the kinds of ideas that I want for you to have in your mind as you approach situations in English where you want to understand what you hear. So my first tip is to start with the positive mindset. I believe you can do it. You can understand what you hear in English. And I'm here to help you so that you can even improve even more and build you confidence, so that you can interact with success in any English speaking conversation. Alright, that's why we are here.

2. Listen, read and speak
When you listen, it's very helpful if you can use other activities to develop your listening skill. I would compare this to cross-training for a sport. Let say you want to be really good at soccer. Alright, in the rest of the world football, but in the US we call it soccer. So, you might play a lot of soccer to get good at soccer. Of course, that's obvious right. But some people will encourage you to cross-train. Maybe try a different sport that will increase your endurance, or your breathing, your lung capacity. Maybe you want to try swimming. It's a totally different sport, but it should help your overall physical capabilities. I recommend finding materials where you can listen and read them. So in these three ways you're going to develop your listening skills, because reading will help you identify the connection between what you hear and what you read. And speaking, well, if you can say a sound you'll able to hear it better. I hope that make sense but trust me that this kind of cross-training will really help your listening skills.

3. Diversity
I encourage you to listen to a diverse set of materials. Try some listening material that are short, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and then as you advance, try materials that are longer. 20 minutes, 30 minutes. a full movie of an hour or two. So a diversity of length of materials and shorter-length materials are better for repeating over and over. If you have a 3-minute video, you could repeat that 5 times and you'have still only studied for 15 minutes. So it's very east to do. Another point about diversity is I encourage you to begin listening to materials that are interesting to you, that fit within your interests. So if you're interested in soccer, listen to materials about soccer or listen to an actual soccer game with english sport casters or announcers. But, I want you to push yourself to go outside of your interests and listen to a diverse range of materials. Okay. If you are an artist, I want you to find science materials to listen too. You could listen to the NPR radio, that's the National Public Radio. Or the BBC radio, the British Broadcasting.. What is it.. Channel, I think. There you are going to find topics on science, technology, business, health, all different kinds of topics that you can explore to listen to a diverse range of materials. Why should you do this? Because of vocabulary. I want you to be familiar with a wide range of vocabulary. So again, begin with topics that motivate you, that you're really interested in. But when you're ready for a challenge, try materials that you wouldn't naturally be drawn to. Maybe something in the different field or a different topic than you would usually choose. Now, that'll keep things fresh. That will challenge you.

4. Guess first
Why would you guess first? We want to be sure. We want to have concrete, 100% confidence in what we are hearing, right? Well, actually no. I want you to guess what you think you are going to hear based on the situation or the material that you expect. So let's say you are listening to one of my video lessons, I want you to look at the title first and take 3 seconds to guess what you are going to hear in that video. This activates your brain and you start thinking about vocabulary that you can expect and that way that vocabulary is fresh in your mind and your brain doesn't work so hard to dig it up. So before you enter conversation at a specific event or a specific place with a certain person, I want you to guess what do you think that person might want to talk about. That will help you to be prepared mentally for that conversation or for the material, like my videos.

5. Understand the big ideas
What I mean by this is I want to help you to understand what's special about the structure of English and the way that we speak. What are the patterns? If we can start to identify the patterns of English, then when you want to understand a specific conversation, a specific phrase or a specific word, you are going to be able to place that within the framework or the structure of English. And you'll be able to organize these new learnings much more easily. You will have a place to put all the new ideas, the new vocabulary and the new phrases. So the first thing that I want you to think about is the big picture, or the framework of English. And in my course, I describe this is more detail. But what I mean is we have to get used to things like rhythm of English, how we chunk the phrases together. And sometimes it has nothing to do with punctuation like period or commas, although sometimes it does. We have to get used to the stress that we put on a certain part of the phrase. The stress that we put on certain syllables in a word. We have to get used to how in English we have key content words and we have weaker a function words. I'll explain all of this in my full course. We have to get used to also the sounds that we are going to hear within the words. That maybe you don't have in your native language. Like the "TH" sound or the "R" or the "L" or maybe the "P" or the "B" sound. I know in other languages these may not exist. So this is what I call getting used to the big picture, understanding the big picture. So that you have a framework to understand how English is special. And when you learn new ideas or new words, you can organize all of these things on your brain. And when we organize, it helps us to remember.

So these are 5 tips for listening success. See you in the next lesson.

IELTS Reading : How to answer True False Not Given Question

2016-12-07T21:05:00.001-08:00

Here is the typical example of a question for true false not given.

Passage:
The Majority of people who graduated university found it difficult to get a job

Question:
After finishing their tertiary education, all people had difficulties to find employment.

Now the first step that you need to take is to look more closely at the statement. Don't try to find or understand your answer until you have analyst the statement more. So the first thing we are going to do is look at some vocabulary in the statement. At the statement of question, Tertiary education means university education and employment means work or a job. In the passage, the people who graduated university. Graduated means that they have finished the university. We have a lot of similarity between the statement and the passage.

Now many student can see that a lot of the information is matching. And immedietly they decide the answer is true. But you need to be more careful with that. It is not about matching keywords. It is about matching all of the meaning. So here we are going to take a look the word "all" At the statement of question. All means 100% to the people. So after finishing their university education, 100% of the people had difficulties to find work. That's the actual meaning of the statement. But in the passage, the majority doesn't everyone. It means most of them. So we have a miss match. It doesn't match. And remember that the false means it is opposite information. The majority means not all people. So the answer to this question is False. The information in the statement doesn't match. It is opposite information in the passage.

Let's have a look at another. Here is the next question.

Passage:
The charity raises money to pay for education and the daily needs of poor people.

Question:
The charity spends more of the money raised on schooling for poor people than on their daily requirements.

So again we gonna spend a little bit of time looking at the statement. We have got "The charity spends more of the money raised on schooling". Schooling means education. Then on "daily (everyday) requirements". "Requirements" mean needs. Again in the statement, we have a lot of similar or a lot of matching information. What do you thing? True, false or not given? well, we need to look more deply the statement. Remember if the answer is true, it means that the information mathces. If the answer is false, it means that this is opposite information.

We should prepare the opposite information to make sure that we can decide if it's true or false. If we look at the passage, we got information about education and we have information about daily needs. But it doesn't say which one the charity spend most of the many on. Which one is more and which one is less. So that means eventhough we have a lot of matching information, we do not find any matching information and we do not find any opposite information. In fact, the comparison between "the many on schooling" and "daily requirement" isn't there. So the answer for this question is Not Given.

Lets have a look at one more. Here is the last practice question.

Passage:
Just over 400 million acres of land is being used for agricalture in America.

Question:
At present, in America, about 400 million acres of land is allocated for agriculture.

At the statement, we got "at present" as a time phrase. It means "right now" or "at this moment" or "curently". Allocated means "it is given to be useful". The differences between the passage and the statement is "a time phrase" and the word "about". Do you think it is true? false? or not given? well let's have a look further. Firstly the time phrase. In the passage there is no a time phrase. However, is it another way to know what we are talking about the present or not? yes, there is and that's grammar. Your grammar will tell you what time period we are talking about it is a present or a past. The word "is being used" in the passage is present continuous. So you can see, it is not about just matching words. It is about matching meaning. And the meaning can't be hidden in the grammar. So you have to pay attention to everything in the statement and in the passage. The word "about 400 million acres" have the same meaning with "just over 400 million acres". So the answer is true.

Well, That's all about how to answer true false not given question. If you want to know about tips in true false not given question, click here. See you in the next lesson.

IELTS Speaking : How to Greet The Examiner

2016-12-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

In this lesson we are going to look at the beginning of your IELTS speaking test. This is when you walked into the IELTS speaking examination room and you greet the examiner for the first time. This is before part one begin. You will need to greet the examiner and do identification check. We can call this part zero.

There are 4 questions to part zero. I am going to give you the question and give you some useful tips. So that you can be confidence in your answer and give a good face impression to the examiner. So let's start with the first question.

In first question, the examiner will introduce him or her self. The examiner would give you their name. The examiner is going to say :

The Examiner : Good afternoon, my name's Elizabeth Ferguson. What's your full name? or maybe they might say "Could you tell me your full name?"

Your answer : Good afternoon (Elizabeth), my name's Vicky Prajaputra

and you need to answer "good afternoon, Elizabeth". You can give the name of the examiner or not. It is your choice. And then you can say "my name's Vicky Prajaputra". It is a simple question and simple answer, but I still have some tips.

If you are going to use the name of the examiner and say "good afternoon, Elizabeth", please dont give a title. This is in correct in english. We dont use a title with first name. So if you are going to use the name of the examiner, only say "good afternoon, Elizabeth". But if you don't comfortable using the name of the examiner, it is fine. It isn't a problem. you can just say "good afternoon".
When you give your name, there are 2 tips I want you to remember. The first tip is when you say "my name's Vicky Prajaputra", please dont say "My name is Vicky Prajaputra". I want you to use the contraction (My name's). The reason this is important is because this is part of pronunciation. When you contracted a word from is to "my name's", then this is high level pronunciation. So remember that in your IELTS exam and try to use it as much as you can. The other tip is when you give your name, please dont speak quickly. I want you to say clearly because sometimes is difficult for the examiner to hear.
And of course the last point is smile. Dont forget to smile because this is your chance to greet the examiner and be friendly as your confidence. So smile, look at the examiner in the eyes and relax.

The second question is very easy. the examiner will ask you :

The examiner : what can I call you?

There are 3 ways that you can reply. you could say "you can call me Vicks" or you could say "just call me Vicks" or "please call me Vicks". So those of three possible answer that you can give. Now for some tips :

My first tip is please do not explain why people call you this. You are going to give the examiner simple clear answer. You dont need add more information.
I know some of you have english name and of course you can give the examiner your english name. You can say "you can call me by my English name, Rose". This is fine but please remember do not make a mistake with that sentence. If you dont have an english name, please dont worry. It doesn't matter.

Lets have a look at the third question. The examiner will ask you :

The Examiner : where are you from? or the examiner might say "could you tell me where you come from?"

Now let me give you some possible answer. You could say "I'm from Hanoi" or You could say "I come from Hanoi". You can also add more information if you want (not too much, just a little bit). You could say "I'm from Calcuta which is in the East of India. It is good added a little bit more information and it showed the examiner good grammar. Now lets have a look some tips.

Please don't expand any further. Dont ask the examiner any questions. For the example, Don't says "I come from Hanoi, Have you been there?". Dont give the examiner recommendation. Dont says "I come from Hanoi. I think you really should go there". So please don't do that. Just keep it simple, short and accurate.
Use english pronunciation of names.
Please try to use the english pronunciation.

Lets move to the last question. The examiner will ask you :

The examiner : could I see your identification, please? or the examiner might say "can you show me your identification, please?"

Now for your answer, of course you need to give the examiner your identification and you can also say "here you are" or "Sure. Here you are" or "Of course. Here it is". So you can choice any other answer. Now for some tips:

Identification is often called "ID"
Keep your answer short. You can choice one of the example. Dont make it any longer.
It is possible for you to actually say nothing and give the examiner your identification. But I think it's nice if you say something.

So those all the four question for part zero (greeting the examiner and do the identification check). Please do more practice. Dont forget to smile and relax when you do the test. Well, Thats all for this lesson. I will see you in the next lesson.

How to Unfollow Twitter Accounts quickly and easily

2016-12-03T20:59:00.001-08:00

Twitter use the friendship system in the form of "Follower" or "following", where people who follow you called Followers and people who you follow called Following. Usually the number of Followers is not comparable to the Following. It causes the number of Following more than the number of Followers.

To solve it, we can Unfollow a Twitter account that we follow. If there are 200 accounts that we follow then we must click "Unfollow" as many as 200 times to be zero. It's just 200, what if the Following reached 500, 1000, or 10,000? it will definitely be very tiring if we should click "unfollow" one by one.

I found a way How to Unfollow Twitter Accounts quickly and easily up to the amount of the following becomes 0. This technique does not use third-party applications and it does not use the tool online. We will only use a bit of code on the browser Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Although the use of the code, it does not mean that we must be good at coding. We just did a Copy and Paste It is so easy, isn't it?

How to Unfollow Twitter Accounts quickly and easily?

Log in to your Twitter account using Google Chrome browser or Mozilla Firefox on a PC Desktop
Go to https://twitter.com/following or click here
If you use the google chrome browser (recommended), press Ctrl + Shift + J or press Ctrl + Shift + K if you use the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Then, a box will pop up in a new window. On the console tab, input the following code:

setInterval(function(){t=$(".following button:eq(-1)");if(!t[0])window.scrollTo(0,$(document).height());else t.trigger("click")},100)

Copy the code above and paste the code on the page like in the picture. Then press Enter.

After that, the browser will respond and immediately run the script code that is already placed. The browser will automatically continue scroll down to Unfollow all there is. Wait a few minutes until the Following amount to 0.
Well done.

The length of the process depends on :

the amount of "Following"
Internet speed
Response of the browser.

If the browser is finished to Unfollow, please shut down the page. Then reopen in order to disappear the effect of the script.

Whether the number of "Following" is already to be zero? If it is not, you should try to go to "settings" → "application". Then check whether there are still applications that set "following". Still not happening effect? Try to log out and then log in again. If it still can not, you have to give it another try with the script above.

Alternatively, we can use the online tool at https://unfollowers.com/id to arrange for a Twitter profile management and Instagram.

The Legend of Cindaku, a Man Tiger

2016-11-30T21:19:00.001-08:00

Cultural diversity owned by each tribe's homeland is the side of life, which frequently gave rise to legends that are believed to be hereditary. In his own homeland of the majority community indeed still believe the myths to stories of legend, although in fact myth or the legend cannot be confirmed. One of the legend that is currently still very lumpy to the residents of Jambi, Sumatra is a legend about a tiger man known by the name cindaku. Like many of the legend that is trusted by the people of the fatherland, the legend about cindaku is very strong-smelling magical things.

Cindaku for the community of Kerinci, Jambi is an embodiment of human Tiger. Cindaku is often described as the human figure which can be transformed into a half-human and half Tiger. According to legend, cindaku is a science of the mind that is believed to be inherited from the ancestors of the kerinci society. It was said that those who have the ability to transform into a human's spiritual Tiger are simply those who have pure blood and have a spiritual talent. However, according to legend, they can only be changed if it is in the land of his birth and of his own when his chest come into contact with the ground. At first glance this legend resembles an occult sciences, but to the residents of Kerinci the legend isn't really like the dark arts used to defend itself. But cindaku is a science that is lowered to maintain boundaries between humans and Tigers live.

The legend of the Tiger man from the land of Kerinci began the legend of ancestor, known as Tingkas. According to the legend from the citizens of Kerinci Tingkas is their ancestors which strained relations with the Tigers to keep the limits between humans and tigers. It is said that the relationship that makes them able to live side by side with Tiger. Cindaku is believed to have played an important role to maintain that relationship, if anyone dared to break them then they should come face to face with death.

As we know during the conservation of rare animals, the Tiger is indeed always the case unsolved despite swallow no small amount of casualties. It would likewise be strengthened from the utterance of the elders who believe that the incident between humans and tigers due to the many people who have violated the Covenant of their ancestors Tingkas that has been maintained over the centuries.

Based on the legend that is told by one of the many custom says that it's not all communities are cindaku, but the Kerinci people John Matheson can have the power of cindaku. However, he again asserted that the legend is not a study to strengthen themselves, but the legend to set a limit on the life of man and the citizen of kerinci. According to him, even those who have such legendary science also cannot use it with their willpower, they can turn into a tiger man if there are people who dare to violate their agreement.

IELTS Listening : Strategy to Answer Listening English Names

2016-11-27T23:09:00.003-08:00

In this lesson I am going to test you on your ability to listen and write down english names. This is very important part of IELTS listening part 1. In section 1, you often need to listen for personal information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and things like that. Of course you can improve and make sure you get a good score in listening part 1 if you practice. So I am gonna test you on english names. I am going to give you five names. So you need a pen and paper and make sure you written down five numbers. I will only say the name once. That is same in your IELTS listening test. Are you ready? Well let's start your test.

Right, Thats all the five names. Lets have a look at the answer.

1. John Smith
I hope you remember the capital letters. You need did capital "J" and capital "S". If you dont have a capital letter at the beginning of the name, it is wrong. So be careful with that.

2. Simon Brambling

3. Mr Sean Fergus
did you remember the title Mr? if you forgot the title, it is wrong.

4. J.K. Rowling
that was quite difficult, wasn't it? because they are initials not for name.

5. Mrs Hilary Mitchel

That is all five. Now there was some difficult once and a few traps that I put it for you. Of course that is what would happen in your IELTS listening test. So some tips to help you for your IELTS listening test when you have to listen for names:

1. Capital letters

The first one very important are the capital letters. A name always start with the capital letters. You dont forget it. Don't lost the point because you forgot the capital letters.

2. Spelling
The next one is spelling. Of course if it is along name, it will be spelled. And you need to practice your spelling to make sure that you get the name correct. So make sure you practice spelling at home.

3. Common Names
The next one is common names. In the test I gave you, did you know why that some names are spelled and some names I didn't. For example Simon Brambling. I spell the name Brambling but I didn't spell Simon. Why? Well the reason is "Simon is a common name". IELTS expect you to know the spelling of common english names. That means you need to learn and practice them. So if it is a common name, IELTS Probably won't spell it. if it is a longer name, they will spell it. So make sure you learn a common name. Not all names will be spelled.

4. Initials
sometimes IELTS might trick you and give you initials in state of name. Please be ready for that.

5. Titles
titles are like Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms. If you are given a title in the test, please write it down. If you forget the title, it is wrong.

Well, that was some practice and some tips for you for listening for names. How many did you get right by the way? If you didn't get all of them right, please don't worry. This isn't your IELTS listening test. This is just a practice. It is better to make your mistake know and improve before you test. Thats all for this lesson. I will see you again in another IELTS lesson.

IELTS Writing : Using The Official Answer Sheet

2016-11-23T22:52:00.001-08:00

In this lesson we are going to look at the official writing paper that you will use to write your writing test 1 report and you writing test 2 essay in the IELTS test. This is the official IELTS Paper.

I will explain to you in this lesson why you need to practice writing with this paper and how you need to fill it in when you have your test. So lets have a look at why it is important to practice writing using the official writing paper. The main reason to practice writing using this writing paper is mainly because of the word count. Now in the test for writing task 1, you need to write 250 word or above. you should'nt write under 250 word. The examiner is going to check how many word your written. In the test, you dont have times to seek and count how many word you have written. But what you can do if you can download this paper?

If you can download this paper, you can practice writing on this paper. When you practice writing, you will see how big the paper is and more less how many word you will write for your writing on each line. You can also start checking how many lines and how much space you usually take to write 250 word.

Another reason that you need to practice with this paper and practice your handwriting. A lot of student are typing on the computer rather than hand writing. But in the test, you need to use a pen and paper. So what you need to do is practice. Make sure that you do not go out of the line. Keep your handwriting clear and easy to read. If the examiner can not read what you write, you can't get very good band score. Now lets have a look at how to fill it in this writing paper.

At the top of the answer sheet, you got some information that you need to fill it in at the start of your test and the information is your candidate name, your candidate number and the centre number. Now this information you will be given when you go to the IELTS test Centre. you also have to fill it in the date. So dont forget that. But very important part is this.

Above the beginning of the writing paper. We got two boxes: academic or general, and that means which IELTS test are you taking. There are 2 IELTS test for writing: academic writing paper and general writing paper. You need to tick and choice which want you dealing. After that, you got the line of writing answer.

down here, we have an area where the examiner can write some comments and information.

over the back, we got more lines and at the bottom (look at the picture). This is where the examiner is going to write in your band score. The examiner has four criterias for task 1 and task 2.

There are some information that the examiner will check. The first one is underlength. That means a number of word. The examiner will check how many words you got if you are under the word count. So you written less 250 word for task 1 or less 250 word for task 2. The will make a note if you are going to have a penalty punishment for having too few words. Also the examiner will check if you writing is off-topic. That means it is irrelevant and not following the topic. If you have any memorize answer in your writing, Dont do it. I know, there are some teacher that tell you to memorize a piece of writing (for example : a paragraph). The examiner will check to see if there is something memorize in your writing. The examiner will also check if your handwriting can be read. If you handwriting isn't clear, that is a problem and maybe a reason for a very low band score. So, I think it is really important for you to download and to practice this writing paper. Good luck!

Aceh Tsunami Museum, Indonesia

2016-11-22T10:43:00.001-08:00

Tsunami natural disaster ever to hit the region of Aceh, Indonesia on December 26, 2004. This disaster has caused grief, especially for the people of Aceh. To remember the tragic events, The Indonesian government build a museum named Tsunami Museum. The Museum was opened in 2009 and was built in order to commemorate the victims of the tsunami disaster, as a Center for research and learning about the tsunami, and evacuation centers if the tsunami disaster from happening again. In addition, the museum is also a symbol of the strength of the people of Aceh in the face of the tsunami disaster.

Tsunami Museum building, which located on Jalan Iskandar Muda-Banda Aceh, looks like stilts. Various objects that display in this museum include the electronic stimulation as well as photos of the victim and the story presented the victims who survived the tsunami disaster.

Aceh Tsunami Museum was designed by Ridwan Kamil, an architect from Indonesia. Now, he has become a Mayor of Bandung for the period 2013-2018. The Museum has the form of a meaningful and unique. When entered into the museum, visitors must pass through a narrow and dark alleys between two walls of the high water. The design of these spaces aim to remind back atmosphere and the panic in the event of tsunami. The walls of the museum are decorated with images of people who are dancing Saman. It is the symbolic meaning of the strength, discipline, and the religious beliefs of the people of Aceh. From above, the shape of the roof is like the waves of the sea.

The ground floor was designed like a traditional home staging Aceh that survivors from tsunami waves. The design of the museum is prioritizing "secondary skin" made from GRC with geometric motifs.

The third floor on museum building was given an Islamic nuance decorations. from the outside, the form of the building looks like a ship with a lighthouse standing upright on it. On the third floor, there are several facilities such as geological room, library, prayer room, and souvenir area. On the geological room, visitors can obtain a variety of information about tsunami disaster, about earthquake, and the reason why tsunami occurs through an explanation of display and simulation tool in the room.

The roof of the museum which is flat and spacious was designed as an evacuation zone if an earthquake Occurs. The top floor wasn't opened to the public because considering safety and security factor of visitors. From the top floor, visitors can see almost the entire territory of Banda Aceh city

Be careful of Objects of Prepositions #Strategy 2

2016-11-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

Prepositions are always followed by a noun, not the verb. The noun behaves as an object. It can be either a noun, proper noun, pronoun, noun group/noun phrase, and gerund. Prepositions (as, in, at, of, to, by, behind, on) followed by a noun phrase to form preposisional. List of other commonly used prepositions can you see in the Appendix. Note the following sentence :

(After his exams) Tom will take a trip (by boat).

The above sentence contains two objects of prepositions. "Exams" is the object of a preposition "after". While "boat" is the object of a preposition "by".

An object of the preposition can also give rise to confusion in TOEFL STRUCTURE test questions. So, You can just think of these objects as a subject in a sentence.

Example 1 :

In this example, the first time you should look at is the subject and verb. It appears that "found" as a verb, but not found the existence of the subject. Don't think that "friend" is the subject, but "friend" is the object of the preposition "with". Please note that the one noun can not be subject and object at the same time simultaneously. Because it is needed in the above question is to find a subject, then the answer to (B), he, is the best answer. While (A), (C) and (D) is not the right answer, because the three of them could not be the subject.

STRATEGY 2

The following formula is the formation of a preposition

( [Subject+Verb] + Prepositions + Noun )

A preposition is always followed by a noun (noun, pronoun, gerund), not the verb.

Verify the suitability of the sentence that has a subject and verb #Strategy 1

2016-11-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

You know that the sentences in english language should have the subject and verb. The most common type in the question about TOEFL STRUCTURE Test is subject and verb: a word may be vacated, either subject or verb or both, or perhaps the word that has the additional subject or verb.

Example 1 :

In the example above You see that there is a verb (verb), but there is no subject. The answer to (C) is the correct answer because it contains a single subject "traffic" and in accordance with the single verb "was". Answer (A), "yesterday", and the answer to (B), "in the morning", is not a subject, hence they are not true. Although the answer (D) could be the subject, it was not true. "Cars" is plural, so the shape does not correspond to a single verb "was".

Example 2 :

In this example, that sentence above, the Engineers as a subject, but not found a verb. Therefore, the answer to (B) is the most appropriate answer. Because "are needed" is a verb. Whereas, the answer to (A), (C) and (D) is not a verb, so it is not the right answer.

Example 3 :

Fitzgerald is the subject of the third person singular. Then, the verbs that follow should also be in the singular. Therefore, the correct answer is (B).

STRATEGY 1

Look at the following chart on the use of the subject and the verb in a sentence which is appropriate.