Free offline English thesaurus
English, Tech August 11th, 2010
http://sourceforge.net/projects/artha/files/
Artha is a handy thesaurus based on WordNet with distinct features like global hotkey look-up, passive desktop notifications, regular expression based search, etc.. Artha may be used as a free open-source replacement to the proprietary WordWeb Pro.
Tags: dictionary
download Stardict dictionaries
English, Linux August 10th, 2010
StarDict Dictionaries
| Dictionaries | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mail to Hu Zheng(huzheng001@gmail.com) if you have any problem or want to upload dictionaries to here! Source: http://reciteword.cosoft.org.cn/stardict-iso/stardict-dic/ |
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Tags: stardict
IELTS in UAE and Ghana – September 2009 (Academic Module)
English October 2nd, 2009
According to S. and J., IELTS exams in UAE and Ghana were the same, and the tasks in the Writing section were as in the IELTS in Sweden. Thank you guys for sharing what you remembered with everyone.
Listening test
Section 1: A police report about a burglary.
Questions: Filling personal information in the gaps.
Section 2: A telephone conversation about a water heater.
Questions: Labeling a diagram of a water heater.
Section 3: A conversation of 2 college students about a research in South African students entitled “Integrating a Retail System”.
Questions: Filling in the gaps.
Section 4: A lecturer talking about Organic fruits in Australia.
Questions: Filling in the gaps and multiple choice questions.
Reading test
Passage 1: Australia’s sugar cane industry.
Questions: What are the names of 5 persons mentioned and what they have said, plus some True/False/Not Given questions.
Passage 2: An expedition researching stone and rivers in Missouri.
Questions: Matching headings to each paragraph (B-G), True/False/Not Given questions, filling in the gaps.
Passage 3: Canadian immigrants and the building of railways connecting USA and Canada.
Questions: True/False/Not Given, locate a certain sentence in a paragraph.
Writing test
Speaking test
Interview
- What is your name?
- Are you working or studying?
- Some questions about competitions.
Cue card
Talk about a person who won a competition, you should say:
- who that person was
- what he/she won
- when he/she won
- what you liked about this person and why
Discussion
- Do you think only children can enjoy competitions?
- What do you think about the activities of children at school?
- Do you think competitions are good for children?
- What do you think are the characteristics of a good player?
Source and thanks to: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ielts-blog/~3/1QuG_vLZzws/
Tags: ielts, recent-IELTS-exam
IELTS test september 2009 academic module
English October 1st, 2009
Source: http://www.ielts-blog.com/recent-ielts-exams
IELTS test in Sweden was described by F. (thanks a lot!), who shared the following questions from the Writing and Speaking tests.
Writing test
Writing Task 1
There were 3 pie charts about playing electronic games in Korea during the year of 2003.
- The first described in percent each age group were playing.
- The second showed how many percent of those who played were woman and how many were men.
- The third indicated how popular different kinds of categories of games were.
Simone says: This bit is important – do you remember our last homework with the 3 pie charts? This could be a new trend in the IELTS, so I suggest that you go back to it and practice. Click here to view the homework assignment with 3 charts.
Writing Task 2
The assignment was to write about the advantages of three different funding methods for education. They were:
1. Education funded by the government,
2. Education funded by the student
3. Education was funded by the student, but they were given a loan by the government, which they have to pay back after finishing their studies.
Speaking test
Interview
- What is your name?
- What should I call you?
- Where are you from?
- Tell me about your town.
- Do you like fruit and vegetables?
Cue card
Tell me about a conversation you had with someone that was very important to you. You should say:
- When it was.
- To whom you were speaking.
- Why the conversation was important to you.
- Was this the first time you have spoken to this person?
Discussion
- Do you think it is important to eat a lot of vegetables?
- Why should you eat vegetables?
- Do you like to eat vegetables?
Tags: ielts, recent-IELTS-exam
IELTS in Sydney, Australia – September 2009 (General Training)
English September 28th, 2009
IELTS test in Sydney, Australia was shared by P., whose great memory and kind heart made it possible for us to enjoy the following topics and questions:
Listening test
Section 1: A person wanted to send a courier from USA to UK.
Questions: Filling in the banks on a form, 2 short-answer questions about prices, etc.
Tip:Task 2 was comparatively fast for General Training, so don’t assume that only the last section will be a fast one.
Section 2: A map of a library.
Questions: A few multiple choice questions.
Section 3: Students’ discussion about planning their project.
Questions: Filling in the gaps.
Section 4: Exhibitions of a historical map in different countries.
Questions: Filling in the gaps in a table.
Reading test
Passage 1: A history of an author who was a famous writer of California.
Questions: True/False/Not Given.
Passage 2: Information about a recruitment agency.
Questions: Filling in the blanks in a table.
Passage 3: Information by company providing car parking services.
Questions: Filling in the gaps.
Task 4: History of maps’ evolution in different countries.
Questions: Matching sentences to paragraphs and True/False/Not Given.
Writing test
Writing Task 1 (letter)
You received a letter from your friend informing you that his elderly parents are coming to visit in your area and he is asking for your advice on
- which places they should visit,
- where should they live,
- invite them to do something with you.
Writing Task 2 (essay)
People were not using computers in the past. Do you believe that positive impacts of computers outweigh negative impacts on our daily life? Explain this with your ideas and relevant examples.
Speaking test
Introduction
- What is your full name?
- May I check your identity please?
- Where are you coming from?
- Describe the home where you live.
- What activities do you do with your friends when you go out?
- Do you have sports facilities in your apartment?
Cue card
Talk about a change you want to make in your life:
- what the change is
- how you will do it
- how will the change be beneficial to you.
Discussion
- Will the change will give you long term benefits?
- What kind of changes adults make in their life nowadays?
- What do you think about people who do not like changes in their lives?
- What are the human aspects that can never be changed?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ielts-blog/~3/KShoEISel2c/
Tags: ielts, recent-IELTS-exam
Install LDOCE 2005 (updated version) in Ubuntu
English, Linux September 7th, 2008
Before installing LDOCE you need to install libgtk1.2 first
sudo apt-get install libgtk1.2
Mount your iso file with gmount-iso (or others).
Run installation.sh in Linux folder including LDOCE DVD. Remember to check full data files… in Option
Enjoy!
Tags: ldoce, ubuntu.linux
Install WyabdcRealPeopleTTS package for Stardict
English, Linux September 7th, 2008
Stardict is one of the best free dictionary program in Linux and Window. It offers many dictionaries in different languages. And all of them are free!
You can download stardic here
http://stardict.sourceforge.net/download.php
Download dictionary files here:
http://stardict.sourceforge.net/Dictionaries.php
To make Stardict pronounce English words you may use WyabdcRealPeopleTTS package. Download it here:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/stardict/WyabdcRealPeopleTTS.tar.bz2?download
For Linux, copy WyabdcRealPeopleTTS.tar.bz2 to your home folder, then use those command:
sudo cp WyabdcRealPeopleTTS.tar.bz2 /usr/share
cd /usr/share
sudo tar -jxvf WyabdcRealPeopleTTS.tar.bz2
Configuration: Preferences -> Sound at Command for playing wav file: type mplayer -ao alsa
Install mplayer with:
sudo apt-get install mplayer
For Windows, you can simply use WinRAR to extract the it and install it at “C:\Program Files\” or “Program Files\StarDict\”.
Enjoy!
Updated Nov 5th, 2009:
Try Qstardict! It is similar to stardict.
Download dicaionaries:
http://stardict.sourceforge.net/Dictionaries.php
http://sourceforge.net/projects/stardict/files/stardict-dict-babylon/
Give normal user permission to write
sudo chmod a+w /usr/share/stardict/dic
Untar and move dictionaries to “dic” directory
tar -xjvf a.tar.bz2
mv a /usr/share/stardict/dic
How to make qstardict pronounces words with WyabdcRealPeopleTTS
http://wiki.qstardict.ylsoftware.com/Pronouncing_words_with_WyabdcRealPeopleTTS
Tags: dictionary, downloadWyabdcRealPeopleTTS, stardict, ubuntu, WyabdcRealPeopleTTS
IELTS Mordel Essay
English August 20th, 2008
Model essays.
These essays and paragraphs use topic sentences and other features of Western academic writing. They are useful models for international students who are planning to take the IELTS test (International English Language Testing System), or study in a university in the USA, the UK, Australia or New Zealand. There are task 1 and task 2 style examples.
To do some exercises on these texts click here.
Argumentative paragraph about cars.
Private cars are becoming a very controversial issue these days but they are important in our modern lives for two main reasons, poor public transport and business. Many people in the world live in towns, villages and even cities that do not have good buses or trains. Without cars these people could not travel to work, to the shops or do many other important things. Also, in many towns and cities buses stop before midnight but in today’s busy world people are busy twenty four hours a day. The next point is that cars help the economy in two ways. Firstly, the car industry gives many people in the world jobs and helps countries to develop. Secondly, many people today need cars in their work. Doctors need to visit patients, salespeople need to visit customers and computer technicians need to visit businesses. In conclusion, although cars can cause problems it is impossible to live without them in modern life.

The chart shows the fluctuations in the numbers of international students attending the Sydney International Language Centre in 2001.
At the start of the year numbers were quite high at 170, this was because there were a large number of students in University Preparation (UP) before the March intake. The student population remained the same until the end of February when 40 graduated from ELI and took up their offers in Bachelors and Masters courses. In both April and May, 15 extra students enrolled into ELI courses. There was a sharp increase in June when 20 new students entered UP courses. In July there was only an increase of five students as the Winter course intake was at the end of July and this was too late for students who were entering university in the second semester. In comparison to the first semester, there was a sharp drop in numbers as 50 students left, leaving only 135 students in ELI for August. From here until the end of the year there was a steady rise in student numbers to a peak of 180 in December.
Overall it shows steady growth when compared to the 2000 enrolments.
Argumentative essay about food Read the rest of this entry »


