It often happens that students work hard the whole year but give up in the end. They relax thinking about the summer holidays. Most of them are sure that nothing bad might happen due to their persistent work and sound reputation. Unfortunately, it often leads to negative consequences like failed exams, papers, and, eventually, worse… Continue reading Effective Ways to Finish the Academic Year Strong
Sitting at home with nothing to do? Practise your writing! All you need is an internet connection to receive the instructions. Depending on how much time you have, the following courses can keep you busy from half a week to several hours each day. And if you really like it, why stop yourself from writing… Continue reading Best Creative Writing Courses Online
Get away from it __________ – Go on a trip and don’t think about work and problems. Choose the right answer: friends schedule all trip scroll down for the answer scroll some more The right answer is: all. Here is an example of how you can… Continue reading Instant Idiom: Get Away from it _________
Though is normally used as a less formal form of although. And you can use although to express a contrast between two facts. Often, the contrast will be surprising. Here is an example: Although it had been raining for weeks, nobody got depressed. You’d expect people to get depressed when they see nothing but rain,… Continue reading Sentence Transformation with Though
gavel (noun) – the small hammer that is used by a judge or other official to signal it is time for an action gavel (verb) – to cause an action using a gavel Examples of how you can use gavel: The judge used her gavel to adjourn the court session, and said we would to continue… Continue reading Word to the Wise: gavel
Watch this video to practise your pronunciation of past verb endings. How do you say the ending of decided? With –d or with –id? And is loved with [d] or [t] when you say it? Learn about it in this video, discover the rule, and do some practice on your own. Here are some examples?… Continue reading How to Pronounce ed at the End of Past Verbs
reprieve (verb) – to prevent/postpone (put at a later date) or bring relief (make something less serious or hard) reprieve (noun) – something that is prevented, postponed or that brings relief It was discovered that the exam questions had been leaked, so the exam was reprieved. The convinced criminal’s punishment was reprieved as new evidence had… Continue reading Word to the Wise: reprieve
There is a new quiz for this article that I’ve updated a little bit. Click here for the quiz, or click on the picture. More Exam English here: TOEFL and IELTS exam vocabulary Advanced Vocabulary for Exams
low-hanging __________– Something that is easy to get, without a lot of hard work. Choose the right answer: fruit ham job banana scroll down for the answer scroll some more The right answer is: fruit. (from the idea that fruit that hangs low on tree is… Continue reading Instant Idiom: Low-hanging __________
& The Magic Number of Threes Now you’ll be learning how to use commas in a list. You can choose to use commas in the American style or in the British style. Americans usually use this format: Apples, pears, and cherries. British format omits (deletes) the last comma before the “and:’ Apples, pears and cherries.… Continue reading Use of Commas in a List
English with a Smile 