2017-02-03 TOEFL: reading paraphrase, ind writing practice

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework: Handout p. 105 AND DELTA p. 119-121 exercise 1.6.B (try in 10 minutes if you can)
	Bring a laptop if you have one that’s easy to bring and type with.
10 C
11 C
12 X (If one person rivals another it means they are close to equal.)
13 X
14 X
15 I
16 X
1 D
2 A
3 C
4 B
5 C
6 A
7 B
8 D
9 B
10 A
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DELTA p. 395 - Independent Writing - overview of the structure
You need an introduction and a conclusion, but they don’t need to be long or fancy.
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p. 403 has a sample response to an agree/disagree prompt. Your thesis statement for this kind of question should not use the words “agree” or “disagree”, and you should not repeat exactly the sentence form the prompt.
agree: In my opinion, the most important things in someone’s life are free.
disagree: In my opinion, a person needs money for the most important things in his or her life.
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The conclusion restates the main idea in another way and, in this case, gives a bit of advice and mentions the future.
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p. 401 - example of a some people / other people prompt
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The introduction to either type of prompt can be in a “some people / other people” form:
	Some people believe that the most enjoyable things in life are free. Others believe that you need money to get the most out of life. In my opinion, the most important things in your life are free. You can [point1], [point2], and [point3] without spending any money at all.
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“In twenty years there will be fewer cars in use than there are today.”
Reasons to agree: pollution, public transportation, other kinds of transportation, traffic, lack of oil
Reasons to disagree: electric cars, growing population, growing industrialization, cheaper technology
Which is easier to write about? Is that really your opinion?
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For the “pollution” reason, how would you make that into a supporting paragraph?
- People will be more conscious of the problem of pollution, and will want to reduce it.
For “electric cars”?
- With more and cheaper electric cars, people will be able to drive without worrying about pollution or the price of gasoline. This means more people will drive in the future than they do now.
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Timed practice: ETS past tests 2, test 4
“It is better to have broad knowledge of many academic subjects than to specialize in one specific subject.”
When you are finished, email your response to me at
[email protected]
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BREAK
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If you want detailed feedback about your writing, send me a self-evaluation, in which you talk about what you think you did better or worse than previous writing, and what you think you should work on improving for your next writing.
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Grammar, spelling, and pronunciation (on speaking) mostly matter to the extent that they affect how easy it is to understand you.
Don’t worry too much about whether it’s formal. Avoid obvious slang and informalities like “gonna” and “ain’t”, but it’s okay to use contractions and first and second-person pronouns, etc.
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DELTA p. 419 has descriptions of the independent writing score levels
http://www.wordcounter.net is a quick way to count words in something you copy/paste there. If you have fewer than 300 words, it’s likely that you don’t develop and support your ideas well enough.
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Listening Section: second section, after reading; 60-90 minutes, 2 or 3 sets of 3 listening passages each, 16-18 multiple choice questions per set.
Each set includes a conversation, a lecture, and a discussion (one conversation followed by two academic listenings). You have 10 minutes to choose answers for each set.
YOU CANNOT GO BACK AND LOOK AT ANY EARLIER QUESTIONS AFTER YOU CLICK “NEXT”.
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Homework (optional): email me a self-evaluation of your writing from today (It’s simplest if you send this as a reply to the email where you sent me your essay.)