2016-10-05 TOEFL: go over writing, word roots

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework: Type without stopping for 15 minutes about a topic of your choice. Note how many words you typed.
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DELTA p. 387 - Take five minutes to read the passage and note the main points. What do you think the listening will talk about?
Listen to part of a lecture and take notes. What are the main points?
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p. 388-390 - Take 1-2 minutes for each sample response to decide (with your partner) whether it would receive a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on the TOEFL.
A 5
B 3
C 1
D 4
E 2
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http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/09/a-cinematic-approach-to-drug-resistance/ - video showing the development of antibiotic resistance in a laboratory
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In your same groups, look at three examples of yesterday’s integrated writing. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? What score would you give it? (You can use half-point increments.)
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p. 420-422 - Take one minute to skim each answer and decide on the score it should get.
A 5
B 4
C 1
D 2
E 3
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Take a few minutes to skim the two independent writing tasks from yesterday.
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BREAK
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Discuss with your partner what score you think each would get and why.

“There has alwyas been” - 2.5 or 3
	- punctuation problems, especially with commas
	- run-on sentences (comma splices are when two independent clauses are joined with a comma instead of a semicolon or separated into two sentences)
	- wrong words or spelling: scientists, imagine, Van Gogh

“Many people discuss” - 3.5 or 4
	- “discuss about” is always incorrect (as are “study about”, “explain about”, and “mention about”)
	- run-on sentences and comma splices
	- organization is good and clear, the points support the thesis.
	(this could be improved by separating each point into its own topic sentence for that paragraph)
	- other grammar: “how” instead of “which”, “the” for generic nouns “the medicine”
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Are there any specific things you will try to do in the future to improve your TOEFL writing?
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Vocabulary building
Sometimes words that “should” be synonyms (according to their roots) really aren’t the same
predict = make a conclusion about the future (based on evidence you have now)
foretell = make “mystical” or supernatural predictions

supersonic = faster than the speed of sound (opposite - subsonic)
hypersonic = much faster than the speed of sound (usually 5x or more)
ultrasonic = higher frequency than we can hear (opposite - infrasonic)
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Word Roots (list 4) - With a partner try to figure out the meaning of each root.
1 icon = image
2 idio = one’s own (“idiot” originally meant “private person”)
3 in/im/ir/il = not
  (the same prefixes also mean “in”: inject, impress, irradiate, illuminate, with the opposite “e-” or “ex-”)
4 infra = under/below (infrared is light with a lower frequency than red)
5 inter = between/among (internet - between different places)
6 intra/intro = within/inside (intranet - a network within one company or organization)
7 ject = throw
8 junct = join
9 kine = movement (the Latin spelling “cine” gives us “cinema”)
10 lab = work
11 lex = word (lexicography = writing about words, as in a dictionary, lexicographers are the people who write dictionaries)
12 loc = place
13 luc = light (the ‘c’ is usually followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’ and thus pronounced /s/)
14 lum = light
15 macro = big/huge
16 magni = big/great
17 mal = bad
18 man = hand
19 mar = sea
-  mega = big
20 meta = change (originally) / beyond (from misunderstanding “metaphysics”)
21 micro = small/tiny
22 migr = move/go
23 mis = wrong/bad (“Centipede” is a misnomer because they don’t have 100 feet.)
24 mit/miss = send
25 mono = one
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http://www.etymonline.com/ - find the origins of words and of common word roots