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Showing posts from April, 2019

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ECPE Writing - Sample Article (Banning Cars from the City)

This is the fourth sample article that conforms to the writing section requirements of the ECPE (Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English) of the University of Michigan.  My first post to deal with articles , explains what needs to be present in the piece of writing candidates compose. Examiners are looking for articles that elaborate on ideas and have solid arguments; are well organized; make use of a wide lexical and grammatical range; have an original ring to them (in other words,

C2 Sample Essay 30 (Labelling works of art masterpieces)

Writing at C2 level (Proficient User) on English language examinations is the same no matter the awarding body when it comes to writing essays. If you are a candidate giving an exam in English (IELTS, CPE, ECPE, CELP, LRN, ESB, TOEFL), make sure you read my earlier post What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? to get the most out of the sample essays provided on Argute Legacy .  

Commentary - What's the Ending to Nadine Gordimer's "An Intruder" All About?

Nadine Gordimer -- An Intruder That Dratted ... errm ... Enigmatic Ending           So I said to myself one day, “When are you going to sit down and deal with what you fear the most – not being able to come up with a plausible interpretation for the “incident” or ending to Gordimer’s short story “An Intruder” that wouldn’t make readers laugh their socks off?”           That dratted ending. It escaped me the first time I read the story, then again the second and third time, till I finally got pen and paper and jotted down all the facts in a manner that Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot would never have had the idiocy to acquiesce to, given their superior powers of recollection. At any rate, seeing the facts before me in note form did make certain words stand out above all else, enabling me to draw conclusions about what Gordimer may have intended for the reader to deduce. Let’s see what those facts are:

Speaking Strategies for Oral Exams

Whet her you are preparing for a B 2, C1 or C2 language examinat ion in English, at some point during the test you are required to maintain discussion for about 1-2 minutes on your own. This is so mething students sometimes find difficult to do as they have very few ideas about what to say after having stated one or two basic points.  Regardless of the awarding body and certificate you are sitting an exam in (IELTS , Cambridge CPE or FCE/ First for Schools, ECPE or ECCE, MSU CELP or CELC, LRN, TOEIC, ESB, PTE) , you will have to find ways to ex pand you r answers to show that y ou can speak English w ith out needing a nyone 's help . To do this, you need to keep the examiner from having to ask you o ne o r two follow-up questions in order to el icit a longer res ponse from you. I n oth er words, if a task requires a can didate to speak for about two minutes on a t opic , and the candidate manages to speak for a min ute and 10 seconds only, the examiner wi ll have to ask a

The Latest Word: Herculean

The latest word is one found in the bottom half of the list of popular words used in English. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary places its first appearance in 1513, Dictionary.com in the 1590's, Oxford dictionary in the late 16th century, while Collins' (Collins Cobuild) online dictionary shows the popularity of this rarely used word peaking in 1860 at a frequency of 0.3.

C2 Sample Essay 29 (Failure)

Writing at C2 level (Proficient User) on English language examinations is the same no matter the awarding body when it comes to writing essays. If you are a candidate giving an exam in English (IELTS, CPE, ECPE, CELP, LRN, ESB, TOEFL), make sure you read my earlier post What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? to get the most out of the sample essays provided on Argute Legacy .     The topic of this essay is to give your opinion about the statement "failure is proof that the desire wasn't strong enough." If you are not taking an exam but need to discuss this topic, then read on and note down what you deem useful. If you intend to use this essay as part of an assignment, remember to paraphrase so as not to plagiarize.

Naoshi Koriyama - A Loaf of Poetry (Overview Part 2)

This is part 2 of the analysis of Koriyama's "A Loaf of Poetry". Read a brief introduction of mine and find facts about the poet's life, the poem's structure (rhyme, meter, sounds, divisions, turning point), persona, and the first half of the poem here: Naoshi Koriyama - A Loaf of Poetry (Overview) This part completes the analysis of the poem's content and discusses the symbol ism found in it as well as the title and overall message.