Cause and Effect Sentences

Here is a quick exercise to practice cause and effect sentences. Follow the intructions and check your answers.

My sentences(S) don't look(V) correct (C)!

Are you have trouble making correct sentences? This is a common problem for a lot of students.

This problem often happens when students forget to put the elements of their sentences in the incorrect order. This website has a quick quiz where you can practice choosing sentences that have their elements in the correct order.

The next website also works on this problem but it focuses more on sentenes for academic essays. Once again you have to put the elements of the sentence in order. Bu this time you have to do it one word at a time.

Which diet is the best?

This post has been written to show you what it might be like to listen to a lecture in English. First, you will need to do some reading to prepare for the lecture. Then, you will go to the lecture, listen and take notes. Finally, you will put all your information together and reflect on what you have learnt.

Start by visiting this website to learn about nutrition.

What are carbohydrates?
What is fat?
What is protein?
Which ones are good and which ones are bad for you?

Visit this website to learn about the Atkins diet.

What is the main idea behind the Atkins diet?
How is the Atkins diet different to you current diet?

You will now listen to the lecture. It is a long lecture. Try to listen for about 15 minutes then take a break. Do this a few times until you have finished the lecture. While you are listening take lots of notes. Try to answer the following questions;

What does the lecturer think about diets like the Atkins diet?
What evidence does he have to support his opinion?
What does he think we should eat instead?

You will find the lecture here.

After you have listened to the lecture use your notes to write a summary.

Finally write a paragraph about this question: “Is the Atkins diet a good way to lose weight?”

Good Luck!

Ideas from Gondwanaland

Here is a simple exercise that will test your ability to find the main ideas in a text. Folow the instructions below.

This test is in two parts, one of eight questions, the other of five. For the first part you have to read the text, and then match the paragraph headings A - H with the paragraphs 1-8. Write the letter in front of each heading into the box next to the number of the paragraph it belongs to. When you have finished the whole test press 'Answers' to see if you were right.

A, An, The or ...?

Using articles in English can be very confusing. Many languages don't have them so they might be a new concept for you. Here is a great website that explains when to use the different articles in English. It describes three basic rules that you should follow and it also uses this easy to use flowchart (you can see a bigger version of the flowchart if you follow this link here).

Listening to Australia

The Best of the ABC website has some great radio segments and videos. Choose a story that interests you and watch or listen to it. At the bottom of the webpage you change choose to look at previous stories or the archives. This should help improve your listening. For an extra challenge take notes while you listen and write a summary paragraph about the story afterwards.

Sentence Elements and Patterns

Here is a website that shows all the elements of a sentence and common sentence patterns.