Enjoy this soothing and calming reading piece while paying attention to word stress, intonation, sentence stress and individual sounds. These are all skills needed to improve your band score in the speaking test. Feel free to engage by letting me know if you picked up on any mistakes in these four key areas. Enjoy! :)

Tackling the IELTS Giant

Cambridge IELTS reading piece

"To have a lot on your plate"

Eg; “Forgive me, but I’ve had a lot on my plate.”

or 

“Sorry, I can’t do that right now… I have enough on my plate as it is.”


"To bite off more than you can chew”

Eg; “We planned to see too many landmarks in this city in one day. I think we bit off more than we could chew.”

or 

"I signed up for five advanced courses this term, but between the exams and the extra assignments, I definitely bit off more than I can chew."

Have you ever used these expressions before? 

Luke's English Sessions

Ep 11. Food-related Metaphors

みなさんは母の日に何をプレゼントしましたか？

日本語でおしゃべり　podcast for Japanese learners

＃32 母の日の話

Jedan od najvećih izumitelja i vizionara rođen je u Hrvatskoj, Nikola Tesla dijete svijetla..

Priče iz Hrvatske

Epizoda 4 - Nikola Tesla - Čovjek koji je pao na Zemlju

南辕北辙 [nán yuán běi zhé]：outh/shafts of a cart or carriage/north/trail；to try to go south by driving the chariot north,The idom means to act in a way that defeats one's purpose.
邯郸 hán dān：a city in Hebei Province
熨烫 yùn tàng：ironing
拜见 bài jiàn：pay a formal visit
精良 jīng liáng：excellent; superior; of the best quality
依仗 yī zhàng：count on;rely on
殊不知 shū bù zhī：little imagined;hardly realize

乐读中文 (Lè Dú Zhōngwén) - "Joyful Chinese Stories"

南辕北辙[nán yuán běi zhé]

If you can't make the 44 different sounds of English, you need help.  Here are some suggestions.

Transcript:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LZ6Ea7Fnqm2Hdv93w3T25WlLWvAw2f2E&usp=drive_fs

Pronunciation 

Problem one - You can’t make some of the English sounds

Switzerland is a mountainous country in the center of Europe, roughly the same size as the Netherlands and with a population of around 9 million people. The capital city is Bern, the largest city is Zurich and within those and other cities, several languages are spoken. Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian Romansh. Romansh is a romance language that is traditionally spoken in the southeastern region of Grisons and became an official language in 1996.

The country has long been famed for its neutrality. Sitting out each of the world wars, it has a self-imposed policy that states that they should not become involved in any political or armed conflicts with other nations. In fact, since 1815 Switzerland has not participated in a foreign war. In recent years this neutrality has been questioned due to their close links to Europe, the fact they became a member of the UN in 2002, and that they are the location for the headquarters of many multinational banks and corporations.

Over the past 100 years, Switzerland has gradually become one of the wealthiest countries on earth. This is partly due to the strength gained from their neutral positioning but also periods of prolonged political stability have had an influence. A study commissioned by Credit Suisse in 2020 discovered that 800,000 millionaires live in Switzerland, and in a country of just 9 million that is quite a significant proportion. However, the increased wealth of the country has brought with it hefty living costs, and Switzerland has been described as the most expensive place to live in Europe.

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

Visiting Switzerland 

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