Preparing for the TOEFL essay.

The essay section of the TOEFL is sometimes considered to be the hardest part of the test.
However here at SmartLanguageSolutons.com we feel that with an understanding on the structure of the written exam you will find sitting the written exam a little less daunting.

For your essay you will be given a statement or situation and will be asked to take an opinion based upon the information supplied and then to write out your opinion.

It is recommended that you aim for a five paragraph essay.

Paragraph One:

In this paragraph, called your thesis statement, you state your opinion on the question provided.
You should then give three reasons in the form of headlines explaining why you have reached that opinion.

For example, the question is:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Parents are the best teachers.

The answer could take the following form:

Yes, I agree that parents are the best teachers.
Its my opinion that being a parent makes you a natural educator, the fact that you have had a child gives a vested interest in improving your child's knowledge, and being that child's parent you have a deeper understanding of what motivates the child more than anyone else.

In the above example we can see that the author agrees with the statement and then gives three reasons why they agree.

The next step is to create three new paragraphs, which are called topic paragraphs.
Each topic paragraph should be an expansion of each reason given in your thesis statement.


Paragraph two:

You take the first of your reasons and expand on it. It is recommended that you only use one argument for your each reason.

For example:

It is my opinion all parents are natural educators. Once a parent sees their child for the first time, something basic is triggered in that parents genetic make up that unlocks a lifetime passive knowledge that the parent simply wants to impart to their child....


Paragraph three:

The same as above bur for your second reason.


Paragraph four:

The same as above but for your third reason.


Paragraph Five:

This is your concluding statement.
In this you will restate your thesis statement and clearly summarize what you have stated in your three topic sentences.

For example:
I wish to end this essay by restating that it is my opinion that parents are natural educators for the reasons set out above.
Parents simply have no choice in being an educator...


Sounds simple!
Well it is, but you should take help from a tutor to learn how to construct and interlink your ideas, because a simple list of ideas is not sufficient to pass the exam.

The good news is that you can find a full list of TOEFL essay topics on the study material page on our website!

We would recommend that long before you take the TOEFL exam you read all the essay topics and perhaps prepare an essay for each one.

However you should also take some TOEFL essay lessons with one of our native speaking professional English teachers who will help change your lists to fully essays!

Urban Slang - muppet

In the late 1950's puppet master Jim Henson created some puppet characters and called them the Muppets.
Since the 1950's the Muppets have been entertaining children and adults alike with their silly antics.

However in Brittan, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, the word muppet has become a mild term of abuse.

When using muppet as a mild term of abuse the first thing to notice is the difference in spelling, the puppets created by Jim Henson and now owed by the Disney Corporation are spelt with a capital "M", as in The Muppets, and when we call someone a muppet we spell it with a lowercase "m".

When you call someone a muppet (lower case) you are suggesting that they stupid or silly.

For example: "John its six o'clock, you were supposed to be here an hour ago, you muppet!"

Calling someone a muppet should not cause them offensive, and has even been used in street advertising, however as a learner of English, remember if you are going to call someone a muppet, be sure that they have a good sense of humour.

Learn English correctly @ the online language school, SmartLanguageSolutions.com

To make a horlicks.

The health care company GalxoSmithKiine, make a malt milk drink called Horlicks, which is marketed in the UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan and Jamaica.

Traditionally in the UK Horlicks is taken at night just before going to sleep, in the same way as British people take coco or hot chocolate.

However in the English language Horlicks can also be used to describe a minor disaster or shambles, it is normally combined with the verb "To Make"

For example, "Oh my, did you see the football game last night, our team made a horlicks of the defence!"

In this example the speaker is suggesting that the team the speaker supports had a disastrous game, especially in defence.

Using horlicks in this manner is not considered offensive, and was in fact used in 2003 by the UK's then Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, to describe the way a document for public release had been badly prepared.

Learn English correctly @ the online language school, SmartLanguageSolutions.com

Packed in like Sardines

The other night I was teaching a client in Moscow and he asked me to explain the phrase, "packed in like sardines" which he had heard was a good way to describe rush hour on the Moscow Metro, however he was a little unsure if it was an offensive phrase or not.

The phrase is not offensive and in fact comes from the business of food processing.
Sardines, as you know are a type of fish, and we normally buy our sardines in small tins. When we open a tin of sardines, its normal that there are a lot fish in the tin and there no free space.

Therefore the phrase packed in like sardines is used to describe a situation where people are in an area or space with little room to move.

So it is not offensive and in fact a very good way to describe the Moscow Metro during rush hour.

"Every morning I take the Metro to work, it is always full and there is no room to move because everyone is packed in like sardines."

Packed in Like sardines = No space to move

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Question Tags

In English when we want to continue a conversation we can put a question tag at the end of a sentence.
The purpose of the question tag is to invite the person who we are talking to reply to us.
“You agree with me, don’t you?”

Question tags are easy to construct, if the base sentence is positive, then the question tag is negative and if the base sentence is negative then the question tag is positive.

We construct the question tag using the auxiliary verb from the base sentence and invert it:

It isn’t a nice day, is it?
You have my pen, haven’t you?

If there is no auxiliary verb in the base sentence then use do/does/did:
The school closes at 5PM, doesn’t it?
You eat meat, don’t you?

Remember when learning English, it’s very important to take lessons with a professional native speaker teacher.
Join us online to learn English in small groups or one to one with Smart Language Solutions.

www.SmartLanguageSolutions.com