VIP Class Notes (Nick)
Next Class Focus
Continue TOEFL practice. In particular, focus on production of clear spoken and written English for the test, including clearer or specialized vocabulary.
Homework
Practice writing essays and send them to the email service and/or bring them to the next class.
Bring TOEFL speaking topics to practice expressing yourself quickly and clearly.
TOEFL Practice:
- Area vocabulary
- Confusing sentence structure, phrases
Vocabulary
Astronomy – the study of stars, planets, other things in space
Comets/Asteroids – rocks or ice flying through space (smaller than planets)
Shooting Star – when a comet or asteroid enters the atmosphere and burns up, making a tail
Black Hole – when a very large star collapses
Gravity – attraction between objects
Fuse/Confuse – the joke here is that it is sometimes unclear whether the filmmaker is combining styles in a way that effective; maybe no one knows what he means
Fuse – to make two things into one, usually by melting them; when you combine two dissimilar things into one
e.g. Painleve was famous for fusing different styles in his movies.
Fiction – any story that you make up, with people or events that never existed, or not as in the story
Non-fiction – history, science, autobiography, philosophy
Aquatic – relating to water
Mollusk – aquatic animals, with soft bodies, often having shells
e.g. octopus, clams, mussels
Uncanny – strange and hard to explain; mysterious
Seahorse – an aquatic creature that looks kind of like a horse
— The important thing is that the male seahorse carries the eggs.
Incorporate – to use, to include
Catch on – to become popular
What to make of them – how to understand something, what it means; we don’t know how to feel about it
e.g. We went to see the museum of modern art, but we really weren’t sure what to make of the paintings there (we didn’t understand what they meant, or what they wanted to show)
Panel – a thin, flat, and somewhat large piece, often of wood, usually standing on end
Paint / Painting – paint is what you use, and painting is what you make
Counterfeit – a formal fake; a fake which tries very hard to look like the real one
High-end – of high quality, very expensive; luxury
Satirize – to use someone’s way of speaking or acting, and to show how it is or becomes ridiculous
Grammar
Aquatic animal shooting – shooting films of aquatic animals
Successor from – Successor of
Pronunciation
Athlete – ath – leet (noun for athletic)
Luxury – lux – shur – ee / lug – zhur -ee
Sport – “p” is unvoiced; “b” is voiced
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