English stuff, Kiwi stuff, Colombian stuff, lot´s of stuff
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Friday, October 27, 2017
Daily bread 10/27/2017
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BBC Radio 4 - Radio 4 in Four - Game on! The language of video games explained
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Science proves that alcohol increases your ability to speak a second language
- Dutch courage
- slightly inebriated
- especially
- pronunciation
- impair
- boosts your self-confidence.
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Monday, October 23, 2017
Daily bread 10/23/2017
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- push reform of pacifist constitution
- hold a snap general election.
- ruling bloc
- bolstering
- push to revise the pacifist constitution.
- up for grabs
- hefty win
- ambiguous status
- codify the status quo
- target he had floated
- a fast-aging population
- an uptick in his ratings
- dented
- cronyism
- snap poll gamble
- a significant chunk of
- often floated as a
- a big chunk of
- enthusiasm soon waned
- vying with
- fret about
- has become arrogant and complacent.
- fed up with
- landslide wins
- took the helm
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Sunday, October 22, 2017
Daily bread 10/22/2017
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Chips are down as potato shortage bites | Radio New Zealand News
- Chips are down
- bites
- to go without
- Chippie lovers
- the root of the problem.
- ceaseless rain
- to dig deep
- keep up to date
- were chipping in
- be hindered
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Business English vocabulary and terms with exercises|Learn English Today
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Daily bread 10/21/2017
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- The speaking exam can be taken on a different day—provided that it is completed a week before or after the others tests were taken.
- t is scored against the Global Scale of English (GSE), the world’s English language standard criterion.
- Other globally acknowledged proficiency exams, like TOEFL and PTE, are also marked against the GSE.
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Thursday, October 19, 2017
Daily bread 10/19/2017
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Corruption in Colombia: Do you feel the bite? - The Bogotá Post
- ponders
- sorry saga
- on the payroll
- detractors
- set free
- far-flung places
- coffers
- rascals
- ‘To Do’ list
- to bend rules
- seemingly never-ending parade of
- fed up with
- The gist of
- were cooked up by
- crooked ways
- picked our pockets
- taking aim at
- the crooked cop
- the stonewalling bureaucrats
- I was stumped as to why
- rigidly enforced by
- was unmasked
- replied dolefully
- astronomically small
- to bend the rules
- their slice of the pie
- bogus
- coughs up more money
- there is a high chance
- inept
- find their feet
- the axe will again fall
- in cahoots with
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Daily bread 10/17/2017
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What's the best way to accept payment from China? - Quora
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I have a small-time online shop( C4 澳洲商品直邮 - 您身边的澳洲代购 - 买遍澳洲，速递上门，百元包邮) want to sell things to Chinese.
My experience is:
1, Alipay international is not that easy to setup as it sounds. I called them and find these: you need a company, a CEO in your company happy to sign a couple of pages, company profile papers etc all send to Alipay and wait for few weeks. If its approved, they will give you a special Alipay account. The account is locked and can not be touched by you. They will wire you the fund automatically ONLY when that account reached $5k. Its impossible for small business online shop to use Alipay unless your Chinese market turnover is $250k+
2, Tenpay (wechat payment international) etc. are similar to Alipay. Well supporting the big players but not for small businesses.
3, Paypal China. It looks good on paypal website saying they take unionpay card from China, but the true is 99% of my clients failed paying me via Paypal. I called Paypal-China and find this: If a Chinese client need to pay oversea, they need either a credit card with dual currency and pay to Paypal with the foreign currency, or the Chinese client has the true identity registered and verified from Paypal so Paypal can track, report to authority and control the fund flow. ( China has the $50k limit per year per head sending money out policy)
4, Unionpay (kind of like a Chinese version of Mastercard) is a little different. Unionpay is cooperating with many small financial services business in many other countries and if you call one of them, they are happy to setup a tunnel from Chinese unionpay card to your bank account. The offer I got cost is $500 setup and 2.5% fee of the paid amount. This is the best solution I found so far.
5, Other services saying can collect e-payment from China. Most of them located in Hongkong. eg. "PayDollar". I simply can not find too much information about those services companies except from their own websites. No one talks about them, no reputation or reviews can be found anywhere. Give it a go if you are feeling lucky.
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Cambridge English: First (FCE) preparation | Cambridge English
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FCE Practice Tests for Use of English (Cambridge English: First)
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Daily bread 10/14/2017
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The Different Types of Essay Format – ENGLISH EXAMS MADE EASY
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Nepal to Re-Measure Mount Everest
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There is no doubt that Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain. But how tall is it, exactly? And did the powerful earthquake the struck in the high Himalayan Mountains two years ago reduce its size?
To answer these questions, Nepal has started an ambitious two-year project to re-measure the famous mountain.
Officials working on the project hope to put an end to conflicting information about the mountain’s size.
The project is also about national pride. Until now, the measurements of Mount Everest have mostly come from Indian and Chinese studies. Now Nepal, a small mountainous country, wants to decide the height of Everest on its own.
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National pride
Everest is on the border between Nepal and China.
Ganesh Prasad Bhatta is director general of Nepal’s Survey Department. He calls Mount Everest “Nepal's baby.”
"I used to say since the birth (discovery) of Mount Everest, Nepal has not measured it,” Bhatta said.
But Nepal has the ability to do so, he said. And the new project will help show that Nepal is able to, in his words, “carry out any kind of challenging survey work on its own.”
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 mountains that are taller than 8,000 meters. Everest is the mountain that is most central to the country’s economy. Every year, climbers from around the world come to try to reach its peak. This brings the country millions of dollars.
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History of measurement
The first-ever measurement of Everest was made in 1854. But its most widely accepted height – 8,848 meters – was measured some 100 years later by an Indian survey team.
In 1999, an American team used satellite technology to measure the mountain. The team determined that Everest was 8,850 meters -- a little taller than earlier studies had found.
But six years later a Chinese mission to Everest lowered its height. It found that the rock height of the mountain was 8,844.43 meters.
Those findings started a dispute between Nepal and China. Nepal said that the measure of a mountain is its snow height. So, officially, Everest’s height has remained 8,848 meters.
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A change in climate
In 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal. It caused major landslides on Everest. People have since questioned whether the quake changed the mountain’s height.
Experts also worry that climate change may affect the mountain. Climbers and locals say parts of Everest's main trail are becoming rockier as they lose snow cover.
India offered to remeasure the mountain earlier this year. However, some Nepalese felt that the next measurement of Everest should be done by a team from their own country.
An opinion article in Nepal’s Kathmandu Post said, "It is our property and our heritage. We have to determine the height of our property ourselves with modern technology in a way that satisfies the researchers of the world. This is our responsibility."
Yurbaraj Ghimire is a Nepalese commentator. He said people in Nepal feel it is important to not just find the true measurement of Everest, but also to have a measurement of their own. “They are bit emotional about it,” he said.
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A final decision
Nepal hopes to deliver the final measurement of the mountain in two years.
Bhatta said his office is finalizing its methods. A team of Sherpas will go to the top of Everest with measuring equipment in April or October of next year.
Officials say they hope to get international support of the data. They also say they may also permit international scientists to join the project, Bhatta said.
"We want to assure the international community that whatever has been done has been done accurately with standard methodology and there should not be any question about the results, whatever we produce," he said.
As scientists aim to end the debate on the height of Everest, people who live in the area have different concerns. Ang Tshering Sherpa is one of them. He is an experienced mountaineer, and grew up in a village next to Everest.
Sherpa said some locals believe that Mount Everest is huge, unchanging, and strong. But he said he has observed how climate change is affecting the mountain.
"…The truth is this is one of the most vulnerable areas in the world because of the impact of climate change. White snow peaks and glaciers are melting rapidly,” Sherpa said, adding that the melting is happening faster than ever.
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Monday, October 9, 2017
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Daily bread 10/07/2017
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Colombia vs Paraguay: Colombia's qualification for Russia 2018 in jeopardy - The Bogotá Post
- snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
- To fail, lose, or be defeated despite the appearance that one would be victorious (An ironic reversal of the more common "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.")
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Thursday, October 5, 2017
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Daily bread 10/03/2017
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4 No-Prep/Low-Prep Games to Practise Big Numbers | Blog de Cristina
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Not Only Mooncakes – Say "Hi"!
"“There’s nothing in the world that cannot be solved by a red envelope; if there were, then two should do it!”"
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BBC - Future - How Western civilisation could collapse
- a scramble over
- to teeter
- a scramble
- total societal collapse
- Putting aside
- a plethora of factors
- the point of no return?
- a lost cause
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