Food for Thought Crossword

Food for Thought Crossword Puzzle

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via nhd.heinle.com

Do you like crossword puzzles as much as I do?
I doubt it! :)

Print it out and give it a try!

For more such puzzles, visit http://nhd.heinle.com/activities.aspx (requires Java)

These are much easier than the ones made for students at the New York Times.

Let me know if you get stuck!

As you can see, there are quite a few food-related puzzles, so make a snack and atart solving :) ! 

Airport: At the Airport
Animals: A World of Animals
Cars: Cars and Car Parts
Computer: Computer Terms
Dairy: Down at the Dairy
Entertainment: Words are Entertaining
Factory: Working at the Factory
Food: Food for Thought
Flowers: The Flower Show
Fruit: Fruit Salad
Garden: Working in the Garden
Geography: Know Your Geography
Home: Home Sweet Home
Jobs: A Job Well Done
Office: Around the Office
Personal Hygiene: Good Personal Hygiene
Plants: A Whole Crop of Plants
Preparing Food: Preparing Food
School: School's in Session
Science: Science Experiment
Seafood: Under the Sea
Space: Outer Space
Sports: Sports Fan
Tools: Tools of the Trade
Transportation: Transportation Terms
Trees: Swinging from the Trees
Utility Room: The Useful Utility Room
Vegetable: Garden Vegetables
Weather: Wild Weather

Crossword puzzles

Crossword puzzles are a great (and fun!) way to improve your vocabulary.

Many of these puzzles are themed, so you can learn a lot about American culture. 

TIP: You can always print them out and do them with pencil and paper. If you find that too challenging, you can do them online and get hints, maybe a few letters to help you think of the word you are looking for.

It's always good to keep track of the new and useful vocabulary you learn from each puzzle, maybe by adding it to your vocabulary.com lists or your vocab notebook. And remember to use the new words! Use 'em or lose 'em!

Here are a couple relevant for SUK2 students.

Cooking

The Food Pyramid

Health Literacy

Nutrition

Here are a couple relevant for SUK4 students.

Mathematics

Units of Measure

Geometry

Mathematics

Science

Energy

The Human Brain

Global Warming

Genetics

Cell Biology

Periodic Table of the Elements

Space Exploration

Scientists

The Human Body

Weather

Insects

20 Years of Science Times

Biodiversity

Stargazing

Technology

Web 2.0

Inventors

Computer Jargon

Transportation

20th Century Inventions

Language

Building Blocks of Vocabulary

Women Novelists

Scary Stories

Literary Terms

Grammar

American History

Asian-American History

The Civil Rights Movement

The 1960's

The 1950's

The Declaration of Independence

The Pilgrims

Westward Expansion

The Fifty States

Life in Colonial America

Thanksgiving

Native American History

The Civil War

The Roaring 20's

The American Revolution

Independence Day

Black History Month

Hispanic Heritage

Geography

Holidays Around the World

World Capitals

State Capitals

Bodies of Water

Architectural Marvels

Landmarks and Monuments

Places and Regions

Miscellaneous

Baseball

Preparing for College

Saying ''Thank You'' Around the World

Vocabulary.com rocks!

Hey everybody.
It has been a looong time since I last posted. Trying to get into blogging again.

One of my favorite vocabulary sites is vocabulary.com.

I also strongly recommend you take a minute to register because then it will help you learn the words you want to learn.

There are several reasons I like it. The best thing about is probably how super fast it is. It has to be seen to be believed.

The definitions are not dry and boring like so many dictionaries. Type in the "college" for example and you can finally learn the difference between "college" and "university". On the right, you will also see several example sentences showing you how this word is used "in the wild". You will learn a lot of useful collocations as you see how native speakers use the word.

What really cool is that you can easily make your own lists and study specific sets of words you import.Up to 100 pages, which will save you lots of time looking up individual words. Super easy.

There are two ways to make a list: From The Dictionary and from the Vocabulary Lists section.
From The Dictionary, start typing in the search box, and the search results list will appear below. Clicking on the “Advanced Search” tab will allow for limiting to specific parameters within the results (such as “typeof:walk”). Click on the “List Builder” button to open the Vocabulary List building options, and selection boxes will appear next to each word. Next, check the selection boxes next to the words you’d like to include in your list. You may then optionally perform additional searches, and your previously selected words will appear within a scrolling list above the new search results. Once all of the desired words are selected, use the drop-down to append to an existing list or create a new list. Lastly, click on the “Create List” button, and you’ll be taken to the Edit List screen.

Alternatively, click on the “Create a New List” button in the Vocabulary Lists section or on My Profile. On the “Create New List” screen, there are three ways to enter words: One at a time, All at once, or From Text. The “One at a time” screen is a rich word list builder with predicted words as you type, dynamic definitions, and an example sentence browser. In the “All at once screen,” lists can be typed or pasted in comma or line-delineated format. In the “From text” screen, feel free to paste in up to 100 pages of text and we’ll grab all the Vocabulary words for you. We’ll present you with the example sentences wherever individual words appear in the text, so you can easily choose examples to be displayed on the list review screen.

From the Vocabulary Lists page, click “Create a New List.” Next click “From text” and you will be taken to the “Create a Vocabulary List from Text” page. On this screen, paste up to 100 pages of text in the field on the left, click “Grab Vocab,” and all of the vocabulary words will appear in the scrolling list. Check words to include them in the Vocabulary list. You may also “shift-click” to select multiple checkboxes by clicking on a checkbox while holding down shift, scrolling-down the list and clicking the last checkbox you’d like to include. Click on each word individually to view and select the example sentences from the text. You may choose to not include example sentences by un-checking the “Include Example Sentences” checkbox. Each word or example can then be edited in the “One at a time” option in the Edit subnavigation.

The Challenge is also a great feature. Once you are registered you can play this game and the words will be tailored to your level. It can be very addictive as you try to get a high score guessing the meanings of word after word. Definitely try out The Challenge!

To get the most out the site you should take a minute to look at the FAQs
http://www.vocabulary.com/help/

Oh and one more thing that will interest all of you....

Here is a recent article I found on the site's blog aimed at learners of English. It's got some really good advice for people who are serious about improving their vocabulary.

http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/under-the-hood/esl-tricks-for-vocabulary-learning/

Once you have played around with this site it a little, write a comment to let us know how you like the site and how you are getting the most out of this fantastic resource.

Which vocab game is better -- knoword or freerice?

Both of these games fun and challenging.

The main difference:

• knoword.com gives you the dictionary definition of a word and the letter it starts with. You type in the word being defined. You try to score more points by guessing correctly and quickly.

• freerice.com gives you just one word and a choice of 4 other words. You click on the one closest in meaning. The more you get correct, the harder they get. You try to reach a higher level.

Try them both and let me know which one you like better and why!

Six Online Corpora

Ever wonder how a word has been used by native speakers?

All the time?

Well check out this amazing resource. I'm just getting to know it a little myself, but so far I'm very impressed.
American English, British English, Spanish and Portuguese.
http://view.byu.edu/

American Slang Quiz

20 Questions
Listen to the phrase, repeat using your best "American" accent, and then guess which of the 3 German translations is the right one.

Doesn't seem too hard to me... };)

https://ssl.sueddeutsche.de/reise/spiele/quiz/245/137964/1/?go=1

ESL Reader

This is a great time-saver that makes reading even difficult texts in English very easy.

Just copy any English text into the box and click on Read Text.
You can then easily get definitions and/or translations for any words in that text since each word is automatically turned into a link.

I suggest you look up new words in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary first to get an understandable definition and a few example sentences. Use the drop-down menu under References.

If you want a translation, just choose the English-German dictionary under Languages. German I links to BeoLingus and German II links to dict.cc

Abbreviations (like ESL) can be looked up under Specialty.

If it's a place or a person you can look it up in Google or Ask.com.

What makes this tool so convenient is that you just paste the text in once and then if you want to learn more about the word, just change the reference source and click on the same word to look it up again. Very convenient!

(The only trick is having several windows open at the same time, but that shouldn't be a problem...!)

http://www.esldesk.com/esl-reading/esl-reader.aspx

If you want to start reading right away, try this link to one of my favorite classic books, already pasted into the ESL Reader...
http://www.esldesk.com/english-reading/reading-help.aspx?f=alice-adventure-in-wonderland

The "shocking truth" about English

Some of you will know Paul Smith and his great website aimed at German speakers struggling with the finer points of the English language.

http://owad.de/

OWAD stands for One Word A Day, by the way...

Paul has a nice little Guide to "Die häufigsten (und peinlichsten) Deutsch > Englischen Übersetzungsfehler und wie man sie vermeiden kann"

You can download the pdf or (first) view what he has to say online. There are some of my favorite "classics" in there that still make me laugh...

Enjoy!

Spelling Bee

Because I am a word freak, I like this dictionary for many reasons.

The feature I want to share with you today is both fun and educational. It's called Spelling Bee.

Here's how it works.
1. You go to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ and look for the Spelling Bee box.
2. Set difficulty level to "easy" so you don't get too frustrated too quickly and you get more common words that people actually use.
3. Look at the definition and guess the word. Take a few guesses. This is an important part of the exercise, so don't skip it!!
4. Then click on the speaker. You will here,... sorry, hear a man say a word. Click once more if you need to hear the word again.
5. Spell the word by typing it in the box as you say the letters in English out loud.
6. Click "answer" to see if you spelled it correctly.(Not "spelt"; that's British!)
7. Now try to use the word in a sentence of your own. If the word is completely new to you, and even if it isn't but you want to get some synonyms etc, click on it to see a definition and some example sentences, synonyms, etc
7. Click "next word" to continue.

Here's the link again.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

8. Play for 10 words and record your score and the date. The nexttime you play you can see if you are getting better.

Tired of Leo?

There are some viable alternatives, you know...


For example, you can test your vocabulary at the main page of http://www.dict.cc/

You get an English word and 4 possible German translations. Click on the one you think is right.

If you get it wrong, you get the correct translation immediately and can add it to your Vokabeltrainer.

Spending a few minutes setting up your Vokabeltrainer will pay huge benefits!

Definitely worth a look!

Watch your particles!

Albert had great hair, but Ted Power is a great name, don't you think?
And he seems to be a great man too. (I hope it doesn't take getting hit by a car like Ted was for me to sort out my language teaching ideas and make some of them available on the web.)

One part of Ted's site I really like and would like to share with you works like this:

"Watch Your Particles!" is a set of worksheets designed to practise WORD + PARTICLE combinations in conversation and writing. The task has been divided into seven sections. Each section contains from 26 to 33 conversation questions. The questions, which are suitable for work in pairs or small groups, each contain a WORD + PARTICLE combination and should be answered fairly quickly. Students connected to the Internet can then complete a Multiple Choice Test (running on the Internet TESL Journal site) on the same range of WORD + PARTICLE combinations they have practised in conversation. A Gap Fill text, designed to test learning within a memorable context, then requires learners to produce the correct WORD + PARTICLEs.

So get yourself a partner and start answering some of these conversation questions! And keep track of any new expressions!

Easier Crosswords on various topics

Not very difficult crosswords that can be done online (with hints) or printed out. Good way to expand your vocab!

Word Web Crosswords

Airport: At the Airport
Animals: A World of Animals
Cars: Cars and Car Parts
Computer: Computer Terms
Dairy: Down at the Dairy
Entertainment: Words are Entertaining
Factory: Working at the Factory
Food: Food for Thought
Flowers: The Flower Show
Fruit: Fruit Salad
Garden: Working in the Garden
Geography: Know Your Geography
Home: Home Sweet Home
Jobs: A Job Well Done
Office: Around the Office
Personal Hygiene: Good Personal Hygiene
Plants: A Whole Crop of Plants
Preparing Food: Preparing Food
School: School's in Session
Science: Science Experiment
Seafood: Under the Sea
Space: Outer Space
Sports: Sports Fan
Tools: Tools of the Trade
Transportation: Transportation Terms
Trees: Swinging from the Trees
Utility Room: The Useful Utility Room
Vegetable: Garden Vegetables
Weather: Wild Weather

Challenge Crosswords

Challenge Crossword 1
Challenge Crossword 2
Challenge Crossword 3
Challenge Crossword 4
Challenge Crossword 5

WANNA LEARN SOME NEW WORDS?

ACTIVITY GUIDE
This 66 page pdf will definitely boost your vocabulary!

People sometimes forget how much information is included in a dictionary,
so we put together this Activity Guide to introduce you to The Newbury
House Dictionary of American English. As you complete the activities in
the guide you will accomplish two important things:
(1) learn how to find many different kinds of information and,
(2) learn new groups of related vocabulary words.

The Activity Guide consists of twenty-two topic-based lessons, each taking
about twenty minutes to complete. Cross-referenced to each lesson is a
“Guide to Skills and Strategies” that describes and gives examples of the
skills needed to complete the activities. At the end of the Activity Guide,
you will find a complete Answer Key is provided so that you can check your
own work.

http://nhd.heinle.com/Activity_Guide.pdf

Picture Dictionaries

This site enables you to simply hold your cursor over a picture to hear a native speaker pronounce that word and see how it is written. Good way to review the basic vocabulary.

You can also do the same for French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, not to mention Chinese and Japanese,and a few other exotic languages like "German", not the Austrian variety, mind you!

Isn't it time you learned how to count to ten in Mandarin?
http://www.languageguide.org/im/num/cn/

It's fun!

Free Rice

Interesting way to improve your vocabulary while at the same time making the world a better place. Food for thought, so to speak. Thanks for the tip Ursula!

I was starting to get a little frustrated because since I kept getting them right, ie guessing the correct meaning of some really hard words, I kept getting EVEN HARDER words! I somehow got the first 19 right before I guessed wrong on "eguitation". Later I found out there are 50 levels. I would advise students to get a few wrong "on purpose"?? so they stay at a non-frustrating level.

Besides, what good is a big vocabulary anyway...?

Answers.com

Go ahead. Go to http://www.answers.com and type in a word.
You not only get a definition and a few synonyms, but much much more.

See also http://bestofcyberopps.wetpaint.com/page/vocab02

Go to voycabulary.com and paste in the list of words you want to work with.
Choosing answers.com as the dictionary to link these words to, I discovered a wealth of very interesting information about these seemingly simple words, in addition to

* a definition
* hear it pronounced by a native speaker (in American English!)
* synonyms (from a thesaurus)
* antonyms
* wikipedia
* American Sign Language or other video


and, info that's really useful for serious advanced language learners like you:

So go ahead and try it out!

Just look to your right and you can see that I have added Answers.com to this blog. Now you can just double-click any word that you are not sure of and you'll get some answers!!
You can download AnswerTips to your own computer and get answers in any application you are working in. How useful is that?

NYTimes

For me, and many other people around the world, this is the best newspaper in the world.

The good news is that recently the good people at the NYTimes website have made their entire archives (back to 1981!)freely accessible.

This is an incredible resource for everyone who appreciates good writing.

A little anecdote: I was cleaning my office today and came across an interesting newspaper clipping I had saved and written a few RC Qs about.
It was about a speech therapist in NYC who helps people get rid of their accent or acquire a new accent (like actors often have to do. He has an unusual name, Chwat, so I thought what the hell...I'll go ahead and see if I can find the article and then I'd be able to use it in a class for RC practice. Sure enough, in less than 2 seconds I had found and printed out the entire article, which, even though it was written back in 1993, is still of interest for language students.

The website is huge, but well-organized and has a lot to offer language learners.

Have a look, for example at the Learning Network.

Or for some good conversation topics, try News Snapshot.

or improve your Vocab AND Culture by doing a Crossword Puzzle.

There is much much more interesting stuff to do and read and even videos to watch and entire First Chapters of the latest bestsellers to read...

Vocabulary Games at manythings.org

Charles Kelly has one of the best EFL sites on the net.
It's called manythings.org


What better way to give your vocab a workout than to play games?

Most of the site is a bit too easy for learners at Austrian universities (apple, banana, etc)

But when you take one of the large lists, it quickly starts to get challenging.

Take, for example,
Alan Beale's Core Vocabulary Compiled from 3 Small ESL Dictionaries with over 20,000 words

Words Beginning with A
Words Beginning with B
Words Beginning with C
etc

With each of these lists you can play a large variety of these games, so you won't get bored. You do need Flash, which most good PCs have.

Here are the games:

Click the Letters in the Correct Order
How many words can you correctly get before you run out of time.

Flash Hangman Game
Try to guess the mystery word before you run out of guesses.

Spelling & Typing Game
The faster you type the words, the higher your score will be.

Word Drop Game
Unscramble the word by clicking any two letters to exchange their places.

Every Other Letter Game (Flash Version)
See a word with every other letter missing, then type in what word you think the computer has chosen.

First & Last Game (Flash Version)
See a word with only its first and last letters, then type in what word you think the computer has chosen.

Guess the Word
With your friends, click the button and see who can be the first to guess the word.

Dictionary Flashcards
Click through the words. When you find one you don't know, click a button to an online dictionary.

Catch the Spelling
Catch the falling letters in the correct order to spell the word.

Word Web Game
Click the letters in the correct order to spell the words.

SpeedWord Spelling Game
Click the letters in the correct order to spell the mystery words.

MatchWords Game
This kind of game is sometimes called "Concentration" or "Memory."

Flash Word Search Puzzles (Word Find)
This kind of game is sometimes called "Word Find" or "Hidden Words."

Which of these games do you think are fun? Useful for you as a language learner trying to expand your vocabulary? Is this a site you'd like to bookmark and come back to? What can you do to use some of the new words and really make them your own? Do you know how these words are pronounced? Can you use them in a meaningful sentence?

Word of the Day

Take your pick.
You can choose from several languages!

Get the code and add it to your blog!

American slang

How many of these slang expressions have you ever even heard of?

Here's an example for the first expresssion on the list

24/7



Definition:
All the time; always available; without a break.

Example:
1) In New York City, a lot of stores are open 24/7.

2) I had to move because my neighbors played loud dance music 24/7.

Etymology:
Some convenience stores are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The phrase is used for anything that is always (or nearly always) available.

Synonyms:
around the clock