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onlyinenglish
 

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed on and digested”


Do you like to read books? What book would you recommend to a friend?

Personally I love reading , I used to read more books when I was much younger. Today I read less books, and many more articles on the Internet, from magazines, I've also read quite a few e-books, though I now that spending hours in front of the computer is just destructive for my eyes. What I read revolves mostly around my favorite topics: health, beauty, yoga, psychology,as well as some work stuff, and things that just catch my eye.

I know it might sound like a lame excuse but i simply don't find time to indulge myself in a pleasure of reading a "real" book. On a plane or train, I'm much too more deconcentrated to do something more then browse threw pages of Cosmopolitan or alike. At home I usually work, socialize or concentrate on my fitness routine.

Yet, my adventure with books started very early as a part of my English education. I used to read mostly in English to enrich my vocabulary, and I don't think I have to convince anybody that it does work!
One of my favorite books to which I keep coming back, not only because of it's great content, but also cause it's of a very small size and I can take it everywhere is " Your Erroneous Zones" by Dr. Wayne Dyer. All people I recommended it too just love it, I know it has been translated to Polish too. Even fierce opponents of psychological guides think it's just great. I believe it's because Dr. Dyer concentrate on all our main erroneous zones which we often feel too shy to discuss, or think they are not important. He starts from the earliest childhood and shows  how it influences our further life decisions. He proves that everyday behaviors which irritate us, yet not enough to give them a closer look, may change into real problems. He states many interesting question which are answered further in the book. He discusses approval seeking issue, acceptance of our own body/and self-acceptance in general, feeling of guilt for not raising up to others expectations etc. The book is written in a very light and logical way. Ir reminds me of domino, one problem is disclosed and it results in disclosure of others. The book is written in a form of counselling session and although it's light-hearted, our psyche is not treated in a flip manner.

I recommend it to everybody, especially women and girls who got lost in their need for perfection and pleasing everybody around, excluding themselves.

socyberty.com/(…)be-succesful-at-your-spoken-exam-t…

Vocabulary:

-REVOLVE[re'volve] AROUND -sth is concentrated on ( the subject)

-LAME[lejm] EXCUSE - not very convincing/poor

-TO INDULGE [in'doldz]in  - to concentrate on sth pleasureable (food, book,activity...)

-ALIKE = etc.

-TO ENRICH[en'ricz]  - make something  bigger (knowledge, vocabulary...)

-ERRONEOUS [e'ronjus]  -  sth with error

-SEEK[sik]  - look for

-FLIP MANNER - in a way as it is not important

-TO EXCLUDE = not include
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onlyinenglish
 
! In American English, all abbreviations such as Mr., Miss., Ms., Mrs.,Dr., etc. finish with (.)!
 

onlyinenglish
 
“The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back"

Face or body?

Being still in high school I remember watching a talk-show, something about fit women. I do have to admit they had excellent bodies, no signs of cellulite, stretch marks or other ordinary women's horrors. And everything would be just perfect if not for one thing, FACE.
We have a saying in Polish which could be translated as - high-school in the back, museum in the front, and this is what more or less could be said about those fitness godesses. The bodies were perfect, yet the faces didn't match them at all. Sun and hours spent in tanning parlors had as visible effects on their faces as fitness routine had on their bodies. Irregular dieting and other weird experiments didn't add to the attractiveness either. I remember saying to my mum, who  is not only sport but also young appearance enthusiast , that no matter how perfect the body is, physical attractiveness is to a great extent depended on the condition of the face.

It's not the question of who is beautiful and who is not, and the desperate need to find ways of preventing our skin from getting old,
it's the question of using the knowledge and information we can get from myriads of sources and the awareness that fitness woman is like beautician, not only her body advertises her profession, but also her face.

Unfortunately, the life is even harder. We love to put mocking comments under the photos of celebrities without their perfect photoshopped look, we criticize friends people on the streets, just to feel better. I think that having a close look at what adds to the attractiveness to the skin and what it would gladly do without is a must for our own sake .
 

onlyinenglish
 

The USA - love it or not?

Poland is a specific country, who has a long history of mutual relations with the States. Many of us have families there. Mine emigrated in 1919. I've read many hostile opinions about this country.The popular regret is visa issue. But, why do we care so much, if so many of us claims that they would never go to "stupid America". Many associate it with "Sex and the City" popular soap opera, which i personally quite like. We just think that sweet ladies run around the city looking for another design dress to show off at the party. What's most hilarious, the negative opinions come mostly from those who's never been to the States for many reasons. Many  didn't get to the country, because their visa application was turned down or simply they can't afford it.

Personally I'm in two minds about this country and I believe that those who were lucky enough to see how diversified it is, are able to build fair opinion. I've been traveling to the USA since I was 8, for different reasons. Family, friends, business etc. I've seen the biggest silicone breasts in California, and experienced the unforgetable old-fashioned charm of the South. Every States is like a separate country, you can find every landscape and weather u can possibly dream of. Actually. the USA has the wildest weather in the world. A normal year brings  hurricanes, blizzards, +40 degrees Celsius heat and - 30 cold, jungle humidity, desert dryness and the world's most most numerous and strongest tornadoes, we might say there is something for everybody!

It is often said that Americans are artificial, their smiles are faked, go ahead, visit Louisiana you will have as many genuine and friendly people as you wish. Another advantage of the States is, especially for shopaholics, that it is still considerable cheap compering to other countries. When it comes to visa. Well, a lot depends on the luck . My first one was for 10years, second for a 1 year and now again 10 years.

I can add one thing more, if you ever have the chance to visit this country, just enjoy, I do recommend Louisiana. It's nought to see how beautiful New Orleans is presented in " Curious Case of Benjamin Button", Brad Pitt is a great enthusiast of the city himself.

Vocabulary:

-ALOOF[a'luf] - reserved, at distance (phisical/emotional)

-ALONG WITH = together with

- HOSTILE ['hostajl] - unfriendly, attacking

-HILARIOUS [hi'larius] - extremely funny

-BLIZZARD ['blizerd]  -  a storm with dry, driving snow, strong winds, and intense cold OR
 heavy and prolonged snowstorm covering a wide area.

www.shophudsons.com/treasure-hunt.cfm  -  It's a place for all those who think that top brands can't be for $7.99 ( most popular price for blauses skirts dresses) and less ; my treasures include Michael Kors, Guess, and many more. Great for those who love unique style. If you are ever it the area just enjoy :D
 

onlyinenglish
 
<a href="www.adoos.pl" target="new" style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="pics.adooscore.com/lib/logos/logo_adoos_new_100.gif" border="0" /><br />ogloszenia</a>
 

onlyinenglish
 
Pale is in fashion

Probably every girl who's ever been to Thailand was called "sexy lady" and the more pale the skin is, the more interest it arouses. I totally realized it the moment I’ve met a couple of Thai girls closer. They loved to touch my white skin, asking if I’m that white everywhere and how can this happen that I’m SO white !

It’s enough to browse threw female magazines in Thailand to realize how precious pale complexion is. The majority of advertisements deal with sun blockers and whitening stuff. Thai women have plenty of cosmetics in their bathrooms, probably nothing surprising for other girls, except for the fact that most of them are whitening creams. No matter, how dark the girl is, I’ve been to the very south of Thailand where they are almost black, all of them use something to whiten or at least try to whiten the skin.

I know that we have a tendency to get attracted by stuff we don’t have, like white skin in exotic countries,yet the fact is that Asian women, not only Thai, are famous for the good skin quality. They know very well that sun is the main factor which causes dryness and wrinkles.Moreover, what many European women do, that is regular visits to tanning parlors is just horror to the skin.It has been proven that ” artificial sun” which is extremely popular especially in countries where the weather may be the main cause of depression, unfortunately also Poland, is as dangerous as the real one.


To be honest I’m really surprised why so many girls want to get darker. Usually we get our beauty inspirations from celebrities, film stars, models etc., it’s enough to look at the totally pale models, their career depends on how young their skin look and they are totally aware that sun is deadly for the youth. Most actresses are also cautious about sun exposure. We are living in the age of youth where sun blocker is the girl’s best friend. Unless, of course we are naturally darker, but it’s a totally different issue as darker skin is prepared to handle sun's influence.


There are surely more important reasons why it’s better to stay pale than just to stay young longer.
I came across an article about Glenna, in American ann British Cosmopolitan.


www.glennasfund.org/articles/glennas_speech.html

healthmad.com/(…)uva-uvb-sun-rays-what-is-the-diffe…

VOCABULARY

- BROWSE THREW [bralz fru] - look threw a magazine/book withought reading carefuly

-TANNING PARLOR = solarium
 

onlyinenglish
 
Toxins in cosmetics


....Allergic reactions, birth defects and even cancer. Make up and body care products, of popular brands contain dangerous ingredients. 25% of the chemicals are neurotoxins linked to increased incidence of brain disease. What's worst, more and more companies are adding "penetration enhancers" to drive ingredients even deeper into the skin.
Common cosmetics additives are found in human body tissue; parabens (preservatives) in breast tumor tissue and musk xylene (persistent fragrance components) in human fat,phthalates—a group of industrial chemicals, linked to birth defects , used in many cosmetic products, from nail polish to deodorant are not listed as ingredients on product labels and they can only be detected through laboratory analysis.

As studies are not required, we are not aware if the chemicals levels, at which they are found in cosmetics, pose risk. Surprising as it may seem, US federal government doesn’t require health studies or pre-market testing on personal care products.
The ingredients are examined almost exclusively by a manufacturer-controlled safety committee called the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) panel. Consequently, “89 percent of 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by the USA Food and Drug Administration FDA, nor any other publicly accountable institution. Nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG).

By all means, most of us have some favorite products we can't do without. I personally love nail polish and eye lash mascara, though I can do without most of the others. Surely, when browsing through the collection of our beautifying products, we realize that at least half of them is useless, similarly to our wardrobe :-)situation. Yet, honestly speaking, only those who are really crazy about healthy lifestyle, are aware of the risk behind using body lotion or eye shadow. Life is already to complicated to check our breast each time we put firming cream on it. Yet maybe it's worth to give a thought from time to time, to why lung cancer is dangerous even if we don't smoke, or why do some find a lump in the breast though there is no history of cancer in the family. Minimizing the risk, is worth diminishing the collection of our beautifiers. Maybe we should start to think about what chemicals cause to our health, as much as we think of what they cause to poor animals, on which many are being tasted on.

How about some nature :)?

healthmad.com/aging/natural-beauty/

VOCABULARY:

-ENHANCE/ENHANCER  -  to make something work better by improving it /by adding sth which improves it.

-TO DIMINISH  -  to make something smaller
-BEAUTIFIER - beauty products
 

onlyinenglish
 
The generation gap is inevitable - grownups and children will always argue about their lifestyles and values.

Surely, generation gap is inevitable, everything constitute for it, age, experience and difference in bringing up. What’s more, we can’t expect it to be any different among other species. This is how nature created us to survive, the young are taught life by the older and we could say…..that’s life…… .

The problem is that we associate, not surprisingly, the generation gap with a constant fight, luck of respect or compromise. Depending on the culture and country, young people are either treated as the worse category because of their inexperience, or on the contrary, the experience of elders is treated as an old fashioned approach to life. The worst is the situation is quite complicated. Taking parents and children into consideration, kids often feel the grudge, as parents are not cool enough and have too many expectations. Well, it probably wouldn’t be any better if grownups were liberate enough to hang out with our friends, that’s not the point, we want something in between, and it’s always most difficult to obtain. It’s even worse when we start to wander what are parents’ expectations. It seems they want us to learn and behave well, in addition, each adult has an individual, long wish list. By all means, not everybody needs to be a parent. It’s not a crime to admit that we don’t want to have children. Unfortunately, much too often usually succumb to environment pressure that everybody should have, unless we can’t.  The fact is that in modern world when grownups concentrate mostly on  career, and kids on their friends, hobbies and school, it’s hard to really develop healthy relations and try to define rights and responsibilities each side have . That usually leads to inevitable conflicts cause parents think they are the bosses, because of experience, and kids whose role in the family is diminished.
The situation at school is usually even worst. Students usually rebel often trying to use the argument that teachers are not the  parents and should mind their own business. No wander that the majority of the lecturers are discouraged to influence students in any way except for what their subject require. Why bother, for the sake of satisfaction or starvation salaries? There is no need to convince anybody that the state of many of our schools is pitiful.
The sooner we understand there is no hope for a general recovery, the better. Surely the situation varies in individual cases, but there are always exceptions from every rule.  Some may say they have very modern parents, angelic children or cool teachers. But, the fact that the generation gap is sometimes less visible, doesn’t mean it ever disappears. It’s based on the differences which become visible in the course of time. Yet, no matter how difficult it is to admit it sometimes, nobody expect that youngsters and grownups will have the same values or lifestyle.

Vocabulary:

-inevitable[ine’vytabl]   -   sure to happen (often sth unpleasant)

-elder  -  somebody older ( but not old)

-feel grudge [grudż]  -  feeling of resentment (due to insult or injury)

-to hang out  -  to go out (during free time)

-succumb[sa’kam]    -  to give up/in

-to diminish [dy’mynysz]  -  to make something (look) less important

-starvation  - ( here) very low
 

onlyinenglish
 
What are the advantages and disadvantages of online education?


Online courses and even universities have been very fashionable for a couple of years. By all means, it is connected with a crazy speed of life and constant need for qualifications improvements. Yet, it’s not only craze for being competitive on the job market which builds craving for knowledge. Various hobbies are also popular reasons why people enroll in courses, and online classes save time and pretty often money.

It’s enough to browse threw web pages to realize how popular online language courses has become. Surely they can intersperse ordinary courses substantially, yet I don’t recommend them to absolute beginners. Undoubtedly, online studies are very popular in the USA. I believe that it is mostly connected with learners being accustomed more to passing exams than class attendance itself. Unfortunately, in Poland we are not that practical. In the States time is money, so instead of spending hours daydreaming during boring classes, it’s better to go to work or take extra courses and study at your own pace. By all means, it’s not the rule. We need lots of persistence to be successful in this kind of education.
As everything, online learning has its pros and cons. First off all, as in every business we have those who unfortunately offer low quality for big money, as a result, many people still don’t trust especially university courses. I also find it strange to accomplish online studies requiring physical practice, though I read about online yoga instructor retreats , well, I guess everything can be organized for the right price. On the other hand, online schools offer the possibility to take part in most exotic courses in the furthest part of the world, without a penny spent on accommodation or traveling, not to mention saved time. What’s also important online education keeps pace with ubiquitous changes. New disciplines, areas of interests, faculties and alike, pops up almost on daily bases. Unfortunately, we have less and less free time so online education is the answer to our curiosity and need for development. Surely, no matter how controversial it might still seem to many. Online education’s quality will be improving continuously and the potential students’ trust will grow, yet the success will always depend substantially on our choices so before choosing our future online educator we should carefully browse threw the offers.

Vocabulary:

-craving [‘krejwing]  -  desire, need

-to enroll  -  to join

-pretty  -  very  (here)

-to intersperse   -  to diversify sth to make it more interesting

-pace[pejs]  -  spped in what sth is done

-persistence  -  strong will

-pops up  -  start to appear

-on daily bases  -  every day

-substantially[sab’stenszali]  -  to a great extent
 

onlyinenglish
 
You are what you eat. Do you agree? Discuss.

Surely this is a statement all of us have to agree with, unfortunately many are reluctant to do so, judging by the generally accepted eating habits. Sometimes I have a feeling that people are divided into two groups. The one is obsessively concentrated on the healthy dieting issues and the other one thinks that food exists just to satisfy hunger and to give pleasure, the long-term effects seem not that important. It’s quite difficult to find something in between except for blind folded teenagers who concentrated on cat-walk anorectic-thin beauties, suffer from various eating disorders.
Definitely, food has considerable effect on our life quality and appearance, which is of crucial importance for many. Obesity and problems which ensue from it, is one of the main health issues of our times. It’s not only the matter of omnipresent grease but unfortunately “we are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons”.  Nature is promoted in areas which for a long time had nothing to do with natural ingredients, instead our food is stuffed with substances which names is hard to pronounce.  Something called healthy food, I dread to think what kind of food is the one without “healthy” label, is beyond many consumers’ budget. Acne, the nightmare of most teenagers, is another side effect of dieting choices. Beauty magazines are filled with tips how to fight the problems of weak hair and nails, were as, in most cases, diet change would do the trick.  Lack of energy is another, less visible, but very inconvenient side effect of poor quality eating habits. On the other hand, we have those who know all the vitamins ad minerals by heart and many passionate believers in vegetarianism who perceive meat eaters as criminals, they are definitely healthier, yet luck of tolerance, characterized for some, does not make life easier. Whatever we think about healthy food believers, we have to agree that healthy dieting has miraculous effect on overall health and appearance, otherwise it wouldn’t be such a big business.
Whichever diet we take into consideration, in majority of cases its popularity stems from good marketing. Produce managers know the tricks how to get to a given group of consumers. That’s why we have fast to prepare muesli for busy businesswoman for a healthy beginning of a day, and vitamin candies for kids, as we all know children are reluctant to take nutrition in other form. Sometimes producers go too far and that’s why new ideas to stop dieting problems are being born. In the United States there is a plan to impose an extra tax on companies producing sweet and unhealthy staff. The money would be spent on dieting education.  I think we should all pay close attention on what lands on plates, the dieting choices depend on us.

healthmad.com/nutrition/super-foods-for-super-girl/

healthmad.com/(…)thought-of-dieting-make-us-sick…

Vocabulary:

-omnipresent  -  present everywhere

-dread to think  -  be scared to think

-acne[‘akni]  -  a skin disease causing pimples ( usually at young age)
-do the trick  -  solve the problems

-to know sth by heart  -  to have it memorized

-to stem from sth  -  to be a result of sth