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TOEIC Vocabulary practice

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Part 9

Story

Kathy met Samantha at a seminar on how to start a small business. They sat next to each other filling out a questionnaire. While they were filling out the papers they started talking about the seminar and found out that they were both interested in starting a dessert shop.

Vocabulary

Seminar (noun); a conference or other meeting for discussion or training.

Examples

  1. The seminar on ‘how to best market your company’ was very useful.
  2. I want to go to a seminar in January about how to best protect yourself from hackers.
  3. Q. Have you ever seen one of seminars on TED talks? They are very informative and interesting.

Questionnaire (noun); a set of printed or written questions with a choice of answers, devised for the purposes of a survey or statistical study.

Examples

  1.  Please fill out the questionnaire on about your daily habits.
  2.  I filled out a questionnaire on finances and I learned a lot from the results.
  3.  Q. Have you completed the questionnaire about environment issues? It’s kind of hard.

Nik

ためになる英語93

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今回のためになる英語は、It’s  surprising ～（～の部分はhow ＋形容詞＋主語＋動詞になります。）　“～（Surprising以下）には驚く。”という意味になります。

 

A: Hey, Tom, how are you? How’s Paul and Chris ?

（やぁトム、元気？ポールとクリスはどうしてる？）

B: Hi, I’m good and they are turning 12 this month. It’s surprising how fast kids grow up.

（元気だよ。彼らも今月で12才になるんだよ。子供の成長の早さには驚くよ。）

A: That’s true. How’s their school going?

（本当だよな。学校の方はどう？）

A: It’s good. It’s surprising  how easy kids can remember new things.

（順調だよ。子供たちが簡単に新しいことを習得するのには驚くよ。）

 

下記の例も音読してみてくださいね。It’s ～の～部分を変えて、Surprising 以外でも同じように使えますので、応用してみてください。

 

It’s surprising how fast the weather changes in Guam.

（グアムの天気が変わる速さには驚くよ。）

It’s amazing  how fast houses are built in Japan.

（日本の家が建つ早さには驚くよ。）

It’s annoying how slow this computer works.

（このコンピューターの遅さにはイライラしちゃう。）

 

Yuki
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TOEIC Vocabulary practice

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Part 8

Story

After returning from her trip Kathy successfully applied for and entered The Le Cordon Bleu Pâtisserie and Baking Program to become certified. She studied for almost two years in Seattle, Washington.

Vocabulary

Apply (verb); make a formal application or request.

Examples

  1. I applied for that banking job at SMBC. I hope I get it.
  2. I need to apply to the Universities this weekend.
  3. Q. Have you applied for that research position yet?

Certified (adjective); officially recognize as possessing certain qualifications or meeting certain standards.

Examples

  1. I’m a certified barista.
  2. You need to be certified to teach English overseas.
  3. Q. Are you certified to use that machinery?

Nik

TOEIC Vocabulary practice

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Part 7

Story

Kathy had wanted to start her own dessert shop ever since she visited one in Paris a few years ago. Since that trip she’s been practicing making all kinds of desserts. She’s tried making everything from Italian Tiramisu to Guava ice cream from South Africa. Now, she’s very confident in her ability to make great desserts.

Vocabulary

Practice (verb); the customary, habitual, or expected procedure or way of doing of something.

Examples

  1. I practice the piano every day.
  2. I really need to practice my English pronunciation.
  3. Q. Have you been practicing parking? Your driver’s test is coming up.

Confident (adjective); feeling or showing certainty about something.

Examples

  1. I’m not so confident in my public speaking abilities.
  2. I’m confident the party will go well.
  3. Q. Are you confident that the experiment will work?

Nik

TOEIC Vocabulary practice

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Part 6

Story

Kathy and Samantha have been talking about expanding their chocolate cake selection for some time now.

They were looking for a part timer to help out around the store. They were also hoping to find someone with some knowledge of cake baking that could contribute by adding to their dessert line up.

Vocabulary

Expand (verb); become or make larger or more extensive.

Examples

  1. We are hoping to expand our stores into Asia by next year.
  2. That shopping mall is expanding and adding apartments.
  3. Did you know that a lot of English Premiership football clubs are expanding their stadiums?

Contribute (verb); give (something, especially money) in order to help achieve or provide something.

Examples

  1. I want to help contribute something to the project.
  2. Let’s all contribute ten dollars to the bosses gift.
  3. Did you contribute to the design of the web page yet?

Nik

TOEIC Vocabulary practice

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Part 5

Story

As Kathy finished up on the phone her associate Samantha walked into the shop.

“Morning Kathy! How’s everything? I hope you don’t mind but I took the initiative and scheduled the interview with that new girl for tomorrow.”

“Morning Sam. Yeah everything is good. Okay that’s great. What time is she going to come by?”

“I told her to come here at 2 pm. I hope she’s good. Her knowledge of baking seems good and her recommendations are of the highest quality.”

Vocabulary

Initiative (noun); the ability to start things on your own.

  1. I took the initiative and ordered next week’s supplies.
  2. Please take the initiative and get the project started.
  3. Q. Are you good at taking initiative when things need to be done?

Quality (noun); the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind.

  1. That Whiskey is of the highest quality.
  2. Honesty is a desirable quality.
  3. Q. Do you think Louis Vuitton bags are good quality?

Nik

Daily dose of cute 面白いビデオ

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 Here is your daily dose of cute!

Which clip is your favorite? (The girl trying to hula hoop without the hula hoop made me laugh.)

For students, “dose” is usually used when talking about medicine. An example:

“He took a dose of cough medicine.”

Minimalism ミニマリズム　映画

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Yesterday I finished watching an interesting documentary called Minimalism.

Here’s a link to the movie on IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3810760/

The guys that made the movie have a website:

http://www.theminimalists.com/

Here’s how they describe minimalism:

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

That doesn’t mean there’s anything inherently wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff: we tend to give too much meaning to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house? Great, have at it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more consciously, more deliberately.

Well I thought it was pretty interesting. Check it out if you have a chance. If any of you have Netflix, you can watch it (with Japanese subtitles) there.

Nailed It!

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TOEIC Vocabulary practice

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Part 4

Story

Kathy and her friend opened ‘La Maison de Chocolat’ in a pretty trendy neighborhood. They became popular quickly. Their customers were typically women in their 30’s and 40’s who were looking to buy something special for their parties.

Vocabulary

Trendy (adjective); very fashionable or up to date.

Examples

  1. Crocs were very trendy sandals a few years ago.
  2. People say that Naka Meguro is a trendy area in Tokyo.
  3. Do you remember when Tamagotchi was popular ?

 

Customer (noun) a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.

Examples

  1. A line of customers were waiting to get into the ramen shop for lunch.
  2. A few customers commented on how good our cakes were.
  3. Do you know how many customers came in yesterday? A. We served around 220.

P.S. A customer is defined as ’someone who buys goods or services from a store or business.’ A client is also a type of customer. In business, the two terms are often used differently based on the types of relationships built. Customers are generally people who come to you mainly to buy products or services you supply. Clients buy your advice and solutions personalized to their particular needs.

Nik