Month: December 2015

Spend A Week # Letter For IELTS

You and your family are planning to spend a week at a seaside hotel.

Write a letter to the hotel making the arrangements.

Let them know when you will be arriving and leaving, what type of rooms you would like, and ask them how much the weekend will cost. Also enquire about activities and places of interest near the hotel.

 

SAMPLE ANSWER

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in inform you about our visit in your hotel, the next month.

It was great to know about your hotel and we loved it in the brochure. The facilities that you provide are great and we had great reviews of your hotel. Last month, we thought of travelling to Goa, and it was your hotel that struck us.

We are a group of four people and would be arriving on 22/12/2105, for a week long stay, i.e. until 28/12/2015. We would be sharing rooms, so all we need are two luxury rooms. It would be very nice of you, if you could share with me the details of the costing of the rooms and the stay, before hand.

I would also like to receive details about the following –

  • what are some of the great places to visit in the city and also does your hotel provide the transportation facility if we want to go there.
  • are there any events or activity taking place in your hotel during the above mentioned period, especially because there is Christmas falling on those dates.

I am hoping to receive information at least two weeks prior to our trip, so that we can plan it accordingly.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Anmol.

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Learn New Words # Improve Vocabulary

We have been talking about words to tell what is going on, what is happening, what people do to each other or to themselves or what others do to them. In the last series, we learnt words , enervate, castigate, self-abnegate and vegetate. Let us continue learning more words related to these ideas and improve our vocabulary for IELTS.

TO RECAPITULATE
You are a teacher and have just now given a long, complicated lecture to your class. But you want to make sure that you remember the important points, you restate the key ideas in short, a kind of brief summary, step by step, omitting all the extraneous points. What did you did?You recapitulate the main ideas.
TO SIMULATE
You are about to start your studies and get into work. But then suddenly a friend pops up and starts telling you about her problems with her boss, her boyfriend, her gynecologist and more. You are not at all interested in listening to her issues but you don’t even want to make her sad by avoiding her or telling her to go away. So, instead of shooing her away, you pretend to rapt attention, nod wisely at what you hope are the right places. What verb describes this feigning of interest? You are simulating.
TO INTIMATE
You are the owner of a company and some employees have complaint about possible things. You have taken into consideration all the points and called up a meeting. Although you don’t want to tell them directly of the possible actions that you will be taking. So, you instead of telling them directly, put in some hints of the possible actions. What verb describes what you are doing? You are intimating them of the possible actions.
TO ALLEVIATE
Drugs don’t very often do much cure to any disease. Yet these drugs are popular and universally used to lighten and relieve various unpleasant symptoms of diseases such as pains, fevers etc. What verb expresses the action of such drugs? These drugs alleviate the pain.
TO COMMISERATE
When people have suffered a bereavement or they have been wounded by life or by friend, they most need to feel that they are not alone, that you share their misery even if you cannot directly alleviate their sorrow. Your sympathy and compassion are alleviation enough. What verb describes this sharing of feelings? You are commiserating.
TO VACILLATE
You have got selected in Harvard and Princeton. Both of them are the most prestigious colleges and now you are confused as to which one to choose. Harvard is all over great and offers you with great scholarship but Princeton is the best for the course you are interested in. First it’s Harvard then Princeton, then back to Harvard. Which verb describes what you are doing? You are vacillating.

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Understanding Words # Expressing Oneself

Words are symbols of ideas – and if you want to learn more words it is always good if you learn more ideas. This time we will learn words that tell us about what is going on. what is happening, what people do to each other or to themselves, or what others do to them.

TO ENERVATE

Let us say you have stayed up all night, burned the midnight oil (yes this is the idiom for waking up all night). And what were you doing? An exciting assignment, writing a short story, planning a campaign? Well, no. These are some of the great ways of whiling away time. You were instead in a room with a patient or taking care of someone who just met with an accident or stayed up because of some emotional issues. Now, you are exhausted. Your exhaustion is mental, physiological and emotional. The verb that expresses the effect of the night’s frustration on you is enervate.

TO CASTIGATE

You are worried about something. May be the boss scolded or you had a fight with your lover. In that frustration you are driving your car and missed on a signal. Few minutes later you see the police van behind you and clearly hear the siren. You stop the car but the police officer turns out to be very sweet and courteous and only asks for your driver’s license and even says please.
You get more irritated and start yelling at him or her. You even go on questioning his/her honesty saying that he/she is wasting time and not catching the criminals. How did you reacted? The verb that tells it is castigage.

TO SELF ABNEGATE

Nirmala is selfless, to her the needs of her husband and children come first. She will buy things for them first and if money left, she would spend on herself. At the dinner table, she heaps everyone’s plate while she herself goes without. Nirmala will deny herself things, will scrimp and save and her self esteem does not permit her to give herself. What verb describes what Nirmala Does? She self-abnegates.

TO VEGETATE

You wake up every Monday morning, thinking how bad the morning is? Perhaps you start thinking about the last five years and how you have wasted them!! Not read enough books, made any exciting friend or had any startling thought. Economically, things are not better and you still follow the same old routine. No change, nothing but routine, sameness,monotony and for what? What verb describes how you think you live? You are vegetating.

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A Crush On Mobile # Practice Reading

Source : http://www.economist.com/news/business/21677651-big-merger-shows-where-money-heading-industry-crush-mobile

COMPARE “Candy Crush Saga” with the “Star Wars” franchise (the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory)and it comes as a shock (a sudden and violent blow or impact)that the casual (happening by chance)game’s creator, King Digital Entertainment, would sell for almost 50% more than the $4 billion that Disney paid for Lucas film in 2012. But in paying $5.9 billion in cash and stock for King on November 3rd Activision Blizzard, a giant (a person or thing of unusually great size, power, importance, etc.;major figure; legend)in video games for computers and specialist (a person who devotes himself or herself to one subject or to one particular branch of a subject or pursuit)gaming consoles (to alleviate or lessen the grief, sorrow, or disappointment of; give solace or comfort), is doing more than buying another industry leader. Its purchase is an acknowledgment (recognition of the existence or truth of something)that the future of video games, and of gaming profits, is in mobile, where games are usually given away, and where their creators make money by selling extra features to the most enthusiastic (full of or characterized by enthusiasm)players.

Mobile games have been by far the fastest-growing part of the market in recent years, and have broader (of great extent; large) international (between or among nations; involving two or more nations) appeal (an earnest request for aid, support, sympathy, mercy, etc.; entreaty;petition; plea)because of the penetration (the obtaining of a share of a market for some commodity or service)of smartphones (a device that combines a cell phone with a hand-held computer,typically offering Internet access, data storage, email capability, etc.). By Activision’s reckoning (count), worldwide revenues (the income of a government from taxation, excise duties, customs, or other sources, appropriated to the payment of the public expenses.)from mobile games will almost catch up with those from PC and console games by 2019, reaching $55 billion (up from an estimated $36 billion this year). PC and console games’ sales are projected to reach $57 billion by then.

With “Candy Crush Saga” in its arsenal (a collection or supply of anything; store), Activision will have one of the most successful (achieving or having achieved success)mobile games yet seen, access to an active monthly user base of nearly half a billion people and dozens of new foreign markets where smartphones, not consoles, are the game platforms of choice. Those users might enjoy mobile versions of some of Activision’s hits, like the “Guitar Hero” series. The combined company will become the world’s second-biggest in terms of video-gaming revenues, with close to $7 billion a year, placing it behind only Tencent, a Chinese gaming and social-media conglomerate (a corporation consisting of a number of subsidiary companies or divisions in a variety of unrelated industries, usually as a result of merger or acquisition).

Activision has flailed (an instrument for threshing grain, consisting of a staff or handle to one end of which is attached a freely swinging stick or bar)about in mobile gaming (even if it has had a recent hit with “Hearthstone”, a digital card game). Though King’s shares have weakened (not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail)since it gave a profit warning in May this year, there are worries that Activision may be paying richly for its big move into mobile. James Gwertzman, the boss of Playfab, a provider of back-office technology for game developers, says it is not clear if Activision and King can add that much value to each other’s gaming platforms, in the way that Disney can exploit the “Star Wars” characters and stories across its various businesses.

There is also no guarantee (a promise or assurance, especially one in writing, that something is of specified quality, content, benefit, etc., or that it will perform satisfactorily for a given length of time)that King can establish another runaway success like “Candy Crush Saga”—although it has created a moderately (kept or keeping within reasonable or proper limits; not extreme,excessive, or intense)successful sequel in “Candy Crush Soda”—or that the flagship (a ship carrying the flag officer or the commander of a fleet, squadron,or the like, and displaying the officer’s flag)“Saga” game will remain a hit. The faddish (like a fad)mobile game of the moment, like, say Zynga’s “FarmVille”, can give way seemingly overnight (very quickly)to new franchise hits—in its case, to “Candy Crush Saga” itself.

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