Mastering the TOEFL: Speaking and Writing Sections
TOEFL Speaking Section
- Personal Choice: For this part, you have to state your opinion and provide two reasons (cases 1-3) or an advantage, a disadvantage, and your opinion (case 4).
- Paired Choice
- Multiple Choice
- Agree/Disagree
- Advantages/Disadvantages
Case 1-3
State your point:
- I agree/disagree with the idea… (3)
- While some may disagree, I believe that… (1, 2)
Transition to reasons: I feel this way for several reasons.
First reason: First, + example
Second reason: Second, + example
This is why I think so.
Read MorePost-War Spanish Theater: Trends and Evolution
Status of Theater: This genre faces constraints, being both literature and performance. It has been subject to the interests of producers who, catering to public taste, often avoid financial risks on aesthetically or ideologically advanced works. Consequently, a distinction arises between commercial theater, focused on entertainment, and theater with broader concerns. Innovative authors often face challenges in gaining recognition.
The Theater of the Post-War Era
The end of the war, along with the
Read MoreModernism and the Generation of ’98: A Literary Contrast
Modernism
Modernism manifests itself as a vital attitude and an eagerness for rebellion, renewing every field of life and artistic movement. Aesthetically, modernism relates to the bohemian world and the rejection of social and moral standards. It involves dropping the taste for provocation and contempt of mediocrity and vulgarity. Modernist literature curdles, especially in the lyrical and poetic prose genres, which shows a new poetic language and intimate themes. Among the Romantic modernist writers,
Read MoreNarrative Strategies in Aramburu’s Stories: Trauma and Memory
Spanish Literature Movements: Romanticism to Post-War Novel
Romanticism: Key Features
- Freedom: A break from established rules.
- Subjectivism: Focus on the inner self.
- Themes: Self-expression, rebelliousness, social and philosophical issues, legendary and historical topics.
- Characters: Marginal figures, rebels, freedom-lovers, and passionate individuals marked by fate.
- Nationalism: Deep love for one’s homeland.
- Evocation of the Past: Preference for the Middle Ages and Renaissance, escape to exotic and wondrous lands.
- Atmosphere: Mystery and solemnity, often at night,
Picaresque Novel: “Guzmán de Alfarache” and “El Buscón” Analysis
The Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novel culminated in the Baroque period with the success of Guzmán de Alfarache.
The Life of Guzmán de Alfarache
Mateo Alemán’s work was published in two parts. It has two levels of discourse: the narrative of the life of a rogue and constant moral reflections of the narrator, which reflects a didactic purpose: to contribute to the common good with the doctrine and the criminal life story of the protagonist, which shows the deceit and wickedness of man. This novel,
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