Mastering English: Structures and Connectors
CONTENTS
Second and Third Conditional // Passive // Used to // Relative Clauses // Should, Could // Possibility, Uncertainty // Because of, Due to // Present Perfect Continuous // Past Perfect // Reported Speech
Informal Letters and Emails
- Beginning: It’s been such a long time since we wrote to each other. // I’m sorry I haven’t written for such a long time, but…
- Introducing the topic: Guess what? // Do you remember what I told you in my last letter?
- Ending: I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Embracing Traditions, Book Review & Restaurant Spotlight
Embracing Traditions in Daily Life
Today, I want to talk about how I include traditions in my daily life. In our busy world, it’s easy to forget about the customs that connect us to our roots. But I believe that celebrating small traditions makes life more meaningful and helps us to feel connected with the people around us.
First, I start my day with a short prayer. It’s a small tradition that helps me feel calm and focused before I begin my daily routine. Then, after work, I joined a local festival
Read MoreUnderstanding English Consonant Sounds: Articulation
Understanding Consonant Articulation
The production of consonant sounds involves specific movements and positions of the articulators (tongue, lips, etc.) within the vocal tract. Here’s a breakdown of several consonant sounds:
/tʃ/ Voiceless, Affricate, Post-Alveolar
The air from the lungs travels through the larynx. The glottis (opening between the vocal folds) is wide open, allowing air to pass freely without vocal fold vibration.
The air then reaches the oral cavity, encountering a blockage between
Read MoreSpanish Literary Movements: Realism, Naturalism, and Avant-Garde
Realism
Realism is the cultural movement of bourgeois society in the nineteenth century, which rejected fantasy and romantic idealism. General features of realism are: observation and accurate description of reality, focus on facts, common purpose of social criticism, a concise and sober style, predilection for the novel, individual characters, omniscient narrator, didacticism, linear structure, meticulous descriptions, and approximation of colloquial language.
Naturalism
Naturalism is a literary current
Read MoreAusiàs March and Tirant lo Blanc: Key Works
Ausiàs March: A Unique Voice in Poetry
Ausiàs March stands as an isolated case in literary history. He rejects the extreme rhetoric of courtly love, recognizing a lack of eloquence and artifice in his own work. He does not boast, but rather presents himself as a poet of genuine love, the only true lover. Ausiàs opposes the troubadours, and critics have noted that he alone knows the truth, departing from the troubadour style, which, for warmth, often trespasses truth.
He primarily uses pure Catalan,
Read MoreLeopoldo Alas Clarín: Life, Works, and Literary Criticism
Leopoldo Alas Clarín: Life and Works
Born in Zamora in 1852, Leopoldo Alas, known as “Clarín,” spent most of his life in Oviedo, first as a student and then as a professor of law. He died in the Asturian capital in 1901.
Clarín, one of the most well-read intellectuals of his time, was well known for his work. As a literary critic, he was feared, blamed for mercilessly criticizing bad writers. Despite its brevity, the narrative quality of his work makes him a very important writer.
He wrote two novels,
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