Most of you know that I teach TOEFL prep in San Francisco,
California. I get e-mails and calls all the time about on-line
classes and classes in other cities and countries. Although
I fully intend to have a strong presence all over the world
in the coming years, I currently only teach in San Francisco.
Right now, I have an ongoing workshop for Sentence Correction
and Critical Reasoning. Click here
to e-mail to let me know that you want to study TOEFL with me
in San Francisco.
I've been working almost every day to improve the TestMagic
Discussion Groups. For those of you who care about such
things, I'm using the very popular Snitz
Forum 2000, which is FREE for anybody who wants it! It works
very well, and I am very, very happy with the result.
I want to create the most popular place on the Internet for
TOEFL, TOEFL, GRE, and SAT discussions, so I've been trying
very hard to make the Discussion Groups very fast, full of features,
and attractive. If you visit the Discussion Groups, you will
notice that you can post questions (after you register), you
can automatically receive messages in your e-mail when people
post by "subscribing" to each topic, you can use "smilies"
when you post, and soon, I will add more and more features,
such as avatars and polls.
We've got some great discussions going. Here are some:
Finally, I would like to encourage everybody to visit and post
at the TestMagic
Discussion Groups. I know that many of you are non-native
speakers of English, and you might feel embarrassed about posting
to this group in English, but I can assure you that we will
treat you very, very well. I am a language teacher and most
visitors will be non-native speakers. We are all very, very
tolerant. Hey, I'm a non-native speaker in all of your
languages, too, right?? Remember: Language = Power TM!!!! The
more you practice, the better you'll be!!
Some people call these "idioms," other
people separate them into different groups. TestMagic calls
them "combinations," well, because that's what they
are--combinations of words that we need to know for the TOEFL.
This is the beginning of the extensive list that
I am working on. I have researched all of these "combinations"
carefully.
Unique to my list are the common MISTAKES you're
likely to see on the TOEFL; these mistakes
are in red. The most common combinations
are in green. So, just to make it simple:
red = bad
green = good (most common)
I know some of you out there will want to ask
me a question or want examples. I'll be happy to engage in a
dialogue with you, as long as it's on-line in my Discussion
Group. As I've mentioned several million times already (please
skip if you've heard before...), I get too much e-mail (most
asking the same questions) to respond to each one. And please
remember, most of the material that I send out in these newsletters
is from my works-in-progress, meaning that you will see the
completed parts, but the rest is not yet ready. If it were,
it'd be published already!!
Anyway, here's the list:
1. ability in SOMETHING
2. ability TO DO SOMETHING
3. able TO DO SOMETHING
4. absent from SOMETHING
5. accept into + GROUP
6. accepted at + COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY
7. accepted into + GROUP
8. accepted to + COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY
9. access to SOMETHING
10. accused of SOMETHING BAD
11. accustom to SOMETHING
12. acquaint with SOMETHING/SOMEBODY
13. act as ROLE
14. adapt from WORK
15. adapt to SOMETHING
16. addicted to SOMETHING
17. admit of SOMETHING
18. advantage of SOMETHING
19. afraid of SOMETHING
20. X agree on + DOING SOMETHING X (change
to agree to do something)
21. agree on + SOMETHING
22. agree to DO SOMETHING
23. agree to SOMETHING
24. agree with SOMEBODY
25. aid + SOMEBODY or SOMETHING
26. aid SOMETHING + in + DOING SOMETHING
27. *** aim to DO SOMETHING ***
28. *** aimed at DOING SOMETHING ***
29. allow for SOMETHING
30. angry at SOMEBODY (some grammarians consider this unidiomatic)
31. angry with SOMETHING
32. apologize for SOMETHING
33. appeal to SOMEBODY
34. applied to SOMETHING
35. apply to SOMETHING
36. approach (the noun, not the verb) to SOMETHING
37. approve of SOMETHING
38. argue about SOMETHING
39. argue for SOMETHING
40. arrive at SOMETHING
41. arrive in SOMETHING
42. *** as... as... ***
43. ascribe to BELIEF
44. ask + SOMEBODY + SOMETHING
45. ask + SOMEBODY + TO DO SOMETHING
46. ask + TO DO SOMETHING
47. associate with SOMETHING
48. *** attribute SOMETHING to SOMEBODY/SOMETHING
***
49. averse to SOMETHING www.TestMagic.com
50. aversion for SOMETHING (less common, but correct)
51. aversion to SOMETHING (most common form)
52. aversion towards SOMETHING (less common, but correct)
53. aware of SOMETHING
1. The United States government is [based on] a system
that [employs] three main branches of government, the
executive, the legislative, and the judicial, with each [balancing]
the power of the [other].
2. The average person, such as Erin Billy, uses an average
of one hundred gallons of water per day, fifteen to thirty ______
are used during a simple shower.
O which
O that
O being
O of which
3. There are more Labrador Retrievers registered with pedigrees
than there are of ______ breed.
O any other
O other
O the other
O their
4. The pervasive liberal attitude [of] Californian society
stems at least partly [the] attitudes of [the first
settlers] [from] the East Coast.
5. ______ the highest yearly budget of all U.S. zoos, the San
Diego Zoo is only one quarter the size of the Minnesota Zoo.
O When it has
O To have
O Despite having
O It has
6. While seemingly complicated [to] those unfamiliar
[with] it, the abacus is actually faster [than is]
a calculator for routine banking [task].
7. While not ______, the venom in the tentacles of the Portuguese
man-of-war can inflict great pain.
O a fatality
O usually fatal
O it is usually fatal
O being usually fatal
8. ______ average gestation period of 660 days, the African
elephant has the longest pregnancy of any land animal. www.TestMagic.com
O An
O Because of an
O With their
O With an
9. [The cheetah] can [attain] a speed [of
up to] 70 mph, 20 mph faster than [speed] of a lion.
10. [While their] name [implies] [that]
are whales, pilot whales [are] actually dolphins.
END
Answers
Here are the answers.
Remember, if you have any questions, you can post them in our
discussion
groups. To use this great feature, you will have to register
for the discussion groups, which only takes a few seconds.
Here are the answers.
<<keep going..>>
If you have any questions, please direct them
here;
I have already started a discussion on these questions.
<<keep going..>>
To use this great feature, you will have to
register for the discussion groups, which only takes a few seconds.
<<keep going..>>
No peeking...
Here they are:
1. D
2. D
3. A
4. B
5. C
6. D
7. B
8. D
9. D
10. B
I sincerely hope that this newsletter has been helpful to you
and that you will forward a copy of it to your friends who are
preparing for the TOEFL.
I wish you the best of everything, and good luck on your TOEFL!!
Erin Billy
TestMagic.com
San Francisco, CA
USA
Fast Facts
14,314,818 hits (yes, that's 14 MILLION hits)
in April of 2002 at TestMagic.com
