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How to Pass the TOEFL Exam

Passing the TOEFL exam is a critical step in getting into college, obtaining professional certificates needed for work and even obtaining a job in certain cases. For anyone whose native language is not English, the TOEFL exam is often something they face if they plan to live or study in an English environment. TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language is a standardized test of academic English that is administered worldwide. It is available in an Internet-based form and a paper test.

The TOEFL exam is not an easy test. It is comprized of 4 parts: reading, listening, speaking and writing and takes 4 hours to complete. The test taker must have a very good understanding of the English language including grammar, idioms, listening skills and vocabulary. It is very important to prepare for the TOEFL exam in order to pass it. Below are some tips on how to pass the TOEFL.

1. Know what to expect. Read all you can about the topics tested in the TOEFL and how they are tested. Get sample questions and even full sample tests. This way the format and type of questions you will encounter will not be a surprise to you.

2. Review all your grammar rules and idiomatic expressions that you have learned to date in English.

3. Invest in a TOEFL preparatory book. It is a structured, easy to follow method of reviewing all the information necessary to pass the TOEFL test. Such books typically come with sample tests to help you prepare.

4. Practice for the exam by taking a practice test. Time each section as it would be during the real exam. Use the correction key to correct it afterwards and to identify any mistakes you made. Review the rules for those mistakes and be sure you understand why you made the errors you did.

5. Work with an English tutor or teacher who can help you understand the areas you are having difficulty with. A good teacher will be able to provide explanations that you can understand, as well as memory tricks to help you retain the information.

6. Take additional TOEFL practice exams until you achieve a high passing grade on several. Now you are ready to take the test.

7. Get plenty of sleep the night before the test, so that you arrive in good shape for one of the most important tests a non-native English speaker will ever take.

8. Pace yourself as you take the test. Do not go so fast that you neglect to read instructions and do not owe too much time to any one question.

They say that practice makes perfect. Nowhere is that more true than with a test like TOEFL. The test does a very comprehensive job of analyzing a person's ability to learn and work in their second language. Therefore, it is essential to review, study and learn all the skills needed in order to pass the TOEFL test Acing this test will open numerous …

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What Is A Trade Career?

A trade career involves an individual having a set of specialized abilities. The skills may range from construction to HVAC to plumbing. While some of these individuals may hold associates, bachelors, or even masters degrees, the majority have usually attended a trade school, participated in an apprenticeship, and may have earned additional certification beyond the base qualifications. The examples below highlight the most common and well-known trade careers.

Electrician

Those who wish to enter into this field usually attend a vocational technical school, or participate in an apprenticeship program. Those who choose the apprenticeship program are also usually required to take part in a few courses in a classroom setting. The main skills these individuals will learn include testing, assembling, installing, inspecting, maintaining, and diagnosing different electrical systems, wiring, and components. As these individuals will frequently be near high voltage, instruction should also include detailed safety training.

HVAC

This acronym is short for heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC). These individuals typically train at technical or trade schools, or partake in junior or community college course. Apprenticeship programs are also common, and typically take three to five years to complete. While in any program, these individuals should learn how to install, repair, and maintain equipment such as heating pumps, air conditioning, heating units, refrigeration, burners, electric motors, and boilers.

Construction Manager

This career is one that actually values experience over education. However, this fact exists for only earning this title, other than gaining construction manager certification, which is required at most job sites. This certification will prove an individual has experience in advanced construction and design. While in this career, these professionals typically opt to earn further certification in specialized areas, which allows their expertise and marketability to expand. Some may also earn a two to four degree in a relevant area such as construction engineering, building science, construction management, and construction science, among other similar areas.

Plumber

This trade career is probably the most widely recognized and remembered. Those who are interested in this career typically participate in an apprenticeship program, which will take approximately four to five years to complete. However, individuals may also enroll in technical or community colleges, which offer relevant programs or smaller courses in particular skills, such as taking apart a kitchen sink. In order to begin an apprenticeship, individuals must have first earned at least a high school diploma. A high score on the ACT in the math section may also improve acceptance into these programs.…

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The Different Methods Of Home Schooling

There are a variety of methods that can be applied in the area of ​​homeschooling. The method you select will have an impact on the curriculum and style of teaching. The following are some of the most popular homeschooling methods.

The Charlotte Mason method is named after Charlotte Mason, who is known as the originator of the homeschooling movement. She herself was a homeschooler, and she wanted to establish a basic plan for a complete and effective homeschooling program. The Charlotte Mason method emphasizes poetry, fine arts, classical music, crafts, and classical literature. This method is designed to encourage an awareness of literature and involves reading to the child every day. The child is then asked to tell what he or she has heard. This starts at the age of six. By the age of ten, the child is expected to write narrations in a book. Mason encouraged the use of nature diaries as well. The child writings observations of nature in the book as well. This creates a sense of respect for the environment in the child. Mason thought that good behavior and character were critical for a child's complete personality development.

The Eclectic Homeschooling method is a combination of several techniques. Innovative parents rely on their own jurisdiction to select topics that make up the curriculum for their own child. These parents are always looking for the best products that they can find to help them meet the needs of their home schoolers. Many of the curriculum in this method are improvised. This means that, while the basic curriculum is established, parents change it to adapt to the individual needs and interests of their children. The curriculum is generally established according to the temperament, learning style, and interests of the children. These programs typically include visits to libraries, factories, and museums.

John Holt, a public educator in Boston, developed the 'unschooling' method. Holt believed that children learn best when they learn at their own pace and are guided by their own interests. He wanted to 'unschool' the child by requiring parents to take their cues from the children. This approach has no set curriculum, schedules, or materials. It is the most unstructured of the homeschooling techniques.

The Montessori method had its start in Italy. It was found that children go through extremely sensitive periods in which they experience periods of intension concentration. In these phases, children will repeat an action until they receive some measure of self-satisfaction from it. This method relates to prepared environments to facilitate learning. All materials utilized in this method are meant to satisfy the child's interior desire for spiritual development. Materials for this method range from simple to complex, and they are relatively costly.

Whatever method is selected, the undering concept is flexibility and a strong interest in the child's own desires. The key is to use children's desire for knowledge to further their education. …

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Federal and Private Grants For Online Education

Online education is fast becoming the choice of most working adults and stay-at-home moms who want to pursue higher education. Getting a web-based education is a practical choice, as it gives the students flexibility to do their other obligations and study at the same time. Over 4 million students now benefit from online education and this number will increase annually as students find it more convenient to study online.

Although these programs provide more benefits in terms of time and flexibility, most of them are just as expensive as traditional education programs. However, there are federal grants that are available for students who wish to study online yet do not have enough financial means to do so.

Just like most federal study grants, online school grants are awarded based on financial need. If you plan to avail of these grants, the first thing to do is to fill up a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) which you can access online from the federal student aid website. After completing the FAFSA, you have to submit this to the Department of Education which will evaluate your need status and will inform you which grant you are eligible for.

With this form, you have to demonstrate that you or your family has a low Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and you cannot adequately support your college education. Applicants with the least EFC are given priority for most federal study grants.

One of the most common grant programs is the Federal Pell Grant which extends financial aid to undergraduate students who may be enrolled in traditional or online education programs. There are also grants tailored for a specific field, such as the TEACH Grant which is designed for teachers who are willing to teach high need and remote areas and the SMART Grant which is for students in science, math or computer science. There are also some companies that provide grants to students who may form part of the workforce of these companies after graduation.

If you plan to use on grant awards to finance your online education, make sure that the online program you will choose is fully accredited by the Department of Education. If you are not eligible for a federal study grant, try contacting professional organizations which may have scholarships or grants based on academic performance.

Since these grants are highly competitive, try to find out about them and submit your application as early as possible. Consult your school guidance counselor on how to better access information regarding federal and private study grants which you may use to finance your online education.…

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University of Pune

The University of Pune was founded on February 10, 1949 and is located in the state of Maharashtra in India. With a sprawling campus spread over 400 acres of land, there are 46 departments, 269 colleges and 118 research institutes affiliated to the university. Known by the epithet "Oxford of the East", the University of Pune has jurisdiction over five districts – Pune, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Dhule and Jalgaon.

An educational hub

The site at which the University of Pune is located is the place where some episodes of the Battle of Khadki took place. The city itself has a rich heritage and it is one of the fastest growing cities in India. With a population of over 4 million people, the city has grown to be a hub of education and career seekers.

The university offers a serene environment conducive to teaching / learning processes. There is a range of courses in various Science, Arts and Commerce disciplines.

Vital Information

The University of Pune is connected with all major cities of India via air, rail and road. The capital of Maharashtra Mumbai is at half an hour distance from Pune. Outstation students can avail of separate hostel facility for girls and boys which is based on merit. The hostel mess, which in turn is compulsory for all ladies seeking hostel facility, offers hygienic food to the students. The university also draws aspirants from all over the globe.

In recent times, there has been introduction of more inter-disciplinary and comparative courses at the University of Pune which has indeed helped in establishing the university as a modern gateway of knowledge. …

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Distance Education – Are You Ready to Hit the Digital Books?

Distance education is broadly defined as the provision and process of learning when the learner and the source of information are separated by distance, time, or both. If any of this learning takes place on-site for any reason (including taking exams), the learning is termed "blended" or "hybrid" learning.

The Internet has made continuing education via distance learning faster and easier for distributors and students. Over the last couple of years the education sector has seen a remarkable rise in the prominence and impact the "virtual university".

Approximately 1 in 5 undergraduate students in North America are enrolled in at least one online learning, continuing education class, and 1 in 20 are now enrolled in an online education degree program. Courses range from the most basic instruction through to masters and doctor programs.

Levels of accreditation vary broadly. Some of the online education "institutions" are nothing more that fraudulent "diploma mills" receiving no oversight. But, in the United States, an institution may not use the term "university" without government accreditation.

Technologies used in distance learning education delivery are divided into two groups:
1) synchronous learning technologies
2) asynchronous learning technologies

Synchronous Learning technology resembles traditional classroom teaching in that all participants are "present" at the same time and there is a set timetable. Technologies used for synchronous learning include Internet technologies such as VoIP, live streaming, and videoconferencing, and broadcast technologies including television and radio (traditional and satellite).

Asynchronous Learning technology allows students to access "evergreen" coursework and exams on their own schedule using the Internet. This, of course, allows more flexibility, but also allows procrastination.

Synchronous and Asynchronous Distance Learning Education are often combined. The Internet can blur the distinction between these two distance education methods.

Developing distance learning technologies include computer games, three-dimensional (3D) immersive environments, and virtual worlds,
which may be streamed in real time and / or downloaded and engaged via a local hard drive.

An all-online degree program via distance education / distance learning allows even a busy traveling professional to take their education on the road. When they get behind, the entire program is readily accessible via Internet to help them get back on track. Online education students have access to lectures within a few hours of on-campus students, even when they're on the other side of the world! Dedicated to meeting the needs of location and time bound students, are you ready to hit the digital books? …

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Unusual Conference Venues

Many companies understand the importance of conferences for their staff. Conferences are a chance to network, share ideas and to learn, but boy are they boring. Yes, your staff gets loads of new ideas and meet lots of interesting and useful people, but given the choice they would rather not attend again next year. Fortunately, the people who run conferences are starting to wake up to this fact and beginning to try to make conferences less tedious. This has led to some great new conference events being held. If you are a business about to hold an in-house conference you can learn a lot from this new trend.

So the question is 'Where can I hold a conference?'. Basically as long as they've got the license and you've got the cold hard cash, then you can hold a conference just about anywhere you like. As the legend of Kevin Costner understands 'If you build it, they will come' and yes, you can host a conference at a baseball diamond!

Museums and art galleries. Being surrounded by creative exploits really stimulates the mind. Therefore a great venue for a conference has to be a gallery or science museum. Our favorite is the Vancouver Museum of Anthropology – mingling amidst ancient totem poles is quite the experience. Another great museum venue is the Science Museum in London, that even offers a IMAX cinema or a motion theater as two of the 8 conference halls it has available.

Marinas, Aquariums and Planetariums are also great places for conferences, most have lecture theaters for the presentations, with plenty of divers during conference breaks. In some Aquariums such as the one in Barcelona you can enjoy a spectacular conference dinner completely surrounded by fish. Although sitting down to the fish course does make you pause.

Blackpool Tower – yup sounds strange but come on, it's also pretty exciting and sort of kitsch!

In the mountains. Being amid inspirational landscape opens the mind to fresh and new ideas. Check out the Fairmont Springs hotel in Banff, you are literally a step away from heaven.

Want to impress, rent a castle! You can do it for weddings and you can absolutely do it for your conference!

Observatories – enjoy a daytime conference and finish with watching the stars – there's a metaphor in there somewhere!

Middle of the Rainforest? Lots of nature retreats host conferences and events. Bali anyone?

The zoo – yes it has happened, one crazy and obviously very talented events planner held an event at a tiger exhibition.

Like we said, you get the right equipment, shelter, catering and speakers and people will come. If you have an event dream – make it happen. Your conference will be memorable and people will definitely want to come back next year. Where you hold a conference says a lot about you and your industry. Conferences are designed to stimulate people's creativity and make them come away full of ideas. An inspirational venue is everything, so think …

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Cancer – It Won’t Get The Breast of Me

In 2005 I was diagnosed with an aggressive and invasive form of Breast Cancer. Even at age 52 it was a shock to me. An even greater shock was finding out through researching Breast Cancer that 1 in 8 women would, at sometime in their lifetime, be diagnosed with Breast Cancer. This statistic was staggering to me.

The good news is that the mortality rate, or number of deaths, due to Breast Cancer is on the steady decline. Treatment is customized for each patient’s specific cancer. Being an author, I decided to take notes about my treatment should I ever want to write a book about it.

When women think of having a Mammogram the first word that comes to mind is, ‘ouch!’ or something similar. Unfortunately, until medical science comes up with a better method, Mammograms are a fact of life for women, especially over the age of 40.

Being a person who is usually viewing life on the up side, I found more humor in what I was going through than I ever thought possible. People do not associate cancer with laughter but I hope to change that, to a degree, anyway. Your doctor will not tell you how to prepare for a Mammogram but I will here.

Exercise #1

1. Open your refrigerator door and insert one breast between the door and the main box.

2. Have one of your strongest friends slam the door shut as hard as possible and lean on the door for good measure.

3. Hold that position for five seconds.

4. Don’t breathe.

5. Repeat again in case the first time wasn’t effective enough.

6. Repeat all steps on the other breast.

Exercise #2

1. Visit your garage at 3:00 a.m. when the temperature of the concrete floor is just perfect (anywhere below 32 degrees.)

2. Take off all your warm clothes and lay on the floor with one breast wedged tightly under the rear tire of the car.

3. Ask a friend to slowly back the car up until the breast is sufficiently flattened and chilled.

4. Turn over and repeat for the other breast.

Congratulations! You are now properly prepared for your Mammogram.

The day of my first Mammogram after my diagnosis was one I will never forget. I entered Hooterville Breast Care Center with more apprehension than usual. When I told her I might be writing a book about my treatment, the technician said she wanted to be called Ginger. I made a note of that. I wasn’t sure if we would still be speaking after she was done with me. And, since the body parts to be examined are so personal, I named my right breast, Laverne, and my left breast, Shirley. Laverne was under the gun today.

I have to give kudos to Hooterville for supplying me with an extra large gown even though I told her that, at my age, all I needed to do was pull up my skirt! Then Ginger led me into the …

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The Advantages of a Career As a Veterinarian

What do you get when you are a veterinarian? Simple! If you like animals, you get to take care of them. The advantages of being a veterinarian is when you love this job and you just keep on going forward and you wanted to learn more. For the time and effort you have undergone during your years of study and training, you will get to have the reward of having a good job, get to care for animals and earn money. Along the way of education and studies of being a veterinarian, it would not be easy and you will encounter great challenges and school works, but it is all worth it when you finish such course. In veterinarian course you will take up and complete a doctorate which is about seven or eight years of completion, on the other hand veterinarian technician is another course but only takes two years and has to pass a certification.

All in all the great advantage of being a veterinarian is that whenever you get the degree and finish all the requirements, then you just own it. When a veterinarian has long and enough experience of the job he / she can get the schedule she wants to, she can work on holidays or not depending on his / her perspective. She / he can work on his / her own clinic or work in a hospital. Being a veterinarian is like being a human doctor as well; they get to help people to give medical assistance for their pets.

If you choose to be part of an army, you get to have incentives such as special bonuses and loans, and you become an officer as well. When you retire you will have great benefits for retirement with free or low-cost avail for some goods and / or services.

Aside from great salary when a veterinarian is able to help and assist animals, they earn pleases and great feeling for their job well done, and as well they get to see various kinds of pets that would certainly add a smile to their face. By the end of the day they will be more excited of what would "tomorrow" bring them.

Again, if a veterinarian wants to earn more and get great benefits more than usual, they can sign up for the army, get some training and certificates and they are good to go, be an officer get paid, enjoy the job and when retirement comes , they just get more great incentives and benefits. …

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Tomato – The God Food for Nutrition and Human Health

A recent study conducted at Ohio State University in the US reported that the dietary carotenoids, that gives tomatoes their colour, will protect the skin from ultraviolet (UV) light damage. With the number of people being diagnosed with skin cancer increases with each passing year, it’s a good news that the daily consumption of tomato may cut the chances of skin cancer.

This small, round, sweet, juicy, delicious red fruit is one of the largest consuming vegetables in the world, not only because of its culinary purpose but also due to its numerous health benefits and nutrition. Tomato for skin cancer was just the latest example for its infinite fitness blessings.

From the time immemorial, there exists a long love affair between man and tomato due to its capacity for better acclimatization to various environment. Today, it comes in a vast array of varieties differing in colour, size, shape and taste. Now tomato has emerged as one of the most desired vegetables in the world due to its unique taste and nutritional qualities. More than 100 new tomato varieties are being made available in the world market with each passing year.

The health benefits of tomatoes gave it the title “God food” and forms an integral part of cuisines all over the world. Tomato is also a good source of potassium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous and copper. Organic compounds like lycopene also attribute to the health benefits. The criteria for selection of tomato varies with country and the culture. Asian markets for tomatoes are particular about lighter colours while in European markets, small shapes of tomatoes are preferred.

So how the “God food” dominate the seed market? A report by Market Intelligence, a market research firm, states, ‘The Tomato Seed Market revenue covers a whopping 829.8 Million USD of the 7.8 Billion USD revenue of Vegetable Seed Market’. The numerical figure clearly depicts the dominance of seed market by tomatoes.

Tomato is the most widely grown and consumed vegetable globally. China is the largest producer of tomatoes followed by India, United States, Turkey and Egypt. The food processing market occupies 30% of the destination market for tomato while 70% of it is consumed as fresh produce.

Nowadays, the main focus of leading seed companies all over the globe is to improve the yield, adaptability to various climatic conditions and developing varieties with disease and pest tolerance. High emphasis has been laid to developing disease resistance tomatoes because tomato is attacked by more than 200 diseases and pests. Some of the important diseases of tomatoes are bacterial wilt, Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV), Groundnut Bud Necrosis Virus (GBNV), etc. Breeders from companies are also working on developing flavours for the final taste of tomatoes. The growth of tomato seed is heavily credited to the use of hybrid seeds and usage of high-value experimental varieties in developed economies. Although the investment in this industry is high, the return on investment is dramatically encouraging farmers globally to adopt hybrid tomato seeds for its …