TOEFL - Are you ready?

Amanda:  So I got a call from my cousin, Jeff Wong, and I haven’t heard from him in months, but he was super stressed out because he’s practicing and cramming and studying for this toy-full exam…

Jason:  Oh, the TOEFL?

Amanda:  Yeah!

Jason:  The Test of English as a Foreign Language?

Amanda:  Yeah.

Jason:  Where does he live?

Amanda:  Exactly. He lives in China. He lives in Shanghai. And he’s just super-stressed about it but I don’t know if it’s like a one time you fail and you’re done, or if you just keep taking it. How’s it work?

Jason:  Well, you can take it again but it’s kind of expensive and stuff, so the best thing to do is probably take the practice TOEFL, which you can get online from English, baby! now. And it’s sweet because it’s pretty much exactly the TOEFL except it’s just pretend, you know? So if you get your score from that, you’ll know exactly how well you’re going to do.

Amanda:  So is it an online thing? You don’t go to a room with a bunch of other students…

Jason:  Yeah, exactly. You take it online and then you can, like, take breaks and pause it and eat dinner…

Amanda:  So you don’t have a maximum amount of time, like four hours, you have to be done…

Jason:  You do, but you can, like, hit pause on it, or whatever.

Amanda:  Oh that’s cool. So it’s pretty laid back.

Jason:  Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Amanda:  I mean, if you study enough, you should be able to get a pretty high mark, I would think.

Jason:  Yeah, and it seems like if you sort of go through the motions on the practice test it will make it less stressful when you take the real test.

Amanda:  Cool.


cramming: to study for something just before it happens.
stuff: là cái đang cần.
stressed out: worried, over-worked.
laid back: relaxed, mellow.
go through the motions: do something without care.

How to Keep Your Home Office Quiet Noise Free

I'm going to talk to you about reducing noise in your home office. If you can choose a room that's far away from the rest of the household, that would be your best option. But you might not be able to, so if your room is in a high traffic area make sure that you have doors that close first of all and also you can do things like put carpet on the ground that reduces noise bouncing off the floor or put paintings on the walls, stuff like that. It would make it so that any exterior noise stays out and in my office one of my problems is that I have 2 doors that lead into my room. So in order to reduce noise coming from the living room, I put a bookcase in front of one of the doors. Remember that your home office is actually in a home not in an office building, so there are going to be all sorts of noises happening around you that you can't control. The best thing you can do is fine different ways to cover up the noise. If there's certain noises that are distracting you and you really need to pay attention to what you're really doing. Playing music quietly can be a good way to give you something else to focus on. Your goal is to eliminate any sort of distraction noises rather they're coming from outside of your office or from the inside. By eliminating these noises you can stay focus on your work.