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Portals
The Internet is just so full of
information that trying to find it and make sense of it can be difficult.
Thankfully, help is at hand, in the form of portals, which organize the
information for you. The world's top 14 are listed here.
Yahoo
AOL
Microsoft
Netscape
Geocities
Excite
Lycos
Infoseek
MSN
Altavista
Tripod
Angelfire
Hotmail
Xoom
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Translations
Machine translations have been getting
better and better over recent years, and even though they still have to be
checked by a keen human eye, this teacher for one is worried they might
one day put him out of work, especially with the development of
voice-recognition systems. If you do see me in 10 years time with a soggy
piece of cardboard begging for money to buy a sandwich, please be
generous. It could happen to you too!
Machine
Translation
Altavista's translation service, which is 101% free,
but often leaves a lot to be desired is the quality of its translations.
As an experiment, try writing a paragraph about yourself, and then have
the machine translate it. Notice the subtle, and not so subtle, changes in
meaning.
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Examinations
Everybody loves exams, especially English
exams, so why limit yourself to class? Now you can have a ball examining
sample First Certificate or TOEFL exams on the net. And more besides. Your
weekends will never be the same again. What joy!
IELTS
An overview of IELTS
TOEFL
You can
download some sample exams, but this site is disappointingly
non-interactive.
Cambridge
A site from those
wonderful people at the Cambridge examining board. You can have a look at
sample papers, and find out general information about their
exams.
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English, as you probably already know, has
more words than any other language in the world, and no one person knows
all of them-not even your teacher! I know it's shocking, but it's true.
Don't panic because help is available and you can get a virtual hand in
cyber space. Now you've no excuse for not doing your homework.
The
first one offers English definitions, and the second gives you a
translation.
Links to many dictionaries and thesauri.
One
Look
Contains 3.5 million words in specialised
subjects.
Dictionaries
and Reference
An Internet TESL site with lists
over thirty dictionary reference materials.
Idioms
Check
the meaning of just about any idiom you like.
Cliche Finder
This site's
impressive database allows you to type in any word you like and examine
common expressions which contain that word.
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