60 Bài Luận Tiếng Anh Thông Dụng - Trần Văn Hải

Tập sách “60 Bài Luận Tiếng Anh Thông Dụng” được biên soạn nhằm giúp các thí sinh làm tốt bài thi môn Viết trong các kỳ thi tiếng Anh, đặc biệt là các kỳ thi chứng chỉ quốc gia cấp độ A, B, C.

Cuốn sách “60 bài luận tiếng Anh thông dụng” do tác giả Trần Văn Hải biên soạn gồm có 60 bài luận được sắp xếp theo trình độ từ dễ đến khó. Để người học có thể hiểu được những bài luận một cách đầy đủ, tác giả đã sử dụng cấu trúc văn phạm đơn giản với những từ vựng cơ bản. Đồng thời, mỗi bài luận đều được dịch sang từ tiếng Việt để học viên tham khảo.

Sách gồm 60 bài luận thuộc đủ các đề tài thông thường từ dễ đến khó. Các bài viết tiếng Anh sử dụng từ vựng và cú pháp đơn giản, trình độ trung học phổ thông, đồng thời dịch sát nghĩa tiếng Việt ở trang đối diện. Mỗi bài được giới hạn trong khoảng 150 từ như quy định trong các đề luận tiếng Anh. Xin trân trọng giới thiệu cùng các bạn.

Tải về: Google Drive

(Nếu có điều kiện quý độc giả nên mua bản gốc tại các cửa hàng sách trên toàn quốc để ủng hộ tác giả.)

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Loy Krathong | Where to Go?

Winter is coming, so as the festival of joy and fun. For those who's planning to travel to Thailand this November, this is a night event you can't miss! Loy Krathong is a very old tradition in Thailand to remember the importance of the river which is the source of all life stream by making a decorated basket (called "Krathong" in Thai) which is the symbol respect and the joy of life then float it along the river.

Loy Krathong is usually held in November of each year according to the lunar calendar on 15th lunar month 12 (i.e. 22nd November 2018 of this year). It is the period of time when the rainy season is ended in Thailand and the weather starts to get colder with high tide in the river. It is also the same day when full moon appears to shine and reflects the beauty of Krathong that has been floated along the rivers in Thailand.

This tradition was started 760 years ago since Sukhothai era called as "Loy Pratheep" which is the biggest celebration of  the year in that era and the lantern was used as a symbol to float up in the sky instead of  Krathong in present time. Some believe that it's created religiously to worship the gods of old times.

Until Nang Nopamas (i.e. first wife of king Sukhothai in that era) invented the first Krathong from the Lotus and floated it along the river, the king was very fond of this new invention and ordered to use Krathong instead of the lanterns as the symbol of this tradition since then.

The belief of floating Krathong along the river was varied by each region and here are the most common ones we've captured for you:

To show the gratitude and remember the benefits of the river which has given us life from the water we drink and use as well as showing a humble apology of disposing any waste back to the river during the past year

To remember the Buddha lord who once shown his followers the way of life along the river in India

To float all the sadness and misfortune along with Krathong away through the river

To worship Upagupta monk (widely believe in the northern region of Thailand) as legend said that he keep himself in the middle of the ocean  practicing his ritual and able to defeat all kinds of evil

To preserve the long tradition of Siamese people and celebrate the coming year-end in Thailand

 Loy Krathong celebration in each region may be unique based on each local belief and here're the main area we've captured for you:

Loy Krathong in Northern region is called "Yi Peng Festival" (i.e. a festival in the month of "Yi" which is the twelfth month in Lanna calendar). People will invent a lantern with a thin piece of cloth and light up with smoke from the bottom to make it float up in the air and worship Upagupta monk

Loy Krathong in Tak province will involve hundreds of small small Krathong that will all be floated at the same time which will appear in a sequence called "Krathong Sai"

Loy Krathong in Sukhothai province where this tradition was originated is called "Loy Krathong with Fire and Candles" which will take you back to the way of celebration in old time of Sukhothai era including parade of lanterns and fireworks

Loy Krathong in Northeast region is called "Float the Fire Boat" which will mainly occur in Nakorn Phanom province by using banana tree to carve as a boat and decorate with illuminated light before lighten up at night and float it along the river

Loy Krathong in Bangkok consists of many small events in every corner of the capital with the highlight at "The Golden Mountain" nearby Khao San road which will start around one week before Loy Krathong day

Loy Krathong in Southern region is organized in many tourist places such as Hat Yai and Phuket

What to do in Loy Krathong day? Same for all the places for the main highlight which is to invent your own Krathong from banana tree and leaves as the main material and decorated with flowers of your choice along with joss stick and candle. Some people also made Krathong from baked bread which is also a good choice and environmental friendly. During the night, people will gather along the river with their Krathong and make a wish before floating it to the river. In most places, there will also be a contest for Nang Nopamas of the year, parades and fireworks for you to enjoy.

 And here's the list of recommended place for you to go on the night of Loy Krathong festival 2018: 

Loy Krathong in the Candle light, Sukhothai province - The event is scheduled during 16-25th November 2018 at Sukhothai Historical Park [show on map] including live shows, street foods on traditional thai market, floating krathong competition, fireworks, local parade and many more. The place will be decorated with over 3,000 lanterns under the concept of "Color of the River" and also available traditional Thai dress for rent and photoshoot. For more info, please visit Tourism Authority of Thailand - Sukhothai branch

Yi Peng Festival, Chiang Mai province - The event is scheduled on the night of 22nd November 2018 all over the city [show on map] under the full moon period following local tradition of the North with hundreds of hundreds of lanterns that will be floating up in the sky throughout the night

A Thousand Lights of River, Tak province - The event is organized on the night of 22nd November 2018 at the bridge crossing Ping river [show on map] by floating a thousand of local Krathong made from coconut to the river one by one like a stream of lights that you gotta see by yourself

Loy Krathong Festival, Bangkok province - The event is organized on the night of 22nd November 2018 at almost every temples and universities in Bangkok [show on map] including floating krathong competition, local parade, street food and fireworks (only available in some places). Recommended to check with your local guide or hotel for more info and exact location nearby.

 Can't get enough with all the Thai snacks during Loy Krathong festival? The good news is now we have an exclusive offer at Thai Snack Online to serve your favorite yums with free worldwide shipping right to your doorstep back to your home wherever you're from so don't hesitate and keep in touch. Coz we want you to smile and your snacks will never be the same.

Credit References:

http://www.sawadee.co.th/thailand/festivals/festival11.html

http://www.thaiticketmajor.com/performance/loy-ka-tong-festival-sukhothai-2018-th.html

https://www.77jowo.com/contents/71575

Source: https://www.thaisnackonline.com/single-post/2018/10/27/Loy-Krathong-2018-Where-to-Go?platform=hootsuite%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F

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5 steps to find true love when you’ve lost your belief in love

When love fails, don’t blame love for it. That’s an easy excuse to pretend like you had no part to play in the failure. Almost all the time, love fails only when the partners fail the compatibility test in love.

If you want to experience a beautiful romance, and start believing in love again, keep these 5 simple steps in mind. It’ll make the experience of love a lot better in no time.

#1 Love should be effortless. You can’t force yourself or someone else to fall in love with you. It has to come naturally. If you don’t feel it, you’re probably better in someone else’s arms.

#2 Playing the chase. Love always starts with a bit of a tease and a chase, not just in humans but in several other species as well. When both of you are past the chase and have fallen for each other, there shouldn’t be second thoughts about the relationship. If you’re not happy to be in the relationship, you need to get out.

#3 Don’t fall hard immediately. Wait for a few months before you progress from the courting game to falling in love. Even if you’re really happy spending hours together, don’t get exclusive until you’re certain you’re giving your heart to the right person.

#4 Communicate. Talk about each other’s wants and needs all the time. Share interesting conversations that can help both of you understand each other completely.

#5 Give second chances. Even the best of us make mistakes. Even if it hurts at times, be prepared to give a second chance if your partner hurts you, but never give a third or a fourth chance. A partner who repeatedly hurts you intentionally doesn’t love you, they’re only using you.

Via Do You Believe in Love or Have You Given Up on It?

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Masterting 1000 IELTS, TOEFL iBT Vocabulary

Sách được soạn thành file mềm bởi Mr. Trong Manh Nguyen

LỜI MỞ ĐẦU
Hiện nay, nhu cầu rèn luyện các kỹ năng tiếng Anh và thi lấy chứng chỉ IELTS, TOEFL IBT cho mục đích du học, xin học bổng, tìm việc làm... của học sinh, sinh viên khá lớn.

Hiểu được điều này, chúng tôi biên soạn bộ sách MASTERING 1000 IELTS, TOEFL IBT VOCABULARY(dựa theo cuốn “22,000 từ thi TOEFL” của tác giả Harold Levine). Mụ c đích duy nhất của quyển sách này là giúp các bạ n họ c tốt môn tiếng Anh.

Về cách sắp xếp: từ vự ng đượ c chia theo tuần, giúp các bạ n họ c đều đặ n và kiể m soát đượ c lượ ng từ mình họ c, từ đó, có độ ng lự c họ c đều hơn, và nhiều hơn.

Kế đến, chúng tôi xin nói về cách họ c từ vự ng trong quyể n này sao cho hiệ u quả : Muốn đạt điểm cao ở kỳ thi IELTS, có 1 điểm rất quan trọng mà chúng tôi nghĩ ai cũng biết: LUYỆN TẬP THƯỜNG XUYÊN. Tuy nhiên, cũng có một điểm cực kỳ quan trọng mà đa số các bạn thường không chú trọng lắm. Đó là phần từ vựng dạng Academic (học thuật).

Cho nên để đạt điểm cao trong kỳ thi IELTS, ôn luyện từ trong quyển MASTERING 1000 IELTS, TOEFL IBT VOCABULARY là cực kỳ cần thiết.

Mỗi ngày chỉ cần học 3 từ, thì lượng từ vựng của bạn sẽ tăng đáng kể. Số từ vựng này sẽ giúp bạn trong cả 4 phần thi Listening, Speaking, Reading và Writing.

Sự lợi hại của quyển sách này, chắc chắn chỉ khi nào học rồi, bạn mới thấy rõ.

Đương nhiên mỗi người có 1 cách học riêng và trí nhớ khác nhau.

Có người nhìn qua là nhớ liền, có người nhìn hoài vẫn không nhớ, nên chúng tôi gợi ý cách học này, nếu bạn cảm thấy thích hợp với mình thì có thể áp dụng.

1/ Mỗi ngày bạn chịu khó học 3 từ: giống như ăn cơm vậy: sáng 1 từ, trưa 1 từ, tối 1 từ. Vui lòng đừng thấy cuốn sách quá hay mà học 1 ngày vài ba chục từ rồi ngày mai nhìn lại thấy ngán.. rồi.. bỏ luôn quyển sách hay này nhé.

2/ Làm sao mà trước khi đi ngủ, có thể đọc (hoặc viết) ra 3 câu ví dụ có chứa từ đó là xem như bạn đã thành công rồi. Bạn hãy nhớ là đừng học kiểu: teacher: giáo viên, mà hãy cho nó vào câu hẳn hoi. Nên học câu ví dụ trong sách (giúp mình biết thêm nhiều từ mới khác, quan sát từ loại, ngữ pháp của câu) chứ đừng học nghĩa tiếng Việt rồi tự đặt câu, có khi lại sai ngữ pháp và sai luôn cả từ loại nữa !

3/ Ở mỗi từ vựng, chúng tôi đều chia theo dạng song ngữ (bên trái là trang tiếng anh và bên phải là trang tiếng việt).

Chúng tôi có thêm vào phần phiên âm, giúp các bạ n không phả i tốn thời gian tra tự điể n để biết cách đọ c. Các khoảng trống bên dưới mỗi từ vựng để bạn có thể tự viết lại câu (nhìn vào câu tiếng việt có thể viết sang tiếng anh và ngược lại) nhằm mang lại hiệu quả cao nhất cho việc học từ vựng của mình. Có rất nhiều bạn, muốn đạt điểm cao, nhưng lại làm biếng học từ vựng, thì vẫn cứ ở mãi trong cái vòng lẩn quẩn… không thể nào thoát ra được. Lời khuyên chân thành dành cho bạn là: cố gắng học từ vựng trong quyển này, sẽ cải thiện số điểm đáng kể! Chúc các bạn học và thi tốt nhé!

Trân Trọng.
Nhóm Biên Soạn

File PDF here

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Bargaining with Street Vendors – Exploitation or Prudence?

Today, a video was brought to my attention through WhatsApp and it wasn’t difficult to find the same on YouTube. It carries a message which at first seemed to be perfectly valid. The comments on this YouTube video also showed that many or most viewers agreed with it. However, if we think a little deeper, like everything else in this world, it isn’t as simple as that. To make this discussion easier, it will be good to spend two minutes watching this video.

For those who are unable to watch this video for whatever reason, it is about a rich man bargaining with a street vendor to reduce the price of tender coconut. When the vendor refuses to bring down the price pointing out how he has been in the sun all day to sell this, the rich man calls the vendor a thief and walks away. Later, when the same person walks back with a bottle of some soft drink, the vendor asks him if he bargained on the price of the drink (which turns out to be higher than that of the tender coconut). He then asks why bargain only with the poor on streets and not with rich in superstores and malls. The rich man agrees with the point and feels guilty. The video ends with a message of how bargaining with the poor is a form of exploitation and how, by doing so, we are a part of the problem of poverty.

I do agree that the street vendor is putting in a lot of effort and, in this case, his price also is not very unreasonable – especially when compared to the bottled, unhealthy soft drink which is undoubtedly overpriced. I also have no doubt that the poor are vulnerable and subject to exploitation. It almost goes without saying, that we should not exploit anybody (the poor included), because when we exploit, we are always exploiting their weakness. As long as we are talking about such broad and high principles, we can speak in absolute terms. However, the closer we get to reality, the more factors come into play, and the less we are able to take an unqualified stand. Hence the need of this elaborate discussion rather than merely giving a thumbs-up to this video.
Before we take up the specific case of this video, let us analyze why people bargain. In some situations, it might be an attempt to exploit the inability of the poor vendor to enforce the fair price that he is demanding. If so, the behavior is undoubtedly despicable. (Is there a need to specify that this is in reference to my own moral standards and may not hold for somebody else?). However, what about the case in which the poor vendor is demanding an unfair price? He might be making an attempt to exploit the ignorance of the rich person. Isn’t the latter justified in making an attempt to save himself from being fooled? Take another example of a cab driver trying to exploit the need or urgency of a person who needs to get to the hospital by demanding a high fare. The customer might be willing to pay a higher fare in a metered cab because he trusts the meter, and might bargain with a poorer, local taxi driver whom he might suspect of asking an unreasonable fare.
This suspicion is often justified because many a times drivers of auto-rikshaws and cabs charge based on the customer’s knowledge of the route or his urgency (e.g., exorbitant fares during night or when it is raining). Many street vendors also give you a price for their goods based on whether you walk to their shop or drive in a luxury car (i.e., based on their reading of how much you might be willing to pay for it). So if you are a rich person or has at least given that impression to the vendor, if you don’t bargain effectively, you might end up paying much more than the person who bought the same item before you. On a branded item with a marked price (as in the case of a metered taxi), you are at least sure that everybody is paying the same price.
I don’t think it is any more right to exploit a rich man’s ignorance or need than it is to exploit a poor man’s weakness. Also, it is no more wrong for a rich man to defend against such exploitation by bargaining than it is for a poor vendor to refuse to sell his goods at the lower price being bargained for. While we must allow the poor man his rights, we should not deny the rich man his. The rich man in this video is definitely in the wrong – but that is not for bargaining or for refusing to buy the coconut except on terms acceptable to him; he is in the wrong for abusing the vendor and calling him a thief. It is to be noted that this fault has no relation to the act of bargaining (this would be wrong even if he had bought the item at double the price that was asked for), and has been included in the video only to show the customer as a bad person and to make the propaganda more convincing.
It is this propaganda element that I found most offensive in this video. It is not difficult to take a video in which a tender coconut vendor on a deserted highway abuses a polite, thirsty, exhausted rich customer and refuses to reduce the price to a reasonable level. (Note that in the video we have no way of knowing whether the price being asked for is fair or not. In Bangalore, the price of tender coconut is Rs 15 to Rs 20 while the vendor is asking for Rs 30. In Kerala, the price is Rs 25 to Rs 30. I don’t know of the price in other places, but depending on where this is happening, the price might be justified or not. It depends on scarcity of tender coconut in that place, transportation costs, etc., but not on how much a bottle of branded soft drink costs). Isn’t it interesting to see how the hero and villain roles have now been reversed?
In general, it is naive to take such videos at face value, fall for the propaganda in them, accept the message in them without questioning, and sharing them to the peril of more naive persons. It doesn’t hurt to give some serious thought, to separate propaganda and real substance, and decide for ourselves what we want to believe. This holds true in the case of this video, and holds true in the case of this blog post. Of course, I know that readers of avalokanam are already in this category!

Source: http://www.avalokanam.com/2015/05/bargaining-with-street-vendors.html

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