The Academy News - June 7, 2013

first experience. Some were

screaming out of surprise,

others were taking picture. See Magic Saturday on p. 4

By FITSUM FANTA

Magic Mountain was a

thrilling place for Sumer Ses-

sion A students last weekend.

Students from all levels in the

USC Language Academy

enjoyed last Saturday with

plenty of magical activities at

Six Flag Magic Mountain

amusement park. It was a

great opportunity for them to

widen their friendships and

exchange experiences.

Students gathered at Jef-

ferson Court Yard and left for

Magic Mountain at 10 a.m. in

two buses. The ride there was

the start of something

wonderful. Everyone was

having a fun time on the

bus—introducing one another,

talking, laughing, picture tak-

ing and exchanging phone

numbers.

It was hilarious looking at

students’ reactions on their

arrival at the Magic Moun-

tain. For many of the students

the amusement park was their

Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball TOMORROW!!! Friday, June 7th 5:15 PM—11:00 PM, JEF courtyard ($10) Take me out to the ballgame! Watch the sunset over the downtown skyline as you enjoy all-you-can-eat Dodger Dogs (food included in ticket price) at the Friday night game. We will meet at JEF Courtyard at 5:15 PM for check-in.; buses will leave promptly at 5:30PM, so don't be late! There are still tickets available. To sign up, see Silvia in JEF 200B.

Language Academy Soccer Game Friday, June 14, 2013 1:00pm-4:00pm Brittingham Field (FREE!) Show off your soccer skills and get to know your fellow students at the first ever Lan-guage Academy soccer game! If you don’t want to play, come support your friends and enjoy watching the game! Sign up to-day at noon in JEF Courtyard and let us know if you will be playing.

Magic Saturday

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Language

Labs

2

Yelp.com for

local food

4

College Exams

in China

5

Tips for GRE

Vocabulary

5

Pictures of the

Week

6

N E X T W E E K ’ S A C T I V I T I E S

The Academy News J U N E 7 , 2 0 1 2 V O L U M E 5 6 , I S S U E 3

Yelp can help, p. 4.

Where is the best

pineapple cake? See

Wayne’s article on p. 4

for a story about

Taiwan’s special des-

sert.

Chinese students face

tough college entrance

exams that determine

their future. See Pipi’s

story on p. 5

Read Assyl’s story

about cracking the

GRE vocabulary

challenge on p. 5

Language Academy students visited Six Fags Magic Mountain, which has some of the scariest roller coasters in the country.

Tuesday, June 11th

Time Location Description Facilitator

12:30-1:30pm

GFS 104

Reading Power (Levels 1, 2 & 3)

Nevena Fairclough Faculty

12:30-1:30pm

GFS 204

IELTS Prep Lab (Levels 2 & 3)

James Hutzell Faculty

12:30pm-1:30pm

GFS 205

Statement of Purpose (Levels 4, 5 & 6)

Marisa Garcia-Crocker Faculty

12:30pm-1:30pm

GFS 210 Grammar Q & A

Delia Racines Faculty

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1

Demetri USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Kathleen

USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Jay

USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4 Liza

USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5 & 6 Lucy

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

GFS 111 Reading Power (Levels 1, 2 &3) Nevena Fairclough

Faculty

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 Liza

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Jay

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Rachel

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4 Demetri

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5 & 6 Kathleen

USC Student

Reading Power: Levels 1-3—Do you want to become a better, faster reader? Attend this lab to get tips and tricks on how to improve your reading skills. IELTS Preparation: Test

Overview—In this lab, you’ll have the opportunity to learn tips and tricks on how to ace the IELTS test. This week we’ll discuss the overview of the test. Conversation Practice—Practice

speaking English by level with USC students. This is an interactive discussion in which you will participate in group discussions about several interesting topics. This is your opportunity to practice speaking and to ask questions.

Statement of Purpose

Workshop (Levels 4-6): Learn how to write an amazing SOP for graduate school. Grammar Q & A—Are you

confused by the rules of English grammar? Come to the Grammar Question and Answer lab for help with your grammar questions!

**MANDATORY STAY/GO MEETINGS** IT IS TIME TO MAKE A DECISION ABOUT SUMMER B SESSION AT THE USC LANGUAGE ACADEMY. WILL YOU STAY OR WILL GO? YOU MUST ATTEND THIS MANDATORY MEETING!

You will choose which meeting is for your situation:

STAY: THURSDAY, JUNE 13: 12:30-1:15 P.M.

ROOM SGM 101

Stay at Language Academy Meeting: Attend this meeting if you plan to stay at Language Academy for Summer B, you will receive important information about dates, deadlines and the summer

calendar at that time.

GO: THURSDAY, JUNE 13: 1:30-2:15 P.M.

ROOM SGM 101

Leave Language Academy Meeting: Attend this meeting if you are done studying in America or if

you plan to transfer to a different school in the United States. You will receive important information about your visa status, about transferring and about important dates that will keep you in good status

with your student visa.

P A G E 3

Reading Power: Levels 1-3—Do you want to become a better, faster reader? Attend this lab to get tips and tricks on how to improve your reading skills. IELTS Preparation: Test

Overview—In this lab, you’ll have the opportunity to learn tips and tricks on how to ace the IELTS test. This week we’ll discuss the overview of the test. Conversation Practice—Practice

speaking English by level with USC students. This is an interactive discussion in which you will participate in group discussions about several interesting topics. This is your opportunity to practice speaking and to ask questions.

Statement of Purpose

Workshop (Levels 4-6): Learn how to write an amazing SOP for graduate school. Grammar Q & A—Are you

confused by the rules of English grammar? Come to the Grammar Question and Answer lab for help with your grammar questions!

Thursday, June 13th

Time Location Description Facilitator

12:30-1:30pm

GFS 104 Reading Power (Levels 1, 2 & 3)

Diana Hiciu Faculty

12:30-1:30pm

GFS 204

IELTS Prep Lab (Levels 2 & 3)

James Hutzell Faculty

12:30pm-1:30pm

GFS 205

Statement of Purpose (Levels 4, 5 & 6)

Marisa Garcia-Crocker Faculty

12:30pm-1:30pm

GFS 210 Grammar Q & A

Delia Racines Faculty

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1

Liza USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Lucy

USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3

Demetri USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4 Kathleen

USC Student

12:30pm-1:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5 & 6 Rachel

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

GFS 111 Reading Power (Levels 1, 2 & 3)

Diana Hiciu Faculty

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 1 Lucy

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Level 2 Demetri

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 3 Kathleen

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard

Conversation Level 4 Liza

USC Student

1:30pm-2:30pm

JEF Courtyard Conversation Levels 5 & 6 Jay

USC Student

**USC HOUSING STUDENTS ONLY**

IF YOU ARE LIVING IN TROY EAST APARTMENTS, YOU

MUST ATTEND A MANDATORY HOUSING STAY/GO MEETING!!

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013

2:45 PM

JEF 124

P A G E 4

Food for Thought

Yelp.com: Keys to Living in L.A. By ZHANERKE SHULENBAYEV

How do you know if a certain res-

taurant is good or not? Do you rely on

the logo of this place or on the smell of

food that attracts you? I would like to

introduce you an incredibly helpful

website YELP.COM.

Yelp.com is the web resource that

collects reviews from different people

all over the world. This network has

been operating since 2005 and has

gained more than 100 million reviews

(Yelp website). People just sign in and

leave a review about the quality of ser-

vice in different places like restaurants,

barbershops, hotels or body shops for

automobiles.

Additionally in these reviews they

not only rate the certain place, but also

give to other users tips. The interface

of the website is friendly for new users

and easy to adapt. It is Google that

gives you people’s opinions about the

service at places that you are interested

in.

Also there is an application for

iPhones and Androids that is free to

install. For example, one way to make

friends at Language Academy is to in-

vite them to have a lunch during the

break between classes. The only thing

you have to do is to download the appli-

cation on your smartphone or open the

website YELP.COM and type “lunch”

and press the button “search”. You will

get the number of restaurants where

people usually go around the campus

for a lunch.

Moreover, you can filter your search

and modify it to show only cheap places

and not far than 1 mile walking. So, if

The website yelp.com can give you reliable recommendations about places to eat near cam-

pus. as well as other services.

Magic Saturday Continued from p. 1

Many students flocked to the different

types of rollercoasters with excite-

ment and some in fear. Seeing the

emotional reactions of many students

in lines for riding was entertaining.

Some were nervous and changed their

decisions seeing the scariness and

other people’s screams. Others with

courage enjoyed the thrill and tried

many of the coasters.

Aziz Alghadi and Osama Zarei,

Saudi Arabian students, expressed

their excitement at Magic Mountain.

They said, “We had great times, and

rode four roller coasters! Wow we

enjoyed them but some are . . . wowo .

. . breathtaking and shaking!!”

By WAYNE (CHIA-WEI) CHANG

Minhsiung, in the south of Taiwan,

is famous for its pineapple plantations.

The farmers of this region have planted

over 1,800 of pineapples. Most of the

farmers in Minhsiung plant pineapples.

However, the traditional pineapple

product is limited by the weather and

selling price.

The pineapple farmers also face the

problem of excessive production, and

the price is falling down. Therefore,

the Minhsiung Farmers' Association

has developed a new product to solve

the problem: local pineapple cake.

Pineapple cake, the famous Taiwan-

ese dessert, had been chosen as the best

local product by official tourist affairs.

The pineapple cake in the market was

usually not

made from pine-

apple, but made

from melon. The

melon was

sweeter than the

pineapple and

without acid.

Minhsiung Farmers’ Association

decided to make the real pineapple

cake. They transformed the factory and

imported the cake machine from Japan.

Over a few months, they set up the

brand called “Pineapple Hill” and

opened the only store beside the fac-

tory. Pineapple Hill is only selling the

pineapple cake made on the same day.

Fruit experts choose the pineapples

used in making cake, which should be

sweeter over 10 degrees. It can only

make 4 cakes for 1 pineapple.

Pineapple Hill attracts huge visitors

on the weekend. Every visitor going to

the store can have the opportunity to

enjoy the local pineapple cake for free.

Some of the reviews say that the cake

of Pineapple Hill is not too sweet; it

combines with pineapple’s natural acid

and smell. It is absolutely changing the

image of what pineapple cake tasted

like before. If visitors come to Taiwan,

they should try the best pineapple cake

in the world.

More information:

旺萊山Pineapple Hill

No.1, Chencuoliao, Minxiong Town-

ship, Chiayi County 621, Taiwan

(R.O.C.)

Pineapple Miracle: Pineapple Hill in Taiwan

P A G E 5

By YAN PI

June 6-7—These are two

days in the year that seem noth-ing special but not for Chinese people. All of the students in high school who want to get into college or university need to take the entrance examination. Most people have had the ex-perience taking the exam in China, and they probably have lots of profound memories, which they cannot ever forget We called it “College Entrance Examination Complex”, the same as the SAT in the US.

“College Entrance Examina-tion” is a Chinese national edu-cation examination. This sys-tem, which was established in 1952, has experienced several reforms. Nowadays, there are four subjects in this examina-tion: Chinese, mathematics,

English and comprehensive lib-eral arts or science. The oppor-tunity for students to be ac-cepted in the university of their choice almost depends exclu-sively on those final scores. So we say that the college entrance examination is the first signifi-cant change in our life.

In particular, there are sev-eral interesting things about the exam in China. For government policy, we have traffic control

around the schools—no one is allowed to do construction around the school and apart-ments without punishment pay-ment, etc.

For students and parents, they might stop everything else just to focus on the exam. Some of them have a special arrangement for meals and even rent a room in a hotel close to the school to avoid traf-fic jams. Many taxi drivers get a group in different cities to drive the student for free with exam admission.

“There is no integral life without college entrance exami-nations in China.” Someone said that. It seems too tough and kind of crazy. However, it is still valuable in our memory for-ever.

College Entrance Examination ‘Complex’ for Chinese

Chinese students cramming before the national College Entrance Exam. The results determine their future.

By ASSYL ZHAKUPOV

Are you studying for the GRE/ GMAT exams? Do you just want to enhance your vocabulary with some fancy words? All in all, you can just save some time browsing the dictionaries the next time you see unfamiliar words in your book, textbook or magazine. Here are some GRE words to look at: 1. Abstain /əbˈsteɪn/ verb (~ from something) to hold oneself back voluntarily, especially from something regarded as improper or unhealthy Origin: Late Middle English: from Old French abstenir, from Latin abstinere, from ab- 'from' + tenere 'hold'

Example: Ali intends to abstain from smoking too much of a Hoo-kah.

2. Connoisseur /ˌkɒnəˈsəː/ noun a person who is especially compe-tent to pass critical judgments in an art, particularly one of the fine arts, or in matters of taste

Origin:

Early 18th century: from obsolete French, from conoistre 'know'

Example: Mukhtar is a connoisseur of playing on the dombra (Kazakh national instrument).

3. Impugn /ɪmˈpjuːn/ verb (~ something or someone) To impugn means to call into ques-tion or attack as wrong. If your usu-ally grumpy brother is suddenly

nice and sweet, you'll impugn his motives if you're smart — he probably just wants something from you.

Origin:late Middle English (also in the sense 'assault, attack physi-cally'): from Latin impugnare 'assail', from in- 'towards' + pug-nare 'fight'

Example: John McCain attempted to impugn Barack Obama's patriot-ism 4. Mordant /ˈmôrdnt/ adjective If you like the “Adams Family” you probably have a taste for mordant entertainment. Mordant generally refers to a dark or biting artistic See GRE Vocabulary on p. 6

GRE Vocabulary: ‘Mordant’ Entertainment

USC Language

Academy

Rossier School of

Education

Phone: 213-740-0080

Fax: 213-740-0088

Web: www.usc.edu/

langacad

GRE Vocabulary Continued from p. 5 style, sense of humor, or psychological outlook. Origin:late 15th century: from French, present partici-ple of mordre 'to bite', from Latin mordere

Example: Mordant or dark sense of humor is not as popular as satire humor among Language academy faculty;) 5. Eerie /ˈi(ə)rē/ adjective If something is strange and frightening it is eerie. Origin: Middle English (originally northern English and Scots in the sense 'fearful'): probably from Old

English earg 'cowardly', of Germanic origin; related to German arg

Example: It was dark and eerie incised the haunted house. Good luck on the GRE!

Events and Pics of the Week

The Academy News is a weekly newsletter pro-duced by students in the Journalism Elective of the USC Language Academy. All students in the Lan-guage Academy Program are encouraged to send news stories and photos to Sonja Lovelace at [email protected].

Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Informa-

tion” and then click on “The Academy News.”

P A G E 6 J U N E 7 , 2 0 1 2

The Academy News Summer A 2013 Staff

Editor: Pi Yan

Staff Reporters

Wayne Chang

Fitsum Fanta

Zhanerke Shulenbayeva

Yerkanat Zaitov

Assyl Zhakupov

Michael Cannon, Language Academy

instructor and renowed photographer, is

showing his latest work in San Pedro.

The show runs through August.

Above: The Journalism Class for Summer A