Writing creatively with new vocabulary

This exercise lets students write creatively using vocabulary learned and practiced in class.

by David Sanchez Redondo
TOEFL Preparation Class

A boring summer evening is the best time to rethink your life or start a new hobby. That was what Jane should have thought before opening her umpteenth can of beer. She did not even make a SUBTLE gesture of getting up from the sofa when the telephone rang, suspecting it would be her mother as it usually is every evening. The TACTICS she usually used not to speak to her were very KEEN, but deep inside she felt guilty. A few years ago, when her father passed away, she ABRUPTLY changed her personality.

Her relationships were DEBILITATING, too. She was always elusive with people and everybody thought that she was doing illicit things. Now and then, Sofia, her best friend, would try to ELICIT from her what was happening in her mind, but without success. Definitely, she had lost her SPONTANEITY and the happy personality that used to characterize her.

SUBTLE - present but not obvious
TACTIC - strategy
KEEN - sharp; strong
ABRUPTLY - happening suddenly
DEBILITATING - weakening
ELICIT - draw out; extract information
SPONTANEITY - acting without planning

Will there be fewer cars in the future?

In this independent essay for the TOEFL iBT, the writer has to agree or disagree with the statement: In twenty years, there will be fewer cars in use than there are today.

by David Sanchez Redondo
TOEFL Preparation Class

In my point of view there will be fewer cars due to two reasons. First, people will use more public transportation, or we will use more bikes or other kinds of transportation. The other reason is we will run out of oil.

Let’s start with the first reason. Most people, especially in big cities, would say that buying a car is their last option. It is expensive and there are a lot of traffic jams. This change will be noticed less in small cities obviously because there is not a good system of transportation like in big cities. Another reason that there will be fewer cars is the fact that people will use more bikes. It is a good option as long as the cities are adapted for this. London and Amsterdam are good examples of such cities. I think they are the cities of the future, and many cities look up to them. In any case, the more people take care of themselves, the more they will accept this idea.

The other reason is the limited amount of crude oil. It is well-known that someday we will run out of oil.  No doubt that when technology keeps advancing quickly, many things will be affected; one of them is cars. Realizing the fact that twenty years is not far from now (we won’t have cars flying around the cities yet).  Nevertheless, there will be an important change in this industry. Hybrids or electrics will be the cars of the future. However, because all of them will be expensive, families will only be the ones who can afford them, and each family will only be able to buy one car.

In conclusion, imagining cities with fewer cars in the next twenty years is utopist, but we do not have to lose hope. Instead, we can keep visualizing that having three or four cars for every family will indeed disappear for a better, cleaner world.

Practicing collocations

This is a creative-writing assignment to practice verb-noun collocations.

Homer is going to celebrate getting his new job at Trader Joe’s. He used to earn a living composing music in the subway. However, he allowed himself to be influenced by people who told him that he had to realize music wasn’t his future even though he thought he had already achieved great success.

by David Sanchez Redondo
TOEFL preparation class