Silly

I had an interesting time at the Library today.  First I worked with a young woman from Colombia who is preparing for the TOEFL.  She is a college graduate in Biology (now working as an au pair) and wants to do a graduate degree in Molecular Biology here in the States.  So she's planning to take the TOEFL in May.  She wanted to work on writing in English and had brought along one of those books with practice tests.  It was my first sight of the test, and I was struck by how difficult it actually is.   Reading and writing about academic papers that many, if not most, native speakers would have difficulty understanding and answering questions about.  Answering questions in English after being given only 50 seconds to think.  It's very daunting.  We worked with the book, but it wasn't really what she needs at this point.  I suggested that she bring in a couple of short articles next time, so she could write about them.

Then I had an hour with Thanh, who had his usual list of words needing explanation.  One was "besotted," which he'd seen in captions for an Icelandic film.  We talked about the meaning and it seemed clear that the translator had simply chosen the wrong word for the caption.  Then we read an article about unconscious racial bias.  He always brings in such interesting topics.

It was really cold and very windy when I got out, and I'd had to park a long way from the library, so it wasn't a pleasant walk back.  Thank goodness today is the last of the free tax preparation sessions. I'm looking forward to being able to park in the lot again.

Then off to Central Market for milk and a few other things.  That's where I spotted this yak zippered pouch.  I thought it would do for Silly Saturday.