Four Free Mobile Apps to Help You Learn English Faster

Have you realized that you can put your smartphone to really good use for learning English? Here are 4 free mobile apps that will help you do just that.

Hello English

It covers all the things of language leaning, including vocabulary, translation, grammar, spellings, spoken and reading skills. It uses interactive (互动的) games to teach different English lessons and offers new audiobooks, latest news, and books. However, you should already understand basic English structures and words, for the app can’t help you learn English from the very beginning.

Duolingo

If you want to start learning English, then this is the app you are looking for. Duolingo uses interactive games to help you learn English. For beginners, the app focuses on helping you learn verbs, phrases and sentences.

Lingbe

If you are ready to practice your spoken skills in the real world, you’ll need Lingbe. It’s a community-based app where people help each other and share their native languages. It connects you with real people on call who are native English speakers.

HelloTalk

HelloTalk is similar to Lingbe as it connects you with native speakers to help improve your language skills. However, it adds a few extra functions that might interest you. You can view the information about users to find a match that interests you. Additionally, you can also send text and audio messages, and even do video calls with other people.

Leaving everything behind to go after true happiness takes courage, and Sophie Matterson has enough to go around. The 3l-year-old enjoyed a good life in Brisbane, Australia, with a job in the TV and film industry, but it didn’t make her heart sing. That’s why she decided to try a different path. Now she’s trekking (跋涉) across the continent with five camels (骆驼) — and is the happiest she’s ever been!

In 2016, Sophie changed jobs and ended up somewhere she never expected: milking camels on a farm in Queensland.

“What I wasn’t anticipating was how much I would end up falling in love with these animals,” she wrote. “What was only going to be a six-month break from my ‘real job’ turned into five years of running after camels around Australia and other parts of the world.”

After taking tourists on camel treks for a while, Sophie decided to have an adventure of her own. She planned out a 5,000-kilometer trip from Shark Bay to Byron Bay before catching and training five wild camels in January 2019. Then she was finally ready to explore her country with Mac, Delilah, Clayton, Jude, and Charlie!

As one might imagine, the trip can be lonely at times, but Sophie’s camels make surprisingly good companions.

“It’s quite lovely and relaxing camping with camels,” she said. Best of all, she can see great views!

Sophie hopes to arrive in Byron Bay in the next nine months. In the meantime, she’ll be enjoying every second with her camel friends.

A Japanese company has created a "smart“ mask （口 罩）that aims to improve communication for people wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The use of face masks has become the new common practice in parts of the world still struggling to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. However, masks and other kinds of coverings can affect the quality of communication between wearers. The wearable electronic device （设备） called the "c — mask“ is meant to fit over other kinds of face masks commonly worn by the public. It's designed to better the exchange of conversation in such conditions.

The c — mask with a built-in microphone has holes in the front to let air in. When turned on, the mask uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a mobile device. An app then helps users do several actions, including turning speech into text, completing telephone calls and making the user's voice louder. The device can also translate a person's voice from Japanese into eight other languages.

Taisuke Ono, head of Donut Robotics, said the company was able to collect money to develop the smart mask through an activity on the Japanese crowdfunding （众筹）service Fundinno. He noted that the effort got $265,000 in just the first 37 minutes. It would usually take three or four months to collect that kind of money.

The company produced a working model of the mask within a month. Ono said the company plans to ship its first 5,000 c — masks to buyers in Japan. He is also looking to sell the devices in China, the United States and Europe and says he has received strong interest in the product.

How to Keep Calm Under Pressure

Exam pressure, job interviews and public speeches can all make you feel rather nervous—your heart’s racing, your voice sounds strange and your mind goes empty.     16     Here are three easy and effective tips that can help you keep calm.

First, slow you breathing way down. Take a deep breath through your nose for five seconds, hold it for a second, then push all the air out through your nose, slowly, counting to five.     17     By breathing deeply and slowly, you can change the message your brain’s receiving from “danger” to “all is well”.

    18     Only a single note or a song will do. Studies in how we control heart rate have shown that humming can affect one of the most important parts of the body: the vagus nerve (交感神经), which is like a superhighway of communication, connecting the brain to the heart, lungs and stomach, voice box, ears, and so on. So the next time you feel your heart racing, sing a song or just hum a note.

The final tip is to focus. When you are busy, you wish to do several things at the same time, but if you want to stay calm and actually get things done, don’t.     19     When you do two things at once, it has to change between them very rapidly and floods your body with stress hormones (荷尔蒙). So break your task down into small parts or steps, circle the one thing you need to do next and forget about the other tasks until their time comes.     20    

Every weekend, my father would go to the park to feed the homeless. I really didn’t understand why my father put so much _________ into it. But I was glad I didn’t have to join him, because I knew how much _________ my father had just getting everything ready.

Then, one Friday night I was _________ a whole wonderful weekend by myself again when my dad came in.

“I need your help tomorrow. Some _________ won’t make it.”

“Dad. I can’t.” I wanted to _________, but failed.

When we arrived, people were already there _________ us. I was _________ that my dad knew most of them by name and even what each one needed. While my father was feeding them, I started handing out some _________. It was at that time that I _________ a girl about my age was barefoot (光脚). I looked into her clear eyes for a moment, __________ believing someone of my age could live like this. It was lucky that we took some __________. “Thank you!” she cried __________ when I handed her the shoes. I felt all __________ inside as I watched her leave.

Now I __________ why my father did so much to help the homeless. I could __________ he loved seeing their smiles of happiness. I did too.

Tourism can be both good and bad. Yes, it brings in money for the local economy and creates lots of jobs for locals,     36     it may also bring some problems.

One growing problem is tourists who want to prove     37     (they) coming. Tourists have used paint, rocks, or even keys     38     (write) on the Luxor Temple in Egypt, memorial stones at the bottom of Qomolangma and many, many other places. Thousands of tourist sites are being destroyed by tourists who “love them to     39     (die)”.

Another big problem in some places has been tourists disturbing (打扰) the local people     40     (continual). The local people     41     (take) pictures without asking for their permission. For example, Chiang Mai University in Thailand has great numbers of tourists visiting their campuses, taking pictures of students, and disturbing their studies. I have three words for tourists like this: please be considerate. Have fun in a way     42     does not disturb others.

    43     number of problems from tourists is endless: walking in large groups without considering     44     (other) who need to walk by, crossing roads without thinking of local traffic laws, and many more. The only way to solve the problem of the terrible tourists is to make sure that you are not one! Be the best,     45     (kind), most polite tourist possible.