Improving your English takes time. One great way to do this is to read widely, especially if you are reading easy books. My new blog, will help you do this. Check it out:
http://cute-kindle.blogspot.tw/

Free Kindle Books

Don't forget to apply for a free Amazon account first:

http://cute-language-learning.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-apply-for-amazon-account.html

Cross-Sentence Game (CC BY-NC-SA Robert MATTHEWS)

Here's a game I devised to practice sentence structure while having fun: The Cross-Sentence Game.

Rules:  

[1] 1 word in each box;  

[2] 3~5 words per turn turn;  

[3] each turn uses at least one old word;  

[4] odd number of teams;  

[5] each turn must change direction (ACROSS, DOWN, ACROSS …);  

[6] 1^st turn = E6 (the middle box)

[7] Basic points: content wds = 1 point (N, VB, ADJ, ADV); function wds = 5 points (aux/prep/pron/conj etc.);  

[8] Penalty: repeated content word = -2*sentence value

 [9] Bonus points: questions/negatives (move/change 1~2 words in 1 sentence) = 2*sentence value; extend another team’s sentence = 2*sentence value

A blank game appears below, followed by a short sample game and a turn-by-turn summary

Three Famous Swedes: ABBA, Carl Linnaeus, Alfred Nobel

Three (actually six) famous Swedish people:

ABBA_-_TopPop_1974_5 (Beeld en Geluidwiki CC-BY-SA)

1) ABBA is not one person, but four, two musician couples whose given names start with ABBA, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad (women's names in red). Two of their most famous songs are 

Mamma Mia (20,000,000+ hits)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfzfe8f9NI

and Dancing Queen (26,000,000+ hits)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s

Enjoy them on YouTube 

Sweden's Forests: Problems and Opportunities

European Tourism

Sweden is covered by vast forests. The following map, compiled by the European Forest Institute, shows us how Sweden compares to the rest of Europe.

final_forest_map_50dpi_02_12--copyright Katja Gunia, Jo Van Brusselen, Risto Päivinen, Sergey Zudin, Elena Zudina

There are lots of trees, but not so many people. This creates problems and business opportunities. How do Swedes communicate by telephone? What do Swedish people do with all those trees?

Swedish Forest, CC-BY-SA, Netzanette (taken in Sandviken, Gavleborg, SE)

Swedish Forest, taken by Netzanette (CC-BY-NC, taken in Sandviken, Gavleborg, SE).jpg

The Girl with Green Eyes--One Way Ticket (Oxford Bookworms)

{Updated November 3, 2014}

The name of this story is important. In old Chinese stories, some ugly monsters have red hair and green eyes. In the West, however, we think that women with red hair and green eyes are beautiful and even sexy. When we see the name of story #1 in One Way Ticket ("The Girl with Green Eyes"), many westerners will think this is a story about a sexy woman.

Here is a portrait of Julia Roberts. Do you like Julia with red hair?

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by PIX-JOCKEY (photo-manipulation)
http://flickr.com/photos/rizzato/6871398040/

Some more redheads appear below. What do you think of them?