Master Sophal's English Room

Some people want to prove they are right. But a cynic like me finds no joy in being correct.

I was recommended this app by a colleague and after using it a few times I find that the scoring is pretty accurate as the first score was consistent with how I scored in the real IELTS. It also points out where there are 'bad pauses', which is extremely useful. However its weakness lies in its questions. Though its assessment of my speaking seemed detailed and accurate, the question range was severely limited. There were only 3 questions and I was allowed only 1 minute per speech. Therefore this software is not a simulation of the IELTS Speaking because of the number questions, however, it is a useful tool to use as a benchmark to compare your future speaking performances and see if you have progressed.

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I frequently hear that you cannot trust people and doing good to others does not guarantee you will receive good from them. This is very true; having experienced this myself. But the problem with this thinking is that we close off the chance that something good will come out of our good actions. This mentality encourages indifference to the plight of others. I am not encouraging you to go out of your way to play hero, but a world where people choose not to help others when they can is terrible. It is good to know that there is no guaranteed good coming from others when you do good, because it tempers your expectations and reduces disappointment. But by doing one good act, you are contributing to goodness in society. It is like planting a flower in a land full of w**ds. One flower plant takes away a piece of space of the w**d. If everyone plants one, the wild space becomes a beautiful garden. So I am adding upon the mentality that you cannot trust people because you do not own them. I wholly agree with that but I believe this is not an excuse to be an arse to anyone. Or ignore the plight of others when you actually can.

Upon the second watching of Mad Max: Fury Road, I find Tom Hardy's version of the character almost identical to to Mel Gibson's. The slight differences would be Hardy's being more desperate, and being more nimble. But quiet, the roguishness, and anti-heroism is still there.

I also find the movie more humorous after watching a second time. Especially the first act of the movie where Max is complaining about how they have taken his car, and then his blood. And how he is obsessed with his V8.

I also realized how Charlize Theron's Furiosa resembled Anya Taylor Joy's younger version. The scene where Theron wears her goggles and wraps a handkerchief to cover her face is identical to Taylor Joy's Furiosa.

Now that I have watched Furiosa and Fury Road in order, Furiosa's journey is more tragic. This is reinforced by the excellent acting by Anya Taylor Joy as the younger Furiosa, and Charlize Theron as the older version. Though they are played by different people, they are very much the same character.

But, I guess Furiosa's story has finally concluded, and I hope to see more of Tom Hardy's Max. If that can happen, considering the current box office of Furiosa.

Self correcting my practice writing

Finally!

I started reading the first volume of Journey to the West in the early 90 as a kid in Egypt. With no internet, and being a kid, I had no way to find the other 2 volumes to finish. Finally, thanks to the internet, I managed to download the whole volume but my computer frequently crashed, got formatted, and so the soft copy was lost. Now, 34 years later, I have finally finished it. Like the characters in the story, it has been a long journey. In the story, it took them 14 years and 36,000 miles. For me, it more than 30 years, and at least 7,607 km of travelling before I could finish it.

I just got a random Task 1 sample. This is for practice purposes only, and serves as a model of how I would write it.

Student: Teacher, why do you put the same words in our spelling test?
Teacher: It is like life: if you do not learn from your mistake, the same problem will come to you later.