Mr kitos, here is my first essay...hope it wont be submerged before you spot it

English as a Second Language Preparation for and help with the TOEFL® Test and
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On the Necessity of Learning Foreign Languages
With the roaring development of modern society, the 21st century has witnessed a boom in computer technology. Some people, as a result, regard the learning of foreign languages as an unnecessary waste of time, arguing that computers can translate all kinds of languages. From my point of view, it is still essential for us students to learn foreign languages.

First, computer translation is not usually reliable. The computer can only translate a material word by word, or phrase by phrase. However, it can never have all of the skills of translation. A translation is more often than not of poor grammar, or even has a totally different meaning, thus misleading the readers. Second, we need other forms of interaction with foreign language. While communicating with foreigners speaking a language that we don’t master, the computer cannot help us with the two-way translation. On this occasion, the mastering of a foreign language becomes extremely essential.

As is mentioned above, learning foreign languages will always be of great importance. With the reform and opening up policy, communications with other countries are gaining its necessity. For students, learning foreign languages can lay a solid foundation for their future career and life.

TOEFL listening discussions: What seems to be the student’s main skill?

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Having looked through some of the posts here, i guess my essay is a little short…what do u think?

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Sorry to bother Kitos, why you changed ‘are’ with ‘is’ in the below sentence? The subject is ‘communications’ which is plural, isn’t it?
“With the reform and opening up policy, communications with other countries IS gaining its necessity.”

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Thank you for your time Kitos, but apart from the few areas that you have modified, where do u think i need to improve? I mean, why cant i get a 10 if i dont make those minor mistakes?

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communications with other countries IS gaining necessity.

communications with other countries ARE gaining necessity.

Which do you now think sounds the most correct Argentum?

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Sincere, you didn’t have any major faults in your work, but you did have some discrepancies, the least being that your work was only about half the length of a TOEFL essay. I don’t know how long it took you to compile this, and it is your first contribution.
All these lead me to assess your work at nine.
Give me a word perfect and interesting 300 word essay, and I will happily award you ten points.

Kitos.

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i get it. Thank you kitos …ill try to meet the standards…

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I’m sorry Kitos, I still don’t get it.
Could you explain it to me, please?
:slight_smile:

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got on the page by accident :slight_smile:
ill try to clarify it for you, Argentum91, if you dont mind.
i guess Kitosdad meant that the word COMMUNICATIONS is a plural noun in this sentence, so it requires ARE after, but not IS, as it would if it was a singular noun.
if you still don’t get it you’ve got to start learning english grammar from scratch :slight_smile:

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But based on his correction page, he uses IS instead of ARE.
That’s why I wondered. :slight_smile:

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sorry, you are right. if so, i would like to know the answer too :slight_smile:
i tried to translate communications(i mean plural noun) and i see it could be translated as connection(single),for instance, and have a little bit different meaning from communication in single. i guess that is the answer, but i am just guessing )

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well, it is little bit confusing.
i think, communications in this sentence become singular because in this situation we didn’t need to explain the communication that we make or other people make so it become singular.
i’ll tell you more when we meet :wink:

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good effort, but i, for example, still don’t get the point :slight_smile: