This column is part of a series on websites that are useful for English language learning.

Activities for ESL Students

    Includes various types of tests, exercises and puzzles designed to help people studying English as a second language（ESL）.The activities include grammar, vocabulary and idiom tests at easy, medium and difficult levels. The specially designed Chinese-English vocabulary tests can help Chinese memorize English words.

http://a4esl. org/

Interesting Things for ESL Students

    Contains a comprehensive list of audio clips（听力剪辑）from the Special English programs of Voice of America（VOA）.The list covers news of all kinds on VOA. The listening and vocabulary exercises and the word list designed with the clips will help English learners improve listening ability and increase vocabulary.

http://www.manythings.org/voa/

World-English

    This site provides a list of radio or TV channels offering English news clips. It includes the BBC radio program clips from England, CNN and ABC news clips from the US, and other news clips from other English-speaking countries. Click on the links and you will be taken to channels where you can listen to clips. This is a good way to practice listening.

http://www.world-english.org/listening.html

Listen to English

    Offers a large number of materials for English learners to practice listening. The materials include business English, English literature, history, movies, and politics. Students can improve their English while enjoying the beauty of the English of literature, songs, movies, and news in different countries.

http://eleaston.corn/listen, html

    Pocket Tape-Recorders “Family and Home Magazine” test what's on the market now.

1）Pearlcorder S702 $64

    This simple model at the bottom of the Olympus range scored the most points for its excellent quality of recording. Background noise hardly affects the sound and recording from a pocket is perfectly possible, but it doesn't turn off automatically.

Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight:240g.

2）Sony M9 $49.95

    Small and very good looking, sony's latest offering scored most for appearance. Sounds clear, but there is slight machine noise. The big control buttons are a great improvement on some of the complicated little controls on other tape-recorders. Doesn't switch off automatically but a red light shows if the machine is still running.

   Tape length: 60 minutes per side. Weight: 195g.

3）Sony M400 $115

    Lots of little control buttons that make a noise and are difficult to use . Recording was good but machine noise lost points. Tape counter and automatic switch-off when tape has finished recording or rewinding are useful Tape length: 60 minutes per side. Weight: 230g.

4）Imperial OEM. MC $29.95

    Cheap and simple compared with the rest, but recording was good as long as there was no background noise. Use only its own make of cassette. No light to show it is on; no fast forward button and the record button makes a loud noise.

    Tape length: 30 minutes per side. Weight: 285g.

5）Philips 585 $80

    Handsome and simple to use, but recording is very poor at more than the recommended distance of 5 cm-designed for dictation. No recording light. Tape length: 15 minutes per side. Weight: 220g.

LONDON—A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake bomb detectors（探测器）to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially deadly consequences.

It is believed that James McCormick got about $ 77.8 million from the sales of his detectors--which were based on a kind of golf ball finder—to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

    “Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people,” Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. “You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt.”

    The detectors, sold for up to $ 42, 000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they “lacked any grounding in science” and were of no use.

    McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

    “I never had any bad results from customers,” he said.

    BEIJING—Lu Na thinks that the 4,000 yuan ($630) she spent in traveling to the Republic of Korea(ROK) was worth every penny.

    “Apart from the exotic outfits and tasty kimchi, I really appreciated local people's friendliness and the convenient language environment there,” said the 27-year-old woman, who traveled to the country in October 2011 and came back with bags of fashionable dresses and cosmetics.

    “We have provided many services to Chinese visitors, including free transport cards, handbooks for individual tourists, and more liberal visa policies.”

    “We believe that no country can compare with the ROK in providing services for individual Chinese travelers,” said Zhu Linlin, media manager of the Korea Tourism Organization's Beijing branch.

    Favorable visa policies contribute to the popularity of the ROK as a destination for Chinese tourists. Only a passport and an ID card are needed for a Chinese citizen to get a visa to the ROK.

    However, some suggest that ROK hotels should provide special dining rooms for Chinese customers due to different eating habits. “ROK people often cross their legs when they have meals, but for most Chinese people, especially those who are elderly or fat, it's very hard for them to sit cross-legged without feeling numb.”

    In 1998, China granted the ROK approved destination status, which allowed Chinese citizens to travel to the country in tour groups.

    According to statistics from China Tourism Academy, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the ROK reached more than 2 million by the end of October 2011, up 19. 9 percent compared with that of the same period last year. China recently became the Republic of Korea's main source of foreign tourists in both number and spending.

    FaceApp has taken the world by storm, giving users the chance to see themselves age through its algorithm. 12.7 million people—some three million more than the population of New York City—reportedly downloaded it in one seven-day period last month.

    Although the Russian app has become known for its privacy issues, the more interesting lesson of our FaceApp fling (尽情玩乐)is what it tells us about our society—and our future lives. It turns out we are more interested in aging than we realized. I'm surprised by this. Most younger people are in denial (否认)about old age, doing almost nothing to prepare for it. We rarely have a chance to plan for the future, with increasing time and financial pressures. Those pressures bring sacrifices that we may not always want to make: we can no longer afford to spend the time or the money needed to look after our elderly parents.

    As a family doctor, I can see the loneliness epidemic developing. Elderly patients come to see me with no particular illness, no clear medical issue. After a few minutes of the consultation, I understand why: they're not sick, and often they don't feel sick. They just need someone—anyone-to talk to.

    Although loneliness has no medical classification, the health effects are real: the result of loneliness and isolation can be as harmful to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and is more damaging than obesity. But loneliness does not come with nearly enough health warnings.

    So what next? Since 1980, we are living on average 10 years longer. At the same time, people are having fewer and fewer children, and they are having them much later in life. The snake of a world class health service is eating its own tail; its care is prolonging (延长) people's lives, but as the ratio of pensioners(退休人员)to working -age people increases, there are fewer taxpayers to fund that very health service.

    Into this void have stepped NGOs, charities and volunteers. But in the long term, the only way to truly help the oldest meters of our society is to go back to the traditional values of intergenerational(两代间的) cooperation—often under same roof. Ultimately, we will need to evolve towards a culture where elderly care is treated the same as childcare, where employers recognize the duty of someone with an elderly parent the same way they recognize those of someone with a newborn child.

    Sydney Airport International Terminal-Arrivals Area

    SPECIALTY RETAIL

    Newslink: Two separate Newslink stores cater to all your reading needs including newspapers, magazines and the latest bestsellers.

    Downtown Duty Free: Make sure you shop at Downtown Duty Free for great savings on a range of items including perfume, alcohol, skincare and cigarettes. It's your last chance before customs.

    Beach Culture: A must for those who go into the Latest in beach clothing. Top surf, street and fashion labels including Mambo, Stussy and Quicksilver, including children's sizes.

    DINING

    Blue Sky Care: Speedy service leaves you time to keep an eye on the arrivals gate. Morning pastries, fresh juice, breakfast rolls and coffee while you wait.

    McDonald's: hamburgers, fries, drinks, muffins and shakes—all your family favorites. Breakfast served until 10:30 a. m.

    SERVICES

    ATM: ATMs are conveniently located throughout Arrival and Departures. Dollars, pounds, francs and RMB are all available.

    Vodafone Rentals: This communication center offers the very latest technology for mobile phone rentals, sales and servicing.