Traffic Light Reading is one of students' favorites! And it's so simple. Here's what to do: Take three pens in different colors, most suitably red, orange and green. But it's not too important as long as teachers and students are both clear on the colour code they're going to use.

    Students read a text, not worrying too much about how much they understand. Teachers can ask them to re-read when students are paying attention to vocabulary. Start by underlining the words that they understand completely (including names, numbers etc) in green.

    Then students re-read the text and underline the words that look familiar, they maybe know them but aren't too sure about them. You guessed it: in orange.

    Finally, students read the text a third time underlining the words they clearly don't understand in red. Sometimes teachers might want to set students a limit for how many red words they underline, telling them only to underline the words that they believe are seriously blocking their understanding of the text as a whole. Generally, however, students are pleasantly surprised by how few words are red and how many are green. Seeing their ability laid out in a visual way really helps to increase confidence.

    Once the whole text is underlined, teachers can give students a limit of 5, 10 or 15 words, depending on the length of the text, and tell them they're only allowed to look these words up in a dictionary. This helps them to recognize words that are actually getting in the way of their understanding of the text and words that they don't know but actually don't impact their whole understanding of the text.

    This is a useful activity that can be done with a printed text, in a Google Doc, on RealtimeBoard, or set as a homew ork task for some independent study.

    A man walked into a small Irish pub and ordered three beers. Bartender was surprised, but he served that man three beers. One hour later the man ordered three beers again. The very next day that man ordered three beers again and drank quietly at a table. This repeated several times and shortly after the people of the town were whispering about the man, who was ordering three beers at once.

    A couple of weeks later, the bartender decided to clear this out and inquired: “I do not want to pry, but could you explain, why do you order three beers all the time?” The man replied: “It seems strange, isn't it? You see, my two brothers live abroad at the moment, one – in France and another – in Italy. We have made an agreement, that every time we go to pub each of us will order extra two beers and it will help keeping up the family bond”.

    Soon all the town have heard about the man's answer and liked it a lot. The man became a local celebrity. Residents of the town were telling this story to newcomers or tourists and even invited them to that pub to look at Three Beer Man.

    However, one day the man came to pub and ordered only two beers, not three as usual. The bartender served him with bad feeling. All that evening the man ordered and drank only two beers. The very next day all the town was talking about this news, some people pray for the soul of one of the brothers, others quietly grieved.

    When the man came to pub the next time and ordered two beers again, the bartender asked him: “I would like to offer condolences to you, due to the death of your dear brother”. The man considered this for a moment and then replied: “Oh, you are probably surprised that I order only two beers now? Well, my two brothers are alive and well. It's just because of my decision. I promised myself to give up drinking.”

    Hot spots of drones (无人机) in Australia are getting sensors to automatically identify the aircraft and their pilots. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said it would fix the equipment at the nation's airports starting next month. The monitors have been planned for some time, but come in the wake of 72 hours of drone-related disorder at the UK's Gatwick airport last week.

    In 2019, Australia will also start a scheme to register drone owners. The UK is also due to introduce a scheme in November that will require recreational drones weighing 250g (0.55lb) or more to be registered.

    Almost 140,000 air travellers were delayed last week after reports of drone sightings caused huge delays at Gatwick Airport. UK police are still searching for the criminals, although they have also raised the possibility that witness reports of the aircraft were mistaken. The incident “highlights” the need for a drone-spotting capability (能力), CASA spokesman Peter Gibson told the news agency Agence France-Presse. The supervision system would be able to spot the types of drone being flown, read their serial numbers and work out where the pilot was located, he said. Efforts to identify pilots would be aided by the introduction of the registration scheme for commercial and casual drone owners, he added. “2019 will witness severe action towards drone safety,” said Mr. Gibson. As well as airports and other sensitive locations, the drone-spotting systems will be fixed in other places known to be popular with drone owners such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

    Authorities in Australia have expressed worries about the number of drones being flown in controlled areas in recent months. Anyone breaking rules could face fines of up to 10,000 Australian dollars ($7,058; £5,600) as well as checks on the safety of their craft. “In 2019 it could be very expensive doing the wrong thing with your drone,” said Mr. Gibson. Events at Gatwick were discussed by ministers in a Christmas Eve phone conference. It is understood that the Cabinet Office “pushed” the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office to update their relevant regulations. They also discussed defence systems across the UK's airports.

    Educational APP Store

    Duolingo

    Duolingo is regarded as one of the best English language apps today, which is strongly recommended for English amateurs. The system of the app helps you learn English quickly by spending twenty minutes a day. Duolingo structures your lessons that teach you about seven new words based on a topic and skill points being awarded for completing the lessons.

    Busuu

    Busuu helps you learn English language on the go and the lesson's quality is guaranteed as it is based on CEFR language framework. Lessons range from beginners to advanced learners. Busuu is actually a great English app if you want to improve your spoken English by talking with native speakers.

    Memrise

    Memrise uses some creative and easy ways to memorize English words. The focus of this app is to help the users expand their vocabulary by learning English words in an effective way. Memrise also offers an offline mode to continue learning without Internet connection.

    Rosetta Stone

    Rosetta Stone is designed differently from average language apps on the marketplace today. It's trying to teach us English the way we'd learn it, as if we were children starting to learn the language. Furthermore, it has exercises designed to help you learn basic words. A variety of lessons are offered that Rosetta Stone has been using for years.

    My family lives in Texas. I was born and brought up in Texas and I am a graduate of the University of Texas. However, around my second year in law school, I wanted to make a great change, which was almost unheard of for Texans: I wanted to leave!

    I realized this after completing my first year­year internship(实习期) I knew I wanted something different and my chance came during the 2011 Super Bowl in Dallas. A snowstorm blanketed the entire city in snow and thousands of people were gathered. I overheard that StubHub, a big company from a great city, San Francisco, was throwing a party next door to my hotel. I thought if l could get an internship, I could leave for the summer and at least see what it was like. Yes, it was a huge leap. I told myself I was ready.

    There was just one problem: I wasn't invited to the StubHub party. But you know I'm the type of person who goes for something she wants. Needless to say, I crashed the party and found my way to the president. I kindly introduced myself and then asked if they had a legal internship program. Guess what? They accepted my request to be a legal intern, even though no such program existed.

    Although the legal department didn't have a permanent position for me, the experience has shaped my life. Working for a great company in San Francisco, I'm incredibly happy for making my decision to leave Texas.

    By leaving Texas, I learned that it is so much more rewarding to try the unfamiliar than to stay in the comfortable. Exploring the unfamiliar is how you'll understand what fits your life. I say, dive in head first.