Problem: My summer hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2 go 2 NY 2C my bro, his CF & thr 3:-@ kids FTF ILNY, its gr8. Can you understand this sentence? If you can't, don't feel too bad: neither could the middle school teacher in England who received this as homework. This is Netspeak: the language of computerized communication found on Internet or cellphones. To newcomers, it can look like a completely foreign language. So, what is the "translation" of the sentence above? My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend, and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York; it's great. Schoolteachers and parents say this new form of writing is harming the English language. Increasing spelling and grammatical mistakes cxan be seen in students' writing. They fear the language could become corrupted . Everyone should just relax, say linguists . They believe Netspeak is in fact more of a good thing. David Crystal, from the University of Wales, argues that Netspeak and Internet create a new language use and the almost lost art of diary writing has been picked up again. Geoffrey Nunberg, from Stanford University, agrees. "People get better at writing by writing," he says, "Kids who are now doing text messaging, e-mail, and instant messages will write at least as well as, and possibly better than, their parents." Linguist James Millroy says, for centuries, it is believed without exception that young people are harming the language. And you can bet your bottom dollar that when today's teenagers become tomorrow's parents, they too will think this way. Milroy argues that languages do not and cannot become "corrupted"; they simply change to meet the new needs. However, Netspeakers do agree that it is important to teach young people how to speak and write Standard English. Cynthia McVey says, "I can understand Netspeak worries teachers and it's important that they get across to their pupils that text messaging is for fun, but that learning to write proper English is a must for their future." Perhaps we should give teenagers a little more trust anyway. Erin, age 12, says, "I wouldn't use text language in my homework. Texting is just for fun"
1. What is Netspeak?
2. What do school teachers and parents say about it?
3. What can Netspeak look like?
4. What do linguists say?
5. Do they think it's bad?
6. Where is David Crystal from?
7. What do people get better at by writing?
8. What is James Millroy?
9. What does he says has been believed for centuries?
10. Does he think that languages are getting corrupted?
11. What does he say happens to them instead?
12. What do Netspeakers agree on?
13. How old is Erin?
Answer: 1. language of computerized communication
2. harming the English language
3. My summer hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2 go 2 NY 2C my bro, his CF & thr 3:-@ kids FTF ILNY, its gr8
4. relax
5. No
6. University of Wales
7. diary writing
8. Linguist
9. young people are harming the language
10. no
11. change to meet the new needs
12. it is important to teach young people how to speak and write Standard English
13. 12

Q: Dell was listed at number 51 in the Fortune 500 list, until 2014. After going private in 2013, the newly confidential nature of its financial information prevents the company from being ranked by Fortune. In 2014 it was the third largest PC vendor in the world after Lenovo and HP. Dell is currently the #1 shipper of PC monitors in the world. Dell is the sixth largest company in Texas by total revenue, according to Fortune magazine. It is the second largest non-oil company in Texas behind AT&T and the largest company in the Greater Austin area. It was a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: DELL), as well as a component of the NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500, until it was taken private in a leveraged buyout which closed on October 30, 2013.

Originally, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and unacceptably low profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997. While the industry's average selling price to individuals was going down, Dell's was going up, as second- and third-time computer buyers who wanted powerful computers with multiple features and did not need much technical support were choosing Dell. Dell found an opportunity among PC-savvy individuals who liked the convenience of buying direct, customizing their PC to their means, and having it delivered in days. In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the home market and introduced a product line designed especially for individual users.

Answer the following questions:
1. Who is the #1 shipper of PC monitors in the world?
2. Were they 52 on the Fortune 500 list?
3. What rank were they?
4. Until when?
5. How many other competitors were above them in personal computing sales?
6. What's one of them?
7. What's the other?
8. Is it still available for shares of stocks to be bought by the public?
9. What year did that stop?
10. Did it always place emphasis on the everyday buyer side of things?
11. When did that start to change?
12. With what new technology?
13. How many reasons did they not place emphasis on those types of customers at first?
14. What were they?
15. Did they do well with first time consumers?
16. What sort of consumers did they do well with?
17. Did they make a new series of products for them?
18. What was it called?
A: 1. Dell
2. no
3. 51
4. 2014
5. Two
6. HP
7. Lennovo
8. no
9. 2013
10. no
11. 1996-97
12. the company's internet site
13. Two
14. higher costs and lower margins
15. no
16. 2nd and 3rd time buyers
17. yes
18. unknown

Problem: Few buildings on earth can compete with the legendary beauty of the Taj Mahal. Towering over the ancient Indian city of Agra, the Taj Mahal is the grandest monument to love ever created.

The lovers in this story are the 17th century Indian emperor Shah Jehan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. She took a leading role in advising him, which is something unusual for a woman to do for a husband who's an emperor. Over the course of their nineteen-year marriage she gave birth to 14 children. But in 1631 while trying to deliver their fifteenth -- she tragically died. He was heartbroken when she died. And after her death, he decided to build the world's greatest monument ever built, for love.

He ordered the royal architects to design the most beautiful building the world had known and decided to name it after his beloved, Mumtaz Mahal. He called on twenty thousand workers and sent many more people to all corners of his country in search of valuable metals and jewels. And after seventeen years of hard work, Shah Jehan's monument was completed and his beloved empress was moved to her final resting place.

Everything had gone according to plan, but Shah Jehan's luck was about to change ... In 1658, just four years after the completion of the Taj Mahal, he was thrown out of power. Unfortunately, his son, Aran Azibe imprisoned him, his own father. And he spent the last seven years of his life in prison. And he was allowed to look at the Taj Mahal through a window. His life was in ruins, but when he died his last wish was promised. He was buried beside his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal.
1. Where is the Taj Mahal?
2. Who is the wife int he story?
3. and the husband?
4. What was unusual about her?
5. Who was he?
6. Did they have a lot of children?
7. how many?
8. What happened to Mumtaz?
9. from what?
10. Where was she buried?
11. What about the husband when he died?
12. What did the husband do after the wife died?
13. How long did it take?
14. and how many people helped?
15. what happened four years after completion?
16. by who?
17. where did he put his father?
18. for how many years did he stay?
19. What was his final wish?
20. was he?
Answer:
1. Agra
2. Mumtaz Mahal
3. Shah Jehan
4. She took a leading role in advising him
5. the emperor
6. yes
7. 14
8. she died
9. while trying to deliver their fifteenth child
10. the Taj Mahal
11. He was buried beside her
12. he decided to build the world's greatest monument
13. seventeen years
14. twenty thousand
15. he was thrown out of power
16. his son
17. in prison
18. seven
19. to be buried beside his wife
20. yes