A selection of English ESL succeed in printables

The following material contains the text where a student needs to read it and to do some succeeding exercises.

Money

This is a listening activity on a short interview with mixed media artist Lauren Brevner. She never went to art school, but went to Japan and apprenticed with Sin Nakayamal, another self-taught artist. Later on she succeeded through making her art public on Instagram. There is a gap-filling activity for accurate listening, and more general comprehension questions on the interview. 

Interview with Lauren Brevner 

Being a writer and making a living from writing is a dream for many. All of us who love writing aspire to pay our bills with our writing. But doing so is more complicated than it seems. To jump without a net into this world is dangerous, as there are many aspects that are unknown. In this article I want to explain what it is to be a writer and give you some tips on how to make a living from writing.



Can you make a living from writing?

Actually, you can make a living from anything. You could even sell fairy dust and, if you were good at it, you could make a living from it. So, can you make a living from writing? Of course you can. Just don't expect it to be easy.



One problem I often find with people who want to be writers is that they tend to think that this will be the end of the line. If you want to be a writer, forget everything you've read about Rowling, King and Meyer. Bestsellers are isolated cases. The most normal thing is that your first books go unnoticed. To make a living from writing you need to work hard. You have to sit down every day, write and publish. In the age of Amazon, where more than 1,000 books are published a day (on the low end), succeeding on the first try is as difficult as hitting a full house on fifteen. The best thing you can do for your writing career is to publish books consistently. You can do it on your own, by publishing on Amazon or by managing the publication of your books on your own. You can try to publish with publishers. Or you can do both and take advantage of the best of both worlds.



What do you need to make a living from writing?

Well, some of these things wouldn't go amiss:

Know how to write (obvious).

Planning.

Dedicate time every day to your writing.

A computer.

Be a great reader (or an average reader, but you have to be a reader).

Have a lot of patience.

Be tenacious and don't give up easily.



How to be a writer?

This is a big question, isn't it? According to Stephen King, there is only one way to be a writer: writing a lot and reading a lot. I would add one more: managing frustration very well. Because yes, being a writer is often frustrating. And it's not frustrating because publishers don't publish you or because you don't get selected in contests. It is because it is tiring, it is lonely and, almost always, it seems that you move in a kind of limbo in which you pay for the sins of your past lives by being invisible.



To be a writer you need to have ideas (we all have that), know how to turn those ideas into words (that's a bit more difficult) and make those words meaningful and "potable" (this is much less common).



Why do I say this?

There is a common and silent idea that spreads over those who start writing and it is that "you only need the talent to write". Or worse, you just need to know how to write (in a society like ours, we all know how to write). If you are not willing to work, forget about it and do something else. On the other hand, if you are willing to mortgage your life and sell your soul to the key, go ahead.



Here are 8 tips for becoming a professional writer that I hope will help you:



Write

Of the millions of writing tips you'll come across, this one (and the next one) is the only one you should heed. Writing is like a muscle. Unless you're a natural talent, to develop a muscle you have to train. Usain Bolt said in an interview that the difference between him and other people is that he spent four years training to run nine seconds, while most people quit after a few months because they don't see results.



Writing has learning curves. We all know how to write right out of school, but not all of us are writers. To be a writer you have to train and there's no better way to do that than writing. Do it whenever you can. Force yourself from time to time if you have to. Do it consciously, look at your most common mistakes and try to fix them. Write a novel, write short stories, get out of your genre and explore new characters and situations.



Read



Reading is also part of the writer's training. If you are into soccer (or any sport) you will have seen that coaches force their players to watch matches of their rivals. It's a way to learn, to learn new tactics and improvised plays, to see how a certain player moves. If you want to write, you have to know what you're doing. You have to know your trade. 



Read a lot. Unlike writing, which requires effort on your part, reading can offer you a moment of peace. It's a refuge after a busy day; it's a moment of calm when you have a lot of work to do.



Read a lot. You can learn from newspapers, articles or even  a really good essay sample base ( https://www.paperhelp.org/ ) . Read good books to see what you have to do and read bad books to know what you don't have to do. Read books in your genre to know the recurring themes, tropes and characters and read books in other genres to see other styles, other language and other characters.





8 tips to become a writer and make a living from writing by Paperhelp

A children's story with 15 questions about a frog who couldn't jump, but with encouragement from his friends, the frog eventually succeeded. Children read story and then answer 15 questions.

A children's story about a Frog learning to jump.

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

4 Succeed in English ESL worksheets pdf & doc