Archive for September 21st, 2009
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21
Sep
2009
Living on the Gold Coast
The Gold Coast
The Gold Coast is an area in the southeast of Queensland, Australia, made up of 57km of coastline, stretching from Yatala to the border with New South Wales, bordered on the West by the Great Dividing Range at Lamington National Park. Not only does it feature spectacular beaches and World Heritage listed rainforests, but also a variety of shopping opportunities, recreation, cafes and restaurants. If you are looking to live and study on the Gold Coast, there are approximately 51 suburbs, in areas such as:
- Paradise Waters
- Surfers Paradise
- Broadbeach
- Sanctuary Cove
- Coombabah
- Southport
- Hope Island
- Biggera Waters
- Ashmore
- Coomera
- Yatala
- and Chevron Island, among many others.
Activities & Attractions
There is plenty to do on the sunny Gold Coast, from world-reknown beaches to theme parks, water sports and nature tours. Not only are there plenty of beaches, but beaches for swimming, surfing or just still water. Some of the beaches safest for swimming, away from rips and currents, include Burleigh Heads, Bilinga, Kirra, Currumbin, and Hastings Point. If you’re a surfer, the Snapper Rocks can’t be beaten. This is the beach where Roxy Pro and Quicksilver Pro surfing competitions take place. Other surfing destinations include the Spit, Surfers Paradise and Duranbah. Still water beaches suitable for swimming, fishing and other watersports such as kayaking, include the Gold Coast Broadwater and the Harley Park swimming lagoon.
Beyond the coast, along the Gold Coast Hinterland, there are farms, vineyards, villages, National Parks and rainforest reserves. Lamington National Park and Springbrook National Park offer bushwalk tracks where you can experience the rainforest, waterfalls and creeks. At O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat you can tour the tree tops walk, which involves nine suspension bridges up to 15m off the ground in the rainforest canopy. Then there is the Tamborine Mountain Rainforest Skywalk, a 300 metre long walkway that allows visitors to explore the upper levels of the rainforest and offers spectacular views.
21
Sep
2009
Language Dictionaries
Language Dictionaries
While there are different types of dictionaries (compact, historical, etc), the most common is a general purpose dictionary. The dictionary will give definitions of the target language word in the same language (i.e. it will give the definition of an English word in English). Many dictionaries are special-purpose, designed to define terminology of a particular speech community or industry, otherwise known as jargon (or as Webster’s online dictionary defines it: the specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same profession, often implying unintelligibility).
The functions of the general purpose dictionary are to provide definitions, proper pronunciation, correct spelling and derivations. It will also indicate which part of speech the word belongs to (verb, noun, adjective, adverb, article, etc), and will give examples of common usage of the word.
Dictionaries will give the generally accepted pronunciation. There are at least 47 sounds in the English language which are represented in dictionaries by using accent marks above emphasized letters (there is usually an explanation of the system used at the front or back of the dictionary). The dictionary will usually use italics to indicate the syllable in a word to be stressed. If a word is marked ‘informal’, ‘colloquial’ or ’slang’ it should not be used in formal settings.
Bilingual Dictionaries
Bilingual dictionaries are specialised dictionaries that translate words or phrases from one language (source language) to another (target language). They can be unidirectional, where it translates only from the source language into the target language, or bidirectional, where it also translates from the target language into the source language. Often bilingual dictionaries will indicate grammatical features of the word to show how it is to be used, and contain features such as verb tables and usage guides.
The most difficult aspect of creating and using a bilingual dictionary is the existence of lexemes (words that cover more than one area of meaning). The difficulty is in translating a lexeme when a word in the target language does not have an exact match of the multiple meanings of the source language word. For example, in English the word table can mean a piece of furniture or a set of data arranged in rows and columns. In Spanish, the word for the first meaning is mesa, however the word for a set of data is cuadro.