Question from the test. Please help me out. 'The family (is/are) together' is correct in the US; in England, they say 'the family (is/are) together .'

Why I can't speak English Part 2 Why I can't speak English Part 2 This thought blown my mind away for a little and I said to myself, okay, my vocabulary is around 6000 words, but obviously, it includes both most popular words and less popular ones. What if I learn exactly TOP 3000-5000 of the most popular words and will master using them so perfectly so that I don’t need a single second trying to translate the word in my head. I thought this way I could finally have a major progress in the way I speak. This idea deprived me of a sleep. I started gathering the set of Top-5000 most popular words, avoiding 100500% obvious words, like mother, father, cat, dog, etc. Then I made a little test. All words seemed perfectly familiar to me, I needed no time memorizing them, but! When I tried a reverse translation test (from my language to target language), I faced so much troubles with the very easiest words that just completely blown me away. And all this happened with such obvious words that I doubted at first as to whether I need them in my set at all. After this reverse translation test I finally understood that my vocabulary is not 6000 words as I thought before; because when it comes to speaking, vocab shrinks so hard that it can reach roughly a level of 500-1000 words. So, starting from yesterday I learn the most popular words that I knew before, but now I only try to translate from my own language to the target language. And in couple months I’m gonna compare the results. God bless those who managed to read to this point! :)

Developing leadership skills The process of working on yourself should not be bothering or boring. Try to do it more like a game. You could draw, or make a list. Use your imagination. For instance, you could prepare a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. It brings a great picture of where are you at this point of time, what can you work on and what can you use as a competitive advantage and develop even further. After you understood what your weaknesses are - do not concentrate on them. Instead, develop a plan to work on the weaknesses in order to make it less threatening to your overall performance. After that, make an emphasize on your strengths, make them even more powerful in order to appreciate existing opportunities. But at any time just remember that Rome wasn't built for one day. And so is your character. Be patient. It is better to work on yourself during one hour daily than struggle for twelve hours once a week and promote a laziness six days a week. Remember that actions create habits, habits create character and character creates destiny.

If you ever planned to visit Russia, do it now! Before the well-known events that happened in Ukraine and Crimea, Russia was quite a stable country where the US dollar cost 40 Rubles. However after the Ukraine crisis came, several countries imposed economic sanctions on Russian economy and oil prices fallen dramatically over relatively short period of time. And since one-third of Russian income is dependent on sale of oil, the economy suffered a major crush which resulted in decision taken by the National Bank to devalue national currency. After a couple months US dollar cost 60, 70 and even 80 Rubles. As the time passes, the government managed to stabilize the economy and now the cost of 1 dollar fluctuated from 63 to 67 Rubles. Now imagine that 3 years ago you came to Russia. You go to Starbucks and buy yourself a coffee, say a latte. The price is 240 Rubles. Divided by 40 Rubles will result in 6 bucks. Then you go and book a hotel room, which costs you 4000 Rubles (100 bucks). Then you decide to see a movie, which varies from 400 to 1200 Rubles (10-30 bucks), and then you go to a bar to watch your favorite football team game, also may vary from 500 to 5000+ Rubles (12-120 bucks) and so on and so forth. The situation is very different for you now. Imagine that you do same stuff: coffee is now 4 bucks instead of 6. Hotel is 60 instead of 100. Movie is from 6 to 20 bucks instead of 10-30. Bar is from 7 to 70 bucks instead of 12-120. In other words, everything has changed, everything is cheaper. I have to admit though the prices in Rubles are not completely the same as it was 3 years ago, but an increase of prices is not comparable to the drop of the value of our currency. Therefore, in any case – you will win in terms of money. And why exactly did I say “do in now?”. Well, the problem is that 2018 year may bring some surprises and instability to Russia. Unfortunately, not everyone in the world is happy with the current rulers in Kremlin and they may try to destabilize the situation like they did in Ukraine and like they tried to do in Russia in 2011 (fortunately for us, they failed). That is why I believe the situation may become a little bit unpredictable and you will want to reduce your risks. Now, as the situation is quite stable and the currency is quite cheap it is time for you to consider visiting our country. You will be certainly welcomed. At least we all hope that World Cup will be very peaceful, successful and pleasant for everyone across the globe as were Olympic Games in Soschi.