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Profile
In 2014 I retired from practicing law as an in-house corporate attorney in the San Francisco Bay Area. My wife is originally from Rio de Janeiro and she keeps an apartment in Barra da Tijuca, which we visit frequently -- mostly because she has family there. Since my retirement we have resided first in the Washington DC metro area, next in a suburb near Philadelphia, and currently in a suburb near Boston. My passion, both before and during my retirement, has been refereeing soccer. I have refereed at the amateur adult and college levels, but currently my focus is at the high school level.
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J.A.
Portuguese
Mar 5, 2022
Muito obrigado, Marc!
J.A.
Portuguese
Feb 13, 2022
Muito obrigado, Marc!
J.A.
Portuguese
Feb 5, 2022
Muito obrigado!
J.A.
Portuguese
Jan 30, 2022
Muito obrigado!
Activities
  • Answered
    In your second set, in reference to the car, you wrote "It is always breaking." It would be better to say "It is always breaking down." Note that "breaking" and "braking" are pronounced the same way, so maybe we English speakers prefer "breaking down" so as to avoid confusion with "braking." But we also use "breaking down" in reference to any machinery or appliances. Your blender may "break down" but your dishes just "break." Of course, it you drop the blender, it may "break." If the blender "breaks down," that means that something has gone wrong in the mechanism making it run.
    0 voted
    September 21, 2016
    0
  • Corrected

    learning English

    Hello guys :)
    That’s This is my first day with you .. and i’m  I'm so happy to speak the English language and learn it .
    I am studying civil engineering in mecca  Mecca.
    I wish to be able to finish* the TOEFL exam in few  a short time .

    *  It would better to rephrase this as "I wish to be able to take the TOEFL exam . . ." or "I hope to be able to pass the TOEFL exam . . ." or "I hope to ready to take the TOEFL exam . . ."  I don't know much about the TOEFL exam, but you'd normally only talk about "finishing" something that you'd already started, and I assume that the TOEFL exam isn't one where you take it in stages.  On the other hand, if there were multiple exams that you had to pass, it would be fine to say "I hope to be able to finish my exams" even if you hadn't started the taking the first one yet.

    0 voted
    September 21, 2016
    1
  • Answered
    As others pointed out, parents are given extremely broad latitude in choosing names for their children. There's a good wikipedia article about that subject here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_in_the_United_States There has recently been some controversy in the United States about discrimination against people whose names as associated with a particular racial or ethnic group. Over the course of the last few decades, many African Americans have started giving their children first names that distinctly different from standard Anglo-American names. This practice came about as part of the so-called "Black Pride" movement that started in the 1960s. There's a list of the top "White" names and top "Black" names here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/top-20-whitest-blackest-names/story?id=2470131. One context in which the controversy about discrimination against people with "Black" names has arisen concerns Airbnb bookings. Recent scientific experiments show that people with "Black" names have a harder time booking a room through Airbnb. See http://www.benedelman.org/publications/airbnb-guest-discrimination-2016-09-16.pdf Airbnb is actively working to combat that kind of discrimination.
    0 voted
    September 21, 2016
    0
  • Corrected

    The old houses above ours Head.

    The old houses above ours Head.our head.  [[Your meaning here is obscure.]]

    If you have thought about old actions that you do did  [[alternative: "have done"]],* you should, look for try to forget this** the bad things.
    Their effect*** and is horrible about on our body and soul. Also the thoughtful always attracts effect towards to soul**** . For example stress and depressed depression. these These feelings go beyond make making things bad for us. it’s doesn’t to lead goes on for some place.  ***** I’ve been reading many articles that say talk about this. And at moment I’m finding the new ways for to open my mind. I do Yoga and run every day. And I love this. ******

    Think about this.... Good luck and my advice for you is that you should find your own way for win about this to overcome such feelings.

    Take care.

    Thanks a million.

    *  I sounds more natural to say "If you have thought about things you have done in the past."

    ** The word "this" is singular but "bad things" is plural.  So "this" is wrong, but "these" or "those" would be grammatically correct.  Not all actions from the past are bad, so I thought you were just recommending that one forget some (but not all) actions of the past: i.e., the bad ones.

    ***  There is ambiguity whether you are referring to the bad things of the past or to thinking about those bad things.  Probably better her to change "Their effect" to "The effect of dwelling upon bad things that happened in the past ..."

    ****  Sorry, but I cannot discern your meaning in this sentence.

    *****  I can't understand what you were trying to say in the clause that I crossed out.  Maybe something like "They don't lead to any useful place."  But the logic is backwards.  Rather than say "not only are they bad, they are not even useful," it would be more logical to say "not only aren't they useful, they are actually bad for us."

    ****** Using "this" (singular) here is problematical, because it refers back to two things (plural): running and doing yoga.  Maybe say something like "I love this new routine."



    0 voted
    September 21, 2016
    1
  • Corrected

    Italy and earthquakes

    Another devastating earthquake hit the center of Italy a few weeks ago. Almost three-hundred people has have died and 2 towns has have practically been burned to the ground. Unfortunately, it this seems to happen every 3-4 years and every time causes a large amount of damage.
    What can we do for to avoiding or ,at least cutting down on the harms down?

    In Italy, earthquakes aren't as frequent as in Japan, for example. Nevertheless, most of the penisinsula is considered a seismic zone. Although predicting earthquakes is impossible, our government has the a responsibility of to investing in earthquake preparedness the prevention. Firstly, quake-proof standards have to be raised, especially in the zones more most endangered. Secondly, old buildings should be recovered strengthened in order to be able to withstand seismic forces in case of a quake. Indeed, the majority of the damage of the last major seismic event happened in old towns like Amatrice, which has been was totally destroyed.
    In my opinion, it should be forbidden to live in these unsafe buildings when they are placed located [[or situated]] in such a dangerous area. In a map that shows the risk of seismic events, the centre center of Italy is coloured purple, [["colour" is the British spelling]]  which means the highest level of risk possible. Therefore, it's unthinkable to let people live in more-ofthan-100-year-old buildings, and our government ought to help people to move to safer and newer constructions structures.
    Beyond that, I want to stress the importance of education. Behaving in a predetermined [[or rehearsed]] way during natural events disasters can increase the probability of surviving. People have to be taught specialized courses about what to do during an earthquake by specific courses.

    If we don't do anything to be ready, we will pay suffer the consequences every time a quake hits our country.
    0 voted
    September 20, 2016
    2
  • Corrected

    practicing English every day

    1.sweat
    Amber sweats a lot when she takes does exercises.

    2.swift
    I saw that a cat rans swift when a car would through it.  Sorry, but the part about the car does not make sense.  Saying "I saw that" usually suggests that you learned something (in this case, something about cats in general or about a specific cat).  If you are just reporting what you saw, leave out the "that" and say something like "I saw a cat run swiftly when a car sped towards it."  Notice that if "swift" is being used as an adverb, here modifying the word "ran," you must add the "ly," making it "swiftly."

    3.tablet
    I get a sick, so I take some throat tablets.  Change this to either "I got sick, so I took some throat tablets" or "I got sick, so I am taking some throat tablets" or "When I get sick, I take some throat tablets" or "I am sick, so I'm taking some throat tablets."  In some of these re-phrasings, it sounds better to leave out the word "some."  I.e., "I got sick, so I am taking throat tablets" or "When I get sick, I take throat tablets."  Using the word "some" suggests that you just took the throat tablets once.  But for most of us, a sore throat is going to last a good while and we'll need to take repeated doses of throat tablets.  Omitting the word "some" suggests that repeated doses are being taken.
    0 voted
    September 20, 2016
    2
  • Corrected

    Diary:002

    I wrote my diary 002! If you have a some free time, could you correct it for me? Thanks.

    Diary 002
    If you could cry on anyone's shoulder, whose would it be?
    ⇨I would cry on my friends' shoulder, but especially Yoshie's and Miki's. They're my best friends. When I cry on their shoulder, they always give me some Google advicesadvice. Also they try to make me smile.
    0 voted
    September 20, 2016
    2
  • Corrected

    Go to the Gym

    i come came back to the gym recently. It's more difficult to return to the gym when you had a good discipline that than when you didn't weren't. Before, I felt that I could do a lot of excercises but now It's it's complicated for me. The fact to that I think that I have to go to the gym makes me feel tired inmediately. immediately.  I'm frustated frustrated because I want to get back the physical condition that I had.
    0 voted
    September 20, 2016
    1
  • Corrected

    Could someone please help me with this text about my website and myself? Thanks in advance! :)

    Welcome to my personal blog about men care, cosmetics, health and other issues related to well-being from the perspective of a guy.

    The idea of this blog came up after realizing the existing lack of blogs and websites in pPortuguese that provide complete and quality information about this whole universe, in spite of the numerous blogs dedicated (mostly) to the female audience.

    Although there are various girl'sgirls' blogs talking about beauty and well-being, we have to recognize and to admit that men-care is sometimes a different universe whichthat [[when used properly, "which'' introduces an independent clause and would be preceded by a comma, whereas "that" introduces a dependent clause and would not preceded by a comma.]] deserves special attention. Of course some of the tips provided by girls are useful and quite relevant, and we should profit from them [[ugh -- there's an ambiguity of reference here, because "them" could refer either to "some of the tips" or to "girls," but both are plural so you need to use "them" and not "that."  And the context should make it clear that "some of the tips" is what "them" refers to]], but to me that but, to me, it seems much more interesting to enhance and build my knowledge about men's care from websites and blogs written by men.


    My intention here is to, not only to relate my personal experiences regarding the products I use or have the intention to use, but also to demystify, mostly and especially for bBrazilian readers, whichwho have the opinion that taking care of our skin and body is so much of a fussy or gay thing.

    0 voted
    September 16, 2016
    1
  • Answered
    Women often take their maiden name as a middle name when they get married (and in modern times many keep their maiden name as their last name). The mother of Lyndon Baines Johnson is an example: Rebekah Baines Johnson. Nor is it uncommon to use the mother's maiden name as the middle name of her child, as was done in Lyndon's case. Another example of that is John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Fitzgerald was his mother's maiden name). Myself, I was given my father's first name as my first name, and the first name of my mother's father as my middle name.
    0 voted
    September 12, 2016
    2