Keindahan merupakan ciptaan Sang MAHA PENCIPTA yang wajib untuk dipuji. Suatu hal di katakan indah jika hal tersebut membuat orang takjub dan mempunyai tangapan positif pada hal terebut sehingga membuat batin menjadi terasa senang dan tenang. Dalam kali saya akan membahas suatu keindahan alam. Yaitu keindahan alam bawah laut yang berada di Negara tercinta kita yaitu Indonesia tepatnya di bagian paling timur Indonesia yaitu papua barat yang terdapat banyak pulau-pulaunya yang eksotis, dan salah satunya yaitu RAJA AMPAT.

Raja Ampat atau ‘Empat Raja’ adalah nama yang diberikan untuk pulau-pulau ini. Sebuah nama yang berasal dari mitos lokal. Empat pulau utama yang dimaksud itu adalah Waigeo, Salawati, Batanta, Misool yang merupakan penghasil lukisan batu kuno.

Pecinta wisata bawah laut dari seluruh dunia banyak berdatangan ke ini untuk menikmati pemandangan bawah laut terbaik di dunia yang mengagumkan.

Sehingga membuat wisata ini menjadi petualangan yang takkan terlupakan. Banyak hal yang bisa dilakukan disini wisatawan-wisatawan dapat menyelam di bawah lautnya yang paling indah. menjelajahilah dinding bawah laut yang vertical.

Mereka pun dapat merasakan juga ketegangan menyelamnya, berdebar-debar saat terombang-ambing arus laut. Itu pastinya akan menjadi pengalaman pribadi yang tak terlupakan di Raja Ampat.

Wilayah pulau-pulau di Raja Ampat sangatlah luas, mencakup 4,6 juta hektare tanah dan laut. Di sinilah rumah bagi 540 jenis karang, 1.511 spesies ikan, serta 700 jenis moluska. Kekayaan biota ini telah menjadikan Raja Ampat sebagai perpustakaan hidup dari koleksi terumbu karang dan biota laut paling beragam di dunia. Bahkan, menurut laporan The Nature Conservancy dan Conservation International, ada sekitar 75 persen spesies laut dunia tinggal di pulau yang menakjubkan ini. Dalam catatan fotografi bawah laut di kawasan Raja Ampat, Imam Brotoseno menyebutkan bahwa kandungan kekayaan biota laut Raja Ampat paling besar di seluruh area segitiga koral dunia, yaitu Philipina-Indonesia-Papua Nugini. Segitiga koral ini merupakan jantung kekayaan terumbu karang dunia yang dilindungi dan ditetapkan berdasarkan konservasi perlindungan alam internasional.

Saat tiba di Raja Ampat maka kegembiraan sudah dapat dirasakan. Sontak terdengar seketika orang yang baru datang di sini memuji nama Tuhan karena mata dan hatinya dipikat pemandangan alam yang luar ini. Bila tidak Anda temukan respon itu maka diam terkesima adalah bukti seseorang telah ditawan setitik surga yang jatuh di lautan yang jernih sebening kristal dan ombak lembut menyapu pasirnya yang putih.

Pemandangan Raja Ampat seperti dalam mimpi tetapi ini bukanlah ilusi. Saat Anda mencemplungkan diri menyelam ke bawah laut maka perhatikan dengan detail hewan laut yang menyapa. Bisa jadi kuda laut kerdil mendekati jemari Anda seakan ingin menyambut berjabat tangan.

Mantaray dan wobbegong akan berenang bersama Anda. Ikan tuna, giant trevaliies, snapper, dan bahkan barracuda turut menyambut Anda di bawah laut. Itu belum cukup, bagaimana apabila ada teman baru yang ramah yaitu ikan dugong ingin berenang bersama Anda. Jangan lewatkan juga mengamati sibuknya ikan-ikan kecil menjaga wilayahnya hilir-mudik. Bila Anda beruntung mungkin dapat berenang bersama penyu laut. Keindahan yang alami, seolah benar-benar tidak tersentuh telah menjadi daya tarik utama di sini.

Opini saya tentang keindahan yang dimiliki Indonesia terutama wilayah paling timur Indonesia yaitu papua barat dengan pulaunya yang begitu indah serta pantai dan daratan yang menakjubkan . termasuk raja ampat merupakan sebuah pecahan surga yang silau akan pantulan cahaya dari biota biota laut yang terpantul oleh air laut yang jernih mempunyai nilai keindahan yang tidak dapat dijelaskan dengan kata melainkan dengan sebuah rasa takjub atas SANG PENCIPTA. Objek keindahan tersebut hanya sebuah serpihan kecil surga yang dapat memanjakan seluruh orang jika pergi kesana. Bersyukur bangsa dan Negara ini mempunyai sebagian kecil surga alam bawah laut yang indah. Lestarikan dan jaga titipan alam indah ini untuk anak cucu kita!!”

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TOEFL Reading Skills Practice

April 26, 2016 by bieasculture

TOEFL Reading Skills Practice

General Reading Activities
- Increase your vocabulary by keeping a journal of new words: Group word lists by academic subject areas—such as biology, geology, psychology—and create flash cards to review the words frequently.
- Learn to recognize the meanings of prefixes, suffixes and common roots of words.
- Study the organization of academic texts: Look for the main ideas and the supporting details and pay attention to the relationship between them. Notice how the end of one sentence relates to the beginning of the next sentence.
- Make a list of the important points of the passage and then write a summary of it. If the text is a comparison, be sure your summary reflects that. If the text argues two points of view, be sure both are reflected in your summary.

Targeted Activities

Reading to Find Information:

Try these activities to practice for “Reading to Find Information” questions:

Scan passages to find and highlight key facts (dates, numbers, terms) and information. Look for capital letters, numbers and symbols, and special formatting (such as italics) as you scan.

Look for words in a passage that have the same meaning. Highlight each one with the same color marker. Then look at the way the writer used these words with similar meanings.

Reading for Basic Comprehension

Try these activities to practice for “Reading for Basic Comprehension” questions:

Practice skimming a passage quickly to get a general impression of the main idea instead of carefully reading each word and each sentence.

Practice reading the introductory paragraph, the first sentences of paragraphs and the concluding paragraph to get the gist of a passage.

Reading to Learn

Whenever you read, identify the passage type (cause/effect, compare/contrast, classification, problem/solution, description, narration).

Reading Strategies
- Skimming

Skimming is one of the tools you can use to read more in less time. Skimming refers to looking only for the general or main ideas, and works best with non-fiction (or factual) material. With skimming, your overall understanding is reduced because you don’t read everything. You read only what is important to your purpose. Skimming takes place while reading and allows you to look for details in addition to the main ideas.

When to skim.Because skimming is done at a fast speed with less-than-normal comprehension, you shouldn’t skim all the time. There are many times, however, when skimming is very useful.

Skimming will help you locate the information quickly while making sure you use your time wisely. It will also increase the amount of usable material you obtain for your research.

Scaninng

Scanning is another useful tool for speeding up your reading. Unlike skimming, when scanning, you look only for a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything. You scan when you look for your favorite show listed in the cable guide, for your friend’s phone number in a telephone book, and for the sports scores in the newspaper. For scanning to be successful, you need to understand how your material is structured as well as comprehend what you read so you can locate the specific information you need. Scanning also allows you to find details and other information in a hurry.

How to scan. Because you already scan many different types of material in your daily life, learning more details about scanning will be easy. Establishing your purpose, locating the appropriate material, and knowing how the information is structured before you start scanning is essential.

Learning to use your hands while scanning is very helpful in locating specific information. Do you do anything with your hands to locate a word in a dictionary? To find a meeting time on your calendar ? To read a train or bus schedule? Using your hand or finger is extremely helpful in focusing your attention and keeping your place while scanning a column of material..

TOEFL Listening Skills Practice

April 10, 2016 by bieasculture

General Listening Activities

Start with recordings on familiar topics and gradually progress to topics that are new to you.

Listen to conversations, television shows and movies, and then listen to programs with academic content, such as NPR and BBC broadcasts. Start with short segments and progress to longer segments.

For beginners, listen first with English subtitles, if they are available. Then, without subtitles, listen for the main ideas and key details.

Listen again to understand the connections between ideas, the structure of the talk and/or the speakers’ attitudes and to distinguish fact from opinion.

If you like to listen on an english-based music, this is a good thing to learn from. Listen to them and search the meaning at dictionary for the more difficult words.

Targeted Activities

Listening for Basic Comprehension
- Comprehend the main idea, major points and important details related to the main idea.

Listening for Pragmatic Understanding
- Recognize a speaker’s attitude and degree of certainty
- Recognize a speaker’s function or purpose

Connecting and Synthesizing Information
- Recognize the organization of information presented
- Understand the relationships between ideas presented (for example: compare/contrast, cause/effect or steps in a process)
- Make inferences and draw conclusions based on what is implied in the material
- Make connections among pieces of information in a conversation or lecture
- Recognize topic changes in lectures and conversations, and recognize introductions and conclusions in lectures Listening Section Description