English Conversation Course

Each and everyone of us played a card game at least once in their life. Maybe it was a War or Hold’em Poker using standard French 52-card deck. Maybe it was a Tarot. Or maybe it was something much less known and newer. History and origin Playing cards dates back as early as the 9th century. They were found in China during the Tang dynasty. Su E, Tang dynasty writer described Princess Tongchang, a daughter of the Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the “leaf game” in 868 with members of the Wei clan. A Chinese printed playing card dated c. 1400 AD - Wikipedia They were also known in India, Persia and Egypt. And it probably was Mamluk Egypt where Europeans learned how to play cards in the 14th century. After many centuries of evolution they became the 52-card deck which we all know and which is (much more rarely) known as French deck. Popular card games Probably the most popular card game is Texas Hold’em a variant of Poker. It uses full 52-card French deck and needs at least two p...

GMO foods (also genetically engineered food) are genetically modified foods produced from organism whose genetic material (DNA) has been modified during the process of genetic engineering. The aim of that process is to give original organism special feature, such as increased resistance to diseases. Although genetically modified food can have some beneficial effects on human health, it may also be seriously dangerous. Here are some pros and cons of GM foods. PROS: GMO food is considered to be highly profitable especially among governments and agribusiness. In their opinion genetically engineered foods increase food supply, prevent famines and significantly support farmers. They also claim that GMO foods are better food quality and taste. Moreover, thanks to crop disease resistance, plants are not only larger but also generate revenue. GMOs are beneficial to farmers, cause they do not have to use herbicides and pesticides, their crops are already resistant to diseases. What’s mo...

It was not so long ago that the government of Ireland established throughout a popular vote the right to same sex marriage. More than 62.07% of voters approved that law and agreed to add to the Constitution the following statement: "marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex". However, it was not Ireland that first disposed favorably to same marriage couples, since it has its beginning in 2001. Below is the list where gay and lesbian marriage are already legal according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. Denmark was the first country that offered civil unions for gay couples in 1989. Since 1 July 2010 gay and lesbian couples might apply jointly for adoption and in 2012 same sex people could legally get married. When it comes do the Netherlands, gay marriage was legalized in 2001 and it was the first country to state that law. Soon after same sex couples were given an o...

Have you heard of Kickstarter ? Of course you have. If you use the Internet, have some friends on Facebook or follow somebody on Twitter there is no way you never saw somebody sharing a marketing campaign of another will-be-superb-in-the-future product. It is even quite likely that you thought about one or one of your friends talked with you about financing a startup using Kickstarter, am I right? I bet I am. Kickstarter vs. Crowdfunding What in fact is crowdfunding? According to WordSpy.com the term was first used in August 2006 but the idea is much older. With ease we can go back a few centuries and notice that projects like the Statue of Liberty were in fact crowdfunded, or fund raised as this term was in use these times. Statue of Liberty - Wikipedia Crowdfunding became popular with the launch of ArtistShare in 2003 and later with emergence of IndieGoGo (2008) and Kickstarter (2009). Right now Kickstarter probably is the most popular crowdfunding platform supporting projects...

Nuclear power plants are not a new idea, and unlike other renewable sources of electricity such as wind or hydroelectric powered plants, they have no extra requirements from the environment. Despite this most of power still comes from coal (39%) and gas (22%). Nuclear energy now accounts for only 11% of world electricity production and probably will be decreasing. [source] This video offers a brief introduction to the subject: Currently, due to the Fukushima disaster, moods concerning nuclear energy are lower than ever. In Europe (mostly Germany) we experience gradual decrease of active power plants caused by protests of the environmentalists. Germany under pressure of social-democratic Green government started to retreat from nuclear energy and it is promised that their last nuclear power plant will be closed before 2022. Due to hastiness of this project the demand for electricity has been mostly ensured by fossil fueled power plants (it's slowly being replaced by renewable po...

What are the key features of game design? What makes us enjoy the game? What makes the game worth playing? Every gamer is different, so there is no universal answer to this question. Probably the first major attempt to determine the source of fun in games was this little chart: This theory is called Bartle's Taxonomy. It could be a little outdated, since it was roughly formulated in 2000, but it grasps the concept of major game activities or rather major game archetypes. This chart divides players into four categories and determine the core feature of the game they can be interested in. The easiest way to remember the four categories of players is to use card symbols: Achievers are  diamonds  (they always seek for treasure). Explorers are  spades  (they dig around for information). Socializers are  hearts  (they  empathize  with other players). Killers are  clubs  (they hit people with them). [s...