It has become synonymous with excellence

We restrict access to our premises = locaux

Fees are invoiced = facturés per year

You can pay in the following ways

Fees payable on enrolment

think Jim Trelease addresses the questions about when to start reading very well in his book, "The Reading Handbook." To answer, Trelease asks a question in return. "When did you start talking to your baby?" Of course, the answer to this second question is simple --immediately!

All parents of newborns start talking to their babies in the moments following birth. We don't have to think about this. We just do it. And there is no thought about whether the baby will understand. Talking to a newborn is just something that is natural. Babies simply love to hear the voices of the two most important people in their lives -- Mom & Dad. I did not sit down with Jack from the age of birth and read to him.

Entrepreneurs remain unscathed = indemnes

Tracey Weinrib, 40, has not been daunted =intimidés by recession in starting her own business. She launched bespoke = sur mesure fashion jewellery website just as banks were being bailed out = renflouées by the taxpayer

If you just read when your teacher tells you to (e.g. 2 short articles per week in your English class), you are not going to make any progress. At such a rate, even if you learn something one week, you will forget it next week. You need to read, on average,at least a few pages per day. For this, you need to take charge of your learning — get some books and start reading on your own.

I dunno what the guy’s cause is, but one thing is for certain, he caused you to ask me a question about him.

blistering attacks= attaques piquantes

there is a big question as to where in the school’s present courses will this TOEFL preparation course fit

As to your concerns regarding specific courses targeted towards preparation for TOEFL, I have to say that I strongly believe that preparation courses for any ESOL exam are limited to only exam stategy and practice.
In my experience of 16 years, success appears to depend on the extent to which the learner has assimilated the language from Basic levels onwards. The necessity for a strong language base is absolute.
In order to prepare our students for ANY situation, we are obliged to adopt SOUND classroom methodology, help to provide our students with the necessary skills/tools, then reflect upon, evaluate and then strive to improve upon not only our teaching skills, but also our attitude towards our student's ever changing needs.
If the fundimentals are in place the rest will come!

you will be set exercises for homework

Contador clinches overall victory

Juan Manuel Garate of Spain celebrates winning the 20th stage

it was his final outing= sortie

afterwards the American admitted that he was being hampered by a tight groin and that he was taking things "day by day".

it had more to do with fatigue after his disrupted training schedule.

he will not feature for= représenter England

does everything within his power to achieve maximum fitness to play cricket

I realised that I tend to move very quickly towards achieving

solutions. The ELP showed me that speed is not the only factor

and that it is just as important to bring my team with me.

Otherwise, it becomes very difficult to make things happen.

to help you get the most from the learning experience.

My background lies in European sales

I work harder to ensure that my colleagues buy into my plan.

on the web, in the news or on the desktop.

it does not happen overnight. = en une nuit

you study each day for 10 minutes

It was also good to return to studying = retourner étudier

to look over it = examiner qqch

the world is my oyster attitude

To 'take (or pull, or bring) down a peg (or two)' is to lower someone's high opinion of themselves.

Fina takes another step to rein in the high-tech suits.

FINA, swimming'sinternational governing body, on Friday approved another measure to limit high-tech swimsuits that have helped to set more that 100 world records over the past two years. A U.S proposal to limit the amount of swimsuit coverage between the waist and knees for met, not beyond the shoulders or below the knees for women was overwhelmingly passed by the FINZ congress, meeting in Rome during the world championships. The new rule also says suits shall only be made from "textiles" but that term mus be defined. The new rule will not take effect at these swimming championshis, where dozens of world records could be set in suits made from materials such as polyurethane.

a real London Geezer= un type

Armstrong risked his record on this Tour

When Lance Armstrong's name was announced at the team presentation in Monaco two days before this Tour de France began, Tour director Christian Prudhomme held his breath.

"At first, I was worried and scared because 50 percent of the e-mails I received were against Armstrong coming back and 50 percent of the e-mails were for it." I didn't know what would happen.

But Prudhomme did not hear boos or hisses as he might have when Armstrong was last at this race = était dernièrement à cette course

No one cried "Dopage" which is the French word for doping. He said the only sounds were cheers as Armstrong waved to his admirers

Right away, I knew that it was the beginning of something different." Prudhomme said Friday, at the start of Stage 19 of this 21-stage race. since then, Armstrong has shown a different side of himself to the French. On television on Friday morning, he was seen joking around with with a boy at a race, sticking his tongue out at him. In a television interview earlier in the race, he was seen with former Tour winner Laurent Fignon, a Frenchman who is battling cancer. Armstrong, a cancer survivor, told him that he could beat the disease. It gave us a sense that he is a human being." Prudhomme said. "He seems to have completely changed from the picture the French had on him before." Nearly 3 weeks into this Tour, Armstrong is 3rd place, with 2 stages left to go in this Tour he once dominated. He is 5 minutes, 21 seconds behind his Astana teammate Alberto Contador. He is 50 seconds back from second-place Andy Schleck, of the saxo Bank team. And, suddenly, he has become a sympathetic figure here in France, the country that once seemed to dislike him the most.

"For me, it's completely mysterious because in the past he was one of the biggest enemies, among the people and in the press" said Gille Comte, one of the cycling editors for the French sports newspaper L'Equipe. " I think the French people still believe that he did some doping in the past, but he is back and he has shown that he is a talented rider. They know that he had so much to lose-- his whole career -- by returning, and I think they find that courageous."

Comte and others, including Prudhomme, said that Armstrong has shown that he is not invincible, and people relate to that. Like other riders, he has suffered on mountain climbs. He has known the defeat of falling back from the front of the pack. And, for all to see, Armstrong even fell short of securing the job of team leader on his own Astana squad. Contador, the 2007 Tour champion, earned that precious role by besting Armstrong in the mountain stages. Armstrong was 12th on Friday in Stage 19, when Mark cavendish, the British rider from Team volumbia-HTC, won his fifth stage of this race. Though Armstrong gained four seconds on fourth-place Bradley Wiggins, of the Garmin-Slippstream, it is far from enough to guarantee him a place on the podium when the race ends on Suncay. Next up for the riders is the penultimate stage: a notoriously gruelling climb to the top of Mont Ventoux on the schedule for Saturday. But for Armstrong, who is 37 and one of the oldest riders here, all is not lost. His return to racing was still worth it, he said. "It would be nice, of course, to win something, but to me there has been a lot of victories here" he said last Tuesday, after a stage in the Alps. " And those victories haven't been crossing the finish line with hands in the air. And going to the podium, and getting flowers and those things. "There have been other things that I can take away from this as a victory. I can look to the reason it dit it." When Armstrong came out of retirement, he said his goal was to win an eighth Tour and to gain attention for his foundation, which promotes cancer awareness. He said the foundation part of his return has been clearly a success. Still, at this Tour, the once-invincible rider has shown his cracks. When contador beat him at a climbing stage last week, Armstrong stood at the top of the climb and conceded the team leader's role to him. He called it a relief because the long-running question of which rider was stronger was finally answered. " I think people were quite inspired by that, and shocked" he said. Later, he did not mope = broyer around his ho tel, as a younger Armstrong might have. " It wasn't like I was like ' Oh god, my life is over'" he said, adding that he wasn't sad, though people likely(= probablement) expected it. He said he was realistic about the outcome. Contador has simply been better. Armstrong says he remembers being young and ambitious, like Contador, but he has grown past that. He said the question of whether he had doped in the past or not has been answered by his performance this season. Not only has he been near the top of the pack, but he has also been targeted for dozens of drug tests. " I think that it validates that those performances were pure" he said. Still, doubters of Armstrong's performance remain, including one man in the time trial course on Thursday, who held up a sign saying "Dopage", as Armstrong and his personal coach, chris Carmichael rode by. But the rest of the signs were positive, carmichael said. "He is really enjoying it", Carmichael said. "When you don't have people spitting on you or cursing at you when you are racing up Mont Ventoux, that makes you feel pretty good."

Alberto Contador all but seals overall victory.

rare = saignant

Is IT your Achilles' heel? = talon d'achille

catering= restauration

Do you think in pictures

recipes=recette

no one would mistakenly take his bags

brightly coloured ribbons = rubans de couleurs vives

see his bags being grabbed by a well dressed man = attrappé

GCSEs to be scrapped remplacés in favour of a national Diploma.

woes= malheurs

a vow= voeu

to be summoned = être cité

it still gives me a thrill to sow seeds = une grande joie de semer

a minor burn = une petite brulure

to choke = étouffer

emergency medical help = assistance d'urgence

a casualty = un accident

to be at rock bottom = etre au plus bas

to bedevil = tourmenter

to unravel = défaire

to get bursary = avoir une bourse

why learn?= Pourquoi apprendre?

Why I got started = Pourquoi je me suis lancé

The skills I had were hands-on skills= compétences manuelles

a solicitor = un avocat

I just felt elated = heureux

to search for a course = chercher un cours

progression opportunities = opportunités de progression

the remainder of the timetable = le reste de horaires

There is controversy over the discussion that

find a course= trouver un cours

or example, many groups or teams formed in a business context are project oriented and therefore are temporary in nature par nature

important to you

One way of preventing une façon d'empêcher such problems is for companies to provide realistic job previews to their employees.^[6]

London: first days

Day 1

t was a sight to behold voir and left no doubt there was plenty more where that came from as the Peloton contemplates another two days in the Pyrenees.

A day long break had seen Brice Feillu, making his Tour debut, win the longest stage of the 2009 tour and fellow escapee Italy's Rinaldo Nocentini profit by taking the yellow jersey, a fairly temporary arrangement one suspects. The real battle was behind the break in an elite group of GC contenders including Contador and Armstrong, not to mention Bradley Wiggins who, in the form of his life, produced his finest ever ride in the high mountains.

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Just when it seemed the main contenders concurrents had settled for the status quo – albeit that Fabian Cancellara, wearing yellow at the start of the day, had been dropped at the start of the climb – Contador launched an astonishing attack which demonstrated a God given ability on the steepest sections of road.

While Armstrong and his Astana colleague Andreas Kloeden were riding tempo at the front of the group and apparently talking tactics, Contador attacked from 20 yards back and left everybody for dead with only Andy Schleck reacting to the initial surge.

Contador, who started the day in third place overall 19 seconds behind Armstrong, put 22 seconds in the Texan a mis 22 secondes au texan before the finish and is now second overall. More importantly he has re-established the leadership of his team just at a time when some of the toughest stages beckon.

It was raw and compelling pur et impérieux to watch and no amount of PR spin from all concerned can negate what we saw with our own eyes. Contador, having definitely come off second best to Armstrong on Monday during the now infamous peloton split en route to La Grande Motte, hit back with a massive body blow coup of his own. He is standing up to Armstrong resister à Armstrong and not many have done that over the years.

The next two days should see much more of the same and, hopefully, the glorious sight of a British rider involved in the GC mix. Wiggins, having shed jeté a stone since the Beijing Olympics has been in sparkling form on the road for most of the season and showed in the Giro au giro that he is beginning to work out how to live with the best in the mountains. Now based in Girona and loving the lifestyle and improved training opportunities, he is beginning to fulfil remplir much of the early promise he showed on the road before the track claimed him.

Backing up a big day in the mountains with another just 24 hours later is always the acid test but if Wiggins can continue to ride alongside the climbing specialists for the rest of this weekend perhaps dreams of a top 20, or even better, finish in Paris can come true.

In the meantime he has played his part in the best ever week for Britain on the Tour de France. Mark Cavendish has claimed two Stage wins and a third place to lead the points competition, Wiggins has bagged a second and third in the team time-trial and individual time trial and is currently a heady fifth in GC while David Millar played a big part in Garmin's second place in the team-time-trail and rode with great élan in Thursday's solo break for glory in Barcelona.

Come July 26 and the peloton’s arrival in Paris, the past seven days may also go down as the week which saw Wiggins emerge as a genuinevéritable contender for overall glory in cycling’s most famous race.

The fear among those rubbing their handsse frottant les mains at the prospect perspective of a civil war in the Astana camp is that Contador’s brilliance in the mountains will render tactics and mind games irrelevant.

The six kilos that the Londoner has sheda perdu this year are suddenly the talk of the Tour.

he will be there or thereabout là ou pas très loin

The fortnight la quinzaine

the pain began in earnest sérieusement

a showdown une confrontation

No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery corruption,"

Day 7

A warden= garde

Day 8

Picky= pointilleux

Q: I'm an intelligent, talented and creative person, but I'm lacking motivation to perform my job to the best of my abilities,du mieux que je peux and it is starting to show on commence à le voir. I'm planning on leaving my firm for graduate school next year, but in the meantime, do you have any ideas on how I can regain my motivation at work? There are no upcoming projects which even hold the remotest level of interest for me, and based on my recent performance review, I would not likely be assigned them to begin with.

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A: The first step in getting your motivation back is admitting that it's missing in the first place. My next suggestion is to try to focus on the big picture of your career instead of the daily frustrations of your current job. If you're on your way to getting an advanced degree, then you have already realized a very important goal. Give yourself credit for this! Also, realize that nothing and no one have the power to control your attitude but you. For some help here, I recommend picking up Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living," and "How to Win Friends & Influence People." Also, sign up for any personal development or leadership courses your company offers, and stay busy so you don't have time to sit around and think about how much better your job situation could be.

Q: A question I haven't seen addressed in your column is whether or not it makes sense to pursue an M.B.A. at age 54 à 54 ans. I am currently working overseas as an expat, so most likely I would have to enroll in a Web-based M.B.A. opportunity. Is that a good value and will it be accepted by prospective employers? If it takes me two to three years to complete, will it have value for me outside of personal satisfaction?

A: Online degree programs are becoming increasingly credible, especially if geography prevents you from attending a particular university in person. At 54, you could be working around 15 more years. This is a good bit of time, so you're right to think about what's best for your career in the semi long term. The question you should ask yourself is, what will the M.B.A. buy you in terms of expanded career prospects and income potential? Do you enjoy the field you're currently in, and will an M.B.A. help you move up there? If you feel that your trajectory will be similar whether you get an advanced degree or not, then you might want to skip it (unless personal satisfaction is enough of a reason for you, which it very well might be).

Q: Back in the late 90s when tech was hot, I left college after three years to make money at a start-up. Now in my early thirties, I am looking to make the transition from managing a technical team to real management. I am concerned that the lack of a degree may be a roadblock when competing with people who have a bachelor's degree or M.B.A. My college credits are no longer valid so I would have to start over to get a degree. To date, I have simply listed my time at school without listing a degree on my resume (which hasn't been an issue since my skills are more important than a degree at my level). Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

A: I think if you want to make the leap into general management, your lack of even a bachelor's degree is going to hold you back in most organizations. I can see why whether you graduated or not wouldn't be as relevant to IT departments, but I have a feeling that management is going to be a different story. Have you thought about taking classes part time while you continue to work and enhance your technical skills? The good news is, if you've already had three years of college, a lot of the courses should be pretty easy, and perhaps your company provides tuition (frais de scolarité) assistance. An argument can certainly be made that more schooling would increase your value in your current job as a tech team lead.

Many student groups go one step further to include individuals from even more diverse backgrounds. This year we have a concert pianist and a plastic surgeon chirurgien. As with every year comme tous les ans, we also have many other doctors, lawyers, military personnel and people from other ‘non-business backgrounds.’ Often our many incoming students from corporate business backgrounds will underestimate how much they will learn from their more ‘non-traditional’ peers…and then the MBA starts and they find out exactly why each individual was recruited.

We work hard to ensure that every single student will have something special to offer to his or her classmates. Our thorough and competitive admissions process helps us to recruit such talented individual