Pandora Internet Radio

If you've read my previous entry, I suppose you may be wondering how you can go about finding new music that suits your tastes. If so, I have some great news for you: thanks to the internet, an entire world of music is literally at your fingertips!

Pandora Internet Radio is an excellent resource for finding music. When you go to the Pandora website, you will first be asked to type the name of a musical artist or a song that you like. Next, Pandora will use a special system to analyze certain characteristics the song or artist that you've chosen, and it will create a personalized radio station for you. Your radio station will play songs by the artist you chose, but the best part is that it will also play songs by other artists that are similar in style. Because of this, Pandora is a great way to use your favorite music as a springboard for discovering new artists, songs, and genres.

So, what are you waiting for? Start exploring! Follow your ears! You just might be in for some pleasant surprises.

Happy listening!

Vocabulary

Go about (verbal idiom) -  start to do something

Suits your tastes (verbal idiom) - is acceptable to you

At your fingertips (adjectival idiom) - easily available

Resource (noun) - something useful

Analyze (verb) -to look at something carefully

Personalized (adjective) - designed in a way that is useful for a specific person

Style (noun) - a way of doing something

Springboard (noun) - something that helps you start to do something

Genre (noun) - a certain type or category of art, writing, music, etc.

Be in for (verbal idiom) - guaranteed to get or have

Vocabulary Practice

1. You can use your native language as a __________ for learning English.

2. He asked the librarian how he might __________ finding information on Halloween.

3. Fiction is a __________ of writing.

4. The internet is an excellent __________ for information on many topics.

5. If you go to a haunted house, you might __________ some surprises.

6. Pandora can help you find music that __________.

7.  She has read many Gary Paulsen books because she likes his __________ of writing.

8. The doctor will __________ his blood to find out why he is sick.

9. At the library, many different types of books are __________.

10.  All of this restaurant's foods can be __________ for each customer.

Grammar Point

 Exclamation points (!) are used at the end of a sentence to show extreme pain, fear, anger, or excitement. In this blog entry, I used several exclamation points to indicate excitement: "Start exploring! Follow your ears!...Happy listening!"

Grammar Practice

a. Write five sentences with exclamation points. 

b. For each sentence, write a brief explanation of why you used an exclamation point.

c. Imagine your sentences without exclamation points. How does the meaning of the sentences change?