{"id":2147,"date":"2015-09-07T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2147"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:45:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:45:20","slug":"entertainment-news-for-english-reading-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/entertainment-news-for-english-reading-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Entertainment News for English Reading Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already given you some advice on how to find your buy-in<\/a>\u2014 how to take the things you\u2019re interested in and connect them to TOEFL-style academic reading. But sometimes it helps to focus some of your reading practice just<\/em> on your interests and hobbies\u2014one of the key ingredients to successful, effective reading practice is fun<\/em>!<\/p>\n

So today we\u2019re going to look at a reading subject that probably interests all of you in some way: entertainment<\/em>! That\u2019s right, I\u2019m talking about reading material related to TV, movies, and popular music. Of course, you can also learn English directly from film<\/a> and song<\/a> itself. But often the articles you read about entertainment are just as interesting, and a great introduction to in-depth English reading.<\/p>\n

In terms of subject matter, sentence structure, and vocabulary, entertainment websites aren\u2019t quite the same as regular academic reading. So if you do read some of the sites listed below, be aware of the ways that they\u2019re different from TOEFL Reading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fanpop<\/h2>\n

True to its name, Fanpop is a website created by and for fans<\/em> of all kinds of entertainment. (A fan<\/em> is an ordinary person who loves a certain type of entertainment.) The articles on the Fanpop website are selected by the website\u2019s editors, but are written by the members of the various online fan clubs within the site.<\/p>\n

The vocabulary level of most of the Fanpop articles is similar to that of the TOEFL, but with less technical or scientific language. The tone of the writing is also less formal and more conversational.<\/p>\n

The Fanpop site itself is a little hard to navigate. To get to the articles, you need to look at the link bar near the top of the Fanpop homepage<\/a>. In that link bar, you can click to get to the pages for TV<\/a>, movies<\/a>, celebrities<\/a>, books<\/a>, and anime (Japanese animation)<\/a>. Once you\u2019re at one of those pages, you can click the image for your favorite thing in that category (a TV show, movie actor, singer, cartoon, etc\u2026) and get to a specific fan club page. When you get to a fan page, you can finally<\/em> click \u201carticles\u201d in a new menu bar that appears at the top of the page.<\/p>\n

As an example, here\u2019s the page for Supernatural<\/a>, one of my favorite TV shows. And here\u2019s the Supernatural articles sub-page<\/a>. (If this is too tricky, you can also use the site\u2019s search function on the upper right hand corner of the search page, or do a custom Google search of the site<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Entertainment sections of news websites<\/h2>\n

News sites such as Time and CNN are already pretty good for TOEFL reading practice. These kinds of sites also have sub-sections just for entertainment news. CNN\u2019s entertainment page is here<\/a>, and Time\u2019s online entertainment section is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On news sites like these, the celebrity and entertainment industry gossip articles are surprisingly similar to TOEFL-style reading, in terms of vocabulary and general reading level. There can even be some technical and academic language. You\u2019ll see this when the articles focus on celebrity medical issues or the process of producing music and film. There are still some articles that are more playful, conversational and informal. And music\/TV reviews tend to actually have a higher<\/em> level of vocabulary than typical TOEFL reading practice. Reviewers are often literature and film scholars with advanced degrees, and their writing can get quite wordy.<\/p>\n

CNN and Time aren\u2019t the only news websites out there, and pretty much every major news website has an entertainment section. So be on the lookout for this kind of reading practice as you surf the web.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Entertainment Weekly<\/h2>\n

Entertainment Weekly<\/a> covers the same subject matter as Fanpop\u2014 entertainment of every kind. But unlike Fanpop, EW is written by paid professional journalists. Of the sites I\u2019ve told you about, I personally find EW to be the most fun. The site is very well organized and the writers are talented and enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

Be warned, though\u2014Entertainment Weekly is the least TOEFL-like site mentioned here. The reading level is more complicated than the TOEFL, with high-level vocabulary and long, winding sentences. And at the same time, it\u2019s less formal. Entertainment Weekly writers use a lot of slang and culturally specific words and phrases, stuff you won\u2019t hear much outside of North America.<\/p>\n

You can treat Entertainment Weekly as a way to really stretch your English ability. If you can understand everything on this website easily and comfortably, you\u2019re probably TOEFL ready. And you may even be ready to start studying for the GRE.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve already given you some advice on how to find your buy-in\u2014 how to take the things you\u2019re interested in and connect them to TOEFL-style academic reading. But sometimes it helps to focus some of your reading practice just on your interests and hobbies\u2014one of the key ingredients to successful, effective reading practice is fun! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13617],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEntertainment News for English Reading Practice - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/entertainment-news-for-english-reading-practice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Entertainment News for English Reading Practice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve already given you some advice on how to find your buy-in\u2014 how to take the things you\u2019re interested in and connect them to TOEFL-style academic reading. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}