When the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Mieko's nearby village was turned into ruins, and her hand was badly injured. Mieko loves to do calligraphy more than anything, but now she can barely hold a paintbrush. And she feels as if she has lost something that she can't paint without-the legendary fifth treasure, beauty in the heart. Then she is sent to live with her grandparents and must go to a new school. But Mieko is brave and eventually learns that time and patience can help with many things, and may even help her find the fifth treasure.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

A fun and informative guide to some of the more obscure, curious and tricky words in the English language.

Based on years of experience teaching English to non-native speakers, this insightful How To guide describes not only the particular challenges that multilinguals face compared to native English speakers but also the unique benefits of working in multiple languages.

All important English skills: capitalization, punctuation, and all eight parts of speech. Table Of Contents BEGINNING ASSESSMENT TEST CAPITALIZATION I & First Words Proper Nouns Proper Adjectives Review PUNCTUATION Ending Marks & Sentences Commas: Dates & Addresses Commas: Introductory Words & Phrases Commas: Nouns of Address Commas: Words in a Series Commas: Commas & Quotations Commas: Compound Sentences Commas: Appositives Commas: Quotation Marks Apostrophes Review NOUNS Person, Place, or Thing Common & Proper Nouns Singular & Plural Nouns Concrete & Abstract Nouns Review PRONOUNS Taking the Place of a Noun Possessive Pronouns Pronouns & Contractions Subject & Object Pronouns Review VERBS Action Verbs Linking Verbs Tense Irregular Verbs Spelling Rules Subject-Verb Agreement Helping Verbs Past Participles Review ADJECTIVES Definition Articles & Possessives Proper Adjectives Demonstrative Adjectives Comparative Adjectives Special Adjectives Review ADVERBS Definition -ly Adverbs Comparative Adverbs Good-Well & Bad-Badly Review PREPOSITIONS Definition Object of the Preposition Prepositional Phrases Prepositional Phrases as Modifiers Review CONJUNCTIONS Coordinating Conjunctions Correlative Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Review INTERJECTIONS Definition Review FINAL ASSESSMENT TEST ANSWERS.