Native speakers please review and give corrections!

[daya]

Hello native speakers,

I hope you will not mind giving your corrections on this piece of writing for me. You are very generous to help me.

Thank you in advance.
Daya

I study in an university located in Hunan province in China majoring Electronics and Information Engineering as a junior.I love my specialty but I can't spend much time on it this year beacuse I have to spare my time to preparing for the National Entrance Examination for Postgraduate. Now our china's education system is not logical, but nothing will change in a short time. So the only thing we need to do is fixing my target and heading for it.

I realized there is much difference between reading and writing English. I think our education in English goes extremes and teaching is apart from actual application. For example, I can easily get a high score in an English test such as CET4 final exam, but as to using our English to do something there seem to be the most diffculties.

[Pete]

Hello native speakers,

I hope you will not mind giving your corrections on this piece of writing for me. You are very generous to help me.

Thank you in advance.
Daya

I study in an university located in Hunan province in China majoring Electronics and Information Engineering as a junior.I love my specialty but I can't spend much time on it this year beacuse I have to spare my time to preparing for the National Entrance Examination for Postgraduate. Now our china's education system is not logical, but nothing will change in a short time. So the only thing we need to do is fixing my target and heading for it.

I realized there is much difference between reading and writing English. I think our education in English goes extremes and teaching is apart from actual application. For example, I can easily get a high score in an English test such as CET4 final exam, but as to using our English to do something there seem to be the most diffculties.
Here are some suggestions:

I study am studying in an a university located in Hunan province in China, majoring in Electronics and Information Engineering as a junior. I love my specialty, but I can't spend much time on it this year beacuse because I have to spare spend my time to preparing for the National Entrance Examination for Postgraduate. Now our china's educational system in China is not logical, but nothing will change in a short time. So Therefore, the only thing we need to I can do is fixing my target and heading for it.

I realized there is much difference between reading and writing English. I think our education in English goes extremes is extreme and the teaching is apart distinct from actual application. For example, I can easily get a high score in on an English test such as the CET4 final exam, but as to for using our my English to do something, there seem to be the most many diffculties difficulties.

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I may not have caught everything, and of course there could be other ways to change some of the parts that didn't sound natural. Good luck.

[daya]

Hello Pete,

Your corrections are very helpful to me. The quality of natural speaking and writing is most difficult to achieve, but this is necessary if one is to avoid confusion! :D

Daya

[teleostomi]

as to for using our my English to do something
Hi Pete, could you explain why "as to" doesn't fit there? :confused:

[henz988]

because I have to spare spend my time to preparing for the National Entrance Examination for Postgraduate. .
Hi, Pete:
Would you please teach me something about this sentence pattern “spend my time to preparing”? It seems that “ spend ---on /in/to doing” are all OK rather than “ spend ---on sth.” and “spend --- in doing” as I was taught in middle school days?
Further, I really read of sentences as The Hilton spent 40 million dollars to build this and two adjacent villas,please explain it to me why.

Best regards.
Henz988

[liuchunsheng123456]

the only thing ( ) i can do is fix and head for it
Does the word "what" ommited here ?
teacher ,i am expecting your answer.

[Pete]

Hi, Pete:
Would you please teach me something about this sentence pattern “spend my time to preparing”? It seems that “ spend ---on /in/to doing” are all OK rather than “ spend ---on sth.” and “spend --- in doing” as I was taught in middle school days?
Further, I really read of sentences as The Hilton spent 40 million dollars to build this and two adjacent villas,please explain it to me why.

Best regards.
Henz988
My mistake. I should have struck out the word "to". It sounds best to say:
- ... spend my time preparing for ...

[henz988]

the only thing ( ) i can do is fix and head for it
Does the word "what" ommited here ?

the only thing (that ) i can do is (to) fix and head for it
to is often ommited in such sentences because of do,---and it is optional, not compulsory.

[Pete]

...Further, I really read of sentences as The Hilton spent 40 million dollars to build this and two adjacent villas,please explain it to me why.

Best regards.
Henz988
The phrase "to build" is an infinitive. A very common use of an infinitive is to explain the purpose that something was done. Here it (and the rest of the phrase that it is part of) explains why the Hilton spent all that money, what they accomplished by doing it.

[Pete]

as to for using our my English to do somethingHi Pete, could you explain why "as to" doesn't fit there? :confused:
Actually, both "as to" and "as for" are correct, and there is no difference in meaning. The sentence sounded more natural to me with "for", so I suggested the change. I think I felt it was more natural because "for" comes before a gerund so much more often than "to" does. When a verb form other than an infinitive follows "to", it often makes the listener have to stop and analyze the sentence to see just what the structure is.

[teleostomi]

That's a convincing explanation, thanks, Pete. If I may, could I ask one more question to you?



If "the" is required in "the CET4 final exam", why not in "TOEFL, TOEIC, Cambridge Exams? I noticed that one forum of Englishpage.com has this description:

Discuss TOEFL, TOEIC, Cambridge Exams (CPE, CAE, FCE, BET...) or any other English language tests or exams.

None of these tests has "the" on top of them. Why?

[henz988]

Thank you very much, Pete, and are the following sentences correct?

a) He spends most of his life’s energy on looking after them.
b) I’ll spend a lot of time to repair the bike.
c) Waiting for her took me three hours. (take / spend / cost)
d) I took one hour to wash my clothes.

Best regards.
Henz