2 books you should have next to you when studying English...

If you don't have those yet, here are 2 books you should really consider buying:

- Grammaire anglaise de l’étudiant or Grammaire pratique de l'anglais, edited by Ophrys.

- Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary, by Collins Cobuild. I think the last edition also includes a CD-Rom.

Why use a monolingual dictionary: it stops you from translating systematically into your own language, therefore making it easier to think naturally in English after a while. Moreover, you will learn to explain subjects and concepts directly in English, contributing to a more fluent conversation.

I have been using those references for 15 years...

Text 1: Apple, iPhone and innovation

Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite

By Dan Lyons Creator of the 'Fake Steve' blog

Apple unveils the latest version of its iPhone this Wednesday*. It will be the first since the death of Steve Jobs. To mark the occasion the BBC asked Dan Lyons, Newsweek magazine's technology editor and creator of the satirical blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, to pen an article about the firm's progress over past year. This is his provocative view.

Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming.

Back in 2006 I launched a blog where I pretended to be Apple CEO Steve Jobs. My alter ego, "Fake Steve," had a good run, but I shut it down in January 2011 when it became apparent that Jobs was in poor health. Nevertheless, even now, I'm constantly wondering what Steve would think about whatever Apple is doing.

This week it's the the iPhone 5. Everyone pretty much accepts that Apple will introduce it, and there have been so many leaks that everybody pretty much seems to know what it's going to be. Word is it will look a lot like the last two versions of the iPhone, except a bit thinner and a bit taller, with upgraded guts and a refreshed operating system.

Resources online

English is everywhere on the web; and I am not referring to American series only!
Go beyond and learn from different perspectives.

News & business

US resources
Harvard Business Review. www.hbr.org
The Wall Street Journal. www.online.wsj.com
The New York Times. www.nytimes.com
Forbes magazine (business). www.forbes.com
CNN International. www.cnn.com
Al Jazeera English. www.aljazeera.com

UK resources
Good old BBC. www.bbc.co.uk
Financial Times. www.ft.com
The Economist. www.economist.com
The Times. www.thetimes.co.uk
The CIM magazine. www.themarketer.co.uk

Rest of the world
France24. www.france24.com
Euronews. www.euronews.com

Other interests

Conde Nast Traveller. www.cntraveller.com/
National Geographic. www.nationalgeographic.com/

Online resources to improve your English
Learn English with BBC. www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
British Council. www.britishcouncil.org/france-english-learn-english-online.htm

Don't hesitate to share your own references.