New Fast Track Topic Pages

[zzcguns]

In the first post on the new Clozemaster News pages -
CLOZEMASTER’S NEW FAST TRACK: EXPLORE 10,000 SENTENCES SPLIT INTO 10 DIFFERENT LEVELS – Clozemaster News
it says the following -

In addition to the main Fast Track levels, you can explore over 80 specific topics through our topic pages. These topics offer a curated subset of sentences from the Fast Track, and you can easily add them to your custom collection for a tailored learning experience, allowing you to focus on areas that interest you most and adapt to the learning path that fits you best.

Does anybody know how to access these topic-specific pages ?

I don’t see anything that might pass for topic pages for a selection of languages I’ve looked at (German, Spanish, Italian), and there’s nothing on that news page to suggest where they are (the GIF just shows the 10 different levels of the new Fast Track).

Am I missing something obvious ?

[alanf_us]

I found this puzzling at first, too, but then it occurred to me that perhaps “topics” refers to grammatical topics rather than real-world subjects.

[zzcguns]

I also wondered whether this might relate to grammar challenges, cloze reading etc., however since the blog post mentions that these sentences are curated from the Fast Track (presumably meaning the new Fast Track) I thought that there would probably be a new set of topics somewhere.

Anyway, I’m glad that I have company in finding this puzzling

[alanf_us]

I see. Maybe @mike can clue us in.

[MsFixer]

@zzcguns and @alanf_us

The dashboard (main page) on the web was recently renewed. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll find “XXX language sentences lists”. Click one of them. Ta-dah! The 80 topics are available.

Apparently, the News page build by WordPress isn’t helpful to discover the topic pages.

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Image 1: the bottom of the dashboard page

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Image 2: 80 topics in the Spanish course

[davidculley]

@MsFixer

isn’t helpful to discover the topic pages.

Wow, if Osama bin Laden had hidden down there, he’d still be alive.

Sorry if the joke is inappropriate. I recently heard it in some show but can’t remember where (perhaps Rick and Morty?).

Point is: One couldn’t have hidden it better if one wanted to.

Thanks for the find @MsFixer

[zzcguns]

Oh @MsFixer you are an absolute star (as always)!

Thanks so much for finding and posting this.

I think (or expect) that this might be a work in progress, so I don’t know if @mike would want bug reports to be posted yet. For example, clicking play on the audio files for German sentences doesn’t do anything.

I also think it would be helpful if the (suggested) cloze word were to be highlighted in the sentences. I realise that you could select’/change the cloze word as you copy over the sentence, but it would be nice to know the suggestion, also for the following reason …

In addition, I think it would be helpful if the sentences could be added en masse to a collection, or else played in place like a normal collection in its own right (but either of these would probably only make sense if you could see the cloze word in advance).

Oh, and as a side note, that list revealed to me that Brazilian Portuguese (and presumably Dutch) now has the new Fast Track available. The list on the “New Fast Track Tracker” forum post probably needs updating.

P.S. I’ve probably just spent more time looking at the images than the sentences, and I also note that many of those images differ between languages. Some of them are very funny (in some cases perhaps not intentionally), while others are … somewhat disturbing e.g. this one for “Time” ???..

Errrm, so what is this supposed to mean, that in the future humans will develop hooves and very long, wrinkly fingers?
I also find the changing descriptions at the top of each topic page quite funny with expressions such as “20 enthralling sentences” “20 meticulously curated sentences” etc. I am indeed truly enthralled!

[davidculley]

That image is stuff for nightmares.

@zzcguns

quite funny with expressions such as “20 enthralling sentences”

Funnily enough, “thrall” was in former times essentially just a synonym for “slave”. So is Mike and Clozemaster enslaving us? Just kidding. Nowadays, the word “enthralling” has taken on the meaning to mean “holding your attention (captive) by fascinating you”. Similar to how the according German word “fesselnd” doesn’t literally tie you up with ropes to handcuff you.

[alanf_us]

I don’t understand the purpose of these topic list pages. By presenting the full text, without any cloze word blanked out, they negate the whole purpose of the fundamental Clozemaster exercise, which is to force you to guess an undisplayed word in order to determine whether you really know it. Once you’ve seen the word, you can’t unsee it, so the quiz aspect is destroyed.

[MsFixer]

@alanf_us

I think the topic pages are not primarily designed for practice but more like for showcasing and reviewing the sentence portfolio. I logged out and accessed to the “About us” page (https://www.clozemaster.com/about). You can find the same footer with the links to the topic pages. Prospective users without an account can use the topic pages.

@mike

I believe the topic pages should be also featured on the front page (https://www.clozemaster.com/) for a customer acquisition purpose. They are good sneak peeks for prospective users.