I wish you all ...




have a very happy holiday and ...

Revise and check before the test next week

I think it'd be a good idea to do the 'Revise and Check' exercises on pa.35 before the test next week.
Once you have done it, you can make corrections. Here you have the key.

KEY TO REVISE & CHECK p. 35

Grammar

a)

11.       I used to have / I had

22.       The boss appears to have

33.       Did you really use to wear…?

44.       ok

55.       I need to get my passport renewed

66.       ok

77.       ok

88.       ok

99.       Could you get your brother to have a look

110.   She was wearing trousers

b)

11.       (that) I had made a big mistake

22.       Seems to have

33.       You get the tap fixed

44.       Is expected to resign

55.       According to the DailyMail,

66.       It will get broken

77.       There are said to be

88.       They don’t usually get to the airport

99.       The dog had been sleeping on my bed all night

Vocabulary

a)

11.       friendship

22.       freedom

33.       neighbourhood

44.       fear

55.       shame

66.       poverty

b)

11.       take

22.       spare

33.       get

44.       cope

55.       left

66.       know

c)

11.       lost

22.       pushed

33.       life

44.       nerves

55.       message

66.       way

77.       out

d)

11.       By

22.       At

33.       Before

44.       Off

55.       Down

66.       Away

77.       Out

88.       Over

A "simple" pronunciation exercise

Would you like to improve your English pronunciation?
Come on! Give it a try!

Here you have the whole poem ready for you to be read line by line.I tried and I'm not really proud of myself.
The Chaos (pronunciation poem)

Tell how it goes, please!

A short summary of Mandela's life

I hope you find it interesting.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Chapters 3 - 6

These are the questions you have to answers while reading these chapters:

QUESTIONS FOR THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

 CHAPTER 3

1. Why did he feel so comfortable in New York but he is sometimes resentful in USA?
2. What does he describe as "a form of mental judo for business"?
3. How does he describe the Underwood Samson elite?
4. What is the Pakistani concept of food?
5. What is the attitude of the American towards beggars in this chapter? And his own?
6. How does he describe himself while he is doing his training period?

CHAPTER 4

1. Why do you think he explained to the American the origin of his scar?
2. How does he react when Erica's father asks him about the situation in Pakistan mentioning facts which appeared in the newspapers?
3. What do you think about Changez's comments to the American when the lights go off?

CHAPTER 5

1. How did his way of treating people at work change when he went to Manila and why?
2. What did he find out when he was riding a limousine?
3. Jim calls him "a shark" and it is intended to be a compliment. Explain.
4. In which way does he think Jim and himself are similar?
5. What is the most shocking confession Changez makes on page 83? (the paragraph begins: "The following evening was supposed to be our last in Manila")
6. How did the passengers of his flight back look at him and how did he feel?

CHAPTER 6

1. How did he feel when he went back to New York?
2. How did his relationship with Erica change after sleeping in his flat?
3. What seemed to happen to Erica more and more often and how did he react to it?
4. How does he feel when Erica recounts her story with Chris?
5. Why do you think Changez said on page 105 that "it's going to be a night of some importance? (the very last paragraph of the chapter)
 

Nelson Mandela

Madiba has died.

After such a long, generous and plentiful life, he will rest in peace.

25th anniversary of our School

Dear students,

Probably you have already received some information about the big celebration we are organizing in May. Anyway, I'd like to post here the letter sent by our Headmistress, Blanca, and the terms and conditions for the logotype competition.

I also posted a link to the new blog created for students, ex-students, teachers and ex-teachers to comment on their experiences, memories, anecdotes, etc. Photos can also be sent to be published there.

I hope you participate actively in the celebration as it is OUR school and the students are our best "ingredient".

Carta Directora

Bases logotipo

 

 

Pronunciation of -ed

After the explanations provided in class, I copy here some more precise instructions for the correct pronunciation of the final -ed in adjectives and verbs.

I hope you find it useful.

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 SELFIE

SELFIE

is named Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013

selfie noun, informal
(also selfy; plural selfies)

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website

19 November 2013, Oxford, UK:
Today Oxford Dictionaries announces selfie as their international Word of the Year 2013. The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date. Language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors reveals that the frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000% since this time last year.
Selfie can actually be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum.  The word gained momentum throughout the English-speaking world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph. Its linguistic productivity is already evident in the creation of numerous related spin-off terms showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a picture of one’s hair) and belfie (a picture of one’s posterior); a particular activity – welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture – shelfie and bookshelfie.
Judy Pearsall, Editorial Director for Oxford Dictionaries, explained the decision: “Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research programme, which collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection as Word of the Year.”
The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months, but it does need to have become prominent or notable in that time. Selfie was added to OxfordDictionaries.com in August 2013, although the Word of the Year selection is made irrespective of whether the candidates are already included in an Oxford dictionary. Selfie is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but is currently being considered for future inclusion.

The earliest known selfie

Research shows the word selfie in use by 2002. The earliest known usage is found in an Australian online forum post:

2002 ABC Online (forum posting) 13 Sept.
“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”

The rise of the selfie

Judy Pearsall explained the evolution of the word selfie: “Social media sites helped to popularize the term, with the tag ‘selfie’ appearing on the photo-sharing website Flickr as early as 2004, but usage wasn’t widespread until around 2012, when selfie was being used commonly in mainstream media sources.
“In early examples, the word was often spelled with a -y, but the -ie form is more common today and has become the accepted spelling. The use of the diminutive -ie suffix is notable, as it helps to turn an essentially narcissistic enterprise into something rather more endearing. Australian English has something of a penchant for -ie words – barbie for barbecue, firie for firefighter, tinnie for a can of beer – so this helps to support the evidence for selfie having originated in Australia.”

If you found the article interesting and you'd like to know something else about 

The Word of the Year shortlist,

click here:  Selfie

Pronunciation Rules

You can find here the pronunciation rules we went through in our last class. I hope you try to take these rules into account when you come across a new word.

Pronunciation Rules p.15

Microvolunteers help blind people to ‘see’

Here you can read a very interesting article.

The Singapore-based MySmartEye app crowdsources identification of images taken by other smartphone users with visual impairments.

15th October 2013 in Non-profit, Social cause, Telecom & Mobile.

Smartphones enable workers to respond to emails when they’re not at the desk – whether they see that as a good thing or not. By the same token, it’s possible that volunteers could help to carry out microtasks for charities and nonprofits wherever they are. A new app from Singapore called MySmartEye is aiming to do just that, by crowdsourcing identification of images taken by other smartphone users with visual impairments.
Developed by telecoms firm StarHub for the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped, the app can be downloaded by smartphone users with a visual impairment. If they want to know the details of an object or view in front of them, they simply take a photo and upload it through the app. The image is instantly sent to one of MySmartEye’s microvolunteers, who offer a short description of the photograph. The description is sent back to the original user, who can then use text-to-speech software to have it read aloud. The video below offers more information about the project:
Available for free on the App Store and Google Play, the developers of the app hope that it could leverage the 7.4 million mobile owners in Singapore to carry out small, ten-second tasks that could improve the quality of life for those with disabilities. Are there other ways smartphone owners could be turned into charitable volunteers?
Website: www.mysmarteye.starhub.com

Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes what you are

As there's going to be a long weekend, I'd like you to watch this interesting video where Amy Caddy talks about body language.
Once you've watched it, answer the questions you have below, please.

 

Answer the following questions on the Amy Cuddy TED talk ‘Your body language shapes who you are’

1. What is her job?

2. What are the two aspects of non-verbals that most interest her?

3. What do people do to show power?

4. What do people do when they feel powerless?

5. What aspect of the course is very important for MBA students for their grades?

6. What is the example she gives as being the worst of low-power poses?

7. What happened to her when she was 19?

8. What two things happened as a result of this?

9. How did she feel when she was taken on at Princeton?

10. What two things did she realise when her students came to her office?

 And now think about these 2 topics to discuss in class:

Our minds change our bodies but can our bodies change our minds? Have you ever tried this?

Talk about what you found interesting in this talk