Improve your communication skills

You can watch here a very interesting video: Think fast, Talk smart. It can help you improve your communication techniques:

Think Fast, Talk Smart

Summer time

Hello! As summer is already here, I have opened all the tests you have on the platform as well as some extra material in case you'd like to study or practise during the summer.

If you have any problem to access, please write a comment here and I'll try to sort it out.

Congratulations to everyone who passed all their exams!!

And to those who have to retake any part, cheer up! I'm sure you'll do it.

Have a very nice summer all of you!

How Harry Potter enchanted the world 20 years ago

Can you believe it's 20 years since the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone?

Joanne Rowling, as she was known then, dreamed up the story of the bespectacled boy wizard on a train trip between London and Manchester.

She finished the manuscript in 1995, writing much of it in cafes in Edinburgh while her baby from her first marriage slept in a pram.

After many rejections, the manuscript was eventually picked up by Bloomsbury. The first hardback print run, which came out on 26 June 1997, was just 500 copies.

Then something magic happened. That first book - and the six that followed - went on to sell more than 450 million copies around the world.

Here's a look at the many ways the Harry Potter phenomenon has cast a spell on the cultural landscape over two decades.

Okay, so books were around for a long time before Harry Potter. But JK Rowling turned book consumption, especially for children, into something close to addiction.

You want proof? The UK release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 1999 was timed at 3.45pm to prevent children in England and Wales from skipping school to get their copy.

The later books got HUGE but it didn't stop kids devouring them.

Grown-ups got hooked too, with the books being released in adult-friendly covers.

The book releases themselves became headline news: when the fourth book Goblet of Fire came out in 2000, booksellers around the world got together to coordinate the first ever global midnight launch.

When Rowling received an honorary degree at St Andrews University that same year, the Scottish institution said she had proved that children's books "are still capable of capturing and enchanting an immense audience, irrespective of the competing attractions of television, Nintendo, Gameboy and Pokemon".

                                                                                                                        BBC news

This is what JK Rowilg said about her book in 1997

Teenage boys wear skirts to school to protest against 'no shorts' policy

Imagination to power!

What do you think about this article published in The Guardian?

Some had borrowed from girlfriends, others from sisters. A few had gone the extra mile and shaved their legs. When the Isca academy in Devon opened on Thursday morning, an estimated 30 boys arrived for lessons, heads held high, in fetching tartan-patterned skirts. The hottest June days since 1976 had led to a bare-legged revolution at the secondary school in Exeter.

As the temperature soared past 30C earlier this week, the teenage boys had asked their teachers if they could swap their long trousers for shorts. They were told no – shorts weren’t permitted under the school’s uniform policy.

When they protested that the girls were allowed bare legs, the school – no doubt joking – said the boys were free to wear skirts too if they chose. So on Wednesday, a handful braved the giggles and did so. The scale of the rebellion increased on Thurday, when at least 30 boys opted for the attire.

“Quite refreshing” was how one of the boys described the experience, pointing out that if even Royal Ascot had allowed racegoers in the royal enclosure to remove their jackets, then the school ought to relax its dress code. Another said he rather enjoyed the “nice breeze” his skirt had afforded him.

A third, tall boy said he was told his short skirt exposed too much hairy leg. Some of the boys visited a shop on their way to Isca – the name the Romans gave to Exeter – to pick up razors to make sure they did not fall foul of any beauty police.

Ironically, the temperature had dropped in Exeter to a more manageable 20C, but some boys said they had enjoyed the freedom afforded by the skirts and that they might continue.

The school said it was prepared to think again in the long term. The headteacher, Aimee Mitchell, said: “We recognise that the last few days have been exceptionally hot and we are doing our utmost to enable both students and staff to remain as comfortable as possible.

“Shorts are not currently part of our uniform for boys, and I would not want to make any changes without consulting both students and their families. However, with hotter weather becoming more normal, I would be happy to consider a change for the future.”

It was too late. The revolution was picked up by media organisations across the globe, and Devon county council was forced to help the school out with inquiries. A spokesperson said: “About 30 boys arrived at school this morning wearing school skirts. None of the boys have been penalised – no one was put in isolation or detention for wearing a skirt.”

The mother of one of the boys who began the protest said she was proud of him. Claire Lambeth, 43, said her son Ryan, 15, had come home earlier in the week complaining about the heat. “He said it was unbearable. I spoke to a teacher to ask about shorts and she said it was school policy [that they could not be worn]. I did say this was exceptional weather, but they were having none of it. If girls can wear skirts, why can’t boys wear shorts?

“Ryan came up with the idea of wearing a skirt, so that evening we borrowed one. He wore it the next day – as did five other boys. Then this morning … I didn’t expect it to take off like that. The school is being silly really – this is exceptional weather. I was very proud of Ryan. I think it was a great idea.”

Another mother said: “My 14-year-old son wanted to wear shorts. The headteacher told them: ‘Well, you can wear a skirt if you like’ – but I think she was being sarcastic. However, children tend to take you literally, and because she told them it was OK, there was nothing she could do as long as they were school skirts.”

Read the whole article clicking: The_Guardian

Allowing mums in jail to hug their children

Here you have a very interesting video about the conditions of mums in jail in the USA. Things are changing and two women in the US state of Minnesota are transforming motherhood behind bars.

Click here:
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-40306717/allowing-mums-in-jail-to-hug-their-children

That's English! new app

That's English!, our blended learning courses has just launched a new application for the mobile phone with all the audio materials they use: more than 3000 videos, audio and audiovisual materials. It's completely free and really useful. You can download everything you want and have access to the podcasts. It's the ideal complement to your materials.


You can get it in the Play Store. it will be soon available for iphones too.

Do friends make you happier than family?

Do you believe that blood is thicker than water? That your family relationships are more important than friends? Well, think again. Research from Michigan State University suggests that friends may make you happier and healthier than your relatives.

Solution

As William Chopik, associate professor of psychology and author of the study says: “Friends are a conscious choice. Family relationships can be serious, negative and monotonous.” The research included two studies – one a broad survey of nearly 300,000 people, aged between 15 and 99, from more than 90 countries. This study found that those who valued friendships highly were healthier and happier (according to their own reports), especially as they got older. The second study used data from a US survey of 7,481 people over 50. Subjects were questioned about the quality of their friendships – how much friends understood them and how much they let them down. They were also asked how strongly they agreed with the statement: “My life is close to ideal.” Over the next six years they were followed up and asked whether they had illnesses such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease.

When friendships were reported as being stressful, people reported higher rates of disease. When friends were supportive, people were healthier. Most of the friendships were reported as being supportive. Family, however, were found to have little influence on an individual’s health and wellbeing. Spouses and children had some effect, but not as much as friends.

Chopik says he isn’t suggesting we ignore our families, but that friends make us feel better. “With friends you are more likely to do activities – they provide an outlet. You can say things to friends and they are less judgmental. There is a distance there that provides a level of honesty.”

Research consistently shows the benefits of friendships – a review of 148 studies with more than 308,000 people found that those with strong social relationships increased their odds of survival over the seven years of the study by 50%. The researchers pointed out that this increase is comparable to the health benefits of giving up smoking. Other research shows that people generally say they have a better time with friends than with relatives in later life. However, friendships often fall away after people cohabit, marry or have children. Chopik says the fall can be from five or six close friends to two or three. He says that cultivating good-quality friendships across our lives is beneficial – raising self-esteem and buffering against stress. We tend to naturally drop friendships that aren’t good for us or are superficial. Listening and being trustworthy are important in good friendships – the same qualities that would enhance family relationships.

                                                                                                The Guardian 13/June/2017

Rafael Nadal revels in the instant history of ‘a perfect Roland Garros’

An emotional Rafael Nadal described his 10th French Open title as the perfect end to a perfect fortnight after he made history at Roland Garros on Sunday. The 31‑year‑old Spaniard’s 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 victory against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland made him the first man to win any of the grand slam events 10 times, a feat he achieved without dropping a single set.
“This has been, I think, a perfect Roland Garros for me,” said Nadal, who dropped just 35 games in total on his way to a 15th grand slam title but his first for three years.
Nadal was shown a montage of his 10 victories before the trophy presentation and said the historic nature of the triumph added to his satisfaction. “It is true that this one is going to be one of the more special for the number, for what happened on the ceremony after the final, for so many things,” he said. “And because I am 31 already and not a kid any more. Today was a very important day for me. [There] have been some tough moments last times, injuries, so it’s great to have big success like this again.” Nadal said when he first won the title in 2005 he would not have imagined he would still be playing in 2017, let alone winning, and said 10 titles had a special ring to it. “As I like to say, if I can do it, someone else can do it,” he said. “But you need the right circumstances, the right ingredients to win 10 French Open titles. I don’t know if I will ever get to meet the player who will do better than I did. It has been very special to me, and it’s true that it is unprecedented. Trust me, I’m very happy that I’m the one who did it. I’m very happy.”
Wawrinka, who lost a grand slam final for the first time, said he had been beaten by a man at the peak of his game. “For sure he’s playing the best he’s ever played,” Wawrinka said. “But not only here. I think since the beginning of the year, you can see he’s playing more aggressive, staying more close [to] the line. But that’s clearly the best he has ever played. That’s why he’s winning so much again.”

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The Swiss said he had recovered well physically from the effort of defeating Andy Murray in a semi-final which lasted more than four and a half hours, but that mentally the efforts of the past few weeks had caught up with him.
“From the beginning from my side, for sure, I didn’t play my best tennis,” he said. “I think I was a little bit hesitating with my selection of shots. I was always a little bit between [thoughts]. One, because I play against him and he puts this doubt in your head when you play against him because he’s playing so well. And second, all the effort I have been doing [in the] last few weeks to get to my best level again, to get some confidence again, and to win all those matches … some tough matches.”
Wawrinka said the positives of the fortnight outweighed the negatives of losing a grand slam final, having shrugged off a poor clay-court season to make the final for the second time in three years. Nadal’s 10th win, he said, was an incredible achievement. “It’s something tough to describe when you just say you won 10 French Opens,” he said. “It’s a grand slam, but it’s the same grand slam. That’s something so big for the sport. He’s the best-ever player on clay.”
Nadal said his chances at Wimbledon, where he has not won since 2010, depended on how his aching knees respond on the grass. “If I have pain in the knees, then I know from experience that it’s almost impossible,” he said. “Because I need to feel strong, low and powerful legs to play well in Wimbledon. If I don’t feel that, then probably my chances are not there, no? But if I am healthy and I am able to have the right preparation and feel healthy during Wimbledon, then I am probably going to have my chances to play well.”

                                                                                                                          The Guardian 12/6/2017

The man who helped prevent a nuclear crisis

In 1988 Taiwan was racing to build its first nuclear bomb, but one military scientist put a stop to that when he defected to the United States and exposed those plans. This is the story of a man who insists he had to betray his country in order to save it.

To this day, critics consider Chang Hsien-yi a traitor - but he has no regrets.
"If I can ever do it all over again, I will do it," says the calmly defiant 73-year-old, speaking from his home in the US state of Idaho.
The former military colonel has been living there since 1988 when he fled to the US, a close ally of the island, and this is his first substantial interview about that time.
It might seem a perplexing turn of events given the close relationship the US has with Taiwan, but Washington had found out that Taiwan's government had secretly ordered scientists to develop nuclear weapons.
Taiwan's enemy, the Communist government of China, had been building up its nuclear arsenal since the 1960s, and the Taiwanese were terrified this would be unleashed on the island.
Taiwan separated from China after the Chinese Civil War in 1949. To this day China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and has vowed to reunify with the island, by force if necessary.

The leadership of the island was also in an uncertain phase - its president, Chiang Ching-kuo, was dying, and the US thought that General Hau Pei-tsun, whom they saw as a hawkish figure, would become his successor.
They were worried about a nuclearisation of the Taiwan Strait and bent on stopping Taiwan's nuclear ambition in its tracks and preventing a regional arms race.
So they secretly enlisted Mr Chang to halt Taiwan's programme.
When Mr Chang was recruited by the CIA in the early 1980s, he was the deputy director at Taiwan's Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, which was responsible for the nuclear weapons programme.
As one of Taiwan's key nuclear scientists, he enjoyed a life of privilege and a lucrative salary.
But he says he began questioning whether the island should have nuclear weapons after the catastrophic Chernobyl accident in 1986 in the former Soviet Union.
He was convinced by the Americans' argument that stopping the programme would be "good for peace, and was for the benefit of mainland China and Taiwan".

"This fit into my mindset very much," says Mr Chang. "But the most important reason why I agreed is that they went to great efforts to assure me they would ensure my safety."
The next task was getting him and his family out.

Defection

At that time, military officials could not leave Taiwan without permission.
So, Mr Chang first ensured his wife and three young children's safety by sending them to Japan for a holiday.
His wife, Betty, says she had no clue about her husband's double life. They had only talked about the possibility of him accepting a job in the US.
"He told me this was a trial to test how easy I could get out from Taiwan and to see how much luggage I could pack," she says.
Mrs Chang left on 8 January 1988 with their children, excited to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
The very next day, Mr Chang took a flight to the US using a fake passport provided by the CIA. All he had with him was some cash and a few personal possessions.
Contrary to previous reports, he says he did not take a single document with him when he left Taiwan.
"The American government had all the evidence, they just needed someone - me - to corroborate it."
Meanwhile in Tokyo, Betty Chang was approached by a woman who handed her a letter from Mr Chang. That was the moment she discovered her husband was a CIA spy and had defected.
"It said 'You will never go back to Taiwan and from Japan you will go to USA'... that was a surprise for me.
"I just cried when I knew I could no longer go back to Taiwan," says Mrs Chang.
The family was bundled into a plane headed for Seattle, where they were met by Mr Chang at the airport.
The Changs were later put in a safe house in Virginia, due to fears he would be assassinated by Taiwanese agents or patriotic extremists.
Within a month, the US succeeded in pressuring Taiwan to end the programme, using the intelligence it had collected and Mr Chang's testimony.
Taiwan was believed to be just one or two years from completing a nuclear bomb.

Setting the record straight

Mr Chang has remained silent for decades. But with his recent retirement he now wants to set the record straight with a memoir, titled Nuclear! Spy? CIA: Record of an Interview with Chang Hsien-yi.
The book, written with academic Chen Yi-shen and published in December, has reignited a debate about whether Mr Chang did the right thing for Taiwan.
Some praise him for preventing a potential nuclear war. Others see his actions as denying Taiwan the weapons it needed for self-defence and survival.
Even those in Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which officially opposes the development of nuclear energy and weapons, take a dim view of Mr Chang's actions.
"Regardless of what your political views are, when you betray your country, it's not acceptable... it cannot be forgiven," said the DPP's Wang Ting-yu, chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
But Mr Chang insists he feared then that ambitious Taiwanese politicians would use nuclear weapons to try to take back mainland China.
He claims Madame Chiang Kai Shek, the stepmother of dying President Chiang Ching-kuo, and a group of generals loyal to her had even gone so far as to set up a separate chain of command to expedite the development of nuclear weapons.
"They said they wouldn't use it, but nobody believed it," says Mr Chang, adding that the US certainly did not.
Nowadays, there may still be politicians who could be tempted to use such weapons, this time to pursue Taiwan's formal independence from China at whatever cost, he says.
But the DPP's Mr Wang dismisses this notion. "We absolutely don't consider this, we don't even think about it," he said.
Over the years some Taiwanese presidents have hinted at a desire to reactivate the island's nuclear weapons programme, but these suggestions have been quickly quashed by Washington's objections.
Still, the island is widely considered to have the ability to make nuclear weapons quickly if needed. China has in recent years threatened to attack if Taiwan ever deployed nuclear weapons.

'I love Taiwan'

Following his defection, Taiwan's military listed Mr Chang as a fugitive. But even after his arrest warrant expired in 2000, he has not returned to Taiwan and does not plan to.
He does not want to deal with criticism he is sure he would face, and the negative impact that would have on his family there.
In 1990, they were permanently resettled in Idaho, where Mr Chang worked as a consulting engineer and scientist at the US government's Idaho National Laboratories until he retired in 2013.
He says his only regret is that he was not able to see his parents before they passed away.
"You don't have to be in Taiwan to love Taiwan; I love Taiwan," says Mr Chang.
"I am Taiwanese, I am Chinese. I don't want to see Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait killing each other."

                                                                                                                                               BBC News

Ignacio Echeverría. Rest in peace.

Yesterday evening Ignacio was paid homage at Las Rozas, the town where he was brought up. Nearly a thousand people attended and showed their respect and admiration to a good man, someone who was ready to defend someone he didn't even know and who was being attacked by one of the London terrorist. He lost his life while trying to save another person. There is still hope for the human race.

From Las Rozas Official School of Languages where he studied some years ago, we want to express all our admiration and respect, and our deepest condolences and love to his family.

London attack: Spaniard Ignacio Echeverría confirmed dead

The family of Ignacio Echeverría, who went to help a woman as she was stabbed by the attackers at London's Borough Market, has announced his death.

He was last seen trying to defend the woman with his skateboard.

After several days waiting for information, his brother and two sisters said he was dead.

"We want to see and be with Ignacio's body," his sister Ana said. "It seems we won't be able to be with his body before Friday at the earliest."

His other sister, Isabel, went on social media to praise his heroism and said he would never be forgotten.

"My brother Ignacio tried to stop the terrorists and lost his life trying to save others," she said.

As the number of people killed by the attackers on 3 June rose to eight, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy praised the Spanish victim's "heroic and exemplary act" and said he had recommended that he be awarded posthumously an order of civil merit.

The foreign ministry in Madrid said he was a model of solidarity for everyone. "His bravery in standing up for a defenceless person is a reminder of the need to remain united in the face of the scourge of terrorism."

For days, the family heard nothing of Ignacio Echevarría's fate. Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido described the identification process as strange and "inhumane" for the family.

Aged 39 and from Madrid, Ignacio Echevarría had been working for HSBC in London as part of the bank's team fighting money laundering.

As the three London Bridge attackers went on the rampage, his family said he was returning from an evening of skateboarding in a nearby park with friends.

He jumped off his bike and used his skateboard to hit one of the attackers who was stabbing a woman. The two others then attacked him from behind and he was last seen lying on the ground, the family said.

BBC News

«Algo muy triste y muy duro se está convirtiendo en algo más bonito y muy grandioso que nos hace querer más, apreciar más a nuestro hermano, a nuestra familia, a nuestros amigos y a nuestro país»Ana Echeverría

Cloze test part 2 & Reading comprehension key

 If you want to do the second part of the cloze test, click here to get the exercise and the key:
Cloze test_part 2
 

An finally check the key to the last 2 reading comprehension exercises I gave you in class.

KEY TO THE READING COMPREHENSIONS         

The language of Hollywood

1 – C, 2 – C, 3 – A, 4 – B, 5 – A, 6 – B, 7 – A, 8 – B, 9 – A, 10 – A, 11 – C, 12 – A

Hans Sloane and the British Museum

1 – B, 2 – C, 3 – B, 4 – A, 5 – C, 6 – B, 7 – C, 8 – A, 9 – B, 10 – C

Simple way to boost cancer survival rates: diet and exercise, studies say

Studies of colon and breast cancer patients link healthy habits to better outcomes amid slew of research on lifestyle and cancer

A healthy diet and exercise could reduce colon cancer patients’ chance of death and simply walking could improve survival rates for breast cancer survivors, studies presented at the world’s largest cancer conference have found.

Prostate cancer trial stuns researchers: 'It's a once in a career feeling'

 

Read more

A study of nearly 1,000 colon cancer patients found that those who exercised regularly, ate more fruits and vegetables and avoided refined grains and meats had a 42% lower chance of death after seven years.

Similarly, a study of more than 300 Australian breast cancer survivors who aimed to exercise for 180 minutes per week – most by simply walking – had far better rates of survival than those who were not part of an exercise program.

The studies were presented amidst a slew of research on the impact of a healthy lifestyle on cancer, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

“Most of what we know about the importance of exercise post-cancer comes from studying women with breast cancer,” said Sandra Hayes, an epidemiologist studying cancer and exercise at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Studies conducted on the relationship between exercise and other types of cancer, she said, held up a general set of findings.

“Engaging in some activity [or] exercise is better than none, and doing more is generally better than less,” Hayes said.

Researchers acknowledged that studies on the effects of exercise and cancer recurrence remain epidemiological, and that causal links are yet to be established. Further, the mechanisms through which exercise may influence cancer survival remain “unclear”.

In one study, researchers at the University of California San Francisco and colleagues aimed to test whether American Cancer Society (ACS) nutrition and exercise guidelines for cancer survivors could impact survival among colon cancer patients.

In general, the guidelines recommend moderate exercise of 150 minutes per week, eating a diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and keeping a healthy body weight. The ACS has detailed guidelines for nutritional and exercise standards for cancer survivors, addressing everything from exercise to eating recommendations forthose who have little appetite.

Researchers found that even colon cancer survivors who drank moderately while following other guidelines had a 42% lower chance of dying than those that did not.

If you want to read the whole article in The Guardian, click here:

Simple ways to boost cancer survival

Spain's 'lazy' young told by judges to get a life

Read this interesting article about some young Spanish people who expect to get their parents' economic support for ever and what some judges decide about it.

Spain's lazy young told by judges to get a life