Charity market

Remember that you can bring the stuff you don't need any more to the school this week and next week too. Everything clean and in good shape is welcome!

A quick reminder

Hello everyone,

This is just to remind you that this week there will be no classes at school as we are holding the C1 examinations.
However, it doesn't mean that you have nothing to do. Rather the opposite! You have to read your book as there'll be some work to be done the 3rd week of March; you also have some photocopies and exercises to do and, of course, reading and listening to English is something you have to do on a daily basis.

Make sure you don't need to rush the day before our next class and take advantage of the situation to assimilate and practise what you have learnt so far.

Enjoy it!!

C1 EXAM 2016 CAM

Click here to go to the link:

C1 exam CAM 2016

CONDITIONALS 2 KEY

Exercise 1

1.       Could have / would have won, had changed

2.       Would have voted, didn’t like

3.       Might / would be, hadn’t been mixed up

4.       Wouldn’t be, hadn’t made

5.       Hadn’t given, might not / wouldn’t be

6.       Needed, would be / was, had, would go

Exercise 2

1.       a, b, d

2.       a, d, e

3.       a, c, e

4.       a, c, e

Tech Tent: The power of influencers

Is this real? Are we so easily influenced and manipulated?

Would you buy a pair of shoes because someone on Instagram said they were great? Or choose a new phone based on the recommendation of a top YouTuber?

If so, you are proof of the effectiveness of influencer marketing. On this week's Tech Tent podcast, we explore the phenomenon.

Influencers - social media stars with big followings - have been under the spotlight this week for two reasons.

First, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority revealed that 16 influencers had promised to be far more transparent when paid to promote a product.

The regulator has taken a dim view of celebrities posting images of themselves with an "awesome" product, without mentioning that the "fabulous" company behind it has paid them a tidy sum to be quite so enthusiastic.

They will now be encouraged to use hashtags such as #ad, #sponsored or #freebie to give their fans a clearer picture of what's going on, otherwise they could land up in court.

But this week also saw the release of two documentaries about the disastrous Fyre Festival, which appeared to be the apotheosis of influencer marketing. It showed the power of the influencers. Kendall Jenner was reportedly paid $250,000 (£190,000) for one Instagram post promoting tickets that rapidly sold out.

It raised questions about the ethics of this form of marketing. The supermodels and other celebrities were happy enough to take money from the Fyre Festival organisers. But when the whole event turned into a fiasco, they faced no consequences for taking part in a very dishonest marketing campaign.

"We can see how precarious that is in terms of the legitimacy of those campaigns," says Dr Mariann Hardey, associate professor in marketing at Durham University.

She is a sceptic about influencer marketing and tells us it is really just another form of that age-old advertising technique, the celebrity endorsement.

"I don't think this is the holy grail. Influencers simply amplify traditional marketing methods and strategies," she says.

Brand awareness

But Werner Geyser, founder of the Influencer Marketing Hub, which helps connect influencers with brands, disagrees and tells us he has numbers to back up his argument.

"Recently we conducted a survey and we analysed 2,000 campaigns from influencers. And what the research displayed was that there was an average earned media value of $5.20 per dollar spent," he says.

That earned media value turns out to include something as nebulous as "increasing brand awareness", but Mr Geyser insists companies do see real returns in the form of extra sales.

He says we should not underestimate the power of these influencers or the bond between them and their followers.

"These audiences are following them for a reason. They share common interests so they almost act as a media outlet themselves. They have massive, massive reach."

The question is how they use that influence. Too many Fyre Festivals and they may tarnish their own brands, making them less attractive to advertisers.

But even if the current social media stars fade, more will come along and brands will be eager to use them to connect to young people who live their media lives on YouTube and Instagram.

BBC, Rory Cellan-Jones, 25th Jan 2019

Key to the Review 2

Verb groups

You can see here the verb groups suggested in class. Remember that you have to complete them with other useful verbs. And please make sure you know well the differences between them.

VERB GROUPS

Go / move	Look	Say	Hold	Laugh
Hop Stroll Step Skip Trudge Crawl Race Creep Stagger Wander Shift	Gaze Peer Spot Glare Stare Scrutinize	Yell Cheer Gasp Chatter Mutter Mumble Scream Statter Stummer	Clutch Grab Grip Catch	Chuckle Giggle Snicker, snigger Roar with laughter

Town in northern Russia battling invasion of polar bears

And we were afraid of wild pigs!!

Russia is battling an unprecedented invasion of polar bears on a remote Arctic archipelago that is home to the country’s most northerly military base. Known locally as “Lords of the Arctic”, the wild animals have been terrorising the population on Novaya Zemlya, a group of mountainous islands off Russia’s northern coast once used as a testing ground for atomic bombs.

“People are scared, afraid to leave their homes, daily routines are being broken, and parents are unwilling to let their children go to school and kindergartens,” according to Alexander Minaev, the deputy head of the local government in Novaya Zemlya. Global warming is melting Arctic ice, forcing polar bears to abandon their traditional habitat and move closer to human settlements in search of food. But hunting the unwelcome visitors is prohibited in Russia where polar bears are officially protected as an endangered species.

The government in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region declared a state of emergency on Novaya Zemlya on Saturday citing an unprecedented build-up in the number of polar bears in the remote region since December last year.

Some 52 bears have been sighted around Belushya Guba, the biggest settlement on the islands – or about one bear for every 10 members of the local population.

Aggressive behaviour

Most of the animals appear to have holed up in a disused military garrison, but some have ventured out to enter residential and public buildings and displayed “aggressive behaviour”. Army personnel have been trying to drive out the bears using non-lethal measures. But the polar bears are so “convinced of their own safety” they ignore barking dogs, bright lights and loud noises intended to scare them away, local officials said.

Rosprirodnadzor, the Russian environmental watchdog, has so far refused permission to shoot the bears, but is sending a special commission to Novaya Zemlya to assess the problem. Local authorities are calling for drastic action and say a cull may be inevitable.

Unprecedented

Zhigansha Musin, the head of the Novaya Zemlya administration, said the number of polar bears sighted was unprecedented. “I have been on Novaya Zemlya since 1983 and there has never been such a mass invasion,” he said. “They have literally been chasing people.”

Polar bears migrate from the south to the north of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in response to seasonal changes in ice conditions, Ilya Mordvintsev, an ecological and evolution specialist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the Tass news agency. They were stopping off at Beyusha Guba to search for food in local dustbins.

“If there was no alternative source of food there, they would probably pass straight by” without stopping, he added. Polar bears are facing an increasing struggle to survive as global climate change warms the Arctic Oceans shrinking their natural habitat. The World Wildlife Fund estimates there are 22,000 polar bears left in the world and that their numbers could shrink by 30 per cent by 2050.

Industrial developments in the Arctic where oil companies are exploring for new resources are also a threat to the species.

The Irish Times, 11 Feb 2109

Phobias. Have you ever heard of these?

You can read here a list of all kinds of phobias that Laura has prepared to share with us. Amazing, isn't it?

List of phobias

Speaking of Brexit

After listening to Cristina McLaren, read this interesting article about Brexit and the backstop:

BREXIT_The Guardian






















And now watch this beautiful (and poetic) video about the Irish border; you will understand better what the journalists says.