sábado, 25 de diciembre de 2010
lunes, 20 de diciembre de 2010
ENGLISH SONG: JINGLE BELLS
Jingle Bells!
Believe it or not Jingle Bells, one of the most famous American Christmas songs, was originally written for Thanksgiving! The author and composer of Jingle Bells was a minister called James Pierpoint who composed the song in 1857 for children celebrating his Boston Sunday School Thanksgiving. The song was so popular that it was repeated at Christmas, and indeed Jingle Bells has been reprised ever since. The essence of a traditional Christmas is captured in the lyrics of Jingle Bells and the sound effects using the bells have become synonymous with the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus to the delight of children of all ages!
Believe it or not Jingle Bells, one of the most famous American Christmas songs, was originally written for Thanksgiving! The author and composer of Jingle Bells was a minister called James Pierpoint who composed the song in 1857 for children celebrating his Boston Sunday School Thanksgiving. The song was so popular that it was repeated at Christmas, and indeed Jingle Bells has been reprised ever since. The essence of a traditional Christmas is captured in the lyrics of Jingle Bells and the sound effects using the bells have become synonymous with the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus to the delight of children of all ages!
lunes, 6 de diciembre de 2010
TRAFALGAR SQUARE CHRISTMAS TREE 2010
Christmas tree lighting ceremony
Each year since 1947, a Christmas tree has been given to the people of London from the people of Norway in gratitude for Britain's support for Norway during World War II. For many Londoners the Christmas tree and carol singing in Trafalgar Square signal the countdown to Christmas. The 2010 Christmas tree lighting ceremony will take place on Thursday 2nd December from 6pm and the tree is lit prior to 6.30pm. As the event is quite popular it is best to arrive early for a viewing position.
About the tree
The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is usually a Norwegian spruce (Picea abies) over 20 metres high and 50-60 years old. It is selected from the forests surrounding Oslo with great care several months, even years, in advance. The Norwegian foresters who look after it describe it fondly as 'the queen of the forest'.
The tree is felled in November during a ceremony in which the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the British ambassador to Norway and the Mayor of Oslo participate. It is brought to the UK by sea, then completes its journey by lorry. A specialist rigging team erects it in the square using a hydraulic crane. It is decorated in traditional Norwegian fashion, with vertical strings of lights - energy-efficient light bulbs are used
domingo, 28 de noviembre de 2010
martes, 9 de noviembre de 2010
viernes, 29 de octubre de 2010
SYMBOLS OF BRITAIN
Learn the national symbols of the different parts of Great Bitain through an easy exercise.
martes, 12 de octubre de 2010
HISPANIC DAY OR NATIONAL DAY - 12TH OCTOBER
Hispanic Day (Día de la Hispanidad) or National Day (Fiesta Nacional de España) is an annual national public holiday in Spain on October 12. It marks the anniversary of when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas in 1492.The king of Spain supervises the raising of the Spanish national flag in the center of Madrid on Hispanic Day. He and the prime minister lead a military parade after that. The parade includes representatives from most of Spain's military units and various military vehicles. Armed forces' planes perform aerobatics above the parade route and display yellow and red smoke to represent the Spanish flag. Radio, television and Internet news services broadcast live on these events.
Hispanic Day is a day off work and an opportunity to spend time quietly at home or in the company of family members and close friends. People in the Aragon region in the north-east of Spain also commemorate Our Lady of the Pillar, their patron saint, on October 12.
BACKGROUND
According to the Julian calendar, Christopher Columbus set sail from the port of Palos de la Frontera in South-West Spain on August 3, 1492. He landed on a island that is now part of the Bahamas in the Caribbean on October 12, 1492.The anniversary of this date is marked as Hispanic Day in Spain.
Events similar to Hispanic Day to mark the anniversary of the date Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas are also held in other countries. October 12 is known as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Day of the Cultures in Costa Rica, Day of the Race in Argentina, Chile and Mexico and the Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela. The second Monday of October is Columbus Day in the United States.
PHRASAL VERBS - SONG
Learning English through song is an effective way to make you feel fun and faster to learn L2 as suggested in suggestopedia teaching method. Anyway, “Tonight I wanna Cry” by Keith Urban is a beautiful song I like to share with you.
SONG EXERCISE
domingo, 3 de octubre de 2010
LIVERPOOL AND THE BEATLES
Enjoy watching the video and discovering the birthplace of the famous Beatles. You can learn about some of the city´s attractions.
The exercise is a listening activity and a wordsearch
LIVERPOOL AND THE BEATLES
The exercise is a listening activity and a wordsearch
LIVERPOOL AND THE BEATLES
PREPOSITIONS SONG AND EXERCISE
Prepositions are used before nouns to give more information in a sentence. Usually, they show where something is,or when something happened.Listen to the song and fill in the gaps choosing the correct answer.
4º ESO. PAST CONTINUOUS EXERCISES
PAST SIMPLE AND PAST CONTINUOUS
Exercise 1: Write the Past Simple and Past Continuos.
Exercise 2: Write the most suitable word in each gap.
Exercise 3: Choose among sentences.
Exercise 4: CrosswordEnjoy the exercises in the following link:
Past Simple and Past Continuous Exercises.
martes, 28 de septiembre de 2010
FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN 23rd SEPTEMBER
On 22 or 23 September, the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night are nearly equal in all parts of the world.
This day is known as the autumnal equinox.
The Reason for the Seasons
Many people think that some parts of the year are hotter because we're nearer to the Sun, but the real reason is that the Earth is wonky (tilted).
Why do we have seasons?
We have seasons because the earth is tilted (wonky) as it makes its yearly journey around the sun.
The Earth's tilt
The Earth's axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. This means that the Earth is always "pointing" to one side as it goes around the Sun. So, sometimes the Sun is in the direction that the Earth is pointing, but not at other times. The varying amounts of sunlight around the Earth during the year, creates the seasons.
The tilt of the Earth's AXIS is the most important reason why seasons occur.
We have hot summers and cold winters because of the tilt of the Earth's axis.
The tilt of the Earth means the Earth will lean towards the Sun (Summer) or lean away from the Sun (Winter) 6 months later. In between these, Spring and Autumn will occur.
Autumn
The north pole begins to move away from the Sun. The Sun rises lower in the sky so the days start getting shorter. When the Sun is at its mid-point in the sky, we reach the 'autumn equinox', around 22 September. Day and night are both 12 hours long and its the beginning of autumn.
domingo, 12 de septiembre de 2010
THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY
THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY. Ed. OxfordDescription
For thousand of years the dead body of the young king Tutankhamun slept under the sands of Egypt. Then, in the autumn of 1922, Howard Carter and his friends find and open his tomb door. These are exciting times, and Carter's young helper Tariq tells the story in his diary.
But soon people begin to die. Who or what is the killer? Is Tutankhamun angry with them for opening his tomb? And who is the beautiful French girl with the face of Tutankhamun's long-dead wife?
martes, 7 de septiembre de 2010
PATRIOT DAY - UNITED STATE 11TH SEPTEMBER
In the United States, Patriot Day occurs on September 11 of each year, designated in memory of the 2,993 killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Most Americans refer to the day as "Nine-Eleven (9/11)," "September Eleventh," or some variation thereof.
U.S. House of Representatives Joint Resolution 71 was approved by a vote of 407-0 on October 25, 2001. It requested that the President designate September 11 of each year as "Patriot Day." President George W. Bush signed the resolution into law on December 18, 2001. It is a discretionary day of remembrance.
Initially, the day was called the Prayer and Remembrance for the Victims of the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001.
On September 4, 2002, President Bush used his authority created by the resolution and proclaimed September 11, 2002 as Patriot Day.
On this day, the President directs that the American flag be flown at half-staff at individual American homes, at the White House, and on all U.S. government buildings and establishments, home and abroad. The President also asks Americans to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 A.M. (Eastern Daylight Time), the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
domingo, 29 de agosto de 2010
OUR LADY OF VICTORY- 8TH SEPTEMBER
Our Lady’s birthday is generally celebrated by the Catholic Church on the 8th September and so this date has been adopted as an opportunity to honour the different images of Mary. In Malaga, people celebrate the feast day of the patron of the city, ‘Our Lady of Victory’.
As her name would suggest, the ‘Virgen de la Victoria’ is venerated due the role she is believed to have played in various military victories.
The first was in 1571 at the battle of Lepanto, near Greece, when the Holy League (made up of Spain and the Papacy among others) fought the Ottoman Empire. Christians prayed the Rosary in St. Peter’s Square in Rome in the hope that Mary would intercede for them, winning them God’s help in keeping the Muslim Empire out of Western Europe. A miraculous victory was won.
In Malaga itself, a statue of Our Lady of Victory is thought to have been kept in Ferdinand’s chapel in the military encampment during the siege when Malaga was re-conquered by the Catholic King and Queen. In 1867, Pope Pius IX appointed this image of Mary as patron of the city. The Church was inaugurated in 1700 and it is dedicated to the Patron Saint of Malaga that is Our Lady Virgen de la Victoria
Thus the 8th September is a local holiday. On the last Sunday in August, in preparation for the feast day, the image of the ‘Virgen de la Victoria’ is taken to Malaga cathedral where a novena (a particularly powerful way of praying the Rosary) is said in devotion to Our Lady. On Wednesday there will be a procession much like those one sees during Semana Santa, during which the image is carried to the Santuario de la Victoria in the Plaza Santuario, near the Plaza de la Merced. If you won’t be around Malaga at Easter time then this is not to be missed!
INTERNET RESOURCES
Carefully selected links arranged by theme. Each resource is briefly described.
Free online EFL / ESL Resources for learning English
The Internet is full of sites for learning English.
The problem is that there are so many it's difficult to choose.
You can find a selection of web pages to help you quickly locate useful ones.
There is a brief description of each rescource - except for those that need no introduction.
The criteria for selecting exercises:
•the objective is learning and understanding (that is, they're not just tests of knowledge),
•images, graphs, examples and/or other ways of leading to understanding are included,
•immediate feedback is given to each question,
•the context is as realistic as possible,
•they are interesting and fun to do.
The links lead to resources as directly as possible.
The links are to pages rather than to sites. RESOURCES
Free online EFL / ESL Resources for learning English
The Internet is full of sites for learning English.
The problem is that there are so many it's difficult to choose.
You can find a selection of web pages to help you quickly locate useful ones.
There is a brief description of each rescource - except for those that need no introduction.
The criteria for selecting exercises:
•the objective is learning and understanding (that is, they're not just tests of knowledge),
•images, graphs, examples and/or other ways of leading to understanding are included,
•immediate feedback is given to each question,
•the context is as realistic as possible,
•they are interesting and fun to do.
The links lead to resources as directly as possible.
The links are to pages rather than to sites. RESOURCES
PRONUNCIATION EXERCISES
These are original English pronunciation exercises for English students based on a discovery learning approach.
These pronunciation exercises encourage student autonomy because they lead students to build their own criteria for how to produce English sounding sentences.
Sounding English is not just a question of pronouncing individual sounds correctly, much more important is to be able to control the rhythm and stress of what is said.
Having a feeling for English pronunciation not only helps students to be understood by other people, it also helps students to understand native speakers.
Rhythm
• The Rhythm of English
Stress and the Schwa
•Pronunciation tips: Schwa
BBC Learning English
•Stressed Syllables and the Schwa Sound Schwa_stress
•The General Rule 1 01_tonic_accent
•The General Rule 2 02_tonic_accent
•Words with Latin or Greek suffixes 1 01_tonic_accent_2
•Words with Latin or Greek suffixes 2 02_tonic_accent_2
•Words in -ion words_in_ion
•Limericks
Voiced and voiceless
•Vibration and no vibration voiced_unvoiced
Distinguishing between voiced and unvoiced consonants
•Pronunciation of the -ed ending - 1 pronunciation/01_-ed_endings
•Pronunciation of the -ed ending - 2 pronunciation/02_-ed_endings
Spelling and Pronunciation
•Magic "e" magic-e-spelling-pronunciation-rule
Minimal Pairs
•hot vs hut pronunciation/min_pairs
These pronunciation exercises encourage student autonomy because they lead students to build their own criteria for how to produce English sounding sentences.
Sounding English is not just a question of pronouncing individual sounds correctly, much more important is to be able to control the rhythm and stress of what is said.
Having a feeling for English pronunciation not only helps students to be understood by other people, it also helps students to understand native speakers.
Rhythm
• The Rhythm of English
Stress and the Schwa
•Pronunciation tips: Schwa
BBC Learning English
•Stressed Syllables and the Schwa Sound Schwa_stress
•The General Rule 1 01_tonic_accent
•The General Rule 2 02_tonic_accent
•Words with Latin or Greek suffixes 1 01_tonic_accent_2
•Words with Latin or Greek suffixes 2 02_tonic_accent_2
•Words in -ion words_in_ion
•Limericks
Voiced and voiceless
•Vibration and no vibration voiced_unvoiced
Distinguishing between voiced and unvoiced consonants
•Pronunciation of the -ed ending - 1 pronunciation/01_-ed_endings
•Pronunciation of the -ed ending - 2 pronunciation/02_-ed_endings
Spelling and Pronunciation
•Magic "e" magic-e-spelling-pronunciation-rule
Minimal Pairs
•hot vs hut pronunciation/min_pairs
ENGLISH LISTENING EXERCISES
100 listening exercises for learners of English.
•Listening practice for different levels, different interests. Plenty of practice.
•Listening actively can help your pronunciation too.Even the simple exercises can help you to get your ear tuned to English sounds and rhythms.
•Try listening to several different styles. A fairy story or a folk tale which is soothing, or a lively movie ad –some of these are quite challenging!
•Do a little at a time, but often and you will soon notice the difference.
•The dictation exercises help you pay attention to detail. Writing like this helps you assimilate.
•The variety of the listening selections and the different types of exercises keeps it fun and interesting. If it gets too difficult, choose an easier exercise.
•Listening practice for different levels, different interests. Plenty of practice.
•Listening actively can help your pronunciation too.Even the simple exercises can help you to get your ear tuned to English sounds and rhythms.
•Try listening to several different styles. A fairy story or a folk tale which is soothing, or a lively movie ad –some of these are quite challenging!
•Do a little at a time, but often and you will soon notice the difference.
•The dictation exercises help you pay attention to detail. Writing like this helps you assimilate.
•The variety of the listening selections and the different types of exercises keeps it fun and interesting. If it gets too difficult, choose an easier exercise.
BEGINNERS-DICTATIONS
A step-by-step course for real beginners.
A step-by-step course for real beginners.REAL ENGLISH VIDEO DICTATIONS Street interviews of ordinary people.
HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE Stories from around the world.
STUDENT'S INTRODUCTION Four adult students introduce themselves.
TV COMMERCIALS 1960'S TV Ads.
FAIRY STORIES For people who enjoy fairy tales.
MOVIE TRAILERS Click on a picture to find an exercise.
ACADEMIC TEXT RECONSTRUCTION Based on the Voice of America's Special English programs.
ENGLISH EXERCISE- SONG
Read and listen to the song while you fill the gaps. Click on the following link:
BEAUTIFUL DAY by U2
BEAUTIFUL DAY by U2
13th ANNIVERSARY OF PRINCESS DIANA'S DEATH-
Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor; née Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997)
Princess Diana was an iconic figure of the late 20th Century. During her life she was often said to be the most photographed person, appearing on the cover of People magazine more than anyone else. She epitomised feminine beauty and glamour. At the same time, she was admired for her groundbreaking charity work; in particular her work with AIDS patient,s and supporting the campaign for banning landmines. Married to Prince Charles in 1981, she received the title of “Her Royal Highness Princess Diana of Wales” She is the Mother of Prince William and Prince Harry 2nd and 3rd in line to the throne respectively.
Princess Diana was an iconic figure of the late 20th Century. During her life she was often said to be the most photographed person, appearing on the cover of People magazine more than anyone else. She epitomised feminine beauty and glamour. At the same time, she was admired for her groundbreaking charity work; in particular her work with AIDS patient,s and supporting the campaign for banning landmines. Married to Prince Charles in 1981, she received the title of “Her Royal Highness Princess Diana of Wales” She is the Mother of Prince William and Prince Harry 2nd and 3rd in line to the throne respectively.Diana was born to an aristocratic family who links to the Royal Family. Her father was Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp. Edward Spencer was a direct descendent of Charles II.. Her mother was Frances Viscountess Althorp. Her mother was distantly related with the Queen Mother, and was also of American descent. When Diana was young, her parents divorced with her father winning a bitter battle for custody of the children. Diana grew up in the family home of Park House, before moving to Althorp in 1975. Diana did not shine as a student, but did well in music and ballet. When she met her future husband, Diana was working as a part time assistant in a nursery school in London.
domingo, 8 de agosto de 2010
MICHELLE OBAMA ARRIVES IN MARBELLA FOR LUXURY HOLIDAY
US First Lady, Michelle Obama and her youngest daughter Sasha arrived in Malaga airport Wednesday morning aboard Air Force Two. The First lady and her daughter were picked up by a motorcade of black limos and police cars. They were driven directly from the airport to the luxury hotel Villa Padierna.5-star Luxury Holiday in Style
The hotel Villa Padierna, officially located in the municipality of Benahavis (Malaga), is ranked amongst the top 30 hotels in the world. With its tuscany styled architecture and 2,000 square meter spa the Obama family will have plenty to enjoy. The U.S. First Lady was welcomed by hotel director, Ricardo Arranz who confirmed to the press that the Obamas had reserved 60 rooms at the hotel for themselves, their friends and their extensive Secret Service detail.
sábado, 31 de julio de 2010
viernes, 23 de julio de 2010
jueves, 15 de julio de 2010
INIESTA PUTS SPAIN ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Champions of Europe and now champions of the world, Spain captured football's Holy Grail for the first time with a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands thanks to Andres Iniesta's 116th-minute strike at Soccer City.
The solitary goal came with penalties looming as substitute Cesc Fabregas played in Iniesta and the little midfielder drove emphatically across Maarten Stekelenburg and into the far corner. With this victory – their fourth successive single-goal win in South Africa – Spain became the eighth name on the FIFA World Cup™ Trophy and also the first European team to have triumphed on a different continent.