viernes, 31 de enero de 2014

CHINESE NEW YEAR_ 31st JANUARY

Chinese New Year is celebrated in many countries around the world. Each new year is named after one of twelve animals. 2013 was the year of the Snake and 2014 is the year of the Horse.

2014 Year of the Horse

Dragon dances, acrobats, fireworks, a parade ... London is buzzing with excitement at Chinese New Year. Find out what you can do to join in the excitement!

Lunar New Year celebrations begin in China

People do lots of special things to celebrate Chinese New Year, this song is about some of them.

My Favourite Day - Chinese New Year

Make a colourful paper dragon.

The Great Race

Chinese New Year - Game

Chinese Year of the Dragon - Game

Greeting Cards

Lantern Festival

Year of the Horse - Printables

miércoles, 29 de enero de 2014

POPE FRANCIS ROCKS ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE COVER

Pope Francis has become the first pontiff to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. It is a typical picture of the pope, smiling and waving, above the cover line, "The times they are a-changin.'"

This is one popular pope. Only last month he was smiling from the cover ofTime magazine as its 2013 "person of the year." And that was his second Time cover appearance last year.

But Rolling Stone is a rock music magazine, so it is a landmark decision to feature him. (No jokes then about a Rolling Stone gathers no mass).

Inside the magazine is a 7,700-word profile by contributing editor Mark Binelli, who writes: "In less than a year since his papacy began, Pope Francis has done much to separate himself from past popes and establish himself as a people's pope."

Never has a pope had so much in common with a rock star.

Pope Francis, who is known for his independent streak and for captivating crowds, has landed the February 2014 cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

“The times they are a-changin’ at the Vatican,” Rolling Stone declared in the headline, offering a look “inside the Pope's gentle revolution"

miércoles, 8 de enero de 2014

CHANGES TO CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH. FCE 2015

From January 2015, Cambridge English: First will have new specifications. Cambridge English: First is at Level B2 on the CEFR. It can be taken as a computer-based or a paper-based exam. It uses real-life situations that are designed to help your students communicate more effectively and learn the language skills to use everyday written and spoken English for work and study purposes.

Changes to exam at a glance

These are the key changes to the Cambridge English: First exam that will be introduced in January 2015.

Description Current version Revised version (2015)

Format Five papers Four papers

Timing 3 hours 59 minutes 3 hours 29 minutes

Number of Parts 17 17

Number of questions 104 84

OXFORD DICTIONARIES WORD OF THE YEAR 2013

SELFIE

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

Oxford Dictionaries announced selfie as their international Word of the Year 2013. 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:

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 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) anddrelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture – shelfie and bookshelfie.

miércoles, 1 de enero de 2014

THE 30 BEST GOALS IN WORLD 2013

Start Slideshow

Lionel Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo. Franck Ribery. Gareth Bale. Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Arjen Robben. Neymar. These are just some of the elite stars that stun us with an incredible mix of skill and class every week. However, football is a global sport and players that may never get the chance of mixing it with the best in the world are still capable of producing a wonder strike. How some of these goals found the Internet is truly a wonder.

So, here is the top 30 goals in professional football for the year 2013...

Start Slideshow