PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MADRID: E.O.I.

Dear Students,

I have always used this blog trying to help you improve your English and now it's the first time I'm going to attach something in Spanish because I consider the situation is really critical in Madrid. Please, don't look at it from a political point of view (we all have different opinions and we all respect each other). But I really think your studies in the Language Schools are in danger. Read this carefully and then decide if you want to do something about it.

SABIAS QUE....

Estimado alumno o futuro alumno de las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas:

SABÍAS QUE...

- las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas también son escuela pública?

- los recortes educativos nos afectan a todos: alumnos y profesores?

- el número de profesores de Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas se ha reducido para este curso en un 12%?

- mientras que los profesores vamos a tener más horas lectivas, tú posiblemente recibas menos horas de clase por el mismo precio que el curso pasado?

- en algunos idiomas ha habido que cerrar niveles y grupos (con alumnos ya matriculados) por falta de profesor?

- en la Comunidad de Madrid 3.000 profesores no van a tener trabajo durante este curso y la mayoría de ellos pasará a cobrar dos años de paro (lo cual supondrá mayor gasto para el Estado) porque llevan cinco, diez y hasta veinte años trabajando?

- en otras Comunidades Autónomas los alumnos de Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas pueden estudiar hasta obtener el nivel C (el más alto reconocido por las instituciones europeas y el más demandado en el terreno laboral), pero en la Comunidad de Madrid no?

- que el nivel C, en la Comunidad de Madrid, solamente puede obtenerse examinándose en centros privados o centros de titularidad extranjera, con precios mucho más altos que las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas?

- si los recortes en educación continúan, las Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas, que no son enseñanzas obligatorias, podrían desaparecer?

- estudiar en una Escuela Oficial de Idiomas cuesta aproximadamente 1 euro por hora de clase?

- estudiar idiomas en cualquier otro centro cuesta normalmente 10 veces más?

- tú también puedes hacer algo?

Si te dicen que la educación pública no ha sido recortada, no los creas: mienten.

ANTE LOS RECORTES:

MOVILÍZATE

APOYA A TUS PROFESORES

Más información en www.soseducacionpublica.es

INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT A NOT-SO-OLD CONFLICT

I have found very interesting information about the history of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Click here:

Israel_Palestinian_conflict

TIPS TO PREPARE THE ORAL EXAM

As I promised, here you have some ideas to improve your oral skills before the exams.

I hope you find them useful.

ORAL SKILL

• Try to listen to some English everyday (music, news, films, radio, etc.); pay attention to the pronunciation and try to imitate some parts of the texts. Some songs are fantastic!
• Prepare the topics you have. Don’t attempt to memorize everything because the moment you forget a word, then you’ll get stuck. Repeat the speech many times, making changes and trying to improve what you didn’t do well the previous time. If you know very well what you’re talking about, you won’t have any problem to improvise in case it’s necessary.
• Prepare some new vocabulary for each topic and use some of the new structures you studied this course. It will be a positive!
• Record your speech and listen to it later. Make sure you spot the mistakes and write them down. Next time you record it, pay special attention to these mistakes.
• Check the pronunciation of the words you don’t know. Don’t trust your logics. Remember that pronunciation rules in English have nothing to do with the Spanish ones.
• If you have a very strong Spanish accent, try to imitate Spanish people mocking English accent. It works!
• Speak slowly and paying attention not only to the right pronunciation but also to the accuracy: speak correctly.

 

To be continued …

KEY TO TESTS FOR UNITS 9 & 10 & 11

In case you didn't do the tests in the class, I attach the key to make sure you can make corrections. I hope you don't have any problem.

Don't forget to use the Workbook. There are very good exercises there and in the CD-Rom.
Check the photocopies I have given you along the year & practise some writing and selfcorrection.

Click here to see the keys.
Keys to units 9, 10 & 11

A FEW REMINDERS BEFORE THE EXAMS

I'd like to remind you of a few important things before the exams begin.

- Remember that you have to take back all the books you borrowed from the class library. Next Tuesday will be our last class, so it'll be your last chance to do it.

- As I told you last Tuesday, next Tuesday 31st will be our last class. As I have to invigilate an exam from 4 to 6.30, it will begin at 7 p.m. and it'll take, as usual, nearly 2 hours. The students from both of my groups are welcome as we'll do some practice for the final exam.

- Your written exam (Reading Comprehension + Vocab, Listening Comprehension and Grammar + writing will be held 3rd June at 18.30. Make sure you arrive on time.

- Your oral exams will be:
Tuesday 14th for the first group (16.00 - 18.00)
Thursday 16th for the second group (18.00 - 20.00)

Everybody has to be there at 16.00
Any change to this timetable will have to be agreed with me.

- Remember that mobile phones are not permitted in the classroom, especially while the exams are taking place.

Queen Elizabeth lays wreath at Garden of Remembrance

Queen Elizabeth II lays a wreath during a ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin on the first day of her State visit to Ireland. Photograph: Maxwells/PA Wire

 

Queen Elizabeth II has attended a wreath-laying ceremony in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance on the first day of her historic State visit.

In a hugely symbolic gesture reflecting a new era in relations between the countries, the British monarch bowed her head as she laid a wreath at the memorial for those who died fighting for Irish freedom, before observing a minute’s silence.
President Mary McAleese and the Queen were greeted and escorted around the memorial by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Army Chief of Staff Seán McCann.
During the ceremony, the Irish Army band played God Save The Queen,  an act unthinkable only few decades ago.
The poem Rinneadh Aisling Dúinn (We Saw A Vision),  which is inscribed on the wall of the Garden of Remembrance, was read aloud in Irish by Capt Joe Freeley, from the Second Infantry Battalion in Cathal Brugha Barracks, before the Last Post  was sounded.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny attended the event alongside former Fianna Fáil taoisigh Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern
The sound of fireworks let off by republican protesters close to the Garden of Remembrance could be heard as the wreath-laying ceremony was being held. Gardaí were also involved in minor scuffles with Éirigí supporters who were rallying in protest at the Queen’s visit.
The Queen’s visit has prompted the biggest security operation ever mounted by the State, with some 10,000 gardaí and Defence Forces personnel deployed on security-related details.
The last leg of the Queen’s itinerary today saw her visit Trinity College, established by her ancestor Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, to view the Book of Kells.

The royal party was greeted on arrival at the university by Provost John Hegarty, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn and the college chancellor and former president Mary Robinson.

The Queen was escorted on a tour of the old library building and its famous Long Room chamber by the college librarian Robin Adams. A reception in honour of the Queen was also held in the Long Room, where she and Prince Philip met Trinity dignitaries, scholars, musicians and artists.
The British monarch was earlier welcomed by President McAleese and her husband Dr Martin McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin, marking the official start of her State visit, the first by a reigning British monarch in 100 years.
The 85-year-old monarch and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip were greeted on the steps of the Áras by Mrs McAleese in front of a combined Army guard of honour.
After meeting the President and her husband, the Queen and Prince Philip were escorted inside the Áras and introduced to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, before being invited to sign the visitors’ book in the State reception room.
As part of the ceremonial welcome at the Áras, the Queen received a 21-gun salute in the forecourt of the residence, followed by a rendition of the British and Irish national anthems played by an Army band. A detachment of the Army Air Corps performed a ceremonial fly-by as the anthems were played.
The Queen later inspected a military guard of honour while the band played a piece of music written in her honour by composer Bill Whelan.

If you want to read more about this historical visit, click here:
Queen Elizabeth in Ireland

SCOTTISH DANCING ACTIVITY

Dear Students,

Tomorrow Thursday 19th, apart from our class, you can also enjoy the rest of the evening dancing in English!
David Vivanco, a famous Scottish teacher, is in Las Rozas. He'll teach us to learn Scottish dances and have a really good time dancing and practising English.

There are 2 sessions: 16.30 and 18.30. Both will be held in I.E.S. Burgo de Las Rozas (entrada Parque de París).
The price is just 2€ and they'll provide you with a bottle of water.
If you are interested, you can see me or any other teacher today or before the performance.

If you are in the group who has the class at 16.00, you can go to the second session (18.30).
If you are in the group who has our class at 18.00, you can go to the first session (16.30)

Here you have a link to have a look at the activity:
Ceilidh Dance

Spain prepares for Seve Ballesteros funeral

Ballesteros won five majors in a glittering career.
The funeral of golfing legend Seve Ballesteros will take place on Wednesday in his home village of Pedrena in Spain.
The ceremony will be at the San Pedro parish church at 1200 BST.
Ballesteros died aged 54 in the early hours of Saturday morning after a long battle with cancer.
"Seve will be cremated at a ceremony that will be as intimate as possible and at a place that nobody will know," said the Ballesteros family.
"That was his express wish. His ashes will remain at his estate, at his home in Pedrena."
Seve's brother Baldomero Ballesteros was quoted as saying: "The funeral rites will be as simple as those for any neighbour from the village. He was born here and here he will remain."
Miguel Angel Revilla, head of the local Cantabria government, said the region will observe three days of official mourning.
At the Players Championship in Florida this week, the Spanish flag will fly in honour of Ballesteros until Sunday.
Normally, the previous year's winner has his national flag flying over the Circle of Champions but the South African flag marking Tim Clark's victory last May has been replaced.
Ballesteros, one of the most gifted players the sport has ever seen, won three Opens and two Masters in a career that had 87 tournament victories.
He played in eight Ryder Cups, winning 22½ points from 37 matches, as well as captaining the European side to victory in 1997.
His passing has been marked across the world of sport, with silences being held at the European Tour's Spanish Open and at the Wells Fargo Championship in America over the weekend.
South African Thomas Aiken dedicated his Spanish Open victory on Sunday to Ballesteros. He said: "He was everything to the game of golf and I am happy to have won for him - any of us would have won for him."
There was also a tribute before the Madrid Open tennis semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on Saturday, while the Barcelona and Espanyol football teams paid their respects to Ballesteros before their La Liga match on Sunday.

Barack Obama pays 9/11 respects at Ground Zero

US president remembers victims of Osama bin Laden at the site of 2001 World Trade Centre terrorist attacks.

Barack Obama spoke no words as he laid a red, white and blue wreath at the centre of Ground Zero. But then he didn't need to: the location and the identity of the individuals gathered round him spoke for him.

The location was in the shade cast by the Survivor Tree, an oak that was recently planted at the World Trade Centre for a second time. The first time was in the 1970s, but the tree was later engulfed in rubble on 11 September 2001.
Remarkably, it was found alive though badly damaged, then nursed back to health and finally replanted at its old home last December. It now stands 9 metres (30ft) tall.

Close to the oak stood Payton Wall. She was four years old when her father, Glen Wall, died in the Twin Towers. Now 14, she wrote a letter to the president describing how she coped with that loss. By happenstance, Obama read the letter on Monday, the morning after he had orchestrated the killing of the architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden.

A tree. A child. On the back of one man's killing, the almost 3,000 lives that he took were remembered in their company.
It happened under the same cloudless New York sky that had famously been a feature of 9/11 itself. On that day, almost 10 years ago, the beauty of the crystal clear blue sky seemed to mock the terrible events that were to unfold beneath it.
But on this occasion, with the knowledge that 9/11's architect had been confined to a watery grave, the beauty of the day seemed more in tune with events. Before laying the wreath, Obama walked through the memorial plaza that is now taking shape at the heart of Ground Zero. He saw the two giant footprints of the Twin Towers that form the physical and aesthetic heart of the site, which will become reflective pools and the largest manmade waterfalls in America. In the past week the first of the 2,976 names of those who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania have appeared, etched in bronze plates that have just been set out along the pools' edges.

If you want to read more, click here:

Obama pays respect at Ground Zero

KEY TO EXTRA REPORTED SPEECH EXERCISES

Click here to see the document with the key.

KEY to extra R.S. ex.

The princess problem

Does the royal wedding show fairytales can come true? Or should you persuade your daughters that being a princess doesn't bring happiness?

• 

Nick Duerden with his daughters Amaya, five, and Evie, three. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

 

When is the prince marrying the princess?" my five-year-old daughter asked me recently. The question took me by surprise.
I thought, at first, she was referring to a bedtime story. I have two daughters, the younger of whom is three, and a dispiriting number of our bedtime stories revolve around lowly girls with tumbled locks awaiting rescue by handsome noblemen on steeds. But, no, she meant the real one; the one about to take place between the son of our eternal non-king and his comely peasant girl.
I was unable to answer because, frankly, I didn't know. "Soon," I said. "Why? Do you want to watch it on TV?"
She appraised me coolly, a little v forming between her eyebrows. "I want to go," she said.
"Where?"
"The wedding. It's in a church."

It is always wise, in these situations, not to show horror at your child's innocently expressed sentiments, so I didn't. I didn't tell her that we would do no such thing, that, while no vociferous anti-royalist, I nevertheless wanted them to have little impact on my family life, and that, no, we would not be buying any commemorative mugs either.

In the weeks that followed, I learned from my wife, who knows about these things, that we were going to be celebrating in style, and in public. My daughter's school was organising a street party. Neighbours, friends and family would be welcome, all of us unified in temporary British pluck, spirit and pride. I had not endured – or do I mean enjoyed? – a street party since 1977 and the Queen's silver jubilee, our south London estate abruptly transformed, its inhabitants conjoined by a patriotic virus that didn't last. The golden jubilee, a quarter of a century later, mercifully passed me by entirely, but this royal date will not, and come the day, come the hour, we will all – weather-permitting – spend the afternoon commandeering a closed-to-traffic road, where hopefully the proliferation of union flags will not cause us to be mistaken for BNP supporters by unwitting onlookers.
My presence at the wedding party, my wife tells me, will be mandatory. "There'll be sandwiches," adds my daughter.

Royal weddings always did constitute big news story status, of course, but your average blueblood marrying someone not too far from a second cousin twice removed has nothing on this. There are, as I understand it, two overriding reasons for this. The first is that William will one day be the face on our currency, while Kate, not quite peasant stock perhaps but certainly no lifelong polo fanatic, will bring the myth of the picture-book princess back into palpable reality in a way not seen since Diana three decades previously. To many, this is greatly exciting, a cause for hand-clapping.

"Oh, do not underestimate the attraction of Kate Middleton," the former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond tells me. "The entire country, the entire world, is going to be obsessed with this wedding, and Kate in particular. She'll be a great boost to the royal family, I'd say."

Bond is now a freelance reporter, and will be covering, and commenting on, the wedding for several international news outlets. "Polls suggest that 66% of us will take part in street parties," she says. "You see? We can be patriotic …"
Many schools across the country are having similar events. "We've got life-size cutouts of William and Kate," boasts one headmistress, claiming: "The children are really excited." Another school promises "bunting and flags". Bunting?

But not everyone can summon the necessary patriotism. Facebook simmers with anti-royal fury, while the campaign group Republic had planned to hold an alternative street party in Covent Garden, London until the local council decided to nix it, on the grounds that anything calling itself The Not The Royal Wedding Party is likely to be bad PR.

Former Housemartin and Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton thinks the royal wedding "will strike many people as the worst kind of excessive wastefulness: a festival of pomp, circumstance and religious platitudes". The writer Blake Morrison says: "As all of middle England will be consumed by Middletonmania, I expect to spend the day on a remote island, or, failing that, on an isolation ward."
Perhaps they could both head to Sheffield? Its Western Park will be hosting a barbecue under the banner Bollox to the Royal Wedding. Bring your own drink.
My daughter, I'm confident, is no budding royalist. She sees little difference between Cinderella, Snow White or Kate Middleton, 2D or 3D, and is drawn to them purely, I think, because they wear sparkly dresses. She likes sparkly dresses, and when she wears one she is a princess too. She tells me she wants to become one when she grows up, but this is a phase. It will pass.

To read more, click here: The Princess problem

REPORTED SPEECH EXERCISES AND KEY

As promised, I attach the key to the exercises I asked you to do at home so that you can make corrections. If there is any problem, please let me know.

Click here:
Reported Speech ex. + key

Differences between Men and Women

As we have just begun a new unit about the differences between men and women, here you have a very funny video from youtube to really appreciate those differences. It's in English, of course!, but with subtitles in Spanish.
I hope you enjoy it and have a good laugh.

Men & Women video

 

And something else about Coca Cola

Mar has sent me this beautiful advert. There are no words, but the images are really impressive.


Coca Cola advert

Coca Cola Rumors & Facts

Are you wondering about something you have seen or heard about this company or their beverages?
Around the world an increasing volume of information is circulating on the Internet. Unfortunately not all of it is correct. Click in this link (provided be Javier P.) if you want to get the facts the company shows.

Coca Cola Rumors & Facts

Interesting Anecdotes (part 2)

Airports at higher  altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air  density.
    
 The University of Alaska  spans four time zones.
  
 The tooth is the only  part of the human body that cannot heal itself.
  
 In ancient Greece ,  tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage.  Catching it meant she accepted.
  
 Warner Communications  paid $28 million for the copyright to the song Happy  Birthday.
  
 Intelligent people have  more zinc and copper in their hair.
  
 A comet's tail always  points away from the sun.
  
 The Swine Flu vaccine in  1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to  prevent.
  
 Caffeine increases the  power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some  medicines.
  
 The military salute is a  motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised  their visors to reveal their identity.
  
 If you get into the  bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even  in the middle of the day.
  
 When a person dies,  hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is  sight.
   
 In ancient times  strangers shook hands to show that they were  unarmed.
  
 Strawberries are the  only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside.
  
 Avocados have the  highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred  grams.

 The moon moves about two  inches away from the Earth each year.
  
 The Earth gets 100 tons  heavier every day due to falling space dust.
  
 Due to earth's gravity  it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000  meters.
     
 Mickey Mouse is known as  "Topolino" in Italy.
  
 Soldiers do not march in  step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration  which could be sufficient to knock the bridge  down.
     
 Everything weighs one  percent less at the equator.
  
 For every extra kilogram  carried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at  lift-off.
  
 The letter  J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.  
  
 And last but  not least:
 In 2011,  July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays. This apparently happens  once every 823 years!  This is called 'money bags'.

'Great legend' Elizabeth Taylor remembered

Javier P. has sent me this piece of information about the famous actress who has just passed away.

Dame Elizabeth won two Academy Awards over the course of her career
Madonna, Barbra Streisand and many other stars have paid tribute to Dame Elizabeth Taylor following her death in Los Angeles at the age of 79.
"I am so sorry to hear that this great legend has passed," said Madonna.
"I admired and respected her not only as an actress but for her amazing and inspiring work as an Aids activist."
"It's the end of an era," said Streisand in her tribute. "It wasn't just her beauty or her stardom. It was her humanitarianism."
"She put a face on HIV/Aids. She was funny. She was generous. She made her life count."
Double Oscar-winner Taylor had a history of ill health and was being treated for symptoms of congestive heart failure at the time of her death.
Her four children were with her when she died in her sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday.
Dame Elizabeth's passing prompted a plethora of tributes from her Hollywood contemporaries, among them Shirley MacLaine, Mickey Rooney and Liza Minnelli.
"I don't know what was more impressive - her magnitude as a star or her magnitude as a friend," said MacLaine.
"Her talent for friendship was unmatched. I will miss her for the rest of my life and beyond."
Rooney, who starred opposite Taylor in 1944's National Velvet, remembered her as "a lady who gave of herself to everyone".
Elizabeth's legacy will live on in many people around the world”
End Quote Bill and Hillary Clinton
Minnelli, meanwhile, remembered her as "a true star" and friend who "was always, always there for me."
"Liz was a dear friend," said Dame Julie Andrews, who received her damehood on the same day as London-born Taylor in May 2000.
"She was a great legendary lady of Hollywood and she will be mourned worldwide."
Additional tributes were paid by Debbie Reynolds, Barry Manilow and La Toya Jackson, who said she had been an "incredible friend" of her late brother Michael.
Beyond the movie and music industries, Taylor's passing has also been marked by leading figures in the world of politics.
"Elizabeth's legacy will live on in many people around the world whose lives will be longer and better because of her work and the ongoing efforts of those she inspired," said former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, now US Secretary of State.
Taylor's star on the Walk of Fame has been adorned with mementos from fans
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said she had "forever marked the history of the Seventh Art" and had been "devoted from the youngest age to a limitless passion for film".
"I shall remember her as a woman whose heart and soul were as beautiful as her classic face and majestic eyes," said John Warner, the former US senator who became Taylor's sixth husband in 1976.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan, meanwhile, remembered her as a woman who was "passionate - and compassionate - about everything in her life, including her family, her friends and especially the victims of Aids.
"She was truly a legend and we will miss her."
In Los Angeles, Taylor's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been deluged by flowers, photos and notes from fans.
A private family funeral will be held later this week.

Very interesting anecdotes (part 1)

For your information!

If you are right handed,  you will tend to chew your food on the right side of your mouth. If you  are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on the left side of  your mouth.

To make half a kilo of  honey, bees must collect nectar from over 2 million individual  flowers.

Heroin is the brand name  of morphine once marketed by 'Bayer'.
 
 Tourists visiting   Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an  insult!
  
 People in nudist  colonies play volleyball more than any other  sport.
  
 Albert Einstein was  offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he  declined.
  
 Astronauts can't belch -  there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their  stomachs.
  
 Ancient Roman, Chinese  and German societies often used urine as  mouthwash.
  
 The Mona Lisa has no  eyebrows. In the Renaissance era, it was fashion to shave them  off!
  
 Because of the speed at  which Earth moves around the Sun, it is impossible for a solar eclipse  to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.
  
 The night of January 20  is "Saint Agnes's Eve", which is regarded as a time when a young woman  dreams of her future husband.
      
 Google is actually the  common name for a number with a million zeros.
  
 It takes glass one  million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be  recycled an infinite amount of times!
  
 Gold is the only metal  that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of  years.
  
 Your tongue is the only  muscle in your body that is attached at only one  end.
  
 If you stop getting  thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated,  its thirst
 mechanism shuts  off.
  
 Each year 2,000,000  smokers either quit smoking or die of tobacco-related  diseases.
      
 Zero is the only number  that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.
  
 Kites were used in the  American Civil War to deliver letters and  newspapers.
  
 The song, Auld Lang  Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking  country in the world to bring in the new year.
     
 Drinking water after  eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61  percent.
  
 Peanut oil is used for  cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above  450°F.
      
 The roar that we hear  when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather  the sound of blood surging through the veins in the  ear.
  
 Nine out of every 10  living things live in the ocean.
  
 The banana cannot  reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of  man.
  
 

Women and Islam. Dr Wafa Sultan

This is a very interesting video with the speech of an American-Sirian psychyatric who strongly fights in favour of Muslim women rights.
It has subtitles in Spanish, soyou will be able to understand very well while she's talking, despite her strong accent.
Dr Wafa Sultan's speech

World Digital Library

Mar G. has sent me this interesting article about this new Library created by UNESCO. It is written in Spanish, but I hope you find it interesting.

                                                    

Mission

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
The principal objectives of the WDL are to:

• Promote international and intercultural understanding;
• Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
• Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
• Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

This Site

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site, in a variety of ways. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.
Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.
Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.
The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

Worldwide Digital Library

Powerful quake triggers tsunami in Japan

Hundreds of people are feared dead after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan sent a 10m tsunami ploughing into its coast. The quake was the most powerful ever recorded in Japan and sparked a tsunami alert across the Pacific basin.

• Strong tremors shake buildings in Tokyo
• Major fire at Chiba refinery

If you click here, you can see some impressive images of how the tremendous tsunami sweeps fields and villages and even the airport and a refinery.

 

The guardian

 

THE SUGAR GLIDER by Rod Nielsen

This is the next book you have to read. It's level 5, that is, upper-intermediate. Make sure you buy it with the corresponding CDs. This is the ISBN for the book WITH CDs: 978-0-521-68651-8.
I hope you get it soon to start reading next week.

KEY FOR THE REVIEW

You have access to two documents. One of them is the answer key for Review B, the cloze and the Reading Comprehension (The day that changed my life). The other one is an exercise (USED TO) I just gave to the group at 6 p.m. You can see the exercise and the key.

I hope you find it useful.

Review + other exe. KEY

Used to - ex. + KEY

Shot because he was against the blasmefy laws

The radicals in Pakistan kill a Christian minister because he was against the new blasfemy laws, which punish everyone who is not a Muslim.

Pakistan minister shot dead on way to cabinet meeting in Islamabad

Shahbaz Bhatti – a Christian and critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws – killed by assassins who left behind Taliban-linked leaflets, say reports

 

Shahbaz Bhatti, pictured in 2005, was Pakistan's minorities minister. Photograph: Faisal Mahmood/Reuters

Pakistan's minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, has been assassinated by unidentified gunmen in the capital, Islamabad.

Bhatti, a Christian, was an outspoken advocate of reforms to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, and his death comes two months after the Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer, was gunned down just a few miles away.
Television stations said up to four gunmen opened fire on Bhatti at close range as he left his Islamabad home on Wednesday with his niece on his way to cabinet meeting.
The gunmen pulled Bhatti's niece and guard out of his vehicle, then shot him several times inside the car. The minister was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The killers escaped. TV stations reported they left behind pamphlets for a Taliban-affiliated group.
One report said the pamphlet has been signed by a group named "Fidayeen e Muhammad" and "al-Qaida in Punjab", strongly suggesting a link between the killing and the blasphemy controversy.
Television pictures showed Bhatti's bullet-ridden car and police officers entering the house amid heavy rain.
Bhatti had joined Salmaan Taseer in championing the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death last November for allegedly committing blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad.
Human rights campaigners reacted with anger and dismay to the death of Bhatti, calling it a further sign of crumbling tolerance that highlighted the chronic failure of President Asif Ali Zardari's government to safeguard liberal voices.
"Shahbaz Bhatti was one of the few people in the government who took a brave and principled position on the blasphemy law. It appears like Salmaan Taseer before him that he has been killed for espousing this position," said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch.

If you want to read more, click here
The Guardian

PASSIVE VOICE

I attach the table with the transformations of the verbs from active into passive and the first exercises we did.
Check if your table is correct.

Passive voice table

VERB PATTERNS

These are the most common verb patterns. Go through them in detail and try to memorise them to make sure you always use the correct form. Most of them will sound familiar to you, so it isn't such a hard task!

Verb Patterns

New Zealand quake kills at least 65 people

At least 65 people have been killed and as many as 200 remain missing after a large earthquake measuring 6.3 magnitude struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch earlier this morning, destroying buildings in the city’s centre as the streets were filled with office workers and lunchtime shoppers.

Hundreds of people are feared to be trapped in collapsed buildings. The centre of the city has been evacuated as aftershocks continue.

 

Earthquake topples Christchurch Cathedral's spire, one of many collapsed buildings across New Zealand's second largest city. Photograph: Mark Mitchell/AP

Let's learn something else about Mecano

Javier P. has suggested this interesting link to have some more information about one of the best-known groups in the history of Spanish pop music.

Enjoy it!

Everything you wanted to know about Mecano

LECTURE about INDIA

Thursday 17th February
12.15 (E.O.I.)
18.30 Instituto el Burgo (II)

Lecturer: MANJULA BALAKRISHNAN

Baftas 2011: The King's Speech sweeps the board

The King's Speech was nominated in 14 categories and won in seven, including best film and best British film

The Guardian, Monday 14 February 2011

If you have a chance, watch this beautiful film!

It was never the most obvious subject for a thrilling, gets-you-there drama – a reluctant king's treatment for his wretched speech impediment – but the story worked to spectacular effect with The King's Speech last night, triumphing at the Baftas.

The King's Speech wins seven awards including best actor for Colin Firth .

The King's Speech was nominated in 14 categories and won in seven, including best film and best British film. Not quite a record – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has nine, The Killing Fields eight – but equal to Slumdog Millionaire's seven.
But it is the subject matter – "two men in a room," said the winning writer David Seidler last night – that makes its global success remarkable. The dialogue-heavy film tells the story of stuttering George VI, who became king reluctantly because his brother abdicated.
It is also something of a sour-tasting pleasure for the scrapped UK Film Council which helped get the film made in the first place, giving it a returnable £1m. Tanya Seghatchian, head of the council's film fund, said its success "represents a great validation for the UK film industry as a whole and an amazing legacy for the UK Film Council". The producers used the ceremony to highlight the importance of public subsidy for film.

Probably the least surprising winner of the night was Colin Firth, who was named best leading actor: his second consecutive Bafta. Last year it was for his role as a bereaved gay lecturer in A Single Man.

His co-stars were also victorious. Helena Bonham Carter won best supporting actress from a strong shortlist including Amy Adams, Barbara Hershey, Lesley Manville and Miranda Richardson.

In one of the longer thank you speeches, Bonham Carter, who played the future Queen Mother and has also recently portrayed the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, thanked the royal family. She said: "I seem to be playing queens with ever decreasing head sizes," adding: "I'm so used to losing, this feels very nice." She dedicated her Bafta to supporting wives everywhere.
Geoffrey Rush completed The King's Speech's acting honours as best supporting actor for his portrayal of the Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue. He won against Christian Bale, Andrew Garfield, Mark Ruffalo and the late Pete Postlethwaite.
From humble beginnings and a budget of around £10m, the film has earned eye-spinning amounts at the box office, expected to reach £125m by the time of the Oscars, later this month.
The film's writer, London-born David Seidler, won for best original screenplay. He had wanted to write it 25 years ago, but the Queen Mother asked him "not in my lifetime". He wasn't quite expecting her to live to 101.
To read more, click here:
The King's Speech

Formal letters

When writing a formal letter, there are certain things we have to take into account. For example, we cannot use contractions, the register is always extremely formal, we use certain phrases to require information, to start and to close the letter, etc.
Here you have the example we saw in the last class.
Don't forget to go through the photocopy I handed you in the class before writing your own letter.
Click here to see the letter on page 52 already corrected.
application letter page 52

Peace negociations between India and Pakistan

An interesting article about the difficult situation  between India and Pakistan which has been going on since their independence.

India and Pakistan to resume talks

Peace negotiations to begin again after Mumbai attacks in 2008

• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 February 2011 10.02 GMT
• Article history

 

 

India and Pakistan have agreed to resume formal peace talks for the first time since the Mumbai attacks in 2008. Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

India and Pakistan have agreed to resume formal peace talks that were broken off by New Delhi after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Indian sources said, although they sought to play down expectations of major progress.

The two countries have been under pressure from the US to reduce tensions because their rivalry spills over into Afghanistan, complicating peace efforts there.

A senior Indian government official said the decision to return to talks was made at a meeting between the two countries' top diplomats in Bhutan's capital, Thimphu, on the margins of a regional conference.

A Pakistani official wouldn't confirm the decision, but said there had been progress.

If you want to read more, click here:

The Guardian