Merry Christmas!!

Dear students,

I hope you enjoy this season, May peace and love dwell in your hearts and in those of the people around you.

Here you have a funny Christmas video -- in English of course!

Recipes for Christmas

These are the videos we watched at the beginning of the schoolyear and with the recipes you can prepare both for the Christmas tea party and for enjoying at home.

Remember that temperatures are expressed in Fahrenheit degrees which you'll have to turn into Celsius!

Brownies

Cookies

Some animals to describe (2º ESO F)

Puffin: It is a seabird. It can fish and swim. It lives in Northwestern Europe (Great Britain, France, Norway, Iceland...). It lives mainly on coasts and islands. It eats little fish.

Walrus: It is a mammal that lives on the North Pole. It has big tusks and whiskers. It lives for about 20-30 years. It eats small marine animals -- shrimps, clams... It can weigh 2 tonnes and polar bears and killer whales (orcas) often hunt them.

Musk ox (pl. musk oxen): It lives on the North Pole and in Sweden, Norway, Siberia, Canada and Alaska. It has a thick coat that is used as wool. It has long horns and it is a herbivore.

Puffin

Walrus

Musk ox

More on Reported Speech (Answer Key)

1 "Have you gone to school?", they asked. OR: "Did you go to school?", they asked.
2 "Why have you come late today?", she asked him.
3 "Are you feeling well?", I asked him.
4 "When will you come to my house?", he said.
5 "Don't lie to your father", they said to my nephew.
6 "Mark has been (OR: was) very regular in his work", the teacher said.
7 "Is this the place we have visited before?", the boy asked me.
8 "Tell the truth", the judge said to the witness.
9 "I've just received the letter and I must go home at once", he said.
10 "I'll go to London tomorrow", he said.

NOTICE - 2º Bachillerato B

The exam will take place at the school hall ("Salón de Actos") next Wednesday.

Keep in mind that the exam will last 1 hour and a half so we will also need to take time from the break.

Below you'll find the exercises on Reported Speech that we didn't have time to do in class. I'll post the answers on Tuesday.

Have a nice bank holiday even though you'll have to study!

More on Reported Speech (2º Bachillerato B)

Rewrite the following sentences in Direct Speech:

1 They asked me if I had gone to school.
2 She asked him why he had come late that day.
3 I asked him if he was feeling well.
4 He asked me come when they would come to my house.
5 They told my nephew not to tell a lie to his father.
6 The teacher said that Mark had been very regular in his work.
7 The boy asked me if that was the place we had visited before.
8 The judge told the witness to tell the truth.
9 He said that he had just received the letter and that he had to go home at once.
10 He said that he would go to London the next day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Famous outlaws

Who is who?

Jesse James · Jack the Ripper · Robin Hood

This is the name given to the unknown, mysterious serial killer who murdered five women in the slums of London in 1888.

(*1847 - +1882) This American outlaw and his gang robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains. He became a mythical figure of the Wild West. A member of his gang killed him as he wanted a reward.

This medieval criminal "robbed the rich and gave to the poor". According to the legend, he was a skilful archer and swordsman and dressed in green.

"The Body In The Library" (2/3)

Conway Jefferson, whose own son and daughter were killed in a wartime air raid, wants to adopt Ruby. His family didn't like this situation.

Miss Marple is convinced that the solution to Ruby's murder may be found at the hotel and she and Dolly book into a suite to investigate. There is no shortage of suspects, not only family members but also Raymond Starr, another of the hotel's dance professionals.

After gathering evidence, Miss Marple gets to the conclusion that Blake took the corpse to Gossington Hall but he didn't do it...

So far in "The Body In The Library"... (1/3)

A young woman's corpse is found in the library of Gossington Hall, owned by Arthur and Dolly Bantry. Dolly calls her friend Miss Marple to solve the mystery. The police suspect of an arty young man called Blake. However, in another town a young dancer, Ruby Keane, has disappeared. Her cousin, Josie Turner, identifies the corpse as Ruby's...
Who, then, is the murderer??

Agatha Christie and crime novelists

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

Agatha Christie was born in Devon (UK) and is one of the best-known crime novelists in the world. The Guinness World Record book lists her as one of the best-selling novelists of all times. She was a fan of Sherlock Holmes’s novels. The main characters of her novels are Hercules Poirot and Miss Marple, who try to solve the mysteries and murders they come across. Her life was also full of mystery: she disappeared for ten days in 1926, leaving only a note to her secretary. Her car was found empty and she appeared at hotel with a fake name. The MI5 also investigated Agatha Christie because they thought she was breaking secret codes.

Some other authors and stories you might enjoy are:

• ·         Sir Arthur Conan Doyle– he wrote the Sherlock Holmes’s series.
• ·         P.D. James .
• ·         Raymond Chandler –author of The Big Sleep, whose main character is detective Marlowe .
• Edgar Allan Poe - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
• ·         Ruth Rendell.
• ·         The TV series Murder, she wrote – Angela Lansbury featuring as Jessica Fletcher.

    Here you have a link to the full Wikipedia article:

         Agatha Christie

   

   You can also watch the full episodes of the Miss Marple series on YouTube:

    

   Miss Marple (BBC series)

   And, finally a list with the Top 100 Crime Stories of All Times:

   Top 100 Crime Novels

Reported Speech - answer key (2º Bachillerato B)

21. He suggested that I should cut my hair.
22. The boy asked if he could have more pudding.
23. The doctor told him not to take more than two of those at once.
24. One of the students suggested that I shouldn't leave my money lying about.
25. He told me (or "us") to keep an eye on my (or "our") luggage because that place was full of thieves.
26. My assistant suggested that s/he should take her/ his day off.
27. Mrs Jones said that someone was trying to murder her as she kept getting threatening letters.
28. She said that she had to hurry because her father always got furious if any of them were late for meals.
29. He said that he usually took his dog out for a walk when he came home form work.
30. I asked (them) where they were going for their summer holidays.

History of Halloween

The origin of Halloween is the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts lived 2000 years ago in Ireland, the UK and Northern France. It was the beginning of the dark, cold winter and they believed that on that night the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth. 

Much later - by the 9th century - the influence of Christianity turned this festival of Samhain into the night before All Saints' Day (in medieval English, All Hallowed's Day) and the night before it Halloween (roughly, from hallowed + evening).

There is a link to an in-depth history of Halloween below:

History of Halloween (history.com)

And a two-minute video which tells the history of Halloween:

The Jack O' Lantern

The carved pumpkin comes from the Irish folktale of "Stingy Jack". Jack had a drink with the Devil, but he didn't want to pay. He played some tricks on the devil for years and finally died. God didn't want Jack to enter heaven and the Devil didn't want him in hell, either. The Jack O' Lantern is the representation of Jack wandering the earth ever since.

You can read the full story here:

"Stingy Jack" and the Jack O' Lantern

Grammar woksheet - answer key (2º ESO F)

1. 1 Y. has a shower at 8am
2 B&M don't  like going shopping.
3 U. lives near the beach.
4 K. watches TV in the evenings.
5 S. doesn't finish his homework before 6pm.

2. 1 Does... have? Yes, she does.
2 Do... like? No, they don't.
3 Does... live? Yes, he does.
4 Does... watch? Yes, he does.
5 Does... finish? No, he doesn't.

3. 1 do you do
2 don't get up
3 finishes
4 has
5 doesn't like
6 love
7 do you relax
8 do
9 watches
10 listen

4. 1 often
2 always
3 never
4 almost never
5 usually
6 sometimes

5. 1 H. usually listens to heavy metal music.
2 I'm never happy in math lessons.
3 F. always chats on the Internet at weekends.
4 S. often goes swimming.
5 P. is almost never late.
6 K. sometimes des her homework on the bus.

6. 1 I -- her
2 They -- We -- them -- us
3 He -- We -- him

How to introduce the "tick" symbol in a document

Hi everyone!

It's sometimes difficult to introduce  a "tick" in a Word document since not all fonts offer this possibility. I have found a way to do so - maybe you know an easier one!

First of all, you have to select "Windings" as your font:

This doesn't imply that all your document has to be written in this font.

Once you've done so, click on "Insert">"Symbol". Symbol 252 for this font is our beloved "tick". See the image below:

Now you can use it. After you've used it once, it will be saved as a frequent symbol and, therefore, you'll have quicker access to it.

I hope you've found this entry useful!

Vocabulary & Grammar reinforcement and reference books

Here you have some books which you may find helpful:

• English Grammar for ESO (1st and 2nd cycle). Burlington Books
• New English Grammar for Bachillerato. Burlington Books
• Essential Grammar In Use. Cambridge U. P. 
• English Grammar In Use. Cambridge U. P. 
• Advanced Grammar In Use. Cambridge U. P. (only if you want to extend your knowledge in English grammar!)
• English Vocabulary In Use. (Three levels: elementary/ pre-intermediate & intermediate/ upper-intermiediate & advanced). Cambridge U. P.

Most of these books have self-study editions with answer keys.

"So far away" (2º ESO F)

Here you can see the video of the song we have listened to in class:

And here is a photomontage with lyrics - and better sound!

I hope you enjoy the song. Have a good bank holiday!!

State verbs

There are some verbs which we do not usually use in continuous tenses. These verbs tend to refer to:

·         existence: be, exist

·         mental states: believe, doubt, know, realise, recognise, suppose, think, understand

·         wants and likes: want, like, love, hate, need, prefer

·         possession: belong, have, possess, own

·         senses: feel, smell, taste

·         appearance: appear, look, seem

Note that some meanings of these verbs do accept continuous forms.

Some tips for this year

• Revise the new vocabulary you learn from time to time. Use the vocabulary bank in your notebooks!
• Remember to note down new vocabulary you find in texts, songs... Try to use this vocabulary in class or in assignments.
• Whenever you learn a new verb, check whether it's irregular or not.
• If you like listening to songs in English, look for the lyrics on the Internet and listen to the song with the lyrics you've just found. Thus, you'll associate the sound of words with their spelling.
• Have a go at watching films and serials in English!

Online resources - for all levels!

Hello everyone!

Here you'll find extra exercises on grammar, vocabulary, listening...

http://www.agendaweb.org/

In all sections there are graded activities - the easiest ones are in green, and the most difficult ones are in red.

(NB, You can mark this link as favourite to have direct access to this webpage whenever you need).