Happy Christmas - John Lennon

This is our Xmas song for this year.

 

So this is Christmas

And what ________________

Another year _________

And a new one _____ begun

And so this is Christmas

I ___________ you have fun

The near and the ______ one

The ________ and the _______

A very merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's _______ it's a good one

Without any _________

And so this is Christmas

For _________ and for _______

For rich and the poor ones

The world is so ____________

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white

For __________ and _______ ones

Let's stop all the _________

A very merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's _______ it's a good one

Without any _________

And so this is Christmas

And what ___________

Another year _________

And a new one _______ begun

Ans so this is Christmas

I __________ you have fun

The near and the dear one

The _________ and the ________

A very merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's _______ it's a good one

Without any __________

War is over

If you want it

War is over

Now...

And the version by The Corrs

U2 I believe in Father Xmas

A moving Christmas song by U2

They said there’ll be snow at Christmas

They said there’ll be peace on Earth

But instead it just keeps on raining

A veil of tears for the Virgin’s birth

I remember one Christmas morning

A winters light and a distant choir

And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell

And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

They sold me a dream of Christmas

They sold me a Silent Night

And they sold me a fairy story

‘Till I believed in the Israelite

And I believed in Father Christmas

And I looked at the sky with excited eyes

‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn

And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful Christmas

I wish you a brave New Year

All anguish, pain and sadness

Leave your heart and let your road be clear

They said there’ll be snow at Christmas

They said there’ll be peace on Earth

Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell

The Christmas you get you deserve.

La la la la la la la la la la

And the unplugged version, though only from the second verse. 
Great as well!

Christmas phrases & traditions

Christmas comes but once a year

Recently, this has become an excuse for gorging on holiday cookies or spending too much on presents, but this proverb quietly states that people need to be kind to each other year-round rather than just during the holidays.

Stockings hung by the chimney

The actual origin is uncertain, but hundreds of years ago, children dried damp socks by hanging them overnight from the fireplace mantle. At some point, a benevolent stranger, saint, or parent slipped some gifts into these stockings, and it is now an inseparable tradition. Holiday stockings are filled with small presents and fruit, such as apples and oranges, though naughty children may receive only a chunk of coal.

Trim the tree

This is an old reference to decorating a pine tree with ornaments, lights, and whatever glittery bits strike a family’s fancy.

Deck the Halls

"Decking” or decorating the halls with branches from a holly tree is an old tradition, and the popular carol began as a Welsh tune from the 1700s. These days, merry-makers deck their halls with blinking lights, pine branches, popcorn strung on strands of thread, and glittery garland.

Meet me under the mistletoe

European mistletoe is a shrub with yellow flowers and white, poisonous berries. The tradition of kissing under a hanging sprig of this plant began in 16th century England, but it was not connected to holiday tradition until the 18th century. In 1820, American author Washington Irving wrote, “–the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.”

Speaking about technologies

Apart from the practice that we have done in class on the topic of technologies, thera many more questions you can talk about when it comes to presentation in the exam. Here you have some suggestions:

We all know how important computers and the Internet are nowadays in our everyday life.

Talk about what use you make of them, whether personal, professional or both.

Do you have a favourite search engine? Which and why do you prefer it?

Have you had any major problems when learning or using computers?

How many hours a day do you spend using a computer?

If you are not very familiar with computers, why is this so? What is your opinion about the importance on the Internet today?

Positive and negative aspects of the Internet and the use we make of it.

About technologies in general:

What aspects of technological development do you find most exciting?
- Medical
- Communications
- Agricultural
- Space 

What aspect of technological development do you find most worrying?

What aspects of life have been made easier by the development of technology?

Idioms Contest I

We are going to learn a good number of idioms this year. To do so, we will try different types of activities. In this case, after the contest we had in class, you can download the full list of them with their meanings and examples. There are twelve this time. Try and use them when the context allows you to. You can start by thinking of situations where you could use them.

Click on the idiom to download

Do you know any other idioms that come in handy? Share with us! Post a comment with your idiom and an example. Let everyone else guess the meaning!

Writing SMS

This is how we express ourselves in text messages when we talk to our friends. Try and use them from now on, more than one will be just puzzled!

Here's what these abbreviations stand for:

• RU OK? - Are you OK?
• Y NY? - Yes and you?
• OK CU2DAY? - OK. See you today?
• NO 2MORO WER? - No. Tomorrow. Where?
• @J'S. CUL8TR - At John's. See you later.
• LUV B - Love Bob.
• F2T? - Free to talk?
• N. WER RU? - No. Where are you?
• @ WK. NU? - At work. And you?
• @ HM. CU L8TR? - At home. See you later?
• Y. WEN? - Yes. When?
• @7. TA4N. CU - At 7 o'clock. That's all for now. See you.
• OK. B4N. - OK. Bye for now. 

These emoticons are a way of adding emotion to your emails! This shorthand can express emotions in your text and also save on typing time!

Other phrases - for email or phone:

• LOL - laughed out loud
• BTW - by the way
• IMO - in my opinion
• IMHO - in my humble opinion
• TTFN - ta ta for now [bye for now]

Amazing Mango Chutney

I was cooking this delicious recipe yesterday, and I thought you may want to give it a try if you're into cooking. It goes perfectly well with mature cheese and roast vegetables or meat. It's fruity and has a spice twist that makes it work really well as a dipping sauce at barbecues. 

• Ingredients
• 
  
• 3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 large mangoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (250 mL) finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) golden raisins
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) white vinegar
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) finely chopped peeled gingerroot
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) each: ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt

Preparation

1. Combine apples, mangoes, red pepper, sugar, onion, raisins, vinegar, and gingerroot in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, and boil gently, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until fruit is tender and mixture is thickened, stirring occasionally. Add lemon juice, curry powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt; boil gently for 5 minutes.

2. Remove hot jars from canner and ladle chutney into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process 10 minutes for half-pint (250 mL) jars and 15 minutes for pint (500 mL) jars

If you try making this chutney I'd love to hear how it went.

Reading exam practice on Technologies

Unfortunately, we don't have enough time in class to do Reading exam practice on every topic. Thus, I'm going to provide exam samples so you can work on them as self-study activities.

This time, I've chosen a text about the spaceship Voyager 1, taken from the NASA. There is a thorough exploitation of the text with four different activities. A matching vocabulary exercise, a cloze, one to rewrite sentences and our top 1 at the school, find words to match the definitions.

Click on the image for the text and activities, and on the KEY icon to check the solutions.

        

   Well, I hope you enjoy it!

Let's get poetic!

One of the aspects that we are going to introduce this year is poetic language, though just to some extent. So let's get started with a song by The Beatles: Across the Universe. It's actually one of my favourite ones. I hope you enjoy it too. Here's the video, and the lyrics with a few gaps for you to fill in. 

Words are _________ out like endless rain into a paper cup

They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are ________ through my open mind

_________ and ________ me

Jai Guru Deva OM

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

__________ of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes

They call me on and on across the universe

__________ meander like a restless wind inside a letter box

They tumble blindly as they _________ their way across the universe

Jai Guru Deva OM

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Sounds of ________ shades of life are _________ through my open ears

Inciting and inviting me

Limitless undying love which ________ around me like a million ________

It calls me on and on, across the universe

Jai Guru Deva OM

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Jai Guru Deva

Jai Guru Deva

Jai Guru Deva

Jai Guru Deva

Jai Guru Deva [fade out]

Glossary:

slither........... to move easily and quickly across a surface while twisting or curving
slip away...... to leave without being noticed
meander...... to follow a route which is not straight or direct
tumble......... to move in an uncontrolled way, as if falling
shades......... similarities with something
inciting......... encouraging someone to do or feel something

Reported Speech - An article

This is an article from the magazine Think in English that provides a detailed explanation on when and how to use Reported Speech. It's easy to read and a great way to revise this structure, which you should be using naturally at this stage. Click on the images to download.

Page 1: Indirect statement, tense changes and auxiliary verbs

Page 2: Say vs tell, reporting verbs and other changes

 

Page 3: Questions, Requests, Commands & Recommendations

            

KEY for writing correction

List of abbreviations to correct your mistakes in writings:

gr........... grammar mistakes

sp........... spelling mistake

ww......... wrong word

wt........... wrong tense

wo.......... word order is wrong

o............. omission (there's something missing)

reg......... register is failing here

p ........... punctuation (capital letters, sentence length etc...)

Technology Vocabulary

This week we're introducing our next topic: TECHNOLOGIES

In what follows you have a list of words and four labels to group them.

Labels:  

mobile phone      laptop/desktop     the Internet        e-mail

send/ forward/ reply      save info       log on/ log out     sign in/ sign out

connect/ disconnect      plug in/ unplug       chat       file       server     

attachment        download        website        wireless/ Wi-fi connection

inbox       spam/ junk      charge         surf         sms        whatsapp

RSS feed        online storage       crash          reboot         back-up copy

We'll check in class.

Gerunds & Infinitives II

I'll just leave here a couple of links more, so can have as much practice as you can take!!! Just click on the exercise number to give it a try. The more you practise, the higher probability of remembering when to use either a gerund or an infinitive (with or without to) when it comes to real communication.

PRACTICE 1             PRACTICE 2          

If you remember, we also mentioned, though just briefly, that we usually place a gerund after prepositions, except in a few cases. This is an exercise to practise which prepositions go after certain verbs. Enjoy!

PRACTICE 3

A letter to a penfriend

Correct the sentences, or even rewrite them if it sounds better to you. Just follow your instinct, and see if it works for English. 

1. According to my future, I hope to finish my degree soon. 

2. I feel a lot like to know you.

3. I studied biology at the University. 

4. Now I work like a teacher. 

5. I'd like to be a penfriend of you. 

6. In this area is situated a beautuful natural park. 

7. As well as, I really like go out. 

8. I quite have a good fun going to the movies and going out for the weekend. 

9. But I'm totally sure about we'll click inmediately. 

10. I don't say you anymore so you should know it when you come here. 

11. So you have plenty time during the year to going out or doing sport. 

These are from other writings you've handed in voluntarily. 

12. After he was talking and explaining to the taxi driver the situation.

13. The most important appealing is that the weather is very soft.

Watch or See

A link to revise the use of these verbs, as well as look. At the bottom of the page there's an exercise to practise.

SEE, LOOK or WATCH

To & For

Just a couple of links here to help you understand their use better.

BBC Learning English        and       What is "for" for?

Air B&B Writing

After marking all your writings, what took me a long while as you could see, I've decided to give you a few sentences with mistakes so you can correct them. Here they are:

1. Also has a mall so near with shops where you´ll can find everything.
2. Maybe you want to stay in despite og go to the beach. Here you'll can do.
3. It's fantastic and is a pleasure for me, share it with other people.
4. I'd love to meet another people.
5. Really, is a quiet and safe place.
6. The place is quite safe because the security staff.
7. We have very experience with tourists. 
8. It's situated nearby the coast.
9. The house has a long balcony, you can stay outside during the summer so the weather is really good.
10. We also give the mains characteristics.
11. I recommend my house because is fantastic and is a pleasure for me, share it with other people.
12. I have a flat in Madrid, it's in the city center, it's not very big but it has a fantastic location when you'll have dinner.

Super -S

Listening to you in class I noticed that you still find it hard at times to pronounce the final -s, and it is of outmost importance that you get it right for good. So here we go with a whole lesson on its pronunciation. Click on the icon to Zac's web. Although explanations are written in Spanish, the audios are recorded in English. So just sit back and listen to his explanations. Then, of course, practise saying the examples. You can even record yourself and then listen to it.

Other and Another

A video explaining how to use OTHER & ANOTHER properly

And here you have a couple of exercises to practise:

Exercise 1       Exercise 2

Make & Do

Hi everyone!

I see you still find it difficult sometimes to make the right choice when using MAKE and DO. So as to make it a bit easier, here you can read about when to use one or the other. 

Make & Do

And here is a video with a few of those expressions 

How to serve in tennis

This is a step by step tutorial on how to serve when you play tennis. We will work on this video in class. We'll revise vocabulary of the parts of the body plus other useful words to describe sports, movements and actions.

Modern Family-The Series

This is a very popular comedy that centres around three families. Here you have the first chapter, and below is the link if you want to watch more! There are four seasons already.

The whole series

Pumpkin pie recipe

Halloween pumpkin cake recipe

After our food tasting - which was very nice indeed - I'd like to share the recipe I prepared for you, so you can give it a try at home, and surprise your family and friends. I think that what really makes a difference is the spice mix. I used ALLSPICE, a blend of different spice that you can easily find in Great Britain, but not so easily here. To make your own mixture, wikipedia is very helpful. Click the names for the ingredients of MIXED SPICE, aka ALLSPICE. It may seem a bit confusing at first, but just read on.

Well, THANKS so much to those of you who devoted your time to cooking for class or brought sweets and chocolates (yummy!), I really appreciate it and enjoyed tasting your cakes!! I'd love it if you could share your recipes with us. I encourage you to write a comment with the link, or you could send it to me and I'll link the document.

Here goes mine:

Halloween pumpkin cake recipe

Sports Vocabulary

INTERESTS AND SPORTS

This is our new topic. We are going to talk about thigs you fancy doing, how we practise different sports, their rules and vocabulary related to equipment.

TYPES OF SPORTS  In this site you can find various sports names, descriptions of how to play or do them, sample enquiries on this topic, and a conversation model.

And here you have places where we do sports. 

Spelling Rules Revision

When you've been learning a language for a few years, at some point you start having doubts on how to write things, when to double consonants, and things that you were supposed to know. Don't worry! You just need to go over the spelling rules again. So here you have both the rules and some practice in the following cases:

Spelling rules for GERUNDS (-ing)          practice 1   practice 2  practice 3

Spelling rules for REGULAR PAST (-ed)  practice 1   practice 2  practice 3

Spelling rules for PLURALS (-s/ -es)        practice 1   practice 2

And this is a Summary of Basic Spelling Rules