Lit2go

Lit2Go is a great free online collection of stories and poems in text and MP3 to listen to, read or download. Check it out! Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along.

• One of my favourite ones is Uncle Tom's Cabin and
• Hernando de Soto

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/genres

The digital bystander

Live-streaming apps like Facebook Live and Periscope give us a voyeuristic peek into the lives of others. But what is our obligation when we encounter digital violence?

By RETRO REPORT on Publish Date June 4, 2017.

Video and Audio Tutorials

These are some tools you may use to record your English speeches:

Soundcloud Tutorial

Soundcloud Podcasts

VIDEO TUTORIALS:

Wevideo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMJiaor5y4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yns7s4yUhqI

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLgEaISO9AkYrMVed3G-zdBqo0Fzbex9l5&v=wAtffO1ATcs

Editing Videos: 

• Insertar música en cualquier momento de tus vídeos
• Editor de vídeos de YouTube. Títulos (I)
• Editor de vídeos de YouTube. Títulos (II)
• Editor de vídeos de YouTube. Transiciones (I)
• Editor de vídeos de YouTube. Transiciones (II)
• Cómo crear un vídeo de fotos y música con el editor de vídeos de YouTube

Madrid, city of women

I'd like to tell you about this app made by the Complutense University of Madrid in order to tell the story of women who lived in this city. Thanks to the app you can you can make a guided tour around the city stopping by the most important landmarks for women in Madrid.

Listen to this video as an example:

​​

​

​

​

Download app:
• Apple store: 
• Play Store
• Divercity

Celebrating Africa

Hi,

This a cultural program to Celebrate Africa elaborated by Mostoles EOI. Feel free to attend these interesting events.

 

Celebrating Africa Cultural Program:

Fact check: President Trump's first week

President Trump made claims about the election, the C.I.A., and his inauguration crowd size. The New York Times checked the facts.

Online English TV

Hi,

This is a wonderful link where you can watch online British TV channels.

British TV channels

Enjoy!

Shakespeare lives!

Here comes again the Caixa Fórum November program about Shakespeare's 400th anniversary.

Shakespeare lives

Free online English course

Hi,

You might  be interested in this online course to learn English for the workplace. It was created by the British Council.

It's a mooc course, so it's free.

Betrayal

You may be interested in attending this theater play: 

Betrayal by Harold Pinter

is being performed on

 20, 21, 22, 23 April at 8pm

24 April at 7pm

28, 29 April at 8pm

at the Teatro/Sala Trovador

C/ San José, 3  Metro: Antón Martín

Tickets cost 12€ 

Group bookings

For groups of 10+, contact the theatre on 634 952 679 or at reservagrupotrovador@gmail.com

For other reservations book your tickets at

http://www.salatrovador.es/venta-de-entradas/

Betrayal by Harold Pinter (Nobel Prize for Literature, 2005) begins in 1977, with a meeting between adulterous lovers, Emma and Jerry, two years after their affair has ended. During the nine scenes of the play, we move back in time, through the states of their affair, and their respective marriages, with the play ending in the house of Emma and Robert, her husband, who is Jerry's oldest friend.

The classic dramatic scenario of the love triangle is manifest in a mediation on the themes of marital infidelity, duplicity and self-deception. Pinter writes a world that simultaneously glorifies and debases love set against a backdrop of changing social conditions.

Easter bunny jokes!

Here are some Easter Bunny jokes. Match each question (1 to 12) with each answer (A-L). A “hare” is a large rabbit. It is pronounced the same as “hair”. Listen: Hare – hair. Afterwards, check your answers on the CD. How many were correct? 

1. How does the Easter Bunny keep his fur neat? = __D__ (with a “hare” brush)
2. How did the wet Easter Bunny dry himself?
3. How does a rabbit keep his fur looking good?
4. What did the Easter Bunny get at the hairdresser’s?
5. What did the Easter Bunny study at university?
6. What do you call an Easter Bunny with no fur?
7. Why was the Easter Bunny so upset?
8. What do rabbits do after their wedding?
9. How do you catch the Easter Bunny?
10. How many chocolate bunnies can you put into an empty Easter basket?
11. What do you call a rabbit that tells good jokes?
12. How do bunnies stay healthy?


ANSWERS:
A: Hare dressing.
B: Hide in the trees and make a noise like a carrot.
C: Eggsercise
D: With a hare-brush.
E: Hare less.
F: None – it won’t be empty if you put something in it.
G: A hare cut.
H: A funny bunny!
I: They go on a bunnymoon.
J: With hare spray.
K: With a hare dryer.
L: He was having a bad hare day.

Glossary:

bunny: (used by or when or talking to children) a rabbit
• fur n = the hair that animals have on their bodies• to dry yourself exp = to use a towel or warm air to take water off your body/hair, etc
• the hairdresser’s n = a shop where they cut your hair
• upset adj = angry and sad
• a “bunnymoon” n = a honeymoon – the holiday people have after they get married
• a bad “hare” day n = a bad hair day – a day when everything goes badly

Download the free MP3 file for this lesson: Listen: MP3 audio file

Source: Hot English Magazine

The Garden of Earthly Delights

The Garden of Earthly Delights is a story about moral and sin in a particular time. The painting however is timeless. The journey that the visitor sets out on in the interactive documentary is a personal one. Beneath the surface we aim to invite the visitor to reflect upon and question their sins and morals. Enjoy going on a guided tour or just roam at will.

 

The benefits of reading in English

ELT Learning Journeys. Posted on November 17, 2015 by Daniel Vincent 

     

First and foremost, reading is one of the best ways to increase vocabulary and to consolidate your understanding of grammar. Not only will you come across many new words and phrases in context, you’ll also see grammatical structures laid out on the page that you may have heard in conversation but not quite yet worked out. With repeated exposure to the same vocabulary and language patterns, you’ll find they begin to make their way into your spoken English as well. In this way, reading helps speed up the normal language learning process that sees passive comprehension become active knowledge. In short, provided you’re also practicing conversation, the more you read, the more quickly your spoken English will improve.

12 ways that TV series can help you learn English!

Watching TV series is a great way to improve your English. Here are 12 reasons why. 

1. There’s a lot of conversation, so you’ll be learning lots of useful spoken language. Also, the dialogues are often short and easy to follow.

2. Watching a TV series is great for your listening ability, which is THE key skill in language learning. Once you can listen and understand, you’ll learn English easily and effortlessly.

3. By watching a TV series, you’ll hear English in context, so you’ll see how and when the language is used. And although the dialogues have been scripted, they’re designed to sound as natural and authentic as possible.

Spain needs broad consensus to go forward after messy election result

Fractured parliament is as much an opportunity as a challenge. It all depends on the calibre of those elected

Spaniards wanted change, and at Sunday’s elections they got it. The two discredited parties that have run the country for three decades sank to historic lows while bright newcomers stormed their way into parliament. The upturned two-party system was tired and prone to cronyism, but it had one major advantage: much like Britain, it almost always produced stable governments. Sunday’s vote created an unprecedented mess, with the next government needing the support of up to five different parties.

The Guardian, Owen Jones on the campaign trail with Podemos

World Approves historic Paris agreement to address climate change

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries reached an agreement Saturday on what they say signifies the most important international pact to address climate change since the issue first emerged as a political priority decades ago.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who headed up the United Nations conference, commonly known as COP 21, said the final deal successfully resolved points of contention that had taken negotiations into overtime and called the agreement “the best possible text.” “We have come to a defining moment on a long journey that dates back decades,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon before passage of the agreement. “The document with which you have just presented us is historic. It promises to set the world on a new path to a low emissions, climate-resilient future.”

Source: Time.com

Today Dec 3rd is ...

Disability Day, or the International Day of People with Disability, is a day that has been promoted by the United Nations since 1992. The aim of Disability Day is to encourage a better understanding of people affected by a disability, together with helping to make people more aware of the rights, dignity and welfare of disabled people, as well as raise awareness about the benefits of integrating disabled persons into every aspect of life, from economic, to political, to social and cultural. Disability Day is not concerned exclusively with either mental or physical disabilities, but rather encompasses all known disabilities, from Autism to Down Syndrome to Multiple Sclerosis.

To improve our listening skills, how about listening to the most stupid questions not to ask to a disabled person. Can you list them?

100 Women 2015

The schoolgirl who changed 'sexist' music syllabus
25 November 2015 Last updated at 10:31 GMT

 

A UK student who lobbied to change the A-level music syllabus after spotting it featured no female composers has spoken to the BBC's 100 Women about her campaign.

Jessy McCabe, 17, says Edexcel, one of Britain's biggest exam boards, contacted her to apologise and pledged to change its course for next year.
"They gave me no clear reason why there was an omission of women," says Jessy, who is one of the BBC's 100 Women 2015.
"Yes - there were fewer female composers but it doesn't mean to say there weren't any," she tells the BBC's Joe Inwood.

Exploring English: Magna Carta

Hi,
 
This is a free online course, also called "mooc" about the influence of the Magna Carta in the English history. It'll start on Nov 30th and will last 3 weeks. If you are interested in history, it may be a nice way of improving your English as well.     
  

                  

Improve your English language skills while exploring the Magna Carta - the 800-year-old "great charter" that shaped the world.

An Autumn Reverie by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Through all the weary, hot midsummer time,
My heart has struggled with its awful grief.
And I have waited for these autumn days,
Thinking the cooling winds would bring relief.
For I remembered how I loved them once,
When all my life was full of melody.
And I have looked and longed for their return,
Nor thought but they would seem the same, to me.

The fiery summer burned itself away,
And from the hills, the golden autumn time
Looks down and smiles. The fields are tinged with brown—
The birds are talking of another clime.
The forest trees are dyed in gorgeous hues,
And weary ones have sought an earthy tomb.
But still the pain tugs fiercely at my heart—
And still my life is wrapped in awful gloom.

The winds I thought would cool my fevered brow,
Are bleak, and dreary; and they bear no balm.
The sounds I thought would soothe my throbbing brain,
Are grating discords; and they can not calm
This inward tempest. Still it rages on.
My soul is tost upon a troubled sea,
I find no pleasure in the olden joys—
The autumn is not as it used to be.

I hear the children shouting at their play!
Their hearts are happy, and they know not pain.
To them the day brings sunlight, and no shade.
And yet I would not be a child again.
For surely as the night succeeds the day,
So surely will their mirth turn into tears.
And I would not return to happy hours,
If I must live again these weary years.

I would walk on, and leave it all behind:
will walk on; and when my feet grow sore,
The boatman waits—his sails are all unfurled—
He waits to row me to a fairer shore.
My tired limbs shall rest on beds of down,
My tears shall all be wiped by Jesus’ hand;
My soul shall know the peace it long hath sought --
A peace too wonderful to understand.

What does autumn mean for the writer?