I gave a room in my house to a refugee – now she’s like my sister

When Lucy Pavia and her husband offered Loujean Alsaman, a refugee from Syria, a room in their home, none of them knew what to expect. But over the six months they spent together, the women forged a close, sisterly bond.

The Guardian

Boy apparently drove accross New South Wales alone

Boy apparently drove across New South Wales alone before police stopped his family’s car, which they say was damaged

This is news story contains the typical pyramidal shape to give information.

The Palace Hotel in Broken Hill. A 12-year-old boy was pulled over by police after apparently driving 1,300km across NSW to the outback town. Photograph: Richard Hart for the Guardian

The Guardian, April 24, 2017

What does your profile picture say about you?

Whether it’s a photo of you on a night out or of you cuddling your newborn baby, the image you choose to represent you on social-networking sites says a lot about you

Article published on Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 01:00 The Irish Times

Nelson Piquet Junior

Nelson Piquet (born July 25, 1985 in Heidelberg, West Germany), also known as Nelson Piquet Junior or Nelsinho Piquet, is a Brazilian stock car racing driver and former Formula One driver. He currently competes in Global Rallycross for SH Racing.
The son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet, he was signed as test driver for Renault Formula One team for the 2007 season, and was promoted to the race team for 2008, before being dropped midway through the 2009 season. After losing his drive, it emerged that he had, under instruction from senior members of the team, crashed deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help his teammate, Fernando Alonso, win the race; the resulting scandal became one of the most significant in the sport's history. Source: Wikipedia

The Harlequins, FC

Hi,

I'd like you to read about these sports issues so that we can work with it in class.

The Harlequin Football Club (Harlequins or Quins for short) are an English rugby union team who play in the top level of English rugby, the English Premiership. Their ground in London is The Twickenham Stoop. For sponsorship reasons they were formerly known as NEC Harlequins, but principal sponsorship is currently held by DHL, Adidas and IG.
Between 2006 and 2011, the club shared its stadium with the rugby league team London Broncos, who were known during this period as Harlequins Rugby League and used a similar kit to the rugby union side.
In 2009 the club's reputation was seriously tarnished by its abuse of the blood-substitution, in an incident which became known as Bloodgate. Since then Harlequins have worked hard to re-establish their good name. They were crowned winners of the European Challenge Cup in 2011, the English Premiership for the first time, in 2012 and won the LV= Cup in 2013.
Source: wikepedia

10 ways to improve your life

This text shows you how to improve your life. Have you tried any of these? Any other suggestion?
You may listen to the text at: HotEnglish Magazine

Improve life143 from Majorick

American Cities

Hi,

As some of you couldn't find the reader by Gina D. B. Clemen Blackcat readers (Vicens Vives), I asked the editorial. They told me you could order it online on this link and then you would have it sent to your homes in a couple of days.

We will start reading this book next week: Dec 20th and 21st

Review:
How much did the Dutch pay for Manhattan Island in 1614? Where is the world's blue jeans headquarters? Who can you meet in the 'Malibu Colony', near Los Angeles?

New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans are America's most distinctive and exciting cities. Similar in some ways and yet completely different in others, they fascinate everyone who visits them. Open this book and find out why.

The Great fire of London

“Dad! Dad! Wake up! Something’s burning!”

When Thomas Farriner, King Charles II’s baker, went to bed on the night of September 1, 1666, he forgot to put out the ovens.  Early the next morning, the wooden house caught fire, and by September 6, when they were finally extinguished, the flames had destroyed 80% of London.

Read about the great fire on London on Oxford Culturemania and play an interactive game!

Play the Great Fire of London game

Halloween gapped text

Hi,

How about filling in the gaps with the words you remember from the activity in class?

How to make your brain age better

One of the best ways to keep your brain sharp as you get older may be to stay busy, according to new research. While scientists have previously recommended engaging in mentally challenging activities, a new study suggests that keeping a packed schedule may offer similar benefits.
Source: Time.com

'It’s a brave thing, loving another person': readers share stories of motherhood

As today it's mothering day in the UK, you may find these experiences from The Guardian interesting. Which one do you find more interesting? Mine is ‘For me, being a mother means being in love with yourself.’

Ahead of Mother’s Day we asked readers for their experiences of motherhood, as well as memories of their own mothers. Here are some of their moving stories and tributes

The Case for the 1-Minute Workout Is Getting Stronger

Is the one minute workout for real? Here’s what you need to know about whether it’s right for you

There’s a lot of talk in the exercise world about high intensity interval training (HIIT) lately, which is exactly what it sounds like — alternating episodes of exercise with periods of less intensive activity or recovery. It’s not an new idea, although many gyms, trainers and some experts are touting it as if it’s a new phenomenon. Professional and elite athletes have been using interval training for nearly a century to maintain their peak performance with the least wear and tear on their bodies. And it’s baked in to workouts like SoulCycle, Cross Fit and many group classes at gyms.

But the concept of HIIT is gaining more momentum lately thanks to research that’s starting to show that such regimens can actually have the same health benefits as continuous, longer workouts—even if the intervals of exercise add up to as little a 60 seconds of burn. (See Introducing the 1-Minute Workout, here.) Of course, that doesn’t mean people are working hard for 1 minute in a whole day. It’s about alternating within a workout.
Source: Time.com

600 kilos of Roman coins discovered in Spanish town

Construction workers have found 600 kilos (1322.7 pounds) of ancient Roman coins while carrying out routine work on water pipes in southern Spain, local officials said overnight.                                                        "It is a unique collection and there are very few similar cases," Ana Navarro, head of Seville's Archeology Museum which is looking after the find, told a news conference.

Dating back to the late third and early fourth centuries, the bronze coins were found on Wednesday inside 19 Roman amphoras, a type of jar, in the town of Tomares near Seville.

Navarro declined to give a precise estimate for the value of the haul, saying only that the coins were worth "certainly several million euros".

The coins are stamped with the inscriptions of emperors Maximian and Constantine, and they appeared not to have been in circulation as they show little evidence of wear and tear.

It is thought they were intended to pay the army or civil servants.

"The majority were newly minted and some of them probably were bathed in silver, not just bronze," said Navarro.

"I could not give you an economic value, because the value they really have is historical and you can't calculate that."

Local officials have suspended the work on the water pipes and plan to carry out an archaeological excavation on the site.

The Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC, ruling until the early 5th century when they were ousted by the Visigoths.
Source: sms news

British Food

Source: Oxford Culture Mania. March 30, 2016        

Many foreigners – even if they have never even been to the UK – are convinced that British food is the worst in the world.

Well, it may not be the best, and during the three or four decades after World War II, partly as a result of wartime food rationing, it was unlikely to win many culinary prizes. But times have changed and both in restaurants and homes, people cook a whole range of tasty dishes. But what are the typical foods and recipes that everyone associates with the land of the Sunday roast? Well, here are a few examples …

---

Fish and Chips

It was in the late 19th century when this famous combination became really popular, and the first fish and chip shop opened in London in 1860. The fish (usually cod or haddock) is cooked in batter, and until quite recently the meal was taken home wrapped in newspaper (not now, for health reasons), being especially popular on a Friday, even in Protestant or non-religious societies, as an alternative to meat.

Crisps
Or what in the USA they call chips, are a not very nutritional but extremely popular element of British food culture. It is estimated that every Briton eats an average of 150 packets of crisps per year, and doctors worry about the possible consequences, including obesity and diabetes. The most popular flavour is Cheese and Onion, but others include Chilli Con Carne, Spaghetti Bolognese and BBQ Kangaroo!

Steak and Kidney Pie
A savoury pie filled with pieces of beef, kidney, onions and gravy. A filling dish, ideal for a cold winter’s day (unless, of course, like me, you hate kidney!) and a typical example of pub food.


Chicken Tikka Masala
Served in Indian restaurants, but almost certainly invented in Britain. One story is that a Pakistani chef in Glasgow created the dish about 50 years ago when he added a tin of tomato soup and some spices to a chicken curry that the customer said was too dry. In 2001 the British Foreign Secretary declared that:

Chicken Tikka Masala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences.

Fried Mars Bar
A fine example of an original recipe! It was probably a chip shop in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1995, which first deep-fried a Mars Bar in batter for hungry local children. In 2012 the owner said they were selling 100-150 per week, mostly to visitors who had heard about the novelty dish.

Photo credit: Avid Hills via Foter.com / CC BY

Full English Breakfast
In Los Cristianos, Tenerife, where your correspondent enjoyed his Easter holidays, every single bar and restaurant tempts you to step inside and for as little as 2€ begin the day with a plate full of bacon, sausages, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and baked beans! You don’t see many people choosing the Continental, lighter, alternative.

Anyway, it’s time for me to go for a walk and try to burn a few calories!

Big Issue seller marries woman he met when asking for change

Jack Richardson asked Toni Osborne to help him out but ended up giving her 50p for electricity, starting an unlikely romance

A romance began when a homeless man gave a passerby 50p for her electricity meter – now the couple have pledged to spend the rest of their lives together. Jack Richardson met Toni Osborne two-and-a-half years ago. She said she did not have any spare change and explained her own parlous situation, and Richardson gave her money for electricity so she would not have to spend Christmas in the dark. Over the next year Osborne regularly walked past Richardson and they became friends. When the squat he was living in was boarded up, Osborne put him up.


Their friendship developed into love and Richardson, 37, now a Big Issue seller, proposed to her on the spot where he had given her the 50p. The pair married at St Paul’s church in Clifton, Bristol. Friends and well-wishers donated the wedding rings, as well as clothes, wine and a cake. Richardson said: “I’m 10 miles high. I’m the proudest man on the planet. I’ve been humbled by people’s generosity. I wanted to give my beloved the wedding she deserved and I just wasn’t able to. Because of the kindness of everybody it’s made it real. I feel like I’m living in a fairytale.”

Osborne, 47, said she was “fit to burst”. She said: “I love how it’s touched people’s hearts. We’ve had people say: ‘I never thought I’d fall in love but I heard your story and now it gives me hope for the future.' They cannot afford a honeymoon but guests have donated money so Richardson can take time off selling the Big Issue to be with his wife. He said: “I was in a really bad place when I met Toni. I was having to beg every day just to get enough money for a night in a bed and breakfast. “It was coming up to Christmas 2013 and I wandered up to this woman to ask her for money and she just burst into tears. She had bought everything ready for Christmas and thought she had saved enough money for the meter, but when she put it in it wasn’t enough. “She was a couple of pennies away from spending Christmas in the dark. Even though I was begging, I gave her the 50p to put her lights back on.

“We began talking to each other every few weeks as she walked by. At first it was trivial stuff, but then we began sharing a lot and becoming quite close. When I went to stay with her we fell for each other.” He added: “Every day used to be a struggle. I had considered ending my own life. I couldn’t see any way out of the situation and it just seemed to keep getting harder. I couldn’t see any future. But now I have someone stable who I love and who loves me. I’m able to look to the future.”

Osborne, who is unable to work due to health issues, added: “Jack has always said that I saw through the homeless person and saw the person underneath. I have had people ask me for money before, and when I couldn’t afford to give them any I would get upset. “But Jack went into his pocket and gave me what I needed. Someone without a roof over his head had enough money to help me. He had dignity. It just really blew me away. I was so thrown, I gave him a hug. “The next time I bumped into him, he had his Big Issue badge. I kept seeing him, and the more I did, the more I liked him. Before, I was bumbling around on my own. He has changed my outlook on everything completely. It has been one mad love story.”

The couple had initially planned a registry office ceremony until a vicar Richardson met at a soup kitchen offered to do the service free of charge. Richardson is studying for an Open University degree in psychology and sociology and hopes to help people get off the streets when he graduates. He said: “If we had planned it, it couldn’t have turned out better."

February breaks global temperature records by 'shocking' amount

Warnings of climate emergency after surface temperatures 1.35C warmer than average temperature for the month

Global temperatures in February smashed previous monthly records by an unprecedented amount, according to Nasa data, sparking warnings of a climate emergency.
The result was “a true shocker, and yet another reminder of the incessant long-term rise in global temperature resulting from human-produced greenhouse gases”, wrote Jeff Masters and Bob Henson in a blog on the Weather Underground, which analysed the data released on Saturday.

It confirms preliminary analysis from earlier in March, indicating the record-breaking temperatures. The global surface temperatures across land and ocean in February were 1.35C warmer than the average temperature for the month, from the baseline period of 1951-1980. The global record was set just one month earlier, with January already beating the average for that month by 1.15C above the average for the baseline period.

                                

John Abraham: Important new research shows that sea levels are rising at unprecedented rates, and will have tremendous costs if we don’t slow them
            

Although the temperatures have been spurred on by a very large El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, the temperature smashed records set during the last large El Niño from 1998, which was at least as strong as the current one.
The month did not break the record for hottest month, since that is only likely to happen during a northern hemisphere summer, when most of the world’s land mass heats up.
“We are in a kind of climate emergency now,” Stefan Rahmstorf, from Germany’s Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research and a visiting professorial fellow at the University of New South Wales, told Fairfax Media.
“This is really quite stunning ... it’s completely unprecedented,” he said.
The Guardian

The Canterville Ghost

Hi,

This is the reader we are going to start working on next week: The Canterville Ghost + cd. Vicens Vives. Black Cat Reading and Training. B1.2 level.
ISBN 978-84-316-8887-5
Book + CD
pp. 112
Audio Book

Women that blazed a trail

Today I'd like to post a link to a Spanish map that shows schools with the name of women who blazed a trail and should be included in history books.

Would you like to write a composition about any of these pioneers?

Different types of learners

When you are next in a classroom ask yourself these questions to think about how you learn:

• When I hear a new word do I need to see it written down to know how it’s spelt?
• Am I interested in grammar and how English tenses are put together?
• Are my notes kept neatly in a methodical way?
• Do I keep a personal dictionary of newly learnt words?
• Does my personal dictionary help me to remember the words?
• How easy do I find it to hear differences in sounds?
• Does drawing pictures of new words help me to remember them in English?
• Does touching an object help me to remember what it’s called?
• Do I enjoy listening to the teacher and taking notes?
• Do I prefer working on my own or with other people?
• Do I know why I’m learning English?

This list of questions is obviously limited but it’s a good start towards becoming a more effective learner. The more you are aware about your dominant intelligences in the learning process the more you can exploit them to make learning a more enjoyable and rewarding journey. - See more at: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/business-magazine/multiple-intelligences#sthash.ugBNZEa1.dpuf



If you feel your smartphone is hurting your health or relationships, the answer may be yes

You check it in the bathroom. You check it at the movies. You check it when you’re having dinner with your friends. But you wouldn’t say you’re addicted—and most experts would agree with you.

“Only a small percentage of people qualify as addicted,” says Dr. David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. “But many people overuse their smartphones.”

The line between overuse and addiction is gray. But Greenfield says you’re moving into addiction territory when you can’t stop using your phone even when it’s harming your life. Whether you’re in a work meeting or behind the wheel, “if you can’t help being on it even when you know you shouldn’t be, that loss of control is the hallmark of an addiction,” he says.