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January 30, 2012

Cars and Traffic

Dear NI1 students,
Why don't you take some time to listen to a conversation about cars and traffic from elllo.org site?
 image

For questions on the listening, click the grey panels on the margins:

Quiz 1: Vocabulary Focus
Quiz 2: Comprehension Q's

January 26, 2012

Short Stories

Dear NI2 students,

These are some web pages where you can read a short story to tell in class next week.

This one contains short fables with explanations of difficult English words.
You can even listen to some of them, Luck by M.Twain!! 

In this other site you'll find urban legends (stories, myths):

Have a good weekend!

January 25, 2012

Reductive


Lookups on the word "reductive" on Merriam Webster dictionary spiked on January 13, 2012.

Why:

In a television interview, Madonna was asked what she thought of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" – a song that resembles Madonna's "Express Yourself." Madonna replied: "It feels reductive." When the interviewer asked if that was good, Madonna smiled coyly and said, "Look it up."

Even after they looked it up, many people still weren't sure what Madonna meant.

Reductive is a disapproving word that means "dealing with or describing something complicated in a simple or too simple way."
Was Madonna saying that Lady Gaga's hit lacks nuance in its message or performance? Or that the newer song is "reduced" by a lack of originality? Is it possible that Madonna meant to use a word like derivative ("lacking originality, banal")?

Either way, this usage caused a wave of comments in the Seen & Heard section of reductive.

January 24, 2012

Couchsurfing

Hi!

This is the listening we did in class this week about couchsurfing. It belongs to Speak Up magazine.

Do you like travelling but can't afford an expensive hotel? Why don't you check the couchsurfing website? Would you like to participate in the group? Would you couchsurf yourselves? or would you prefer to be a host?


January 22, 2012

A note

Following the homework assignment for Christmas, we can see a good example of what you are expected to do in the writing. A job interview note

January 21, 2012

Heart Attack Grill

Dear NI2 students,

 Would you like to try this restaurant? Why (not)? What's the most surprising thing in the video?

Key to NI1 exercises

Key to NI1 American Cities, American Cities in Films, p.97

Police Films:  The Fugitive (1993)
Thrillers: Vertigo (1958), The Birds (1963), Bullitt (1968), Pacific Heights (1990)
True Stories about people: Escape from Alcatraz (1979),  Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Falling Down (1963)
Organized Crime: The Untouchables (1987),The Godfather trilogy, Gangs of New York (2002)
Private Detectives: The Big Sleep (1946), Chinatown (1974)
Comedies: Some like it hot (1959), Pretty Woman (1990)
Musicals: Chicago (2002)

Why I didn't want to be a millionaire. Coursebook, p. 35

A.
1. a
2. b
3. c
4. a
5. b
B.
Fortunate: lucky
Charity: an organization which collects money to help people who are poor, sick, etc
Volunteer: somebody who offers or agrees to do something without being forced or paid.
Orphanage: an institution where children without parents live and are looked after.
Deposit: a percentage of the price of somehting you are buying which you pay in advance.
Annoyed: made angry
Adopted: taken by a family and looked after as if they were their own children.
Useful: having a practical use.
Definitely: certainly, without a doubt.

January 17, 2012

If you were a sailboat


Dear NI2 students,

Listen to the song we sang in class in this video again. Did you like it? What type of music do you normally listen to? Any suggestions?
You can do a gap-fill activity with this song in AlPozo's phonetic blog!

January 16, 2012

Future

Dear NI2,

How about practicing the future and review other tenses in the English Page?

January 13, 2012

After unit 2

Dear NI1 students,

As we are about to finish unit 2, it would be a good idea start rewiewing what we've learnt. Click on these links to New English File Intermediate and practice:

January 11, 2012

San Francisco

Dear NI1 students,

You can listen to chapter 7 on LA and chapter 8 on New Orleans here.
I'd also like you to listen to this video on the hippie movement in San Francisco in the 60's.
  • How many people visit the area on daily basis? 
  • Where exactly did they gather? 
  • Why didn't the police want to move them away? 
  • Did the hippies like to be visited?

January 07, 2012

Barbary Coast

Dear NI1 students,

In the text about San Francisco, we read about Barbary Coast but there is not much indication about what it was. Can you tell us what you find out in this link?















"The Barbary Coast, Pacific Street," photographer unknown, c.1910.