Back from our Christmas holidays, we had our first workshop of the year: reading. This time we put the reading techniques we had seen in the previous workshop into practice with a text on the famous American modernist painter Georgia O'Keefe.
We worked with a text from the New Inside Out Pre-Intermediate textbook, that you'll find below:
And now, get a taste of Georgia O'Keefe's work as an artist:
And if you are interested, there is a TV movie which deals mainly with Georgia O'Keefe and her relationship with photographer Alfred Stieglitz (don't worry if you don't understand everything, just relax, watch it and see what you can get):
Now in class we are learning how to use WILL FOR PREDICTIONS, and we are using the topic of optimism/pessimism as an excuse to study this grammar point. So the first thing to do is to decide, ARE YOU AN OPTIMIST OR A PESSIMIST? Take a quiz and see the results.
We also spoke about MURPHY'S LAWS. But Murphy's wisdom is infinite. If you want to read other Murphy's laws, click on the photo and HAVE FUN!!! Remember that Murphy is an OPTIMIST!!
Now finally, click on Mister Will for some grammar an exercises on WILL (try also clicking on the word "will")
I PREDICT YOU WILL LEARN USING "WILL" FOR PREDICTIONS!
One of our own, that is, one of the teachers of the English Department, Emi Domínguez, has found and suggested me something that you might find really interesting: a couple of websites where you can learn and practise your English while you listen to music.
If you like music and want to extend your English vocabulary, these might be the websites for you!!!
So what are you waiting for? Click on the people singing below and...dig in!! ENJOY!
REMEMBER: These websites will be permanently available to you on this site through two links under the heading "MISCELLANEA", on the right-handside toolbar. Don't forget it!
A piece of news came into the BBC website today, the death of Miep Gies, the last surviving person of the group who helped protect Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis, and I decided to share it with you, as the tragic story of this girl, who lived for some time hidden from the world trying to save her life, and who wrote a diary months before dying of tifus in a concentration camp, still appeals to us as deeply sad and moving. Please take some time to have a look at this post. Of course, you are very welcome to make any comments about Anne Frank:
MIEP GIES DIES
(click on the photo to read about the death of Miep Gies on the BBC website)
British actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson opened the website ‘Anne Frank Tree’ in the Anne Frank House on 1 February 2006. Before placing the first leaf in the tree she talked about what Anne Frank means to her personally.
“I'm so incredibly proud to have been asked to do this, I can't tell you. I've read the book many times when I was younger and as I got older I reread it and reread it. It's one of those books you should read every few years. Rather like 'All quiet on the Western Front' or 'If this is a man' by Primo Levi. And I suppose like everybody when I think about Anne Frank I get very conflicting emotions because she represents so much of human tragedy as well as human happiness. And so, also I think that when we think of the holocaust we all have that cicatrise in our minds, that scar. And so I wore two things: I wore black, because of that, but I also wore pink, in order to indicate the joys of girlhood. And if you don't mind, today I will dwell a little in the pink. I think one of the things that I love about Anne Frank most, and I think it's also forgotten, because what she represents is so weighty, is how very funny she was. And what a very witty girl she was. I'm convinced that her confinement made her even more alive and truthful and humorous and humane in her writing. More intense than she would have been, had she not been confined. These two little bits I wanted to read to you, because they just make me laugh. She's got terrible flu when she is writing this. It's the 22nd of September 1943, when she says: ‘You know, the worst part was when Mr. Dussel decided to play doctor and lay his pomaded head on my bare chest to listen to the sounds. Not only did his head tickle, but I was embarrassed. Even though he went to school thirty years ago and does have some kind of medical degree, why should he lay his head on my heart? After all he's not my boyfriend! For that matter he wouldn't be able tell a healthy sound apart from an unhealthy one. He'd have to have his ears cleaned first, because he's becoming alarmingly hard of hearing. Anyway, the weather's drizzly and overcast, the stove stinks and the food lies heavily on our stomachs, producing a variety of rumbles.’ Very funny girl. I've always loved her sensitive and unprudish attitude to sex as well, and in fact I think the book is a lexicon on how to grow up and how to be human. Several journalists this morning knew that I was coming to do this and said: 'But why you?' And I said: 'Well I don't know actually. I suppose it's because I happened to be here.' But it may be something deeper than that. It may be to do with the fact that as you all probably know Anne was a huge film buff. She knew about all films, all the stories, all the stars, all the reviews. She knew them all, even within her confinement. And I think that she'd quite like an actress to have done this. But anyway, listen to this, because this is also very revealing. ‘Whenever I come sailing in with a new hairstyle I can read the disapproval on their faces. I can be sure someone will ask which film star I'm trying to imitate. My reply, that it's my own invention, is greeted with skepticism. As for the hairdo, it doesn't hold its set for more than half an hour (ain't that the truth?!). By that time I'm so sick and tired of their remarks that I race to the bathroom and restore my hair to it's normal mass of curls.’ She knew the pitfalls. I don't think she would have been an actress. I think if she'd lived, she would have written books. She would have helped others. She would have used her extraordinary intelligence to organize our thoughts about the world. I think she would have loved generously and without prejudice. I think she would have had great courage. I think she would have spoken up for the dispossessed. And I think she would have tried to storm the invisible barriers that separate human beings and keep us in such conflict. So what I say now is that the only thing we have to remember is all her ‘would haves’ are our real possibilities. All her ‘would haves’ are our opportunities. And the book’s a flame, a torch. We can light our own candles and take them and illuminate our hearts with the incandescence of her spirit. So I'm very happy to be sticking the first leave on the tree, although I have to confess to you now that I'm absolutely useless with computers!”
A new year has started. And there 's a thing that we all do at the beginning of a new year: there are things we want to start doing, things we want to stop doing, or quit doing, things we want to cut down on, things we want to keep doing...that is, we all make a list of NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS.
Here you have a video where the clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere gives us some tips to make a good list of New Year's Resolutions. Take some time to watch it and then answer the questions below:
And now let's practice our listening skills: please answer the following questions on the video(Thanks a lot to one of the teachers of our English Department, Pablo Rodríguez, who found the video and prepared the questions):
1) What three personality traits help you make good New Year’s Resolutions? 2) According to the expert, is it OK to change or adapt your plans? 3) When you resolve to quit smoking, is it a good idea to cross out the days in a calendar? Why/ Why not? 4) Does the TV presenter like involving his family in his New Year’s Resolutions? 5) Using your own words, can you explain what the “buddy system” is about? Why is it important/what is the advantage? 7) Do you think the psychologist is too strict in his theory? 6) In the end, what is the most important thing about New Year’s Resolutions?
Now click on the picture above if you want to learn something more about the history and origins of this tradition.
And now it's time to make our New Year's Resolution list. Shall we?
This year I'm going to... - arrive on time to places. - eat more fruit ...
Please, use the COMMENT option to write some of your New Year's Resolutions!!!
Back from our Christmas holidays, we had our first workshop of the year: reading. This time we put the reading techniques we had seen in the previous workshop into practice with a text on the famous American modernist painter Georgia O'Keefe.
