HALLOWEEN

History of Halloween, like any other festival's history is inspired through traditions that have transpired through ages from one generation to another. We follow them mostly as did our dads and grandpas. And as this process goes on, much of their originality get distorted with newer additions and alterations. It happens so gradually that we hardly come to know about these distortions. Trick or treat' may be an innocent fun to relish on the Halloween Day. But just think about a bunch of frightening fantasies and the scary stories featuring ghosts, witches, monsters, evils, elves and animal sacrifices associated with it. They are no more innocent. Are these stories a myth or there is a blend of some reality?
Behind the name... Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland , means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows', also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints', or 'All Souls' Day, observed on November 1. In old English the word 'Hallow' meant 'sanctify'. Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherians used to observe All Hallows Day to honor all Saints in heaven, known or unknown. They used to consider it with all solemnity as one of the most significant observances of the Church year. And Catholics, all and sundry, was obliged to attend Mass. The Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them, and made oblations to them. The festival was celebrated on February 21, the end of the Roman year. In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints' Day to replace the pagan festival of the dead. It was observed on May 13. Later, Gregory III changed the date to November 1. The Greek Orthodox Church observes it on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Despite this connection with the Roman Church, the American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called "Samhain", celebrated by the Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Samhain is pronounced "sow-in", with "sow" rhyming with cow. In Ireland the festival was known as Samhein, or La Samon, the Feast of the Sun. In Scotland, the celebration was known as Hallowe'en. In welsh it's Nos Galen-gaeof (that is, the Night of the Winter Calends. According to the Irish English dictionary published by the Irish Texts Society: "Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were quartered. Faeries were imagined as particularly active at this season. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such. Thus most of the customs connected with the Day are remnants of the ancient religious beliefs and rituals, first of the Druids and then transcended amongst the Roman Christians who conquered them.

SOME HALLOWEEN JOKES
Q. What is a Mummie's favorite type of music? A. Wrap!!!!!
Q. What do you call a witch who lives at the beach? A. A sand-witch.
Q. What happens when a ghost gets lost in the fog? A. He is mist.
Q. Why did the Vampire read the Wall Street Journal? Q. He heard it had great circulation

Click here to know a lot more about the topic. It´s a very interesting web page .

NB2A/C
-- The composition based on Student´s books, page 13 titled Describing Yourself was collected.
--Homework: workbook. pages 13 and 14. I´m very interested in your learning the expressions about free time, holidays and the verbs related to this topic.
--Grammar: simple past tense, formation, spelling and uses. Units 11 and 12. We went trough the rules and did a couple of exercises.
--Irregular verbs: Student´s books , page 155 . Pronunciation and meanings of verbs were checked. You have to study up to the verb TO EAT
-- Speaking and writing :a handout about holidays . It was about several people who went on holiday to different places, how they flew, where they stayed, what they did,ate,drank,bought ...
-- Listening: a multiple choice activity in which a young lady was talking to a friend about her 4 day holiday in Rome.
--Homework: Learn the irregular vwerbs , units 11 and 12 in your grammar and if you fancy doing the exercises of the handout number 46, you´re welcome.

NI2E
--Test: a reading comprehension which had been announced the previous week.
--Homework: Workbook,pages 10 and11 , all the exercises about adverbs.
-Speaking: a review of phrasal verbs. It was an activity we had done a few weeks before and in doing so I wanted to check how many of the phrasal verbs you remembered.
-- Social expressions: The most common ones such as bless you!,cheers!,never mind, help yourself.... ther were some situations and you had to match them with the expressions.
--Listening: To check the matching exercise of social expressions was all right, and then some practice where you were given the beginning of a situation and you had to answer with one of the expressions.
--Speaking: a review on questions of all kinds. A pair work activity to speak as much as possible since the questions were the starting point to carry on speaking.
--Homework: student´s book ,pages 19 and 20.

A Grammar and vocabulary Test, unit 1, for Monday.

A PLAY AND A FILM

A play titled QUIZ FAMOUS is going to take place on Monday, 10th November at 19,00h in La Casa de la Cultura , La Felguera. It´s going to be really amusing and I´d like everybody to go. Take your friends and family with you , you´ll have a whale of a time.

The same day but at 16,00h in the EOI ,you´ll have the chance of watching a film titled Death at a Funeral (Un Funeral de Muerte) with subtitles in English.

NB2A/C
--Homework: Grammar ,units 9 and 10 were checked.
--Test: A fairly easy reading comprehension test you finished in about 15 minutes.
--Grammar: Student´s book, page 17.first you listed and classified the verbs from the reading in two groups: regular and irregular.They were pronounced and we, then focussed on the regular verbs making three groups according to their final pronunciation in /t/,/d/ or /id/.There was plenty of practice because you usually have problems with certainn sounds.
--Pronunciation: With the tape, we repeated the sounds and classified some verbs.
--Grammar: Student´s book ,page 128 and 129 with the rules, spelling and two exercises about the past tense.
--Listening: Student´s book, page 17. A true-false activity about a holiday which was a disaster. The third time was played with the script at sight.
--Homework:workbook, pages 13 and 14.

NI2E.

--Homework: A photocopy with exercises about the different types of adverbs, their position in the sentences and confusing adjectives and adverbs.

-- Reading: Student´s books,page 16. Understanding information from a brochure about an English course in Great Britain with a true-false activity and another to guess the meaning of certain words from the context.

--Listening: Meeting People. A students meets her host family with the introductions and formal and informal registers.

--Speaking: Introductions.A role play with three students: one with the role of the mother or father of an English family,another is the student who has just arrived at the host family and the third student is the husband/ wife and the son who only says "all right" and the father "pleased to meet you. How do you do?" so you don´t have to rack your brain much to remember.

--Listening: On page 17 ,the second part of the English course. This time you have to listen for specific information given to students on their first day at the Language academy.

--Reading: A useful activity about common signs such as beware of the dog, keep off the grass...

--Listening: different ways of saying goodbye.

--Homework: workbook,pages 10 and 11

A grammar and vocabulary test , unit 1, for Monday.

THE BLUE WHALE

The Blue Whale is a mammal. It can be to 33.59 metres long and weigh 181 tonnes or even more . It is believed to be the largest animal on earth . Its diet consists mainly of small crustaceans called krill , as well as small fish and sometimes squid.
Blue Whales were common in nearly all oceans until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over 40 years they were hunted nearly to extinction until they were protected by the international community in 1966. Blue whale populations have declined dramatically due to commercial whaling.
Blue Whales are not easy to catch or kill. They are very fast and strong so early whale hunters rarely pursued them. In 1864 the Norwegians were equipped a steamboat with harpoons designed for catching large whales.Soon after blue whales were hunted practically everywhere . By between 1930 and 1931, these ships killed 29,400 Blue Whales in the Antarctic alone. By the end of World War II populations had been significantly reduced .In spite f the measures taken it was difficult to make them out and many rare species could be hunted on an equal terms with those found in relative abundance. Blue Whale hunting was banned in the 1960s and illegal whaling by the USSR finally stopped in the 1970s . The largest original population, in the Antarctic, had been reduced to 0.15% of their initial numbers.
Due to longer rates of reproduction (gestation of more than a year) whale populations recover much more slowly than the populations of smaller animals, which tend to invest less time and resources in individual young.
Due to their enormous size, power and speed, adult Blue Whales have virtually no natural predators. Orcas hunting in groups may seriously hurt them. Blue Whales may be wounded, sometimes fatally, after colliding with ocean vessels as well as becoming trapped in fishing gear .The increasing amount of ocean noise drowns out the vocalizations produced by whales, which may make it harder for whales to communicate.Human threats to the potential recovery of Blue Whale populations also include accumulation of chemicals within the whale's body.
With global warming causing glaciers and permafrost to rapidly melt and allowing a large amount of fresh water to flow into the oceans. Considering the Blue Whale's migratory patterns are based on ocean temperature, a change in this circulation which moves warm and cold water around the world would be likely to have an effect on their migration.The change in ocean temperature would also affect the Blue Whale’s food supply. The warming trend and decreased salinity levels would cause a significant shift in krill location and abundance .
The photo of the skeleton is impressive and look at the size of the diver !!
Listen to the way these creatures communicate.



NB2A/C
--Homework :Student´s book, pages 14 and 15 as a warm up for the test carried out soon after checking he answers.
--Test: Unit 1 ,grammar and vocabulary. Quite easy as it took les than 20 minutes to do it.
-- Speaking: a review of the mistakes in composition, focussing mainly on : like +-ing hate + -ing structures .
--Unit 2 . Section 2A. Say and write 5 activities you like doing when you´re on holiday and discuss them with your classmate. More vocabulary on page 147: expressions with go,such as go sailing, go sigtseeing,go abroad..., some verbs related to holidays: take photos, sunbathe on the beach,spend money...and finally vocabulary related to the weather : cloudy, foggy,boiling, freezing...
--Reading: Back to page 16 ,three passages were read about holidays that went wrong because the place was the right one but the time wasn´t . On page 15 the reading exercises: a matching photo - passage activity was done another exercise about who did some of the activities mentioned in the reading and finally one whereyou had to find 4 synonyms for "good" and 2 synonyms for "bad".
--Homework. Grammar .Units 9 and 10.

Tomorrow you are going to do a Reading Comprehension Test.

NI2E

--Homework: Grammar, unit 100 and 101 about adverbs, their differences with adjectives and some confusing ones such as in the end- at the end,near-nearly...Workbook page 10 with more exercises on adverbs. We devoted quite a long time to this topic.

--Grammar: a pair work activity dealing with the place of adverbs in the sentence. Please , don´t get discouraged , it´s only through practice you reach the knowledge.

--Speaking: A game with a board, dice and counters to practise frequency adverbs. It took you time to do it but you were having fun and speaking in English . Claudia and Neyla were the first to finish.

--Homework : a photocopy about the position of adverbs .

A Reading Comprehension Test is going to be held on Wednesday.

A Grammar and Vocabulary Test is going to be held next Monday.

PARROT FISH

Parrotfish are members of the family Scaridae. Abundant on shallow reefs of theRed Sea , Indian, and Pacific Oceans .Parrotfish are named for their dentition; their numerous teeth are tightly arranged on the external surface of the jaw, forming a parrot like beak which is used to rasp algae from coral and other rocky substrates . Many of them are brightly coloured in shades of blue, green, red and yellow. Parrotfish eat a wide variety of organisms that live on coral reefs. Some species eat corals. This is important for the production and distribution of coral sands in the reef. Ingested during feeding, coral rock is ground up by thetheeth. After they digest this it is excreted as sand creating small islands and idyllic sandy beaches.So, if you go on holiday and lie on a beautiful sandy beach think that it has been made with excrements of the parrot fish.


NB2A/C

--Homework: You were given the marked compositions you had done a few days before : a description of a painting. You ought to make a serious effort in order to improve this skill.Just follow my instructions and take your time at home making drafts until you get the result you want. Don´t be discouraged because at the beginning it may be a bit hard but in the long run ,you´ll be able to write very well.

The marks are in the blog.

Workbook, pages 10 and 11about relative clauses and pronuntiation of words and grammar, unit 101 with more exercises on relative clauses.

--Speaking: This grammar input was put into practice with two speaking activities. One to fill in whith relatives and verbs and the oral a game of cards where one gave the definition of the word and the other had to guess it.

--Writing: Student´s book, page 13: Describing yourself. An e-mail with mistakes to spot and comprehension questions. You will write a similar e-mail with your own information following the instructions on the bottom left corner of page 13.

--Listening: Srudent´s book, page 15. The first with five short conversation to circle the correct answer , the second, a bit more difficult, to complete the sentences with a name.

--Homework, pages 14 and 15 . Do all these exercises (except the listening).

THERE´S GOING TO BE A GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY TEST NEXT MONDAY

NI2E

--Homework. As nobody had done their homework,it was left for next Monday.

--Pronunciation: some difficult sounds in the words: journalist and chat, in student´s books,page 13. I think the best tip to pronounce the first word is like Argentinian do with the ll and as far as the second sound is concerned for the ch is very much like the ch in Spanish.

--Grammar: Student´s books, page 15 about the different types of adverbs with examples from the Bill Bryson reading on page 14. On page 130 we dealt with some general rules and a couple of exercises. From this we went to page 146 and saw adverbs which are often confused,e.g. near and nearly, actually and at the moment;common sentence adverbs like: basically,ideally, in fact ...and adverbs of degree: fairly, rather, slightly,extremely... The use of adverbs makes the language more vivid, you should use them to make your compositions more detailed and sophisticated.

--Speaking:An adverb bingo where you had statements with blanks that you had to fill while I was saying adverbs.

--Writing: A very basic joke about a tortoise and a snail you had to make it more lively by adding adverbs.

--Homework.Grammar, unit 100 and 101.



Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With daddy and mamma standing by

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

CLOWN FISH

Clown fish are yellow, orange, reddish and many have long ,white bars . They are mainly found in the warm waters of the Res Sea, the Great Barrier Reef and the Indian and Pacific oceans They have a symbiotic relationship anemones and the faecal matter from the clownfish provides nutrient to the sea anemone. The activity of the clownfish results in greater water circulation around the sea anemone providing food for both the clownfish and the anemone . The sea anemone also provides safety to the clown fish , which can avoid the poison of its host.
Clownfish live in small groups with a single anemone. The group consist of a pair, living with smaller male clownfish. When the female dies, the dominant male changes sex and becomes the female. Because clownfish are all born as males,in contrast with another form of hermaphroditism, in which all fish are born as females but can change to males later.
The characters Marlin and Nemo in the Disney 2003 animated film Finding Nemo are very popular The movie was correct in showing that Marlin was unharmed by the anemones sting. Also, the movie was correct in showing that Marlin could be stung by the jellyfish .Clownfish are not immune to the sting of a jellyfish.
However, the movie was not correct in one thing. After Nemo's mother was killed, Marlin did not turn into a female as clownfish do, but stayed male.


TODAY´S QUOTATIONS


Health is not valued till sickness comes.
Dr. Thomas Fuller, British physician (1654 - 1734)

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.
Paul Dudley White

NB2A/C

--Homework: compositions were collected in group A .

--Grammar: Student´s book, page10. Defining relative clauses with :who, which and where. On page 126 we saw the rules and did the exercises on page 127. In your grammars, chapter 101 with more explanations and two exercises. the other two exercises were left for homework.

--Listening: on page 11 about a TV programme called What´s the word? where a contestant has to get the right words for some definitions given.

--Vocabulary: Paraphrasing:a very useful technique when you don´t know a word. Expressions such as: it´s a place where, it´s similar to, it´s the opposite of... you had to complete some examples and then define some easy words .

--Speaking: an example of a crossword with two definitions I gave : television and engineer.. Group B had time to do a complete the crossword as a pair work activity on pages 108 and 112.

--Pronunciation: the first activity with dictionary entries, that is, the word in bals, it´s phonetic transcription, the part of the speech it belongs to (noun, verb, adjective..) and finally its meaning.
The second activity was the pronunciation of certain words such as laugh, kind, example...

--Homework for thursday: The exercises of unit 101 that haven´t been made in class, and workbook ,pages 10 and 11

NI2E

--Homework: Grammar ,Unit 51 about the use of auxiliaries

--Speaking: Practice of statements agreeing and disagreeing with so and neither. Despite knowing the rules , it took time to put them into practice.

--Vocabulary .Student´s book, section 1C . An activity titled Funny ha-ha? on page 12. British humour and words related to the topic. e.g. funny, joke,cartoon,witty... and their definitions.

-- Listening: sometimes it´s difficult to get the punchline of a joke in a different language, so don´t get discouraged . This time you listened to three jokes you had to match to their pictures. The third time was with the script at sight.

--Speaking: A photocopy with jokes about doctors and waiters. The jokes were split in two and in pairs, you had to put them together.

--Homework: workbook, pages 9 and 10.

A couple of jokes

Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?
Because he had no-body to go with!

A man asked for a meal in a restaurant. The waiter brought the food and put it on the table. After a moment, the man called the waiter and said:
"Waiter! Waiter! There's a fly in my soup!"
"Please don't speak so loudly, sir," said the waiter, "or everyone will want one."

EOI NEWS

SOLICITA EL TITULO DE :

CERTIFICACIÓN DE NIVEL BÁSICO O NIVEL INTERMEDIO

Ültimos días para solicitar el título. Estr año también es gratuito ,pero a partir del año que viene no tenemos certeza de que siga siendo así.

Jefatura de estudios

BUTTERFLYFISH

Believe it or not, this picture wasn´t taken while diving in the Caribbean but in Gijón aquarium. Ones doesn´t have to go very far to admire the wonders of the sea creatures. Why don´t you spend an afternoon having fun and learning interesting things about the different and varied sea ecosystems?

JELLYFISH

This picture was taken in Gijón aquarium. It´s worth a visit since you always learn something interesting about the sea creatures, like these beautiful jellyfish.

TRUMPET FISH

Trumpetfish live in waters between 0.5 and 30 meters and can grow to 40 to 80cm. They are found in large groups over coral reefs or in lagoons and they feed almost exclusively on small fish.
Trumpetfish swim slowly or lie quietly like a floating stick, moving back and forth with the wave. They camouflage themselves by swimming vertically trying to look like vertical corals and pipe sponges . they can also swim with other larger fish.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES.

Read the following article about recycling and write your opinion about it.

Surprise! Five things you can’t recycle.
By Lori Bongiorno Posted Mon Oct 6, 2008
Most of us feel less guilty when we toss something in the bin headed for the recycling plant rather than the landfill. Turns out, though, wishful thinking may do more harm than good. If you include some items that aren't recyclable, you run the risk of your entire batch being shipped off to the nearest dump.
The best thing you can do is educate yourself about local recycling rules. In the meantime here's the short list of common items that don't belong in the recycling bin, no matter what your zip code:
· Pizza boxes. The oil from pizza can contaminate cardboard boxes, making it impossible to process them into clean paper.
· Napkins and paper towels. It's not the paper goods themselves that present a problem, but the fact that they're typically used to wipe up food, cleaning products, and other "hazardous waste."
· Sticky notes. Their size, color, and the adhesive strip make them a better bet for the trash bin.
· Plastic caps. Curbside programs won't recycle them, but Aveda collects them and turns them into packaging for new products.
· Wet paper. Paper fibers that have been exposed to water are shorter and therefore less valuable to paper mills, making it unprofitable to collect and recycle.
From green.yahoo.com

TODAY´S QUOTATION:

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
John Quincy Adams , US diplomat & politician (1767 - 1848)

NB2A/C
-- Homework: workbook, pages 8,9 and 12 about the contrast between the simple present tense and the present continuous and also activities about the video At the airport.
--You were given both the compositions and listenings you did last week. The listenings were all right ,but I was a bit disappointed with the mistakes I saw in your compositions . Using the overhead projector and an acetate transparency you could see and deal with the most common mistakes you had made.Although this activity took a long time , it was worth and I hope you won´t do them again. I honestly hope so.
--Speaking: an interesting pair work activity titled At the Museum to spot ten differences . Structures practised: present continuous, there is/are and prepositions of place.It was fun and you did it very well.
--Reading: Student´s book page 10, section 1D : The Devil´s Dictionary.a passage about ironical definitions for words.Exercises a,b,c,d and e were done. It was a warm up to defining relative clauses to be seen later
--Homework: Group A: a description of a famous painting and group B: workbook ,page 10.

NI2E
-- You were given the compositions and listenings you had done the previous week. I edited your marks in the blog but don´t ask me what happened that they didn´t come out as they were supposed to. Instead of appearing the code and the mark on the right , it was below where the mark fancied going. Inside computers there must be an elf that starts messing things up to bother you.
--Reading: student´s books ,page 14 about Bill Bryson , a brilliant, witty writer with an incredibly ironical sense of humour. If you have the chance, read Notes from a small Island . It´s one of the best I´ve ever read and I thoroughly recommend it. We went through the comprehension questions and vocabulary.
--Video: After the failure of thursday´s class with the video, I had my palm read and the sorcerer told me today things were going to be OK with it. In spite of this, I was shaking like a leaf when I turned it on, luckily, it worked. I nearly cried of joy and happiness. The video ,titled The African Potato ,is about the tough reality in south African countries where HIV is an epidemic and the natural remedies available to fight against this awful illness. True-false statements , collocations and vocabulary. Don´t set the bells ringing with this success , perhaps next time the elf inside the video starts messing it all up again
--Homework: Grammar,chapter 51.

CRINOIDS

Crinoids, also known as sea lilies or feather-stars, are marine animals that belong to the class Crinoidea of the echinoderms They live both in shallow water and in depths down to 6,000 meters. Crinoids are characterized by a mouth on the top surface that is surrounded by five or more arms. They feed by filtering small particles of food from the sea water with their feather like arms .Many juvenile crinoids usually have a stem used to attach themselves to a substrate and when adults they swim freely. There are only a few hundred known modern forms, but crinoids were much more numerous in the past. Some thicklimestone beds dating from the Paleozoic are entirely made up crinoid fragments.

We were supposed to have the class in the lab downstairs, but I´m afraid technology is sometimes unpredictable and, when most needed it decides to stop or break down. In fact ,this was what nearly happened to my poor nervous system. I´m awfully sorry for you and for my nerves...


NB2A/C
--Homework: Grammar, unit 8 about the contrast between the simple and the present continuous.
I forgot in group A to collect the description of a Botero´s painting on student´s book, page 112, so I´ll do it next Monday .
--Listening: related to unit 1 and very easy. I hope your mark will be very good.
--Song: the one we started on Tuesday titled “Ain´t got/ I´ve got” , not as easy as the listening because the second part was rather fast.
--Video: Student´s books on page 12 “At the airport”. You first thought it was awful, but working in groups made everything go smooth and everybody got the main ideas and some details of the story. You have to get used to watching videos to predict what´s going to happen and use your knowledge of the language to get the information required.
--Homework:workbook:section 1C ,pages 8 and 9 and page 12 with activities based on the video.

NI2E
--Homework: The compositions about Spanish Stereotypes were collected. Workbook, section 1B,pages 7 and 8 were checked paying special emphasis on vocabulary related to the cinema and the media:readio, press ,TV.Although it was supposed to be a review , we dealt with the topic in depth as I think it´s very likely to appear in the final examinations.
--Vocabulary and Speaking : Student´s book, page 145 with more practice about the media in general. A memory game by asking your classmate words from the activities.
--Speaking: Interview your classmate about TV and radio using the vocabulary worked in the previous activities.
--Listening: Bibi Khanim and the legend of the Muslim veil , a true-false activity with 10 statements.
--Video: to add insult to injury , my video in the class didn´t work either!.I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me . We carried on speaking as a whole class about your favourite TV programmes.
--Homework:Student´s book, page 14. a reading exercise with questions at the end of each paragraph.



Listen to the song and sing .No matter how badly you think you do it, you´ll never be worse than me.







COMPOSITIONS 9th, october ,2008

NB2A

NB2AM51B No apto (4)
NB2ALH7P No apto (4)
NB2AS3F7 Apto (8)
NB2A9JT5 Apto (7)
NB2A8YR3 No apto (4)
NB2AVK7C Apto (9)
NB2A2RH8 Apto (6)
NB2AL5ZQ No presentado
NB2A3V7K Apto (8)
NB2AP6WQ Apto (7)
NB2A4WZ2 Apto (6)
NB2AM72W Apto (5) ¿
NB2AÑ63S No presentado

NB2C

NB2CPL9J Apto (8)
NB2CK7H5 Apto (8)
NB2C6TB6 Apto (7)
NB2C4F2A No apto (4) ¿
NB2CZ3D7 Apto (5)
NB2C4Z1L Apto (6)

NI2E

COMPOSITIONS,OCTOBER

NI2EB9N3
Apto(9)
NI2E5YL2
No presentado
NI2ES3M8
Apto (8)
NI2EAI6G
Apto (5)
NI2END41
Apto (6)
NI2EN1HA
No presentado
NI2EG2H4
No apto (4)
NI2EV6T2
Apto (9)
NI2EJ6FL
No presentado
NI2EP7G2
Apto (7)
NI2EX5K9
No presentado
NI2EA05L
No presentado
NI2ER1A4
No presentado
NI2EGN72
No presentado
NI2EGL5D
No presentado

LISTENINGS ,16th,october,2008

NI2EB9N3
Apto (6)
NI2E5YL2
Apto (6)
NI2ES3M8
No apto (4)
NI2EAI6G
Apto (5)
NI2END41
No apto (3)
NI2EN1HA
No presentado
NI2EG2H4
No apto (4)
NI2EV6T2
Apto (6,5)
NI2EJ6FL
No presentado
NI2EP7G2
No apto (4,5)
NI2EX5K9
No presentado
NI2EA05L
No presentado
NI2ER1A4
No presentado
NI2EGN72
No presentado
NI2EGL5D
No presentado

I can´t edit this in a better way. I´ll ask Herminio this afternoon. Thank you.

BARRACUDAS

The barracuda has a large size and scary look. With a long body , powerful jaws and teeth like fangs .They are covered with small, smooth scales. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. It belongs to the Sphyraena family.

Barracudas occur mainly in schools around reefs, but they also appear in open seas. They are voracious predators and great hunters using an ambush style. Their attack is based on on surprise and short bursts of speed to catch their prey They eat all kinds of fish .

Barracudas, like sharks , have had a bad reputation as being dangerous to humans.I must say this is true as barracudas are also scavengers, that is, they eat the remains of food other predators leave, and they may mistake snorkelers for large predators and follow them to eat the remains of any prey left after an attack.

They must be highly respected, as they are perfectly capable of defending themselves against humans .Neither feed them nor touch them and don´t wear jewelry as barracudas like objects that shine.

NB2A/C.-

--A review on parts of the body by asking: what´s this?/What are these?/How do you spell the word? and a "Touch you head /your nose.."game.

--Grammar. Student´s Book, page 8. Present continuous tense : uses , formation and contrast with the simple present tense. Activities a and b. Grammar bank on page 126 with its exercises on page 127 and student´s grammar ,chapter 8. We just did the first activity focussing on the contrast of these two tenses.

--Listening: About The Moulin Rouge by Tolouse-Lautrec. Activity a with questions and activity b to match with the people in the painting. It was a bit tough and apart from being played several times,more than usual, the last one was with the script at sight.

--Speaking: Activity a with prepositions of place so that you´ll be able to describe paintings ,photographs or pictures and activity b, where one student describes a painting on page 108 to their classmate who has to draw it. Well, not many artists will come out of this class, I´m afraid.

A song : Ain´t got no- I got life. With little time left for this activity, so next Thursday we´ll carry on with it.

--Homework: Grammar, chapter 8 and a description of the picture on page 112.

Thursday class will be held in the lab downstairs, on the ground floor.

A listening activity to be collected

NI2E.-

--Compositions were collected and exercises from workbook, section 1B were checked:questions and vocabulary related to films, the press and the media in general.

--Grammar: Student´s book, p11, exercises with more questions .Exercise A to correct mistakes, B on page 130 with the rules and some more exercises about questions. This is the starting point for a speaking activity I´m thinking of marking, so try and do your best.

--Speaking: the clas was split into two groups : one ,the journalists who have to interview a celebrity and the other group, the celebrities themselves who have to give not very clear answers.

--Listening: Student´s book p11 about the media .In one of the to order the sequence of speakers and in the other activity to decide whether the speaker agree or not with the topic. We ran out of time really fast .

--Homeworj: Grammar books, chapter 49 about questions and carry on working with the interviews for next Monday.

Thursday class will be held in the lab downstairs, on the ground floor.

A listening activity to be collected

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Ideas for recycling paper:

Discarded A4-sized paper can be cut and stapled together to make notepads.

'Use the envelopes you receive in the mail a second time by placing a new address label over the last address. Old rolls of wallpaper can be used for childrens' drawings.

Junk mail can be used as scrap paper, or as bedding for pets.

Cardboard cartons can be used to collect paper for recycling, instead of plastic bags (even breakfast cereal cartons are good).

Pet shops appreciate old newspapers.

Toilet roll centres can be recycled - they're made of cardboard.

Old magazines are appreciated by::Doctor and dentists' surgeries, mote ,bars and cafés.

Article from Reduce your Rubbish

SPANISH DANCER

Believe it or not, its name was given after flamenco dancers, because if you happen to see this animal moving, it resembles a lot these dancers with waving clothes and graceful movements.

The spanish dancer a very large and colorful sea slug . It like a mollusk ,but without the shell. Most of nudibranchs show bright ,beautiful colours to show their predators they can be either poisonous or have an awful taste.

This species of very large, strong-swimming nudibranch is found in the Red Sea and it´s t is one of the largest of all nudibranchs.

NB2A/C.-

--I reaslised you needed a deep review on the simple present T

tense , not written exercises, but speaking. So I gave you a handout to practise loads of questions with your buddy.After asking and answering several times ,you were able to writhe them down. This activity took quite a long time.

--Speaking: A handout with clues for you to practise more question about a celebrity or someone you´re a fan of . It was titled "What about you?" and you had to ask more questions related to that celebrity.

-- Listening: More practice with the simple present tense.a listening where you had to fill in an enrolment form for a school of languages.

--Homework: workbook.Section 1C, pages 8 and 9. Remember the web link with Oxford and the CD rom.

NI2E.-

--Grammar: More activities on phrasal verbs, the same we had done the day before but more in detail and working in small groups. The exercises were from your workbook , section 1A ,pages 4 and 5 , and student´s book, page 144. You should underdand them a lot better by now.I hope.

-- Speaking: Student´s book Section 1B,page 8 with vocabulary about music, records and performances. your taste in music, your favourite groups and so on.

-Homework: There were some questions about a passage about the pop group Abbayou had listened to the day before and you had to find their answers in the reading. A bit tricky since not the answers were in the reading.

-- Listening: Based on the same questions: an interview wityh a journalist from a music magazine talking about Abba. It was a jig-saw listening: each pair was given two questions they had to concentrate on and take as many notes as possible . Then you had to report to the class and the other groups had to complete the information they didn´t have.

-- Pronunciation: Intonation with Wh- questions and yes/no questions. going down with wh- questions and going up with yes/no questions.

-- Song: "The Winner Takes it All". Section a: a matching exercise and section b: a fill in the blanks exercise.

-- Homework: A composition to be handed on Wednesday and workbook, section 1B ,pages 7 and 8.

Now clik here ,listen to the song and do the exercise

BUTTERFLYFISH

Butterflyfish are fairly small, mostly from 12 to 22 cm in length. The largest species however can grow up to 30 cm. The common name references the brightly coloured bodies of many, with shades of black, white, blue, red, orange and yellow.. Many have eyespots on their sides and dark bands across their eyes.Their deep,laterally flat bodies are easily noticed through the reef life, leading many scientits to believe that these colours are used for communication among the many species of butterflyfish.

They have diurnal and live in shallow waters of less than 18 m . By night butterflyfish hide amongst the crevices and gaps of the reef and show markedly different coloration than they do by day.They eat coral polyps, sea anemones and zooplankton.They release many tiny eggs into the water which then become part of the plankton , floating with the currents .

Today´s quotation:

"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble". Blaise Pascal.

A can, a plastic bag , only one is enough to carry on with the degradation of our environment. Never say "It´s just one" . If everybody has the same behaviour our planet won´t last very long.

Butterflyfish are fairly small, mostly from 12 to 22 cm in length. The largest species however can grow up to 30 cm. The common name references the brightly coloured bodies of many, with shades of black, white, blue, red, orange and yellow.. Many have eyespots on their sides and dark bands across their eyes.Their deep,laterally flat bodies are easily noticed through the reef life, leading many scientits to believe that these colours are used for communication among the many species of butterflyfish.

They have diurnal and live in shallow waters of less than 18 m . By night butterflyfish hide amongst the crevices and gaps of the reef and show markedly different coloration than they do by day.They eat coral polyps, sea anemones and zooplankton, and release many tiny eggs into the water which then become part of the plankton , floating with the currents .

Today´s quotation:

"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble". Blaise Pascal.

A can, a plastic bag , only one is enough to carry on with the degradation of our environment. Never say "It´s just one" . If everybody has the same behaviour our planet won´t last very long.

NB2A/C.-

-- Homework: Workbook, section 1B . Grammar exercise 2C, the pronunciation exercise and the reading were checked. Remember that I don´t always have time to check everything and that the answers are in a separate leaflet.

-- Oral: We carried on with the activity which was left unfinished yesterday: A Student´s Profile. Questions such as: Where were you born?, what do you do?, where do you live? and so on were practised. Then you were asked to change seats and use the third person singular asking questions and giving answers. eg: what does he do?, where´s he from?

-- Vocabulary: We started section 1C At The Moulin Rouge with an exercise about parts of the body which led us to page 146 with more words related to the topic. Exercises a,b and c were done.

-- Pronunciation: Back to section 1C in the pronunciation activity we practised vowel sounds .

-- Homework: A composition to be handed on Thursday about the activity of Student´s Profile and information fron the speaking activity on Student´s page 7 (the latter has other ideas you can include in the composition such as personality, appeareance and what he/she doesn´t like doing)

NI2E.-

Our group has been named NI2E instead of F as there has been a rearrangement of groups.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

All of you have the chance of improving your skills with supplementary activities in this EOI.

--WRITING AND READING SKILLS.- Wednesday from 18,00 to 19,00 in classroom B-2

-- LISTENING.- Wednesday from 19,00 to 20,00 in classroom B-2

-- SPEAKING.- Wednesday from 20,00 to 21,00 in classroom B-2

They start on 14 October

You shouldn´t miss this unique opportunity!!!

-- Workbook exercises on pages 4,5 and 6 were checked with special emphasis on the phrasal verbs.

--Grammar: more phrasal verbs in St book on page 144. As you seemed to be in trouble doing them on your own ,we did them all together helping each other.

-- Speaking :Section 1B ,p8.about your taste in music and here ,let me tell you, there´s no excuse for you to remain silent because you think the topic it not appealing or too difficult . As music is a universal issue, practically everybody has something to say.

--Reading: About the group Abba, very famous in the 70s, with a revival in the 90s. You went through it reading out ,I noted down pronunciation mistakes and then, you asked unknown words.

--Listening: St.p9. Questions to write down for a further interview.

-- Homework: Answer the questions of the listening exercises reading again the article about Abba.

TRAGEDY

This picture was taken in Denmark where thousands of whales are slaughtered for commercial purposes . I´m definitely against cruelty to animals ,their unnecesary suffering and the disappearance of endangered species.

Today´s article:

Obviously, granting animals rights doesn’t mean we’ll see cats in the voting booths on Election Day or chickens behind the wheel of a car. What it does mean is that in similar situations, we ought to consider the interests of humans and other animals equally. That is, we should not grant less weight to an individual’s desire to avoid pain simply because she or he isn’t human. All animals bred for food, fur, animal research, and entertainment are capable of experiencing pain. They seek to live free of suffering. They care about their lives and those of their loved ones. As such, nonhuman animals, like humans, should be treated compassionately and live without fear of torture or death.
Article from :www.cok.net/lit/animalrights

Today´s quotation:
"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed". Mohandas K. Gandhi

NB2A/C.-

• Homework: Grammar, chapters 5,6 and 7.
• Oral and Vocabulary: Personality adjectives. St,p.145. Exercises a and b .
• Oral: Useful expressions in the class. St, p 144 . We dealt with all the exercises in detail because it´s very good practice. these speaking activities took a great deal of time and it was really woth.
• Pronunciation of plurals and 3rd person singular verbs. St, p.7 , exercise 5. Just an introduction with the final -s exaggerated so that you could infer the basic rules.
• Homework: Study the vocabulary and do the exercises related to section 1B in your workbook.

NI2F.-


Homework : Grammar, unit 137 about phrasal verbs.

• Oral: Spanish stereotypes . St, p.7. The topic was thoroughly discussed following the questions of a previous listening activity. Doubts about structures and vocabulary were solved. Remember to say.:What does X mean? Can you spell it ,please?, How do you pronounce it?. Then you wrote down the main ideas of the speaking activity backed them up with examples . After that ,we moved to p.156 to check the main writing skills. Sections a and b. The composition titled The Spanish: What we´re really like must be ready for next Monday.
• Listening: A true-false listening about Ascot Races from Speak Up. The handout had some useful vocabulary about the topic which helped, however, bear in mind that many statements can be tricky because of the meaning of just one word.
• Homework: Do the all the exercises of section 1A for Wednesday.

CORAL GROUPER

Can tou see the grouper nearly hidden among the variety of corals? Groupers are of the family of Serranidae .They have a stout body and a large mouth. They are not built for long-distance fast swimming,so they lie waiting , rather than chasing in open water.
Groupers can be quite large, the biggest over a meter and can weigh up to 100 kg . They usually swallow fish, octopus and crabs instead of biting pieces off .
Today´s quotation: "Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you". Yassir Arafat (one among the many who have said it) It´s food for though

NEW YORK, NEW YORK
by Frank Sinatra
Start spreading the news,
I'm leaving today.
I want to be a part of it,
New York, New York.
These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it,
New York, New York.
I wanna wake up in a city
That doesn't sleep,
And find I'm king of the hill,
Top of the heap.
These little town blues
Are melting away.
I'll make a brand new start of it,
In old New York.
If I can make it there,
I'll make it anywhere.
It's up to you,
New York, New York.
New York, New York.
I want to wake up in a city
That never sleeps,
And find I'm a number one,
Top of the list,
King of the hill,
A number one.
These little town blues
Are melting away.
I'm gonna make
A brand new start of it
In old New York.
And if I can make it there,
I'm gonna make it anywhere.
It's up to you,
New York, New York.

New York

Vocabulary.-
To start doing something.-comenzar a hacer algo

To spread the news.- Esparcir la noticia o las noticias.
to leave.-irse

To long.- Estar deseando algo mucho

To stray.-recorrer, caminar.
Right through.-justo a través de

Moonlight.-la luz de la luna

Wanna.-forma abreviada coloquial de want to
Heap.-pila, montaña de cosas

Blues.-tristezas, melancolías

To melt.- Derretir, desaparecer.

Brand new.-flamante, nuevo

To make a start.-comenzar

Anywhere.-en cualquier lugar

It's up to you.-depende de ti

Anumber one.-un número uno

Top of the list.-el primero de la lista

NB2A/C.

• Previous homework: WK:p5 , a pronunciation exercise. GR, chapters 2 and 4.

• Activities:

1B: Who Knows you Better? A context where Richard´s mum and his friend Danny are looking for a partner for her son and friend respectively.

• A crosswords with vocabulary about adjectives and members of the family, including : father-in-law, son-in-law...
• Reading :the first part is a passage with general information about the main topic and questions to answer.
• The second part of the reading has more specific information and true-false statements.
• Vocabulary of the reading: to get on well,abroad,laugh and also pronunciation of difficult words with sounds /v/-/b/ ,/u:/-/u/.
• Grammar :Simple present tense which is used for habits, routines, general truths and likes and dislikes.Grammar Bank on page 126, 1B with rules and a couple of exercises.
• Speaking : in pairs student A on page 108 and student B on page 112 . You have to ask questions about the two young ladies chosen by Richard´s mother and Danny. With the answers report to the class and decide the most suitable girlfriend for Richard.
• Listening: Richard talks about tha dates he had with Claire and Nina. You have to list the adjectives related to the young ladies´personalities.
• Homework for Monday: Grammar ,chapters 5,6 and 7 .They´re about the simple present tense .You should already know from last year.
  

NI2F

• Previous homework : Doubts about the Entry Test you had done a few days befre. Phrasal verbs: a handout with drawings to write the phrasal verb below.
• Activities:
• Grammar: St ,p6 ,section d .Phrasal verbs verbs with more than one meaning. Activity 7 ,section a: separable or non separable : try on, look after, and section b on p130 with the rules and one exercise with pronouns and nouns and the different positions with the verb.
• Listening: A really interesting one about stereotypes with adjectives related to the topic: bossy,efficient,hypocondriacs... A man talks about the stereotypes about the Germans. Two steps are necessary. First :use clues (either words or drawings or symbols ) to to help you understand the main ideas. Secondly: try to predict what´s going to happen with your knowledge of the subject. Section c of the listening is to develop some questions and will be the starting point of a composition.
• Speaking: national stereotypes following the questions of the listening, section c. The image other countries have of the Spanish.
• Homework for Monday: Get the speaking ready and do Grammar chapter 137