AnglesBadalones: October 2015

Friday, 30 October 2015

HALLOWEEN II

TASK 1 : READ THE FOLLOWING STORY

The house on the hill in the old forest.

I went trick-or-treating with my best friends Our pillowcases were full of candy, and it was getting late, so my friends wanted to go home.

I wanted a few more chocolate bars so I turned to my friends and said, “Let’s knock on a few more doors and then head for home.”

They were worried because they thought it was already too late. “Let’s go home now,” they said to me. I told them not to worry because we could take a shortcut through the old forest.

So after a few more houses, I took my friends to the path that went through the forest. We walked about 20 minutes, and then, suddenly, I felt very strange. I couldn’t remember the way! It was dark and foggy. We were lost. And to make matters worse, it started to rain. And then, it started to pour. Lightning lit up the sky and thunder rang in our ears. We wandered around in the rain for over two hours. We were very wet and very cold. And then, at about midnight, I saw an old abandoned house on a hill.

“I think we’ll have to spend the night in that old house and wait till morning,” I said.

TASK2. In pairs, finish writing the story using all the phrases in the box below. Write it as a comment to this post,

Creative Writing Box	screamed saw a light ran down the hall	cobwebs heard footsteps hid under the bed
heard a noise dawn

My friends didn’t think it was a good idea, but they were cold and wet, so they agreed. We walked up the old wooden steps to the front door. The door creaked open and we went inside, sat down, and started to eat a chocolate bar, when . . .

HALLOWEEN I

HALLOWEEN AND JACK O'LANTERNS

As most of you already know, the spookiest night of all is getting closer; just a couple of weeks ahead and people in the States will be too frightened to think about anything else. No doubt we are talking about the 31st of October, that is to say, Halloween .
But what do you know about this scary day??? Try this quiz and see

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-quiz-halloween.htm ( not working at the moment)
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/countries/halloween.htm

In the quiz you have read about Jack o' Lanterns (photo above); although we are pretty sure you know about them ,why not find out more about the origin of this tradition. Read this text to know.

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.
Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."
In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

How to carve your Halloween Jack O' Lantern

To see some amazing lanterns, double click on any of this link,

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jdigney/pumpkin.html

Once you've seen how amazing pumpkin carving can be, work the following exercises:

http://www.isabelperez.com/hotpot/horror_halloween.htm

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-games-spelloween.htm ( a bit of spelling)

To learn more about this festival , watch this video and do the quiz

FACEBOOK

How has Facebook changed the world?

October 2015

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we communicate, the way people run their businesses, the way we meet and make new friends, and even the way we access and read the news. According to research, 63% of people in the USA now read the news online, and among Americans aged 18-24, 71% say that they only get their news online. Furthermore, more people than ever are using social media to do more than chat and share photos. Half of social media users have shared news stories, images or videos, and 14% have posted their own photos or videos of news events.

Research suggests that today most people find out about breaking news stories on social media, then they go to a news website to find out more, and about 20% of news website visitors have followed a link to an article from Facebook. For this reason, news companies are realizing that their websites' homepages are not as important as the individual articles, which attract more people to their websites. However, this may change as Facebook's new Instant Articles feature will enable users to read full stories from news sites without leaving Facebook.

How does Facebook decide which news articles to show people? The site uses information about your friends, interests, and connections to calculate which stories you will enjoy reading. It then places those items in your news feed. Other factors which help to decide what you will see in your news feed include what device you are using, how many comments, likes or shares an article has received, and how long users spend reading an article. Although some people dislike the way Facebook decides what news they will and won't see when they log on, your Facebook news feed is becoming your own personal newspaper.

Social media is affecting how newspapers deliver their stories, too. People today want to read about events instantly and quickly in the same way as they read updates on sites like Facebook. The need to report the news immediately in bite-size articles has led to paper publications printing shorter stories to appeal to busy people on the move. The American newspaper The Washington Post is even working on a system for delivering different versions of their articles to different people, based on information about how a user has found an article, what kind of device they are using, and even whether they are holding their device in landscape or portrait mode. People reading on a mobile phone while out during the day will most likely want a short, condensed story, but people reading on a tablet at home may prefer a longer, more detailed article.

Facebook also provides a place for people to share and discuss their opinions on the news. About a third of Facebook users post comments or opinions about politics and government, and many users post about recent events in the news. Sometimes, these discussions lead to groups being formed. Revolutions and protests have also been organized on Facebook, when people have decided to get together to take action.

Social media sites like Facebook have changed our lives in many ways in the last ten years, and its effect on news media is just part of that change. What developments would you like to see?

Vocabulary

access (the news) to reach or find information on news events
attract cause someone to come to a place by offering something of interest
bite-size small, easy to manage or process
breaking news newly received information about an event that is currently occurring or developing
landscape mode when your mobile phone or tablet is held horizontally
news source a place, person, or thing from which you can get the news
on the move travelling from one place to another
portrait mode when your mobile phone or tablet is held vertically
run (a business) to be in charge of or manage a company
take action do something in order to achieve an aim or deal with a problem

Monday, 19 October 2015

BASIC MISTAKES

Other, others, the other or another?

Have a look at the grammar point :

http://www.grammar.cl/english/another-other-others.htm

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/other-others-the-other-or-another

Exercises:

http://www.grammar.cl/english-games/another-other-others.htm

http://www.learn-english-today.com/lessons/lesson_contents/exercises/other-another_gapfill1.htm

http://english-zone.com/members/grammar/st-chang.html

2. Somebody, everybody, anybody, nobody...................?

I may be wrong, but I think some of you still have problems with the combinations some,any,no,every+body, thing...... To try to solve these problems,have a look at the grammar point first and then do the exercises.. Always remember that these combinations ARE SINGULAR .

How to use these compounds:

http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/Determiners7d.cfm
Common Mistakes
http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/sometmts.htm

Exercises :

3. ODA SCOMP ORDER OF ADJECTIVES AND COMPARISONS.......

Have a look at the order :
http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/adj_order.html

Exercises :
http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/gr.adwo.p.htm

http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-42493.php

Thursday, 8 October 2015

PRESENT PERFECT

GAMES TO REVISE PAST and PAST PARTICIPLE FORMS

1 .http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/perfectpast/past%20simple%20betting.html

2.http://www.manythings.org/fq/1/8992.html

3.http://www.macmillandictionary.com/verb_wheel/

SOME GRAMMAR EXERCISES

https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-preper/tests?test1

https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-preper/exercises?ex02

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/ppvpast1.htm

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=3211 ( already , just, yet)

A SONG TO REVISE IT. DO THE QUIZZ

	According to the article, most young people in the USA... read the news in newspapers. post their own news videos online. get their news on the Internet. don't read the news.
2	Most readers are attracted to a news site by... adverts on social media. things their friends tell them about the site. articles they see on social media. the site's homepage.
3	Instant Articles will allow Facebook users to... connect to news sites more quickly. read news articles on Facebook. visit more news sites. read more articles than before.
4	Facebook selects what you see in your news feed based on... how much time you spend online. how many friends you have got. how popular an article is with other users. how many times you have shared a post.
5	According to the article... some newspapers are printing shorter stories. people don't read newspapers anymore. people usually read the news at home. newspapers are delivered in different ways these days.
6	The Washington Post wants to make their articles... small enough to fit on a mobile phone screen. suitable for different kinds of readers. easier to find on social media sites. more interesting to people who can't concentrate.
7	According to the article, people are more likely to read... longer articles when they are travelling. longer articles when they are using a mobile phone. shorter articles when they are using a tablet. longer articles when they are at home.
8	According to the article, one in three Facebook users have... joined a Facebook group. posted their opinions on politics online. taken part in a protest. organized their own Facebook group.