Thursday, 2 October 2008

Hidden message




Can you guess what today's hidden message is ?. As a clue we will tell you it is a well- known song by a singer who was murdered in the 80s. It talks about peace, dreams.... Once you have found out, try to put everything in order; you may need to surf the internet to get the complete lyrics.
Now that you already know who wrote the song have a look at this "youtube" video and be prepared to answer some oral questions.


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John Lennon was born on October 9th, 1940, in Liverpool. When he was a little child, his parents got separated and he was forced to live with his aunt Mimi, since his mother had died before he became eighteen years old. Because of that, he wasn’t able to see his dad too much (because of his job) and he became a juvenile “delinquent”.
In college, John Lennon was well-known for drawing grotesque and violent pictures, which made his teachers think he would apply for art school. He did, but instead of drawing, he started applying art to words, music. He started playing the guitar with one of his friends, Eric, and later formed a band called “The Quarrymen”.
In “The Quarrymen” John Lennon rehearsed in front of an enormous audience, in which stood Paul McCartney, one of the future members of the Beatles. With him, Lennon started to write music and songs and after some time, they two, George Harrison and Ringo Starr formed “The Beatles”.
The Beatles sang from 1957 till 1970. During these years they published songs like “Hey Jude”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “I Want to Hold your hand”, “Help!” etc. Besides from entertaining, some of their songs, like, for example, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”, are said to promote the use of drugs like LSD,(in this song, they are its initials )
Sadly, on December 8th, 1980, John Lennon was shot four times on the back when he was entering his luxurious apartment in New York. He was quickly brought to hospital, but he died immediately. Some people say he was shot from behind, and others say the murderer was waiting at his front steps when he was shot. Besides from these, there are many other questions to be asked about the life and the death of John Lennon.
Text by Pere Giralt 4th A





Sunday, 28 September 2008

SIMPLE PAST - PAST CONTINUOUS- PAST PERFECT

In unit 1 we will be revising the difference between Simple Past , Past Continuous and Past Perfect. Here you have some useful links to extra practise (Don't forget to save them and once you have got some, e-mail them to me. This will give you extra points)
Remember that the first ones are the "easy ones" but that you should not stop here; better if you go on doing the last ones as well.

Easy exercises Simple Past vs Past Continuous:

http://english.baladre.org/sedaviwebfront/pastSimpCont.htm
http://english.baladre.org/sedaviwebfront/pastsimplecont2.htm
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/inenglish/preint/a_grammar/ine_preintermediate_grammar07/
Simple Past vs Past Perfect:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-pasper/exercises
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/past_perfect_simple_past.htm

More difficult :

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/past_perfect_simple_past.htm
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs3.htm
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/inenglish/preint/a_grammar/ine_preintermediate_grammar07/

Friday, 26 September 2008

WORK ON THE POST HOLIDAYS, HOLIDAYS, HOLIDAYS.

Here is a list of tasks I'd like you to do with a partner. Do the tasks in this order:






  1. Have a look at the two compositions and correct any mistake you see. (in your notebook)



  2. Answer the following questions (in your notebook )





  • How did student 1 travel to Lithuania?



  • Did this student improve his/ her English? Why / not?



  • What did student 2 like about Andalusia?



  • Do you agree with her last sentence? Why /not?



3. Talk to your partner IN ENGLISH about the two destinations ( the one you like best, advantages and disadvantages of travelling abroad......) and once you have been doing so for at least five minutes write a comment to this post explaining which destination you would prefer and why. PUBLISH THE NOTES NOT IN THE POST, BUT AS A COMMENT TO THE POST. REMEMBER TO SAY WHO YOU ARE

Thursday, 25 September 2008

HOLIDAYS, HOLIDAYS, HOLIDAYS

My holidays

This summer I went to Lithuania to do a work camp. We caught a bus on the 12th of July. We travelled for 3 days, but one night we slept in Poland, so it wasn't so bad. We had to carry boxes ( in the bus) with all food needed for the camp.

The first day there ( we were tired for the long trip) we met all people from Spain; we were 125 girls with only 6 showers and with no warm water.

We helped there, because we went to shelters, old people homes and to children's houses.The people there were so amazing.

We had to speak all time in English because we were with 10 girls from Lithuania and they didn't know Spanish, so it was great for this part too.





This summer I have been in Andalusia.I have never been there, but now I can say that I like a lot.

I have visited Granada, Sevilla, Córdoba...... I have seen a lot of monuments like " La Giralda" and " La Alhambra". But monuments are not the only thing I like. People in Andalusia are very friendly, they helped us in everything we needed.

Me and my family have eaten delicious meals and if you go to Andalusia I recommend you to visit the small villages and their people. You don't have to go very far to enjoy your holidays.

Wednesday, 24 September 2008

VERBS WITH NO CONTINUOUS

State or stative verbs
They hardly ever take the Continuous Form, ( No I am liking , for example) As they describe a state rather than an action the Simple Form ( I like) is always preferred.
They can be grouped in
  • "Appearing "verbs : appear, look ( semblar) , seem
  • "Thinking" verbs : doubt, feel, know, mean, remember,think ( meaning " to have an opinion), understand,expect
  • "Feeling " verbs : dislike, like, hate, love, want,wish, prefer
  • "Sensing" verbs : hear, see, smell, taste , sound.
  • "Owning" verbs : belong, need, owe, own, have ( meaning " to own")
  • " Others ": promise, agree, depend, mean, matter

So, these verbs are not normally used in the continuous, except when they describe a mental or physical action or process :

I am thinking of you all the time ( mental action). He is appearing in a new film ( physical action)

To know more : http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/learnit/learnitv120.shtml (good site to understand why some of these verbs do sometimes take the continuous form)

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

Monday, 22 September 2008

COMPUTER LAB RULES


  1. ALWAYS BRING YOUR HEADPHONES TO CLASS.

  2. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE UNTIL YOUR TEACHER ALLOWS YOU TO.

  3. BE RESPECTFUL OF ALL EQUIPMENT IN THIS ROOM.

  4. DO NOT ALTER ANYTHING ON THE DESKTOP OR HARD DRIVE AND STAY OUT OF OTHER PEOPLE`S FILES.

  5. THE USE OF USBs, PENDRIVES OR DISKS IS ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN.

  6. ALL COMPUTER USE MUST HAVE AN EDUCATIONAL BASIS, SO NO SURFING THE INTERNET, INSTANT " MESSENGING", E-MAILING, CHECKING FLOGS, GAME PLAYING IF NOT ALLOWED.

  7. REMEMBER TO SHUT DOWN THE COMPUTER AND MONITOR AT THE END OF EVERY CLASS.

  8. WHEN CLASS IS OVER, PUT YOUR CHAIR UNDER THE DESK AND CLEAN UP YOUR SITE, LEAVE YOUR WORKSPACE THE WAY YOU'D LIKE TO FIND IT