"Last Christmas" By Wham

LEARN ENGLISH WITH CHRISTMAS SONGS

This gap fill writing activity will help you to practise your English listening skills.
Click here to practise more songs.

Send A "Chatty Santa"

Type what you´d like Santa to say to a particular person, and Chatty Santa will say it.

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org

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Four- Dimensional Storyteller

7 FAMOUS SKYSCRAPERS

CAE Writing

ADD THE PUNTUACTION

Add the punctuation (CAE Writing)

Add the punctuation, capital letters and paragraphs to these genuine CAE student texts

Text 1- letter
dear mr baton i am writing to you to express the committees concern about your plans for the sports facilities you asserted a lack of student interest so we conducted a survey which proved the opposite sixty percent of the students use the sports hall more than three times a week and the football ground is also used for training between matches therefore the committee decided to oppose your intention at least in this form students would not be able to practise if the hall were open for the public all day and it is certainly not fair that they should pay the high school fees as well the committee also had not heard that the college had to cut costs however i am sure we can talk about this matter and would be glad if we could arrange a meeting between you and the committee i look forward to hearing from you yours sincerely christopher halle

To read text two-essay click here.

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Poetry Everywhere: Emily Dickinson

" I started Early" by Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet, born on December 10,1830. 
Just to remmeber her , there is a video of her poem " I started Early".



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If you like poetry, there is a great app called POETRY. We will be able to listen to "Snow Fakes" in class.

Exams,University of Cambridge

An Innovative Search Engine

Quicko is an experimental but innovative idea to explore search results in a grouply manner so that all search results related to a search query can be stacked together in one single page and then you can use that page to navigate between your desired results with great ease.

It´s All Over Now, Baby Blue by Bob Dylan

Click here - Random Idea English- to do the following exercises:

• matching exercise
• gap fill exrcise
• and relative clauses

Talking About Movies

VOCABULARY:Film Reviews 

plot,sequel,background,soundtrack,score,close up,

scene, location, screenplay, adaptation,remake,box-office hit,

blockbuster, cameo, camera, genre, character,sci-fi,

setting, critic 

In order to practise  vocabulary about films go to the link below, with two very short film reviews: Skyfall/ The Master

 










Click here : listen and fill in the gaps .
Then, go to this link to do extra movie activities:crossword,movie cloze,movie sypnosis reading activity.

A synopsis is a brief summary of a written work or a movie. Read the movie synopses below and try to guess the title of the movie.

Movie 1: ________________ This is a comedy starring Jim Carrey. When a light falls from the sky, Carrey’s character Truman begins to suspect that something is wrong with the world. He goes on to discover that his whole life is being filmed as a show for others to watch.	Movie 2: ________________ This is a sci-fi thriller starring Keanu Reeves. His character, Neo, is a computer hacker who discovers that life on earth is a façade created by intelligent machines that use humans to generate energy.	Movie 3: ________________ This action/adventure film is a remake of a 1933 classic. Jack Black plays a movie director who captures a giant ape from a lost island and brings the ape back to New York.  In the end, the ape escapes captivity and causes destruction in New York.
Movie 8: ________________ In this romance, Kate Winslet plays an upper class woman who falls in love with a poor artist. The story takes place aboard a ship that is struck by an iceberg and sunk. In the end, Kate Winslet’s character, Rose, survives but the poor artist, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, dies.		Movie 4: ________________ This is a suspense drama starring Bruce Willis. He plays a doctor who helps children with psychological problems. He tries to help a troubled child who sees ghosts. In the end, he helps the boy find peace, but he discovers that he is a ghost himself.
Movie 7: ________________ In this sci-fi action film, Will Smith plays a cop who is recruited into the government’s most secret agency. He has to find ‘illegal aliens’ that are hiding in New York, including an insect-like alien that is trying to take over the world.	Movie 6: ________________ When a criminal maniac, Sirius Black, escapes from prison, Harry Potter, who is played by Daniel Radcliffe, has to be careful. It turns out that Sirius is not who he seems.	Movie 5: ________________ This is an action film starring Tobey Maguire. He plays a superhero who has to stop the evil genius Dr. Octopus. Unfortunately, his real life problems as college student Peter Parker cause him to temporarily give up being the superhero.

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Learn English With Song Quizzes

SKYFALL 

BY 

ADELE

This is a gap fill listening exercise to help you improve your vocabulary and practise your English listening skills.Watch the video.

CLICK HERE




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 For the newest James Bond movie, Skyfall, English singer Adele recorded a song with the same name. Though Adele speaks with a strong London accent, her singing voice sounds more American than British. Why do British vocalists often sound American when they sing?

Confusing Words

LIE / LAY

Lie, lay, lain

Lay, laid, laid (with object)

STATIONARY / STATIONERY

RISE / RAISE / ARISE

Rise, rose, risen (no object): move from a lower position to a higher one; come or go up.

Of the sun, moon. Of a fish.

Raise,raised,raised (with object) : lift or move to a higher position or level.

Arise, arose,arisen (no object) ( Of a problem, opportunity, or situation)  emerge,become apparent.

DESSERT / DESERT

Dessert: the sweet course eaten at the end of a meal.

Desert: a waterless, desolate area of land with little or no vegetation,typically one covered with sand.

 FLAUNT/FLOAT/FLOUT

Flaunt:(with object) display something ostentatiously, especially in order to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance.
Float: (no object) rest or move on or near the surface of a liquid without sinking.
Flout: (with object) openly disregard a rule, law, or  convention.--   (no object) mock, scoff

FLOUNDER/FOUNDER 

Flounder:struggle, be in seriuos difficulty.

Founder:fill with water and sink. Fail, break down as a result of a particular problem. 

 

AFFECT/EFFECT

BORROW / LEND 

LOOSE / LOSE

Click the following link to do the exercises

http://random-idea-english.blogspot.com.es/2011/01/confusing-verbs-lie-lay-lie.html#more

Collocations Dictionary

FREE ONLINE COLLOCATIONS DICTIONARY

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Week In Rap: Election Edition 2012

Barack Obama wins the presidential election over Mitt Romney in a rap song

Find more here 

And to understand better Obama´s speech see on SCOOP.IT

TED_Ed Vocabulary

SAT Vocabulary #6

Created by Catlin Tucker using Video from Catlin Tucker YouTube Channel 

Let's Begin… This SAT vocabulary list is taken from the list of 5,000 words students should know for the SAT.

Click here to answer the questions.

Britishisms

Random Idea English: Britishisms

A year or so ago, the BBC website published a rather silly article, where they invited readers to write in with the Americanisms which annoyed them most. The BBC published these without any comment, causing a bit of a stir in the (mostly American) linguistics blogosphere. In fact it turned out that many of these 'pet peeves' that people sent in weren't even Americanisms at all, and of the five examples the journalist had opened the article with, only one hadn't started life in Britain.

Read and do the following exercises on random-idea-english.blogspot.com.es.

Obama Re-Elected as US President

President Barack Obama defeats Romney to win re-election

 Barack Obama: "I have never been more hopeful"

President Barack Obama has been re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

America's first black president secured the 270 votes in the electoral college needed to win the race.
In his victory speech before supporters in Chicago, Mr Obama said he would talk to Mr Romney about "where we can work together to move this country forward".

Continue reading the main story and watch the video

BBCNews

See on Scoop.it  "Barack Obama´s victory speech"- full text 

Listen To News

 LISTEN TO NEWS

Regular listening practice based on the weekly news, with pre-reading vocabulary, reading, gap-fill exercise, comprehension quiz and answers.

"American Brace For Hurricane Sandy"
Click on edition.englishclub.com
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English Test

English Test Articles Test 03. English Test us

Click here

Reading Comprehension: Dirty Britain

Instructions: Read through the text, answer the questions that follow, then click on 'Grade Me!' to view your score.

Dirty Britain

Before the grass has thickened on the roadside verges and leaves have started growing on the trees is a perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become. The pavements are stained with chewing gum that has been spat out and the gutters are full of discarded fast food cartons. Years ago I remember travelling abroad and being saddened by the plastic bags, discarded bottles and soiled nappies at the edge of every road. Nowadays, Britain seems to look at least as bad. What has
gone wrong?
The problem is that the rubbish created by our increasingly mobile lives lasts a lot longer than before. If it is not cleared up and properly thrown away, it stays in the undergrowth for years; a semi-permanent reminder of what a tatty little country we have now.

Firstly, it is estimated that 10 billion plastic bags have been given to shoppers. These will take anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot. However, it is not as if there is no solution to this. A few years ago, the Irish government introduced a tax on non-recyclable carrier bags and in three months reduced their use by 90%. When he was a minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce a similar arrangement in Britain. The plastics industry protested, of course. However, they need not have bothered; the idea was killed before it could draw breath, leaving supermarkets free to give away plastic bags.

What is clearly necessary right now is some sort of combined initiative, both individual and collective, before it is too late. The alternative is to continue sliding downhill until we have a country that looks like a vast municipal rubbish tip. We may well be at the tipping point. Yet we know that people respond to their environment. If things around them are clean and tidy, people behave cleanly and tidily. If they are surrounded by squalor, they behave squalidly. Now, much of Britain looks pretty squalid. What will it look like in five years?

Read more at http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/29.html#Qb7yfmuVrWh6gYsf.99

Once finished the questions click this link
 

How to Destroy the World - Rubbish

WATCH THIS VIDEO

Diagnostic Tests For Practical English Usage

Find out what you know and what you don´t know about tenses, articles, prepositions, sentence structure, word problems and much more.Book - Grammar Scan Diagnostic Test For Practical English Usage(Oxford)

Vocabulary: ABDICATE

SAT Vocabulary Words GRE Vovabulary Words.
Videos for GRE SAT .

 ABDICATE: to give up power or control

 

Learn English With Songs

CAN´T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU

BY 

ANDY WILLIAMS

IT IS A GAP FILL QUIZ THAT WILL HELP YOU LEARN NEW WORDS AND PRACTISE YOUR ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS.

Listen to the song,watch the video and read the lyrics by clicking here

Insults By Shakespeare

INSULTS BY SHAKESPEARE

About This Video

“You’re a fishmonger!” By taking a closer look at Shakespeare’s words--specifically his insults--we see why he is known as a master playwright whose works transcend time and appeal to audiences all over the world.

To know more click here

English Pronuntiation !?!

ENGLISH PRONUNTIATION

Read more by clicking the link below.

English Pronuntiation .

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 

90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he'd 

prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

 Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,

Flocabulary

Flocabulary is an online learning platform that delivers educational hip-hop songs and videos to students in grades K-12. Founded in 2004, Flocabulary is now used in over 15,000 schools and reaches a weekly audience of 5 million students. Our mission is to motivate kids and help them reach their full academic potential, not only by raising test scores but by fostering a love of learning in every child.
Click here.

                                        THE LAST 18 YEARS IN RAP

Flocabulary... 18 Years in Rap...
For the High School Grads...

In 1994 - 4 million babies are born
In America. Let’s see what else was going on.
Nelson Mandela's elected in South Africa,
End of apartheid, spectacular.

95 - OJ's acquitted in LA,
OKC is bombed by McVeigh.
Israel gives back land to Palestinians,
"Toy Story," it makes a couple million.

96 - We cloned a sheep named Dolly,
Collecting Pokémon is a new hobby.
That’s the year that you could die from beef,
Whether it’s rap related or Mad Cow Disease.
Tupac dies, and in...

97 - Biggie,
So does Princess Diana, that's a pity.
Mother Teresa is RIP,
But NASA lands on Mars that’s totally sweet.

98 - Google gives us search every day,
Matthew Shepard gets killed 'cause he was gay.

99 - School shooting at Columbine,
Clinton gets acquitted, even though we caught him lying.

Some were scared of Y2K,
But we partied all night for a brand new day.
Oh hey, Bush barely beats Gore,
In fact, it’s decided by the Supreme Court.

2001 - Yeah, we’re on our science,
Map the genome, iPod arrives.
But America changed the hour,
When the two planes hit the two towers.
We invade Afghanistan, hunting Al Qaeda,
But Bin Laden won’t get found 'til later.

02 - Bush names an evil axis, lowers taxes,
American Idol smashes.

03 - Start of the the Iraq War,
Columbia explodes, death in Darfur.
Biggest US minority is now Latin,
Ask my primo, Pixar finds Nemo.

04 - W. wins four more,
Tsunami waves kill when they hit the shore.
Red Sox win, they reverse the curse,
And Facebook's started by a couple of nerds.

05 - Hurricane Katrina has no love,
The Pope dies, baseballers are on drugs,

06 - Nintendo’s "Wii," what’s next?
Saddam Hussein, he gets put to death.

07 - iPhone drops, yeah I cop it,
We see the crisis in the housing market.
But we have the first female speaker of the House,
Every year new barriers for women break down.

08 - Another barrier down, that’s evident,
Obama is the first black president.
Michael Phelps dominates the pool,
The economy tanks, banks act the fool.

09 - Stimulus, water on the moon,
RIP MJ, he is gone too soon.

2010 - Oil spill, that’s crazy,
Earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.
But some lives are saved, the miners freed!
I bet fresh air never smelled so sweet.

2011 - Occupy Wall Street,
We find Bin Laden, put his body in the sea.
Europe debt crisis is tough for the Greeks,
Steve Jobs dies, he’s resting in peace.

This year - Trayvon Martin is killed,
Tebowmania, Linsanity it’s real.

3.2 million high school graduates,
I hope you’re looking at the present, and you're grabbing it,
'Cause time passes in the blink of an eye,
When you look ahead, don’t forget to look behind...It's Flocab