Shirley Temple Dies at Age 85: Her Greatest Moments on Film 

 

 

 

 

 

Clean Off Your Desk Day

    


CLEAN OFF YOUR DESK DAY 14 TH JANUARY

Reading
Phrase match
Listening gap Fill
Choose the correct word
Put the text back together

Happy Christmas

Top

2013: the year in 356 Pictures

Top 10 Everything 0f 2013



Make Some Christmas magic

A Christams Carol Part One. Listening

A Christmas Carol Part two. Listening 

Christmas Around The World





Popular Christmas Songs

Learn English With Christmas Songs - Listening Quizzes and Lessons

Friday 13th

Are you superstitious?

Do still people believe in superstition?

 

WSJ's Elva Ramirez takes to the streets of New York to find out how many people 
know what triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) is - and if they can spell it. (June 13)
 

Maurice Sendak Google Doodle

Maurice Sendak: Who Knew?

Maurice Sendak was born on June 10, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York and died on May 8, 2012. He was the youngest of three children, each born five years apart. His Jewish family had immigrated to the United States from Poland before World War I and were to lose many of their relatives to the Holocaust during World War II.
His father was a wonderful storyteller, and Maurice grew up enjoying his father's imaginative tales and gaining a lifelong appreciation for books. Sendak's early years were influenced by his sickliness, his hatred of school, and the war. However, from an early age, he knew he wanted to be an illustrator. 

Happily for us, Sendak began to illustrate children's books after meeting Ursula Nordstrom, a children's book editor at Harper and Brothers. The first was The Wonderful Farm by Marcel Ayme, which was published in 1951 when Sendak was 23 years old. By the time he was 34, Sendak had written and illustrated seven books and illustrated 43 others.

To know more click here


Watch this nice video.Thanks Google!

http://sco.lt/4znu3V

MARGARET THATCHER

Margaret Thatcher left a dark legacy that has still not disappeared

Days before he died in 2003, Guardian columnist and Thatcher biographer Hugo Young wrote an epitaph for the prime minister who changed Britain forever.

The first time I met Margaret Thatcher, I swear she was wearing gloves. The place was her office at the Department of Education, then in Curzon Street. Maybe my memory is fanciful. Perhaps she had just come inside.
But without any question, sitting behind her desk, she was wearing a hat. The time was 1973. This was the feminine creature who, two years later, was leader of the Conservative party. Steely, certainly. The milk snatcher reputation absorbed and lived with. Lecturing me about the comprehensive schools, of which she created more than any minister before or since. But a woman who, at the time, thought that chancellor was the top mark at which she might aim. Conscious of being a woman, and incapable of pretending otherwise. Indeed a person – with a chemistry that repelled almost all the significant males in Edward Heath's cabinet – who could never become the party leader.

Being a woman is undoubtedly one of the features, possibly the most potent, that makes her ascent to power memorable, 25 years on, in a way that applied to no man. Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Heath: they seem, by comparison, evanescent figures.
Thatcher is remembered for her achievements, but more for a presence, which was wrapped up with being a woman. Several strong women on the continent have risen to the top, but this British woman, in Britain of all places, became a phenomenon, first, through her gender.

Read more here.
And 
Watch this video.

 

To know more click on Scoop.it

Ask A Question Day March 13

ESL Holiday Lessons.comEnglish Lesson Plan on Ask A Question Day

DOWNLOADS: Word Doc | PDF | MP3 Listening | Online Exercise

Listen first, fill in the gaps,  answer the questions and read the tapescript.

LISTENING GAP FILL

International Ask A Question Day is on March 13. Its goal is to improve our knowledge ___________________ more and better questions. The Inquiry Institute tells us that “A question not asked is a door not opened.” The best question askers know how to open many doors, ___________________! The QuestionDay.com website encourages us to become an “outstanding question asker”. It tells us how we can build ___________________” to make us more successful in life by asking the right questions. ___________________ is to ask questions and fully using the power of questions. It is one of the first things infants do when they learn to talk. Small children ___________________ asking very difficult questions – just ask any parent!

The Inquiry Institute has a list of the top twelve questions that will ___________________. These include asking yourself exactly what it is you want, and then making sure your question answers this. Another good question is “How ___________________ about this?” Such a question can make you look at a situation ___________________ and give you new and better ideas and questions. There is also a question that gets you to look at a situation from ___________________ others: “What is the other person thinking, feeling, and wanting?” This may give you successful questions in a business deal. A follow-up question could be “How can I turn ___________________ situation?” The final question on their list is: “What is possible?” This is a great question to ask. Ask it today.

Groundhog Day

It is is a day celebrated on February 2. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks. 

Look at the infographic.

Groundhog Day Fun Facts infographic by accuweather.

Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil predicts it won't stay cold much longer. 

Thousands gather at Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania town for Phil's annual ritual – and the lack of a shadow spells good news TheGuardian

After recent weather that has included freezing cold snaps, fierce tornadoes and then record-breaking seasonal highs, it's perhaps not surprising that Americans are looking for climatic solace in bizarre places.

So the news that a small, fat, Pennsylvania rodent called Phil has predicted a looming end to winter will perhaps come as a relief.
Yes, it's Groundhog Day in America.
In front of thousands of people at Gobbler's Knob, a rural area near the small town of Punxsutawney, a group of town elders repeated the famous tradition of consulting the town's famous groundhog on the prospects of when winter might turn to spring.
To the relief of many, they reported that Phil had emerged from his lair and did not see his shadow – a sign that winter is soon to end. If he had seen his shadow, it would have indicated at least six more weeks of cold weather.
The warm weather prognostication will please many in America's north-east, who are currently enduring a return to freezing temperatures after a see-saw week which had included a couple days of warm, almost summery, days.
Punxsutawney Phil was made famous to the outside world via the classic comedy movie Groundhog Day in which a jaded newsman played by Bill Murray is trapped to repeat the same 24 hours over and over again after being forced to cover the event.
Since then, other groundhogs have popped up in towns elsewhere, no doubt with one canny eye on the hordes of tourists that descends on Phil's hideout. There's Staten Island Chuck in New York, General Beauregard Lee in Atlanta, and even the normally more staid Canadians have got in on the act with Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ontario.
This year, Staten Island Chuck is also reported to have missed seeing his shadow and thus predicted an end to winter. Not that such groundhog co-ordination is a sure sign of their forecasting skills. Last year, Phil predicting a continuation of freezing temperatures, only to see January to June come in as the warmest seven-month period since systematic records began in 1895.

Go to Scoop.it  to watch the video
More information in this video
 

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International Holocaust Remembrance Day

INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

On January 27 each year, the United Nations (UN) remembers the Holocaust that affected many people of Jewish origin during World War II.
This day is called the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
The day also commemorates when the Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on January 27, 1945. It is hoped that through remembering these events, people will remember the Holocaust and prevent genocide.
Read more here

Watch these videos.
The first video from the BBC
"The millions of Jews and others killed during the Holocaust are to be remembered in services across the UK, as part of Holocaust Memorial Day".

English lesson plan on Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

• Reading
• Listening
• Phrase Match
• Multiple choice
  

23rd April " World Book Day"

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.  

• 23 April: a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. 

•  It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.  

There is good evidence to suggest that young people who read for pleasure daily perform better in reading skills than those who never do .Read more

  

• The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia where on 23 April, Saint George's Day, a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold. 

• The success of the World Book and Copyright Day will depend primarily on the support received from all parties concerned (authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, humanitarian NGOs and the mass media), who have been mobilized in each country by UNESCO National Commissions, UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations, Associated Schools and Libraries, and by all those who feel motivated to work together in this world celebration of books and authors. 

• The year 2012 also marks the 80th anniversary of the IndexTranslationum.

• This international bibliography of translation provides a unique tool for the monitoring of translation flows in the world.

• Consequently, UNESCO suggests that the activities organized in conjunction with this year’s World Book and Copyright Day focus on the themes of books and translation. 

So let´s start reading a book for pleasure.

Here you have some of my suggestions

Click here                                                                                                                

Harper Lee: American writer,famous for her race relations novel "To kill a mockingbird",which was awarded the Pullizer Prize in 1961and was adapted into a film in 1962 .

Charlotte Brontë´s Jane Eyre opens with Jane, an orphaned, isolated ten-year-old, living with a family that dislikes her. She grows in strength, excels at school, becomes a governess, and falls in love with Edward Rochester. After being deceived by him, Jane goes to Marsh End, where she regains her spirituality and discovers her own strength. By novel's end, Jane is a strong, independent woman. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre still raises relevant questions to readers today.      

  
John Edward Williams (August 29, 1922 - March 3, 1994) was an American author, editor and professor. He was best known for his novels Stoner (1965). William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage...more

Watch this video

Happy World Book Day!  Joe Dunthorne, Owen Sheers and Laura Dockrill, to celebrate the day,  hit the streets of London to find out what people are reading and why they need to keep young people's noses in books. www.worldbookday.com

Whitney Houston Funeral

THE ARTICLE
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1202/120213-whitney_houston.html
Read this article about Whitney´s death and do the exercises.

Pop superstar Whitney Houston has passed away aged 48. The blues and
soul songstress died in a Beverly Hills hotel room on Sunday, just hours
before she was to appear at a pre-Grammy Awards party. Ms Houston
was expected to receive a lifetime achievement award at the main
ceremony. Medics arrived at her room around 3.43 pm and administered
CPR. She was pronounced dead 12 minutes later. The cause of her death
is not yet known. Her body was quickly removed from the hotel to avoid
the chaos of the world’s media, which had congregated to cover the
story. A police officer told reporters: "She has been positively identified
by friends and family…and next of kin have already been notified.”
Whitney Houston was one of the world’s most influential, successful and
popular singers. She was born into a musical family. Her mother Cissy
was a gospel singer and her aunt was the legendary Dionne Warwick.
Houston won six Grammy awards among many other top prizes. She
released seven studio albums and sold over 170 million CDs, singles and
videos. Her most famous song is her worldwide hit, "I Will Always Love
You." In 1992, she married soul singer Bobby Brown. They had a rocky
relationship that was widely covered in the press. The last 10 years of her
life were dominated by drug use. Tributes to her have poured in from the
world’s music superstars. Rihanna posted on Twitter: "No words, just
tears."

Watch the video: Friends and family gather at New Hope Baptist Church to say goodbye.

Watch her five Memorable Performances here.

" I wanna dance with somebody"    lyrics

" I will always love you"                  lyrics

" My love is your love"                   song worksheet                       

The Snowman-Video

The Snowman is a children's book by English author Raymond Briggs, published in 1978. In 1982, this book was turned into a 26-minute animated movie by Dianne Jackson for the fledgling Channel 4. It was first shown on Channel 4 late on Christmas Eve in 1982 and was an immediate success. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1982. It has been shown every year since and has become a part of British and international Christmas popular culture.

Find materials for teaching this, including worksheets/ppts by clicking here

Black Friday

  

What Does Black Friday Mean?

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations.
Read more here

BBC NEWS- In pictures: US shoppers hit the stores on Blak Friday BBC

It is Halloween! All Saints ´ Day

Halloween is celebrated on October the 31st every year. It originated from a pagan holiday and the Christian holiday of All Saints’ Day. The name Halloween is a shortened version of All Hallows’ Eve. Today, it is more of a fun day for children and has largely lost its religious roots. Halloween is probably most famous in the U.S.A. Irish immigrants took it to America in the mid-1600s and it slowly spread across the country. Halloween is not celebrated in many countries around the world although many people know about it. Some Christians are not so happy that people celebrate Halloween. They believe the holiday is un-Christian because of its origin as a pagan "festival of the dead." Halloween has many easily identifiable symbols. The colours orange and black are widely used. In particular, orange pumpkins and fires and black witches, cats and costumes are common features of this day. One of the biggest Halloween activities is trick-or-treating. This is when children knock on doors and ask for a small gift. If they don’t get anything, they’ll play a trick on the person who opens the door. Food also plays a big part of Halloween. Toffee apples are very popular and so is anything made from pumpkin. Halloween is also a popular topic for Hollywood. Many horror movies have been made about it. Because of this, Halloween is now known in many countries that never actually celebrate it.

Click here to practise the exercises and the listening.

Watch this video. Haunted History of Halloween
 

• A Cloze Exercise and a Podcast 
• Slideshows from the New York Times
• Not Just Halloween:Festivals of The Dead from around the world 
• HalloweenWorksheets and activities 
  
  
  
  This is Halloween song. Listen and fill in the gaps .

Leonard Cohen,Prince of Asturias Award For Letters 2011

Leonard Cohen´s fedora left on chair during his talk

Leonard Cohen ,a Canadian singer,songwriter,musician,poet and novelist.

He was awarded The Prince of Asturias Award and we can see him on the day of the ceremony.Listen to his speech,full of gratitude.A little bit confusing ,because while we try to listen to him ,the translator is putting his words into Spanish

Click here to read the his speech in Spanish and here for the translation in English.

Lorca´s Influence

He first read Lorca when he was a teenager.And in his speech,he mentioned the infuence that the Spanish poet had on him. 

As an example,I have chosen the song called "Take This Waltz".The lyrics are based on one of Lorca´s poems. I would like you to listen and compare with the poem.

Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women There's a shoulder where Death comes to cry  There's a lobby with nine hundred windows There's a tree where the doves go to die There's a piece that was torn from the morning And it hangs in the Gallery of Frost Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay Take this waltz, take this waltz Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws Oh I want you, I want you, I want you On a chair with a dead magazine In the cave at the tip of the lily In some hallways where love's never been On a bed where the moon has been sweating In a cry filled with footsteps and sand Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay Take this waltz, take this waltz Take its broken waist in your hand This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz With its very own breath of brandy and Death Dragging its tail in the sea There's a concert hall in Vienna Where your mouth had a thousand reviews There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking They've been sentenced to death by the blues Ah, but who is it climbs to your picture With a garland of freshly cut tears? Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay Take this waltz, take this waltz Take this waltz it's been dying for years There's an attic where children are playing Where I've got to lie down with you soon In a dream of Hungarian lanterns In the mist of some sweet afternoon And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow All your sheep and your lilies of snow Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay Take this waltz, take this waltz With its "I'll never forget you, you know!" This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz ... And I'll dance with you in Vienna I'll be wearing a river's disguise The hyacinth wild on my shoulder, My mouth on the dew of your thighs And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook, With the photographs there, and the moss And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty My cheap violin and my cross And you'll carry me down on your dancing To the pools that you lift on your wrist Oh my love, Oh my love Take this waltz, take this waltz It's yours now. It's all that there is

En Viena hay diez muchachas, un hombro donde solloza la muerte y un bosque de palomas disecadas. Hay un fragmento de la mañana en el museo de la escarcha. Hay un salón con mil ventanas. ¡Ay, ay, ay, ay! Toma este vals con la boca cerrada. Este vals, este vals, este vals, este vals, de sí, de muerte y de coñac que moja su cola en el mar. Te quiero, te quiero, te quiero, con la butaca y el libro muerto, por el melancólico pasillo, en el oscuro desván del lirio, en nuestra cama de la luna y en la danza que sueña la tortuga. ¡Ay, ay, ay, ay! Toma este vals de quebrada cintura. En Viena hay cuatro espejos donde juegan tu boca y los ecos. Hay una muerte para piano que pinta de azul a los muchachos. Hay mendigos por los tejados, hay frescas guirnaldas de llanto. ¡Ay, ay, ay, ay! Toma este vals que se muere en mis brazos. Porque te quiero, te quiero, amor mío, en el desván donde juegan los niños, soñando viejas luces de Hungría por los rumores de la tarde tibia, viendo ovejas y lirios de nieve por el silencio oscuro de tu frente. ¡Ay, ay, ay, ay! Toma este vals, este vals del "Te quiero siempre". En Viena bailaré contigo con un disfraz que tenga cabeza de río. ¡Mira qué orillas tengo de jacintos! Dejaré mi boca entre tus piernas, mi alma en fotografías y azucenas, y en las ondas oscuras de tu andar quiero, amor mío, amor mío, dejar, violín y sepulcro, las cintas del vals.