Thursday, December 25, 2014

Dear students and families!

I thought of all of you when I saw this video and I want to share it.

I wish you the best Christmas and New Year so far.



Cheers,

A.

10 Questions to ask around the table

Please answer these questions for next Friday the 9th of January:

What are you grateful for?
What are you proudest of?
What’s been the happiest moment of your life so far?
What’s been the hardest moment of your life, and how did you get through it?
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?
How would you describe yourself as a child? Were you happy?
Who has been kindest to you?
How do you want to be remembered?
If your great great grandchildren could listen to this years from now: is there any wisdom you’d want to pass on to them? What would you want them to know?
If you could honor one person in your life — living or dead — by listening to their story, who would that be, what would you ask them and why?


Sunday, December 14, 2014

A few ways to translate the Catalan word “Cop”



Blow – generic
Hit, knock – impacte
Smack – bufetada
Bump – contra una altra persona
Beat – cor
Tick – rellotge
Punch – boxe
Kick – futbol
Hit, shot – baseball, tennis
Uppercut – de dalt a baix (boxe)
Penalty – penalti
Smash – tennis
Misfortune – mala sort
Surprise – sorpresa
Job – a bank job (robatori)
Stroke of luck – cop de sort
Gust of wind – cop de vent

Idioms – without any risk – sense conseqüències
                Suddenly – de sobte
               In one go – de cop
               At a stretch – de una estribada
               Slam the door - un cop de porta



Can you find others?

Friday, December 12, 2014

What are those floaty things in your eye?

Sometimes, against a uniform, bright background such as a clear sky or a blank computer screen, you might see things floating across your field of vision. What are these moving objects, and how are you seeing them? Your eyes can play tricks on you from time to time!

This video will cast some light on that that you always wanted to know but never knew how. Enjoy!


Saturday, December 6, 2014

The law of Attraction



Be ready to discuss it class next Thursday 18th. Enjoy!

Peculiar Jobs

The students of 1st of ESO have been looking for peculiar jobs all around the net.
The strangest ones were:
- Special staff to shove people onto trains in Japan till they are 200% full. (Martina Ruiz).
- Chicken sexer, people who determine the sex of baby chickens (Amanda Larruy).
- Water slide tester, a person who travels to international water parks to rate the experience (Pau Manzano).
- Divers golf balls, a person who dies into the lakes of golf courses (India Nicolás).
- Crime scene cleaner, a person who has the task to clear up the mess after a crime has been commited (Núria Oliver).
- Odor taster, a person who sniffs around sixty armpits an hour (Ariel Kremen & Adriana Morano).
- Dog food taster, a person who tastes food for pets (Iker Landarech).

To be continued...

Past Perfect


Check how the Smurfs hang out! Then, transform each sentence from past perfect to past perfect continuous.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Steven Patrick Morissey

Steven Patrick Morissey is an English singer and lyricist. I don’t know if you have ever heard of him, but he is famous for his dynamic performances, his special baritono voice and  his quiff haircut - The quiff is a hairstyle that combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 50s flattop, and sometimes a mohawk.

He has provoked media controversies for his defence of vegetarianism and animal rights
Everybody knows he doesn’t accept to perform in  a concert if in the stall outside, people sell meat, all the food must be veg.

One of the songs of last Friday performance has the suggesting title “ the bullfighter dies”
The lyrics are easy to understand and the message very clear. I can’t decide if it  is polemic, or controversial, but it is stunning for sure.

Well , you can listen to the song in Youtube, I don’t want to leave the link in my blog ,just in case younger students watch it, but I am really interested in knowing your opinion about bullfight, so let me know in not less than 50 words.


To see quiff style: 





American British English


Recently I have read an article about an English journalist who had been working at The Guardian in New York for three years. She speaks about how English and American are divided by a common language, and, in the end she has decided to use communication accommodation, which is a real science to back this problem up. This theory says that, when people interact they adjust their speech, their vocal pattern and their gestures to accommodate to others. Scientists say the phenomenon of adopting first vocabulary and then even taking on a foreign accent is born out of empathy, or a subconscious desire to fit it.

Oscar Wilde in The Canterville Ghost  - the story about an American family who wants to buy an English haunted castle - wrote “ We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course the language”.

Thinking about all that, I have reminded a song by Sting, An Englishman in New York.


I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on one side
And you can hear it in my accent when I talk
I'm an Englishman in New York
I'm an alien I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York




Well, now just in case you have to go to New York and you don’t want to feel like an alien, find out how to say these words in American English.

Term, film, flat, taxi, return ticket, petrol, main road, motorway, underground, subway, pavement, lorry, car park, university, autumn, holiday, fortnight, tap rubbish, dustbin, wardrobe, ground floor, lift, toilet, chips, crisps.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Manga and Gothic

In second Eso we have work the Urban Tribes. Have a look at two good works of your schoolmates: Manga by Carlos Portero and Gothic by Gerard Jara.

Follow the link for watching:

- Anime: http://is.gd/BKhtie

- Gothic: http://is.gd/IOP6Qs


Sunday, April 27, 2014

Gattaca

A) Vocabulary: adjectives to describe a film
Decide if these adjectives are positive (+) or negative (-):
Awful                    Fun                        Great                   Terrible
Brilliant                Dreadful                 Boring                 Appalling
Good                   OK                          Amazing             Bad
Rubbish               Incredible               Gripping             Excellent
Predictable         Sensational            Dull                     Disappointing


B) Task: describe and evaluate a film
Use the adjectives from A to evaluate

The plot
Dialogues
The ending
The special effects
The photography
The soundtrack






About Gattaca, after evaluating the film, answer this question.
Would you like to decide about the sex, health, skills, personality of your children? Yes or no? Give reasons.



Madame Bovary


Cherchez information sur Gustav Flaubert, l'auter du roman "Madame Bovary". Claude Chabrol, directeur du film, et donnez votre opinion sur le personage de Emma.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Happy!



Write down in 50-70 words what makes you really happy.


Alma (be careful!)



Watch the video and explain what happens in 200 words.


Family Fortunes




Scientists and psychologists agree that although many factors contribute to forming your personality, for example, your sex, class, culture, or lifestyle, one of the most important is your position in the family. So how have you been affected?

Are you a first child, a middle child, the youngest, or an only child?

If you are a first-born child, you are probably self-confident and a good leader – you came first after all. You may be bossy and even aggressive if you don’t get what you want. You are ambitious and good at communicating because you learnt to speak from your parents, not from brothers and sisters. On the other hand, you are the oldest and so you have to be the most responsible, and this can make you the kind of person who worries a lot.

Middle children are often independent and competitive. You had to fight with your brothers and sisters to get what you wanted. You are also co-operative as you always had to negotiate with your older or younger brothers and sisters. You are sociable, as you always had someone to play with. On the other hand, you may be jealous and insecure or moody if you felt your parents preferred your older brothers or sisters.

Youngest children are often very charming. You learned very quickly that you could get exactly what you wanted by being charming- and this can make you manipulative. You are usually affectionate and relaxed because when you arrived your parents were more relaxed themselves. But you are often not very independent, as you always had so many people to help you. This makes it hard for you to take decisions. And you may be lazy, because your parents pushed you less and were less strict with you than with your older brothers and sisters.

Only children are often quite selfish. You had the wonderful luxury of not having to share your parents’ attention with anybody else. In fact, you received so much attention as a child that you find it difficult to be interested in other people. On the other hand, you are usually organized and responsible, and often imaginative. But you may find it difficult to communicate with others, and are very sensitive to criticism.

a)    What’s your position in the family? Are you the oldest, the youngest, in the middle, or an only child?  Do you like your position? Why (not)?
b)    Underline the adjectives of personality. Write them in the chart.



First-born children
Middle children
Youngest children
Only children
Positive adjectives
Self-confident



Negative adjectives




Positive or negative adjectives






What are you like? What are your brothers/sisters/friends like?


I’m a middle child. I’m competitive, but I’m not really moody.....

My younger brother is definitely.....

Eau de Cologne





When people can’t think of a present to give that’s different in some way, they often end up buying perfume, cologne  or aftershave.

Are you wearing any now?

Scientists say mammals (that includes us) are attracted to each other unconsciously by their natural smell. But according to the advertisements, a fragrance is your secret weapon with the opposite sex: choose the right one and the boy or girl of your dreams will find you irresistible. You could spend anything from a few euros in a departments store to hundreds of euros for a tiny bottle of an exclusive perfume at a Paris salon.

But can anyone really tell the difference between them?

A campaign is currently underway in the USA to ban the use of perfume. Not just the perfume the people wear but also the other perfumes around us like those in washing powders, air fresheners, hair spray, cleaning fluids, polishes, toilet deodorisers etc. People who are most affected by them includes asthmatics, allergy sufferers and those who gets migraine headaches, but many other people find strong fragrance offensive. So the campaign aims to stop this form of “pollution” of our atmosphere. It appears to be having some success, too.

There are now air-freshener-free cinemas, odour free rooms in hotel and even “cologne free” waiters in restaurants. Some airlines are now also on the look for passengers who may cause offence!

Will wearing fragrance eventually be seen as antisocial in the way smoking is now?

What do you think? Will we see the day when wearing perfume will be only something you can do in the privacy of your own home?

By the way, do you know that originally the water of Cologne was believed to have the power to ward off bubonic plague?

In fact, it seems that it was first taken to Germany by the French soldiers who used   “eau de toilette” as a disinfectant, later the  original Eau de Cologne a spirit-citrus perfume was launched in Cologne  in 1709 by Giovanni Maria Farina  (1685–1766), an Italian perfume maker from Santa Maria Maggiore Valle Vigezzo.


After you have read all this information, I would like you to investigate  the history of perfume, then create your own perfume, drawing the logo, the bottle and the adv.