New Year Quiz

English at Home has just published a test about New Year's celebrations.

"Did you eat too much over the holidays? Or perhaps you want 2014 to be the start of a new, better life! Try our New Year Quiz to test your knowledge of useful English words and phrases to talk about the New Year."

New Year's Eve

New Year' Eve is a good day to learn about British traditions about this day. Project Britain is a good website to find information about this date. If you want more general information Time and Date can also be a good site to have a look at.

You can also make your own calendar for 2014 choosing the country and the elements to include.

Just remember to sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight.

The most important events in 2013

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

• 15th February: a meteor exploded in Russia, injuring 1,491 people. It was the most powerful meteor to strike Earth in over a century.
• 26th February: French diplomat and writer, Stéphane Hessel died.
• 28th February: Pope Benedict XVI resigned as pope.

MARCH

• 5th March: Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela died.
• 13th March: Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected the 266th pope and took the name Francis.
• 24th March: Central African Republic conflict.

APRIL

• 2nd April: The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty.

MAY

JUNE

• 14th-30th June: There were floods and landslides in India.
• 22nd June: Presient Mursi was ousted in Egypt.

JULY

• 1st July: Croatia became the 28th member country of the European Union.
• 4th July: Margaret Thatcher died at 87.
• 18th July: The city of Detroit (US) went bankrupt.
• 22nd July: Prince George of Cambridge was born in the UK.
• 24th July. Train crash in Santiago de Compostela.

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

• 7th September: the 2020 Olympics were won by Japan.

OCTOBER

10th October: 140 countries signed the UNEP Minamata Treaty to protect human health and the environment from emissions and releases of mercury

 
 NOVEMBER

• 8th November: Typoon Haiyan, the strongest cyclon ever, hit the Philippines. 6,149 people died.
• 17th November: British writer, Doris Lessing died. She had been awarded the Nobel prize.

DECEMBER

• 4th December: Nelson Mandela died at 95.

EFL song: Silent Night

Find antonyms of these words:

• loud
• adult
• war
• day
• father

and synonyms for these other words:

• quiet
• look (noun)
• rest
• your 

Complete the song with the antonyms and synonys you have written:

______ Night, Holy _______, all is ______, all is bright

'Round yon Virgin Mother and _______

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in Heavenly _______

Sleep in Heavenly _______

Silent Night, Holy night, shepherds quake at the ________

Glories stream from Heaven a far

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia

Christ the Savior is born

Christ the Savior is born

Silent Night, Holy night, ________ of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from _______ holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

_______ in heavenly peace

_______ in heavenly peace

Now watch the viedo and check:

More songs and activities for English as a Foreign Language students.

How much do you know about Christmas?

Christmas trees from Banco Imágenes INTEF

These links will tell you a bit more about Christmas in the UK and other parts of the world:

• This website will tell you about traditional Chrismas in the UK.
• Here you are some Christmas jokes
• This BBC page has an easy quizz about Christmas 
• And this one a crosswords with basic Christmas vocabulary
• Traditional recipes
• Traditions about Christmas

EFL Jingle Bells

Match the words in the text with their synonyms or definitions:

• snow                                     sit on and control the movements
• song                                      joy, amusement
• jingle                                    sledge; skateboard 
• tonight                                  this night   
• fun                                        flakes of ice crystals
• ride                                       tinkle
• spirits                                    tune; ballad
• sleigh                                    disposition; mood

Complete the song with the missing words:

Dashing through the ____
In a one-horse open ____
O'er the fields we ____
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob's tail ring
Making ______ bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song ______!

(chorus)
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
______ all the way.
Oh! what _____ it is to _____
In a one-horse open ______.
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
______ all the way.
Oh! what _______it is to _____
In a one-horse open ______.

Key to these exercises.


More songs and activities for English as a Foreign Language students.

Read more about Christmas

News in Levels has an article about Christmas. As always you can find different versions at several levels.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Christmas songs for ESL students

This is a selection of Christmas songs that contain interesting activities if you are studying English as a foreign language:

• All I Want for Christmas by MARIAH CAREY
• Jingle Bell Rock
• Jingle Bells
• Last Christmas by WHAM
• Santa Claus is Coming to Town
• Silent Night
• White Christmas by BING CROSBY

Have fun while learning geography

These interesting sites will let you have fun while learning geography:

• Countries of the world (12 minutes to write them)
• Countries of Europe (8 minutes to write them)
• Europe map quizz (choose the name of the country in blue)
• Africa map quizz (choose the name of the country in blue-6 minutes)
• US states quizz (5 minutes)
• Name the countries with the nighest life expectancy
• 24 largest countries (6 minutes)

Please try and learn some geography so that you don't make as many mistakes as Justin Bieber in the following video:

Christmas in Spain and in English-speaking countries

This is Christmas time at last. We have been talking about this celebbration in our classes this week. Some ESO-4 students have been making this presentation about Christmas in Spain:

Christmas in Spain from Ana Arias Castro

And this is the presentation that Taylor has made to tell us about Christmas in the USA:


If you want to try this quizz about Christmas, just click on this text at English at home.

Nelson Mandela for EFL students

image from Wikipedia

Activity for 4º ESO students 
Resources: computer and connection to the net
Contents: 

• cultural: life of Nelson Mandela
• language:  written, reading and listening skills; past tenses
• procedure: reading for general and specific information, listening for general and specific information, essay writing (including information from the text and video together with one's own opinion)

Read the text and find the following information about Mandela:

• Where was he born?
• How old was he when he died?
• How long did he stay in prison?
• What important prize was he awarded?

Look up the following words or expressions (you can use an online dictionary):

• apartheid:
• involved:
• life imprisonment:

Write a short text saying why Nelson Mandela became such an important reference worldwide and send it to your teacher.

Nelson Mandela (text from  http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/nelson_mandela)

Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July 1918 and was given the name of Nelson by one of his teachers. His father Henry was a respected advisor to the Thembu royal family.

ANC involvement

Mandela was educated at the University of Fort Hare and later at the University of Witwatersrand, qualifying in law in 1942. He became increasingly involved with the African National Congress (ANC), a multi-racial nationalist movement trying to bring about political change in South Africa.

In 1948, the National Party came to power and began to implement a policy of 'apartheid', or forced segregation on the basis of race. The ANC staged a campaign of passive resistance against apartheid laws.

In 1952, Mandela became one of the ANC's deputy presidents. By the late 1950s, faced with increasing government discrimination, Mandela, his friend Oliver Tambo and others began to move the ANC in a more radical direction. In 1956, Mandela went on trial for treason. The court case lasted five years, and ended with Mandela being acquitted.

Sharpeville

In March 1960, 69 black anti-apartheid demonstrators were killed by police at Sharpeville. The government declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC. In response, the organisation abandoned its policy of non-violence and Mandela helped establish the ANC's military wing 'Umkhonto we Sizwe' or 'The Spear of the Nation'. He was appointed its commander-in-chief and travelled abroad to receive military training and to find support for the ANC.

Life imprisonment

On his return he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1963, Mandela and other ANC leaders were tried for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. The following year Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was held in Robben Island prison, off the coast of Cape Town, and later in Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. During his years in prison he became an international symbol of resistance to apartheid.

In 1990, the South African government responded to internal and international pressure and released Mandela, at the same time lifting the ban against the ANC. In 1991 Mandela became the ANC's leader.

A respected global statesman

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with FW de Klerk, then president of South Africa, in 1993. The following year South Africa held its first multi-racial election and Mandela was elected its first black president.

In 1998, he was married for the third time to Graça Machel, the widow of the president of Mozambique. Mandela's second wife, Winnie, whom he married in 1958 and divorced in 1996, remains a controversial anti-apartheid activist.

In 1997 he stepped down as ANC leader and in 1999 his presidency of South Africa came to an end.

In 2004, Mandela announced his retirement from public life, although his charitable work continued. On 29 August 2007, a permanent statue to him was unveiled in Parliament Square, London.

He died on 5 December 2013, aged 95.

Revision of present perfect

In this unit we are going to revise present perfect simple tense.

This is the sheet were the image was taken from.

If you want extra revision about how to form or use present perfect, I hope these links will help you:

• Present perfect man (www.isabelperez.com)
• Exercise 1 (www-englisch-hilfen.de)
• Exercise 2 (www.englisch-hilfen.de)
• ever / never / just / already / yet
• English at home: grammar and exercises
• Hot Potatoes exercise
• Unit 3 final test

Who was Nelson Mandela?

picture from Wikipedia

Nelson Mandela has been one of the most relevant leaders of the 20th century and probably the most significant African one.

He was one of the most important statesmen of the 20th century because of his struggle to replace the apartheid (=racist) regime of South Africa with a multi-racial democracy.

Timeline from BBC News

He was also called Madiba, his clan's name.

He was in prison for over 20 years  because of his struggle against apartheid and soon afterwards he was elected the first black presidents of South Africa, a country with a majority of black population.

More information about Nelson Mandela:

• BBC News
• BBC Primary  History - Nelson Mandela
• Obituary: Life and times of Nelson Mandela- BBC News
• Mandela's life in pictures- BBC News
• Wikipedia

How to create a Curriculum Vitae online

A Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume is easy to write if you use the Europass Website, where you just have to fill in the fields given. 

Even though you may choose any language for the website, or even change from one language to another during the process, you should use English at the end so that the final CV is generated in that language.

This is the link to the Europass CV page.

CV created at the Europass website- http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/es/home

Typical British houses

Did you know that British houses are usually very small? If you want to know about British houses click on these links:

terraced houses

detached house

• Erik's house
• Typical houses
• Information about British houses

semi-detached houses