Basic past simple exercises

past simple boy- from Isabel Pérez's site

• English Exercises: rewrite affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences
• Ego4you: Write the negatives
• My English Pages: Several exercises about past simple tense
• Englisch Hilfen: positive statements
• Englisch Hilfen: positive statements 2
• Englisch Hilfen: past simple questions
• Englisch Hilfen: past simple negatives
• Isabel Pérez: many exercises

Reading Club: The Canterville Ghost

This is our next book in English for the Reading Club: The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.

You can find out more about it at Wikipedia or read the following downlodable simplified text from Gobierno de Canarias:

Oscar wilde-canterville from Ana Arias Castro

The meeting will take place at the school library next Friday the 5th of February at 12:15. We hope to see you there.

Reading Club: The Woman in White

This Friday the 29th of January we are having a meeting of the Reading Club to speak about the famous novel by Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White.

Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist and one of the earliest writers of the mystery story. Although he wrote many books, he is best remembered for The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868).

He was a good friend of Charles Dickens and during his life he was a very popular writer in English, but after his death, his reputation declined as Dickens' bloomed. Now, Collins is being given more critical and popular attention than he has received for fifty years. Most of his books are in print, and all are now in e-text. He is studied widely; new film, television, and radio versions of some of his books have been made; and all of his letters have been published. However, there is still much to be discovered about this superstar of Victorian fiction

The Woman in White

The story is sometimes considered an early example of detective fiction with protagonist Walter Hartright employing many of the sleuthing techniques of later private detectives. The use of multiple narrators (including nearly all the principal characters) draws on Collins's legal training, and as he points out in his Preamble: "the story here presented will be told by more than one pen, as the story of an offence against the laws is told in Court by more than one witness". In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for The Observer listed The Woman in White number 23 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time", and the novel was listed at number 77 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Links
Audios of the Graded book you have read

Optical illusions videos

COLOUR ILLUSION


HOW OPTICAL ILLUSIONS TRICK YOUR BRAIN


10 MIND BLOWING OPTICAL ILLUSIONS



COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:

• What are optical illusions?
• Why does our mind interpret information incorrectly?
• of the ones you have seen, which is the most amazing optical illusion?

Free time activities

The Industrial Revolution - updated audios

Unit 5 has been updated and the new audio files recorded by Reid have been included (audio files #5, 6 & 7):

UNIT 5 - The Industrial Revolution

- unit 5

- presentation 5

- glossary 5 

- additional text from Wikipedia-Industrial Revolution

- additional text from Wikipedia-Second Industrial Revolution
- ESL video: the Industrial Revolution
- revision test
- match the names
- match the inventions
- match the dates
- crosswords
- fill the gaps

- audio1

- audio2

- audio3

- audio4

- audio5

- audio6
- audio7

Pictures for the eTwinning logo competition

You are just on time to submit your pictures for our eTwinning logo competition: These are the pictures uploaded so far:

ESO 4 - The Industrial Revolution

These are the contents that we have about the Industrial Revolution:

UNIT 5 - The Industrial Revolution

- unit 5

- presentation 5

- glossary 5 

- additional text from Wikipedia-Industrial Revolution

- additional text from Wikipedia-Second Industrial Revolution
- ESL video: the Industrial Revolution
- revision test

Coalbrookdale in England - Wikipedia

- match the names
- match the inventions
- match the dates
- crosswords
- fill the gaps

- audio1

- audio2

- audio3

- audio4

- audio5

- audio6

ESO3 - A globalized economy

UNIT 5 - A globalised economy

- Glossary

- Revision test

- Match these definitions

- Crosswords

- Gap-fill exercise

- audio 1

- audio 2

Future tenses: will and going to

These are some interesting websites to revise future tenses in English at lower intermediate level:

• Isabel Pérez: tenses website

GOING TO:

• Isabel Pérez: Going to boy
• Englisch Hilfen exercise

WILL:

• Isabel Pérez: Mister Will
• Englisch Hilfen exercise

MIXED TENSES:

• Exercise 1_ My English Pages
• Exercise 2: Grammar Bank
• Exercise 3: Ego4u
• Exercise 4: English Exercises
• Exercise 5: Englisch Hilfen
• Exercise 6: Better English
• Exercise 7: Using English 
• Exercise 8 : English Page

Blue Monday

What is it?

Blue Monday is a name given to a day in January (typically the third Monday of the month) reported to be the most depressing day of the year. The concept was first publicised as part of a 2005 press release from holiday company Sky Travel which claimed to have calculated the date using an equation.

The idea is considered pseudoscience, with its formula derided by scientists as nonsensical.

Who invented it?

This date was calculated by Cliff Arnall, a tutor at Cardiff University, and it takes into account many factors, including: weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. 

The happiest day

On the contrary, the happiest day of the year usually falls in the summer, at the end of June.

Project about American states

This term we are going to carry out a project about American states. You will have to use the template provided here to look for and add all the information one may need to get a general impression about the state in question. Here you are both a template in different formats and a model so that you know what you are expected to do. After three classes you will be expected to speak out to the class about "your" state.

TEMPLATE

Report about american states template from Ana Arias Castro

You can download any of these formats depending on the programmes your computer has:

• pps
• pptx
• odp

MODEL

Report about colorado from Ana Arias Castro

15 years of Wikipedia

The logo of Wikipedia

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is an Internet encyclopedia project in many languages. It is free of charge: users do not pay. Also, it is "open content". This means anyone can copy it, and anyone can edit it. However, there are rules which must be followed for copying or editing.

Wikipedia is owned by an American organization, Wikimedia Foundation, which is in San Francisco, California.

Its name is a combination of the two words wiki, a Hawaiian word for quick, and encyclopedia. Because the word was made by combining parts of those words, it is a portmanteau.

It was started on January 10, 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger as part of an earlier Internet encyclopedia named Nupedia. On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia became a separate website of its own. Anyone who wishes to, can change the pages in Wikipedia, or even make new ones. Wikipedia has a standard page layout for all pages in the encyclopedia.

Origins

Wikipedia originally developed from another encyclopedia project, Nupedia.

Wikipedia began as a related project for Nupedia. Nupedia was a free online English-language encyclopedia project. Nupedia's articles were written and owned by Bomis, Inc which is a web portal company. 

Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales are the ones who started Wikipedia. Wales is credited with defining the goals of the project, Sanger created the strategy of using a wiki to reach Wales' goal. On January 10, 2001, Larry Sanger proposed on the Nupedia mailing list to create a wiki as a "feeder" project for Nupedia.Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001. It was launched as an English-language edition at www.wikipedia.com,

Wikipedia gained early contributors from Nupedia, Slashdot, and also from search engines. It grew to about 20,000 articles, and 18 languages by the end of 2001. By late 2002 it had 26 languages, 46 by the end of 2003, and 161 by the end of 2004. Nupedia and Wikipedia both existed till Nupedia's servers were stopped in 2003. After this, its text was incorporated into Wikipedia. The English Wikipedia passed the 2 million-article mark on September 9, 2007, making it the largest encyclopedia ever assembled, eclipsing even the Yongle Encyclopedia (1407), which had held the record for exactly 600 years.

The English Wikipedia reached 3 million articles in August 2009. The numbers of articles and of contributors appeared to be growing less quickly around spring 2007.

This week Wikipedia has been celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Basics for contributors and users

Wikipedia is a free site just like the online encyclopedia that anybody can start or edit a page. A global sites that available in many languages. While you use any searching engine, the Wikipedia page will often comes out in the first results.To use the Wikipedia more comfortably and currently, you should understand the basic function on the page. The page usually organized while you’re looking up the page. 

However, as a Wikipedia user, you should have sufficient understanding of the Wikipedia.

Did you know: Trivia from new articles.

In the news: News of the world.

On this day: Anniversaries. 

Current events: Not available at present.

Text from Simple Wikipedia, the version of Wikipedia in simple English.

At the restaurant - dialogue

At the restaurant1-3-4 from Ana Arias Castro

Comparatives and superlatives

These next weeks we are going to study comparative and superlative structures in our classes.  This chart summarizes the main points that you have to keep in mind:

Eso 3 comparatives & superlatives from Ana Arias Castro

If you want to download the worksheet used in class, click here and if you want to check if you already know this grammar structure, you may try:

• more detailed grammar rules 
• written exercise (printable sheet)
• exercise sheet
• this Hot Potatoes exercise.
• geography quizz
• crosswords from the BBC Learning English website
• English at home: grammar summary
• English at home: online exercise
• Englisch-hilfen comparatives 1
• Englisch-hilfen comparatives 2
• Englisch-hilfen superlatives 1
• Englisch-hilfen superlatives 2
• Englisch-hilfen as...as
• learnenglishfeelgood.com online exercise
• a selection of exercises from tolearnenglish.com
• basic comparatives: grammar and exercise from English at Home
• British Council: modifying comparatives
• Comparatives exercise (English at Home)
• Superlatives exercise (English at Home)

Now try comparing the pairs of elements in this presentation:

Comparison pairs from Ana Arias Castro

Comparison groups from Ana Arias Castro

Last exercise: Compare the people in this picture:

Different words for animals and meat

In English, there are different terms for animals and their meat. For example, a cow is still a cow when it’s alive but when it’s been killed and is ready to eat, we call it ‘beef’. The same happens in the case of man other animals:

ANIMAL (Germanic word)                           MEAT (French origin word)

pig / swine                                                   pork

sheep                                                          mutton

ox / cow                                                       beef (from Old French boeuf)

hen                                                              poultry

deer                                                             venison

calf                                                              veal

The reason for this comes from the Middle Ages when most of England was ruled by French-speaking lords and noblemen.

The peasants working in the fields spoke Old English but the lords in their castles and their chefs spoke French. So, in the field, an animal had an English name but once it got to the kitchen, the French name was used.

With the passage of time, both words became part of English but with slightly different meanings: either the live animal and the meat.

For an extended list of pairs of French and Anglo-Saxon origin pairs in English check the list in Wikipedia.

New readings for our Reading Club members

 This year we have two new recommendations for those of you who belong to our Reading Club:

• The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde. This book is recommended for 1st, 2nd and 3rd year ESO students. It is about a family who move into a house haunted by a ghost.

• The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, which is recommended for 3rd and 4th year students. It is a more complex story and is considered to be one of the first mystery novels in literature.

Both are engaging stories that you will surely love. Have a good read!

Revision of past simple and present perfect

FORM & USE

1. Present Perfect is used for actions in the past which have a connection to the present. The time when these actions happened is not relevant so there is often no time complement.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Present Perfect is used for recently completed actions. Actions that take place in a recent past. 
   
3. Present Perfect is also used for actions beginning in the past that continue up to the present.

EXERCISES

• BBC
• Present perfect man (www.isabelperez.com)
• Exercise 1 (www-englisch-hilfen.de)
• Exercise 2 (www.englisch-hilfen.de)
• English at home: grammar and exercises
• Hot Potatoes exercise
• Unit 3 final test
• Affirmative senteces in present perfect
• Negative sentences in present perfect (www.ego4u.com)
• Sentences with "never" in present perfect (www.ego4u.com)
• Questions in present perfect (www.ego4u.com)
• Exercise: affirmative, negative or question (Perfect English Grammar)
• Exercise 2 : affirmative, negative or question (Perfect English Grammar)
• Choose the right verb form (Using English)
• Choose the right verb (British Council)
• Put the sentences in order

TYPICAL ADVERBS

• ever / never / just / already / yet
• exercise from Grammar Bank
• exercise from Baladre Info

PAST SIMPLE & PRESENT PERFECT - CONTRAST

• past simple or present perfect (English Hilfen)
• past simple or present perfect (Study Zone)
• ESL lounge
• English Grammar Secrets
• Perfect English Grammar
• Perfect English Grammar 2
• Isabel Pérez -exercise 1
• Isabel Pérez -exercise 2

TEXTS

• Loch Ness

How to learn English effectively

5 Tips for Learning English Effectively

Here are five things that many successful learners do.

1. Be consistent!

Study a little every day. Even 5-10 minutes is good if you're busy at work or school. But 20-30 minutes every day is even better. Find ways that you can build learning English into your daily schedule: read at the bus stop or on the train; write a diary before you go to bed, including what you did or how you felt during the day; practise conversations with an imaginary friend when you're cooking or doing household chores; get into the habit of watching or reading international news stories in English. 

2. Practise

I can't emphasise this enough! We have a saying: "If you don't use it, you lose it" and it's very true for learning a language. 

But what if you can't find someone to speak to? Join a community group on Google+ or Skype (try a group of people who share the same hobbies or interests as you) or start up an English evening in your town once a week - even once a month! You need to find ways to put what you learn into practice.

3. Don't fight it - and don't translate it!

Many learners of English get frustrated because the rules don't seem logical. For example, I sometimes hear:

"In my language I can .... Why can't I do this in English?"

Or

"In my language there's a word for ... What's the equivalent in English?"

The problem is that languages aren't always organised in the same ways. For example, your first language might not have the differences that English has between the Past Simple and the Present Perfect - but English might not have other concepts that your language has. 

Don't "fight" these differences. It's better to accept the strange things that we do in English rather than keep looking for similarities.

4. Follow your interests - but in English

Do you love watching films? Then get into the habit of watching a little part of a film but in English. (Don't force yourself into watching hours and hours if you don't understand much. But a little a day helps - see point 1.)

Do you love watching sports? Watch sports programmes or videos on the internet. 

Do you spend a lot of time doing crafts or making things? Watch some YouTube tutorials in English...

If you're using English for something you love, it becomes a pleasure rather than an exercise. It might be difficult at first, but as you start watching more, your English will improve.

5. Be patient

We also have another expression in English: "Rome wasn't built in a day!" It means that it takes time to achieve something, and the same is true for language learning. One frustrating thing is that learning a language isn't "linear" like learning how to use a computer program. Some days we remember things, some days we don't. Some days it's easy to have a conversation - but the next day it can be difficult. All this is completely natural, so don't give up! Accept that tomorrow will be a better day.

Information from Clare

eTwinning task

One of the first tasks for our eTwinning project this year is to design an image that illustrates our project, Call Me Maybe.

You can use any technique you like: a picture, a compostion, a digital edition application, a drawing or painting with any tecnique or a mixture of those above.

The deadline will be next week, so hurry up and send us something good and original as all the members in the project will vote for their favorite one.

Historical anniversaries for 2016

Great Fire of London - Wikipedia


• Shakespeare’s death. One of the biggest history events of 2016 will be the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare on 23 April.

• Battle of the Somme. 1 July marks 100th anniversary of the battle of the Somme. Thousands are expected to attend a service of remembrance in Thiepval in northern France, and a number of exhibitions and events will be held across France and the UK.
• The Great Fire of London. The infamous Great Fire of London swept across the city over three days in 1666. The Museum of London will mark the 350th anniversary of the disaster with a show called Fire! Fire! 
• Roald Dahl’s birth. 13 September marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of children’s author Roald Dahl.
• Norman Conquest. 14 October marks the 950th anniversary of the battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror’s invasion of England will be marked by a new contemporary arts festival.
• Pearl Harbor. December marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

information from History Extra