2020, a leap year

Raise ( English in a Minute:  'RAISE' vs 'RISE'   (BBC Learning English) ) your hand if you know what a 'leap year' is. What does 'leap' mean?

Planet Earth takes 365.25 days to complete its rotation around the sun. To compensate for the extra 0.25, we add a day every four years and that is why this year will be 366 days long!!

Here are some articles for you to read related to the topic:

• Leap Year Fast Facts (CNN)

• Can you solve it? Leap year logic (The Guardian)

• Everything you need to know about leap years (BBC News)

 

And some videos to watch:

• What Is a Leap Year?   

• The Leap Year as Explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson | StarTalk

• Why Do We Have Leap Years? (video)

Leap Year for Kids  

We've also got leap seconds  >>>  Leap second: What does it mean? BBC News

 

Have you seen the film Leap Year ? - Anna & Declan 

 

Leap Year - She's Gone Scene  

 

Only love can break your heart - Gwyneth Herbert - Lyrics   (original version by Neil Young)

Make this quizz about how to express doubts (What phonetic phenomenon can you find in this word?) and here's another episode of Learners' Questions:  "Preposition 'to' + 'ing' or infinitive?"       

 

What are you going to do today? Remember it is a day you won't live again until 2024!!!

 

English with Lucy  >>>  5 "Grammar Rules" (myths) your teachers HAVE BEEN LYING about!

 

 

 

One musical hint: EARTH SONG by Michal Jackson (HIStory)

 

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200226 / 26 February 2020    >>>  Turning moon dust into water  -    Language related to 'space exploration'.  Need-to-know language: lunar, rocket fuel, propellant & mission.

 

GOALS, GOALS!!!!

No, we are not talking about football. We are talking about personal goals for professional development (Friday phrase, BBC Learning English). What are your personal goals for this year? Pass all the subjects, get your B1 or B2....?

Here are some related articles for you to read about the issue:

• Setting realistic goals (BBC News)

• Year-long resolutions don't work. Here's how to make 12 'micro-resolutions' instead (CNN, health)

• The six-pack can wait: how to set fitness goals you will actually keep (The Guardian)

 

News Review   >>   Neymar admits exaggerating (BBC Learning English)

 

Neymar admits to exaggerating his reactions during the World Cup | Your Morning

 

 

One goal our society has now in mind is to stop this epidemy. Latest news  >>>  Coronavirus: Third UK patient 'caught coronavirus in Singapore' - BBC News

 

English in a Minute:  4 uses of QUITE   (BBC Learning English)

 

 

Here's a good listening exercise for you to do: Could you give up fast fashion? (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200219 / 19 February 2020    >>>  New treatment for nut allergy  -    Language related to 'allergies'.  Need-to-know language: anaphylaxis, hives, tolerant, diagnosis & dietary restrictions.

Top 35 Legendary Goals In Football History

 

 

What do we need to pass English? Resilience!!!!

Resilience is what we need to pass English... or have success in life, in general. 

resilience /rɪˈzɪlɪəns/  noun   resilience; noun: resiliency; plural noun: resiliencies

1.

the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

"the often remarkable resilience of so many British institutions"

Now let's look it up in the Wordhippo: definition  ,   synonyms ,  antonyms

Water is resilient. Do you remember what Bruce Lee said:

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

                                                                                                                                                                by Bruce Lee

 

Bamboo is resilient, too.

• Resilience: Lessons from the Bamboo (People Builders)

• Resilience: The Wisdom of Bamboo (by Merce Cardús)

 

And what about an example of resilience in people? Nadal would be the perfect example!

True Resilience

 

 

 

Here's a good listening exercise for you to do related to the issue: Are we born with resilience or can we learn it? (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

 

So you need to be resilient to succeed!!!

 

 

Bounce Back - the resilience song

 

 

Songs for resilience!!!  

   

Task for 1º ESO students: What do you usually do to pass English?

 

English in a Minute:  5 verbs followed by -ING   (BBC Learning English)

Love? It is just a matter of choosing the right partner.

St Valentine's day is getting closer and we can see at school students selling roses, or even bunches of them. But is it really a good present for our partner? What would you say about a cactus? 

 

A long time ago that was my St Valentine's day and the person I gave it to didn't get the metaphor. Again a few months ago, I tried again with another cactus, but this time I also gave her the most expensive and wonderful bunch of flowers in the shop. What was the result? Did she get this time the metaphor? I don't really know because she didn't say a word and, you know, one of the most difficult tasks in life is to say 'SORRY' or admit you were wrong. 

 

The fact is that days passed and the flowers from the bunch began to fade and fade until they were all dead, and the cactus got better and better with so little water and care!!! By the way, she threw away the first cactus a long time ago, because if she hadn't thrown it away, we WOULD HAVE TWO CACTI (or 'cactuses', or even 'cactus') NOW!!!!

By the way, have a look at this last conditional sentence and tell me what type it is. It is the one we saw in the previous post, because the 'if-clause' action is impossible to change, but the effects of that action are still permanent.

Going back to the title, a romantic relationship is like a cactus. You have to choose well, a partner strong enough to cope with all the problems you may come across in life and who is not so demanding that you could feel overwhelmed. A bad choice, as we have seen many times lately, can have a fatal end.

 

What would your ideal partner be like? I'm talking about personality, not appearance!!!

You can find some other interesting posts in this blog about the topic of  love and St Valentine's Day .   

Friday phrase: "take after someone"  

Who have you taken after?

Learners' Questions: 'WIN' , 'EARN' or 'GAIN'? 

News Review   >>   Do you want to live longer? Try running! (BBC Learning English)

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200212 / 12 February 2020    >>>  Longest ever space flight by female astronaut  -    Language related to 'space'.  Need-to-know language: capsule, gravity, cosmonaut, mission & space walk.

The person I look up to the most is...

Who do you look up to? It is  probably a person who influences you either in your personal life or work career and the decisions you take. Why is that? Is it because of his/her personality, his/her achievements in life? 

 

The first person that comes to my mind is my master at university: Professor Dr Neil McLaren, as he was the most influential person in the way I teach and how I try to face the difficulties I come across in my job, apart from being the director of my Bachelor Thesis and my PhD.

However, let's check first the meaning of this phrase:

Friday phrase: "to look up to someone"  

 

Let's now have a look at this forum:

Who do you look up to and why?  

 

 

25 Most Influential People in History By Attribute

 

 

 

Here are some articles for you to read about the issue:

• Some opinions about the issue  >>  10 Most Influential People In History and Top 10 People Who Changed The World  

• Greta Thunberg named Time Person of the Year for 2019 (BBC News)

• Role models: someone to look up to (The Guardian)

• And the most admired man in America is... (CNN)

But remember that this phrase has also got a literal meaning, and the expert in this matter was of course Dr Stephen Hawking:

'Remember to look up at the stars': the best Stephen Hawking quotes (The Guardian)

 

 

Learners' Questions: 'SEE' , 'LOOK' or 'WATCH'?  and a quizz on THE FUTURE FROM THE PAST.

 

 

English in a Minute:  Mixed Conditionals (Impossible+Hypothetical)   (BBC Learning English)

Stories for Children >>> The Perfect Thing (BBC Learning English)

A slave, a cowboy, a Viking, a gangster... he was Kirk Douglas!!!

Kirk Douglas, one of last Hollywood icons of all times has just passed away at the age of 103. He played the roles of a slave (Spartacus), a painter (Vincent Van Gogh), a cowboy, a Viking, a boxer, a gangster and so many others.

 

Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas dies at 103 (ABC News)

Tribute to Kirk Douglas (CBS) 

Some movie clips  >>>>

I'm Spartacus

Vincent Van Gogh in Lust for Life - Trailerç

 

 

The Vikings - 1958 - Einar and Eric last fight scene

 

Last Train From Gun Hill (1959) Trailer

 

The Street is cleaned up by Harry and Archie

 

 

... and so many others!!!

 

Kirk Douglas obituary (The Guardian)

 

 

English with Lucy   >>>   DO NOT SAY 'I'm sorry...' - say THIS instead - 17 more advanced alternative phrases (STORY LESSON)

 

 

 

 

Listening exercise for you to do: Is it healthy to disagree? (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English) Can you remember the difference between these two verbs: 'to discuss' & 'to argue'?

Tennis >>>  The Self-Appointed Commissioner of Tennis (McEnroe): The Tennis Legends On The Davis Cup

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200205 / 05 February 2020    >>>  Are you scared of spiders? (Beating your fear of spiders)  -    Language related to 'fear'.  Need-to-know language: the heebie-jeebies, phobia, getting over, bother & crippling fear.

No more pollution in our cities, please!!!

Once upon a time, Granada was a beautiful walkable city where you could even play football on the streets because there was not so much traffic. Now it is still a beautiful city, but every time I drive from the coast I can see all the pollution above it from the summit of El Suspiro del Moro (The Moor's Whisper). 

 

 

Here's a listening exercise for you to do about the benefits of low emission zones  >>>   Cleaning up the air we breathe  (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

Previous posts connected with the issue:

• Cities are no longer cars' territory and our biological clock

• Car-free cities in the future?

• Paris: World Climate Summit 2015

 

The Grammar Gameshow: THE SECOND CONDITIONAL (BBC Learning English)

 

Nancy Pelosi rips up Trump's State of the Union speech

 

News Review: Trump impeachment trial comes to a close (Impeachment procedure) , BBC Learning English

Trump impeachment trial closing arguments: five key takeaways (The Guardian)

Tennis >>>  Novak Djokovic vs Dominic Thiem Extended Highlights | Australian Open 2020 Final | Eurosport

And here are all the Champions League Finals 1956 - 2019