"What a player!"

 

 

Jannik Sinner recognised after the match against Rafa Jódar in Madrid what a good player his opponent was. A display of fair play from the talented Italian tennis player, current ATP number 1 seeded.

 

  

In sport and many other areas of life, modesty is such an important value to compete and also to grow. You never reach the summit, there are always challenges in life and they don't have to be extraordinary. Simple goals such as having a family or carrying out everyday tasks may be as important as winning a major tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

Learning English from the News:   Hungary election landslide  & Trump shooting attempt (BBC Learning English)  

  

Road towards success in the Selectivity exam.....

(and here's the rubric to evaluate the composition) 

• 2025_Monsieur Tan-Tan  

  The weird way language affects our sense of time and space (BBC News)

  The big idea: could the English language die? (The Guardian)

  7 mysterious languages that have yet to be deciphered (DW)

   

 

  Here's my musical hint for today:    Fair play by Van Morrison. And here are the lyrics for you to sing along.  

 

 

 

Easy English Conversations:   What can you do?  (BBC Learning English)  

 

 

Here are some more activities for my students:

• English in a Minute:  Phrases with 'GAME'  (BBC Learning English)

• 
  

  Office English: Extra work  (BBC Learning English) 

• The English We Speak:  Think on your feet  (BBC Learning English)

• Listening exercise for you to do:   Why are we all so stressed?  (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

     

Some activities for my students:

• in 4º ESO... 

D. Rewrite the following sentences either using the passive voice or the causative have

1. Someone will send me new books this term.   I...

2. Cleaners are ironing my new shirt at the moment.  I...

3. My mother usually bakes bread for me in the morning.   Bread...   / I...

4. A plumber replaced the old pipes in my bathroom.   I...

5. A technician has installed a new app on my laptop.   A new app... / I...

6. Someone must fix your motorbike as soon as possible.  You...   /  Your motorbike...

7. Painters painted my granny's fence last week.   My granny...

8. Someone should edit my videos for me, it takes me ages!   I....   / My videos....

9. The hairdresser didn't cut my hair during lockdown.    I...

10. A producer was recording her new album yesterday.   Her new album...

11. Doctors have tested my blood this afternoon.   I...  

Real Easy English >>>   Talking about MEMORY  (BBC Learning English) 

 

 

English with Lucy... Avoid embarrassing mistakes in English - Stop confusing these words! 

 

 

 

"All work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl"

Learning English with  Tom Holland  - funny story  

 

 

 HOW FISH AND CHIPS WAS INVENTED | The Forgotten Story Behind Britain’s National Dish  

 

Jannik Sinner beating Rafa Jódar and the other quarter-finals ( RJ vs Joao Fonseca, Daniel Mérida vs Moutet)  -  Madrid 2026    

And what a superb player Jannik Sinner is!!! He won the title in Madrid beating Zverev in the final.

 

Hurdles in life make you stronger

 

Hurdles, tough moments, failures (not only power failures)... in life make you stronger and a better person because you are ready to face harder challenges. So you should never give up and you should keep trying and making an effort, like in the song.

 

 

 Here's my musical hint for today:  Stronger by Kelly Clarkson. And now here's a version with the lyrics for you to sing along.

 

 

Learning English from the News: Huge power cuts in Spain and Portugal (BBC Learning English) 

 

The older you are, the readier you are to face any difficulty in life. You have solutions for almost every problem or at least you don't despair when you come across a really difficult situation and resilience becomes one of your skills.

 

 

Today is a holiday in Madrid because of the 2^nd May uprising against the French Imperial troops, as the population was being violently repressed with hundreds of public executions. 

 

 

Do you remember where there was another famous uprising?

The Easter Uprising (IES Mediterraneo students were there!!!)

 

 

Here are some activities to make my students stronger:

1º ESO    Unit 5

Translate into English :

1) ¿Cómo es la señora Harrison? Es gorda y fea.

2) Tengo mucha sed. 

3) Aquellos vasos están en la estantería,¿dónde está el vino?

4) Hay carne en el plato,pero no hay leche en el vaso.

5) ¿Tienes buen vino? Sí,tenemos un vino muy bueno.

6) ¿Cuánto mide tu hermano? Él mide casi 2 metros.

MODAL VERBS   >>>   Translate these sentences into English. 

• • No debieras comerte un almuerzo grande antes de un partido de fútbol.

  • Debes llevar sandalias dentro de la piscina. No debes llevar zapatos o zapatillas de deporte.

  • Un pez no sabe andar, pero algunos pueden saltar muy alto  fuera del agua.

  • ¿Sabes hablar alemán? No, pero sé hablar francés bien.

  • Los alumnos debieran hacer el comic de la Vuelta al Mundo en 80 días rápido.

  • Tú puedes estudiar duro durante el curso y aprobar en junio, o tú puedes vivir felizmente sin trabajar. Entonces debes estudiar durante el verano para los exámenes de septiembre.

  • La gente no puede jugar al golf en Itrabo.

 

3º ESO 

41. PASSIVE /ACTIVE. Rewrite these sentences into the Passive or Active Voice :

 1. The work has been done by the children.

 2. His horse won the race.

 3. Many things were being broken by children playing at home.

 4. He had said many things. 

 5. My colleague will do the job. 

 6. The government might buy that company.

 

 

 

Road towards success in the new PAU (Selectivity exam)

 

Rephrase/Rewrite these sentences by using another suitable structure:

221. Albert is such a hard teacher, but in the end we are better prepared for the Selectivity exam.     Although....

222. During the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities widely used medical robots to take patients' temperatures as these couldn't get infected.    Medical robots...

223. The price of olive oil is increasing very much these days.      ... getting....

224. Although they grew up in Germany, they have never thought of claiming the German nationality.    Despite...

225. Nerea usually plays the piano after lunch.  How...

226. It wouldn't be sensible to drive in such a heavy rain. You...

227. His father-in-law invited him for dinner. "

228. We have decided to go to the cinema this evening.    We....

229. My grandmother had the habit of washing the clothes in the river.   My grandmother...

230. The bookshelf was too high for the small boy to get the dictionary. The small boy was not... 

 

 

Solution to the exercises in the previous post

 

Rephrasing

 

211.  "Can we use our calculators in the exam?"

212. Which company does your father work for?

213. If only I had remembered your birthday party.  ///  If I hadn't forgotten your birthday party, I would have bought you a present and I would have gone.

214.  My neighbour's son may/might be studying at the University of Granada.

215. It was such a long book I couldn't finish reading it before Christmas.

216. I wish I had taken my umbrella.

217. You must have a driving licence in Spain to drive a car.  

218. "Will/Would/Could you, please, lie on the couch?"

219. My little brother was able to get out of the swimming-pool when he fell into it at the age of 3.  

220. The teacher asked his students to do that simple exercise // if they could do that simple exercise.

Here are some more activities to make my students stronger:

• Prepositions with Georgie:   What is a preposition?  (BBC Learning English)  
  

• 
  

  English in a Minute: Verbs to use with METHOD  (BBC Learning English) 
  

• Listening exercise for you to do: Can cows prevent wildfires?  (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

• The English We Speak:   Zing  (BBC Learning English) 

 

English with Lucy  >>>  Do you know these 12 common words? 

  

 

 

 

"All work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl"

Learn English with the Simpsons

 

 

Madrid 2025 -  Day 7  ,   Quarter-finals ,  Semi-finals and the FINAL: 

    Casper Ruud    vs     Jack Draper  

 

 

 

It is not just climate change, IT IS CLIMATIC EMERGENCY!!!

Next week Madrid will be holding the next climate summit (United Nations Climate Change - December 2019), which should have been hosted by Chile. 

 

Madrid to host UN climate summit after Chile pulls out (The Guardian)

 

 

It is not just climate change what our world has to face, but also a climatic emergency as things are getting worse and worse at such an incredible speed that it might be too late if we don't take action as soon as we can.

 

 

We can make a change ourselves >>>  "Politics plays a big role in the advancement of economics and greatly impacts the environment, technology, and society in general, and this is why we aim to help the world make a better place starting with encouraging healthy political views and ideals. " (ChangeRoots ) Here's an interesting article for you to read: 3 Ways to Make a Difference: Changing The World With Political Awareness

 

Some articles for you to read about CLIMATE EMERGENCY:

• 'Our house is on fire': EU parliament declares climate emergency (The Guardian)

• Climate change: What is a climate emergency? (BBC News)

• 11,000 scientists warn of 'untold suffering' caused by climate change (CNN)

 

Remember the problems derived from the melting of the permafrost:

• The poisons released by melting Arctic ice - BBC Future

• Scientists shocked by Arctic permafrost thawing 70 years sooner than predicted | Environment | The Guardian

 

 

And there are people who have already found some solutions to the problem. For example, here's an example of a Scottish firm who uses sea water or the case of some scientists who have provoked a snowstorm:

• Startup helps Scottish farmers grow gourmet plants with sea water (The Guardian)

• Cooking with seawater – is it the best way to season food? (The Guardian)

• Manmade Antarctic snowstorm 'could save coastal cities from rising seas' (The Guardian)

• Seawater Solutions is tackling agriculture's impact on climate change (The National)  

• Cultivation of barren land with seawater is an idea worth its salt (The Herald)

• Seawater Solutions Scotland  

 

 

Growing Crops in the Desert with Seawater | Freethink

 

6 Minute Vocabulary: Job suffixes  (BBC Learning English)

English with Lucy    >>>  9 RULES OF ARTICLES - A, AN, THE or 'THEE' ? - Use and pronounce correctly every time!

 

 

Stories for Children >>> Nell's books (BBC Learning English)

 

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 191127 / 27 November 2019    >>>  Mapping the dead (How tech is finding lost graves):   Language related to 'burial'.  Need-to-know language: resting place, headstones, grave, cemetery and decay.