We are the CHAMPIONS!!!! (QUARANTINE: DAY 39)

We are real champions!!! Here we are all confined with such a gorgeous spring weather outside. It's getting tougher and tougher, but students and teachers at IES Mediterraneo are doing a great job.

 

Breaking news (Could this be true? the light at the end of the tunnel?):

Moreno pide la vuelta al cole de los niños desde el 15 de mayo

Coronairus outbreak: When Europe eases its coronavirus lockdowns, will the UK watch and learn? (The Guardian)

Here's a song you are probably familiar with. Have a look at the lyrics.

Queen - We Are The Champions [With Lyrics on Video]

Coronavirus: US green cards to be halted for 60 days, Trump says (BBC News)

 

Quarantine Scoreboard

Posts uploaded:  25

Students participating:  about 85 out of 110 (77%)

Comments written and corrected: about 500

Emails exchanged: more than 1600

PASEN announcements & messages: more than 1600

Things handed in and corrected: more than 900

 

Visits to blog and site during quarantine: about 9,000 (Average of 300 visits per day)

Video lectures (ONLINE CLASSES):    6

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE QUARANTINE

 Thursday, 23^rd April

Tasks for today:

• Remember to do the dictation     >>>    DICTATION  02    Next week I will give you the answers for you to correct it. Translate the sentences into Spanish. 
• Do exercises on page 77.

• Comparatives and superlatives: comparatives and superlatives 03  

Solutions to yesterday's COMPARATIVES exercise:

1) bigger, the biggest    2) small, smaller     3) tallest      4) shorter    5) bright, brighter    6) far, farther    7) happy, happier

 

No homework for today, but remember to tell me the number of mistakes in the dictation:

• Dictation for my 4º ESO students. You can correct it yourself (page 7)    >>>    DICTATION  02   

Let's do a quizz to revise when to use: JUST, ALREADY or YET? (BBC Learning English)

 

 

Tasks for today:

Dictation. You can correct it yourself (page 67)   >>>>   DICTATION  02     

Some of you have already done it and sent me the number of mistakes you committed. You're real champs!!!

 

Unit 8 - pages 96-97   >>>   On Monday we will be correcting the first 3 pages in our online class.

 

Some questions for you to answer:

1. How do you say 'sensible' in English?

2. Pay attention to the spelling in TO ADVICE - A PIECE OF ADVICE . Can you give me any other example?

3. Can you translate into English this (there's something similar in the text)? Tengo dos veces más información sobre el Coronavirus cuando leo el periódico que cuando ve la televisión.

4. You can also make a comment in this post by answering the 3 questions in GET SET ... GO section on page 97.

 

 

Listening exercise for you to do: Improving your memory (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

 

Why reading and writing on paper can be better for your brain (The Guardian)

John McEnroe vs Jimmy Connors SF US Open 1984 

Part 2

 

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200422 / 22 April 2020    >>>  Covid-19: The bikers delivering vital supplies (Help on two wheels) -    Language related to 'isolation'.  Need-to-know language: stuck at home, self-isolate, keep ourselves to ourselves, lockdown  & stick together.

INCREDIBLE, BUT TRUE (QUARANTINE: DAY 38)

Apart from more dictations for our IES Mediterraneo students, here are two incredible, but true pieces of news: First, do you know that the price of petrol is so low that sellers have to pay buyers!!!! Secondly, an elderly man (he is almost a century years old!!!) is raising millions of pounds to help the NHS (National Health System) in United Kingdon!!!!

The price of crude oil has turned negative as coronavirus disrupts international travel (ABC News)

 

Negative oil price: what changes for petrol and consumers (News 1)

 

Coronavirus: oil price collapses as demand falls further - BBC News

 

 

NEWS REVIEW >>>> CORONAVIRUS: 99-year-old man raises millions (BBC Learning English)

Coronavirus: Army veteran Tom Moore, 99, raises £4m for NHS (BBC News)

Quarantine Scoreboard

Posts uploaded:  25

Students participating:  about 85 out of 110 (77%)

Comments written and corrected: about 500

Emails exchanged: more than 1600

PASEN announcements & messages: more than 1600

Things handed in and corrected: more than 900

 

Visits to blog and site during quarantine: about 9,000 (Average of 300 visits per day)

Video lectures (ONLINE CLASSES):    6

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE QUARANTINE

 Wednesday, 22^nd April

And today you will do just 3 things:

• Dictation for my 1º ESO students    >>>    DICTATION  02    Next week I will give you the answers for you to correct it. Translate the sentences into Spanish. 
• Do exercises on page 76 and read about the superlatives on top of page 77.

• Comparatives and superlatives: exercise for you to do 02  

 

Today's homework:

• Dictation for my 4º ESO students. You can correct it yourself (page 7)    >>>    DICTATION  02

• Unit 8 (Smart Planet 4) , page 86     

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2003)

Dʀ. Jᴇᴋʏʟʟ ᴀɴᴅ Mʀ. Hʏᴅᴇ (2008)

 

 

Students don't have to do anything as we don't have any classes on Wednesdays, but here's a link to a dictation to do tomorrow. You can correct it yourself (page 67)   >>>>

Dictation for my 1º Bachillerato students    >>>    DICTATION  02 

Learn English With Queen

 

The future of humanity in our hands (QUARANTINE: DAY 5)

 

What will the future of humanity be like? It has always been, it is and it will be always the same. We will have to fight to survive. Pandemias, wars, natural disasters...

 

Humanity or humankind? They are almost synonyms (or, at least, near synonyms, as you can see in the wordhippo thesaurus)

As nouns the difference between humanity and humankind is that humanity is mankind; human beings as a group while humankind is the human race; mankind, humanity; homo sapiens.

A listening exercise for you to do: Will humans become extinct? (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF NEWS FOR MY ESO STUDENTS  >>>>

Cambridge University Press provides us with free access to textbooks of all levels in ESO (1º a 4º ESO):

Libros digitales Smart Planet

WASH YOUR HANDS CAREFULLY

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE QUARANTINE

Friday, 20^th March

Burlington nos ofrece la posibilidad de que todos los alumnos usuarios de nuestros cursos tengan acceso al Interactive Student

No homework for today because on Fridays we haven't got any classes. You can watch this episode about the book Around the World in 80 Days.

Willy Fog - 02 - Bon voyage | Full Episode |

 

 

Solutions to some of yesterday's exercises.

Some questions to answer about the text:
1. What is 'a four-kilo ball'?  A ball that weighs four kilos (una pelota que pesa 4 kg)
2. What is the 'winning team' and the 'losing team'? The winning team is the team that wins (el equipo ganador) and the losing team is the team that loses (el equipo perdedor)
3. Can you translate this bit into Spanish: "A few years later, someone makes a hole in the bottom of the basket and then the ball can fall down"   =  Unos cuantos años más tarde, alguien hace un agujero en el fondo de la cesta y después la pelota puede caer.
4. Listen to the whole text and read it aloud.

 

>>>   Extra exercise on ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS.

1. hard, quickly      2. well, badly   3. slowly, far    4. high, easily   5. beautifully, nicely

 

What happened???

Dictation for my 4º ESO students    >>>  Only 4 people sent me the number of mistakes they committed!!!

 

Using the link I have given you above for the digital books. Revise Unit 5 Workbook pages 40-42.

Bear in mind you can do the listening exercise by clicking on the sign. I'll give you the answers to this exercise on Monday. Let me know if you have any problems or doubts with any of the exercises.     

  

 News Review: Blue Whales return to the South Atlantic  (BBC Learning English)

 

No homework for today because on Fridays we haven't got any classes. 

 

You can either listen to it...

 

A Sherlock Holmes Novel: The Hound of the Baskervilles Audiobook 

 

.... or watch a film

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988 movie)

 

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 200318 / 18 March 2020    >>>  How climate change is affecting Antarctica  -    Language related to 'survival'.  Need-to-know language: challenge, compensated, thrive, adapt & to their max.

 

  And don't forget!!!

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY!!! (QUARANTINE: DAY 4)

Today it is the day to give a big hug to our fathers (if it is still possible). They, along with our mothers, are always ahead of the herd and in charge of everything. However, there is a time when our fathers can't keep the pace and are left behind. We find them place in a nursing home for elderly people and we forget about them.

 

Now they are at the top in the fatality rate ranking and many are passing away because they are so weak they can't cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

An expert explains: how to help older people through the COVID-19 pandemic (World Economic Forum)

Why Covid-19 is so dangerous for older adults (Vox)

Eric Clapton-My father's eyes

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE QUARANTINE

 Thursday, 19^th March

Solutions to some of yesterday's exercises.

Dictation

1. The priests get angry. They take his shoes and Passepartout runs away.
2. He also finds an elephant to take them to Allahabad.
3. His young wife, the princess, must die with him in a big fire.
4. Suddenly, the priests see the prince's body on the fire.

The phonetic phenomenon is ASSIMILATION in HIS SHOES    (The final s  of the word 'his' is assimilated to the sound / ʃ / of  'shoes'). Listen to it again and you'll see how the s is not pronounced, but the word is linked to the word 'shoes' as if the two words were only one. Pay attention to the lengthening of the 'i'  /i:/ of 'his' .

And these are the 2 tasks for today:

>>> Do the activities on page 64.

Some questions to answer about the text:
1. What is 'a four-kilo ball'?
2. What is the 'winning team' and the 'losing team'?
3. Can you translate this bit into Spanish: "A few years later, someone makes a hole in the bottom of the basket and then the ball can fall down"
4. Listen to the whole text and read it aloud.

 

>>>   Extra exercise on ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS. I am giving you the adjectives in brackets, so fill in the gaps with the correspondent adverbs.

1. My brother can't throw or kick a ball ...... (hard), but he can run .... (quick)
2. Messi plays football ..... (good), but he speaks English ..... (bad).
3. A snail moves ...... (slow), but it can go .... (far).
4. Michael Jordan could jump ..... (high) and he could throw a basketball ..... (easy) into the basket.
5. Susan can dance ..... (beautiful) and she swims ..... (nice), too.

 

What happened???

 

Dictation for my 4º ESO students    >>>  Only 4 people sent me the number of mistakes they committed!!!

No homework for today because on Thursdays we haven't got any classes, but you can write a comment on this post about your fathers.

  

 

Learners' Questions:   Situation, position or condition?    (BBC Learning English)

 

Students should practise today the writing skill   >>>

  Unit 7 (Get Set 1) , pages 92-93      

Your composition can be about 'curfews' (which is what we have right now) or the proposed topic they give you in Exercise 6.

 

Comp07: Composition (Opinion essay) about: Write a composition giving your opinion about either of these two topics after doing all the activities on pages 92-93:

- Bearing in mind the quarantine (which is a kind of 'curfew') we have now in Spain because of the Coronavirus pandemic, "Are curfews a good idea?"

- "Are boot camps a good idea for teenagers?"

 

Definitions of: 'curfew' and 'boot camp'   

You can read about these two issues here:

• Life under curfew for American teens: ‘it’s insane, no other country does this’ (The Guardian)

• Boot camps, what are they?

And finally here's a dictation for my 1º Bachillerato students    >>>    DICTATION  01 

Here's a post with solutions to the previous post B2 exercises and some more activities to do:   Lunches are not the same everywhere  

DICTATIONS for our students (QUARANTINE: DAY 3)

 

My motto is RESILIENCE, so must it be for the Chinese authorities. I have found out the way to make dictations for my students and they are on the way to develop the solution to the Coronovirus pandemic. Read the article below.

 

Breaking news  >>>>>

Coronavirus vaccine developed by China's top military bio-warfare expert begins clinical trial  (Daily Mail)

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE QUARANTINE

 Wednesday, 18^th March

Solutions to some of yesterday's exercises.

Exercise 6

Example: Albert cannot run or cycle very fast, but he can dance really well.

Exercises 10 & 11 (LISTENING)

Can you translate for tomorrow these sentences?

1. I want my cousins' dogs to jump high.
2. My uncle wants my cousins to run fast.
3. You want me to throw the ball at your sister.

And today you will do just 2 things:

• Dictation for my 1º ESO students    >>>    DICTATION  01 

• Read the text on page 64 about the History of Basketball. Use your dictionaries (almond-crackers) to look up all the words you don't understand.   (Se leen el texto y usando el diccionario, buscan todas las palabras que desconozcan. Es muy importante que usen un diccionario de papel o los que se les ofrecen online en internet)

 

Today's homework:

 

Dictation for my 4º ESO students    >>>    DICTATION  01

 

Unit 4-6 (Smart Planet 4) , pages 69-70     

  

 

 

Here's a post with solutions to the previous post B2 exercises and some more activities to do:   Happy St Patrick's Day!!!!  

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