False impressions

We sometimes may get wrong impressions when we see certain behaviours. Here's an example:

Listening exercise to do: Having a row or asking for directions (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English)

 

 

Certain people may look nice at a first impression (remember this post in this blog: Do you trust first impressions?), but they may turn out to be evil. For example, we all thought Selectivity exams were so difficult, but when we did one we found out they weren't 'that' difficult (pay attention to the colloquial use of 'that' instead of 'so').

 

I don't like politics at all. Actually, I hate it, as they only try to manipulate people. However, I think it is important to read something about the referendum in Catalonia regarding the possibility of including this topic in the Selectivity exams. Here are some articles to read about the issue:

• Catalan government says millions will turn out for referendum (The Guardian)

• Spain’s looming showdown over Catalonia (The Washington Post)

• Colm Tóibín: ‘Catalonia is a region in the process of reimagining itself’ (The Guardian)

 

And here are some tasks to do with this old selectivity exam:

ENGLISH: THE LANGUAGE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

By the year 2000, a quarter of the world's population will speak English. For some 400 million people English will be their first language. But for another 1,100 million, English will be a second or third language of choice for business, science and popular culture. Three quarters of the world's mail, for example, is currently written in English.

But why is English rising so far above the world's other languages? There are no clear linguistic reasons for the global dominance of English. The grammar is complicated, the pronunciation eccentric, and the spelling peculiar. But a language becomes powerful when a nation becomes powerful. This power may be military or cultural or economic, as is the case of the U.S.A. Another key factor is flexibility. English has borrowed vocabulary from more than 150 languages.

However, as the language spreads among non-native speakers, it will invariably be transformed to suit regional needs: Local vocabulary and pronunciation will replace existing British and American usages. Dictionaries of Asian, American, Caribbean and South African English have already been published. We may soon experience the emergence of a neutral conversational English for international use, with each nation retaining its national variations.

LEXICON

1. Find one synonym in the text for NOWADAYS (adverb)

2. Find one opposite in the text for WEAK (adjective)

3. Find one synonym in the text for SUBSTITUTE (verb)

4. Find one synonym in the text for RISE (noun)

GRAMMAR

1. Give a question to this answer:     Three quarters of the world's mail is written in English.

2. Put the following sentence into the active voice: Many dictionaries have already been published.

3. Join the following sentences with a relative pronoun:

There is no reason for the dominance of English. Its grammar is very complicated.

4. Put the following sentence into reported speech:

"Each nation must retain its own national variations," linguists said in 1980.

LINGOHACK  >>>

• Episode 170913 / 13 September 2017    >>>  Expressions presented: therapist, anxiety & depression (language related to 'mental health').

Related article to read about the issue:

Health and wellbeing    >>>   How to beat depression – without drugs (The Guardian)

Brexit: NO MAN IS AN ISLAND!!

The latest  >>>  Brexit: PM meets Euro leaders (News Report, BBC Learning English)

Breaking news:

Jo Cox: grief and shock over death of 'Labour MP with huge compassion' (The Guardian)

 

On 23rd June a referendum will be held in the United Kingdom in order to decide if they stay in the European Union or if they leave. For a start, let's just read this poem about John Donne. Analyse it bearing in mind the globalised world we live in.

 

'No Man is an Island' (by John Donne)

                No man is an island entire of itself; every man

                is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

                if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

                well as any manner of thy friends or of thine

                is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

                own were; any man's death diminishes me,

                the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

                because I am involved in mankind.

                And therefore never send to know for whom

Do these words remind you of any other prominent writer?

Yes, you're right, the American writer Ernest Hemingway, who wrote the famous novel For whom the bell tolls, which deals about our Spanish Civil War.

The issue in the press:

• As 'Brexit' referendum nears, voter registration surges (CNN)

• Brexit – what would happen if Britain left the EU? (The Guardian)

• It's time to talk about Brexit (The Daily Telegraph)

• Brexit or Bremain? Readers share the one argument that made up their mind (The Guardian) 

• What if...? The consequences, challenges and opportunities facing Britain outside the EU (Open Europe) 

• What would Brexit mean for everyday life in the UK? (The Guardian)

  What is your opinion about the whole issue? Do you think that it is good for Spain to stain in the EU? Write about the advantages and disadvantages of belonging to the EU.