This is England. Truly Great!

The Brit Awards 2012

2012-02-20T13:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.brits.co.uk/

From tomorrow, look out for 200 painted giant eggs around London

2012-02-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

http://londonist.com/2012/02/big-egg-hunt-hides-200-giant-easter-eggs-in-london.php

English Language Learning Tips #1

2012-02-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

British Music - Mira Calix in the mix

2012-02-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

Show 549 - Mira Calix in the mix

Here is the latest show from the British Council's The Selector–featuring a wide range of new UK music

2012-02-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

http://soundcloud.com/britishcouncil/550-soundcloud

Dear uncle Slavoj Zizek

2012-02-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.film4.com/features/article/the-perverts-guide-to-ideology-finishes-filming

The Woman in Black scares the bejesus out of the UK box office

2012-02-16T04:49:00.000-08:00

Culture-Film- The woman in black

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/14/woman-in-black-muppets-uk-box-office

This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You by Jon McGregor – review

2012-02-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

Culture-Books-Fiction

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/this-isnt-sort-of-thing-review

Artist Prints

2012-02-15T04:42:00.001-08:00

http://www.pureevilclothing.com/indexgallery.html

Only in London is there an art gallery for street art!

2012-02-15T04:35:00.000-08:00

http://london.unlike.net/locations/302442-Pure-Evil-Gallery

Brain on Britain

2012-02-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_fourfm

Hoy 13 de febrero comienza la inscripción para exámenes internacionales, sesión de mitad de año.

2012-02-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.aaci.org.ar/web/img/cambridge_esol_exams_detail.gif

Choose Life

2011-11-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

A classic- My blackberry is not working

2011-11-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

Creating the network

2011-11-22T05:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b017cb0m

Stephen Fry traces the evolution of the mobile phone, from hefty executive bricks that required a separate briefcase to carry the battery to the smart little devices complete with personal assistant we have today.

There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people on the planet: Stephen Fry talks to the backroom boys who made it all possible and hears how the technology succeeded, in ways that the geeks had not necessarily intended.

In the first episode, Stephen Fry meets the men who first dreamt of creating a cellular network. Back in the sixties, two Bell Labs engineers in the US thought perhaps a maximum of 50,000 people might use a cellular phone network. Now, there are billions of phones in the world, all of them dependent on the networks based on their design. It was an enormous technical challenge that took decades to complete; but the main problems were political. Motorola, for example, argued that phone calls were a frivolous waste of radio spectrum compared to more worthy causes like television.

Talking about the future

2011-11-15T09:31:00.000-08:00

talking about the future

Put the verbs in brackets into the gaps and form negative sentences in the going to-future.

2011-11-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

1) They________the lunch basket. *(not/to pack)*
2) I __________ somebody the way. *(not/to ask)*
3) Rita _________Jim's book. *(not/to borrow)*
4) We _________a T-shirt. *(not/to design)*
5) I ________ on the red button. *(not/to click)*
6) The girls __________at the boys. *(not/to laugh)*
7) Tim_______Sandra's hair. *(not/to pull)*
8) Andy and Fred _________to a song. *(not/to mime)*
9) You _____________ dinner. *(not/to prepare)*
10) He ___________ the hamster in the garden. *(not/to keep)*

5-Plans and intentions 'going to' | Johnny Grammar | Learn English | Briti...

2011-11-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

Plans and intentions 'going to'

For personal plans we use 'going to' + infinitive.

I'm going to be a football player.
I'm going to be rich and famous.

To make the question form we change the order of the verb 'be' and the suject.

What team are you going to play for?

To make the negative form we put 'not' between 'be' and 'going to'.

I'm not going to study. I'm only going to play football.

Now write 5 sentences using "going to"

Newcastle United

2011-11-07T04:50:00.000-08:00

Around and about Newcastle

1. What is the city’s full name?

Newcastle is known as Newcastle-upon-Tyne (partly to distinguish it from Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town near Stoke). The Tyne is the river which flows through the centre of Newcastle.

2. Where is Newcastle-upon-Tyne?

It is situated in north-east England, just 18 km from the city of Sunderland (home to the North-East’s other Premier League team). Newcastle, Sunderland and the surrounding towns such as Gateshead comprise the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, named after the region’s two main rivers.

3. Where do Newcastle United play?

The team’s ground, St James’ Park, is right in the centre of the city, and has its own station on the Metro, Newcastle’s underground railway. It’s England’s third largest club stadium, and its city centre location means that everyone in town can hear the cheers whenever Newcastle score a goal!

4. What is a ‘Geordie’?

‘Geordie’ has two meanings: a Geordie (countable) has been defined as a person born ‘within spitting distance of the Tyne’. Geordie (uncountable) is the name of the dialect spoken in Newcastle, where for example, ‘house’ is pronounced ‘hoose’. There are also a few Geordie words, such as ‘canny’, which means nice or good. Some Geordies, such as pop star Sting, soften their accent when they move away from the region.

5. What are the classic images of Newcastle?

The bridges over the River Tyne are among the most iconic views of any English cities. And visitors are often amazed at the elegant neoclassical architecture of Newcastle city centre.

6. What else is Newcastle famous for?

Newcastle is renowned for its nightlife. In fact, the ‘Rough Guide to Britain’ recently described Newcastle’s legendary nightlife as Britain’s number one tourist attraction!

7. That must make Newcastle a very noisy place!?

Well, according to a study by University College London, Newcastle is the noisiest place in the UK, with noise levels that can impair residents’ hearing. However, the research was criticised because noise levels were measured in random places in different cities. In Newcastle, they measured noise levels by a motorway!

8. What festivals take place in the city?

With a sizeable Chinese population, Chinese New year is celebrated in style in Newcastle’s Chinatown, the area around Stowell Street in the city centre. And the annual Newcastle Mela is a festival of Asian arts and music which takes place each July.

Remember remeber the 5th of Novemeber- Read this text about Guy Fawkes

2011-11-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

Guy Fawkes (A.K.A. Guido Fawkes) belonged to a group of dissident Roman Catholics from England who plotted to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the Houses of Parliament.

The Gunpowder plot was masterminded by Robert Catesby, another conspirator. Guy Fawkes was put in charge of carrying out the plot because he had military experience and knew how to use explosives.

Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators were aggrieved by widespread discrimination against English Catholics. The conspirators planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament at a time when King James the 1st and the British aristocracy and nobility would all be inside the building. By doing this, they hoped that Britain would be restored to Catholic rule.

Having failed in an attempt to dig a tunnel under the building, the conspirators rented a cellar beneath the House of Lords and by March 1605, they had hidden 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar under pieces of wood and coal.

However, some of the conspirators began to have second thoughts, as the bomb blast would be bound to kill and injure innocent people. One of the conspirators wrote an anonymous letter to a friend, Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away from Parliament on the 5th of November. Although Lord Monteagle thought the letter was a hoax, he decided to show it to the King.

What do you think happened next?

Watch this short video clip, and then discuss the questions below with a partner.

http://youtu.be/DD3c4K8b8X8

Questions:

1) Why were the guards' suspicions aroused when they searched the cellar?

2) How many searches of the cellar were carried out?

3) What would have happened to anybody standing above the cellar, if the gunpowder had exploded?

Task 3

Work with another student, or a friend.

Decide which of these statements are true, and which are false.

1) Guy Fawkes masterminded the Gunpowder Plot.True/False

2) Guy Fawkes was also known as Gazza Fawkes. True/False

3) The Gunpowder Plot was hatched in 1605. True/False

4) The conspirators planned to blow up The Tower of London. True/False

5) The conspirators wanted to restore England to Catholic rule. True/False

Task 4

How do you think The Gunpowder Plot would be reported today?

Can any parallels be drawn between the Gunpowder Plot and modern day events?

How might the British tabloid newspapers report it?

How might the broadsheet newspapers report it?

Do you think any newspapers might display bias, either for or against the conspirators?

Writing Activity

Work with a partner.
Imagine you are given the task of writing a short piece for one of these newspapers:

A) The Guardian
B) The Independent
C) The Daily Mail
D) The Sun

Write a headline and a short paragraph about The Gunpowder Plot for one of these newspapers.

Task 5

How might the story spread via social media if it happened today?

Dancing into history- Exercise

2011-11-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from a BBC news report.
Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

leap / in the limelight / at the height of / defected/ to wow

1.

North Korea has denied sending spies into South Korea to murder the most senior official ever _____________ from the Communist country.

2.

It's certainly the case that the way most brides and grooms choose to preserve their brief moment _____________ has been evolving, away from the stuffy and predictable.

3.

"It gets people on board to have a look and they're ___________ by it. It's showing people that these boats are affordable, that they're not just for billionaires."

4.

Many see Australia moving away from its old allegiances, towards a future firmly within the Asian region. But can it make the emotional and cultural _______ to replace Europe and America at the centre of its consciousness with Asia?

5.

The Pistols, having recently sworn on tea-time telly, were ____________ their notoriety, many of the tour dates were cancelled, and protesters gathered to sing carols and pray for the misguided souls inside the town's Castle Cinema.

Halloween Special -- Fear

2011-10-31T06:09:00.000-07:00

Idioms connected with fear:
1. Shaking like a leaf
2. Scared stiff
3. It sends shivers up and down my spine

Have you ever been so scared you were shaking like a leaf? Or perhaps you saw something which sent shivers up and down your spine.

Send me a sentence or two using these idioms .

Billy Elliot - Children of the Revolution (T-rex)

2011-10-27T12:43:00.000-07:00