Surviving Christmas parties

Find a guide to parties for introverts plus some celebrity tips here.

Advent calendar

For those who may be looking forward to Christmas.

Essays

Your writing assignment consists of writing a problem-solution essay. Some ideas to structure it as well as some relevant connectors can be found in this document and here, and if you need some inspiration to choose a topic, this site may provide you with some ideas on possible topics. Some mistakes and good examples out of your latest essays.

Places

Find the handout on cities we went over the other day here. If you are interested in this topic and want to listen to different extracts on cities, you can find some here.

Another issue to do with places is is where we work. How are offices designed?

Writing essays in A2

Here's the handout that contains another essay example.

The environment

Could a one-page plan possibly work to save the planet?

Verb patterns

Some examples on verbs which can take both gerund or infinitive here and piles of exercises here.

Listening, public speaking and body language

Further to your suggestions, we will listen to either Amy Cuddy, Julian Treasure over the weekend and summarise the extract we choose fir the rest of the class next week.

Meet the composer

This programme  features different composers to present their work. In the first episode they feature John Luther Adams whose music is fast and slow at the same time, unraveling in fractal patterns that mimic great vast landscapes as well as tiny variations in the snow.

Dance

This programme explores dance through different angles to make us aware of its significance and meaning: Just dance!

Also the way in which Parkinson's patients enjoy dancing.

C1 and C2 certification in Language Schools

You can ask the Madrid Department of Education to offer C1 and C2 certifications through this link.

English Accents

Have a look at this man imitating different accents, can you identify any of them? And a bit more here on the posh English accent. On a more contemporary note, would you believe Iowa has standardized the English language?

Doppelgänger

Have you ever wondered if there's someone out there in the world who looks exactly like you? Or maybe even more than that: someone who shares your mannerisms, your way of standing, or even some part of your being? More examples here.

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden speaks at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives — and the laws that protect it. While NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett answers Anderson’s questions about the balance between security and protecting privacy.

Big Solar And Renewable Energy In The Age Of Fracking

The world’s largest solar power plant is up and running in California. We’ll look at where solar stands now, and the future of renewable energy. You access the programme here.

Can 10,000 hours of practice make you an expert?

A much-touted theory suggests that practising any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert. No innate talent? Not a problem. You just practice. But is it true?

Cloze test

Some of you were commenting on the challenging nature of task 3 in the reading exam paper so I'm posting a link to cloze exercises you can access here and some others at the eoisantander site.

Oral Presentations

This term we're starting to practice for our speaking exam by doing oral presentations in class. Here is some useful language and phrases to use in them and you can also refer to the Advanced 2 blog for additional tips. As well as that, you can practice for the oral expression part of the exam through the activities posted here for you.

Speaking and writing assessment criteria

You can find a handout like the one in class right here for you to see the assessment criteria that will be applied to your written and spoken productions in English.

Cleft sentences

You can access some extra cleft sentence examples and practice at the englishadvanced2 blog.

Why do we like corruption?

Since our current topic deals with crime, you may want to practice some of the vocabulary we've gone over by completing this cloze on the Spanish Royals, the key to which can be found here, or read this somewhat old article from The Economist which tries to figure out the role of our Roman Catholic culture as an undelying explanation for our acceptance and endorsing of corruption. Seeing as our media is highly unreliable you might want to learn about what our government is up to by accessing more impartial reports such as this one by Reuters on why Spain is no country for judges or this one by The Guardian on how in Spain francoist torturers get away with murder and their successors refuse to pursue human rights!

How Rupert Murdoch Changed the Media

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch built News Corp from its roots in Australia to become an international multimedia empire. NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik writes about the billionaire businessman in his new book, "Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires." Folkenflik joins us to talk about the magnate's politics and about the trial now underway of alleged bribery and phone hacking by Murdoch's journalists in London.

 Listen to minutes 0 to 15:09 and answer the following questions:

1. What are the links between Murdoch’s and 10 Downing Street?

      2.  What examples of people does the interviewee provide as to the targets of News Corp hacking?

       3.  Although it was well known up to the scandal blowup that News Corp was hacking people, why were the English tolerant of it?

      4.  Why is Rupert Murdoch said to have become a lot more wary of media coverage?

      5. What is said to be peculiar about Fox?

      6. Complete the following sentences with the word(s) you hear:

        a.       This trial’s getting under way, …………………, …………………….., …………………………., we recently saw an article about, well, …………….. being taken away by Rebekah Brooks and others.

b.      Rebekah Brooks used to head the News of the World and then she went on to head The Daily Sun tabloid. She’s been described by others as being a ……………….. daughter. 

      c.       Andrew Coulson, who was her colleague as editor of the News of the World, and who then went on to be ……………………  guy for PM David Cameron.

       d.      We’re looking at …………………….. essentially of the Wall Street Journal reporters on the News of the World hacking scandal. They tried a number of times to kill the story.

      e.       At this ………………………… moment in the summer of 2011 when hacking scandal first blew up in the UK.

      f.       A family that has never …………………………. except in this terribly tragic and painful way

      g.      It was almost as if they we ………………………. feeding on themselves.

       h.      She (Cheri Blair) certainly …………………….. against News Corp and its successor company 21^st Century Fox.

       i.       They wouldn’t talk to you, News Corp weren’t talking to you and they were ……………………. others from talking to you and in a way publicly denigrated your reputation.
  
  

      j.      Roger Ailes and Fox have made Murdoch a ton of money and therefore that wins you some …………………………. .

       7.   What is meant by the words and expressions in bold?

      The media and the political elite were hand in glove.

       Rather than working for public interest they were working to further their own interests.
      
      Tony Blair and some of these other politicians were the poodles of Rupert Murdoch rather than Bush’s as so often they alleged.

       It is a credit to the newspaper and its journalists that that news did appear

Gaelic Athletic Association GAA

The Gaelic Athletic Association / Cumann Lúthchleas Gael is a 32 county sporting and cultural organisation that has a presence on all five continents.

It is Ireland's largest sporting organisation and is celebrated as one of the great amateur sporting associations in the world today.

The GAA is a volunteer led, community based organisation that promotes Gaelic games such as Hurling, Football, Handball and Rounders and works with sister organisations to promote Ladies Football and Camogie. It is part of the Irish consciousness and plays an influential role in Irish society that extends far beyond the basic aim of promoting Gaelic games.

There are a range of sports among the Gaelic Games family including
Football, Hurling, Ladies Football, Camogie, Handball and Rounders. To see wat the Irish games look like go to GAA TV

Personality adjectives

Here is a handout containing personality adjectives with their translations a student has shared with the class. I hope you find it useful to review vocabulary. Also, there is this link where you can find additional adjectives for basic personality traits and this one with more nuanced ones.

You've your writing task for the weekend here.

Corrections on proposals

Further to your handing in the proposals you wrote last week, here's a document commenting on the most prevailing mistakes found in them them.

Social Media: The First 2,000 Years - Tom Standage

The author of this book argues social media is much older than we believe. Listen to this extract in which Tom Standage talks with Steve Paulson about his book, "Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years." which you can find here and answer the following questions:

 

1. What was the main content of the Martin Luther’s 'Ninety-Five Theses'?

2. What triggers him to follow up with a series of pamphlets in German?

     3. Did the Roman Church have any means of broadcast?

     4. What, according to the interviewee, is the difference between social media and broadcasting?

     5. What has been the effect of the role of the internet in this development?

     6. What’s the interface between broadcasting and social media?

     7. Explain the meaning of following phrases in bold uttered during the interview:

a.       They were masters of social media long before Mark Zuckerberg was a in twinkle in his mother’s eye there was media and it was social.

b.      It’s an incredibly effective way for him to galvanize support for his idea that the catholic church needed to be reformed

c.       My tongue is somewhat in my cheek

d.      I've actually plotted Luther's traffic stats.

e.      This is what modern scholars call synchronization of opinion.

f.        You are not describing the mass media here as the institutions we tend to know as the major newspapers, as television networks, where the news has gatekeepers and it's centralized and there are professional journalists.

g.       So we end up with this very centralized media system which has, yes, this small priesthood of journalists and politicians and businessmen that have access to it.

h.      The mass media era is the anomaly, a blip that has now come to an end.

Doubts Shed on Benefits of Knee Surgery

Around 700,000 people in the U.S. undergo knee surgery each year. But a new study finds no significant difference in improvement between patients who had one common knee surgery - arthroscopy - and those who underwent a fake surgery. We'll discuss the effectiveness of knee surgery and how to keep your knees healthy. Listen to the interview up to minute 8:06 where the study is discussed here and answer the following questions:

1. Have a look at this language and expressions which are used in this section of the interview:

A new study has called into question its value

The meniscus is a type of fibrocartilage which is a type of cartilage we distinguish the cartilage found on the ends of bones called hyaline cartilage

It can be thought of as a shock absorber

To prevent the ends of the bone from coming into contact during weight-bearing

There are different types of tears, there is an acute tear (runners or athletes) and a degenerative tear (traumatic episodes that occur over time)

A sham or fake surgery

They only trimmed the meniscus after an envelope was opened in the operating room to determine which group the patients would fall under

There was an out for those who had the fake surgery

2. What do the doctors interviewed conclude from the results of the study?

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive - and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

Listen to this talk here and answer these questions as you go along:
 

      1. Complete these sentences with the word(s) you hear:

a.       She decided she’d ..................................and try for one last big payday in the marquee event, the New York City marathon.

b.      They are free from all of these modern ................................

c.       The only problem is, the first ................................ only appeared 200,000 years ago.

d.      Now we’re not using our strength because we’re the biggest .............................. in the jungle

e.      And then after that, you ............................... to the rigors of time.

f.        You can’t be bearing ............................. .

            g.       The benefits, social and physical and political and mental, could be ..............................

      2. What are the three mysteries Mr. McDougall presents in relation to humans?

          3.  What explanation does McDougall put forward in order to account for the three mysteries he has previously laid out?

      4. Which are the two times he mentions in which humans benefit most from animal protein?

            5.  In what way does McDougall say we have spoiled our natural ability?

      6. What is McDougall’s proposal at the end of the talk? Does it have other implications?

      7. The following phrases contain words in bold uttered throughout the talk, can you explain what they mean?

a.       But the under-underdog hangs tough

b.      Deratu Tulu ruins the script again

c.       It’s a heartwarming story

d.      Outliers

e.      Scientists at Harvard and Utah University are bending their brains to try to figure out what the Tarahumara have known forever.

f.        They have fangs, they have claws, they have nimbleness, they have speed.

g.       In that very short learning curve, you have gone from broken organs up to the fact that you’re only 10 minutes off the male world record.

h.      …you put them in a race 50 or 100 miles against anybody in the world and it’s a coin toss  who’s going to win.

i.         It being prehistory, you can say whatever the hell you want and get away with it.

j.        It’s us in modern times who have sort of gone off the path.

k.       I need to cross-train. I didn’t do yoga. I’m not ready.