Christmas time and some reflection about Christmas and New Year

Here you are some videos to know a bit more about Christmas:

• this short video is about curiosities on Christmas celebrations click here (NI1)
• this is about the history of Christmas: click here
• this is about carols or Christmas songs: click here
• this is one of the most famous carol with lyrics: click here

But are you fed up with Christmas, eating so much, family meetings, wasting money and so on? Here you are a funny text with an exercise of filling the blanks: What we hate about Xmas (a difficult text for NI1 but you can try)

If you want to have a good time, here you are the famous video about Mr. Bean at Christmas.

Soon we'll start a new year and it's time for New Year's Resolutions. Here you are a link where you can find out about New Year's celebrations and traditions all around the world; click here to see the video.

As a New Year's resolution, this might be to improve your English by learning some proverbs or idioms. Here you are 5 examples to start with: click here

Hope to see you after Christmas holidays!

MAKE versus DO

This is a very difficult point but here you are a good link to start with: click here. Here you are the exercises we did in class: this one has a long explanation and an exercise at the end and this is the other one with the groups instead of lists.
The best way of learning is to do exercises so here you have some:

• exercise 1    exercise 2     exercise 3      exercise 4

NA2 - Writing an Article

Although you have some information about how to write an article in your textbook, I've also found this helpful guideline to do it and it contains exercises to make it clearer. You should click here. I know it's quite long (12 pages!) but I think it's worth reading it, especially the beginning of the guide with the principal tips for writing a good article.It has exercises with the answer key at the end so I hope it'll be useful for you.

Something a bit shorter but also interesting is this link which will give you some advise, sentences to use and a model of an article. Focused on FCE, it can be applied to our exams.

This is the last link I'll give you. It's very simplified so it could be a good summarize of the topic.

See you in class!

Thanksgiving: 4th Thursday of November

This is a great tradition in America but it's also celebrated in other places. Here you have a video if you want to know a bit about it. It includes vocabulary: click here. If you want to know something about the history, here you have some more videos:

• this is for intermediate level: click here and this one is with subtitles in English
• this video is a bit longer but not much more difficult; click here to see it
• if you want to know something aboutmThanksgiving around the world, click here

ALCINE - Short Film Festival in Alcala

On Friday (November,10th) we're going to see some short films at Teatro Salón Cervantes. For those who can't go and to have a programme for the ones who are going, here you are some information I found on the internet about the short films:

JAMIE by Christopher Manning

A trailer about the short film:

Biography: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0543250/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

A video of the director showing and commenting the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsS1OFnozU4

An interview with the director about the short film: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/christopher-manning-film-gave-me-sense-wasnt-alone

REFUGE by Leticia Agudo

A trailer: http://alcine.org/programa/22349/refuge/?&s=205

SWEET MADDIE STONE by Braddy Hood

A trailer: https://vimeo.com/154873241

The complete video (23 min.): https://www.nowness.com/series/the-young-ones/sweet-maddie-stone-brady-hood-nfts

TÊTE A TÊTE by  Natash Tomkin

A trailer: https://vimeo.com/204751046

A video with the director explaining the making of the film: https://vimeo.com/221151605

I'm really interested in your comments about the films. See you in class!

NI1 - Using Last and The last (next / the next)

This is a difficult point but remember the general idea I gave you in class:

• THE LAST and THE NEXT is connected to the position, as when you say the first, the second, the next and the last; e.g. The last person to come will have to lock the door.
• LAST is a reference of time, especifically to past, while NEXT is referred to future; e.g. Last summer I went to Ireland       Next week I'll visit my parents

Do this exercise to practise.

I also include some exercises to practise with SO, BUT, BECAUSE and ALTHOUGH:

• exercise 1 (very short)          exercise 2 (a bit boring because it's too long)

NA2 - Vocabulary (Work) and some practice for the final exam.

I 've just come across this exercise about phrasal verbs related to work. It's quite interesting so I houhgt you might like to do it: click here

I tried to find a good explanation about the difference between SALARY, WAGE and INCOME and this is what I found: click here

For fill-in-the-gaps exercises I have this link if you want to practise for your final exam.

For Listening practice here you are this blog with a lot of exercises: click here.

See you in class!