ENJOY LIFE.. what the heck!

I thought it could be great to share with you all at this time of the year, two songs that personally, I like a lot, as they help me boost up my confidence and give me plenty of energy to keep going because they are so full of good vibrations.

So, if you think you are a bit down these days.... well, cheer up and keep your spirits up by having a go at these two songs.

This one is called"Alegría" one of the most popular songs by Cirque du Soleil.

This one here, is "Viva la Vida" by Cold Play. A live show they gave some of their fans in London a couple of years ago.

With this video clip I thought you could listen to it while you try to fill in the blanks with the suitable words

“Viva la Vida” by Cold Play.

I used to rule the (world/word)
Seas would rise when I gave the (word/world)
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead, long live the king"

One minute I held the ..............
Next the walls were closed on ..........
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a-.............

Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't .......................
Once you'd gone there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the (world/word)

It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered .............and the sound of ............
People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver ..................
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh, who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells a....................
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't ................
I know St. Peter won't call my ..............
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the(word/ world)

Ohh...

Hear Jerusalem bells a-...................
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't............
I know St. Peter won't call my...........
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the (word/ world)

How about a bit of homework?

Hi there!

Hope you all are having a great time with your Christmas holidays!

First of all, I'd like to you read the 1st Reading book, " Chemical Secret" as I told you the week before Christmas holidays. If you like, you could write a one-page summary of it so that I can have a look for mistakes, right?

By the way, how much do you know about the different means of transport in UK? Click here
and you will find out some facts and useful information about transport in UK.

How about a transport quiz right now? Click here and you'll find a 10-question quiz on transport! Good luck!
Cheerio!

JUST A BIT OF HOMEWORK FOR THESE DAYS!!

Hi everyone!

Hope you are still enjoying your Christmas holidays to the full.

Let me just remind you that I'd like you to read the 1st Reading book: " Death of an Englishman", as the 2nd FIS tests will be round about end of February. As I mentioned to some of you on the last day of class, it would be a good idea if you could make a short summary of the book and, if you like, you could hand them over at the first week of January for me to check.

Apart from that, I have chosen a number of exercises and quick tests on "Simple Past & Present Perfect Simple" for those of you who might need some more revision exercises.

To get more extra practice on "phrasal verbs" about Travel here you have a couple of exercises:

a) Some listenings with some travel phrasal verbs from the BBC webpage.
b) A crossword with vocabulary about travel.

c) A matching exercise with travel phrasal verbs

WISH YOU WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS & A GREAT NEW YEAR!!

Wishing you all Merry Christmas
and all the best for the oncoming year 2010!

CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT IN COPENHAGEN

I suppose you already know by now the final result of the discussions taken by the most important world leaders at the Climate summit in Copenhagen this week. So disappointing, isn't it?

Well, here you have a powerful and vibrant speech made by Al Gore on the first day of these top talks that it is worth listening to! A MUST SEE!

Click here to see the video, and after that I would like you to post any comments about what you think about it.

NEW ENGLISH FILE(File 2B) Practice on Present Perfect Continuous.

We are just in the middle of FILE 2B in the book and we have already dealt with "Present Perfect Continuous" verb tense. So... For those of you who may need some extra practice with "Present Perfect Continuous" verb tense ,I'd recommend you to click here and do the exercises you'll find in the webpage.


Hope you enjoy doing them!

Some problems with images formats!!

I suppose you couldn't see the chart of adjectives properly on the blog as it took up more space than expected and the format seems to be a different... sorry about that!!

Anyway, below the chart you have a link where I have taken that chart from. Please do click on that link http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ will take you straight to the website I got that chart from.
Have fun!

Adjectives as nouns and some links to put adjectives in their right order

Hi, everyone!

I'm presenting you with a rather hard grammar point which we haven't dealt with yet, but which I consider it is worth paying some attention to right now.

Here you have some links to study this grammar point, which sometimes may be quite difficult for you:

Try any or all these easy quizzes to check your difficulties using nationality adjectives: quiz 1 quiz 2 quiz 3
If you had problems I recommend you to revise any of these lists: list 1 list 2

To revise the use of the + some adjectives to talk about specific groups of people I suggest these links: explanation exercise

or for the use of one and ones: exercise 1

As for the position of adjectives before a noun, although it is impossible to give a clear rule which will work in all circumstances, here is an acceptable order for adjectives.

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
Determiner	Observation	Physical Description				Origin	Material	Qualifier	Noun
		Size	Shape	Age	Color
a	beautiful			old		Italian		touring	car
an	expensive			antique			silver		mirror
four	gorgeous		long- stemmed		red		silk		roses
her			short		black				hair
our		big		old		English			sheepdog
those			square				wooden	hat	boxes
that	dilapidated	little						hunting	cabin
several		enormous		young		American		basketball	players
some	delicious					Thai			food

(taken from http:// grammar.ccc.commnet/edu/grammar )

Finally I think you could try this general quiz on adjectives

JUST MUSIC..... WHY NOT?

I am one of those teachers who think that playing music is as good a way to improve listening as it is playing any other piece of information.

That’s why, from now on every Monday, if possible, I'd like to present you with a song.It’s not always easy to choose the song and even more difficult to choose which lines you will be able to understand. What’s more, I’m also quite aware of the fact that the music I like is probably not everyone’s cup of tea (I know, I know… you won't ever complain) . So , now it’s your turn. Have you been listening to some tracks lately and thought… “José Luis should be playing this track” ?
Yes…. Then , let me know. Send me a reply to this post with your suggestion.It should include the following information:

Singer/ Band:
Song Title
A few lines:

and thanks for your help. This blog is written for you and with you.

INFLUENZA

I was searching for a song on the net, when I came across this interesting video on the topic of influenza. The moment I saw it, it immediately caught my attention. As you probably know, this is the typical season in which we are most exposed to a simple cold or flu, as they can affect anyone, making us feel miserable and exhausted as well!

Shame! I have been trying hard to upload the video onto my blog, but it seems, it's too big and it was taking me ages to upload it, so I have decided to give you a link to redirect you to the video.
Click here to watch the video.

On the same interesting website where you can see the video there is also a quiz which can be done after watching it.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND!

In order to look at some more basic vocabulary to talk about money I suggest you doing this self-test exercise.

Now what about a bit of music? I’ve thought you might like to listen to two quite different songs , whose chorus I’ve used to give a title to this post. This is one of the songs about "money" I mentioned in class, remember?

the first song is one of the pieces of the 1972 American musical film Cabaret

The second song was released more than twenty years later by the American singer and song-writer R. Kelly and it appeared in his 1989 album “R”

Let's have fun with these weird hobbies!

Seems to me, that these inmates at Alabama prison know perfectly well how to spend their spare time ! Worth having a look at it!

Let's improve our English!!

It's amazingly quickly for me to find so many different blogs by just clicking or typing in the word "blogs".

It's like a new sunset on an idyllic island like this every single day.

My first article published in my blog

Well, I must say that I am so happy, so thrilled to get started on how blogs work. To be honest, I had never thought that this could ever come true.