AMAZING DOTTED STING RAY

Exercises on modal verbs were checked. We focussed on page 78 in your grammars where there´s a summary with all the uses and examples. You must do the exercises assigned for next Thursday and finish all of then on Monday.
The beginning of unit 11 changed the conversation topic, this time is about advertising , publicity, the yellow press and tabloids. We started by checking the logos of popular brands we know and their drawing. Talking about brands teenagers like , those adults buy and the ones most frequently faked was an entertaining activity ,as there´s always something to say. We moved on to a listening about a teenager who pesters his mother to get a pair of Adidas trainers because he will be the odd one out at school if he hasn´t got them. Mothers should be allowed to talk about the matter on the grounds that we´re experts at dealing with nagging children. Pokemons, Tamagochis,Furbies,Poo-Chies and other more modern crazes were taked about like mobiles ,blootooth ... The last activity was a listening with two opposed personalities , one a marketing executive and the other, a headteacher, both of them giving their opinion about children and advertising . This is going to be the starting point for tomorrow´s class: a debate abouth whether laws should be passed to protect children from massive advertising.

DAYDREAMING

We had the class downstairs in the lab because there was a VHS video I wanted you to watch. But first doubts and questions about your homework were checked : sometimes there are very subtle differences with the use of modal verbs, in some occasions several are possible and there are other times when only one type is the right one, and it´s here where I place special emphasis on.Eg: must and can´t for deduction, didn´t need to do, needn´t have done for absence of obligation.The sort of things you might be in trouble with. Some more uses of modal verbs on pages 71,74 and 75 were dealt with .
Then, the video and I must say here that but for Herminio´s help ,I wouldn´t have been able to make it work.I admit I´m rather slow to accept technological advances, however I´m good-willed , eager to learn and I wouldn´t reject new technologies as a devilish invention.Anyway ,nature hasn´t gifted me with this ability and Herminio came to rescue me when I was on the verge of panicking. It was about an inventor called Trevor Baylis who made a clockwork radio, without batteries, to inform people in underdeveloped countries about the spread of Aids. Then we saw some other inventions in your books on page 93 and made guesses about the time they were invented, and finally on page 96 , more inventions and the necessary narrative tenses to set a sequence of events in the right order .
Homework:
Grammar ,pages 71 and 76.


Sorry, but I can´t help daydreaming about next summer in The Red Sea. The one on the bottom right corner is me pointing at some amazing creature , this time a Hickson´s giant seafan. Some people say it looks like cabbage ,however it isn´t a plant but an animal, a soft coral.

TIME FLIES

In our last class we checked some grammar exercises on pages 92 and 93 and worked more on both physical and psychological descriptions putting into practice the vocabulary you know , or at leat you should.
In your books on page 91, the reading activity about Frida Kahlo was done with two collocation exercises ,eg:she was confined to travelling/her room, she had illness/surgery. Then , on the following page ,we started to deal with modal verbs of deductions with a listening about people discussing some famous paintings: must be, can´t be .This activity led us to more explanations in your grammars on page 72.I mean to review all modal verbs of unit 5 since you can cope with them without much trouble.
For homework:
Workbook:
- page 44.
- pages 46 and 47 ,numbers 1,2,3,4 and 5
- pages 49 and 50, vocabulary exercises numbers 1,2,3 and 5
- page 52, grammar exercises 1,2,3,4 and 5
-Grammar : pages 72 and 73 about modal verbs.
This seems an awful lot of things to do, but let me remind you that you have the answers for all the exercises ,that you should be doing them without being told, that they are a review of what you know and finally that we won´t have class until next Monday, so you can. Remember the proverb :When there´s a will there´s a way.

THIRD TERM EXAMS

I´m not going to give you very good news, I´m afraid, but that´s life.
The third term exams will be held in May as follows:
- Grammar and vocabulary: Thursday,15th
- Listening and composition: Monday,19th
- Oral : Tuesday,20th and Wednesday ,21st.
- Report: Thursday, 22nd.
Let me know when you are available for the oral exams next Monday, 21st after the class.
Please, do make a serious effort and study what has been seen during the term in your textbooks, workbooks,glossaries and grammar.It´s going to bit a big longer and more comprehensive than the one you did for the second term, that is ,with more rephrasing, tenses, word building,prepositions, idioms and expressions.
Those of you who have failed previous vocabulary exams will have the chance to pass them now,so step on it and do your best!

MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED

I had planned to do so many things in just one session that I nearly went crazy, more than usual.As the proverb above goes, things should be done in a thoughtful,gradual way, but I´m afraid this time I sped up more than usual ending awfully stressed and you too.Sorry.
Well, we checked some exercises in your grammars on page 90 and I went on to review the structure "have something done", also related to the passive voice and did activities 13 and 14. After that ,we focussed on vocabulary related to character.Books, page 84 ,a little more sophisticaded adjectives , simple and compound,with their synonyms, eg: warm-hearted, down-to-eath,seff-centered.... Some of these adjectives were made into abstract nouns by adding the suffixes -ity and ness: lively>liveliness, generous>generosity. We also saw how the stress shifted in the process and their pronunciation.
The following activity was a rather silly one called Blind Date on pages 85 and 86 ,where men and women ,hidden behind a screen,ask each other questions and according to the answers, they choose one of the contestants for a date. We went through a small reading, the questions and did two listenings: one during the context and the other after it with the couple giving totally opposed opinions about the experience.
Homework : You were asked to finish your grammar exercises on the passive voice and also do the glossary activities related to unit 9.I told you to skip the workbook vocabulary and only learn a few compound adjectives I wrote on the blackboard , so when you come across a statement you don´t know, don´t do it. This is to be checked on Wednesday 16th, because, as you know ,there´s no class next Monday.
Please, have a look at the information about the party the student of Italian are organising. , it´s going to be fun.
YOU CAN´T MISS IT

ITALIAN PARTY

Today´s photograph is the same shipwreck I showed you last time, the Thistlegorm . You can see some of the motorbikes that were being carried for the British troops in Africa during WWII. If I say it´s impressive, I´m not accurate . It´s a lot more than that because practically everything is lying on their original location . You can dive inside the vessel and get a clear idea of what life was like before the bombing feeling the drama the crew must have undergone.

SHIPWRECK

We went through a photocopy titled Are You Happy with your Body? , about the craze for a perfect figure, the urgent need for men, women and even teenagers to have cosmety surgery done and the contrast with other cultures, eg Nigeria where clinics have "fattening rooms" for women to look better and be socially accepted. There was a fairly long speaking activity based on this reading.
You must be aware that the term that has just started is when all your skills will be assessed, specially your oral competence. If you don´t have an active attitude, show interest and speak clearly in a coherent way ,stating your point of view ,you´re going to sink like the Thistlegorm, the ship in today´s photograph.
Soon after , we had a listening about how the concept of beauty has changed throughout the years ,The Changing Face of Beauty: a gap filling activity based on a lecture given to a group of students.
Going back to your books, we saw a reading called Speed Dating , on page 83 , saw the vocabulary related to people´s character and did exercise 2.This time we coped with some more complex adjectives, such as laid-back, stand-offish ,straight ... which will help you define somebody´s character in a more accurate way.
And to finish with, some rephrasing exercises about the passive voice were seen in your grammars ,page 89.
Homework , grammar ,page 90.

The SS Thistlegorm was a British ship built in 1940 . She was sunk by the Germans on 5 October 1941 near Ras Muhammad in the Red Sea and is now a well known dive site.
The Thistlegorm set off her last voyage from Glasgow on 2 June 1941 destined for Alexandria it was during WW2 and she was carrying supplies to relieve the British Army . As Germany controlled the Mediterranean sea during this period, the ship had to sail around the Cape to the Red Sea. In September she anchored near Ras Muhammad National Park. The Thistlegorm was a target for two German planes returning from Crete . They dropped 450 kg bombs directly onto the ship. The explosion killed nine crew members and was so powerful that it launched two railway locomotives stored on deck into the air. Thistlegorm sank immediately, leaving no time for the crew to operate the lifeboats . Instead, they jumped into the water and were later rescued by another British vessel.
In the early fifties Jackes-Yves Cousteau discovered her by using information from local fishermen. He raised several items from the wreck, including a motorcycle and the ship´s bell, but he kept this information to himself.Nobody else but him knew about it.

In the early 1990s the ship was rediscovered by an Israeli skipper and has become a well-known wreck among divers.It´s a must.The massive explosion makes the wreck very accessible and the depth of around 30 m is ideal for diving: It´s impressive, I´ll show you some more pictures next time.

SUNSET

I´m awfully sorry for not being able to update this blog: both my students and I have been in a rush lately and time is running out.

Well, to sum up ,we started unit 9, one of the current topics nowadays people are very concerned about, and which give rise to heated debates: cosmetic surgery , its power to reach one´s goals and how it influences people´s relationships.

Page 78 , about vocabulary and collocations: full lips, a turned-up nose,sparkling eyes .., and 79 , a reading with questions :a reseach about beauty. Is it on the eye of the beholder or can it be measured? It was followed by a discussion about cosmetic surgery and specific opererations such as a liposuction, a tummy tuck,a facelift,a rhinoplasty... with the structure "have sth done" eg, I had my eyes made wider or I had my lips filled. On page 80 there was an interview to three people with very different ideas about the issue and a consequent class discussion where students stated their ideas either for or against. I want to make very clear that none of the activities encourage students or bias them to make this information personal.The topic is dealth with in a totally objective way.

We had a class in the lab first with pictures of celebrities before and after the operation. I simply couldn´t believe my eyes of the changes undergone by several well-know people,then a video about an American lady, Cindy Jackson who has had about 20 cosmetic surgery operations and a debate about it and the danger it involves for one´s health.

We also started the Passive voice in your grammars, page 86. In fact there´s very little new information and you were asked to do exercises on pages 88 and 89. There was a photocopy titled Are you happy with your body? with a few questions for Monday.

Look at this amazing sunset on the coast of the Sinai peninsula, in Egypt. There´s a small inflatable dinghy taking a group of divers for a night dive, a unique experience everybody should have at least once in their lifetime.