Daily Archives: 24 September 2009

Food and cooking. Working with Flickr

24 September 2009Create your own stuff, freeware, Lesson Plan: Advanced, Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Resources, The English language, VocabularyCristina Cabal

Food! Food!! Food for thought! Always nice to learn something so useful. Nive way to teach too when it is as funny as doing it using this amazing tool which borrows pictures from Flickr and allows users to input sentences, phrases or even entire paragraphs and then turn them into illustrated slide shows .

Why don’t you try your own images and share them? Have a look at what I’ve done.
Ways of cooking
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17840

Kitchen equipment
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17841

Taste:
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17844

What’s the difference between Sour and Bitter?
1.Take a drink of Vinegar : This would be sour or so considered to be.
2.Take a bite of Real pure dark chocolate: This would considered bitter
1.A Grannysmith green cooking apple would be sour
2.Coffee without sugar or cream would be bitter
Sour lemons and limes, or unripe fruit before it becomes sweet.

Vegetables
http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/?id=17846

Enjoy your meal!!

How To Pass the Test When You Haven’t Read the Book

24 September 2009Funny Stuff, Listening, Writingfun, reading, videoCristina Cabal

Hey! Hold on a sec… this is not what you think it is but just the opposite .
As the writing test is nearing some of you are probably beginning to wonder whether you’ll have time to finish your novel or whether it might be necessary to find help somewhere else. In case you are considering the infinite possibilities the Internet offers, watch this video… I’ve watched it too. 😉

Related entries:

A book Review

A Book Review

24 September 2009Lesson Plan: Advanced, Reading, Resources, Writingbook review, tips, writingCristina Cabal

You have been reading your books for a while now and I sincerely hope you are enjoying it. But… hurry up if you haven’t finished because your writing test is coming… sorry to give you bad news. I have already made up my mind to do it on Thursday April 22 in class.
Here are some considerations and tips about writing book reviews. I hope you find them useful.What is the difference between a book report and a book review? A book report is completely factual. It includes information on the author, title, place and year of publication as well as a summary of the content of the book. A book review, on the other hand, is much more personal. It is really an expression of the reader’s opinion of the work, or of specific aspects of the work. The review will probably include much of the same factual content as the report, but it is the reader’s personal opinions that are most important.

You have read your book. Your next step will be to organize what you are going to say about it in your report. Writing the basic elements down in an outline format will help you to organize your thoughts.What will you include in the outline?
The description should include such elements as:

•The setting-where does the story take place?
•The time period-is the story set in the present day or in an earlier time period? Perhaps it is even set in the future!
•The main character(s)-who is the story mostly about? Give a brief description. Often, one character can be singled out as the main character, but some books will have more than one
•The plot-what happens to the main character? WARNING! Be careful here. Do not fall into the boring trap of reporting every single thing that happens in the story. Pick only the most important events. Here are some hints on how to do that. First, explain the situation of the main character as the story opens. Next, identify the basic plot element of the story-is the main character trying to achieve something or overcome a particular problem? Thirdly, describe a few of the more important things that happen to the main character as he/she works toward that goal or solution. Finally, you might hint at the story’s conclusion without completely giving away the ending.

WRITING TIPS

Continue reading A Book Review →

How do you say 2010?

24 September 2009The English languageCristina Cabal

Lately I’ve stumbling about how to say 2010. If you think for a while you’ll see that ,so far, we have been saying 1900 as nineteen hundred and 1908 as nineteen oh eight or eighteen hundred and eight.
The question, then, is: if the year 1800 is eighteen hundred, how do you account for the year 2000 being two thousand and not twenty hundred? (Ok, let’s say that some people say twenty hundred but the vast majority don’t and we’re certainly sticking with the majority,)
So, what about 2010? Even though it is coming soon, it is still somewhat unclear whether the English speaking world will tend to call it twenty ten or two thousand ten.
I’ve done some research and found that people say different things:2010= twenty ten
2010= two thousand (and) ten
2010 = oh ten
Some of the people favouring twenty ten argue that it sounds more natural and others even say that people are lazy so, as twenty ten has only three syllables, this is certainly the favourite one.But let’s see what the experts have to say: According to David Crystal, author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, the change of pronunciation to “twenty X” will occur in 2011, as “twenty eleven”, explaining that the way people pronounce years depends on rhythm, rather than logic. Crystal claims that the rhythm or “flow” of “two thousand (and) ten”, beats that of “twenty ten”, but the flow of “twenty eleven” beats “two thousand (and) eleven”.Alternatively, Ian Brookes, editor-in-chief of Chambers Dictionary, suggests the change will occur in 2013 (as 2012 is often referred to as “two thousand and twelve”).
It seems we’ll have to wait and see.

As we are learning about the weather..

24 September 2009In the Computer Room, Lesson Plan: Advanced, ListeningB2, C1, songCristina Cabal

As we are learning about the weather …I thought it might be a good idea to teach with rhythm.
It’s Raining Men was originally recorded by The Weather Girls ,who were the duo formed by Martha Wash and Izora Rhodesand. The song went number 1, selling over 6million copies worldwide. Barbara Streisand and Diana Ross were both offered this song and turned it down, I guess they are still regretting it.

Geri Halliwell, formerly a member of The Spice Girls, also recorded this song in 2001. Her version was used on the soundtrack to the movie Bridget Jones’ Diary. When released, the single shot straight to number 1 for 2 weeks.
If you want to do the listening we did in class, click here https://www.cristinacabal.com/advanced/itsrainingmen1.htm