Year 1 and 4: Extra practice for the exam

If you want extra practice for the exam, visit the following websites:

Year 1
Listening exercises

Reading exercises

Year 4
FCE_exercises
FCE_practice
Reading exercise
Listening exercise
Reading and use of English

Matariki

Hi everybody,

Did you know that if you want to celebrate Matariki, the Maori New Year, you have to wait until June?

The Maori New Year is celebrated when the star cluster called "The Pleiades" rises in the north-east in the evening twilight. The precise date depends also on the moon, which is why it is not a fixed date.

If you want to find out more about Matariki, read the text and do the activities:

Matariki_Text

Matariki_Answers

An interesting website:

History of the Matariki Festival



HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Year 4: Protests in Spain

If you want to read about the protests in Madrid and in other cities in Spain, here is a selection of media comments from the English-speaking world:

• BBC
• BBC_Video
• Huffingtonpost
• Guardian
• The Washington Post

Year 4: Intellectual property

Intellectual Property (including patents, trademarks and copyrights) was celebrated internationally on April 26th. This is very much a subject of debate these days. If you want to find out more about this topic, you can read the text below:

Intellectual Property_Text

Intellectual Property_Answers

During the last few sessions we have talked about advertising. I think it's an interesting topic, especially our relationship with advertising as cosumers. The following video gives us another perspective on the subject.

What is your opinion? Leave a comment below.

Year 1: There is / There are

Some more exercises on There is - There are:

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4 (Some / any)

Parts of the house:
Vocabulary

Exercise 1

Vocabulary game: In the house

Year 4: In Troubled Spain

Read the following article:
In Troubled Spain

What do you think? You can leave your comments below.
Cheers

Year 1: Listening Past Simple / Easter

Two listening exercises: listen to this recording and do the exercises.



If you want to know more about Easter traditions and the origins of Easter, read this text.
Easter is the Time of Springtime Festivals

Year 4: Animals

Have you ever visited a zoo? Can you describe the main things you remember about the experience? What do you think about zoos in general? Can you come up with a list of pros and cons? Leave a comment.

In the text below you can read three differing opinions on the subject of zoos.

Zoos-Text

Zoos-Glossary

Zoos-Answers

If you want to learn more words related to the animal kingdom, visit the following websites:
National Geographic-Animals
Vocabulary-Animals

The dog in the picture is Hong Dong, a red Tibetan mastiff, which was recently bought for almost a million pounds. What is the reason for such a huge price tag? Read more.

Extra vocabulary exercise designed by my colleague Miguel Olivares.

Recommended reading material

1 Avanzado: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

To find out more about the book, take a look at this website: http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/guernsey/

1 Básico: The Black Arrow. R. L. Stevenson. BLACK CAT. GREEN APPLE

Year 1: Past Simple (Regular verbs)

If you want to put into practice what we've learned this past week about the Past Simple of regular verbs, take a look at the following websites:

Exercise_Was/Were

Theory_Past Simple

Exercise 1_Past Simple

Exercise 2_Pas t Simple