Escuela Oficial de Idiomas Santa María de Guía

Tag Archives: news

I have to admit that nowadays watching news on tv becomes really depressing most of the time, but sometimes incredible stories appear.

One of these Christmas days, lost in the middle of the stupid news about the football world when there are no matches, a Spanish television channel showed a piece of sports news that, in my humble opinion, should be broadcasted.

There are lots of links talking about the amazing story of two brothers, Connor and Clayden Long . I’ve just selected two of them.

http://www.sikids.com/blogs/2012/11/20/sportskids-of-the-year-conner-and-cayden-long

Ummm, I strongly recommend having a handkerchief within reach, he he he!


Avanzado 2 students had the opportunity to read a text about different ways to get your own back when somebody breaks up with you. They are all real stories and can be found on our textbook, New English File Advanced. These are the stories:

Take care of yourself

French artist Sophie Calle received a saddening email from her partner breaking up with her. As a revenge, she decided to send the email to 100 professional women who analysed the message. With all the answers, she prepared an exhibition presented at the Venice Biennale.

Here’s an interview published in The Guardian where this story is explained.

The case of Jane Slavin and the famous composer

The famous actress Jane Slavin fell in love with a very very famous composer (read the article below to find out his name). Their relationship seemed to be perfect, after one day it seemed he had disappeared from the surface of earth.

That’s when her revenge started. She invented a new personality and started sending messages to him. After exchaning hundreds of emails they set up a date. When she showed up, he turned pale. She showed him the messages of his fake date and left.

You can read this story in this article published by the Daily Mail. Unbelievable.

The case of Lady Sarah Graham-Moon

This Lady decided to throw white paint on her ex-husband’s blue car as part of her revenge. She also spoiled his clothes, cigars and wine among other possessions. You can read about this case and others in this article published by The Independent.

Activity

Please write a break-up SMS. It mustn’t include more than 140 characters, spaces included. Leave it in our comments section. In class we will decide which comment was the best one. Please use your real name to sign the comment.

If you still haven’t found enough inspiration, just try to listen to Paul Simon singing 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Or you can visit this site, The Why We Broke Up Project, a site created by a writer, Daniel Handler, and it’s based on his novel Why We Broke Up. On his stie he invites his readers to write why they bumped their partners, it’s worth your time, promised.


Avanzado 2 students had the opportunity to read a text about different ways to get your own back when somebody breaks up with you. They are all real stories and can be found on our textbook, New English File Advanced. These are the stories:

Take care of yourself

French artist Sophie Calle received a saddening email from her partner breaking up with her. As a revenge, she decided to send the email to 100 professional women who analysed the message. With all the answers, she prepared an exhibition presented at the Venice Biennale.

Here’s an interview published in The Guardian where this story is explained.

The case of Jane Slavin and the famous composer

The famous actress Jane Slavin fell in love with a very very famous composer (read the article below to find out his name). Their relationship seemed to be perfect, after one day it seemed he had disappeared from the surface of earth.

That’s when her revenge started. She invented a new personality and started sending messages to him. After exchaning hundreds of emails they set up a date. When she showed up, he turned pale. She showed him the messages of his fake date and left.

You can read this story in this article published by the Daily Mail. Unbelievable.

The case of Lady Sarah Graham-Moon

This Lady decided to throw white paint on her ex-husband’s blue car as part of her revenge. She also spoiled his clothes, cigars and wine among other possessions. You can read about this case and others in this article published by The Independent.

Activity

Please write a break-up SMS. It mustn’t include more than 140 characters, spaces included. Leave it in our comments section. In class we will decide which comment was the best one. Please use your real name to sign the comment.


I don’t know if this is the right place to do this, but I think that a great man has abandoned this world.

As this is a place to learn English, I’m going to leave you some links for you to know who this sir was and what he did in his life.

I strongly recommend you to see the following video from 2005 at Stanford University. He was invited to give a commencement speech and his words are now part of history. During his speech he talked about his life and his career and gives us some good advice on how to follow your dreams. He also believed that learning should never be disregarded, as you never know how you can get to use that knowledge.

Today I’ve read many articles about this creator, but this is the one I’ve enjoyed the best. In it, David Pogue (for The New York Times) compares Mr Jobs with Walt Disney or Leonardo da Vinci among others. I don’t know if it might seem exaggerated, but I really think that he was unique and that we can learn a lot from him.

Mashable, a blog about technology has also included several posts about this issue today. Undoubtly this is the most interesting one, where they collect the 13 most inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs. Read them, they are really worth it.

Finally, if you wish to know more things about Steve Jobs, don’t miss what the Wikipedia says about him.

RIP Steve Jobs.


Yappr is a site created to practise English with videos and games. For some of its features, a fee is reqeusted, but you can use most of them for free. Let’s take a look at the site.

  • Videos: You can watch a video (music, news, spots, etc.) and see its transcription and translation.
  • Pronunciation: You need to install a programme to use this feature.
  • Games: You can play the following games:
  1. Alphabet Soup: The classical game where you have to find words.
  2. Bank Robber: Guess the word before the robber takes all the money.
  3. Twist List: Find words with the given letters reading their definition or translation.
  • Community: This section includes a chat room and a message board.

As you have seen, Yappr is a place full of possibilities. A different way to practise English. See you!



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