24/11/09

DOWNTOWN- vocabulary related to the city.

downtown [1] - Visual Dictionary Online


Downtown
Central district of a city where the main cultural, economic and commercial activities are carried out.

Did you know all the terms that appear in the picture? they're really useful for travelling but if you're learning the directions and the buildings in a city, that's a great picture.

20/11/09

WATCHING NEW MOON

Watch These videos about NEW MOON and answer the questions presented at the end:









THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON: Movie Trailer - For more amazing video clips, click here

QUESTIONS:

VIDEO ONE:

1. WHAT'S THE NAME OF BELLA'S FRIEND?
2. wHAT IS HIS SECRET IDENTITY?
3 WHY DID EDWARD ABANDON BELLA, ACCORDING TO THE VIDEO?
4. WHO IS LOOKING FOR HER IN THE FOREST?
5. WHAT DID HAPPEN AT BELLA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY?

VIDEO TWO:

1. HOW DOES BELLA FEEL TOWARDS JACOB?
2 WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE OLD VAMPIRES?
3. WHO TELLS BELLA ABOUT EDWARD'S INTENTIONS?
4. WHERE DO THEY TRAVEL?
5 CAN YOU IMAGINE AN END FOR THIS VIDEO?

17/11/09

LISTENING COMPREHENSION: KATE MOSS


One of the things that the British are known for is our ability to queue! Recently there have been a number of queuing events which have made the news. One was the release of a new bag by a well known designer and at the beginning of May thousands queued for the midnight opening of the high street clothes retailer Topshop as they launched a new line of clothing designed by the British model Kate Moss.

In this programme we hear from people in the queue about why they are there. We also hear about Kate Moss herself and how she has remained so commercially successful despite controversies in her private life.

Before you listen to the programme look at the following comprehension questions. You can hear the answers in the programme.
Check your understanding by trying the quiz in the 'Extras' section below where you can also download the programme and a transcript.

1: Where was the designer bag originally sold?
2: How long has Kate Moss been modelling?
3: How was her career affected by pictures in the tabloid papers?
4: Did Kate Moss appear at the launch of her designs?

PROGRAMME SCRIPT (DOWNLOAD PDF)

LISTENING KATE MOSS


Vocabulary from the programme

to snap (something) up
to buy something in a sale or at a good price which isn't available for very long

an onlooker
someone who watches something happening in a public place but isn't involved

to catch a glimpse of someone or something
to see someone or something for a very short time

a label
the tag in an article of clothing which has the name of the company or designer

gorgeous / stunning
very attractive and good looking

to weather the storm of negative publicity
to survive a period when there are a lot of negative stories in the media

to come out on top
to come out of a difficult situation and still be successful

a small blip
a small temporary interruption which proves not to be very important

source: BBC WORLD SERVICE/ listenings.

LISTENING: The Reading Group


This listening is part of a series of listenings about a Reading Group. Try to follow the programme , if you get lost you can download the conversation script in pdf.

In today's programme we discuss some of the difficulties of reading in a different language, and we also visit an English language club in Russia.

download the script (pdf)

Listening

PAST SIMPLE AND PAST CONTINUOUS PRACTICE

Past Simple and Past Continuous

10/11/09

RECIPES FOR A CAKE CONTEST

The following delicious recipes are some examples of hundreds of recipes about cakes, muffins, pies or cookies that you can find in the internet.

Don't forget to add some cultural aspects in your recipes for the contest!!
RECIPES FOR NOVEMBER:

Christmas baking wouldn't seem complete without a batch of gingerbread men. These cookies are fragrant with ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; the amount of which can be adjusted to suit your own individual taste. If you like your gingerbread cookies on the soft side bake them a little less than the recipe states as the longer they bake the harder they will become. There are a few ways to decorate your gingerbread men; one is to press raisins into the dough before baking, or you can frost the baked and cooled cookies with confectioners frosting. You can also use gingerbread men as decorations for your Christmas tree or as gift tags. To do this, pierce a hole in the top of each unbaked cookie using a straw or end of a wooden skewer. Bake the cookies and then thread a pretty ribbon through the hole and hang on your tree.


Chocolate Truffles are a rich and elegant, bite-sized petit four made with a creamy mixture of chocolate, cream, and butter to which various flavorings are added (liqueurs, extracts, nuts, coffee, purees, spices, candied or dried fruits). This mixture is really a Ganache that is rolled into mis-shaped rounds to look like the real truffle fungus that grows around the roots of trees in France and Italy. Once the truffles are formed they are then rolled in cocoa powder to simulate the 'dirt' that the real truffles grow in. While cocoa powder is the traditional coating, truffles can also be coated in confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, toasted and chopped nuts, tempered chocolate, shredded coconut, or even shaved chocolate.

Shortbreads are traditionally a Christmas cookie made with just four ingredients, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and flour. They are a rich cookie with a delicate buttery flavor. These cookies freeze very well so they are the perfect cookie to make for the holiday season.

Pound Cake

Pound cakes were the cakes made by our mothers, our grandmothers, and our great-grandmothers. The name 'pound' was given to this cake because the original recipes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.





Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe


The Chocolate Chip Cookie was invented by Ruth Wakefield, who was the owner of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. The story goes that one day in 1930 she decided to add small chunks of a Nestle's Semisweet Yellow Label Chocolate bar to her butter cookie dough. The cookies were an instant hit with her customers and word of their popularity reached the Nestle company. Nestle must have realized that adding small chunks of their chocolate bar to cookie dough would appeal to the mass market because by 1939 Nestle was selling chocolate morsels (or chips). What a brilliant marketing plan it turned out to be when Nestle decided to package the chocolate chips in a Yellow bag and then bought the rights to the Toll House name and Ruth Wakefield's chocolate chip cookie recipe. They called her recipe "The Famous Toll House Cookie" and printed it on the back of the Yellow bag of chocolate chips.

THANKSGIVING BAKING



When a sponge cake is baked in a sheet pan and then rolled around a filling, it is called a Roulade (for the French), a Jelly Roll (for the Americans), and a Swiss Roll (for the English). Sponge Cakes (or biscuits) presented in this way have a beautiful pinwheel design and they are often filled with toppings like lemon curd, jam or preserves, fruit sauces, chopped nuts, ganache, or for this recipe I have used a raspberry whipped cream. Now, all the garnish a sponge roll really needs is a dusting of confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, but to dress it up, as I did, you can pipe rosettes of cream down the center of the roll and then top the rosettes with fresh fruit.

For further information or different recipes check the following link:
(para ampliar información o buscar recetas diferentes podéis buscar en el siguiente enlace:)


Source: Joyofbaking



5/11/09

CLASSROOM VOCABULARY / VOCABULARIO DE CLASE

THIS HANDOUT IS VERY USEFUL FOR THE BEGINNER STUDENTS OR 1ST AND 2ND COURSE OF ESO.