A great site to watch short documentaries

Click  here and you'll see what I mean. The good thing is that you can choose!

I suggest  this one to start with, and then you can try others on your own.

EXAM DATES

This is just a reminder of the dates of your finals:


4ºB / 4ºC  (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Usual class time and room
Wednesday 13th May:  Writing.
Monday 18th May: Listening, Reading. (As usual, we start with the listening test. Please don't be late or you'll miss it).
Wednesday 20th & Monday 25th May: Speaking. Please contact me for the exact day and time.
Wednesday 27th May: Results. You can have a look at your exams too.

Good luck to everyone!

Crime

Listen to a woman talking about crime in the part of the United States where she lives.

Click here, hide the transcript and click on 'Comprehension Quiz' to scroll down some comprehension questions.

Here you can listen to a crime story being told. You also have comprehension questions, and don't forget to hide the script.

Finally, a 'live' crime: click here.

Actors acting

I'm sure you remember Simon Callow from our last class. Watch him in a BBC advertisement telling tell a story about a princess who lived on the moon and an evil space hedgehog.



Story Time. from Itch Film on Vimeo.

Body language

A different view of body language: Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist talks about how our body language can shape our mind:

Men and women

Do you remember John Gray (author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus)? Now you can watch him on TedTalks:

Women's Day

We've just begun the topic of men and women, so why not start with some information about how Women's Day has been celebrated around the world this year:

A world without music

From the BBC:

"6 December 2012 Last updated at 17:18 GMT

A ban on all music is just one of a number of strict social codes rebel groups in northern Mali have imposed on citizens.
Dozens of musicians have headed south where singing is not a crime after Islamists in the north jammed radio airwaves and confiscated mobile phones, replacing ringtones with Koranic verses."

Watch this video for the full story.

Emotions and the Oscars

Watch this BBC video to learn how to react when you find out you've won an Oscar, in case it ever happens to you, you never know,  and how to prepare the perfect Oscars speech.

Gerunds and infinitives

Would you like to have some more practice?

You can try these:

Set 1

Set 2 : two quizzes and an interactive list for your reference

MARCH EXAMS DATES

Just below you'll find the dates for your March 2015 exams, for both 4ºB and 4ºC (at our usual class time and room):

4 March:  Writing. 
9 March:  Listening and Reading (Starting with the listening test. Please don't be late because you won't be allowed to go into the room until it finishes).
11 and 16 March: Speaking. Please contact me for the exact day and time.
18 March: Results.

Good luck to everyone!

Survivors

I've reconstructed the story of the four young men who went to the Amazon in search of an Indian village. As the videos don't last very long, you can watch them 'one bite at a time'.

How the backpackers meet:

 

Shattered dreams: they can't find the Indian village and Marcus begins to have real problems with his festering feet.




So they forget their initial idea of the Indian village and decide to build a raft:






After these awful rows, Yossi and Kevin separate and continue on their raft down the river. But they have an accident

 

After the accident everything becomes much worse, now they're on their own

 

The weather also gets worse

  

Yossi keeps walking in circles.  Kevin's situation is not much better, but he has a stroke of luck



Kevin starts Yossi's rescue




He tries it another way:

 

Vocabulary related to cars and driving

Please have a close look at this:

Driving: Vocabulary from eoi.soraya

Road safety

This video is a very short version of an award winning BBC3 documentary, and it gives vivid accounts of road accidents and their consequences.

Dictations online

A good way to practise listening comprehension is with dictations, especially if you have to try to recognise a specific word.

There is a website where you can try this:

Listen and Write

First you have to sign up (if you don't feel very happy about this, don't give your real name or your main email address. It's a good idea to have an alternative one for these internet things) and you'll have to log in every time with the same user name and password.

There are many different types of exercises for you, but I suggest that you go to level 20 and try the 'blank mode' dictations, which are not so very different to some listenings we do in class.

I hope it proves useful.

Alternative energies and sustainability

Click here to watch a TIME video which weighs the pros and cons of solar energy.

And below you can watch a talk about sustainability.