If you want to practise some of the connectors that we have seen in class, click here and go to exercises. I hope you find it useful.
Category Archives: General
Listening Practice
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab is one of the best websites on the Internet to practise your listening skills. You will find graded listenings according to level of difficulty and now you can also enjoy the new cultural video snapshots which come with practice questions and the transcript. I hope you find it useful.
Penelope Cruz wins best supporting actress Oscar 2009 for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Penelope Cruz won the 2009 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Woody Allen’s Vicki Christina Barcelona. Here is her acceptance speech!Listen and complete the text.
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President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech
Listen to President Barack Obama delivering his speech and corrrect the statements below if necessary.
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1. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation.
2. Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.
3. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of many.
4. Each day brings further evidence that the ways we use our policy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
5. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are clear.
6. We have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
7. all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
8. We understand that greatness is never a given. It must be won.
9. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we could have a better life.
10. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation in the world.
11. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
12. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the challenges of a new period. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
13.The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.
14. This crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot succeed in the long term when it favors only the prosperous.
15. America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity.
16. Remember that older generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.
17. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.
18. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the East – know that your people will judge you on what you can create, not what you destroy.
19. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our frontiers
20. We remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains.
21. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and humility, bravery and fair play, tolerance and compassion, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old
22. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world.
Kate Winslet’s interview at ‘Inside the Actors Studio Clips’
It seems there are copyright problems with the interview I posted yesterday, so I have prepared another listening and let’s hope you tube doesn’t remove it.
Watch the interview and say whether the sentences are T(rue) or F(alse)
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1. The interviewer asks Kate to tell a story about her work with Harvey Keitel.
2. Kate knew that Harvey liked improvising.
3. Harvey liked to improvise to improve their performance.
4. Harvey asked Kate to act like a dying dog.
5. Jane Campion(the director) didn't like Harvey's idea.
6. Harvey played Enya during the scene.
7. The scene took about 5 tracks of Enya.
8. Kate couldn't concentrate because the scene was very funny.
Ophra interviews Kate Winslet
On 12 January 2009, Kate Winslet won Two Golden Globe Awards for her roles in the films ‘The Reader’ and ‘Revolutionary Road’ at the last 66th Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles. In this interview she talks to Ophra about her films.
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Watch the interview and say whether the following sentences are T(rue) or F(alse)
1. ……….. Kate only knew the names of two of the nominees.
2. ……….. Kate won two awards for best actress.
3. ……….. Ophra invited Kate before she knew she had won the awards.
4. ……….. Kate has won 7 times the Golden Globe Awards.
5. ……….. Kate didn’t expect to win any awards.
6. ……….. ‘The Reader’ is one of Ophra’s favourite film because she had recommended to read the book some a year before.
7. ……….. Kate plays ‘Hanna’ a lonely woman in Germany during World War II
8. ……….. ‘Hanna’ hides one secret : her love affaire with a teenager.
9. ……….. Kate and Leonardo di Caprio hadn’t been together on a film for 11 years.
10. …….. In ‘Revolutionary Road’ Kate and Leonardo play an American couple who are not satisfied with the life they are leading.
11. ……. Ralph Fiennes, the young actor of ‘The Reader’ was not allowed to play his part until he was an adult.
12. ……. Ophra congratulates Kate on not having had her breast operated.
Back to school
Happy New Year to everybody! I hope you a had a wonderful Christmas time and the Three Wise Men brought plenty of presents for you.
As I promised I’m posting the solution to the test I handed out before Christmas. I’ve also prepared a reading comprehension test on Education since this is the topic we are covering this week. Read the text, say which five sentences are true and check your answers.
If you want to know more about The British Education System click here
If you want to know more about The American Education System click here
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This is the last week of classes and Christmas is around the corner. I know that you are going to be pretty busy these days: you will probably decorate the house, prepare special dishes, visit family, go to a party, wrap and deliver presents, travel, do your homework (ha,ha) etc. So it might be nice to be able to just sit back , relax and enjoy the Christmas episode of Friends and listen to a traditional Christmas carol sung by The Jingle Cats.
To all my students at EOI and to everyone throughout the blogosphere and beyond:
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Jingle Cats – White Christmas – Click here for more home videos
Anglesonline
Anglesonline is an excellent website with lots of resources to practise your English. You can watch a video and do a listening comprehension, play snakes and ladders and practise your grammar, listen to a song and fill in the missing words or just enjoy a range of special Christmas activities.
Have a chat with Santa
Father Christmas, also known as Santa, is coming back. If you want to know more about his life, you can have a chat with him. You have to be very careful about your spelling and grammar, otherwise Santa will not understand your question. The goal of this activity is to practise personal information questions.
Go to: http://www.thisissanta.com/ you’ll see a picture of Santa and two text fields. Type your questions into the bottom field and then wait for the answers.