Author Archives: whitefield

About whitefield

En Marc Blanco és professor d' anglès a l' IES Cubelles (Barcelona). És llicenciat en filologia anglo-germànica per l' UAB, va estudiar un post-grau sobre l' anglès medieval a la University of Manchester. Porta 9 anys ensenyant anglès, a gent de negocis, a l' ESO i al batxillerat de centres concertats i ara, amb les oposicions aprovades el 2005, a l' escola pública.

Passive exercises

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Here’s a collection of exercises on the passive voice. I strongly recommend you do them:

And before you finish…

Why don’t you try to find the missing verbs for these pictures?

Interview to Pau Gasol

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An interesting interview posted on youtube where Pau Gasol tells a journalist he is really looking forward to playing his first game with the Lakers. The interview was filmed before scoring 24 points yesterday.

Pay attention to his English, which is quite good and has a marked American accent (of course!)

LEGO

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Another article in English from Diari d’ Escola.  By the way… when I was a child, Lego had a fierce competitor: Tente. If you ask me I was a tente-child, and enjoyed bulding my castles, walls and vehicles. What about you? Were you a Lego-child or a Tente child? Or … you were neither?

James I the Conqueror

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This coming Saturday, 2 February, will be the 800th anniversary of the birth of the king of Catalonia-Aragon, James I, known as ‘The Conqueror’. Count of Barcelona, King of Aragon, Valencia and Majorca, and Lord of Montpellier, James I is one of the most important historical figures in the Catalan Countries, a political, cultural and linguistic reality that took shape during his reign (1213-1276).

What does ’spam’ mean?

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Spam is a word that can be translated as ‘correu no desitjat’. The origin of this word is quite curious. It was invented by the Monty Python, a group of British comedians, in an improvised act.

Here’s the origin of the word, explained by professor David Crystal (transcript).

And if you don’t care about linguistic curiosities, just play the spam game that you can find in the ‘game-of-the-month‘ section!

A piece of interesting news

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Lesson 5 is dedicated to the world of press, but what do we really know the press, or media, in English? I would like to put forward a simple task for you: visit an on-line newspaper, radio or tv channel and choose a piece of news that has interested you. You can add a link, and the reason why you chose that particular story.

This here is an exemple:

Enric12@hotmayl.com:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2248111,00.html

I chose this story because it is unusual for a government to say I’m sorry, especially to people who have a low status in society.

As simple as that. If you don’t know about newspapers published in English, check this list:

Is English changing now? Right at this moment?

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Sometimes teachers talk about words that are old-fashioned, or dying-out, like the use of ‘shall’ for the future, or ‘lavatory’ instead of the more common ‘toilet’. However, the opposite may also happen: a student asks about a word that is too new for the teacher to know.

Well, professor David Crystal is one of the leading experts in the English language, and he recorded a series of short podcasts talking about some of the most innovative pieces of language today. This BBC production can be useful for learners who want to keep up-to-date with the trends of the English language. It may also work for teachers who have not moved from Catalonia in some years.

The podcasts are very short, not more than two minutes, and are accompanied by a trasncript of the recording, which makes it strongly advisable for listening practice. This here, is his comment on the use of the word ‘e-‘.