As you may remember (look at the photo at the end if you don’t), we had a special activity on 1st February. We could hear and dance to the rythm of the music played by Ded Grandads.

We all could enjoy of the typical Appalachian music, some blues and other kinds of traditional American music.

If you want to have a look at their web or find out more about this group, click here… (you can have the information in English and Spanish)

http://thedifficulttimes.com/castellano/grandad.html

http://thedifficulttimes.com/english/grandad.html

I’d love to read your comments about that day… or tell me about the music you like.

See ya!

As we have worked in class, this song is not only a good way to celebrate that we are in love. It also hides a very special calendar, where many events and celebrations along the year are mentioned.

I’ll leave a link to the video, the lyrics and some information about Stevie Wonder. I hope you’ll enjoy it, post your comments about the song or the activity.

About Stevie Wonder (if you are really interested, visit his official website, for some extra information, look at the wikipedia entry)

http://www.steviewonder.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Wonder

If you want to watch Stevie Wonder singing live, click here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY45DkaP9Ls

If you prefer to read the song, there you are.

No new years’s day
To celebrate
No chocolate covered candy hearts to give away
No first of spring
No song to sing
In fact heres just another ordinary day
No april rain
No flowers bloom
No wedding saturday within the month of june
But what it is
Is something true
Made up of these three words that I must say to you

I just called to say I love you
I just called to say how much I care
I just called to say I love you
And I mean it from the bottom of my heart

No summers high
No warm july
No harvest moon to light one tender august night
No autumn breeze
No falling leaves
No even time for birds to fly to southern skies
No libra sun
No halloween
No giving thanks to all the christmas joy you bring
But what it is
Though old so new
To fill your heart like no three words could ever do.

I just called to say I love you
I just called to say how much I care
I just called to say I love you
And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

I just called to say I love you
I just called to say how much I care
I just called to say I love you
And I mean it from the bottom of my heart

Of my heart
Of my heart

No more excuses!

If you feel you need more practise and revision, here you have a list of links that may help you. Besides, you have a general revision link on the side, where you can choose what you’d like to work on.

Modal verbs:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/auxiliary-verbs/exercises

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalintro.html

http://www.wordpower.ws/grammar/gramex10.html

Passive voice

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive#exercises

http://www.smic.be/smic5022/passive1.htm

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/passiv.htm

Conditionals

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/conditionalintro.html http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/conditional-sentences

Reported Speech

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-speech

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9901/tm-reported1.html

Hi! recently we’ve been talking about British students taking a gap year before going to university.

Have you ever planned to do something similar? Would you like to? If you had the opportunity, what would you like to do or where would you like to go?

I’d love to read your comments, feel free to post them and share them with your peers!

By the way, if I had taken a gap year, I suppose I would have travelled to England and stayed there for a while and improve my English. Unfortunately, I only had the chance to do so in summer, but it was really worth it!

What about you? I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

At school we travelled from Babylon to Canterbury, from Boney M to Chaucer.

We surfed along the net to find out links between these two extremely different concepts.

To refresh your memories, I’ll tell you that we listened to the song By the rivers of Babylon, by Boney M and discovered that the lyrics are not really original, they come from King James’s Authorised Bible Version. We saw that it makes reference to the Promised Land and the Chosen People. We also read that this important book is the accepted one by the Church of England, we learnt that the head of Anglican Church is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In Canterbury Cathedral we met Thomas Becket and his bloody murder by some knights sent by king Henry. We researched some more and related his death with the pilgrimage tradition. Finally we got to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, based on the story of a group of pilgrims from London to Becket’s shrine. We ended our virtual tour reading some information about this book on the Wikipedia. We had finally found our reading for the term!

As you have a lot of information about this topic in another page, I’ll give you some links about the first part of the activity: Boney M’s lyrics and a link to a video.

To watch the video clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm1g8FFRArc

to watch the karaoke version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0CnYWCWAeA

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
Now how shall we sing the lord’s song in a strange land

When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Requiering of us a song
Now how shall we sing the lord’s song in a strange land
Let the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart

be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts
be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
By the rivers of Babylon (dark tears of Babylon)
there we sat down (You got to sing a song)
ye-eah we wept, (Sing a song of love)
when we r

emember Zion. (Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah)
By the rivers of Babylon (Rough bits of Babylon)
there we sat down (You hear the people cry)
ye-eah we wept, (They need that ???)
when we remember Zion. (Ooh, have the power)

Here you’ll find some interesting information about your reading. There are summaries of the tales and explanations about their meanings. Hope you like it and find it useful to prepare your exam!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canterbury_Tales

Canterbury is a beautiful city in the south-east of England, if you want to “surf” in it, click on this link and you’ll find many signts and information about this interesting old city. I have selected for you the tourist information webpage of the town, particularly the bit where you learn about an exciting visit based on Chaucer’s book.

Have a nice trip!

http://www.canterbury.co.uk/thedms.asp?dms=13&p1=c&feature=1&venue=3030214&easi=true