Today, 12 February, is Red Hand Day, set up to raise international awareness of the tragic situation of child soldiers, recruited to fight in wars and armed conflicts.

Before the 1980s, news reports were often read from a piece of paper, with little or no maps and terribly, inevitably boooooring. In the 80s, something started: news editors thought that the final message of a news report should be a happy story (otherwise, people would be too pessimistic and maybe even induced to suicide). Ever since, news reports have had the “happy” story, usually involving some kind of friendly animal or guinness records. If your memory reaches as far as mine, you will probably identify the “fets i gent” section in TV3, which was exactly that, the “happy” story. Talking of which…

Before the 1980s, news reports were often read from a piece of paper, with little or no maps and terribly, inevitably boooooring. In the 80s, something started: news editors thought that the final message of a news report should be a happy story (otherwise, people would be too pessimistic and maybe even induced to suicide). Ever since, news reports have had the “happy” story, usually involving some kind of friendly animal or guinness records. If your memory reaches as far as mine, you will probably identify the “fets i gent” section in TV3, which was exactly that, the “happy” story. Talking of which…

Remember that the exam is next Wednesday (3r ESO C) and next Friday (3rd ESO A). The minimum number of exercises for the dossier is 45, but for a group of students of 3rd ESO C, it’s just 41 (they couldn’t complete the 3 group activities, only 2 of them!).

Here you can check the answers to unit 4 test.

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

• A very simple beginner’s activity: decide whether the sentences are active or passive.
• Practice the present simple passive
• Practice and read some past simple passive sentences.
• Some past continuous passive exercises from a German website.
• Exercise with a variety of verb tenses.
• Another exercise with a variety of verb tenses, especially irregular verbs.
• More variety of tenses here.
• Many tenses (but they won’t give you a clue!) in this French website.
• Advanced practice with different tenses and even passive infinitives.

And before you finish…

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

The BBC offers you this article about how to ask someone out (1). It’s quite interesting because it suggests words and sentences that help you in case the other person says the word ‘no’. If you want to improve your English in an amusing way, read it. If you want to ask someone out, read it. As always, a transcript acompanies the recording.

(1) Ask someone out = demanar a algú una cita.

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!)

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?