Ted talk: if you want to have it, live it

Fill in the gaps with a maximum of five words:

1. She was so poor that she wore dresses made of ______________________.

2. At 14, she was _______________ by some men.

3. Today when Oprah speaks the world _____________________________.

4. She had to pay €20,000 for __________________________.

5. She got the last €10,000 because ______________________ sponsored her.

6. Oprah spent her days _____________________________.

7. The person looking for the girl of his dreams was at that point _____________ in a job he hated.

8. After a year and a half he ______________________ to quit the job.

9. She enjoyed watching herself become faster, ___________ and _____________.

10. The future ‘you’ has ______________________ you have yet to develop.

The best composition of the month: Virgina Gusano's essay on Spanish national healthcare

Well, our academic year is coming to an end and I'm trying to hurry so that you're fully prepared for the upcoming exam in May. Now that I'm going over your essays, I thought it would be a good idea to show you a very good essay that one of your classmates wrote, no other than Virgina Gusano's essay. Please, read it and have a look at the highlighted expressions:

Is Spanish national healthcare as good as it looks like?

               It is undeniable that healthcare assistance must be a fundamental human right, regardless of people's economic status. Spanish state healthcare system is financed by taxes and it is universal, that is to say, it serves the entire population, but, is it such a good system?

               First and foremost, Spain has many qualifies professionals in medicine, as well as a lot of renowned hospitals. Some examples of leading hospitals being well regarded both nationally and internationally include La Paz hospital (excelling in maternity and transplants), Gregorio Marañón's (outstanding in oncology) and Saint Joan de Deu's (specialized in pediatrics). What is more, our country is the world's leader in donations and transplants. In fact, in 2017, more than 5,000 procedures were carried out. Another point in favour of the Spanish system is that Spain is fully aware of research to discover new treatments for many other deadly diseases. In addition, the latest technological breakthroughs are successfully being applied, resulting in a high quality service. 

        

                However, one of the main drawbacks of Spanish national healthcare is the long waiting lists. If you make an appointment with the doctor, you are likely to wait for several months for the consultation to take place. This is a real problem, especially if is a life-or-death issue. Therefore, some people end up resorting to private health insurance. Anoher drawback is that hospitals are overcrowded given that there are not enough resources for all the patients. 

                 On the whole, although our national healthcare has some downsides, in my view, it is a high-quality system. Its shortcomings could be improved if the state invested more money in healthcare. Nevertheless, this might be more complex than one can imagine. 

Cleft sentences exercises. Use a cleft sentence to correct and emphasize the following sentences

a) The most important thing in life is money

b) The best thing after waking up is to use the Internet. 

c) In Spain, the most important person is the king. 

d) To live longer, you must study hard. 

e) When you are depressed, you need to read a book. 

f) The most serious downsides in the Spanish educational system are the teachers. 

g) The main cause of death today is the flu. 

h) The most faithful animal is the gorilla. 

i) The best football team in the whole world is Recreativo de Huelva.

The Real Hustle and some incredible scams

Dear students,
Now that we are seeing crimes in class, I thought it would be a good idea to watch these videos about The Real Hustle. It's a programme where thieves show how they trick people to get their money while they are filmed by some hidden cameras. Here you have three short videos about the programme : the laptop scam, the speeding fine scam and the credit card switch. 

Watch the videos and answer the questions : 

1) Where does the scam take place ?

2) How many people are involved in the scam ?

3) What crime is committed ?

4) Can you explain the scam with your own words ?

5) What do the thieves get ? 

Did you enjoy the video ? Why don't you watch the rest of the videos and post a comment ?

Stupid laws

April Fools' Day: true or false?

From the book : All About Britain

"April Fools ! " Should you hear these words, it means two things : 1) it is April, 1st; 2) someone has just pulled a prank on you ! Why ? It's April Fools' Day. On this day, people pull pranks and spread rumours and hoaxes. The media also invent some fake -flabbergasting - news and some people usually fall for them or buy them ! Yeah ! This is similar to Spain's Innocents' Day (28th December). This day goes back to the year 1957, where the BBC broadcast people picking spaghetti from plants. The audience thought it all was true and phoned the station to buy these plants ! Here you can watch it in the video : 

1. Now I will propose you a little game. I will enumerate five 'news items' and you will have to decide which one of them is TRUE ! Four of them will be hoaxes. Ready ?

a)  UFO lands in London

From : http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/ufo_lands_near_london

b) Queen Elizabeth sent her first email in 1976

From : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34185586

c) A new race of penguins that can fly have been discovered 

d) Big Ben will go digital in 2020

From : https://currentopinionsofnews.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/big-ben-to-go-digital/

e) Mummified fairy discovered ! 

From : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lebanoncircle/the-derbyshire-mummified-fairy-ooak-kit-and-dvd-wo

Answers: Only one of the news is true. Which one ? Well, letter b, indeed, surprising though it may sound ! If you want to see some of the most famous hoaxes of all time, click on this link.

2. Now let's learn some vocabulary for this day, related to tricks :

- Tell jokes / crack jokes = 'contar chistes'

- Trick someone / deceive someone / fool someone = engañar a alguien

- Play tricks on someone / pull pranks on someone = gastarle bromas a alguien

- Fall into a trap = 'caer en la trampa'

- Take the bait = 'picar el anzuelo'

- I don't buy it / I haven't fallen for it = 'no me lo trago' / 'no me lo creo'.

- He is a prankster / joker / jester / quipster = 'Él es un bromista.'

- April Fools ! = '¡ Inocente !' 

- April Fool pranks = 'inocentadas.'

- Spread a hoax = 'extender un rumor.'

3. To finish with, if you are much of a prankster, here you have a compilation of some interesting pranks of April Fool's Day. 

4. This video will prompt you to pull pranks on others. I hope you never put these "inspiring" ideas into practice.

I hope you have learnt a lot about April Fools' Day. Which is your favourite prank ? Post it on a comment ! 

April Fools': the most amusing hoaxes of the day

April Fools ! 

Today is April Fools' Day. This day is celebrated around the world and the idea is to pull pranks on your gullible friends or to spread hoaxes. For those who don't know about this day and who haven't read my post about April Fools' Day last year, let me remind you that this day is similar to December, 28th in Spain, and in Italy, for example, is called Pesce d'Aprile. 

Anyway, to commemorate this day, I'll share with you some of the best and most amusing hoaxes that I found online. 

1. English rugby team trains with ostrich eggs to improve their focus and concentration :

2. Amazon has developed the gadget Petlexa which allows animals and pets to communicate with their owners :

3. McDonalds has developed a Whopper toothpaste for hamburger lovers :

4. Groupon develops the Gin-sauna experience : you can let everything go in this sauna powered by gin, while you get a bit drunk, I guess : 

5. Dinosaurs floods London and frighten everyone there including tourists.

6. Are you always late for work ? Fear not ! Thanks to the ejection bed, you'll be on time ! 

From : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/03/31/bed-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpvXcOWpXibQK7eiTe5mDAtV_lL-GUbbIUWgbqm0VWJk.jpg

Well, hilarious, aren't they ? Anyway to finish this post, I'll share with you a video from The Simpsons somehow illustrating the pulling of pranks on April Fools' Day. You can't miss it !

April Fools' Day

Easter glossary

Now that Easter is practically history until next year... I thought it would be a pretty good idea to devote an entry to Easter vocabulary, that is, words and expressions that one can use to refer to some Easter moments and traditions. Before reading this post, you may as well want to revisit my post about Easter traditions, my post on Easter videos to practise your listening, or my post on Maunday Thursday. Well, have you caught up with some knowledge on Easter? Now it's time you learnt (or rather revised) some of the Easter vocab and expressions. Let's begin:

Important dates associated to Easter

- Lent: It is a six-week period starting on Ash Wednesday (just right after Carnival) and finishing on Maundy Thursday. During this time, Christians are supposed not to eat meat on Fridays and also to fast. During this period, there are no weddings, baptisms or other religious sacraments.

- Holy Week vs. Easter: Holy Week is the week starting on Palm Sunday and finishing on Holy Saturday, not including Easter Sunday. Easter, on the other hand, Easter, as such, begins on Easter Sunday with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and finishes on Pentecostes Sunday. 

- Palm Sunday: This happens just one week after Easter Sunday, that is, before Jesus Christ resurrection. People go on procession carrying palm branches to commemorate Jesus Christ's arrival in Jesuralem. 

- Maundy Thursday: This important day pays tribute to the Last Supper. In addition, on this day, Jesus Christ himself washed the feet of his disciples to prove himself humble. In the past, monarchs would do the same with beggars to commemorate this, but now this long-standing tradition has deeply changed and in the UK, the queen of England gives Maundy money to different men and women. 

- Good Friday: This day is a reminder of Jesus Christ's crucifixion and death.

- Holy Saturday: This is the day after Good Friday and it is considered the last day of Holy Week. 

- Easter Sunday: On this day, Jesus Christ resurrected. The last procession takes place on this day. It is officially the first day of Easter. On this day, gardens and houses are decorated with Easter eggs and there are Easter egg hunts in different parts of the globe. 

Holy Week and Easter traditions

- Easter eggs: At Easter, people buy and exchange Easter eggs. There are two types of eggs: chocolate eggs (very typical nowadays), or hard-boiled eggs used to decorate houses or play different games, such as egg tapping (breaking other people's egg by tapping them with your own egg without breaking it), Easter egg hunt (finding Eggs around the garden) and Easter egg roll (a race where people have to push their eggs with a spoon).

- Easter bunny: It is a figure bringing the Easter eggs.

- Simnel cake: A fruitcake typical at Easter. 

- Morris dance: A typically English dance to scare spirits away.

- Processions and religious pilgrimages: They are some kind of "religious parades" to commemorate different events related to Jesus Christ. 

Well, technically the Holy Week is over and Easter begins. If you are lucky and are on holiday, enjoy it!