Marta Matt's blog to learn English at home: February 2013

Thursday, 28 February 2013

THE WEATHER FORECAST, Celsius (ºC) and Fahrenheit (ºF)

Helloooo!!

We are having some snow showers at the moment in Alcorisa, so please, BE AWARE OF THE WEATHER FORECAST, specially if you have to commute.

Check this link
http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/graph/Alcorisa+SPXX1114:1:SP

Can you tell Celsius ºC degrees from Fahrenheit ºF degrees?
Here you have further information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit

Be careful and enjoy the snow !!
Marta

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

MAKE or DO ?

Here you have a brief explanation and some exercises for you to practise!

EL PAIS NEWSPAPER IN ENGLISH

Hello everybody!!!
Please check this out if you want to read Spanish news in English 😉

http://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

NAMES OF HATS

Someone asked for NAMES OF HATS...
Here you have all of them!!
Click on the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_headgear

Saturday, 23 February 2013

Dead Poet's society

These poems are both mentioned in the film "Dead Poet's Society"(El Club de los Poetas Muertos)

I hope you enjoy them

CARPE DIEM (Horace)_________________

Original usage from Odes 1.11, in Latin and English: (source: wikipedia)

Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi/ Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what end
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios / the gods have granted to me or you, Leuconoe. Don't play with Babylonian
temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati / fortune-telling either. How much better it is to endure whatever will be!
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam / Whether Jupiter has allotted to sink you many more winters or this final one
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare Tyrrhenum / which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite
sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi/ — be wise, be truthful, strain the wine, and scale back your long hopes
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida/ to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. /Seizes the day, trusting as little as possible in the next day.

O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN - a poem by Walt Whitman_______________________

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Kevin and Jean, the Scottish couple living in Calanda

Hello there!
How is the weekend going?
Yesterday Kevin and Jean, the Scottish lovely couple living in Calanda, made a presentation about Scotland at the Casa de Cultura in Calanda.
They told us interesting things about Scotland and the Uk and they invited us to come to their trip around Scotland in summer. They are planning to go to Glasgow, Edinburgh,Stirling,Loch Ness, whiskey destilleries and visit some museums in Edinburgh as well. Flights will be Ryanair cheap flights from Reus to Glasgow and accomodation will be in youth hostels. Depending on the people who join the trip, they will go by cars or rent a minibus.
If you are interested in this trip and would like to have further information please join the facebook group "Walking and learning English with Kevin and Jean".
They also organise weekly walks in the countryside every Saturday, if you want to join these walks, please join their facebook group too.

Here you have some photos of the presentation
Have a nice weekend and remember to do your English homeworks!!

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

ALL LEVELS

Here you have a very interesting and useful webpage to study English at home, you've got grammar, videos, listenings and all you need to revise at home

http://www.autoenglish.org/

I hope you like it!
Marta

Rose got her degree!

An 87 Year Old College Student Named Rose

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know.
I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me
with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…”
“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. We became instant friends. Every day for the
next three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this “time machine”
as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was
introduced and stepped up to the podium.
As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell
you what I know.”
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop
playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day.
You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!There is a huge difference between growing
older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.
If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.
Have no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those
with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died
peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s
never too late to be all you can possibly be .When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!
These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS
OPTIONAL.
We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.