Tuesday, September 11, 2012

All the king's men (dictation)



I went out into the street, where the dogs lay on the shady side under the corrugated iron awnings, and walked down the block till I came to the harness shop. There was one vacant seat out front, so I said how-do-you-do, and joined the club. I was the junior member by forty years, but I thought I was going to have liver spots on my swollen old hands crooked on the head of the hickory stick like the rest of them before anybody was going to say anything. In a town like Mason City the bench in front of the harness shop is – or was twenty years ago before the concrete slab got laid down – the place where Time gets tangled in its own feet and lies down like an old hound and gives up the struggle. It is a place where you sit down and wait for night to come and arteriosclerosis. It is the place the local undertaker looks at with confidence and thinks he is not going to starve as long as that much work is cut out for him. But if you are sitting on the bench in the middle of the afternoon in late August with the old ones, it does not seem that anything will ever come, not even your own funeral, and the sun beats down and the shadows don’t move across the bright dust, which, if you stare at it long enough, seems to be full of glittering specks, like quartz. The old ones sit there with their liver-spotted hands crooked on the hickory sticks, and they emit a kind of metaphysical effluvium by virtue of which your categories are altered.
 Time and motion cease to be. It is like sniffing ether, and everything is sweet and sad and far away. You sit there among the elder gods, disturbed by no sound except the slight spasmodic breathing of the one who has asthma, and wait for them to lean from the Olympian and sunlit detachment and comment, with their unenvious and foreknowing irony, on the goings-on of the folks who are still snared in the toils of mortal compulsions.

Amuzing quiz



Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on Earth? Mt.Everest
Can a man legally marry his widow's sister in the state of California? No, he's dead
Clara Clatter was born on December 27th, yet her birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible? She lived in the southern hemisphere.
He has married many women, but has never been married. Who is he? A preacher.
How many of each animal did Moses take on the ark? Moses didnt make the ark, Noah did.
How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25? Once, because after you subtract it's not 25 anymore.
How much dirt is in a hole 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide? There is no dirt in a hole.
I know a word of letters three, add two and fewer there will be. Few
If a rooster laid a brown egg and a white egg, what kind of chicks would hatch? Roosters don't lay eggs.
If two's company and three's a crowd, what are four and five? 9
If you were in a dark room with a candle, a woodstove, a match and a gas lamp which do you light first? The match
If you were standing directly on Antarcticas South Pole facing north, which direction would you travel if you took one step backward? North
Is an old hundred dollar bill better than a new one? No, I'd rather have $100 bill than a new $1 bill.
No sooner spoken than broken. What is it? Silence or a promise.
Some months have 30 days, some months have 31 days; how many have 28? Every month has at least 28 days.
Take off my skin -- I won't cry, but you will! What am I? An onion.
The more it dries, the wetter it gets. What is it? A towel.
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they? Foot steps.
There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall, and he wears size 13 sneakers. He has a wife and 2 kids. What does he weigh? Meat
What can burn the eyes, sting the mouth, yet be consumed? Peppers
What can go up a chimney down but can't go down a chimney up? An umbrella.
What can go up and come down without moving? The temperature.
What can pass before the sun without making a shadow? The Earth.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Ransom letter note

Word order is important and here is a fun activity to sensitize students to word order and sentence structure of the English language. 

1. Prepare banks with a large number of words. To make the activity more interesting and fun, you can type words with different fonts and sizes on different colour paper or cut them from magazines and newspapers.
2. Divide the students into groups and give each group a word bank, a sheet of paper and a glue stick.
3. The students work together and make sentences from the words in the bank and stick them to the sheet of paper so that it looks like a ransom letter note.
4. Stick the sheets on the wall.


For more information on word order, go to: http://linguapress.com/grammar/word-order.htm



Monday, September 3, 2012

The Oil-bearing Rose - Symbol of Bulgaria

Dictation       

        The rose has always been valued for its beauty and is an ancient symbols of love, affection and romance. According to legend, Diana, the goddess of hunt, women-mothers and moon, had a priestess, Rosalia by name.Rosalia decided to marry the beautiful Semedor and leave the goddess. At the very moment while the two lovers were taking the oath of allegiance, Diana, furious about the infidelity of her priestess, pierced Rosalia’s heart with an arrow and turned her into a thorny bush covered with white fragrant flowers. Later, the running Venice chased by Mars pricked herself onto the little thorns of the bush and her blood coloured the roses in red.
       According to another story,  the ancient Hellenes associated the background of roses with the descent of Aphrodite – the most beautiful among women, born from the sea waves foam. Along with her body the enraged sea washed ashore some rose shrubs, covered with white blossoms. They filled the air with a gentle fragrance, making it more pleasant for the goddess of love and beauty.
       The Valley of Roses in Bulgaria is majestic and breathtaking. It has always been the centre stage for the colorful age-old Festival of Roses. This traditional festival is a symbol of the rose industry and its influence on the culture, spirit and lifestyle of the region. It is not known when exactly and in what way the oil-bearing rose was brought to the Bulgarian lands but Bulgaria has gained an international popularity becoming a world factor in the rose-growing industry.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Expand your vocabulary 2

1. Match the following words to the definitions:
            latent, catalyst, accomplice, stagnant, morose, arbitrary, rebut, paramount, servitude, facilitate


  • n. a person who takes part in a crime - ..............................
  • adj. unreasonable; based on one's own wishes or whims without regard for reason or fairness - .............................
  • n. a substance that causes or hastens a chemical reaction; any agent that causes change - ................................
  • v. to make easier, assist - .............................
  • adj. hidden, present but not realized - ...............................
  • adj. having a gloomy or sullen manner; not friendly or sociable - ..............................
  • adj. chief in importance, above all others - ...........................
  • v. to offer arguments or evidence that contradict an assertion, to refute - ...........................
  • n. slavery, forced labour - ........................
  • adj. not running or flowing, foul from standing still, inactive, sluggish, dull - ...........................

 2. From the words in the previous exercise, choose the one that best completes the following sentences.
  • When he was suddenly deprived of everything he valued in life, the poor man became extremely gloomy and _________ . 
  • After the opposing speakers had both presented their cases, they were allowed time to _________ each other's arguments.
  • Though they had been there all along, Grandma Moses did not discover her ___________ artistic talents until well into her seventies. 
  • In large areas of the huge swamp, there were ________ pools of water covered with unmoving masses of green slime.
  • Even though the youngster did not actually steal he vehicle, he acted as one of the thief's ____________.
  • The helpful librarian did much to __________ the research for my term paper.
  • In certain industrial processes, __________ speed up the desired reaction by lessening the amount of energy needed to produce it.
  • No matter what make of automobile you have, it is of ___________ importance that you learn to drive safely before you use it.
  • Many people came to the New World after they had been sentenced to terms of penal ____________ for crimes they had committed. 
  • In guaranteeing the right to "due process of law", the Constitution protects Americans against ___________ arrest and imprisonment. 
3. From the words in the previous exercises, choose the one that is opposite in meaning to the following words and expressions
  • cheerful, jaunty, buoyant - ...................
  • freedom, liberty - .................
  • secondary, subordinate - ......................
  • to confirm, corroborate, substantiate - .................
  • to hamper, hinder, obstruct, impede - .....................
  • reasoned, rational, objective - ......................
  • flowing, running, fresh - ....................
  • exposed, evident - .................... 

You will find the Key in the first comment.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Expand your vocabulary 1

1. Match the following words to the definitions:
        succumb, slapdash, reprimand, prattle, opaque, militant, incorrigible, exodus, brazen, annihilate

  • adj. given to fighting; active and aggressive in support of a cause - ...............................
  • v. to give way to superior cause, yield - ...........................
  • adj. not letting light through; not clear or lucid; stupid - ............................
  • v. to destroy completely - ......................................
  • v. to talk in an aimless, foolish, or simple way; n. baby talk - ..............................
  • adj made of brass; shameless, impudent - ..............................
  • adj. careless and hasty - ...........................
  • n a large-scale departure or flight - .............................
  • adj. not able to be corrected, beyond control - ...........................
  • v. to scold, find fault with; n. a rebuke - ............................


2. From the words in the previous exercise, choose the one that best completes the following sentences.

  •  If we are going to use this space as a darkroom for photography, we must have a completely __________ covering over the window.
  • The doctor warned the relatives that if the patient's condition deteriorated any further, he would __________ to pneumonia.
  • The fact that you cannot control these small children does not mean that they are ____________ 
  • "If you spent more time and effort on your essays, they would cease to be such ___________ affairs," my older sister wisely observed.
  • Her friends call her "Motormouth" because she has a remarkable capacity to ___________ on endlessly about the most trivial matters. 
  • Fighting is considered such a(n) ____________ violation of the rules of a game that the offending players are usually severely penalized.
  • It is an unfortunate fact that the ____________ attitudes of the kaiser and his cronies helped make World War I inevitable.
  •  Mom and Dad said nothing when I failed the examination, but the disappointed looks on their faces hurt more than the most severe __________.
  • The second book of he Old Testament is named for the story it recounts of the _________ of the Israelites from the land of Egypt
  • It is a frightening fact of modern life that we now possess the weaponry to ____________ not only our enemies, but all humankind. 

3. From the words in the previous exercises, choose the one that is opposite in meaning to the following words and expressions. 
  • an immigration, influx, arrival; an entrance - ..............................
  • to praise, pat on the back - ............................
  • painstaking, meticulous, thorough, in-depth - ................................
  • docile, tractable, curable, reparable - ...............................
  • deferential, respectful, self-effacing - .............................
  • to foster, promote, encourage, nurture - ............................
  • to overcome, master, conquer - ..............................
  • transparent, clear, bright, perceptive - .................................
  • unassertive, peaceable, passive - ..............................

 You will find the Key in the first comment.


Friday, August 31, 2012

The Legend of Narcissus

(A story to retell)

Narcissus was a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called narcissus.
      When Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found that the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
            “Why do you weep?” the goddesses asked.
            “I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.
            “Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”
            “But… was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.
            “Who better than you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”
      The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
            “I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depth of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.” (Paulo Coelho)

Globalization

Dictation - Upper-intermediate/ Advanced

         The backlash against globalization is a broad phenomenon that is fed by many different specific emotions and anxieties. This backlash expresses itself in different forms, through different characters in different countries. This is not surprising. Markets generate both capital and chaos; the more powerful markets become as a result of globalization, the more widespread and diverse their disruptions.
         Beyond this general sense of disruption and dislocation, the opponents of globalization resent it because they feel that as their countries have plugged in the globalization system, they have been forced into a golden cage. Some don't like the golden cage because they feel economically pinched by it. Some worry that they don't have the knowledge, skills or resources to enlarge the cage and ever really get the gold out of it. Some don't like it because they resent the widening income gaps that the cage produces or the way it squeezes jobs from higher-wage countries to lower-wage ones.
         Some don't like it because it seems to put a higher priority on laws to promote free trade than it does on laws to protect turtles and dolphins, water and trees. Some don't like it because they feel they have no say in its design or that getting their countries up to the standards is just too hard.

Why we shouldn't grumble about Eglish spelling

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and key boards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with " f ". This will make words like fotograf 20%
shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing " th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, v e vil al be speking Jerman like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Think green

     Raising environmental awareness is becoming more and more important and urgent each day. By incorporating environmental learning into education, teachers help students understand the natural world and their personal connection to it. In this way the young learners will be able to make informed decisions to protect the environment at school, at home and in the community.
     The good news is that a lot of materials have been prepared for the introduction of nature conservation into the school curriculum. Textbooks and teaching resources abound in texts, activities and practical advice on what people can do to help protect the environment thus establishing an attitude towards nature.

While browsing the net I came upon these surveys which I believe will help the students to find out what they can do to improve their environmental behaviour.

Think Earth Environmental Surveys

Another useful link, one of the oldest, and most unbiased sources of online environmental news on the web: http://www.enn.com/

 All the images shown here belong to respected owners and are shared here for appreciation purpose.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Rila Monastery in Bulgaria


Read the text and mark the sentences True, False or No information in the text        

          The Rila Monastery is an architectural work of enormous dimensions, an apogee of the work of the Renaissance craftsmen, icon-painters, wood-carvers, artisans in the artistic area where architecture and the decorative and monumental painting of stone, wood and metal are combined.
          The Rila Monastery was founded in the l0th century by the Bulgarian monk St. John of Rila and was rebuilt in the l3th -l4th century. From that time date the fortress tower, the bishop's throne, richly carved doors and some manuscripts, icon paintings and church plates.
         Situated high up in the Rila Mountains, the monastery is not easy to reach. From the town of Rila, the monastery is still some 25km away. Access is difficult but the experience is well worth the effort.
         The building has four levels of colorful balconies with some 300 cells, kitchens, guard rooms, a hospital, chapels and even a winery. From the top balcony you have splendid views of the surrounding Rila Mountains. In the center of the courtyard, there is a beautiful church with amazing frescos. The best time to visit the monastery is weekdays (far fewer tourists) and during the early morning or sunset.

1. The Rila Monastery is a modernistic building, designed by contemporary architects. ..............
2. The Rila Monastery was established about 11 centuries ago. ...........
3. It is not a good idea to visit the monastery as it is difficult to access. ...............
4. There are four chapels in the monastery. .............
5. The best time to visit the monastery is the summer. ..............

Find words in the text which mean the following:
1. painting on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling (n.) - ................................
2. the most successful, popular or powerful point(n.) - ............................
3. a large strong building which can be defended from attack (n.) - ............................
4. an old document or book written by hand in the times before printing was invented (n.) - .........................
5. the method or possibility of getting near to a place or person (n.) - ..........................

You will find the Key in the first comment.




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