World Peace Day

As you know, on the thirtieth of January, the World Peace Day is celebrated all around the world. To celebrate, I will share with you some interesting vocabulary and three songs related to peace.

Peace vocabulary
- The white dove with a branch of olive

From : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peace_dove.svg

- An origami crane : 

Image taken from : http://justkiddingjusthurts.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/activity-peace-symbols.html

Other recognisable symbols of peace : 

- The peace symbol : 

From : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols

- The white poppy : 

From : http://www.boom1019.com/2013/11/07/the-white-poppy-doesnt-matter/

- The V-sign : This symbol is offensive in some cultures, but it portrays peace in other cultures.

From : http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Wicca%20&%20Witchcraft/peace_3.jpg

- The rainbow flag : 

From : http://www.clker.com/clipart-rainbow-flag-meaning.html

- The broken rifle : 

From : http://www.ppu.org.uk/ppu/rifle.html

- A peacemaker : a person who convinces others to stop fighting. 

My favourite expression : lay down your arms

Now you can listen to some interesting songs that you can listen to and sing for this day. The songs are ordered according to your level : the first one is for students of low-level students, the second one for intermediate-level students and the last one for upper-intermediate students. I also include one of my favourite songs  by Green Day : 21 Guns. I include some gap-filling exercises. Listen to the video and try to fill in the gaps. Then down below you have the links to the lyrics of the four songs. 

Level 1: What a wonderful World by Armstrong

I see ______ (1) are green, red ________ (2) too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see ________(3) are blue and _________ (4) are white

The bright blessed day, the dark sacred ________ (5)

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colours of the __________ (6) so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by.

I see _________ (7) shaking hands saying how do you do

But they're really saying I ________ (8) you.

I hear ________ (9)  cry, and I watched them grow

They'll learn much more than I'll ever _______ (10)

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself what a wonderful world.

              Level 2 Imagine by John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven

It's  ________ (1) if you try 

No hell below us 

Above us only __________(2)

Imagine all the people 

Living for _________ (3)

Imagine there's no___________ (4)

It isn't hard to do 

Nothing to kill or _______ (5) for 

And no __________ (6) too 

Imagine all the people 

Living life in _________ (7)

You may say I'm a_________ (8)

But I'm not the only one 

I hope someday you'll join us 

And the _____ (9) will be as one 

Imagine no __________ (10)

I wonder if you can 

No need for greed or ________ (11)

A _________ (12) of man 

Imagine all the people 

_________ (13) all the world 

You may say that I'm a ________ 

But I'm not the only one 

I hope someday you'll______ us 

And the _________ will live as one.

Level 3 : "Heal the world"(Michael Jackson)

There's a place in your _______ (1)
and I know that it is ________(2)
and this place could
be much brighter than tomorrow
and if you really try
you'll find there's no need to _____ (3)
in this place you'll feel
there's no hurt or sorrow.

There are ways to get there
if you care enough for the ________ (4)
make a little space make a better place...

Heal the world, make it a better place
for you and for me, and the entire human

______ (5) . There are people dying
if you care enough for the ______
make a better place for you and for me.

(Chorus)

If you want to know why
there's a love that cannot lie
love is ________ (6), it only cares for
joyful giving. If we try
we shall see in this bliss
we cannot feel fear or dread
we stop _________ (7) and start living
Then it feels that always love's enough for
us growing so make a better world
make a better world...
Chorus
And the dream we were conceived in
will reveal a joyful _______ (8)
and the world we once believed in
will shine again in grace then why do we keep
strangling life wound this earth

crucify its soul though it's plain to _______ (9)

this world is heavenly, be god's glow

We could fly so high,
let our spirits never _______ (10) in my heart
I feel you are all my ________ (11)
create a world with no fear, together we'll cry
happy tears see the _______ (12) turn their swords
into plowshares

We could really get there
if you cared enough for the ______
make a little space to make a better place...
Chorus x3
for you and for me (repeated x10)

Heal the world we live in, save it for our children (x4).

BONUS: One of my favourite songs : 21 Guns.

21 guns (Green Day)

Do you know what's worth (1) ____________  for?

When it's not worth dying for?

Does it take your (2) __________ away

And you feel yourself (3) _______________ ?

Does the pain weigh out the (4) ___________ ?

And you look for a place to hide?

Did someone break your (5) _____________ inside?

You're in ruins

One, 21 guns

Lay down your arms, give up the fight

One, 21 guns

Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

When you're at the end of the road

And you lost all (6) _________ of control

And your thoughts have taken their (7) ________

When your mind breaks the spirit of your (8) ___________

Your (9) _________ walks on broken glass

And the hangover doesn't pass

Nothing's ever built to ___________ (10)

You're in ruins

One, 21 guns

Lay down your arms, give up the fight

One, 21 guns

Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

Did you try to live on your own

When you (11) ________ down the house and home?

Did you stand too close to the fire

Like a (12) ________ looking for forgiveness from a stone?

When it's time to live and let die

And you can't get _________ (13) try

Something _________ (14) this heart has died

You're in ruins

One, 21 guns

Lay down your arms, give up the fight

One, 21 guns Throw up your arms into the sky
One, 21 guns Lay down your arms, give up the fight

One, 21 guns Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I.

Here you have the answers to Imagine,  the answers to What a Wonderful World,  the answers to Heal the World and the answers to 21 Guns. 

Songs in the classroom : Paradise

Now that we are facing a long week, I thought it would be a good idea to practise our English with songs. This one I selected an easy one: Cold Play's Paradise. The exercise I propose is simply that you fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. Are you ready ?

Complete the song using the verbs in the box in the SIMPLE PAST AFFIRMATIVE

be    can     close    dream   expect fly    run   say

Coldplay’s Paradise

When she ______ (1)  just a girl
She __expected__ (0) the world
But it _______ (2)  away from her reach
So she ______ (3) away in her sleep
________ (4) of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Every time she ________ (5) her eyes
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh

When she ______ (1)  just a girl
She expected the world
But it _____ (2)  away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth

Life goes on
It gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Every tear, a waterfall
In the night, the stormy night
She _____ (5) her eyes
In the night, the stormy night
Away she'd fly.

And _______ (4)of para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradise
Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh (repeat)

La lalaLa
Lalala

So lying underneath those stormy skies.
She ________(6) oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
I know the sun must set to rise.This _______(7) be para- para- paradise
Para- para- paradiseWhoa-oh-oh oh-ooohohoh-oh. (repeat x5)  

Here you have the lyrics of the song so that you can correct it by yourselves. 

It's raining cats and dogs

Hello there,

It seems that lately the weather is a bit rainy, to say the least. It hadn't rained for months but now water is flooding towns and villages again. You can't leave your house without an umbrella. I have already written a post about cold weather and a post about hot weather. So far I had never written about rainy weather and that's precisely what pushed me into writing this blog entry about rainy weather. I hope you learn a lot of expressions. Let's start :

Light-rain expressions: verbs to light rain. This time you won't need and umbrella

- It is spitting.
- It is showering.
- It is drizzling / drizzle has been falling.
- It is sprinkling / sprinkle has been falling.
- It is raining lightly / there will be light rain / a light rainfall / a misty rain.
- It is mizzling.
- It rained a few drops.
- A snow flurry.
- Light precipitations.

When it rains a lot 

- It is raining cats and dogs:This British expression is quite funny and that is why I chose as a title. You know in the past, the typical English cottages had roofs of straw. Cats and dogs would be on top of these roofs and when it rained hard, they would fall inside the houses. Is a funny origin of the expression. Don't you think ?

- It is raining heavily / Heavy rain was falling.
- It is pouring (with rain) / The pouring rain is flooding the streets.
- It is raining hard.
- The waterspouts destroyed some houses in the village.
- It was a torrential rain.
- The rivers are glowing due to some sudden cloudbursts.
- Downpours have caused floods and deluge in the city.
- There has been a heavy rainstorm today.
In this link, you may find some expressions about heavy rain all around the world. Interesting ! 
When you are really wet

- Clean the table with a damp cloth.
- I am soaking wet / sopping wet.
- I was suddenly drenched by a rainstorm.
- All my clothes are soggy.
- The towel was dripping wet.
- The sodden floor  / The floor was soaked with water.
- The roads were waterlogged because of the rain.

Harder precipitations
- It is snowing 
- It is hailing (hard snow)
- It is sleeting (half snow, half water)

Did you like all my rainy repertoire? Well, to conclude this wet post, I would like to share an idiom with you. It is a bit pessimistic, though. It never rain but it pours, which means that when you think nothing can go worst, indeed it will go way worst. I wouldn't like to say goodbye without being optimistic.The opposite of the former idiom is the sun always shines / it never rains forever which means everything will certainly improve, that there is a reason to be optimistic. Another interesting and optimistic idiom is to be as right as rain, which means 'fine,' 'alright.' I hope you will feel as right as rain now ! 

 

Robinson Crusoe : I didn't know you could have so many things on a deserted island

It seems that I am keeping reading more than I expected indeed. Other than my reviews about The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, this time I have read yet another classic of English literature, no other than Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. 

This travelogue tells the story of Robinson Kreutznaer, a man that cannot refrain from travelling by the sea, a man whose longing thirst for voyages, despite his parents' warnings against it. It is precisely this uncontrollable urge that makes him end, up enslaved by a ruthless pirate for two years and he manages to escape only to end up shipwrecking, surviving and spending twenty-eight years on a deserted island near Trinidad, where he does not only learn to survive, but to look for God's grace and reflect upon his sins and live a peaceful, yet lonely twenty-year adventure.
Have you ever wondered which three items you would take to a deserted island in order to survive ? Some people say a lighter, a box of matches or a knife are the best options. The protagonist of the story manages to survive thanks to the items he can find in the ship. Little by little, he learns to get by : he builds a fire, he plants the land, he kills turtles and goats, he even gets some cattle. He even builds several "estates" on the island where he can keep all the various objects, possessions and food that he is getting. He becomes a true survivor, a specialist of the island who gets to know how to build things he had never built before, when and where to plant, how to tame animals ...

Living on a deserted island turns out not to be as bad as it may look like. At first, Robinson thinks he has been cursed and punished, but little by little he finds comfort in God. He reads a Bible that finds in the boat and becomes interested in God's word. He learns to live a peaceful, spiritual life. He thanks God for all the food he gets, for sparing his life and giving him a second chance. He realizes his life was materialistic and sinful and he learns to cherish the fruit of his hard labour and struggle. 

However, loneliness proves to be Crusoe's worst enemy on the island. He becomes more and more unsociable as time goes by; he feels the urge of talking to other human beings, an urge that he satiates with the animals, especially with a parrot to which he even teaches to utter some words.

Defoe's work is full of symbolism. The animals represent the need to socialize and the goodness. They behave better than humans : they provide company and food to poor Robinson and they never complain. The island is like a purgatory, a territory between the realm of the dead and the living where people suffer and struggle.   

                                      

There is a sheer attack against colonialism and slavery. The island is visited by "savages", who are described as having no religion and practising cannibalism. The main character feels a dire hatred against them. Robinson is Caucasian, the coloniser who manages to subject and kill them and expel them from 'his' island. Robinson triumphs and saves Friday; he teaches Friday to love God, to be faithful and servant. He somehow converts him to Christianity. Crusoe is depicted as a self-made man, a man that arrived at the island with nothing, but managed not only to survive, but to succeed against all odds and to lead the way off the island. Robinson represents the power of colonialism of powerful countries, namely the United Kingdom or Spain, countries which will do anything to expand their territories overseas. Cannibals, on the contrary, are described as savages, inhuman cannibals who are lost in the world, who are in need of the white, Christian men. Friday is a man without identity, a man that would do anything to save his "master", including giving up his own beliefs and convert to Christianity. 

To conclude, although the plot is sometimes boring due to the lack of action and characters, Crusoe's adventures prove to be really interesting because of the way he tells us. The main character copes with his loneliness writing, speaking and praying and the readers are the only witnesses who empathize with his loneliness, isolation and despair. That is why the book may become an interesting reading for you.

Christmas hangover : The best videos about the Christmas season.

Hello fellow bloggers,

Lately my blog seems more like the Quirks of Christmas rather than the Quirks of English, so I promise this will be but my last post about Christmas. Last week I wrote several blog entries (one about Christmas carols that included some exercises and videos; and another about Christmas vocabulary (I think it is pretty clear that I love the Christmas season). This time I would like to compile the funniest videos about Christmas. 

1. Do you like my decorations ?

As I mentioned in my post about the different Christmas traditions, one typically American tradition is to go to a farm to cut down your own real Christmas tree (or have it cut down). This video perfectly reflects that tradition in a funny, engaging and surprisingly humorous way. It also includes a pun with the word 'saw'. Simply hilarious. 

2. I gave my children a horrible Christmas present 

Jimmy Kimmel has a very famous late-show program in America. He likes pulling pranks and asking others to pull pranks too. One of his most famous and well-known pranks is to ask parents to tell their children that they ate all their Halloween candy. However, at Christmas, he also asks parents to give their children terrible presents. Watch the children's reaction. It's priceless!:

3. The singing Christmas hedgehogs

This is an interactive video about some cute hedgehogs eager to sing a Christmas carol, but... you know... accidents always happen. Enjoy : 

4. Christmas clumsiness compilation 
This video shows a lot of clumsy people doing their best at Christmas...

5. The scary snowman
A spooky snowman terrifying pedestrian as they go past the street...

6. Christmas lights : Gangham Style 
Some people at Christmas go crazy and decorate their houses with tons and tons of lights. By contrast, other people go even crazier and use the lights to reproduce the song : Gangham Style...

7. Christmas pranks
A compilation of some very funny Christmas pranks. 

8. Santa's adventure to catch some Christmas cookies 

This Santa is a decoration on a Christmas tree trying by all means to eat some delicious Christmas cookies. But how will he go down the tree in the first place ? It somehow reminds me of Toy Story.

9. John Lewis's advertisement

In this lovely ad, a young child eagerly awaits Christmas to get a special present...Really touching !

Did you like my selection of videos ? Would you like to share some more videos with me ? Well, Christmas is over. The Three Wise Men have just popped up. Have you been good or naughty ? Did you receive a piece of coal ? he he. Remember, Yesterday it was the Twelfth Night. It is believed that you must remove all your Christmas decorations and ornaments to avoid bad luck and start the year on the right foot. I hope this Christmas has been fun and welcoming for you all. 

Christmas vocabulary

Happy New Year to everyone !

How did you spend your New Year's Eve ? What are your expectations and resolutions for 2016 ? The first post of the year aims at your learning of more Christmas vocabulary: I propose you a little game. I will upload ten images related to Christmas and you will have to guess the correct word. Then, you can check your solutions with a slides presentation down below where you will be able to learn more Christmas vocabulary. Ready ? Let's go: 

      

     

      

       

     

How many words do you think you know ? Well, now let's have a look at the presentation down below ? I hope you start this newly arrived year learning some useful Christmas vocabulary.