Practise your listening: women inventors to celebrate International Women's Day!

Hiya!

Today it's Match, 8th, which means it's International Women's Day.

It is crystal clear that we have a long way to go to achieve total equality. Nowadays women still earn less than men;they are worse regarded when it comes to their children's upbringing; they can't roam the streets alone at night without being afraid of what might happen to them; they are somehow forced to tuck their careers away when they become pregnant; and they are -still in the twenty-first century-  battered and killed to death by their jealous, abusive partners, not to mention the hard situations that women in western countries have to endure... What is clear is that women today have to fight harder to gain the exact sale recognition than men; they have to struggle in order to get their place in history.

And here you have a very good example of five outstanding women inventors that need to.be remembered and recognised...

Here you have the exercise I used in the past with my students of B2.

Match women 1-5 to the correct sentence A-. There are some sentences you won't need.

1. MELITTA BENZ

2. BETTY NESMITH GRAHAM

3. MARJORIE JOYNER

4. MARY ANDERSON

5. MARY BEATRICE KENNER

A) THIS WOMAN IMPROVED WOMEN'S SANITARY CONDITIONS
B) THIS WOMAN EXPERIMENTED DIFFERENT COOKING METHODS
C) THIS WOMAN APPLIED KITCHEN STUFF TO ANOTHER FIELD OF EXPERTISE
D) THANKS TO HER, A DRINK WAS IMPROVED
E) THIS WOMAN HID THE INVENTION FROM HER BOSSES
F)  THIS WOMAN GREW INCREDIBLY RICH
G) THIS WOMAN PAID THE TOLL OF TARDINESS
H) THIS WOMAN INVENTED TOILET PAPER



Answers: 1D 2E 3C 4G 5A

To finish this entry, here you have another video about women inventors that will make you reflect a little bit.

See you around!

PRACTISE YOUR LISTENING: RIO DE JANEIRO'S CARNIVAL

 Hiya!

How's your Carnival going? Did you enjoy the Carnival parade? Did you dress up for a Carnival party? Did you make your own costume for Carnival? Last week I wrote an entry on Carnival vocabulary. Today I'm proposing a listening activity related to one of the most famous Carnivals across the world, no other than Rio de Janeiro's Carnival.

The video is a bit old and I used it some time ago in my classes. However, I really like it now, as it makes me become green with envy of the things we could do in the past when Covid 19 hadn't hit us hard...I'm looking forward to living an experience like the ones you can see on the video: binge alcohol, festive mood,...

Anyway, here you have the exercise and I'll post the answers at the end of this entry. I hope you like. 

Have a look at the video https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-21421812/rio-rev and fill in the gaps with a maximum  of 5 words. Item 0 is an example:

0. Rio’s Carnival is in full _swing_.

1. The first girl reckons that Rio’s Carnival is everybody’s favourite holiday for the people in _____________.

2. The city is trying to prevent people from ______________________ on the streets.

3. According to the driver, drugs and alcohol make people do  _____________________.

4. _____________ people are in the sambadrome to see the samba schools compete.

5. This year there’s a wide variety of themes including South Korea, the Amazon and ______________________.

6. Hundreds of ________________ have been deployed for the event.

Answers: 1 the bus  2 urinating 3 abnormal things 4 70,000 5 Brazil's soap operas 6 extra police

Here you have yet another exercise to revise the Carnival vocabulary seen in my previous entry:

DOWNLOAD THE EXERCISE HERE

I really hope you have practised your English and enjoyed Carnival.

See you around.