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http://quizzes.familyeducation.com/social-studies/us-states/state-capitals.html

USA STATES

Click on the address above and do the QUIZ  on USA STATES and CAPITAL CITIES. Then Check your answers.

How many states did you know?

How many state´s capital cities did you know?

How many right answers did you get?

Find more information on the following American States : Capital City, Motto, Nickname, Song and Symbols of :

KANSAS, FLORIDA, TEXAS, NEW YORK, PENSYLVANNIA.

This website will help you:
http://www.infoplease.com/

Dictionary link:

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.

Read the following reviews on the Twilight Books and answer:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/criticreviews

75	Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman On screen, Twilight is repetitive and a tad sodden, too prosaic to really soar. But Hardwicke stirs this teen pulp to a pleasing simmer.
75	San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub Twilight has a few gory plot turns - mostly offscreen - and one near-sex scene that may offend a few Amish people, but the rest is maybe 33 percent less wholesome than "High School Musical." It's almost certainly less risque than what you were watching when you were 14. (Cue the soundtrack to "Risky Business.")
75	Boston Globe Ty Burr Actually, the movie's a better movie than the book was a book, in part because Meyer struggled to put her characters' galloping emotions into print whereas director Catherine Hardwicke just visualizes them in all their inarticulate purpleness.
75	Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea Twilight - directed with savvy humor by Catherine Hardwicke - turns vampirism into a metaphor for teen lust.
70	Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan Hardwicke has connected so intensely to the Meyer novel that it's hard to imagine anyone else making a better version.
63	Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Twilight will mesmerize its target audience, 16-year-old girls and their grandmothers. Their mothers know all too much about boys like this.
63	Rolling Stone Peter Travers Bummer. The vampires have no fangs. The humans are humdrum. The special effects and makeup define cheeseball. And the movie crowds in so many characters from Stephenie Meyer's book that Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is less a director than a traffic cop. But there's a reason that Twilight has already become the movie equivalent of a bestseller: The love story has teeth.
60	New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman It's disappointing when a big-screen romance can't match up to the one in your imagination, at any age.
60	The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt An underwhelming vampire romance long on camp but short on emotional insight
	1- List words used in these reviews that have a positive meaning as for example : interesting. 2- List words with negative meaning as for example: disappointing 3- Which review do you agree with? Why? Have you seen or read any of the Twilight movies or books? 4- Using these reviews as models write a brief review on the last book or movie you have seen. Dictionary link: http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.

Listen to the NBA player Pau Gasol´s interview and answer the following questions:

-Which team does Pau play for?

-Which team won the final game?

-What´s the name of the conductor of the show and why does he say he is so happy?

-Pau says that after the game somebody offered him something. Who was he and what did he offer to the player?

-Name words mentioned in this interview related to the basketball world,

-Pau is a famous Spanish player in America. Do you know any famous foreign player in Spain? Maybe Leo Messi ... Do you think it is difficult for these sports stars adapt to a new country in terms of culture, people, music...? Reason your answer.

Dictionary link:

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.

Listen to  Kansas
 and fill in the blanks:

 

I close my eyesOnly for a moment and the moment's _________

All my dreamsPass before my eyes with ____________

Dust in the windAll they are is dust in the wind

Same old songJust ____________of water in an endless sea

All we do crumbles to the __________, though we refuse to see

(Aa aa aa)Dust in the windAll we are is dust in the windOh, ho, ho

Now don't __________Nothin' last forever but the _________ and __________It ________ away

And all your money won't another minute____________


Dust in the windAll we are is dust in the wind (All we are is dust in the wind)

Dust in the wind(Everything is dust in the wind) Everything is dust in the wind(In the wind)
(Ooo)(Ooo)(Ooo)



Kansas is also  a city : find information about it:

The country where it is:

The state where it is:

When it was founded :

Use:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City,_Missouri

Dictionary link:


http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.

 

Listen to The Cramberries and answer the following questions:

The song makes reference to a crucial date in the Irish history : find it out and take notes on where and what happened that year.




Use the dictionaries in this blog to find the pronounciation of the word GUN in British English and compare it to the pronounciation of the word in the song. What is the main difference?

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


Dictionary link:

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.

These dictionaries will help you to find words to make it easy to do your project tasks:





http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/



http://oxforddictionaries.com/




http://www.ahdictionary.com/

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.

After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.

During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.

Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1993, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1994

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award .

Answer the following questions on Nelson Mandela´s life:

When was Mandela arrested and why?

How long did he stay in prison?

When did he get to the presidency in South Africa?

What´s the meaning of apartheid? What´s the origin of the word?

Find more information on  the history of South Africa and take notes on these aspects :

Colonial times.Origin of its different inhabitants.

Main cities of the country.

South African words and expressions.

Use:

http://stensbys.blogspot.com.es/2007/11/useful-south-african-words-phrases.html

Dictionary link:

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.

Prueba Komcitiv

Animation réalisée sur le site http://www.komcitiz.com

This video includes the song Bloody Sunday by U2 and a brief introduction on the historical events that took place in Ireland in the 70´s , the result was the shooting of some civilicians on a peaceful march by the British army . I think it can be exploited both as a language learning activit i.e. a listening exercise,  and as a socio-cultural activity i.e. a web-quest on Anglo- historical relations.

ACTIVITY 1: Annabel Lee

Read the poem by EA Poe Annabel Lee and answer the following questions:

1-What do you think is the main topic of the poem? List words in the poem related to that topic.




2- Who do you think could Annabel Lee be: the narrator´s sister/wife/girlfriend...? Reason your answer using evidence from the text.



3- Why do you think angels envy the narrator and Annabel Lee?




4- Find information about the author of this poem: Edgar Allan Poe: date of birth and death, main books of poems and tales, main topics of his work. ( you may use the link Poe´s life)

                                                                                                                                                                 

ANNABEL LEE BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.


Edgar Allan Poe
Submitted: Tuesday, December 31, 2002

ACTIVITY 2: Varieties of the English Language.

Watch and listen to the video " You say tomato and I say..." and answer the following questions:

In this video two people are using two varieties of English: which ones?



List all the words mentioned in the video  that are pronounced in a different way. Are they written in the same way?



Find  new words that are said or written in a different way in the different varieties of English: for example colour vs color .


Find people in your class that use different varieties of Spanish and give examples of the different words used to say the same thing. for example auto vs coche

ACTIVITY 3: Fly me to the Moon.

Listen to Frank Sinatra´s song  " Fly me to the Moon"carefully and answer the following questions:



1- Which planets are mentioned in this song?

2- How long does he want to sing?

3-What does he ask to hold? Mention at least five items that you can hold. Can you hold people too?

4-What means of transport can you fly? Name at least three.

5- Can you explain the expression "in other words" ? Write at least two sentences using it.

Frank Sinatra Fly me to the moon

you say tomato

welcome

Hi ! Welcome to my blog. I want to share with you my love for the English language as well as music and books. I hope you like it!!

This blog is for students and teachers of English who share interests on the  English language and its socio-cultural dimension. I want to add contents that range from vocabulary and grammar contents to socio- cultural information . Tasks and activities will be based on these contents.and I´ll try to make them as communicative as possible.