Train your ears!

The Selectivitat exams are approaching, and maybe the listening comprehension part offers the most difficulties. Listen and read the texts in these websites to help you train your ears.

• Breaking news English. Read an article from the press and listen to it (click on Downloads - Listening). If you want further practice, you may do an incredible number of comprehension exercises (with answer keys at the bottom of the page). A great site!



• Podomatic. Listen to news articles read at a very slow pace.



• ESL Podcast. Excellent. Short fragments from everyday conversations. You can download the audio file and listen to it anywhere on your iPod or mp3 player.

Conditionals

Now that the exams are round the corner, and since we didn't have much time to practice the conditional sentences, I recommend that you do a few more exercises online:

• Conditional Sentences / If-Clauses Type I, II and III Some exercises and tests


• Conditional sentences - if A long list of exercises.

And a little joke:

If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
THEN YOU ARE PROBABLY THE FAMILY DOG!

Animal idol

Operación triunfo, Popstars, Factor X, Tienes talento, Tú sí que vales... or their English equivalents, Pop Idol, The X Factor, Fame Academy... all of them are talent shows, that is, a mixture of reality show and school where the contestants are looking for fame and stardom. You probably have seen some (or all) of them. Here's another one: Animal Idol.

What do you think of it? Would you watch it if it was on TV???

Mother's day

Last Sunday 10th was Mother's Day in the English-speaking countries. The following text is a homage to all mothers:

WHY I LOVE MUM

Mom and Dad were watching TV when Mom said, "I'm tired, and it's getting late. I think I'll go to bed."

She went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for the next day's lunches, rinsed out the popcorn bowls, took meat out of the freezer for supper the following evening, checked the cereal box levels, filled the sugar container, put spoons and bowls on the table and started the coffee pot for brewing the next morning.

She then put some wet clothes in the dryer, put a load of clothes into the washer, ironed a shirt and secured a loose button.

She picked up the game pieces left on the table, put the phone back on the charger and put the telephone book into the drawer.

She watered the plants, emptied a wastebasket and hung up a towel to dry.

She yawned and stretched and headed for the bedroom. She stopped by the desk and wrote a note to the teacher, counted out some cash for the field trip, and pulled a text book out from hiding under the chair.

She signed a birthday card for a friend, addressed and stamped the envelope and wrote a quick note for the grocery store. She put both near her purse.

Mom then washed her face with 3 in 1 cleanser, put on her Night solution & age fighting moisturizer, brushed and flossed her teeth and filed her nails.

Dad called out, "I thought you were going to bed."

"I'm on my way," she said.

She put some water into the dog's dish and put the cat outside, then made sure the doors were locked and the patio light was on.

She looked in on each of the kids and turned off their bedside lamps, hung up a shirt, threw some dirty socks into the hamper, and had a brief conversation with the one up still doing homework.

In her own room, she set the alarm; laid out clothing for the next day, straightened up the shoe rack. She added three things to her 6 most important things to do list. She said her prayers and visualized the accomplishment of her goals.

About that time, Dad turned off the TV and announced to no one in particular. "I'm going to bed." And he did...without another thought.

More practice for the exam

Apart from the exercises on passive you'll find in the April posts, here come a few more:

• 10 exercises at English Corner
• 30 more exercises at EGO4U

And practise the irregular verbs here or here.

Infinitives and gerunds

A collection of exercises to practice the grammar in Unit 6 before the exam:

• Gerund or infinitive after the verb at the Grammar Aquarium (4 exercises)
• Gerunds and Infinitives at Using English (the first three exercises)
• Gerund / infinitive at englisch-hilfen (grammar explanation and 5 exercises)
• Gerunds and infinitives at English page (a tutorial, 29 exercises and a final test!)

Good luck with the practice and the exam!

Nasubi

In Unit 6 we read about Nasubi, a Japanese comedian who spent 15 months in an appartment, trying to win 1 million yen in order to get out. During all this time, TV cameras broadcast everything he did. Here are some more facts about him and the TV show:

• he didn't know what kind of show he was in, or that he was watched by thousands of people every day.


• he was completely naked all the time. The TV show put an eggplant on screen to cover his parts (Nasubi means eggplant in Japanese).


• it took him two weeks to win some food. The first thing he ate was some jelly.


• it took him eight months to win some toilet paper.


• he won some rice, but he had no cooking utensils.


• he sent out between 3000 and 8000 postcards a month.


• he was allowed a holiday at the beach in September.


• every time he won something, he danced and sang an invented song in front of the cameras.


• after he won the contest, he had to complete a second part of it in Korea.

Read more about him here: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/nasubi.html. You will see the things he won, and also the things he never won!

Here you can see photos of Nasubi in action (the site is in Japanese. Follow the links on the left).