Conversation questions: Money & Shopping

A few questions for inspiration...

http://iteslj.org/questions/money.html

You can find more questions on every topic under the sun here.

Online shopping

Article: Top 10 benefits of online shopping.

Activity: Train your accent. Read, listen and practise pronunciation by copying the intonation. Why not also tape yourself?

I wish I could go travelling again

Song facts:
Thos song is sung byStacey Kent, an American jazz singer. The lyrics were written by Kazuo Ishiguro, the Japanese/British writer, most famous for the novel The Remains of the Day.

+ Listen to the song once and tick the travel-related problems that the singer mentions.

Feeling tired after a long-haul flight     Losing a suitcase   Being robbed    Rude waiters    Flight overbooking Almost missing a flight     Being irritated by a travelling companion     Disappointing food    Bad weather    Unsatisfactory accommodation     Crowded beaches



Here you have the lyrics to check your answers.

+ Find words in the song which mean:

1. sunglasses (informal)
2. drink, taking very small amountseach time
3. a sheet of strong cloth that stretches out from above a door or window to keep off the sun or rain.
4. to become lost / stolen (idiom)
5. not impressed, excited or worried about sth, because you have seen or experiencec it many times before.
6. go somewhere suddenly and quickly.
7. not perfect; not working correctly
8. too expensive; costing more than it is worth.
9. --- of sth, completely lacking in sth.

Answers can be found in the comments section.

Acupuncture good for a bad back

Complete the gaps

Many people think (1) ____ about doctors sticking needles in them. However, research into acupuncture might change people’s opinions. A new study (2) ____ this ancient Chinese therapy shows it is better than usual hospital treatments at relieving back pain. The research team found acupuncture is “better” for a bad back than the (3) ____ given in the West. This may be good news for millions of people who suffer from back pain. (4) ____ to 85 per cent of us will experience a painful back at some time in our life. The research team surveyed 638 patients with (5) ____ back pain. Researcher Dr Daniel Cherkin said all the varieties of acupuncture in the study “had beneficial…effects” when compared to usual treatment. He said acupuncture was (6) ____ safe and effective.

Acupuncture is growing (7) ____ popularity around the world. It is a technique in which very thin needles are pushed into specific points on the body. Experts say each point has (8) ____ to a special energy flow. The needles can stop the flow of energy that causes pain. They also say acupuncture is (9) ____. Western doctors do not understand how or why these lines of energy (10) ____. The WHO recommends acupuncture for over 20 different medical problems. Dr Cherkin’s study showed acupuncture worked. After eight weeks, up to 69 per cent of the test patients (11) ____ acupuncture said their back pain improved. This compares (12) ____ just 39 per cent for the patients who received conventional care.

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	paired	(b)	double	(c)	two	(d)	twice
2.	(a)	into	(b)	onto	(c)	out of	(d)	on
3.	(a)	cares	(b)	care	(c)	cared	(d)	caring
4.	(a)	At	(b)	Down	(c)	Up	(d)	On
5.	(a)	lowly	(b)	low	(c)	lower	(d)	lows
6.	(a)	bother	(b)	both	(c)	booth	(d)	bothersome
7.	(a)	on	(b)	an	(c)	of	(d)	in
8.	(a)	access	(b)	excess	(c)	assess	(d)	axis
9.	(a)	pained	(b)	painless	(c)	pains	(d)	painfully
10.	(a)	workaholic	(b)	workable	(c)	works	(d)	work
11.	(a)	had	(b)	has had	(c)	having	(d)	has
12.	(a)	to	(b)	by	(c)	at	(d)	of

The key can be found in the comments section.

End of the course Announcements

Two little announcements now that we are so close to the end of the course...

Firstly, there is an END OF YEAR SURVEY for you to kindly fill in with your opinions and feedback relating various topics as the classes, the school facilities... You will find this survey on the right margin of our website. This survey will be open till the 25th June.

Secondly, a little reminder: those of you who have borrowed material from the SCHOOL LIBRARY, please can you return it as soon as possible.

Mount Fuji to be World Heritage site

Read the news on the Japan Times.

Now complete the text with the following words:

each - financially - idea - sacred - peak - climbing - status - preserve -  volcano - decide - everyday - decision - wash - limit - major - means

Japan's Mount Fuji will (1) ____________ a World Heritage Site in June. The United Nations (U.N.) decided on April the 30th to give the famous mountain UNESCO World Heritage (2) ____________. The U.N. team that made the (3) ____________ said Fuji was very important to Japanese religion and art. They also said that the 3,776-meter-high (4) ____________ was important outside of Japan too. Fuji-san (as Japanese people call it) has been a (5) ____________ mountain for more than 1,000 years. Priests say that when you climb it, you move from the "(6) ____________ world" at the bottom, to the "world of gods, Buddha and death" at the top. They believe people can (7) ____________ away their sins by (8) ____________ to the top and coming back down again.
Mount Fuji is a (9) ____________ tourist destination. It is very popular with hikers, who want to see the rising sun from its (10) ____________. More than 318,000 hikers visited the mountain last summer, with up to 15,000 people climbing (11) ____________ day. Local residents are now worried the World Heritage status will mean more visitors. That (12) ____________ there will be more litter and environmental problems. The local government may ask people to pay to climb the mountain to help (13) ____________ its beauty. Governor Shomei Yokouchi said: "It's likely we'll ask mountain climbers to help (14) ____________ with keeping the mountain clean." Another (15) ____________ being talked about is to (16) ____________ the daily number of hikers allowed to the top.

The key can be found in the comments section.

The 25 Wonders of the World

As seen on page 84 of the book, these are the 25 Wonders of the World, according to Rough Guide. Do you agree with the list? How many do you know or have visited? Are you missing any "Wonder"?


1 Salt flats of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
2 Uluru or Ayers Rock, Australia 3 Pyramids at Giza, Egypt
4 Drifting down the Amazon
5 “Fairy chimneys” and caves of Cappadocia, Turkey
6 Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
7 Petra, the city carved from stone in the Jordanian desert
8 Machu Picchu, Peru
9 Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s masterpiece in Barcelona
10 Perito Moreno glacier, Patagonia
11 Sistine Chapel, Rome
12 Trekking in the Himalayas
13 Angkor Wat, Cambodia
14 The canals and palaces of Venice
15 Taking a camel train across the Sahara
16 Great Wall of China
17 Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe
18 Paddling in the Barrier Reef, Belize
19 Taj Mahal, India
20 Maya ruins of Mexico and Guatemala
21 Stone giants of Easter Island
22 Grand Mosque, Djenné, Mali
23 The temptations of Las Vegas
24 Forbidden City, China
25 Itaipú, the world’s biggest dam, Paraguay and Brazil

See now what the Wikipedia says about the Wonders of the World and the Unesco's World Heritage list.

What's in the news?

Have you read the news these days?  

Choose a headline (or any other that might interest you) and do some research about it. Prepare a short presentation and tell your classmates about it. Remember to include a brief summary, your opinion and the words and expressions you learnt or think are useful.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is elected Pope

Soccer player apologizes for Nazi salute

Jedi could perform marriages

Miniskirts to be 'banned' in South Korea

Boys suffer poor body image

Teenager suddenly rich, famous after Yahoo buys his app

Louvre is most visited museum of 2012

Daily Newspapers Return to Burma

Bieber to be prosecuted after spitting on neighbor

Judge targets Princess Cristina

Speaking Ideas: Historical films and Technology

Answer these questions or use them for inspiration to prepare your speaking test:

HISTORY AND WARFARE
1. If you could have lived in another historical period, which one would you choose?
2. Which historical figure do you particularly admire?
3. Which historical films have you seen and enjoyed?

4. Which recent historical films have been very popular?

HELP AND PERSUASION
1. Whay are self-help books so popular?
2. What have you recently tried to persuade someone to do?
3. How easy is it for people to persuade you to do something?
4. If you bought a self-help book what would it be about?
5. What kind of problems cause people to buy self-help books?

TECHNOLOGY and ADDICTIONS
1. What kind of addictions are caused by modern gadgets?
2. Which gadgets do you always have with you when you go out?
3. What kind of things are people in your society obsessed with?


You can also comment on these statements, saying if you agree or disagree. Give reasons:

1. Historical films are a good way for people to learn about history.
2. It does not matter if a historical film is factually inaccurate.
3. There is no point in anyone reading a self-help book.
4. Self-help books can do more harm than good
5. The success of a company depends on the happiness of its employees
6. Advertising is harmful to a lot of people
7. Gadgets make life easier - or do they?
8. Addictions are one of the greatest problems in society today.
9. An obsession is not necessarily a bad thing.

June Exam

Dear students,

Just a reminder of the dates of the June exam:

THURSDAY 13th JUNE

16:30 READING 90'

18:00 LISTENING 30'

18:30 BREAK 15'

18:45 WRITING 75'

SPEAKING EXAMS WILL BE MONDAY 17th JUNE and WEDNESDAY 19th from 16h onwards. Schedule to be published soon.

Connectors and Linkers

This is a good way to learn vocabulary according to word functions...

Pronunciation dictionary

I have added an Online Pronunciation Dictionary to Websites of Interest on the right margin.

Also, some interesting news about how to learn English pronunciation "made in Asturias".

Finally, some pronunciation tips from the BBC Learning English website.

The Iron Lady RIP

Read some articles and watch some videos about the reactions to Margaret Thatcher's death and the impact of her legacy.

"Iron Lady" Thatcher mourned, but critics speak out

Baroness Thatcher dies: Tributes paid at home and abroad

Are you cutting back?

Tell us how you're coping with the difficult economy

Have a look at this section at The Guardian "Comment is free", where you can post your stories or opinions on a subject. 

A similar exercise to this appeared in last year's exam.