Council Housing

BEFORE WATCHING:

1. Are there any housing problems in your area? Which?
2. Which social groups are the most affected?
3. Can you give any specific examples? (homeless/squatters etc and their whereabouts).
4. Can you describe the conditions in which these people live?

WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO ABOUT HOUSING PROBLEMS IN THE UK AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS:

1. Describe Frances and Mandy’s home:

___________________________________________

2. Their health problems: The child’s _______________________

His parents’_________________________

3. Frances puts the problem down to __________________, and thinks they are also responsible for _________________________

4. From the information they give us on the screen we learn that:

Priority over houses is given to immigrants who _________________

The regulation for immigrants also applies for    _________________

5. The numbers last year:

________________ new dwellings were built for social needs

________________ people are still on the social housing waiting lists

6. The government hasn’t come up with either __________________ or with ________________ to build more social houses.

  

DEBATE:

A decent house is a basic need and a right for everyone.

Find ways of fighting the problem of homelessness. Choose the best.

Childcare fees higher than housing costs in UK

Read about this report and watch a video on BBC News and answer the following questions:

1. RAISING CHILDREN: How can parents make savings? Complete this table:

	Savings	Easy or difficult (and why)
Education
Food
Toys
Going out
Childcare
Entertainment

2. EXPENSES:Rank these. Put the things kids can most do without at the top.

• sports equipment   • mobile phone   • brand clothes   • candy and soda

• video games   • music   • club activities   • parties

3. LANGUAGE CLOZE

Families in the U.K. now pay more on childcare than on their mortgage. The (1) ____ costs of raising children are now (2) ____ yearly housing loan repayments. This is according to a survey conducted by Britain's Family and Childcare Trust. The organization says that in some (3) ____ of the country, nursery fees have risen by 13 per cent in the past year. The cost for babysitters and child-minders has risen by an average of four per cent. The report's author Jill Rutter told the Nursery World website that her (4) ____ showed that childcare in the U.K. is becoming (5) ____ and less affordable for families. She also said an insufficient (6) ____ of places in nurseries shows the U.K.'s system isn't working.

The report could well make would-be parents think (7) ____ about starting a family, or about the number of children they have. A family of four with one child (8) ____ a nursery and another in an after-school club spends an average of $12,571 a year. This compares to the average yearly housing loan payments of $12,000. Families are now spending (9) ____ quarter of their income on childcare. This does not include the costs of (10) ____, clothing and entertaining children. There are also the costs of toys, books and electronic gadgets on (11) ____ of that. The chief executive of the Trust warned that when many parents have to spend more than a quarter of their income on childcare, it's clear that the system "isn't fit for (12) ____ ".

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

1.	(a)	annulled	(b)	analysis	(c)	annual	(d)	annul
2.	(a)	outstripping	(b)	outstanding	(c)	outsourcing	(d)	outstaying
3.	(a)	parties	(b)	parts	(c)	partners	(d)	departs
4.	(a)	proof	(b)	doodles	(c)	scribbles	(d)	findings
5.	(a)	fewer	(b)	smaller	(c)	less	(d)	lower
6.	(a)	palette	(b)	number	(c)	criteria	(d)	flow
7.	(a)	twice	(b)	too	(c)	few	(d)	second
8.	(a)	attendant	(b)	attends	(c)	attendance	(d)	attending
9.	(a)	the	(b)	two	(c)	a	(d)	full
10.	(a)	foodstuffs	(b)	foodies	(c)	fodder	(d)	feeding
11.	(a)	place	(b)	top	(c)	list	(d)	demand
12.	(a)	purpose	(b)	reason	(c)	excuse	(d)	rationale

Read more:http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1403/140306-childcare.html#ixzz2xZChacIu

How clean is your house?

Watch again (if you're strong enough) the first part of the show HOW CLEAN IS YOUR HOUSE?

To find out how he learn to clean watch PART 2

Finally, watch the results in PART 3

The art of choosing

Watch the first 2'45'' of this TED talk about choice. The first part is about an anecdote related to cultural differences. Then answer the following questions.

)

1.    Where did the story take place?

2.    What did she want?

3.    What did she get? Why?

4.    What would have happened if she was in the USA?

OVER TO YOU NOW...

1.    What would happen in your country?

2.    What choices do you make every day?

3.    Have you ever made a difficult choice?

4.    What don't you have a choice in?

5.      What would you prefer?

For full transcript go to the TED talks page.

Addicted to Social Networks?

Hello again!

Related to the topic of TECHNOLOGY, read these two articles:

www.thedailybeast.com

1. About the impact of technology  in our daily lives...

The Influence of modern technology on society: Good or bad?

2. About Internet addiction... (with interesting links to visit)

¿Sufrir por ti? ¡Ja! ¡Ni que fueras internet cuando se va!

And finally, look what I found here... National Day of Unplugging, next 7-8 March!

Time management

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Read the article to pick up some useful tips on time management.

http://www.dumblittleman.com/

Maybe you can use the information provided as a New Year Resolution? ;)

TIME: Sayings, quotes and proverbs

Read the following proverbs, which are related to TIME.

• The early bird catches the worm
• A stitch in time saves nine
• Make hay while the sun shines
• When the cat's away the mice will play
• It's no use crying over spilt milk
• You can't teach an old dog new tricks
• Don't count your chicken before they're hatched
• A watched pot never boils
• We'll cross that bridge when we come to it
• Strike while the iron is hot  

What do you think they mean? Are there any similar proverbs in Spanish?
Read some quotes about time HERE.

More Idioms and collocations

Practise with a Crossword

Career advice

Visit MONSTER, a career advice website, to practise your reading and learn more about the topic of WORK.

Answer the interview questions HERE. Then click on the question to launch a video with advice from recruitment experts. How well did you do?

Finally HERE you have some listening and vocabulary exercises on how to prepare a job interview.

Vocabulary: WORK

In this post I've gathered several exercises and activities to practise the topic of WORK:

1. Practise the vocabulary you learnt with a CROSSWORD

2. MATCH the two halves of several collocations.

3. Play a game of Snakes and Ladders to revise jobs.

4. Short-answer Jobs Quiz.

5. Listening exercises: "Setting up a company"

Innocent drinks

Visit the Innocent Drinks website to practise your reading and learn more about the company we talked about.

Also interesting, and to pratise your listening skills, a 25-minute TV documentary by the BBC to know more about the company, its ethos and how it started: BBC Start Up Stories: Innocent drinks (transcript available at the bottom of the screen)

Housework not good exercise

Housework isn't as healthy as people think... according to Science Daily.

Read it also on Medical Daily and on BBC News.

Now COMPLETE THE TEXT. Full text in the Comments section.

LANGUAGE - CLOZE

A new study suggests housework is not the (1) ____ form of exercise many people consider it to be. The report even went as (2) ____ as saying that those who did the most housework were usually those most overweight. The study is called, "Does doing housework keep you healthy? The contribution (3) ____ domestic physical activity to meeting current recommendations for health". It questions whether physical activities such (4) ____ do-it-yourself, gardening and housework are such good exercise. It acknowledges that (5) ____ activity is better than none, but says, "there is a danger that those undertaking domestic 'chores' may assume that this activity is moderate intensity" and wrongly (6) ____ it as proper exercise.

A total of 4,563 adults participated (7) ____ the survey, which was based on participants' weekly physical activity. The analysis from this research showed that people who included housework as part of their weekly exercise (8) ____ to be heavier. Research leader professor Marie Murphy said: "Housework is physical activity and any physical activity should (9) ____ increase the amount of calories [burnt]. But we found that housework was inversely (10) ____ to leanness, which suggests that either people are overestimating the amount of moderate intensity physical activity they do (11) ____ housework, or are eating too much to compensate for the amount of activity (12) ____."

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

1.	(a)	quantity	(b)	quantify	(c)	qualify	(d)	quality
2.	(a)	remote	(b)	distant	(c)	near	(d)	far
3.	(a)	for	(b)	of	(c)	from	(d)	as
4.	(a)	like	(b)	being	(c)	as	(d)	things
5.	(a)	every	(b)	all	(c)	any	(d)	much
6.	(a)	count	(b)	chalk	(c)	chart	(d)	clock
7.	(a)	under	(b)	in	(c)	on	(d)	at
8.	(a)	tended	(b)	extended	(c)	intended	(d)	tendered
9.	(a)	theories	(b)	theoretically	(c)	theory	(d)	theoretical
10.	(a)	relating	(b)	relations	(c)	related	(d)	relativity
11.	(a)	though	(b)	trough	(c)	through	(d)	thorough
12.	(a)	overtaken	(b)	mistaken	(c)	partaken	(d)	undertaken

Have something done

Have something done from Maria Hidalgo

And now... PRACTICE GALORE!

1. The Passive Voice: GET/HAVE SOMETHING DONE
2. Have something done: More explanations and a test
3. Five interactive exercises
4. Money, money, money!
5. Type the correct verb
6. Complete the sentences
7. BBC Learning English GRAMMAR CHALLENGE

Household chores

Finally, here you can listen and practice household chores vocabulary.

Most divorces due to household chores

What do you think are the main grounds for divorce? Infidelity? Money? Children? Boredom? Housework? Violence?

Look at the reports published in The Telegraph and The Daily Mail last week.

After reading, please complete the CLOZE. The full text can be found in the comments section.

Most divorces due to household chores (23rd November, 2012)

Most people believe that the biggest (1) ____ for divorce are either infidelity or arguments over money. However, a new report from British law firm Gateley suggests (2) ____. According to its analysis of 350 divorce cases, seven out of ten divorces occur because of disputes (3) ____ who does what household chores. Twenty per cent of divorces are due to unfaithfulness. Gateley says (4) ____ are the days when the wife did all the cooking and cleaning. Dual income marriages now mean (5) ____ responsibilities for vacuuming, doing the dishes and tidying. Gateley advised couples to discuss who does what before walking down the          (6) ____. A spokeswoman said that, "going into a marriage blind could be a recipe for disaster".
Conversely, a study in Norway suggests that couples who share household chores are more (7) ____ to split up. Thomas Hansen, co-author of the report 'Equality in the Home,' said the divorce rate among couples who shared housework (8) ____ was 50 per cent higher than for those where women did all the work. Mr Hansen said that in Norway women did most of the housework in 70 per cent of marriages, and were "(9) ____ happy" to do so. An adverse side effect of marital (10) ____ is that many families are now "too poor to split up". The U.K. charity Relate said that in many (11) ____-income families, couples stay together because they can't afford to divorce. Relate says this results in a "(12) ____ " home environment.

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

1.	(a)	grounds	(b)	grounded	(c)	grounding	(d)	grind
2.	(a)	wisely	(b)	other	(c)	otherwise	(d)	other than
3.	(a)	round	(b)	due	(c)	over	(d)	because
4.	(a)	vanish	(b)	history	(c)	finish	(d)	gone
5.	(a)	split	(b)	splits	(c)	split up	(d)	split ends
6.	(a)	gangway	(b)	aisle	(c)	corridor	(d)	path
7.	(a)	likes	(b)	liking	(c)	liked	(d)	likely
8.	(a)	equal	(b)	equally	(c)	equalise	(d)	equality
9.	(a)	largest	(b)	large	(c)	largely	(d)	larger
10.	(a)	harmony	(b)	discord	(c)	vocal chords	(d)	discern
11.	(a)	mean	(b)	richer	(c)	top	(d)	middle
12.	(a)	poison	(b)	toxic	(c)	vaccine	(d)	antidote

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.

Ideas for Speaking (Various topics)

On Personal Identification, Daily life, Relationships, Technology...

Answer, on your own or with a partner, the following questions:

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

1. What’s your favourite memory of your childhood?

2. What can you remember about the teachers you had when you were a child?

3. What games did you like playing when you were a child? 

4. What did you dislike doing when you were a child?

TIME AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Which modern gadget is the most useful one for you?

2. What piece of technology has most improved your life?
3. If you could, what piece of technology would you disinvent?
4. Which modern gadget do you think wastes people’s time?
5. What gadget or piece of technology do you waste most time with?
6. What kind of multitasking do you do?

LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS

1. How do you communicate most with friends and family? 

2. What causes teenagers’ relationships to break up?

3. When have you taken revenge on someone? 

In your 3-minute presentation you can also talk about one of these statements, saying if you agree or disagree. Give reasons.

  

1. ‘Childhood is the most important part of everyone’s life.’

2. ‘Children today have too much freedom.’

3. ‘Technology has had a bad effect on communication between people.’

4. ‘It is better to be very busy than not busy at all.’ 

5. ‘Revenge is never a good thing.’

6. ‘There is never a good way of ending a relationship.’