Accidents

Even for the Spanish, cutting a good slice of air-cured ham, one of their popular traditional delicacies, can be a risky business.

One Spanish medical foundation claimed last week that 57,000 domestic accidents involving ham knives – which have blades over a foot long – take place annually.
But maybe not for long: as Christmas approaches (when the largest percentage of the 4.5 million ham legs purchased every year in Spain are sold), Juan Carlos Gomez, the Spanish National Champion of Hamcutting, has been touring Spain giving master classes in how best to tackle a jamon serrano.
Mr Gomez most recently showed up in Malaga, revealing to the winners of a competition organised by Navidul, one of the country's biggest Serrano producers, secrets of the trade such as whether to hang the leg with the hoof pointing up or down when cutting and which part of the ham to cut first.
For those unable to attend his classes, Mr Gomez, has even written a bluffer's guide (rather more cruelly called a "guide for the clumsy" in Spanish) to ham, as part of a popular series of self- education books covering everything from childbirth to wine tasting to, somewhat less predictably, neurolinguistics.
Apart from eager and rookie cutters having an injury-free ham-eating experience, the ultimate aim of his classes and book is to carve out the perfect slice of serrano.
This apparently is 3cm to 5cm long – "not so big that we have to fold it over or so small that it doesn't taste of anything," Gomez told the newspaper Ideal.
In: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/postcard-from-malaga-8224140.html


We are not surprised about it, are we? I´m sure we know someone who has had this accident while trying to produce a wonderful dish of this delicious food, but I want you to write 200 words about any other accident you have had or another member of your family, or, why not? a friend. Remember this is a narrative and you will have to use past tenses and connectors of sequence.Go on!

New record for world's oldest man Jiroemon Kimura

Do you remember that selectividad text "The world´s oldest woman"? I do, in fact I have worked it  with 1º Bachillerato this year. The curious thing is that I was looking for some news to write here and I found this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7-eUmY0sSg , I would like you to watch the video and answer this question with 200words:


"Would you like to live so long? Write advantages and disadvantages.

Yujuuuuuuuuuu! Here we are again!!!!!!!

Yes, and so very happy to have the chance to meet so many new students eager to learn English!
I think that if this is going to be a tool to help you with your English you´d better know it well from the beginning so I´m proposing you some questions whose answers are in the blog, at the beginning of it, here they are:
1. Why did I choose this name?
2.What is the date of the first post?
3.Why did I decide to begin the blog?
4.Do you know the name of one of my favourite songs?
5.Which health problem did I have when I began the blog?

El descanso del blogsodepaula

Shhhhhhhh! Hasta septiembre 2012 no volverá a estar en uso, no sirve para el examen de septiembre y hay que dejarlo descansar después de un año tan ajetreado.

IOC selects three cities as candidates for 2020 Olympic Games

(CNN) -- The International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid have made it on to the short list of cities bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Baku and Doha were rejected for the second time in a row after failing to make the 2016 games.

"The executive board has decided that the following cities can continue to the next phase and become candidates for 2020. In the order of drawing lots: Istanbul, Tokyo, and Madrid," said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

The three remaining candidate cities will enter into Phase 2 of the selection period. Files from the cities will be submitted to the IOC by January 7, 2013. Following an official visit by the IOC Evaluation Commission between February and April of 2013, a report will be made to the 2020 IOC Evaluation Commission and candidate cities will brief IOC members.

The election of the host city of the XXXII Olympic Summer Games will take place on September 7, 2013, at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires.

In culling the field from five to three cities, the IOC executive board relied "on application files, the report of a working group of experts which is formed to assess the application forms of each city, the city's compliance with elements like the World Anti-Doping Code, and other criteria," said Adams.

Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, had proposed changing the games to October 2-18, to mitigate the extreme temperatures athletes would have to experience during the usual July-August summer games. Based on a 10-year average, Doha temperatures in October range from 30 to 36 degrees Celsius (86 to 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The working group also decided against Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, for its infrastructural limitations. The "games planning and experience," were "not sufficiently developed at this stage," according to the report.

Of the five candidate cities, only Tokyo has hosted the Olympics before, in the XVIII Olympiad held in the summer of 1964.

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of Madrid in this contest? Write more than 200 words. 

Conmemorating Expo92

20 years!!! It´s a long time... It´s been even celebrated on the portada of the feria de Sevilla. It was a great event. Hundreds of words have been written about it, you can have a look on the internet but there are about 210.000.000 entries about it. No, I don´t want you to copy any of these articles or information., I would like you to ask any in your family to tell you something about it from his/her personal experience, it maybe an anecdote, his/her opinion, in 200 words.

Enjoying a film

Some friends, my daughters an myself spent last weekend by the seashore. The weather was not very good so we had to do some activities in order to have an enjoyable time instead of going to the beach as it was impossible. One of the things was going to the cinema. The female group of us decided on this film because it was fine for both, girls with less than eight years old and "girls"with more than eight. We had a nice time, it is a different version, they have made some changes in the story but it is still a fine, lovely fairy tale and we all laughed and smiled with the film, which was the aim.
I won´t tell you the film as it is not fair, but I would like you to tell me the last film you have watched. Remember to use connectors to show sequence as they appear on page132 on the book of 2º Bachillerato and on page of the book of 1º Bachillerato. About 200 words :)

Holy week

It´s coming! Yeah! What does it mean for you? People have different thoughts about our holy week, it may mean a period of the year to rest, go to the beach, visit family...For others it has a deep religious feeling and they enjoy watching "pasos", sharing activities with their "hermandades" and taking part in their respective "estación de penitencia". Also there are some people who mix this religious feeling with resting and making other several and different things like myself. Can you write 200 words about what it means for you or what you usually do?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2YvB_k4DNE&feature=youtu.be

Man´s best friend

Can you write a composition (200 words) about why the dog is man´s best friend?

Bullfightings

I have just read a piece of news about bullfighting, about children watching it or not. What do you think of this? Try to write advantages and disadvantages in 200 words.

St Valentine

I have several exercises for you to celebrate St Valentine. You must copy the exercises,the lyrics, the poem and fill in the blanks. This is the link:

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6557

Freezing!!!!!

Yes! It´s really cold outside, I have seen it through the window. People wear thick coats and walk looking down at the pavement, they look like they are in a hurry, looking forward to getting home. Tomorrow it will be very cold again and we won´t go out. Can you write about 200 words suggesting things to do at home while it is freezing outside?

Phrasal verb exercises

The first exercises for this year are related to phrasal verbs.
1.The first one is writing each of the sentences above in English and next to it its translation into Spanish.

2. The second exercise is rewriting the text in the following site: http://www.mansioningles.com/practica_rick01.htm with the corresponding phrasal verbs.

Pay attention to the instructions and good luck!

;)

New Year´s Purposes and Wishes

Every year, when it is ending, most of us think about the next year and start formulating wishes which turn into purposes. Some people want to give up smoking, others, like myself want to do more exercise or start a healthy diet. Use the future tenses and write four sentences with each of the futures expressing your purposes, wishes and predictions for the next year. I will give you a grammar tip to help you, it is on http://www.preuniversitaria.com, go to "secretaría virtual", then to "materiales para los alumnos", "Ingles I" and in "Unit 4" there is a table with future tenses.

I´m feeling blue...

Yes, some of you will be leaving in June, sadly, others in September, and the rest, the rest of students who are in 1º the next year, and I don´t know what you are going to study, why or where.
Can you write 200 words telling me about it?

I´m late!

Sorry! Sorry!I´m a bit late for this post! Can you tell me that special time when you got late?

London UFOs: Multiple People Capture Odd Occurrence Over British City

While many of these types of UFO videos can often be easily written off, the emergence of two separate recordings of the same event could give you pause.

Even more incredible is just how similar they seem. Both videos show a group of three white discs floating over the city, namely over the BBC building and Tower Bridge.

Both were taken late last week, and in one of the videos you can see at least a few people looking up at the objects, adding some credibility to the cameraman.

Whether or not there's a better explanation is a matter of opinion at this point.

Last October, many New Yorkers were astonished to witness several alleged UFOs maneuvering in the sky above the Chelsea section of Manhattan - in the middle of the afternoon.

While the FAA received many reports about the strange objects and radar returns couldn’t explain the UFOs away, it turned out that they may have simply been a bunch of balloons that had been intended for a party north of the city. The balloons reportedly got away from the party, and were carried along by air currents that eventually brought them to the Big Apple.

Could this also explain the London UFOs? Or is it a Photoshop hoax depicting alien-type vehicles in the sky? Tell me what you think about UFOs.

http://youtu.be/wQmut0XtD3s

Would you marry a millionaire?

http://youtu.be/8ZRs__rmYMc

I´m sure you have thought about it more than once, well, this is your chance to share it with us. Write more than 200 words about it, and, you don´t have to be sincere ;)
Below is the same song but just the lyrics:

http://youtu.be/rDyqJDJKtFc

People´s opinion

There is an article, about the Spanish elections in this website: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/05/22/spain.elections/index.html

And there is the opinion of protest spokesman Juan López who said:” It's just before elections when the Spanish politicians usually hear the voice of the people.”

What would you tell these politicians? What would you ask for? What would you advise or suggest? Write more than 200 words without writing about politics, please

;)

Invent a holiday!

Write 200 words coming up with a new holiday: what does the holiday celebrate? When is it? Does the holiday have any fun tradition (like wearing green on St. Patrick´s Day or giving out cards and chocolate on Valentine´s Day)?