BINGE-WATCHING!

Suppose you are fond of watching TV series on streaming platforms. In that case, you may have noticed that the next episode automatically plays even without pressing the playback button on your TV remote control or your streaming device screen. The episodes usually end with one or more cliffhangers which leave you anxious to see the next one. Everything is planned to keep you watching one episode after the other, all you have to do is sit down and wait without moving a muscle. When you do that, you are binge-watching!!! Just as Homer Simpson in the image below!

binge-watching: the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television programme in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming.

If you don't want to end up like Homer Simpson but you need and extra-help to stop watching your favourite TV series,  remember that you can disable the 'autoplay next' feature in your streaming platform!!!

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

 

We already know who the winners of the I LANGUAGE PILLS COMPETITION are!! In the photo you can see most of the students who took part in the competition. They all received some sweets and a no homework pass, which is something very useful 😉!

You all did very well but two students got outstanding results 👏!

The winner in the First Level (1st-2nd-3rd ESO) was:

CLEO LE SAOS (1st ESO A)

                       

                    Paula with her English teacher, Rosa Valdés

👏👏👏👏

The winner in the Second Level (4th ESO-1st-2nd Bach) was:

PAULA VIOR (1st Bach A)

Paula with her English teacher, Nuria García

👏👏👏👏

The winners recieved a portable loudspeaker and some colourful pens:

Congratulations to the winners, but also to all the participants! 

Thank you for being always ready to accept the English Department challenges!!!

Kung Fu Mantis: All bluff!

Slang is vocabulary of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. "Bluff" belongs to such register and it can be used both as a verb or a noun. 

Click on the picture below and  find out what it means.

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"To bluff" means to deceive someone by making them think either that you are going to do something when you really have no intention of doing it, or that you have knowledge that you do not really have, or that you are someone else, or like the mantis, that you're more formidable than you look. Here you have some examples:

Is he going to jump or is he only bluffing?

Tony seems to know a lot about music, but sometimes I think he's only bluffing.

She bluffed the doorman into thinking that she was a reporter.

Eurovision and second conditionals

Now, here you have a grammar pill today! As you already know, second conditionals are used in English to talk about imaginary or hypothetical situations. Listen to Space Man, Sam Ryder's song representing United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. 

1. How many second conditionals can you find? Take the very first sentence of the song as an example. 

2. Can you explain the structure?

3. Let's talk about it... What is the meaning of the conditionals, of the whole song? What would it happen if YOU were an astronaut? And, could you imagine another paragraph for the song?

This song makes me think of Elton John's Your Song... do you guess why? Again, second conditionals as main structure... a classic.

LANGUAGE PILLS COMPETITION

The competition will take place next Wednesday 18th May in classroom 106, during the third period (from 10:20 till 11:30). Once you finish it, you can go back to your class. 

Thanks for joining it! We wish you the best of luck!! 

MEMORIES

It is quite frequent to use this word in a wrong sense  since it is very similar to the Spanish word "memoria", but its meaning is different: it is a false friend!

If you look at the picture, I think you can guess its real meaning: in this context, it refers to a mental picture kept in the mind , a recollection.

Have you got any memories you want to share? What is your best one?

Now, you can relax and listen to the beautiful song "Memories" by Maroon 5:

 

"A LANGUAGE PILL A WEEK KEEPS YOUR ENGLISH FIT" FIRST COMPETITION

So, after a whole school year working with language pills, time to have the COMPETITION. You should take into account the following:

a. It will take place the third week in May.

b. There will be two levels and one winner in each: 

       LEVEL 1: 1st-2nd-3rd ESO 

       LEVEL 2: 4th ESO - 1st-2n BACH

c. If you want to take part in it, you must send a message to your teacher (use Teams to do so). Deadline Friday 6th May (included)

d. Remember you have all the language pills on the blog, so you have plenty of time to revise them. You also have examples of most pills on the Instagram account. 

e. Apart from that, we have created some other activities that can help you revise them, which are also on the blog.

                          RULES FOR THE COMPETITION

• You must try to answer as many questions as possible. You must have at least 15 correct answers to be eligible to get the prize.

• Although there may be other possible correct answers, yours must all be related to the language pills studied this year.

• There will be some extra bonus questions (always related to the language pills studied and you may also try to answer. In case of a tie,  those will be used to find out the winner.

• If, after that, there is still a tie, the winner will be chosen by raffle among all the students with the same results.

Hope lots of you decide to join the competition. There is a very nice prize 🏆 awaiting the winner in each level... 😉!!

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

FUN ACTIVITIES TO REVISE AND PRACTISE THE LANGUAGE PILLS

The final competition is closer, so you may well do with some extra practice. We have designed different activities to revise and practise them. Hope they help you be one of the two winners 🏆!!

A CROSSWORD

A MATCHING ACTIVITY

FROGGY JUMPS

 

 ANOTHER MATCHING GAME

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

 THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

What do you think this expression means? 

Maybe these memes can help you...

What are these two people doing?

Why does the elephant need therapy?

By now you must have guessed the meaning. However, just in case, you can watch this Tik Tok by Antonio Parliati that explains it. 

What about you? Can you think of any "elephant in the room" in your lives right now? 

DEFY BELIEF

 DEFY BELIEF

The natural world is full of wonder. Animals will go to great lengths to find a mate in order to pass on their genes. Some of the strategies they use in order to do so are certainly mind-boggling. 

Off the coast of Japan lives a tiny pufferfish that works 24 hours for a week in order to construct one of nature's most complex constructions. Watch the video and find out what the expression "defy belief" means. 

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Exactly! When something defies belief it means it is difficult to believe.

AN ENGLISH IDIOM: TO HIT THE SACK

 

HIT THE SACK???

Although you might think it is something related to boxing, the thing is that the meaning of this popular saying has nothing to do with it.

First:  Click on the image above and watch the video to learn what 'hit the sack' means. 

Second: This expression is very informal. Can you find an informal way to say the same thing in Spanish? I'm going to give you a clue:

A KNOW-IT-ALL

 It is not unusual to have to deal with this type of person in our daily life; what are they like? Watch the short video below and find out:

A know-it-all is a person who thinks that they know much more than other people and are always ready to correct them. Have you ever met a know-it-all?

I bet you have!😜

OPPOSITES and CONTRASTS

Learning new vocabulary may be one of the most difficult things when studying a foreign language. If, when learning a new word, you also learn the opposite one, you can kill two birds with one stone. And this is what this week's language pill is about: OPPOSITES and CONTRASTS.

Here you have a beautiful song that you may find familiar. Listen to it and, at the same time you enjoy its beauty, try to write down the opposites it includes. 

The great Charles Aznavour... 

How many opposites did you get? Do you need some help? Here you can see all, hidden in this word cloud:

Did you know the song? It is part of the soundtrack of a very popular romantic comedy: "Notting Hill", with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. 

Want to enjoy the song again and see a bit of the film? Here you have...

Dates in English

 

Dates: 

En inglés existen 2 tipos de formatos de fecha, uno usado en Gran Bretaña (y países de influencia) y el otro usado en Estados Unidos. El británico es similar al español, pero el americano es un poco distinto: se coloca el mes antes que el día. 

We write the date in English in different ways. In British English we write the day of the month first, then the month (starting with a capital letter) and then the year. In American English, the month of the date comes before the day and year. We ask the date or about dates in several ways. In spoken English we can add the (+ ordinal) and of (+month) when we reply. Can you explain the joke here, in the light of the explanation?