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ELLA is back!

There are new units in ELLA (English Language Lab Asturias) for you to do online. The units cover the three levels taught at schools of languages.

Have a go! Try them and enjoy English. There are lots of activities and lots more are coming. I’m sure you’ll find them useful.

Swine Flu

So many recommendations! Swine Flu seems to be the main conversation topic these days. Everywhere you go, there are people who know of someone who has had it or who is afraid of having it. Thanks to Linda, who told me about this video, we could see that swine flu is a global worry.

If you want to watch the video again and check for vocabulary and pronunciation, here you are.

Style Icons

If you want to see  Audrey’s video again, here it is for you to enjoy it again.

OF MICE AND MEN

I had already heard about John Steinbeck, since I watched two impressive movies based on his novels: John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) and Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden” (1955). Yet, I had never read any of his books. He has always been known as a great storyteller who had been able to build so strong and unforgettable characters like Tom Joad and Cal Trask (played in the cinema by Henry Fonda and James Dean, respectively).
Thus, being in the EOI’s library, searching for a book to read in my last Christmas holiday, I had no doubt when I saw his “Of Mice and Men” laying unnoticed on a shelf: “This one”, I thought.
Apart from being a biography lover, I have always been interested in knowing the writer’s historical context, in search of the motives that made him or her devote himself/herself to the art of writing.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was born in California, in a region famous by its immigration tradition, which made him grow up influenced by social problems of poor people from working class, many of them migrant workers.
“Of Mice and Men” is a gripping novel about two friends who, having neither family, nor a place of their own, search for employment in some ranch, after having lost their former job in a farm.
George promised Aunt Clara, Lennie’s only relative, to look after the mentally handicapped guy. Since her death, they both become inseparable. Yet sometimes George loses his patience with his dumb friend.
Some of the most pleasant passages of the story are related to the times when Lennie asks George, for the umpteenth time, to talk about their dream of having their own ranch. After refusing it firmly, George ends up agreeing to his friend childish claim, providing him with a wonderful description of a paradisiacal place in which they both would be finally happy.
The author manages to impress the reader by showing not only a beautiful pure friendship between two grown-up men, but also the imaginative resources to which they appeal to escape from the long-suffering lives they have here and there.
Yet, the story has an unexpected sorrowful ending which in no way diminishes the sympathy the reader feels towards these two modest men.
Although the book is written in a simple style, I sometines found it  a little bit difficult to get accustomed to the colloquial language, plenty of slang, Steinbeck employed to give realism to his characters’ dialogues. Nevertheless, the reading rapidly turns into a delightful experience, boosted by this odd language itself.
Steinbeck won both Pulitzer (for “The Grapes and Wrath”) and Nobel Prizes for Literature in 1940 and 1962, in the order given.

By Helga Maria Saboia Bezerra

Yesterday’s lesson

Yesterday’s lesson was based on two activities made by two friends and colleagues: Carmen López (EOI Mieres) and María Valdés (EOI Oviedo).Thanks to them, we learnt things about San Francisco and the reasons why men and women are so different (fortunalety, if I may say so!)

If you want to do Partners in Crime again, click here and if you want to try with the test again and get the answersheet, click here.

There are also some videos in Maria´s Blog you may find interesting.

Thank you for your help and support, dear colleagues.

To blame or not to blame

Believe it or not, while we were doing an exercise on verb patterns, David asked me about the dependent preposition that goes after the verb blame. I still don’t not how, but we ended up talking about Rita Hayworth and her role in GILDA (1946), where she sings a  song which represents one of the most powerful scenes in the film.

Well, the good part of the Internet is that you can find nearly everything  “out there”. Here you have the famous song and scene from the film

Gilda (1946) is a black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale. The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate’s lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis‘ sexy wardrobe for Hayworth (particularly for the dance numbers), and choreographer Jack Cole’s staging of “Put the Blame on Mame” and “Amado Mío.” (from Wikipedia)

Twilight

About three things I was absolutely positive.
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
Yes, this is all you could read at the back of the book if you take “Twilight” from a shelf in a book shop. Some people could think it isn’t enough to have captivated a million persons over the world but… to tell the truth Stephenie Meyer’s debut novel is already an incredible best seller!! Many critics have described this novel as “a vampire story for people who don’t like vampire stories”. And, to be honest, it doesn’t make you think about it?
At first moment, you can have the impression that it’s a romantic novel for teenagers but, its great and meticulous descriptions (thanks to which you can imagine yourself in Forks), and his fast rhythm, makes this book a good election to all publics: adults or teenagers.
The argument is quiet interesting and it grips the reader’s attention from the beginning (but I know my own opinion is quite subjective because I‘m a crazy fan of this vampire’s and forbidden love story).
Isabella Swan is a teenager who decides move to Forks, at Washington State, to make things easier to her mother, Renée, who wants to travel with her new husband. This is the reason why she decides go to live with her father, Charlie, who is the police chief, there, in Forks. When she arrives, she discovers a reason that allows her think the life in the small and rainy town can be interesting…this reason is called Edward Cullen. He’s a mysterious young boy who lives with his family, the Cullen, at Forks but they have a secret nobody should know…they’re vampires!! But they’re “good” vampires, if they can exist; because they only eat animal’s blood…it should be a guarantee, don’t you think so?
But how people say….love can support everything, and the affair between our two main characters progress…until the risks of their relation became so obvious when a group of vampires appears in Forks without good intentions….
I really recommend this novel…. I think everybody can discover something special in this book…so let’s go!!!! Start to read and go crazy with this mystery and incredible world where fantasy and reality are combined!!!
By Alicia Sandez