The Emperor's New Clothes - UK English accent

Do you know this story?

Do you like it?

What is a tailor?

What is the feminine of emperor?

Does this story have a moral?

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY JANE AUSTIN . ANIMATED BOOK SUMMARY (WITH SUBTITLES)

Do people with Down syndrome have special needs?

- What is your opinion of this ad?

- Do you think our society in general is empathetic?

Travelling to the Amazon with Dr. Rosa Vasquez Espinoza. Non-fiction.

Sometimes life surprises you by leaving a present on your doorstep when you least expect it.

Last June, one of the busiest months of the year for teachers, Beatriz, the lovely National Geographic salesperson personally invited me to go to an event organized for teachers because some years ago I used their books. First stroke of luck.

Although I found the idea fascinating because she told me a NatGeo explorer was going to speak, I was about not to go because we had a meeting that afternoon.

I arrived when the first talk was about to start (I'll tell you why some other time), and there were only spaces left in the first row. Same as in a classroom... There were three people sitting there: two of them were obviously British because of their looks, but the one sitting on her own was a beautiful young woman I assumed was from India. I sat next to her. BTW, I was mistaken. She is Peruvian.

During the first talk, the young woman and I had to do a short speaking exercise together. No suspicions of any type yet: I thought she was a teacher like me.

And then Beatriz introduced the last speaker and the 'teacher' stood up! Oops! Her talk was incredible. She was a modern Pocahontas wearing a gorgeous dress made by her mum and, as I soon discovered, a highly qualified scientist. 

Rosa's mission is to save the Amazon with the help of other scientists, indigenous people and stingless bees. Yes, you read correctly. Stingless.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was extraordinarily lucky and Rosa gave me the chance to write some posts for a blog she was planning to start.

There are only five right now, but we'll be adding some more little by little.

I'm going to share the link to the first post on the blog here (a blog that you can find in Amazon Research Internacional- the last word is in Spanish, it's not a typo.

And I'm going to ask you to do me a favour: not for me, not even for Rosa, but for the future of our planet.

Can you please share anyway you can or want to?

You can also follow Rosa on Instagram:

@rosavaspinoza

@amazonresearchint

Here goes the first post as promised above:

https://www.amazonresearch.org/blog/cinchona-tree

This one was edited by Rosa because, if I remember correctly, I had depicted the European settlers in a slightly negative light and she always chooses to be positive and proactive.

Thanks so much for reading.

P.S. You can read a lot more about Rosa online and watch videos and interviews with her.

 

A poem about autumn?

 

Do you like reading poetry?

Do you prefer rhyming poetry or free verse?

Do you have a favorite poet?

What is the American word for autumn?

Do you know a mnemonic rule to remember if we have to change the time in our clocks back or forward?

QUOTE: Pearl S. Buck "Truly Creative Mind"

- Do you think all human beings are creative?

- Are we all born creative, stay creative as children and then in many cases lose that creativity when we grow up?

- Do you agree with what the video says?

 - What do you know about Pearl S. Buck

Take This Waltz

Do you recognise the words below?

Please read them before you scroll down.

Now in Vienna there's ten pretty women
There's a shoulder where death comes to cry
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows
There's a tree where the doves go to die
There's a piece that was torn from the morning
And it hangs in theGallery of Frost

Aey, aey, aey, aey
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws

Oh I want you, I want you, I want you
On a chair with a dead magazine
In the cave at the tip of the lily
In some hallway where love's never been
On a bed where the moon has been sweating
In a cry filled with footsteps and sand

Aey, aey, aey, aey
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take its broken waist in your hand
This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and death
Dragging its tail in the sea

There's a concert hall in Vienna
Where your mouth had a thousand reviews
There's a bar where the boys have stopped talking
They've been sentenced to death by the blues
But who is it climbs to your picture
With a garland of freshly cut tears?

Aey, aey, aey, aey
Take this waltz, take this waltz
Take this waltz it's been dying for years

There's an attic where children are playing
Where I've got to lie down with you soon
In a dream of Hungarian lanterns
In the mist of some sweet afternoon
And I'll see what you've chained to your sorrow
All your sheep and your lilies of snow

Aey, aey, aey, aey
Take this waltz, take this waltz
With its, I'll never forget you, you know
This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz
With its very own breath of brandy and death
Dragging its tail in the sea

And I'll dance with you in Vienna
I'll be wearing a river's disguise
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder
My mouth on the dew of your thighs
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook
With the photographs there, and the moss
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty
My cheap violin and my cross
And you'll carry me down on your dancing
To the pools that you lift on your wrist
Oh my love, oh my love
Take this waltz, take this waltz
It's yours now, it's all that there is
Aey, aey, aey, aey

Now watch the video:

Do you know if Leonard Cohen wrote the lyrics himself or 'copied' them from somebody else? I'd say this is a trick question.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Full Audiobook.

This is one of the most famous dystopias ever written. You can find lots of audiobooks that you can listen to for free on YouTube.

Do you know what a dystopia is?

Do you remember the first sentence of the novel?

Why do you think it's one of the most famous in the history of Literature?

Happy News

On Monday, we briefly mentioned news and some of us said that even though it's important to be well-informed and to know what is going on in the world, sometimes it's too much.

That's why I'm offering you an alternative page where you can read about the good things that happen in the world.

This is just an example, but there are many others: 

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

The Tell-Tale Heart by Annette Jung

This is an animated version of Poe's story.

Can you summarise the story for me?

Do you know what an unreliable narrator is?

Is our narrator reliable or unreliable?

The Tell-Tale Heart

https://www.libraryofshortstories.com/onlinereader/the-tell-tale-heart

The link above will take you to a very well-known story by Edgar Allan Poe. Please read it and then we'll be able to talk about it.

And one more thing: do you know the meaning of telltale or tattletale?

“A Little Spot of Confidence” by Diane Alber.

As I told you to read some pages of a book about psychology for children, more precisely a section about self-confidence and self-consciousness, this video might be a good companion for our reading material.

Mr Greedy read aloud (Elementary & Intermediate)

This is the video version of the story I asked you to read. If you like it, you can find many others on YouTube.

One of these days I will bring my physical (paper) collection to the school.

Exam skills: 6 tips to help you with reading exams

I hope this helps.

Joke

Who Is Smarter?   Who is smarter, you or your dog? A Canadian psychologist is selling a video that teaches you how to test your dog's IQ. Here's how it works... If you spend $12.99 for the video, your dog is the smarter one.

Things we can read

Not everyone has the same hobbies. I should love exercising, but I don't. However, I love writing and reading.

I usually read novels, poems and sometimes magazines, but there are lots of other things we can read. Can you help me think of some examples?

Storytime with Brad Meltzer : I am Marie Curie

The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

1. Are mistakes good or bad? Why?

2. Do you make mistakes?

3. Can you give me an example?

Do you know why I chose this title for the blog? (I've changed the title, but this post can still be interesting, or at least I hope so)

If after thinking for a while you don't know, you can share a guess in the comments. It doesn't matter if it's wrong, the important thing is to practise English.

Now you can scroll down and read what comes below:

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

What do you think the poem is about?