Education: some videos

We sure agree education is necessary for all of us. We all struggle through to learn to read, to write, then we try to learn maths, physics, chemistry. Eventually, we feel the need to become "professional", "specialists" in one field, and we learn to build bridges, cure people, write books or govern countries! What if education is not what we have really received?

Below you will find two interesting links. The first one is a plea by Michelle Obama on education for women. The second is a plea by Ken Robinson on education for everyone and for all.

Michelle Obama's plea for education


Ken Robinson says school kills creativity

Quizzes

You can test your English by taking a quiz here

PREPARE A PRESENTATION

I would like you to give a presentation in class about an interesting topic. You can choose the topic but, in any case, I would like you to do the following:
1. Go to one of the web pages listed below
2. Choose a documentary that interests you
3. Listen to the documentary and take notes
4. Prepare a summary-presentation of that documentary to be given in class
5. Write a script of your presentation and bring it to class so that you can show your documentary to the rest of your fellow students and explain what it is about.

www.ted.com
video.nationalgeographic.com/video/
www.learner.org/index.html (you need to sign up for this one)
www.sciencedaily.com/videos/
www.stevespanglerscience.com/video/
nytimes.com

CLASS - THURSDAY 21ST MAY

In order to keep on practising vocabulary and listening skills, below you will find an interesting video that you can listen to. The topic of the video is "Renerative Medicine". You can also practise with the cloze test that I handed out in class last Tuesday. Thanks a lot and see you next Tuesday!



This is the link to the first presentation we heard about "Regenerating Our Bodies": click here

And this is another lik to hear the same presentation "Regenerating our Bodies" with subtitles:
click here

Practice: Choose a Video and Share with your Peers

In this practice you will have to choose one of the video presentations. These are the steps to follow:

1. Listen to the video until you are completely familiar with it. Jot down any new words/expressions.
2. If necessary, you can look the words up in any of the following dictionaries:
Cambridge Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
3. Put together a 10 min. oral presentation in which you summarize the video presentation

LIST OF WEBSITES TO CHOOSE FROM:
www.ted.com
video.nationalgeographic.com/video/
www.learner.org/index.html (you need to sign up first)
www.sciencedaily.com/videos/
www.stevespranglerscience.com/video/

Listening With and Without Subtitles

This is a listening practice about "Regenerating Our Bodies"

1) First, we hear the video WITH subtitles here.

2) Then, we hear the video WITHOUT subtitles here.

Phrasal Verbs

1. Fill-in the gaps here

2. More fill-in the gaps here

3. An easy one here

4. A more difficult one here

Do or Make?

Some exercises on the differences between "do" and "make":

1.- Some practice here

2.- Some more here

3.- And more here

4.- Yet one more here

A, An, The or Nothing: on the use and non-use of articles in English

Some general rules on when to use: A, An, The or Nothing
* a = indefinite article (not a specific object, one of a number of the same objects) with consonants
She has a dog.
I work in a factory.
* an = indefinite article (not a specific object, one of a number of the same objects) with vowels (a,e,i,o,u)
Can I have an apple?
She is an English teacher.
* the = definite article (a specific object that both the person speaking and the listener know)
The car over there is fast.
The teacher is very good, isn't he?
* The first time you speak of something use "a or an", the next time you repeat that object use "the".
I live in a house. The house is quite old and has four bedrooms.
I ate in a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant was very good.
* DO NOT use an article with countries, states, counties or provinces, lakes and mountains except when the country is a collection of states such as "The United States".
He lives in Washington near Mount Rainier.
They live in northern British Columbia.
* Use an article with bodies of water, oceans and seas -
My country borders on the Pacific Ocean
* DO NOT use an article when you are speaking about things in general
I like Russian tea.
She likes reading books.
* DO NOT use an article when you are speaking about meals, places, and transport
He has breakfast at home.
I go to university.
He comes to work by taxi.

Links to exercises
1. Initial practice here

2. A little bit more difficult here

3. For more advanced students here

4. Let's review here

5. More general exercises here

6. Articles in context here

7. More here

8. "The Coffin Door" here

9. "Eggs and Pancakes" here

10. "Jane meets boys" here

11. "Joe's Day" here

12. "Laptops" here

13. "Student Responsibilities" here

14. "Snow??" here

Review

http://a4esl.org/q/h/grammar.html

http://www.nonstopenglish.com/allexercises/Grammar/Grammar-articles.asp

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/artikel.htm