Take a look at this site - it is the BBC language learning site, where you can watch videos (there is a six-minute video about science this week - you can download the script and listen while you read!) and there are lots of other activities to do there.
Your assignment is to choose TWO activities, do them, and then write to me and tell me about what you learned.
I am looking forward to your comments!
7 comments:
- A question from Sophal in Cambodia:
What is the difference between the words pain, ill, ache, sick and hurt?
PAIN and ACHE
Both of these words are most commonly used as nouns. They refer to unpleasant sensations that you feel in your body, although they are slightly different feelings. A pain is usually used
to refer to a kind of sharp discomfort that is difficult to ignore. For example:
Yesterday I suddenly felt a lot of pain in my stomach. I was taken to hospital where they discovered I had appendicitis.
Ache is similar to pain, but it usually is used to refer to a duller kind of discomfort that may
continue for longer than a pain might. Common examples are:
Headache, stomach ache, backache, heart ache.
SICK and ILL
Both of these words are most commonly used as adjectives as in:
I feel sick.
Ed had to leave school early because he was ill.
In American English, these two words have more or less the same meaning – they refer to a feeling of being unwell, whatever the problem might be. On the other hand, in British
English, they have more distinct meanings. Sick most commonly refers to feeling as if you are
going to vomit, as in:
I think I’m going to be sick
…while ill refers to any other feeling of being unwell. However, there are some phrases which are commonly used where sick has a more general meaning. For example:
I’ve been off sick for ten days. – meaning I haven’t been to work/school for ten days because
I’ve been feeling unwell.
Sick can also be used as a noun to refer to vomit. For example:
If you have children, you can be sure that you will have to clear up some sick at least once during their childhood.
HURT
Hurt is a little bit different to the others in that it is commonly used as a verb and an adjective
and, less commonly, as a noun. Of the above words, hurt is probably most similar to pain and ache and it can also mean the same as injure or injured. The key difference between hurt and pain and ache is that usually if you are hurt, it means the discomfort you experience is clearly caused by something outside of yourself. However, pain and ache suggest a more internal
reason for the unpleasant physical feeling. Here are two examples:
Be careful on that ladder, you might hurt yourself if you fall – used as a verb He was badly hurt in the train crash – used as an adjective When it’s used as a noun, hurt usually refers to some emotional pain. For example:
When he told her he wanted a divorce she could hear a lot of hurt in his voice.
- A question from Jun in Korea:
I would like to know what the difference is between don't have to and shouldn't have to and have to
and should have to.
Have to can be used in a sentence in the same way as must and it means that you have no choice about doing something. Here are some examples:
You have to pay your taxes,otherwise you will be put in jail.
We have to eat, otherwise we'll die.
As you can see, these are talking about the same things we mentioned earlier. Don’t have to means that there is no obligation to do something, although they could do it if they wanted to.
It's important to note that while have to is the same as must, don’t have to is NOT the same as must not. If you say someone doesn’t have to do something, then they still have a choice about whether they do it or not.
- A question from Oum in Cambodia:
When should I use the words bored and boring?
We can see this difference between a temporary feeling and a permanent quality if we look at the words you asked about – ‘boring’ and ‘bored’.
Here are two examples:
don’t like David. I think he is boring.
Oh, I’m bored. Let’s go out and do something fun.
In the first example, I don’t like David because he is boring, and this is a permanent characteristic or quality of his. In my opinion, he was boring yesterday, he is boring today,and he will be boring tomorrow. However, in the second example, I have a temporary feeling
-I am bored - and if we do something fun, I will not have that feeling anymore.
- A question from Svetlana in Kazakhstan:
Could you explain difference in pronunciation of two pair words - there're, they're and there'll
be, they'll be?
But of course, when we're speaking normally we don't say them slowly and in fact, the two pairs of words you're asking about end up sounding almost exactly the same. Let's try putting them into sentences so you can hear them in context:
She said there're going to be about a thousand people there.
I hope they're all going to bring something to eat!
If not there'll be a lot of hungry people.
I expect they'll be so busy dancing they won't think about food.
Can you hear that the first two words sound a bit like ‘THERE' and the second two words sound like 'THELL'. Listen again.
She said there're going to be about a thousand people there.
I hope they're all going to bring something to eat! If not there'll be a lot of hungry people.
I expect they'll be so busy dancing they won't think about food.
Because, as you said, they are unstressed, the pronunciation of the second syllable in each
word almost completely disappears.
One last thing – one of the contractions you've mentioned is only really used when speaking,
while the other three are used in informal writing as well. Do you know which is the odd one out? It's there're. The contraction of 'there are'. It's quite uncommon to see this written down unless you are trying to write exactly like we speak, for example in direct speech in a dialogue.
I hope this answers your question. Remember to practise saying them within whole sentences rather than as single words as it's much easier to make the pronunciation sound natural.
Movie science
This week's question:
If you were in space and there was an explosion, what would you hear?
c) No sound at all
Robin Hood
When was the first film of the Robin Hood story released?
a) 1908
The Loch Ness Monster
What is the Scottish word 'dreich' used to refer to?
a) cold, wet weather
Sign of the times
The Hollywood sign was constructed in 1923 but at that time it didn't say 'Hollywood'. What did it say?
c) Hollywoodland
Secrets of the rainforest
There are an estimated 10 million species on Earth. How many have so far been discovered?
b) 1.7 million
N05/30
Travel
Chocolate in Beligium
In 1912, Jean Neuhaus had the bright idea of filling the tanks with delicious chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate to create the praline..Neuhaus has become an internationally famous brand of chocolate.
Chocolateries sell light, dark or white chocolate with all possible variations in between. The individual pieces are wrapped, coated or individual fantasy and beautiful. In addition to chocolates everywhere will find sculptures and artistic creations, all made exclusively with the ability cioccolatieri. there are huge chasms in quality, variety and cost of chocolate. National chains like Corné Port Royal Neuhaus and offer good quality at reasonable prices, but the real fun to watch out for chocolate boutiques as Planète Chocolat in Brussels and Antwerp in Del Rey. And here is a temple to the cocoa bean, Choco-Story, a museum dedicated to the world's finest sweet treat.
Belgium:
For such a small country, Belgium has been a major European battleground over the centuries.
Occupied by Germany during World War I and II, which has experienced an economic boom over the past 50 years to become a model of Western liberal democracy.
Brussels is the seat of the 'European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Thus, it is the polyglot home of an army of diplomats and international officials
The structure comprises three communities - Flemish, French Flanders and Germany - and three regions: the north where the official language is Dutch, Wallonia in the south, where French is the official language in Brussels, the capital, where the share French and Dutch language official status. Wallonia has a strong minority of 70,000 German-speaking. Belgium also has a small colonial legacy in Africa: Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo - once Zaire.
And 'attracted international attention after the US-led war in Iraq in 2003 because of a controversial law allowing Belgian courts to try foreigners for war crimes and crimes against human rights, regardless of where crimes have been committed. Belgium is known for its strong culinary traditions and is particularly famous for its chocolate quality and variety of beers.
N05/08
N 05/ 23
prof.ssa quando si può convalidare l'esame??
grazie
I just heard “journey to mars”, it was really interesting and I discovered that in Moscow scientists are carrying out an experiment with 6 people who are going to spend 500 days locked in an imitation spacecraft to test if they are able to travel to mars.
So, the first 250 days are spent to test their maintenance in the ultra long haul flight to mars, which means they will be tested if they are able to resist in the spaceship for a long period.
After that 3 of them will be sent to a place where there will be a lot of sand to simulate the mars conditions this place is called sand-pit.
If they survive to the conditions (claustrophobic and boredom), the hope to fly to mar will increase (“the journalist says boost hope).
At the end I learnt that Mars is smaller than the Earth, almost half size.
Alessandro Costanzo N05/52
Post a Comment