Friday, December 19, 2008

Our Mutual Friend

Other students read Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens: Gustavo, Patrícia and Sueli. They did an excelente presentation last december, 06! Thanks guys! Your essay is great! Below there are some extracts from my students' essay:


Our Mutual Friend




About the author:



Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, in Lanport Portsmouth, in Hampshire, the second of eight children to John Dickens (1786–1851), a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Barrow, 1789–1863). When he was five, the family moved to Chatham, Kent. In 1822, when he was ten, the family relocated to 16 Bayham Street, Camden Town in London. Our Mutual Friend (written in the years 1864–65) is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is in many ways one of his most sophisticated works, combining deep psychological insight with rich social analysis.



About the book:

A young man is on his way to receive his inheritance, which, according to his father's will, he can claim only if he marries Bella Wilfer, a beautiful, mercenary girl whom he has never met. However, before he can arrive, a body is found in the river and identified as him. The money passes on, instead, to the working-class Boffins, and the effects spread throughout various corners of London society.
A rich misanthropic miser who has made his fortune from London's rubbish dies, estranged from all except his faithful employees Mr and Mrs Boffin. By his will, his fortune goes to his son John Harmon, who is to return from South Africa to claim it, on condition that he marries a woman he has not met, Miss Bella Wilfer.
Before the son and heir can claim his inheritance, he goes missing, presumed drowned, at the end of his journey from South Africa to London. A body is found in the Thames by Gaffer Hexam, a waterman who makes his living from retrieving corpses and robbing them of valuables before rendering them to the authorities. The body is identified from papers in the pockets as that of the heir, John Harmon. Present at the identification is a mysterious young man, who gives his name as Julius Handford and then disappears.
By the terms of the miser's will, the whole estate then devolves upon Mr and Mrs Boffin, good hearted people who wish to enjoy it for themselves and to share it with others. They take the disappointed bride of the drowned heir, Miss Wilfer, into their household, and treat her as their pampered child and heiress. They also accept an offer from Julius Handford, now going under the name of John Rokesmith, to serve as confidential secretary and man of business, at no salary. He uses this position to watch and learn everything about the Boffins, Miss Wilfer, and the aftershock of the drowning of the heir John Harmon. (Read more here)



The Phantom of the Opera

This semester my students read some graded readers, one of these is The Phantom of the Opera. Amanda, André and Tâmara did an excelente presentation last december, 06! Thanks guys! Your essay is great! Below there are some extracts from my students' essay:


THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

About the author of the book

Gaston Leroux (1868-1927), French mystery novelist, playwright and journalist best known for his Le Fantôme de l'opéra (1910, The Phantom of the Opera), in which a criminally insane recluse haunts a Paris opera house, and abducts a young and beautiful singer to his cellar retreat. The novel has been a source for several films and stage adaptations, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version, first produced in 1987.
Gaston Leroux was born on May 6, 1868 in Paris as the son of a wealthy storeowner. Leroux was a highly intelligent child and began early on to develop a great passion for literature and the theatre. At a young age he was writing short stories and plays, and throughout college he was, in his words, “tormented by the demon of literature.” He attended school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, receiving his degree in 1889. After inheriting nearly a million francs he spent most of his time drinking and gambling. Finding his money gone, Leroux started to work as a theater critic and reporter for L'Écho de Paris. By 1890 Leroux had become a full-time journalist. From 1909 Leroux devoted himself entirely to writing, focusing on plays and popular novels of mystery and detection. (READ MORE HERE...)


Plot Summary
Preface
In the Preface to The Phantom of the Opera, the book's narrator tells of the methods he used to research the legend of the phantom. Writing roughly thirty years after the events conveyed in the novel, he tells of his research in the library at the Paris Opera house; his interviews with people who were present at the time; his reliance on the memoirs of one of the opera's directors at that time; and his own study of the opera house.
Chapters
The firsts chapters take place on the night that the old opera directors are retiring and transferring the directorship to Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard. While the performers are preparing for the night's show, several of the dancers claim to have seen the phantom. In the basement, Joseph Buquet, the chief stagehand, is found hanged. (READ MORE HERE...)
See the complete essay below:




Sunday, June 22, 2008

Inglês com áudio, transcrição e mp3

A dica abaixo foi retirada do blog de professoras amigas do Blog Espanglês


O The Flatmates é uma sessão do site BBC Learning English que apresenta semanalmente situações vividas por uma turma que compartilha o mesmo apartamento. Os diálogos são curtos e de fácil compreensão, como se não bastasse, o visitante ainda pode baixar o áudio em mp3 para praticar o listening. Até o momento são mais de 120 diálogos nos arquivos do Flatmates e muitos outros estão por vir.
A turma do The Flatmates (formada por Tim, Helen, Khalid, Alice e Michael) passa por situações do cotidiano, por conta disso é um excelente recurso, principalmente para usar em sala de aula. Quer conhecer o site? Clique aqui: The Flatmates

Monday, June 9, 2008

Maroon 5

Maroon 5 is a soul-influenced rock band from Los Angeles California comprising five members: Adam Levine (lead vocals, guitar), James Valentine (guitar, backing vocals) Jesse Carmichael (keywords, backing vocals), Mickey Maddenbass (bass guitar) and Matt Flynn drums).The band is best known for their hit singles "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved", "Sunday Morning" and most recently" "Makes me wonder".Find out more at Wikipedia. Listen and decide if you like it or not:


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

History of OK



The word O.K. was firstly used in 1838 by Boston newspaper.
They tried to come up with the way to make the journal more interesting by using acronyms such as I.D.N (I don't know).
The acronym was getting distorted from time to time and one of them is O.W. which stands for All right because the pronunciation is similar to Oll Wright as well as O.K. which stands for All Correct because the pronunciation is similar to Oll Korrect.

However, the O.K. would have been forgotten over time had it not been used in the campaign for U.S. President of Martin Van Buren.
The O.K. Club was established to support Van Buren in the election. This O.K. stands for Old Kinderhook which is his hometown. Even though he lost the election it brought a big popularity to the word O.K.
The popularity of O.K. is widesperad and continue until present.

Learning Part
The author plays with the word "berg"
Acronym = Words formed from initial letters of a name/ word.
Pronunciation = The way to speak words
Election = The right or ability to make a chioce (vote)
Establish = Set up
Some sources from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

Monday, May 19, 2008

300 palavras que já conhecemos como produto da globalização



Alimentos e bebidas: cheeseburger, cookies, diet, fast food, ketchup, light, milk-shake, pizza, sandwich, self-serve, snack, soda, sundae, sweet, whisky.

Entretenimento, lazer e jogos: baseball, basketball, bike, camping, cinema, doping, drive-in, film, fitness, game, golf, handball, handicap, happy end, HP, jeep, jogging, karting, knockout, match, motocross, mountain-bike, park, poker, pub, show, skat, story, strip-tease, surf, tennis, topless, trailer, videotape, volleyball, windsurf, video-game, walkie-talkie.

Diversos: flat, king-size, kitchen, WC, blackout, checkup, diesel, happening, ice, kit, laser, mix, premium, spray, standart, step, master, city, house, park, place, rush, street, flash, freezer, tape, telephone, planet, star, universal.

Informática: output, input, backbone, backup, batch, bit, byte, CD-ROM, chip, connection, data, sheet, database, e-mail, enter, fax, modem, graphic, hardware, HD, hard drive, homepage, internet, intranet, keyboard, media, media player, monitor, mouse, multimedia, net, off-line, on-line, print, printer, processor, scanner, software, speaker, update, upgrade, shift, enter, escape, delete.

Música: black music, blues, CD, compact disc, concert, country music, dance music, DJ, disc-jockey, flashback, funk, gospel, heavy metal, jazz, LP, new age, rap, rock, spiritual, stereo, swing, techno, twist.

Negócios: air mail, bank, best seller, boutique, business, bypass, cash, charter, club, container, credit, credit-card, delivery, express, feedback, flat, folder, follow-up, envelope, franchising, free, gold, hangar, hit, holding, hotel, lobby, Made in… magazine, management, manager, market, marketing, MBA, megastore, merchandising, news, offset, outdoor, paper, Ph.D. press, rent a car, report, royalty, sale, service, shopping center, slide, slogan, speaker, speech, duty-free, taxi, ticket, trademark, trainee, valet-park, van, design, drive-thru, export, home banking, import, money, office, motel.

Sociedade e comportamento: boyfriend, friend, girlfriend, lady, mister black, black power, gay, GLS, high society, king, President, Queen, serial killer, full-time, part-time, happy, love, relax, sex appeal, sexy, stress, baby-sitter, barman, cowboy, doctor, freelance, model, movie star, office-boy, top model.

Vestuário , acessórios e moda: baby doll, black tie, blazer, casual, cotton, lycra, fashion, jeans, stretch, shorts, tennis shoes.

Inglês Online




In this website you can learn grammar and do the exercises.





Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Song: She

Complete the song with the words below:



beast-feast - hell - souvenirs - is - beast - feast - dreams - stream - seem - pay - day - survive - alive - sings - brings - things - last - past - cry - die - crowd - proud - forget - regret

She – Elvis Costello

She, May be the face I can't ___________
The trace of pleasure or __________
May be my treasure or the price I have to ___________
She, May be the song that summer __________
May be the chill that autumn ____________
May be a hundred different _____________
Within the measure of a _____________

She, May be the beauty or the ____________
May be the famine or the ____________
May turn each day into a heaven or a _________
She may be the mirror of my ___________
The smile reflected in a ____________
She may not be what she may ____________
Inside her _____________

She, Who always seems so happy in a ___________
Whose eyes can be so private and so ________
No one's allowed to see them when they ______
She, May be the love that cannot hope to ________
May come to me from shadows of the _______
That I'll remember till the day I _________

She, May be the reason I ___________
The why and wherefore I'm ___________
The one I'll care for through the rough in ready ___________
Me, I'll take her laughter and her __________
And make them all my ___________
For where she goes I've got to be
The meaning of my life ____________

She
She, oh she

Sunday, April 6, 2008

E-books for free!

Hi!!



Here's a suggestion of books that you can print and read it! To download the book is necessary a login. Click in the picture below to enter in the website:






Aqui vai uma sugestão de e-livros que você poderá imprimir e ler! Para fazer o download dos livros é necessário fazer um login no site, para entrar no site clique na figura acima!

Pronunciation

If you want to practice your pronunciation, try theses activities below:


Se você deseja praticar sua pronúncia, tente os exercícios acima!

Monday, March 31, 2008

Song: The Scientist - Cold Play



The Scientist – Cold Play

Come up to meet you, tell you _______ sorry
You don't know how lovely ________.
_____________ to find you, tell you ____________ you,
Tell you I set you apart.

Tell me your secrets and ___________ your questions,
Oh lets go back to the start.
Running in circles, Comin' up Tails
Heads on a science apart.

Nobody said ___________ easy,
___________ such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said _________ easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard.

Oh take me back to the start.

_________ just guessin' at numbers and figures,
Pulling your puzzles apart.
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart.

And tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start.
Runnin' in circles, Chasin' up Tails
Comin' back as ____________

Nobody said it was easy,
Oh ________ such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said _________ easy,
No one ever said it would be so hard.

I'm goin' back to the start.

Ahhhh oooooo x3

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Happy Easter!




Friday, March 14, 2008

Vocabulary - Days of week

Practice the days of week with this calendar! Students can practice how to pronounce the words!

The Alphabet


This site is very useful for teachers and parents and students can learn how to pronounce the letters by clicking in each letter.
Take a look the Learn do read section, it's very funny!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Song: Stand by me



Listen the song and complete the lyrics below:

STAND BY ME

Timon: ___________ the night has _____________

And the ___________ is dark

And ________ _____________ is the only ____________ we'll see

Oh I ___________ be afraid, no I _____________ be afraid

Just as _____________ as you stand, stand __________ me

So Pumba, Pumba, stand __________ me, oh oh oh stand __________ me

Ooh stand, stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that __________ ______________ upon_____________ tumble and ____________

Or the mountains they should crumble to ___________ ______________

I ____________ cry

Pumba: You won't cry?Timon: ________, I won't shed __________ ___________

Pumba: Not shed tearJust as _____________ as you _____________, stand by me

So Pumba, Pumba, stand _________ me, oh oh won't you __________ by me

Ooh stand, stand by me, stand _________ me

Pumba: Eeh, I don't think I like this sooong!

So Pumba, Pumba, stand by mee, oh oh won't you stand by me

Ooh stand, come on! stand by me, stand by me

Pumba: Timon?Timon: Yes?Pumba: Can I sing the next song?

Timon: Sure, as long as you stand by me!

Frogs: Whenever ________ __________ in trouble ___________ ________ you stand by me, Oh oh ooh _____________ by meI ___________ you need me, stand by me, oh oh oh oh stand by me oooh heey.

Answers

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Books for Basic 4 Class

Hi everybody,
here a pack with Student's Book and workbook:




Grammar suggestions:

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Books for Basic 1 Class

Hi everybody,

here is the Student's Book:
The workbook:Dictionary suggestion:
Grammar suggestions:

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Welcome on board!


Hi guys!! This is our space to share ideas, to keep in contact and learn english!!!
See you,
Adriana Zardini