3ºA topics and pairs for Oct 10 presentations

So this is the final list, check it out! (we´ll draw lots to know the order of the presentations)

NAME	NAME	TOPIC NUMBER
1. CARMEN IZQUIERDO	PAULA IZQUIERDO	17
2. EVA MARTÍN	PAULA FRANCO	4
3. JAIME GARCÍA	ADRIÁN FERNÁNDEZ	15
4. NURIA PINA	PAULA OLIVA	5
5. CRISTIAN HUERTA	SERGIO PIRIS	19
6. VICTOR MUÑOZ	ALEX RADACOVICI	20
7. SIMINA DEFTA	PAULA HOLGADO	16
8. MÓNICA GARCÍA	SUSANA GARCÍA	12
9. JAVIER MURILLO	DANIEL GUERRERO, ALEJANDRO CAPITÁN	1
10. INÉS MARTÍNEZ	ALMA SERRANO	8
11. CARMEN RIDOCCI	MªÁNGELES ESCALANTE	13
12. RAÚL SAN CIRIACO	NICOLÁS TITUAÑA	2
13.CAROLINA  MARTÍNEZ	IRENE LÓPEZ	6
14.ASTRID RUALES	MARÍA OLIVAS	14

The Lady or The Tiger endings (3°A,B)

Here are some of your endings for Frank Stockton's unfinished story:

"...Meanwhile, the boy couldn't imagine the reason why his lover had sent him to that door... Yes, it was true that her father was a semi-barbaric and savage king,  but had she chosen that awful ending for him? Did she really love him? (...). He couldn't continue with his speculations because at that very moment the tiger jumped on him and began biting every part of his body. He realised death was nearer. He caught a last glimpse of his lover, and knew that he would never be able to ask her all those questions he was still thinking about". (Paula F.)

"...He knew the king needed help, because his kingdom had entered a war, and  his opponent had more men, more money (...) and in general a better army. So the young man offered the king  his help for the war. In exchange, the king should let him marry the princess. The king laughed. He said the young man wasn' t strong enough to take part in the war, and he truly wasn't! (....) The man told him he wanted to help in the war, but he didn't want to fight. (...) He said his father was a great strategist, he explained that when he was just a kid, he lived in a very big kingdom. His father was a good friend of the king and studied war strategy. Because of that reason, they won all the wars they took part in. (...) The king accepted and everybody in the arena started clapping in a  cheerful way. After three long months of war, finally won by them, the young man and the princess married in the castle garden". (Irene L.)

"Next day she went to the man's house and saw the door open, so she entered without permission. But something bad had happened... she saw her lover with a deep wound on his chest and a knife next to him. Then she also saw a letter on his hand so she took it and started to read it. " My little princess, I did this because I didn't want to live more, I loved you  and I still do, and that's why I would have preferred being killed by a tiger than living without you". After reading this, the girl started to cry and, as she was in love with him, she took a knife and killed herself with it. When the king was informed, he decided to change his way of governing".(Nuria S.)

"....The princess had enough time to run and change places with the other woman. As the tradition said, they had to marry, and the man would be declared innocent. But the king, who was watching all from his seat, was so furious that he ordered to open the other door and the tiger appeared. (...) They took each other's hands and just let the tiger kill them. They both went to heaven together". (Natalia P.)

"...When she arrived at the palace, the sky was clearing. She went to his father's room (...). When she entered, she took a pillow to stifle her father but she wasn't able to do it. Suddenly a sunbeam illuminated her arm and claws appeared in her arms, later her face was changing and hair started to grow all over her body until she finally became a tiger.(...) The guards entered the room because of the noise and killed the animal, but it was too late, she had just eaten him". (Javier S.)

"The ceremony in the arena was followed by a party, with lots of people (...). During that party, the boy could move away from everyone and wrote a letter to the princes. He kept it in his pocket. The princess was under the control of her anger and jealousy, so he managed to spill some poison in their drinks. The party continued until the boy and his wife fainted. The letter was found and read out loud for the princess to hear. In the letter, he said that the following day, at night, both of them were going far away to escape (...). During the rest of her life, she lived under the burden of guilt, wearing a black veil for the rest of her life". (Julia del Carmen J.)

"A beautiful lady came out of the door and married the young man. After all, the princess knew that if the young man couldn't love her, he had the right to love another woman, even if that was hard for her, even if she loved him. She understood sometimes in life you don't get what you want, but she thought that maybe there was something better waiting for her. The princess saw the wedding with tears falling down her cheeks, but with quite a good feeling inside. Months later the princess fell in love and married a noble man who made her very happy. To her wedding she invited the young man and his wife, they became very good friends although deep in their minds and hearts they knew that they had never stopped loving each other". (Lucía R.)

Great work! Curious about the author? Learn some facts about him here.

The German students are here!

The students of the Anna-Sophianeum Gymnasium in Schöningen are at last with us. They are going to be in Madrid for seven exciting days. Welcome!

Topics for the presentations (3ºA, B)

Presentation topics for the 1.30 min speaking activity (in pairs) to take place on October 10. Choose your pair, then both decide on a topic and tell ASAP Simina (3ºA) or Natalia (3ºB). Remember topics can´t be repeated, they´ll be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis! (On October 3 Natalia and Simina have to give me the list with the pairs and the topics each pair has picked). 

1. The best thing that has ever happened to me 
2. The worst thing that has ever happened to me
3. A surprise I had 
4. A memory from childhood I´ll always remember
5. What is friendship?
6. Bilingual education: pros and cons 
7. A problem I have 
8. Your most embarrassing moment.
9. What would you like to change and why? 
10. Things I can't understand 
11. Your most curious dream.
12. High school is the best time in your life. Or not…
13. Things you would change in our high-school 
14. Your favourite book 
15. Should mobiles be used at school?
16. Your dream job 
17. Will robots replace humans?  Will robots take our jobs? 
18. Would you want to live on another planet?
19. Social networking sites: pros and cons.
20. What will future houses look like?
21. Sex roles

Classwork+Homework 3ºA+3ºB (Sep.23-30)

Hi all, welcome to my blog. As you know, I´ll be missing quite a few lessons because I´ll be doing different activities with the German exchange students. Those days you have to do the following homework (if you make the most of the lessons I won´t attend you won´t have to work at home, so don´t waste your time in class!):

Student´s Book (Interactive 4), to be done in your notebooks:
-page 5 part 2 (grammar, Present/Past Simple and Continuous review) exercises a,b,c
-page 5 part 3 (vocabulary) ex.a,b
-page 6 part 5 (vocabulary, phrasal verbs), ex. a, b
-page 7 part 7 (speaking), do exercises a, b as a writing exercise (80 word min. in each one)
-page 9 (Portfolio), ex, a, b.

Workbook (Interactive 4)
-page 4 (in full)
-page 5 (except listening part),
-page 6 (except part 5, grammar)
-page 8 (in full)

Review The Lady or The Tiger (vocabulary especially)

Prepare a presentation for the first week of October (topics and instructions above)

English by default

Castle in Loarre (Huesca)

Don't miss this hilarious article in El País.

Last activity of the year!

Read and think:  

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out to another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.

Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

The pessimist complains about the wind;

The optimist expects it to change;

And the realist adjusts the sails.

( "To Risk" by William Arthur Ward)

Have a great summer!

Conditionals!

Follow the links:
 -Type 1only
-Type 2 only
-Type 3 only
-Type 3 only
-Mixed (1/2/3 Types)
-Mixed again

William Blake videopoems (3ºB,C)

Have also a look at this one here. 

Great work!!

Gulliver´s Fifth Travel (3ºC)

So after going to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and Houyhnhnms, Gulliver reportedly visited a fifth country...


Kratox, the city with huge buildings and tiny people.
"The city was very curious because the buildings were made of a disgusting material whose name is unknown, the city was made up with buildings with a huge height, the were enormous and the curious thing is that Kratox people were very small, even smaller than a mosquito, imagine the time that took them to build such big buildings, that means that the people that lived there were very hardworking". (Jorge E.)

A place called... Earth.
"The fifth place  Gulliver visited was the Earth. It was a very dirty and nasty place and their inhabitants did not care about it. The first time he attempted to speak to a native but she just ignored him. (...)After a week, Gulliver was homeless, thirsty and starving.(...) Tired of seeking for a non-existing help, he decided to leave. He began to search for his boat but he realized it had been stolen. As a last try he asked for help in a very pooor and bad-looking house. (...) An ancient man appeared, Gulliver asked what was going on in that island.
-`(...) My boat led me to this place where I found no kindness at all. Everyone is way too selfish. I have been here for 12 years and there is no way anyone will speak to you back and if you want to leave, you´d better start building your boat now by yourself.´
(...) Gulliver finally left the island very angrily damning everybody who lived there." (Óscar R.)

Trouk island, the country where sharks speak English and judge the book by the cover.
"(...) Next day when Gulliver woke up he saw some sharks in the shore and he was amazed because sharks can´t live without water, but the most frightening thing was that the two sharks could speak English. He went near them and started to speak with them. When the sharks saw Gulliver they went inside the ocean, they were afraid of Gulliver because he was very big, ugly and seemed to be dangerous, but the truth is that he was very peaceful and liked to make new friends.(...)
The moral of my story is that you don´t have to judge people without knowing them, then you may see if you like them or not. In my story I am criticizing the people that judge others because of their physical appearance". (Daniel G.)

Misach, the country where women rule.
"Gulliver travelled to a new country called Misach. (...) In that country women were the ones that governed and the ones that decided the job for everyone. He was not very comfortable with that law but he didn´t know why he thought like that. The reason was that in the country where he belonged to, the society thought women couldn´t govern a country in a good way.(...) Gulliver started talking with the men of that place with the objective of making a revolution between women and men. When the government started to to suspect about a possible revolution, all the women tried to capture Gulliver. (...) He decided to make a press conference to share his ideas with with the whole country and to make a big change in society. He started saying we all have the same rights to try to govern the country, (...) to fall in love with someone of the same sex, to get a good job (...). Finally all began to think like him and at the end of that century that society began to have the same rights for all". (Carolina B.)

Gulliver´s Fifth Travel (3ºB)

So after going to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and Houyhnhnms, Gulliver reportedly visited a fifth country...

The country of Barlog the giant and the oompa-loompas
"Gulliver appeared surprisingly in a fifth country. There, he hid behind a rock and saw people who were one meter tall, worshipping a giant. They were standing in a row with many different things, for example one of them had fruit, another had clothes, others had minerals, etc. The all gave those things to the giant, they kissed their feet and they left.(...) When it was his turn and and he got closer to the giant, the giant realized that he was new and asked him who he was and where he came from. (...) Once in the giant´s palace, the oompa loompa, that is how people in London were called, told him that nobody was obliged to stay there or to give all they earned to Barlog, the giant, but they did it because they admired him, since he was the representative of an energy which was something they couldn´t see but they could feel. (...) Gulliver was staggered to see how they could live for a giant that the only thing he did was to brainwash them and take everything the oompa loompas had got by the sweat of their brow, so he decided to convince them. (...) One day they rebelled against Barlog and he got so furious that (...) all the oompa-loompas saw he was not as nice as he seemed. then, he left. After that they lived very happily, much more than befor, because they understood that the real happiness is deep down within us". (Sarai L.)

Sobrakir, the country where people have two faces
"After visiting all those countries, Gulliver appeared in Sobrakir. Sobrakir is a country whose inhabitants have two faces, one smiling happily and the other smiling evilly. Gulliver was at first scared of those faces, but was brave enough to ask a nice looking girl about the country where he was. The girl, called Daphne, was kind and helped him a lot, inviting him to have dinner and stay at her apartment till he found somewhere else to rest. (...) He felt so comfortable with her that he even told her his secrets! Daphne always had a kind expression on her face and promised not to tell anyone about those secrets, but Gulliver couldn´t see the evil smile Daphne´s other face had! As soon as Gulliver fell asleep, Daphne ran to a "friend"´s house and told her all of Gulliver´s secrets and made fun of him. (...) As soon as Gulliver realized that, he ran away from that creepy island". (Alexandra D.)

Maidara, the country where dogs and cats were ruled by Dalmod Prumt
"In this country, cats and dogs lived together but they needed to decide who was going to be the governor. Dogs suggested a dog whose name was Dalmod Prumt. Cats agreed, but they didn´t trust him. Dalmod gave animals dog food, which was from their houses, so that they would vote him as the governor of Maidara. He wanted to become the leader of the whole country. He then sent burglars to steal the food he had given to them so that he could use it later with other animals. 
Gulliver got on so well with the people there that Dalmod confessed him he hated cats. For many years cats had been superior to dogs. cats believed they were much more elegant and glamurous than dogs, (...) so he wanted to get rid of them. (...) Despite Gulliver´s warnings to the population, Trump [oops, sorry, Prumt] became the governor. When he won, he turned all the cats and the dogs who didn´t follow his orders into slaves. It didn´t matter if cats were for or against him. They were cats and that meant they were inferior to dogs. Gulliver camr to the conclusion that inequality, discrimination and racism ruled in this country". (Raquel B.)

Trisla, the miserable island
 "Gulliver found an island in the middle of the ocean. Everyone there seemed to be crying over little problems. He found a man crying because he´d finished the book he was reading and didn´t know what to read next. He met a woman who was crying because she had forgotten her hat home.(...) Gulliver wondered how they could be crying over such small things where in other places around the world there were wars, poverty and hunger.(...)
Then he found another city where everyone was afraid of bad things happening but did nothing to protect themselves. There were no houses because they were afraid the houses might fall. They were afraid of dying of hunger but also of choking while eating. 
Gulliver kept walking and found a city where they hated foreigners. (...) How could their society advance if they didn´t meet people from the outside and they always did everything the same?" (Patricia A.)

Mobairu, the island of the mysterious torches
"(...) Mobairu-island was a really strange place. There weren´t people in the streets or squares, they rarely appeared, and when they did, they were always looking at a little torch whose flame never turned off. They were all like spellbound. They didn´t talk or move. They even seemed not to breathe. They stayed for hours watching the torch., without caring about the bad effects it could cause in them. (...)
When they left the island, the ship crew were sad. They were worried about those people who highly depended on a stupid thing. They prayed for their future, and hoped they had salvation. (Mobairu means mobile phone in Japanese)". (Álvaro C.)

3rd term plan (3ºB,C)

So here is the plan for the third term (as agreed in class):

May 25: Skellig exam (1 point, 30% min correct to pass)
June 2: Reading and Writing exam (2 points)
June 3: Listening (1 point) 
June 8: Literature exam: Much Ado About Nothing, 18th century, Romantic movement, (2 points, 30% min correct to pass).
June 10: Grammar and Vocabulary (2 points, cumulative).

(The speaking mark will be obtained from your participation in the Literary Circles and the Much Ado About Nothing performance)

June 16 (at 4.00 pm, Salón de Actos): Retake exam for students who failed the third term OR, having passed it,  haven´t reached the 30% min correct in the Literature OR Book exams this term and the previous one. So, there will be three different exams:
1. A big one with everything but speaking or listening (I´ll keep the 3rd term mark in those skills, I guess we all would like to have dinner at home).
2. A Literature exam for students who passed the term but didn´t reach the 30% min in this term and/or the second term exams.
3. A book exam for students who passed the term but didn´t reach the 30% min in this term and/or the second term exams, that is, the Singing for Mrs Pettigrew and Skellig exams.

Summer is just around the corner....

Much Ado About Nothing whatifs

   

"I´d rather be a sharp thorn to hurt my brother than be the sweet flower whose smell would please him"

       How would  Much Ado About Nothing have changed if Hero had really died? 

If she had really died....
                                    Claudio would have committed suicide.
                                    Claudio would have married another woman.
                                     this comedy would have been a tragedy.

      

        How would the play have changed if Don John hadn´t been so wicked?  

               If Don John hadn´t been so wicked, 

                                Claudio would have successfully married Hero.

                          Claudio wouldn´t have had doubts about Hero´s virtue.

                          no one would have suffered.

                          the plot would have been far duller.

             Claudio and Hero would have been happy from the very beginning.  

How would the play have changed if Margaret had said in the wedding that she was the one with  Borachio the night before?

               

          If she had said that she was the one with Borachio the night before, 

                                                           Claudio would have married Hero on the spot.

                                                           Don John´s scheme would have been discovered.
                                                         Claudio might have fought with Don John                                                     Claudio could have felt embarrassed


       (Third Conditionals by 3ºB and 3ºC students. Magnificent performances btw...)