Stop the violence against women

Nov 20 Universal Children's Day

A summary of the rights of child:
http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf

Right of a family

Freedom from discrimination

Education

More videos: Unicef web page or UNICEF YourTube channel

Negative Prefixes: un-, im-, in-, il-, and ir-, and dis-

A negative prefix is a prefix which carries a negative meaning 'not' , 'opposite of'.

Common negative prefixes in English are un-, im-, in-, il-, and ir-, and dis-. Some of these prefixes are only attached to a noun or an adjective while some are only attached to a verb. It is not possible to predict whether the negative prefix un-, in-, or dis- is used with a particular word. The correct form must be learned.

1. The negative prefix un-

Undamaged (Adj.)      Not damaged or not spoiled   Undesirable (Adj.)      Not wanted   Unemployment (N.)    No work, job

It is important to distinguish the negative prefix un- 'not' from the prefix un- 'do the reverse of' which is normally attached to a verb. The resulting word remains a verb.

Undo (V.)    To cancel the effect of something     Undress (V.)    To remove one's clothes

2. The negative prefixes in-, im-, il-, ir-

These prefixes are normally attached to an adjective. The resulting word remains an adjective.
il + l       illegal (Adj.)             Against the law, not legal

im + b    imbalanced (N.)       Not balance                         im + p     impossible (Adj.)    Not possible

im + m   immeasurable (Adj.) No able to be measured

ir + r      irregular (Adj.)         Not regular

in + other consonants            incomplete (Adj.)       Not complete

It is also important to distinguish the meaning of the prefix im- or in- 'not' from those carrying the meaning 'in, into' which forms a verb.

im + p                            import (V.)        To bring goods from a foreign country

in + other consonants     incorporate (V)  To make something part of the whole

3. The negative prefix dis- 'not, opposite of, away'

This prefix is normally attached to a verb, an adjective or a noun. The resulting words can be a verb, an adjective or a noun.

disappear (V.)     become no longer visible 

discard (V.)         throw something away

Adapted from: http://campus.almagro.ort.edu.ar/articulo/256360/grammar-time-negative-prefixes- 

Author Doris Lessing dies aged 94

The novelist Doris Lessing, who tackled race, ideology, gender politics and the workings of the psyche in a prolific and often iconoclastic career, died in London on Sunday at the age of 94, her publisher HarperCollins said.

The British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie hailed the "warmth, sharp mind and ferocity" of a writer who continually reinvented herself to challenge conventions, but defied the feminists and leftists who would have claimed her for their cause.

Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, only the 11th woman to do so, but characteristically refused to offer the expected gushing response on hearing the news, observing drily: "One can get more excited than one gets, you know."

Born in what was then Persia, now Iran, on October 22, 1919, Lessing was raised in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

When she moved to Britain at 30, escaping the scene of an unhappy childhood and two failed marriages, she had in her suitcase the manuscript of a novel that broke new ground with its depiction of an inter-racial relationship in her white-ruled homeland. "The Grass Is Singing" was an immediate bestseller in Britain, Europe and America.

Her early stories and novellas set in Africa, published during the 1950s and early 1960s, decried the dispossession of black Africans by white colonials and exposed the sterility of white culture in southern Africa - work that made her a "prohibited alien" in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa.

Lessing wrote that, for her, Africa was "not a place to visit unless one chooses to be an exile ever afterwards from an inexplicable majestic silence lying just over the border of memory or of thought".

But it was her 1962 novel "The Golden Notebook" that brought her international fame with its experimental style and format, and linked her firmly to the feminist cause.

From:

http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCABRE9AG09920131117

16th November is International Day for Tolerance

Timely tolerance: A webquest

"Imagine" is a song written and performed by English rock musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971. The song's refrain may have been partly inspired by Yoko Ono's poetry in reaction to her childhood in Japan during World War II.
Following Lennon's death in 1980, the single re-entered the UK chart and was number one for four weeks in January 1981. Since its release, "Imagine" has been included in a broad array of most-influential and greatest-songs-of-all-time lists. 

Imagine by John Lennon 

Imagine there's no _____________ 

It's ________ if you ________ 

No hell __________ us 

________ us only _______ 

Imagine all the people 

_____________ for today… 

Imagine _____________ no ____________ 

It isn't ________ to do 

Nothing to ______or ___________ 

And no _______________________ 

Imagine _______ the people 

Living life _____________ … 

You may say I'm a _____________ 

But I'm not the ___________ 

I hope someday ______________ us 

And the world will be ___________ 

Imagine no ________________ 

I ___________ if you can 

No need for _________or _________ 

A ________________ of man 

Imagine all the _________________ 

____________ all the world… 

You _____________ I'm ___________________ 

But _______________ the only one 

I hope ___________ you'll __________ us 

And the ____________________ as one… 

Modal Verbs II

Modal verbs_characteristics from martaenglisj

Modal verbs ability from martaenglisj

Modal Verbs I

MODAL VERBS FOR OBLIGATION AND PROHIBITION

Modals for obligation and prohibition from David Mainwood

MODAL VERBS FOR DEDUCTION

Present and Past Modals of Deduction with Sherlock Holmes from David Mainwood

Educate the Hearts

Erasmus

If they really want to build a unified Europe, these exchange programmes set the foundations.

I spent a year in Aberdeen, Scotland and this gave me the chance to meet lots of very different people and cultures, use English, get to know a country, experiment a new university system and the most important of all, grow as a human being. This was more than 15 years ago and I am still in touch with some of them.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Today is November the fifth and in Britain on this day they celebrate an event that happened over four hundred years ago.

In 1605, a person named Guy Fawkes and a group of Catholic friends tried to blow up the British Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder. They were caught after one of the group sent a letter to a friend warning him to stay away from Parliament. Guy Fawkes and the rest were eventually imprisoned and later executed.

Nowadays, British people celebrate Guy Fawkes' Day (or sometimes called Bonfire Night) by building bonfires and letting off fireworks. It is a tradition for children to make a 'Guy' from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and display him in the streets, asking "Penny for the Guy?" and expecting to receive some money to spend later on fireworks. Guys are then thrown on the bonfire at the height of the celebrations.

Big firework displays are held in public playing fields and open areas, usually with huge bonfires. The bonfires often take weeks to build, and in small communities and villages everyone will bring some wood or old furniture to add to the fire.

The events of 1605 are also remembered in a nursery rhyme.

"Remember, remember
the Fifth of November
 is gunpowder treason and plot.
I see no reason
why gunpowder treason
hould ever be forgot.
Knock at the door,
ring the bell.
Have you got a penny for
singing so well ?
If you haven't got a penny
a ha'penny will do
If you haven't got a ha'penny
then God bless you !!"



Vocabulary:
blow up – to explode or destroy with a bomb

stuff – fill up with

celebrate – to enjoy or mark a special occasion

event – a special occasion

warning – to say strongly against doing something (dangerous)

eventually – at last

imprison – to put in gaol

expecting – to be waiting for something to happen

fireworks – colorful explosions for entertainment

bonfire – a big fire

treason – to betray your country

plot – a plan to do something bad

(http://kibishipaul.com/trans/script15.html)



Listening links. Here
Reading and exercises. Here
Vocabulary, Exercises and Worksheets. Here
The Gunpowder plot. The facts


Links for teachers:

Lots of activities. Here
Treasure Hunt. Here

Obama: More School, Less Vacation

In 2009 Obama announced one of his goals: to lengthen school time.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

...

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

___

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests – Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days). 

... 

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.

"Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents," Duncan said. "They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/28/obama-more-school-less-va_n_301694.html

and I wonder:

- does more equal better?

- as families are working one and two and three jobs, they need school to keep their children. Why should someone need three jobs to make ends meet? Should we change school or our society?