- - - - - - HAVING A MEMORY LIKE A SIEVE

EXAMS, EXAMS....

What can we do with an exam?
I though that we can pass or fail it. But I was wrong because:

We can take an exam.

We can do an exam.

We can sit an exam.

But please, study for the exam.

JAY WALKER ON THE WORD'S ENGLISH MANIA

Amazing video and new vocabulary:
+ pandemonium: chaos, anarchy, apocalipsis.
+ to be a returning point: ser un punto sin retorno. Ojo parece lo contrario.
+ Lingua Franca: again with latin, means that a language is spoken over big piece of the world, that just everyone can talk it.
+ Don't let me down: means dejar tirado.
+ Mother tongue: The language you speak when you are a child, at home...
+ Harness: can be a noum : arnés or can be a verb with two menaning: to put an harness to a horme or to use something. The harness of electricity: the use of electricity.
+ By law: It's compulsory to do.

WHAT CAN WE DO ON THE WEB?

Be carefull:

You can search ON the internet. That means that you know what are you looking for. By the way ON the internet, ON the web.

You can browse on the web when you don't kwon what are you looking for. To browse means: cursiosear, echar un vistazo... In a shop, to a book or on the web. Just watching.

You can surf the web. We don't sail the web.

We can watch a video on the web.

We can pay by credit card over the Internet.

We can look at a page or at pages.

LATIN OR ENGLISH?

Both. You know that some languages take words from other languages, and English did it too. I'm ending a big book about all the English History and there appears that chester means roman camp. So the places called ....chester had long time ago a roman village. Manchester, Lancaster, Chester... I'll explain more of this historical adventures widely in the entry of the book.
But, what is the meaning of?

e. g. : Everyone know that means for example but it is written in latin: In latin it means: Exempli Gratia.

i. e. : Means "that is," but it is written in latin too and the meaning is : id est.

So, although I enjoyed latin just a bit in the High School I have to say that I agree completely with Obelix.

RENT OR HIRE

There are two different verbs with similar meaning in Spanish but not in English:

To rent: (from wordreference.com): that means that if I am the owner of a flat I can let you living there if you pay me an amount of money monthly. (alquilar) So you can rent a flat, an apartment...

To hire: (from wordreference.com): means that you are paing to have the posibility to use a machine or a person. For example: If you go to London, you can hire a car to make some trips. If I have a farm, in harvest time I can hire a person to help me just during the harvest.

The problem is that in Spanish we use alquilar for both verbs, but I think that to hire is a shortter period of time.

FAMILY MATTERS

We can have problems when we are trying to introduce ourselves just translating from Spanish.

Here there are some new vocabulary that can hepls us:

If I have the same name that my father's, I can say: I WAS NAMED (NAME) AFTER MY FATHER.

And when my parents give me a name...: THEY NAMED (NAME) ME. But be carefull never: They named -to- me.

If I have not brothers or sisters: I'M AN ONLY CHILD.

NEW LANGUAGE SCHOOL YEAR

The new school year in the Language School of Barakaldo has been started. Again, many people walk trough the corridors looking for their new classrooms. The classmates have been changed. Thanks God I met many of them before but I think I'll miss my old classroom we have good moments and good memories.
But, life is life, or life is hard, say as you prefer, and LET'S START AGAIN IMPROVING OUR ENGLISH.
B2 be carefull, here we are.

And I want to end that entry writting a joke. I think it will be the first joke of the blog:

Why pirates are pirates?
Because they arrrrrrr.

So don't walk the blank (pasarela) and make your best.

Think blue symphony and pizza

TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES

What can I say about that marbellous novel? It is awesome. It is fantastic and I'm really in love with it.
I don't really know how Thomas Hardy wrote about the Victorian country society so perfect. He describes the country facts perfectly, the harvest, the moral, the differences between being the master or just a maid.
The BBC mini serie is just a piece of heaven, a very well done master piece. And although I don't know the main character of Tess I know Eddy Redmayne from the perfect adaptation of The Earth Pillars.
I have just recently bought "The mayor of Casterbridge" book. It is Thomas's too.
I have written about Thomas Hardy Novels first. "Far from the madding crowd" wencouraged me reading more classic novels. And "Tess the D'urbervilles" was my best choice and I have discovered a big world of country side stories that Thomas Hardy described perfectly.
I have not already seem the Bertolucci's "Tess" film. I hope I will enjoy it. But I have to recognise that a big novel can't fit properly in one hour 20 minutes film. Thats the reason why BBC's mini serie lenght is of 270 minutes. And when you are watching the film is like if you were reading again the book. It suits prefectly.
Just a master piece.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

It is a classic novel written by Jane Austen. It is about love. It talks about the moment when a sister must find a good husband to marry with. Although sometimes appear different difficulties to get te aim as social differences, powers, prides and prejudices.
Will the love win that fight? Or will the money do it?
It is supposed that love is the only ingredient to join two lovers but is that quote true?

THE SIGN OF FOUR

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel where Sherlock Holmes and His unseparate partner Watson have to discover the secret of the location of an old treasure.
I think that the novel is not as famous as the Hound of the Baskervilles, but if you enjoy reading mistery novel you 'd enjoy it. Miss Morstan father is dissapeared, but year by year a pearl is sent to Miss Morstan. What is happening? Is it all in his head? Do you want to discover the truth of the Agra Treasure? Are you ready to do it?

Tess of the D'urbervilles

I'm in love with this novel and so with the BBC adaptation. If you can, watch the film or read the book. It's amazing. The writer is Thomas Hardy. He wrote "Far from the madding crowd" too.
Both of the novels are interesting becouse they describe Victorian life in the English countryside.
I like them.

Physical description 2

Physical description 1

THE SCARLET LETTER

I like black cat books. There is many information inside the book about many facts appeared on it but saddly, they have not the complete audio.
I have learnt a lot about the Salem trials, about the witches, about reverenders, about religion in America, about how they settled , abou pagans, about puritans...
I would like to watch the film, but the book is quite good.
The end of the book is a sentence with the inscription of a tombstone: "ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES."
Sable means: black
Gules means: red
I have found two explanations on the web for these words: first of it just talk about a description of a coat of arms: the coat of arms is a red letter (letter gules) appearing against a black background (sable field).
The other explanation is about an eternal punishment because it describes the judgment that still remains even after death. Awesome.

EMERGENCY MURDER

Maxine is a woman that works in a Hospital in Milwakee near the Michigan Lake. One night the wife of a famous surgeon appears and dies in her arms.
Maxine was doing a rersearch for the cure of a skin disease and police discovered that the woman was killed by the drug of her research. Maxine is pointed as the killer. She must find the truth.
Great thriller, I have been hooked till the end of the book.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Ram Mohammad Thomas didn't go to the school and he has just won one billion rupees in the Tv Quiz Show "Want to be a millionaire?"
I watches time ago the film and when I bought the book I decided that I would watch it again after reading the book.
Unfortunately, although it is an interesting film, the book is better. The romantic plot of the book is lost in the film.
Thomas has to explain to a lawyer how he knows the answers...

IN THE HOUSE

We are in a program. That TV program is ending. The name Big Eye. It is like Big Brother. It is only a woman and 5 men. One of the secretly in love with the woman. They have to sort some tasks out to continue having some privileges. No tricks, cameras are on all the day.
Only one winner, the last person in the House. The woman in the house tells are her story.
It is an amazing book with an actual vision of a romance watched all around the world.

LIVE AND LET DIE

At first I thought that something sounded wrong in the title then I realized that James Bond was coming again.
After reading Dr No book and watching nearly nobne of Bond's films I'm becoming a Ian Fleming's fan. I have bought Goldfinger book but it must wait.
Live and let die is a good adventure book with Mr Big as the evil man and The Solitaire as the woman that falls in love with James Bond.
Did you know that Solitaire has got telephatic powers?
Did you know what a barracuda fish eat?
Did you know what a limpet mine is for? And by the way, have you ever eatten limpets? I did.
All the answers in the book.

TO DO

TO DO THE IRONING

TO DO YOUR BEST

TO DO SOME WORK

TO DO THE CLEANING

TO DO THE DRIVING

TO DO SOME DAMAGE

TO DO NOTHING

TO DO ME A FAVOUR

TO DO THE COOKING

TO DO THE SHOPPING

TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK

TO DO THE WASHING

TO DO YOGA

THE SOUP DONE ME WELL.

THERE IS NOTHING TO DO HERE.

I NEVER DO THE DISHES.

TO DO BUSINESS

TO DO MAGIC TRICKS

TO DO HARM

TO DO THE ACCOUNTS

TO DO SOME SPORTS

TO MAKE:

TO MAKE A MISTAKE

TO MAKE MONEY

TO MAKE THE BED

TO MAKE A FUSS

TO MAKE A MESS

TO MAKE A PHONE CALL

TO MAKE DINNER

TO MAKE A NOISE

TO MAKE AN EFFORT

TO MAKE FRIENDS

TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT

TO MAKE A COFFE

TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND

TO MAKE A SANDWICH

TO MAKE A SPEECH.

TO MAKE SURE

TO MAKE FUN OF ME

TO MAKE THE ROOM

TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT

TO MAKE PEACE

TO MAKE A DONATION

EUROVISION 2011: BLUE: I CAN

Here we have a song with a modal verb in its title. I had the possibility to add to the blog another different video but I prefered this one because the sights of London: Saint Paul Cathedral...
I don't know who the winner is going to be. Obviously, I prefer if Spain wins the competition but unfortunately I don't think it'll hapen. So, my 5 personal points are for Blue.
Here in Spain there is a well-known man who has presentated Eurovision since I was a child, so we can say that he knows all the tricks of the trade. I love watching Eurovision and checking how the points that Jose Luis Uribarri preticts to be given by a country, are given as he firstly said. Even in the same order...
This evening some people will watch eurovision 2011. I think we will rent a film. Although that I have to recognize that this year's title is quite beautiful: Feel your heat beat!

KING'S RAMSOM

Wonderful book written by Ed McBain that shows what hapens when some kidnappers take the wrong boy. Crime and mystery mixed in a properly way. But the problem got bigger when King decided not to pay the ransom.
I have learnt the always wanted to say sentence: Look him up!
By the way, in the text sometimes appear "puzzled". "He look at him puzzled", "He stared at him puzzled". It is when you are more than surprised. More than astonished. You are nearly confused.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

Before watching the film I have read the book. How interesting it is!
I didn't know that Gulliver has travelled so far. I liked the fact that Jonathan Swift included some maps about his travels around the world.
There are strange worlds in the book too. But the hole idea I have is that the author could be a person who wrote against the politicians or against the way that things were made in her time.
The last film about this book is funnier than the old one.

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

I liked that book. Crime, mystery and Sherlock Holmes trying to spot the murderer.
Under book's nasty cover, a big Arthur Conan Doyle's book.
As the idiom says, you can't judge a book by its cover.
By the ay, the murderer was...

THE CANTERBURY TALES

How different was the life in the Middle Ages!

If you had done some bad things you can paid for your pardon. Guess who. To a pardoner, of course. That sort of men take your money and they forgive your sins.

You could meet a Franklin. They were rich farmers with big houses, I think that they were like terratenientes.

You could spot the difference between a friar an a priest.

The book tells us a compilation of stories. To summarize, a person has a restaurant and some people go to have meals. The owner prefers to invite them with only one condition. They have to told him a story, the best story-teller will not pay the meal.

What a strange book!

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

Sometimes, we have to decide what about we know. All of us know about the extrange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, all of us know that when Dr Jekyll discovered the drug to become in Mr Hyde he opened a door to the hell, but I have enjoyed reading the book. It is completely told by Dr Jekyll's friend. It's amazing although it describes how Mr Hyde hit a poor child or how he hit an inocent old man.

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

The story of that book is similar to the story of Wuthering Heights. It is in United Kingdom's countryside too. But this one, is not so dark as Wuthering Heights is. While I was reading I was listening to the music. I usually listen boring audio-cds. They started energicly but after two chapters, tracks become longer and longer and at the end you are so bored that you decide to continue reading without the help of the cd.
I like listeting to the cds because I have a very bad pronuntiation. I thought taht it was possible for me to be a foreing language afasic, but I think that this disease does niot exists. But Thomas Hardy's books audiocds were complety different. They added singing birds, you can heard sheep neck bells, or thunders in a storm...
It's a good book.

THE PRINCE OF MIST

What a lovely book! It is the best book I have ever read in English. It's very easy to understand and it's divided into 18 chapters. It is a very good mystery-fantastic story.
I'll only add that if I can I will read more books of Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I enjoy it very much.

NO WAY OUT

It is a quite simple story. Alex and Adam are twins and the can speack eachothers just withour oopening the mouth, they are telepatic.
When they are going to visit some realatives in the country a strange fog appeared and they were back to the past. Then their sister dissappeared, their parents are prisioners and they have to help them...