What is the coronavirus?

Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".



1. What is it caused by?
2. What are the symptoms?
3. What are the cases we know about?
4. Where did it come from?
5. How old are the most affected people?
6. Who are those who have died?
7. How is it transmitted?
8. Is there a treatment? Why? / Why not?
9. How serious is this outbreak?
10. What's the death rate?

Global Warming

This is the video in the photocopy. Check your answers in "comments".



Click on "environment" in content and do more listening comprehension activities related to the topic of looking after the environment.

Natural Disasters

Watch the video and do the exercises. Check your answers in "comments".

1. Match the places with the natural disasters (use some natural disasters more than once).

PACIFIC                                                                             Earthquake

JAPAN                                                                         Floods

NEW ZEALAND                                                           La Niña

TURKEY                                                                      2 rainy seasons in one

SRI LANKA                                                                  Severe droughts

PAKISTAN                                                                    Tornadoes

THAILAND                                                                  Tropical Cyclone Yasi

COLOMBIA                                                                   Tropical Storm Washi

THE HORN OF AFRICA                                                      Tsunami

THE USA                                                                              Wildfires

TEXAS

THE PHILIPINES

II. What do these numbers refer to?

9.0

40

180

48

12

753

543

1,000

CLICK ON "NATURAL DISASTERS" IN CONTENTS TO SEE OLDER POSTS ABOUT THE SAME TOPIC.

Endangered Animals

Click here to read about what an endangered species is.

Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".



1. How many animals are already extinct?
2. What three factors cause extinction by natural causes?
3. How do more natural extinctions happen?
4. What catastrophic event killed dinosaurs?
5. How have humans been the biggest cause of extinction in the last 500 years? Give one example.
6. Why did bison survive?
7. Why are animals also hunted?
8. How do humans destroy habitats?

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Story of Thanksgiving. Watch the video and fill in the gaps (check your answers in "comments").

The year was ________________________ (1). It was a normal day for me, sitting on the beach, getting some sun, ________________________ (2) my own business when lo and behold along comes this boat.

So the pilgrims got off the boat and began the hard work of ________________________ (3) a settlement in the New World. Now, I don't know  ________________________ (4) it was to try to build a settlement at the beginning of winter but ________________________ (5)the pilgrims had it ________________________ (6).

Finally came and the pilgrims went out to ________________________ (7). God had heard ________________________ (8) and sent along one of the ________________________ (9) to help them- an English-speaking Indian by the name of Squanto.

Add lots of hard work and working together with their new friends, the Indians. By the end of the ________________________ (10), they had an abundant ________________________ (11).

The tradition of Thanksgiving began and now people get together and eat and thank God for his ________________________ (12). 

Glossary:

• Lo and behold - Used for introducing something surprising that you're about to tell or show someone.
• Hereby - Used for stating that something said or written in a statement or document is now official or for emphasizing what you're saying.

Click here to do another listening activity using a video from "Friends".







There are more posts about this topic (see "contents") where you can learn about the food they eat and more historical facts.

Integrative Medicine

This is the video for the photocopy I gave you in class. Check your answers in "comments".

The future of medicine

A. Watch this video and answer the questions (check your answers in "comments").

1. Why are billions of people alive today?
2. What do we have treatments for today?
3. In which fields have there been breathtaking advances?
4. Where did this work originate?
5. Who support this work?
6. What has science made in the last centrury?
7. What kind of future does the speaker imagine?

B. Watch the next video to see how technology is changing the healthcare system.

C. Watch the following video and fill in the gaps (you need between one and three words). Check your answers in "comments".

Robot-assisted surgery

- The Vinci Surgical System is a tool that allows us to do more _______________ (1) surgery through very small incisions.

- Smaller incisions speed _______________ (2).

- The surgeon is always in _______________ (3).

Metro medical glue

- Trauma patients with severe _______________ (4) need help fast and Metro medical glue will stop it in about _______________ (5).

- It can be used both _______________ (6).

- Metro will eliminate the need for stitching, for staples, and will _______________ (7) the procedure

- According to researchers at Harvard and Sydney universities, it's ready for _______________ (8).

The Excel white 3d printed cast system

- It promises _______________ (9) and a quicker recovery. T

- The patient's bone is scanned and a custom _______________ (10) cast is made in about a minute.

- It even has a sensor to monitor the _______________ (11).

- The company says they're close to_______________ (12).

Addictions and obsessions

1. Listen to six people talking about what they're addicted to.

2. Watch this video in which a man speaks about his addiction to the Internet and fill in the gaps. (Check your answers in 'comments').

Well, I’m Sean and I’m an (1)_________ _________. It pains me to say this, but I’m addicted to (2)_________. I (3) _________ my status every hour and have to (4) _________ _________ _________ with my friends.

I’m also addicted to “FarmVille”, and I have  (5)_________ _________ but still need a (6) _________, so if someone can please give me a  (7)_________, I’d be happy.

One more thing is I’m addicted to (8) _________ _________. My wife is filing for (9)_________ and “I love you Gertrude, please don’t do that”. And she’s doing it because I spend all my money on (10)_________ _________. And another problem is that we have (11)_________ _________ and the house is going to be, was, on the (12)_________. It’s gonna be *foreclosed, so I really love you Gertrude but, please just don’t (13) _________ _________. All I need just is one (14)_________, that one (15)_________ *to hit it big.

So I’m here to say that. I’m here to make a change, because if I can make this change and make (16) _________ _________ _________ ,that means my wife will come back to me.

And I just want to say, if you’re addicted to the Internet, just (17) _________ _________ you don’t become (18)_________ and (19)_________ like I am right now. Thank you.

*Foreclose: take possession of a mortgaged property when the mortgagor fails to keep up their mortgage payments

*hit it big Slang: To be successful

3. Video game debate: now watch another video in which a woman and a man give their opinions about  videogames. Answer the questions and check in 'comments'.

The woman is against videogames because:

-

-

-

The man completely disagrees with her because:

-

-

-

-

The only negative aspect for him is: 

4. Listen to five speakers talking about their obsessions and match them with the right answer A, B, C, D or E. Check your answers in "comments".

Qi Gong 30-Day Challenge

This is the video we watched in class.

How to talk about people you admire

I. Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".

1. Who is A.P. Giannini?
2. Why is he the person the speaker admires the most?
3. What did A.P. Giannini do when he was on the board of a bank called Columbus Savings and Loans?
4. What did he do when there was a big fire in San Francisco?
5. How did people consider Walt Disney before A.P. Giannini financed him?
6. What big construction did he support?
7. Why is A.P. his favourite entrepreneur?

II. Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".

1. Why doesn't she recommend talking about a famous person in the exam?

2. Why should you talk about someone you know?

3. Why does she like talking about her mum?

4. When did her mum start her family?

5. What opportunity did she miss?

6. What do women usually do these days?

7. When did her mum decide to go back to university?

8. What did the speaker do?

9. How does the speaker describe this situation?

10. Did her mum continue studying?

11. What does she have a bachelor's in?

12. What does her mum do now?

III. Watch a video with an example of someone talking about a famous person she admires. Watch out, there are some mistakes in the transcription.

Personality

Click here and have a look at old posts about the same topic.

Sesame Street

Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".

1. How long has “Sesame Street” been tackling tough topics?
2. What are some of these topics?
3. Who is Julia?
4. Who do they want to help now with Carly?
5. What is Sesame Street in Communities?
6. Why is Carly necessary?
7. Who was Carly living with when she was introduced in the show?
8. What will Carly do?
9. What has Carly learned?
10. Why is it important for Sesame Street to create tools to help address these issues?

Two websites to learn English in a minute

1. English in a Minute (British English)


These short videos...

• focus on real confusing terms.

• are clear, short (1 minute) and to the point.

• have a transcript, so you can also practise pronunciation if you decide to read along.

• have a grammar reference

• usually have  a quiz to test your knowledge

2. English in a Minute (American English)

 

This site run by VOA Learning English (Voice of America) explains expressions used in American English although, in most cases obviously, the expressions on the videos are used both in British and in American English.

The secrets of learning a new language

This is the video you have to watch to answer the questions in the photocopy.

Surveillance technology

Click here to watch an old post about the same topic.



Click here to watch another video about other completely different things that security cameras record around the world.

Crime and punishment

Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".




1. What are the five high school students accused of?
2. What have they been charged with?
3. Who's being held in jail?
4. How are they being tried?
5. What did their lawyers enter?
6. How old was the victim?
7. What did the victim do?
8. Did the victim have children?
9. When did it happen?
10. What happened?
11. What did the suspects do after the incident?
12. How do the teenagers (the defendants*) feel according to their lawyers?
13. What do the defendants face?
14. Is this the only crime they have committed?
15. How does the news reader describe the story?

*Defendant: the person in a trial who is accused of committing a crime, or who is being sued by another person

Squatting

This is the video about squatting in Spain. The answers to the exercise in the photocopy are in "comments".

 

Copyright infringement

Stephen Fry denounces the overly aggressive strategies of the copyright industries as stupid in his speech at the London iTunes festival Summer 2009.

The answers to the exercises in the photocopy are in "comments".

London and the rise of violent crime

Watch the news report and fill in the gaps. Check your answers in "comments".

1. 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne became last night the fifth person _______________   _______________   in the 

capital this year. 42 others have died of knife _______________. 

2. One woman told the reporter privately her son had told her about the postcode wars going on between 

_______________   in the neighbourhood.

3. A local man showed her where his car had been _______________   by a _______________   last year.

4. He says even the police can`t _______________   it.

5. 22-year-old Kobi Nelson was _______________   yards from his home.

6. Also a 16-year-old boy became the sixth _______________    _______________   this year.

7. The local MP has talked to Newsnight about how _______________   have impacted local policing.

8. She says she has stood up in parliament and _______________ and pleaded ministers to give them the police officers 

they have lost to get community intelligence.

9. The number of murders in London have led to _______________   comparisons with New York, a city which has 

dramatically cut its _______________   numbers since the 90s.

10. New York City and London have very similar numbers of officers and _______________.

11. As part of a new serious violence strategy the government recently launched a series of adverts aimed at 

_______________   _______________   crime.

12. It’s also looking into new laws against defensive _______________.

13. The person in charge of a community boxing club says that none of the latest victims were _______________   

_______________ gang members or criminals.

14. He also says it’s easy to blame the government or the parents but it takes a village to _______________   a child.

Mixed Conditionals

Click here to read the grammar and do some exercises.

Click here to see an old entry with a video explaining the use.