Thursday, April 28, 2016

Micronations: Bergonia

A micronation, sometimes referred to as a model country or new country project, is an entity that claims to be an independent nation or state but is not officially recognized by world governments or major international organizations.
Micronations are distinguished from imaginary countries and from other kinds of social groups (such as eco-villages, campuses, tribes, clans, sects, and residential community associations) by expressing a formal and persistent, even if unrecognized, claim of sovereignty over some physical territory.
Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals, and other items, which are rarely accepted outside of their own community.
The earliest known micronations date from the beginning of the 19th century. The advent of the Internet provided the means for people to create many new micronations, whose members are scattered all over the world and interact mostly by electronic means, often calling their nations Nomadic Countries. The differences between such Internet micronations, other kinds of social networking groups, and role playing games are often difficult to define.
 (wikipedia)

BERGONIA is a fictional country that was created in the Created Worlds web site.



Click here and find more information on Bergonia (history, geography, temperature, ecology, religion...)



Listening practice

Today, we are going to work on our listening skills.

You've got some audios to work with below. Listen to the following texts and do the exercises you'll find (matching, gap filling...). Pay attention to what you're hearing and have fun! (British Council)

Text1: celebrations

Text 2: theme parks

Once you've finished with this, you can continue with the following activities:

Vocabulary exercise about politics: here

Reading practice:

Task 1: multiple choice

Task 2:  matching

Task 3: true/false

Task 4: cloze

And now, a couple of games to practise different topics:

Billionaire (present tenses)

Billionaire 2 (past simple)

Jeopardy (past simple/ past continuous)

First conditional matching activity

Conditionals billionaire quiz

Irregular verbs wheel of fortune

Conditionals game

Tenses jeopardy

Have fun!!!



Are you into football? Do you know a lot of vocabulary about it? Check it here with a game.


Thursday, April 21, 2016

Second Conditional


The second conditional uses the past simple after if, then 'would' and the infinitive:
If + past simple,    would/could + infinitive
Remember to use the special form for the verb "to be":
If I were rich, I would travel around the world

When to use it:
First, we can use it to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true.
Second, we can use it to talk about something in the present which is impossible, because it's not true.
Now, take a look at these exercises to practise:
Exercise 8 (first and second conditionals)
Then, take a look at this video and do the activities below:
Video (bbc)
You've got a podcast to improve your knowledge of this type of conditional here.
Then, you've got a video here showing the differences between first and second conditionals.
And now, just to relax, listen to the following song and pay attention to conditional tenses (there are many, by the way). Have fun!



Thursday, April 7, 2016

Conditional Sentences


Resultado de imagen de conditionals

 Resultado de imagen de zero conditionalFirst conditional mind map

You have already studied the formation of zero and first conditional.  Click on the following links to practise their uses and formation. If you need to review it, you can click on the following video.

ZERO CONDITIONAL

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

FIRST CONDITIONAL

Exercise 6

Exercise 7

Exercise 8

Exercise 9

And now, some games to play and practise conditionals!

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

The 120th anniversary of the modern incarnation of the ancient Olympic Games

Five things you didn’t know about the first modern Olympic Games

Google has marked the 120th anniversary of first modern Summer Olympics, which took place in Athens in 1896  (by Caroline Mortimer)


Today marks the 120th anniversary of the modern incarnation of the ancient Olympic Games which were staged in Athens in 1896.
Only 14 countries participated in the original tournament and there were only 43 events, but over the next century it grew in prestige to the international sporting festival it is today.
Here are some of things you may not know about the revival of the Olympics:

It was not the first attempt to revive the ancient tournament in Greece

The “pagan” sporting festival was banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I in 394AD as part of his campaign to make Christianity the official religion of the Empire.
In the 19th century, European philanthropists were inspired to revive the ancient tournament as a way to improve the “moral and physical education” of the masses.
Greek philanthropists Evangelos and Konstantinos Zappas paid for the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium where they sponsored the first games held there in 1859, then again in 1870 and 1875.

It was not until a Frenchman visited a tiny Shropshire village that the idea took off

The village of Wenlock in Shropshire began hosting its own annual local Olympics in 1850.
It was devised by local doctor William Penny Brookes and is still held to this day.
They were also the first Summer Olympics to have ever been broadcast on television and London is the only city to have hosted the Games three times.

Despite starting in Athens the Games didn’t return to the city until 2004 

The official slogan for the 2004 Games was “Welcome Home” in honour of the city’s role in starting it all.
Participating athletes were also given olive wreaths to wear as they would have done in Ancient Greece.

Rio 2016 will be the first time the tournament will be held in South America

Rio 2016 will be the first time a South American city has ever hosted the games and the second city in Latin America after Mexico City played host in 1968.
                                                                                                           Taken from  independent.co.uk

Tests A2: Sentence Building, Listening, Reading

 PRACTICAL ENGLISH
Click on the links and practise your English

Click here for more reading and listening activities: