Emotions 1.

To work on vocabulary related to anger, confusion, confidence and shame, click here

And, I'm in the mood now, so one more here for pain, sadness, fear and happiness. I'm afraid I have not been very imaginative with the activities this time, oops!

History: Life on the American Frontier.

Click Here for the video "Life on the American Frontier" we worked on in class and here for the corresponding listening tasks.

Physical appearance flashcards.

Click here for a link to the flashcards we have been using in class to revise physical appearance vocabulary.

Ageing, an illness to be combated? Debate

While browsing through the videos in ted.com, I stumbled upon one that I considered would make for a very interesting debate, as its focus is ageing (aging AmE), a process that shapes our lives from the moment we are born and thus relevant to us all. The speaker, Aubrey de Grey is a Cambridge "biogerontologist" who is adamant that funds should be allocated to research on how to revert the deterioration our bodies suffer with the passage of time in such a way that we would remain youthful and escape death for even centuries. He claims that -if philanthropists decide to invest in this quest- breakthroughs are imminent in the near future and that when they come along people will gradually abandon the -now prevailing- wrong notion that ageing is an inevitable (and even desireable) natural phenomenon.

So my suggestions are 1) watch the video by clicking on this link. It is 20 min long and he was pressed for time and speaks really fast, so enable the subtitles in English, a function you will find down left on the video. You can pause it as often as you like. You do not have to try to remember the complex concepts he mentions, just the gist. 2) If you have the time, you can also read about Aubrey de Grey in Wikipedia.

Finally, please, publish a comment with your opinion.

Pairs of adjectives ending in "-ed" & "-ing".

Here is what we did in class on that topic.

Advanced II. Inversion and cleft sentences.

By clicking on this link, you will have access to the exercise we have done in class consisting in translating some sentences in Galician into examples of inversion and it/what anticipatory subjects in English.

In order to be able to use this and other links with google.docs, you must send me an e-mail address and ask me to include you among my authorised readers.

Advanced II. Amazingly Good Talks.

For those of you who are curious to learn about a variety of subjects, here is a page with hundreds of different talks given by experts organised alphabetically by subject (I've just watched one on bonobos and it was fantastic). What are your waiting for? Click on this link and explore for yourselves. TED.

Advanced II. Inversion and Emphasis in English.

Below, you will find three links you can explore to find out more about emphasis and inversion in English.

http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/inversion_of_word_order_for_emphasis

http://esl.about.com/od/grammarstructures/a/g_emphasis.htm

http://mpruizdiezavanzado2utebo.blogspot.com/2009/05/inversion-adding-emphasis.html

Advanced II. Other Conditional Conjunctions.

ASSUMING/SUPPOSING (supoñendo que)

Assuming he'll still get funding after Avatar bombs, James Cameron says his next project is "The Seven Samurai in space"

ON CONDITION THAT (a condición de que...)

The Magistrate sentenced him to five years' imprisonment of which two were suspended for three years on condition that he pays the sum of P21 784.05.

PROVIDING/PROVIDED THAT (con tal que...)

Dogs are good friends to you provided that you treat them well.
Normally students will be allowed to proceed to level 2 of the programme providing they have been awarded 80 credits in the previous year.

UNLESS (a menos que...)

Motor vehicle drivers should be liable for road accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists unless they prove it's not their fault.

IN THE EVENT THAT (sempre e cando...)

In the event that the Congress should fail to act, and act adequately, I shall accept the responsibility, and I will act.

AS/SO LONG AS (sempre e que/mentras que...)

So long as the economic management of the Bank of England is sensible, Scotland would not be disadvantaged.

GRANTING (to grant: conceder. Concedendo que... Asumindo que...).

Granting that animals are intelligent in the broad acceptation of the word, are they only perceptually intelligent or also conceptually?

SHOULD

Should the weather deteriorate, we always have the option of returning to base camp.
Should you need any more information, do not hesitate to contact me.

Advanced II. Risk Takers. Videos With Examples.

Hi, guys. This is a selection of videos featuring different people involved in risky activities. Enjoy, and please leave your comments as to what you think of the activities depicted. Would you feel tempted to get involved in any of them? Also, could you think of any more risky activities and, in what ways to we take risks in our day-to-day lives?

Dangerous sports



Absaling



White water rafting



Extreme Skydiving



Scuba diving



Snorkelling



Rock climbing



The alps, extreme mountain climbing (mountaineering)



Snowboarding. How to snowboard



Parkour



Sailing solo around the world



Ballooning around the world



Hiking in the jungle