The awful story of a girl & her monkey

Read the heartwarming story below the illustration, it's about a girl and her monkey.

Illustration of Girl Giant and the Monkey King, by Van Hoang

 🐒   Once upon a time, in a small jungle village, there lived a girl named Sarah. She had a pet monkey named Max who she loved very much. Max was a mischievous monkey, always getting into trouble and causing chaos in the village.

One day, Sarah was sitting in her backyard enjoying a snack of peanuts. As she munched on the tasty nuts, Max suddenly appeared out of nowhere and snatched a handful of peanuts right out of her hand. "Hey!" Sarah exclaimed. "Your monkey keeps stealing my peanuts!"

Sarah tried to scold Max and make him understand that it was wrong to take things that didn't belong to him, but the monkey just looked at her with a cheeky grin and scampered off into the jungle.

Feeling frustrated, Sarah decided to set a trap to catch Max in the act of stealing peanuts. She placed a bowl of peanuts in the jungle and waited, hiding behind a tree.

Sure enough, Max soon appeared and went straight for the bowl of peanuts. But as he reached for a nut, he triggered the trap and got caught in a net. "Gotcha!" Sarah said triumphantly.

Feeling guilty for trapping her beloved pet, Sarah quickly set Max free and apologized for her actions. From that day on, Max never stole peanuts from Sarah again and they lived happily ever after.

When you read the title of this activity, what sort of story did you expect?

Did you notice any logical problems or mistakes in the story?

Who do you think might have written the story?

Halloween: What's it all about?

Halloween celebrations have spread in Spain for the last three decades or so, sometimes at the expense of local traditions. Many children and youngsters nowadays, for instance, have not even heard of buñuelos de viento, or huesos de santo or have never tasted roasted chestnuts, although other traditions, like eating panellets, are still observed.

But who knows why children wear costumes and go trick-or-treating? Why many people decorate their houses with spooky bats and Jack-o-lanters, everything black and orange?

Let's find out! 

Click on the picture below to hear what the National Geographic says about the origins of Halloween.

And now you can read about it, and also about the so called Jack-o-lantern.

There are many other European traditions that stem from ancient cultures, mainly from the Celts.

And now that we have a general picture of Halloween and other traditions that celebrate how the living and the dead are mingled, let's look at some facts about Halloween.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Have a very creepy, skin-crawling Halloween.

Listening practice: Helen Keller

Possibly, you have not heard of Helen Keller, a girl that could not see, hear or speak. 

By clicking on the pucture of young Helen, you will link to a scene from a movie on how she turned from a very wild and suffereing child into an able, loving and happy girl, thanks to the unwavering faith of her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

Now, you have a link to a cartoon explaining her story.

Finally, you can learn about Anne Sullivan and Hellen Keller's method.

I hope the story inspires you. With will power and perseverance almost everything can be achieved!

Present tenses: review and further practice.

To review the present tenses, you can watch the tutorials in the links below. Click on the first picture to review the basics of the present simple, the present continuous and the present perfect.

 

  The Iron Bridge, over the River Severn, Coalbrookdale, England. From 1779.

You have further explanation of the present simple versus the present continuous (or present progressive) tenses in the next link.

                               The Old Wye Bridge, over the River Wye, Chepstow, between England and Wales. From 1816.

Next, a tutorial explaining the present perfect simple.

                           The Forth Bridge, over the Firth of Forth (firth is Gaelic for estuary), near Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1889.

And finally, a tutorial that explains the difference between the present perfect simple and the present perfect continuous.

  The Tyne Bridge, over the Tyne River, Newcastle, England. From 1928.

Let's now get some hands-on practice.

https://www.e-grammar.org/present-simple-continuous/test1-exercise1/

https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/tenses/present-perfect1.htm

https://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/tenses-exercise-two

B1B Welcome & Top 10 amazing bridges activity

 San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Bermeo, Vizcaya

                                                       

                                                                 Welcome to B1B class

You are about to start a new stage of your school life, a stage that will open up new possibilities both in your education and in your personal developement as responsible and mature citizens.

It won't be easy. This stage demands from you commitment and resolution.

But, hopefully, your determination and hard work will also bring you self-satisfaction and a very pleasing sense of achievement.

I do hope this school year unfolds smoothly for everyone, students and teachers alike, we all enjoy good health and work together doing our best. LET'S GO FOR IT!

Top 10 amazing bridges

The first activity this year is watching a clip that shows some of the most amazing bridges in the world.

The class will be spilt in three groups. Make sure you know which group you belong to.

You are going to watch the documentary twice. The first time, you should focus on the task allocated to your group here. 

If you have managed to find all the info required to your group after the first listening, then try to complete as much as possible of the tasks for one of / the other two groups.

B1B- Future tenses (28th Sep/2nd Oct)

In this entry you have your work for the week. 

We are going to review the different tenses we use in English to express future time.

In the first link, a tutorial which explains four different tenses that can express future time: 

    *the present continuous for arrangements

    *be going to +infinitive for intention and for predictions (with evidence)

    *will+infinitive for facts and for predictions (without evidence)

    *the present simple for schedules

Can you complete the following statements?

    1.-I want to watch an old film, Taxi driver, on my computer tonight.

            Tonight, I..................................Taxi driver.

    2.-My friend Alex and I have arranged to watch Taxi driver on Friday night.

            On Friday night, Alex and I....................................Taxi driver.

Which of the options do you think is right?

    3.-Taxi driver is scheduled for Tuesday at 10 p.m.

            Taxi driver is going to be shown on Tuesday at 10 p. m. / Taxi driver is shown on Tuesday at 10 p.m.

    4.-The waitress is taking note of our orders.

            I'll have salmon and a green salad, please. / I'm going to have salmon and a green salad, please.

              

Click on the next link and check your answers.  

If you've done well, you can do the exercises in the link below.

If you are not happy with your answers, watch the tutorial again. Then, do the exercises in the link below.

Practice makes perfect is an English saying. It means we learn things by doing; the more we do something, the better we get at it. So, in the next link there are more exercises to  practise future tenses (present progressive=present continuous). 

Pictures of stained glass in St. Mary's cathedral, León.

E2B & E2C- More practice with negative and interrogative passive sentences

Edgar Degas' Ballet rehearsal

 Click on the link and do the 10 passive negative and interrogative sentences.