The more or less conundrum

I love saying "I was right" (mwahahaha). Here is the answer to our more or less dillema

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/more+or+less

Thank you

Thanks to all of you for a wonderful semester!
Enjoy your holiday and I really hope to see you all in August!
Let's keep up learning!
Lots of love,
Teacher Silvana

Ciência para aprender violão | Mente e Cérebro | Duetto Editorial

Ciência para aprender violão | Mente e Cérebro | Duetto Editorial

Uma boa leitura, pessoal. Serve para o estudo de línguas também. Practice makes it perfect!

Living on one dollar

I want to share something with you, people.

First, you can see the video below. It's short and easy to understand.

LIVING THE LIFE ON ONE DOLLAR - TRAILER #2

You can read the news linking here.

These guys were very brave. Let's think about our brothers and sisters too.

"This life is incredibly hard." - Chris Temple


Bye =)

Let's trainning, guys!

=D

;)

Review exercises and vocabulary list (M6)

Here are the exercises and here is the vocab list.

You should download and print both of them for next class!!

Homework key (M6)

Guys,

Here is they key to Unit 10!

Sistemas de governos EUA e Inglaterra

 Hello, class! hehehe

Postei aí algumas informações sobre EUA e Inglaterra.

abs,

Lourdes

A forma de governo dos EUA é o presidencialismo, ou seja, o poder de governar está nas mãos do Presidente da República, que pode ser escolhido por voto direto ou indireto, ao contrário do parlamentarismo, que apesar de haver um presidente ou rei, o poder de governar se concentra nas mãos do 1º ministro, que é escolhido por voto indireto, como é o caso da Inglaterra.

EUA

Existem vários partidos políticos registrados e atuantes nos Estados Unidos, porém, o cenário político norte americano é dominado quase que exclusivamente pelos partidos Democrata e Republicano.

O Partido Republicano fundado em 1854 tem como símbolo o elefante. Suas principais Ideologias: Governo limitado (pouca atuação do governo na economia); conservadorismo; pouco investimento em áreas sociais, liberalismo econômico (liberdade de mercado); baixos impostos (principalmente para as indústrias e as classes mais ricas); defesa da moral e dos bons costumes.

 Principais segmentos sociais que apoiam o partido: banqueiros, empresários, norte-americanos de famílias tradicionais e conservadoras, profissionais liberais, empreendedores, profissionais do sistema financeiro, protestantes conservadores, entre outros.

 Últimos presidentes republicanos: Richard Nixon (1969-1974); Gerald Ford (1974-1977); Ronald Reagan (1981-1989); George H. W. Bush, (1989-1993); George W. Bush (2001-2009).

Partido Democrata fundado em 1792 (histórico) e 1828 (moderno) tem o burro como símbolo.

- Ideologias: Participação do Estado nas áreas sociais para garantir as necessidades dos cidadãos; cobrança de altos impostos para os mais ricos; Estado deve regular o mercado para que não ocorra distorções.

- Principais segmentos sociais que apoiam o partido: intelectuais, professores, jornalistas, artistas, trabalhadores sindicalizados, latinos, imigrantes, homossexuais, católicos, judeus, entre outros.

- Últimos presidentes democratas: Harry S. Truman (1945-1953); John F. Kennedy (1961-1963); Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969); Jimmy Carter (1977-1981); Bill Clinton (1993-2001); Barack Obama (desde2009 ).

Outros partidos políticos nos Estados Unidos:  Partido Libertário, Partido da Reforma, Partido Verde, Partido da Constituição, Partido Comunista dos Estados Unidos, Partido dos Cidadãos dos Estados Unidos e  Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores.

Inglaterra

A inglaterra é uma monarquia parlamentarista, a forma de governo é monárquica, o sistema politico é parlamentar. É o único sistema parlamentarista em que o Primeiro Ministro corresponde ao Presidente. O Poder executivo é exercido pelo monarca ou chancelaria do 1º ministro, porque a rainha representa a nação. Lá não se vota no nome e sim no partido. O partido vencedor é que escolhe o 1º Ministro.
A Inglaterra como é uma monarquia parlamentarista se compõem de duas casas representativas. Câmara alta e Câmara dos Comuns. A 1ª também é conhecida como Câmera dos Lordes que é formada pelos elementos escolhidos dentro da nobreza da Inglaterra. Essa Câmara não tem função politica nenhuma; é mais um recinto de reunião. A sua função principal e talvez a única é cuidar das coisas referentes a Dinastia Inglesa. Exemplo: Casamento da Rainha etc.
O poder politico é exercido pela Câmara dos Comuns; cujos membros são eleitos pelo voto partidário. (Partido Liberal, Partido Conservador e Partido Trabalhista).
O voto partidário é o sistema ou tipo eleitoral em que o eleitor não vota em nomes de pessoas mas sim, nomes de partidos.
A Inglaterra é um país democrático porque as pessoas lá votam e participam das decisões do país.
Fontes: Sua Pesquisa .com e  Yahooo

English Accents: Manchester, England, England - Across the Atlantic Sea!

Useful links!

Hi ya!

Here are some useful links for you.
First one is Duolingo. Interesting, especially for beginners, or for those who want to review very basic structures of the language. It doesn't substitute a good teacher, but it's a useful tool for you to use during the week. The site is

www.duolingo.com

The other is for you who want to practice your English with some music. Grab your mouse, your keyboard and go straight to

www.lyricstraining.com

Have fun!

Accents of English: Part II - Australian

Here is the Accent Tag (she explains in the video what an accent tag is). Extra activity: try to figure out what the words are (clue: she says 28 words!). Post the words on the comments!

Accents and words in English (Sotaques e palavras do Inglês): Part I

Dearest students,

This is a very interesting video on English pronunciation. It's nothing technical: just an American boy and an English girl discussing how words are pronounced in America and in the UK. As they say in the video, they don't have a regional accent, so their English is called Standard American/British English. Attention: when we say British, we refer to Great Britain and British Isles, ok?

M1 - Vocabulary List

Hello, everybody!!
As promised, here is the vocabulary list for Units 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Click here.

Task of the week (for M1 and M6)

What do you know of US and UK political systems? How do they work? What are their political parties? What is the voting system like? How is it different from what we have in Brazil? Do some research on the internet and post your findings here, on the blog :)

To inspire you, I put an extract from an article about Margaret Thatcher, who passed away today.

Baroness Thatcher dies: Tributes paid at home and abroad

Memorable moments from Thatcher's arrival at Downing Street, to her departure from it

Continue reading the main story

Baroness Thatcher 1925-2013

• Thatcher: Reaction as it happened
• Obituary
• A life in pictures
• Margaret Thatcher in quotes

Tributes continue to be paid at home and abroad to Baroness Thatcher after her death at the age of 87.

David Cameron said she had been a "great Briton" while US President Barack Obama called her a "great champion of freedom and liberty".

The funeral of the former prime minister is expected to be held next week.

The ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral.

Lady Thatcher, Britain's first female premier, was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and won three successive general elections.

She died "peacefully" after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London.

She will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

The union jack above Number 10 Downing Street has been lowered to half-mast while Parliament will be recalled from its Easter recess on Wednesday to enable MPs to pay tributes.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

In an era in which politicians are all too often greeted with indifference, it is easy to forget that Britain was once led by a woman who inspired passion - both love and loathing.”

Nick RobinsonPolitical editor

• Read more from Nick

Obama tribute

After cutting short a trip to Europe to return to London, Mr Cameron described Lady Thatcher as "the patriot prime minister" and the country's "greatest peacetime" leader.

While acknowledging that she had "divided opinion", Mr Cameron said she had "taken a country that was on its knees and made it stand tall again.

"Margaret Thatcher loved this country and served it with all she had," he said. "For that she has her well-earned place in history - and the enduring respect and gratitude of the British people."

Continue reading the main story

LIFE OF MARGARET THATCHER

• 13 October 1925 - Born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire
• 1951 - Married businessman Denis Thatcher
• 1959 - Becomes MP for Finchley
• 1970 - Made minister for education
• 1975 - Elected Conservative leader
• 1979 - Becomes UK's first female prime minister
• 1982 - Falklands War
• 1983 - Elected prime minister for second time
• 1984 - Survives Grand Hotel bombing
• 1984-5 - Takes on unions in Miners' Strike
• 1987 - Wins third term in Downing Street
• 1990 - Resigns as prime minister
• 1992 - Stands down as MP and accepts peerage
• 2002 - Retires from public speaking
• 8 April 2013 - Dies after suffering a stroke

• Beginner's guide to Mrs Thatcher

Her other successors in No 10 - Sir John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - paid tribute to her strength of character and political purpose while Labour leader Ed Miliband said Lady Thatcher had been a "unique figure" who "reshaped the politics of a whole generation"

But critics questioned the economic and social impact of her policies, ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock saying her economic policies had been an "unmitigated disaster for Britain" at the time.

Among international reaction, US President Barack Obama said "America has lost a true friend", while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "never forget her part in surmounting the division of Europe and at the end of the Cold War".

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Lady Thatcher - who had suffered poor health for several years - would always be a divisive politician but one who inspired "passion" among her critics and supporters.

Her government privatised state-owned industries and was involved in a stand-off with unions during the Miners' Strike of 1984-5.

She was in power when the UK fought a war following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 but during her later years in office became associated with Euroscepticism and was increasingly at odds with other senior figures in the Conservative Party.

For more information, please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22074250

Series and phrases.

Hello everybody!

Do you like series?

I hope so.

Don't trust the b**** in the apartament 23

2 Broke Girls

 Revenge (my favorite show!)

 Gilmore Girls

 Game of Thrones

 Bones

Skins

Have a nice week  =)

M6 - Workbook pages 70 and 71

Get here the key to your homework.

The first mobile phone call was made 40 years ago

  Hi, Guys!

 

Today mobile

phone call was made 40 years ago!!

Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival colleague at another telecoms company and announced he was speaking from "a 'real' cell telephone",on 3 April 1973.

Link the interview:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22020666

  

    

The DynaTAC 8000X, Motorola's first commercial  

handheld cellular phone, was launched in 1983 

Have a look at this!

http://educacao.uol.com.br/noticias/2013/03/25/na-escola-ou-sozinho-estudo-de-idioma-requer-dedicacao-e-disciplina.htm?cmpid=cgp-educacao-news

Extra task (for M6 students)

You should do this every day, if possible.

Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/ and choose a topic of your preference, something you enjoy reading about. Actually, I'd rather you choose a piece of news with a video, that way you practice reading AND listening. If you want to go further (with a little bit more time and patience), try and transcribe the video. I used to do that when I was a student, it really worked for me. You can give it a try. That's it, folks: learning a new language involves hard work, training, too.

All the best!

M1 Homework key

Here are the answers of the homework up to now

Workbook pages 2 and 3
Workbook pages 4 and 5

ATTENTION!! For next class our homework is workbook pages 6 and 7!!

M6 Homework key

Here are they answers of the homework up to now

WB pages 66 and 67

WB pages 68 and 69 

Help!

Hi, guys!

I know it's very late at night (yeah, I'm sort of a night owl), but I still need help to configure this blog. Does anybody know how to make menus and submenus? Otherwise, M1 and M6 groups' activities will all be mixed in the home page.

Tradução (se realmente não entendeu o que está escrito acima, passe o mouse no espaço abaixo):
Eu sei que está tarde (eu sou uma pessoa noturna), mas ainda preciso de ajuda para configurar este blog. Alguém sabe como fazer menus e submenus? Se não, as atividades das turmas de M1 e M6 ficarão todas misturadas na página inicial.

Enjoy some English music!

I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear

I like my toast done on one side
And you can hear it in my accent when I talk
I'm an Englishman in New York

See me walking down Fifth Avenue
A walking cane here at my side
I take it everywhere I walk
I'm an Englishman in New York

whoa I'm an alien
I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York
whoa I'm an alien
I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York

If "manners maketh man" as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say

whoa I'm an alien
I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York
whoa I'm an alien
I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York

Modesty, propriety can lead to notoriety
You could end up as the only one
Gentleness, sobriety are rare in this society
At night a candle's brighter than the sun

Takes more than combat gear to make a man
Takes more than license for a gun
Confront your enemies, avoid them when you can
A gentleman will walk but never run

If "manners maketh man" as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Be yourself no matter what they say
Be yourself no matter what they say

(Be yourself no matter what they say 9x)
"whoa I'm an alien
I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York 4x"