HALLOWEEN

I. Listen to the podcast: Audio Lesson 18- Halloween Message, and answer the following questions (the answers are in "comments").
1. What comes to his mind when he thinks of Halloween?
2. He used to dressed up as a _______________ or as a _______________.
3. After trick or treating what did he and his brother compare and why?
4. How long did candy last?
5. Complete this list of things related to Halloween that he mentions:
Candy, _______________, Jack-O-Lanterns, black cats, _______________, ghouls, goblins, hyenas, _______________, werewolves, _______________ _______________, bats, vampires, Frankestein, _______________, screams and the famous _______________ _______________ _______________.
6. Why does he apologize?
7. What seems to be the problem?
8. What’s his message?

II. Watch the video and choose the best answer for the following questions (the answers are in "comments").
1. Mr. Burns asks Smithers (his loyal employee) to:
a) take down Halloween decoration
b) put up Halloween decoration
c) throw away the bat that is his Halloween decoration

2. Bart and Lisa say that their neighbour Flanders gave them:
a) candy
b) cakes
c) mini-toothpaste

3. According to Homer "ethnictown" is
a) the place where hardworking immigrants dream of becoming lazy and overfed Americans
b) the place where you can listen to ethnic serenades
c) the place where you can find lazy and overfed immigrants

4. What do the immigrants sell?
a)
b)
c)

5. What does the fortune teller ask Marge?

6. Homer thinks the fortune teller is
a) a hospitable gypsy
b) someone who wants to rip them off*
c) a fake witch

7. What's the fortune teller's curse?


8. What does Marge think is happening the following day?


9. What does Moe tell Homer he needs to get rid of the curse?
a) a troll
b) another gypsy
c) a leprechaun*

10. What is Homer going to use as a bait to get one?
a) lucky charms*
b) lucky cookies
c) lucky rabbits

Glossary:
to rip somebody off: to cheat someone, especially by charging them too much money for something
leprechaun: in traditional Irish stories, a small man believed to have magic powers
lucky charms: something that people believe brings them luck.

III. Read, listen and complete this Halloween story.

IV. If you like Halloween films this is the quiz for you.

V. Listen to this horror story and answer the questions (answers in "comments").

Don’t turn on the light
1. Why didn’t she go to bed that night?
2. What did she do at midnight?
3. Why did she go to her bedroom at 2 o’clock in the morning?
4. When she opened the door carefully not to wake up Jenna (her roommate) the room was filled with___________________________________________?
5. How did she feel and what did she think of it?
6. Jenna was breathing heavily as if she ________________________________________ and she thought Jenna had ________________________________.
7. She could also hear a steady drip sound and she thought it came from_________________________________________________. She left the room quietly.
8. When did she decide to stop studying and why?
9. What was the scene her eyes registered when he opened her bedroom door?
10. What did she read on the wall?

Laughter yoga clubs

Watch the creator of laughter yoga clubs explaining what laughter yoga is.



Watch this news report about laughter yoga.

Pronunciation of -ed endings

Watch this video in which an American teacher explains how to pronounce -ed endings.

Do this exercise.

Oral exam stress

1. Listen to two friends talking about how to beat stress before an oral exam and do the comprehension activities.

2. Read an article giving some extra information about the same topic and do some comprehension activities too.

Daily situation: bad phone reception

You can practise pronunciation listening and repeating short conversations like this one.

TV series

Do you like watching TV series? Why not in English? Here you have some examples. Websites like seriesyonkis offer you subtitles, but not all the episodes are in English.

Dexter A serial killer who works for the police.

The IT Crowd A comedy about computer experts (select the option in English with Spanish subtitles).

Desperate Housewives Life in an American suburb.

Famous people

Listen and take notes. Then listen and read the text and check your notes. Do the online activities.

Mobile phones

Listen to a man talking about mobile phones and take some notes.
When you read the article, you can double click on words to check their meaning and the phonemic transcription on a dictionary and you also have a comprehension activity.

-ed / -ing adjectives

Read the grammar explanation for adjectives ending in –ed and adjectives ending in –ing.

PRONUNCIATION

Problems with pronunciation? You don't know the sounds or how to make them? Have a look at this website where they offer you videos, quizzes... Watch the introduction video and then go to the link that interests you most.

BEAR

Listen to the podcast without reading it and take some notes. Then, listen and read to check your notes and finally, try the quiz.

So do I (practice)

A quick exercise to review the use of 'so do I'.

Listen and write

On this website you can listen and then do a dictation.
First listen to the whole text at once. Then you click to play the dictation and start writing. When your word is right it will appear and if the option auto repeat is on, you will listen to the same track once and again until you finish writing it. After that, go to the following track.
If you can't guess the word, click on hint and you'll get some help.
The story I have chosen is a news story from VOA News and it has a 10 level.
There's another option that allows you to complete sentences instead of writing everything down. Try clicking where it says 'To word'.
Try it!!


I'd like to thank Nik Peachey for his great websites!

Remember vocabulary

This is a way to help you record, remember and build up your vocabulary. To do this we are going to use a simple tool called Bubbl.us which you can use to create 'mind maps' or what some people call 'spidergrams' or 'vocabulary webs'.These are graphs which show relationships. They are very useful tools to help you think about and arrange words or ideas as well as to show the relationship between those ideas or words. we are going to use them today to help us look at relationships between words and help us remember them.
Task:
To get started go to: http://www.bubbl.us/ and click on 'Start Brainstorming'
You will then see a bubble in the centre of the page that says 'Start here' click on it and enter the theme for your first 'vocabulary web'. For example you can use the topic of 'Weekend activities'. Click on 'Start here' and replace the text with the word 'Weekend' then pres enter. Another bubble will appear below it.
Click on the next bubble and add a weekend activity, e.g. 'have a lie-in', then click back on the word 'weekend' and press enter again, you should get a second bubble, add another weekend activity in this bubble. Keep adding and building up words around the central theme. You can drag the words to arrange them.
Once you have 5 or 6 words around your central three start to add words that are connected to each weekend activity. Again, you do this by clicking on the word and pressing enter on your keyboard
You can then add words that are connected with each of those words. Keep adding as many words as you can.
Once you have added as many words as you can, click on 'Save'. You will then have to create a free account.
You will need to create a user name and password and have an email address.

Once you have created an account you can save your vocabulary web, give it a name and start creating more on different themes. You can go back and click 'Load' to see the vocabulary maps you have created and add new words as you learn them.This is a great way to remember, review and extend your vocabulary and it can help you to build up your own theme related dictionary.

Learn to pronounce words

You can use this website to check pronunciation.

So do I

Listen to the teacher (lesson 40) explaining the use of "so do I" and other expressions to show agreement or disagreement.

Olympic decision

Have a look at how the final decision about the 2016 Olympic Games took place. Watch some videos and listen to different people speaking for their cities.