Halloween

Watch some videos about Halloween in a great website. Don't forget to have a look at old posts about Halloween (festivities), there are horror stories and information about the holiday.

1.How Halloween came to be.
2. The legend of Jack-O-Lantern.
3. A Halloween party.
4. Spooky Travel Destinations

Reverse Culture Shock

Cultural Diversity

Watch the video in which an expert gives important tips for communicating successfully with people from different cultures. Answer the questions or complete the sentences (key in 'comments').

1. What is cultural diversity?
2. How is not giving eye contact considered in some cultures?
3. What does eye contact mean in other cultures?
4. According to the expert cultural diversity covers differences in relation to: ____________ , attitude, ____________, beliefs, ____________ and status.
5. What’s the first tip?
6. What can leaning back mean?
7. What is not important in India? Why?
8. How do people communicate in…

-          Northern Europe?

-          Italy?

-          Japan?

-          India?

9. What’s the last tip?
10. How long is the answer to ‘how are you?’ in the UK? How long is it in other countries?
11. In summary, cultural diversity is about acknowledging ____________ and ____________ them.

Used to / Be used to / Get used to

1. Read the grammar explanation and do the exercise.

2. Another four activities.

World without End mini-series

Victor Blackwell talks to best selling author Ken Follett about his epic 8-hour miniseries “World without End.” Watch the interview and decide if the following statements are True or False. Correct the false ones. (answers in ‘comments’)

1.    Initially Ken Follet’s big hits were thrillers.

2.    He was never interested in cathedral building and the society that built those cathedrals.

3.    Some people were sure he would succeed with a novel about building a church set in the Middle Ages.

4.    “World without End”, the second part of “The Pillars of the Earth” takes place 100 years after the first one.

5.    Ken finds handing over a novel for a mini-series terrifying because he works really hard to write interesting novels with logical plots and then you give them to people to mess them about.

6.    “World without End” took him 3 years and 3 months to write.

7.    He didn’t like “The Pillars of the Earth” mini-series.

8.    He’s been asked to do a performance in “World without End”.

This mini-series will be on at channel four on Tuesday evenings. Remember you can watch it in English!

Get the latest news

Why don't you get up-to-date news and learn English at the same time? Here you've got some websites which can help you with that.

1. English Club: you can listen to the news and you have some exercises and vocabulary.

2. CNN Student News: you can read the script.

3. Breaking News English: a whole lesson plan with lots of activities for each piece of news. Look at the activities before listening.

Catching a movie

Listen to a Canadian podcast about going to the movies. Follow the instructions to make the most of it.

Felix Baumgartner reached an estimated speed of 1,342.8 km/h or 834.4 mph(Mach 1.24) jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall and set several other records while delivering valuable data for future space exploration.

I. Watch this interview with him before jumping and answer the questions or complete the sentences (key in 'comments').





1. What’s the most dangerous part of the mission?
2. What’s the scariest part?
3. In order to get so high, he needs a helium _________________ and a _________________ capsule. It takes about _________________   _________________ to go to altitude. He depressurizes the _________________. He_________________ out. He says a _________________     _________________ and he _________________ off.
4. What do you need to survive a dead altitude?
5. How long will oxygen last after he disconnects from the capsule?
6. What does his family think of his job?
7. Why is his mother a little bit more confident now?

II. Watch him now after the jump and see how he describes his record-breaking skydive. Answer the questions or complete the sentences (key in 'comments').

1. Who does he thank first?
2. What did he want when he was on top of the world?
3. What has the experience made him understand?
4. He thought he was in trouble but he decided not to push the manual button so that he could...
5. Did he feel anything?
6. Why meeting Mike Todd at the landing area was the most beautiful moment?
7. What does he want?
8. How does he describe the experience?

The Media

Kerri talks about where she gets her news and info to keep in touch with the world. Look at the vocabulary. Listen and answer the comprehension questions and finally have a look at the script.

Are you a couch potato?

Listen to Peter Carter and watch the video, then play the game.

What's on the box?

Vocabulary:

1. Here's a list of English words for some popular types of TV genres and a quiz.
2. Another quiz with TV/Radio related terms/expressions.
3. More expressions related to TV and radio programmes.



Listenings:

1. Listen and learn about everyone's choice in TV.
2. Is TV a good or a bad thing? Listen to six people talking about it.
3. Listen to a couple discussing what to watch on TV. You can listen and read the script and learn some vocabulary as well.
4. Listen to the article about reality television and take notes (don't look at the script). Listen and read to check your notes.

Everybody wants to learn English

Watch this funny video and answer the questions (see 'key' in 'comments').

1. What course does she want to register for?
2. Why does the secretary find it strange?
3. Why does she say she needs the course?
4. Why does she say it can benefit her and other people?
5. What does the secretary suggest her to do?
6. Why doesn’t she want to?
7. What does she say about ‘Teaching as a Foreign Language’?
8. What does the woman finally ask?
9. What does the secretary finally do?