Παρασκευή 31 Μαΐου 2013

UK news

This week's UK news: 30 May 2013

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Problems for old trains

In the UK we have around 200 historic railways. These are little sections of track, usually in the countryside, with old-fashioned stations. The trains running on the historic railways are usually old steam trains, which are powered by coal.
The heritage railways are very popular with train enthusiasts and families on days out. But there is a potential problem with the trains this year. This is because half of the UK's remaining suppliers of coal have closed in the past few months. Paul Lewin, who works in the industry, says the situation is so bad that some railways may have to close altogether and others are considering running old diesel trains instead. Part of the problem is that the coal shortage means prices are rising.

Race has to use fake cheese

A historic cheese race in Gloucestershire went ahead this week with contestants chasing a plastic cheese.
The race, in which contestants chase a round cheese down a very steep hill, has been held for more than 200 years. There were many injuries, though, and 2009 was the last year in which the race was held officially. Now it happens without insurance or medical cover.
For the last 25 years an 86-year-old cheesemaker has supplied the race with five eight-pound round cheeses. This year she says police warned her not to give any cheeses to the race. The men's race was won by Kenny Rackers from the US.

Cambridge University exam problem

Second year natural sciences students at Cambridge University had a real problem with their end of year exams. Two physics problems had vital information missing. This meant it was impossible to calculate the answers.
At least 300 students sat the exam, and a large number attempted at least one of the faulty questions. After an hour, one student realised the mistake and explained it to examiners, who gave extra time to complete the paper. Another student said: "All I can say is thank you to the genius who had enough brains and courage to realise the mistake and point it out to the examiner."
The university says it will make sure that no-one taking the paper loses out because of the mistake.

400-year-old sailors star in new museum

The Mary Rose was the English King Henry VIII's favourite ship. The ship sank in front of the King near Portsmouth 468 years ago. In 1982 the remains of the wooden warship, and its contents, were raised from the seabed. Since then the wooden ship has been sprayed constantly with a special liquid to preserve it.
Now the sprays have been switched off and the ship, and everything which was on it, are in a specially built new museum in Portsmouth. Several of the skeletons found on board have also been analysed so that visitors can see what some of the crew were like. Most were strong and short with bad teeth. They include the cook, who was called Ny Cop, and the huge 350 litre pot in which he cooked for everyone on the ship.

( http://www.englishuk.com/en/students/news-events?newsId=839)

Πέμπτη 30 Μαΐου 2013

A GREEK RECIPE: WALNUT PIE

Greek Walnut Pie<span class='title_artist'> by Rachel Pierce</span>

5 English Phrases and 10 Idioms for Complaining About Your Job

5 English Phrases and 10 Idioms for Complaining About Your Job | Espresso English

READING ONLINE

RepeatAfterUs.com -- Online library and language lab -- copyright-free English texts and recordings:

Created by a high school student, RepeatAfterUs is an award-winning online library with the best collection of copyright-free English texts and scripted recordings. Our free audio clips provide an excellent resource for students and literature lovers of all ages.

Self-Study English Grammar Quizzes

Self-Study English Grammar Quizzes (ESL, EFL)
Online interactive quizzes including pronouns, sentence structure, and more. Follow links to other activities.

Learn English with Pictures and Audio

Learn English with Pictures and Audio:

As the title suggests, this site is a dictionary of nouns, images, and audio pronunciations. Browse in alphabetical order.
When viewing pictures, click on thumbnails to enlarge.
To hear the word, click on the audio button

English Grammar Tests for ESL Students

English Grammar Tests for ESL Students - English Grammar Practice Quizzes:

A good place to practice and improve your knowledge of English grammar. Many of these quizzes focus on topics that ESL students often find difficult to understand. The quizzes come in three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The topics covered include verb tenses, phrasal verbs, articles, prepositions, noun clauses, and much more. Start practicing English right now!

Read Book Online Free in PDF :H G Wells The Country of the Blind

wells_blind.pdf

I Love the 1960s

BBC - Cult - I Love the 1960s
1961

News Of The Day- Liberace film watched by 2.4 million in US

BBC News - Liberace film watched by 2.4 million in US
Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Behind the Candelabra

The Simpsons - Quizzes and Fun

BBC - Cult - The Simpsons - Quizzes and Fun

2000AD and British Comics

BBC Cult presents: 2000AD and British Comics

INFINITIVES

SIMPLE VERBS (FOR YOUNG LEARNERS)

MY FACE (VOCABULARY FOR YOUNG LEARNERS)

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is the world's most famous detective. His adventures, written over a hundred years ago, are still widely read today and have been translated into many languages.
About Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes was created by the British author and former doctor, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), who once explained that the character was based on real doctors he had known when he was a medical student in Edinburgh in the late 1870s.

Holmes lives in a flat in Baker Street, London, which he shares with his friend, Dr Watson. He works because he enjoys solving mysteries rather than for money and only investigates cases that he thinks are interesting.

Holmes is known for his powers of logical reasoning, his ability to use disguises and his forensic skills. But he is a personality with many contradictions. When he is working on a case, he has great energy and is extremely methodical. However, in his private life he is untidy and gets bored easily.
tobacco, which he keeps in the end of an old slipper, occasionally uses drugs and rarely answers his letters.

Holmes is an expert in certain fields related to his detective work but completely ignorant about many other things. He once claimed that he didn’t know the earth moved around the sun because it wasn’t relevant to his work. He also plays the violin and is an expert at boxing and sword fighting.

As a person, Holmes often seems to lack feelings, ‘a thinking machine’, but he likes to show off his skills and is happy when he can solve a case that has defeated everybody else. He is a loner and has no social life or any interest in women. The only woman he admires is Irene Adler, because she shows herself to be cleverer than him. (See A Scandal in Bohemia.) However, there is no evidence that he is gay.

from:http://www.englishreaders.org/sherlock_holmes.php#

- Listen & Read:THE MEMOIRES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories From the Reminiscences of Dr. John Watson
As Recorded by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Read by John Telfer
http://esl-bits.net/Sherlock.Holmes/Sherlock.Holmes.html

READ : http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/index.shtml

-Lesson plans for the stories of Sherlock Holmes

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/doyle.html

- THE ULTIMATE SHERLOCK HOLMS PAGE:Sherlockian.Net
The web portal about the Great Detective

-http://www.siracd.com/

This site is devoted to the life and work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Here you'll find information about Sherlock Holmes, The Lost World and Conan Doyle's other writing. You'll also learn about his time as a ship's surgeon, his tangled love life, his troubled father and other aspects of his interesting life. This site is also home to the largest collection of Conan Doyle quotations anywhere.

VISIT THE SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM

Investigate into the life and time of Sherlock Holmes and his creator A.C.Doyle

:http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/home.htm

English Exercises: SHERLOCK HOLMES 2

AND NOW WATCH A BBC EPISODE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

American Food/ British food

American Food - YouTube

50 Most Popular Idioms & Expressions

50 Most Popular Idioms & Expressions - EnglishCentral.com

Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and Adverbs | Grammar Rules: Definitions:

Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns. They may come before the word they describe (That is a cute puppy.) or they may follow the word they describe (That puppy is cute.).

Adverbs are words that modify everything but nouns and pronouns. They modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs. A word is an adverb if it answers how, when, or where.

The only adverbs that cause grammatical problems are those that answer the question how, so focus on these.

USAGE OF MOST / MOST OF

Most

Most is the superlative of much and many.

Most people enjoy watching a good movie.

When most has the superlative meaning, we use the before it.

Those who have the most money are not always the happiest.
He won the most votes in the election.

However, the can be dropped when most simply means the majority of.

Most children love toys.
Most people love children.

Before a pronoun, a geographical name or a noun with a determiner, we use most of.

We had done most of the work before lunchtime.
Most of my friends live abroad.
Most of us don't own cars.
Most of Egypt is barren.
She does most of her writing at home.

We use most before a noun or a noun phrase without a determiner.

Most children love chocolates.
Most people enjoy watching a good movie.
He won the most seats in the election.

Points to be noted

- Use most to refer to a quantity of an unspecific group. We use most when we are speaking in general and do not have a specific group of people or things in mind.
Most students ask questions.

- Use most of the X to refer to a quantity of a specific group. Note the expression includes a phrase defining the number to a specific group.

Most of the students in my English class ask questions.
(most - specific to those who are in my English class)

- Most is the superlative of much. In comparisons when most has a superlative meaning we normally use it with the.

This is the most expensive suit I have ever bought.
This is the most difficult phase in my life.

However, the can be dropped when there is no idea of comparison.

Most people enjoy watching a good movie. FROM:http://www.perfectyourenglish.com

HOW TO WRITE PERFECT PARAGRAPHS

Paragraphs
It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how various parts of the paragraph are connected. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signalling words
("Signal words" give hints about what is about to happen in what you're reading. Understanding them is a key to comprehension. They help you to put in the correct tense. You can easily put in the correct form of the verb if you know the signal word and which tense it demands.)

signal word	tense
every ... (day)	Simple Present
sometimes
often
usually
seldom
now	Present Progressive
at the moment
Look!
Listen!
last ...	Simple Past
... ago
yesterday
in 1990
yet	Present Perfect
ever
already
so far
up to now

LASTLY / FINALLY / AT LAST

So the process is discover, design, implement, and lastly, review. Any questions? We use ‘lastly’ to introduce the final item in a list. All right? You let that cook for five minutes. You add the milk, the salt and pepper and lastly, the parsley. Got it? Err… One more time? We can use ‘finally’ to introduce a final item in the same way. Are there any more questions? No. Then finally, I’d just like to thank everyone for coming. We also use ‘finally’ when something has taken a long time, or there’s been a delay. No buses. How long have we been waiting? About ten minutes, I think. Oh look! I think one’s finally coming. Oh good. When it’s something we’re glad about, we use ‘at last’ like this too, but not ‘lastly’. No buses. A bus is coming at last. So use ‘lastly’ and ‘finally’ for the final item in a list. Use ‘finally’ and ‘at last’ when there’s a delay, or something has gone on for a long time. Wow! Home at last. What a long trip!

WATCH MORE VIDEOS HERE: http://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/language/

Lastly or finally
A reader writes:

Can you write about lastly versus finally?

Yes, I can. And here is what I have to say:
Never use the word, ‘lastly.’
That was easy, but I bet that is not what the reader had in mind. So, I’ll address the issues that I suspect the writer is thinking about, however, I will come back to my original exhortation.
‘Lastly’ refers to the final item or action of a series of items or actions.

After watching the snow all day, I spent some time shoveling my steps. Lastly, I cleared off the porch.

This is the only way ‘lastly’ is properly used.
‘Finally,’ on the other hand, is much more versatile. Finally can be used like ‘lastly,’ above.

After watching the snow all day, I spent some time shoveling my steps. Finally, I cleared off the porch.

But ‘finally’ can also mean ‘eventually’ or ‘at last.’

It was quiet all day, but finally, I heard the sound of a snow plow off in the distance.

‘Finally’ can mean ‘in the end.’

Finally, all that was left was snow and ice.

‘Finally’ can also mean ‘conclusively.’

Just how many inches of snow have fallen has not been finally determined.

But why did I start off by saying: Never use the word, ‘lastly.’
That’s simple. I think ‘lastly’ is unwieldy and awkward. I was going to say it is ugly, but then I saw that someone described it as ‘stylistically unattractive,’ and I guess I’ll go with that. ‘Lastly’ is terribly stylistically unattractive. I would say ‘finally’ or ‘last’ instead. I would not use firstly, secondly, thirdly, or fourthly for the same reason. It is simpler and cleaner to use first, second, third, and fourth. Besides, how far would you go with this? At what number is it no longer acceptable to add an ‘ly’? For me, this starts at first and never changes.
(from : http://languagetips.wordpress.com/)