Past Simple

Try this interactive book to practise how to write and read a date and how to talk about the past.

Enjoy it.

Sources:http://chagall-col.spip.ac-rouen.fr/IMG/didapages/pastsimple/index.html
http://englishelxnb1.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/past-simple-regular-and-irregular-verbs/

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

Source: YouTube

Shakira's Speech at Oxford Union

December 7, 2009 - Shakira spoke about the work of her charity, Barefoot Foundation, at Oxford University's world-famous Oxford Union.

The Oxford Union is a debating, educational, and social society, membership of which is open to all matriculated members of Oxford University (and many other notable educational establishments). Over the years countless actors, writers, film stars, musicians, celebrities and politicians have spoken there. These past guests of The Oxford Union include the Dalai Lama, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, Presidents Nixon, Carter and Reagan, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Michael Jackson, Jon Bon Jovi and Albert Einstein to name just a few.




It's fabulous. You'll love it.

Source: YouTube

Women's History Month

In the United States, March has been a time for celebrating women's lives and achievements since 1987.



Watch more videos related to this topic: http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history-month

HISTORY BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Nuclear disaster in Japan

Crippled by last week's earthquake and tsunami, Japan now faces a nuclear crisis that may rank among history's worst.



Watch more videos related to this topic: http://www.history.com/topics/historys-worst-nuclear-disasters

Happy St. Patrick's Day

How to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day Like an Irishman

A funny video to know how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day like an Irishman.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years. On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

Watch some interesting videos.

History of St. Patrick's Day




Ireland: Deconstructed




NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade



Corned Beef and Cabbage




St Patrick



Green



Leprechauns



Source: http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

Mona Lisa Smile

Mona Lisa Smile is a real mirror of the period (1950’s) and a tribute to the Wellesley women who were the pioneers in terms of going out and forging paths and shoving their way into businesses that didn't want them. They were the generation who went out into the world and made a change."

At the Wellesley library, there was a photo from a 1956 issue of The Wellesley News that seemed to encapsulate the dilemma facing women of the era. It was a snapshot of a young woman in a smart dress and pearls with a frying pan in one hand and a book in the other. The headline was something like 'Survey Shows Married Women Make the Best Students'. What a mixed message. On the one hand, the school boasted that its academic standards for women were on a par with male institutions like Harvard. But there was a P.S.: 'A woman's main purpose in life is still to get married.'

Thematically that's really the heart of the movie. It's about what we see on the surface - of society, of these women's lives - and what's really going on underneath. Each of the female characters presents a facade, but as soon as we think we have them pegged, they surprise us, even Katherine.

In addition, we think the Mona Lisa works as an icon for women. Most people giggle when they see it. They know it's very expensive and valuable, more something to own than to understand. And that's exactly what Katherine is trying to warn her students against - being turned into a 'pretty, valuable object' on some corporate executive's arm, an expensive piece of property.

You can submit your own story. (Click here)

In the film, Katherine Watson brings to her class not just a new way of seeing things, but an inspiration to seek out whole new modes of perceiving the worls – and one’s place in it. The quest for new ways of seeing can begin anywhere, with any inspiring person. This page is an opportunity for you to write about someone who inspired you to find new ways of seeing the world. You can use anyone who affected you – someone close to you, someone you read about, or someone you may have known from a distance. Artists, scientists, singers, politicians, or even your parents, anyone you feel has helped you forge your own art of living.

Official website:

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/monalisasmile/title-navigation-1.html

Enjoy it!

Shrove Tuesday/ Pancake Day

Today is Shrove Tuesday/ Pancake Day when traditionally pancakes were made on the last day before the beginning of Lent and fasting, using up the sugar, fat and eggs more associated with festive times.
Shrove Tuesday is the term used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia to refer to the day after Shrove Monday (or the more old fashioned Collop Monday) and before Ash Wednesday (the liturgical season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday). In these countries, particularly Ireland, and amongst Anglicans, Lutherans and possibly other protestant denominations in Canada, this day is also known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday, because it is customary to eat pancakes on this day. In other parts of the world—for example, in historically Catholic and French-speaking parts of the United States and elsewhere—this day is called Mardi Gras. In areas with large Polish-immigrant populations (for example, Chicago and Detroit) it is known as Paczki Day. And in areas with large German-immigrant populations (for example, Pennsylvania Dutch Country) it is known as Fasnacht Day or Fauschnaut Day.

The French also have a festival associated with pancakes (crêpes) which is held on February 2 each year. This festival is called Chandeleur and is a celebration of light (the name is derived from the word "chandelle" which also gave the English word "candle". The festival is known as Candlemas in English). It is thought that pancakes are associated to this celebration because of the solar symbolic of their shape and color. A traditional food for Mardi Gras are sweet fried dumplings, cenci, usually served in the shape of a loose knot (a 5cm wide, 20cm long strip of dough one extremity of which is passed through a slit in its middle.) In New Orleans the traditional food is king cake.

The reason that pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent is that the 40 days of Lent form a period of liturgical fasting, during which only the plainest foodstuffs may be eaten. Therefore, rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar are disposed of immediately prior to the commencement of the fast. Pancakes and doughnuts were therefore an efficient way of using up these perishable goods, besides providing a minor celebratory feast prior to the fast itself.

The word shrove is a past tense of the English verb "shrive," which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by confessing and doing penance. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the shriving (confession) that Anglo-Saxon Christians were expected to receive immediately before Lent.

Shrove Tuesday is the last day of "shrovetide," which is the English equivalent to the Carnival tradition that developed separately out of the countries of Latin Europe. In countries of the Carnival tradition, the day before Ash Wednesday is known either as the "Tuesday of Carnival" (in Spanish-speaking countries, "Martes de Carnaval," in Portuguese-speaking countries, "Terça-feira de Carnaval", in German "Faschingsdienstag") or "Fat Tuesday" (in Portuguese-speaking countries "Terça-feira Gorda", in French-speaking countries, "Mardi Gras," in Italian-speaking countries, "Martedì Grasso").

The term "Shrove Tuesday" is not widely known in the United States[9][10], especially in those regions that celebrate Mardi Gras on the day before Ash Wednesday.

An ITV reporter getting people in the street to toss a pancake. Armed with a frying pan and a warm pancake, he went on the search for the best pancake tossing techniques.



How to make a pancake in 55 seconds.



Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) 20th February 2007 at All Saints Church, Rectory Green, Easton, Portland, Dorset.
Pancake Races.

On Pancake Day, pancake races are held in villages and towns across the United Kingdom. In 1634 William Fennor wrote in his Palinodia: "And tosse their Pancakes up for feare they burne."

But the tradition of pancake racing had started long before that. The most famous pancake race, at Olney in Buckinghamshire, has been held since 1445. The contestants, traditionally women, carry a frying pan (skillet) and race to the finishing line tossing the pancakes as they go. As the pancakes are thin, some skill is required to toss them successfully while running. The winner is the first to cross the line having tossed the pancake a certain number of times.



Maid Marian pancake day + song



Enjoy them!

Thanks to Elspeth.

Join me on the Bridge global campaign

Women for Women International celebrates the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day by Joining on the Bridge. Watch the promotional video from the 2010 campaign:



Find out more: http://www.womenforwomen.org

It's not too late to make a difference this International Women's Day!

International Women's Day 2011

The centenary of International Women’s day takes place on Tuesday 8th March 2011.
Every year thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. A global web of rich and diverse local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women’s craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.
The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother’s Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.
Many global corporations have also started to more actively support IWD by running their own internal events and through supporting external ones. For example, on 8 March search engine and media giant Google some years even changes its logo on its global search pages. Year on year IWD is certainly increasing in status. The United States even designates the whole month of March as ‘Women’s History Month’.
There are over 192 events happening throughout North America to celebrate International Women’s Day.

So make a difference, think globally and act locally!
Make everyday International Women’s Day.
Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding.



Source: http://owanorthamerica.com/2011/03/02/international-womens-day-2011/

International Women's Day

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. In ancient Greece, Lysistrata initiated a sexual strike against men in order to end war; during the French Revolution, Parisian women calling for "liberty, equality, fraternity" marched on Versailles to demand women's suffrage.

The idea of an International Women's Day first arose at the turn of the century, which in the industrialized world was a period of expansion and turbulence, booming population growth and radical ideologies. Following is a brief chronology of the most important events:

1909

In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate it on the last Sunday of that month through 1913.

1910

The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to assist in achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

1911

As a result of the decision taken at Copenhagen the previous year, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded the right to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

Less than a week later, on 25 March, the tragic Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working girls, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This event had a significant impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day.

1913-1914

As part of the peace movement brewing on the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.

1917

With 2 million Russian soldiers dead in the war, Russian women again chose the last Sunday in February to strike for "bread and peace". Political leaders opposed the timing of the strike, but the women went on anyway. The rest is history: Four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. That historic Sunday fell on 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia, but on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere.

Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point for coordinated efforts to demand women's rights and participation in the political and economic process. Increasingly, International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women's rights.

The Role of the United Nations

Few causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more intense and widespread support than the campaign to promote and protect the equal rights of women. The Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945, was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Since then, the Organization has helped create a historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

Over the years, United Nations action for the advancement of women has taken four clear directions: promotion of legal measures; mobilization of public opinion and international action; training and research, including the compilation of gender desegregated statistics; and direct assistance to disadvantaged groups. Today a central organizing principle of the work of the United Nations is that no enduring solution to society's most threatening social, economic and political problems can be found without the full participation, and the full empowerment, of the world's women.

Each year around the world, International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. Hundreds of events occur not just on this day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women.

Organisations, governments and women's groups around the world choose different themes each year that reflect global and local gender issues.

Below are some of the global United Nation themes used for International Women's Day to date:

- 2011: Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women
- 2010: Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all
- 2009: Women and men united to end violence against women and girls
- 2008: Investing in Women and Girls
- 2007: Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls
- 2006: Women in decision-making
- 2005: Gender Equality Beyond 2005: Building a More Secure Future
- 2004: Women and HIV/AIDS
- 2003: Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
- 2002: Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities
- 2001: Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflicts
- 2000: Women Uniting for Peace
- 1999: World Free of Violence against Women
- 1998: Women and Human Rights
- 1997: Women at the Peace Table
- 1996: Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future
- 1975: First IWD celebrated by the United Nations

Click here to know more about International Women's Day.

ESL LISTENING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

Movie Clips (click here to watch the clips)

Learning through media (movies, music, etc.) is one of the best ways to learn a new language. The clips in this website will improve your listening comprehension skills, helping you to learn and practice English as spoken by normal people every day! These particular clips are from recent movies. Good luck!

By watching these videos you will:
a) Learn real English vocabulary, as spoken by real native speakers. You will learn English words and phrases that are used in real-life situations.
b) Practice and improve your listening skills and comprehension skills.
c) Learn proper pronunciation.
d) Learn useful English language expressions as well as phrases for conversation.
e) Feel that learning English can be fun!

Link: http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com