Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Anne Frank




Fourth Adolescents is reading The Diary of a Young Girl, a most moving story about Anne Frank, a girl who has to go into hiding with her family during the Second World War. You can take a tour of the house where they stayed at the time:
http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/About-the-house/

You can also learn about its inhabitants:
http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/Inhabitants/

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Have fun!

Unemployment in the States

Unemployment keeps being a serious problem in the States. Listen to the news and pay attention to the language used to talk about money and work.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com


Get more multi-source business and political news from Newsy.com.

The nation’s unemployment rate remains steady at 9.5 percent for the month of July despite a gain of 71,000 jobs in the private sector. Analysts chalk it up in part to a loss of 131,000 temporary jobs, and now many are wondering if unemployment rates in the U.S. will remain stagnant for the next decade.

We’re analyzing coverage from Fox News, NPR, MarketWatch and CNN.



Recent figures confirm the U.S. economy slowed in the spring, and then came to a stall in the summer since employers failed to add as many jobs as anticipated. On Fox News Stuart Varney says unemployment numbers should be nowhere near this high.

“I cannot remember a time when you had 6.6 million people out of a job for more than six months. That is long-term, mass unemployment. Now that rate you just showed, 9.5 percent, that should be a lot lower at this stage of the ‘so-called’ economic recovery. We went into recession in December of ‘07, two and a half years later we should have an unemployment rate way below nine and a half percent.” 



But NPR’s Yuki Noguchi says it’s easier said than done, and points to a major problem in the jobs market.

“Earlier in the year Gault predicted private sector hiring would have accelerated by now but the economy hit a snag and now he expects it might be a few more months before business hire more than a 100,000 people a month. ... The further we go into the year the better the numbers should get on the private side.”

But in an article for MarketWatch, a progressive policy analyst warns it could have been worse.

“To be sure, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act saved or created up to 1.2 million to 2.8 million jobs, and without it, we would have had 8.7 million to 10.3 million jobs lost... the evidence is clear that these policies certainly helped. But we still have work to do.”


Finally on CNN one analyst highlights another problem she says is contributing to slow job growth.



“We’re seeing a trend. Employers are also bringing back temporary or contract workers instead of taking on full-time workers that they’d have to pay benefits to. Experts are saying that in the next few years forty percent of the workforce could be made up of freelancers, because Kyra you know there’s a lot of uncertainty as to what’s going to happen with health care especially, so you know companies are less willing to hire people on full-time.”



So what do you think? Is the economy at a halt, or will job growth pick up in the near future?

Links on the topic:

http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/99ers/?scp=1&sq=99ers&st=cse

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/House-Passes-26-Billion-US-Jobs-Bill-100385794.html

Monday, 19 July 2010

Friends' Day

In Argentina, we celebrate Friends' Day on July 20th. I've been trying to find songs about friends and found many that we've heard quite a lot. Here's a different version from The Beatles' classic: "With a little help from my friends"



You can find the original version and lyrics at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWs1-NEV9O0

What other songs can you recommend for this special day?

Sunday, 11 July 2010

Videos games and education

This video explains how video games can be used to support democracy and conflict resolution. Captions in English are included.Once you've listened to (and read) it, you can take the quiz to check how much you've understood.



Thursday, 8 July 2010

Toy Story 3

I've always been fond of animated films so I was more than glad to see Toy Story 3 last week and in 3D!! What makes these stories so popular? Has this part of the sequel come up to your expectations? Looking forward to reading your comments.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com



Toy Story 3 is opening this weekend, and after a summer of so-so box office performances, could it be a huge hit?

Reviews say the movie brings back classic characters and is appealing for both kids and adults. A staggering 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes means no one has panned the film yet. Critics are praising the movie for its awesome animation, its humor and its heartfelt themes. It’s even getting Oscar buzz.

MSNBC projects that this could be Pixar’s biggest opening weekend ever — that Toy Story 3 could make $90 to $100 million. A reporter says Disney has set the film up for success, especially in trying to appeal to audiences 15 years after the original came out.

“Disney has done a pretty good job of keeping the Toy Story brand around for the last 10 and 15 years by having a presence of Toy Story at its theme parks, re-releasing those DVDS and last fall it re-released Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 in theaters in 3-D. $32 million work of ticket sales were sold so it did keep people interested and engaged.”

This is the first Toy Story to be in 3-D, so tickets cost more. Will that deter audiences, or mean a bigger box office take? CNBC points out that Shrek Forever After tried the same 3-D tactic in May, and it didn’t work.

“Toy Story 3 and Shrek are similar. Both are digitally animated, popular brands squeezing out third and fourth sequels. And now they are in 3-D, which means a higher ticket price. ... Disney does face the challenge of luring moviegoers back to theaters. U.S. box office is down over 6% since early May.”

The summer box office has been weak so far. The Celebrity Café says similar sequels have proved disappointing.

“...many sequels have performed poorly in theaters in recent weeks, including Sex and the City 2 and Shrek Forever After. … While expectations for Toy Story 3 remain high, the current generation of young moviegoers was not around when the first two films...were released.”

But a writer for MTV News says Pixar seems to be a company to count on.

“Pixar has done pretty well for itself over the last 15 years. The studio has yet to release a film that failed to hit the $360 million mark.”

So, will Toy Story 3 be a hit now, when the industry needs it, or will it be another summer sequel flop?

Saturday, 3 July 2010

How important is it to be accurate in English? This is a commercial created by Berlitz and shows how little differences can be serious. Don't worry if you can't understand the first part...it's not in English!



The word "sink" has only one sound that distinguishes it from the word "think". "Sink-think" is called a "minimal pair". You may practise it if you follow this link: http://www.manythings.org/mp/m17.html