In the News

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature
Taco Bell boasts zero environmental impact with their new menu which will rely solely on synthetic, lab-produced ingredients.
LEVEL: MEDIUM/EASY

KEY WORDS: ingredients, items, food synthesizer, tell the difference, labs, ground beef, initiative, helps reduce global warming, melt down, straws, wrapping, eating the garbage you produce.

- Also WATCH: Supreme Court Ruling Gives Fans The Right To Act Like Total Assholes At Games
The Court found that buying a ticket is license to boo, swear and throw beer at whomever fans please at a sporting event, on the grounds that anyone who doesn't like it can stay home, and those tickets pay for the players' salaries, so who are they to complain?
KEY WORDS: ruling, asshole, landmark, cut loose, celebrate the decision, unfairly removed from a stadium, bracing for a surge in jackass behaviour, oppose the decision.
LEVEL: DIFFICULT

- Also WATCH: Should unemployed Americans invest in new Apple computers? Panelists discuss how owning a top-of-the-line MacBook or an iPad 2 is actually essential to finding a new job. Detractors are left with no arguments.

KEYWORDS: little sign of recovery, the unemployed, rip off, tiny toy, tool, supporting innovation, overspending.
LEVEL: MEDIUM

**For your information, the Onion is a satirical newspaper founded in 1988 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Originally a weekly humor print publication targeting a local student population, The Onion is today a booming news organization known as America’s Finest News Source. More information Here.

**PS: Breaking Good News (no joke)

St. Jordi

For St. Jordi's week, a poem and a rose for you. In this case, the poem has no title and no opening line. You have to guess what the poem is about.

???????????????????????
.................................................
is like doing a jigsaw puzzle
of a million pieces
with a picture that keeps changing.
It's like getting lost in a foreign city
without a map.
It's like playing tennis without a ball,
like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.
It's being an acrobat with a broken leg,
an actor without a script,
a carpenter without a saw,
a storyteller without a middle or an end.

But then gradually
it¹s like being out in the early morning
with the mists lifting.
It¹s like a chink of light under a door,
like finding the glove you were looking for,
catching the train you thought you were going to miss,
getting an unlooked-for present,
exchanging a smile.

And then one day it's like riding a bicycle
very fast downhill.

-Olivia McMahon-

Have you ever exprienced any of these sensations?
Any bets on what the poem might refer to ?

(Click on the red rose to get the answer)

Have a nice Easter holiday! Or "staycation" (stay at home+vacation, which is my case, but enjoying every bit of it!)

Sleepless?

Double beds used to be the norm for couples, but they aren't any longer. It seems that some people refuse to share their bed with their partners -it's a real nuisance to sleep with somebody who snores, for example, not to mention the neverending discussion about room temperature. Duvet for me? Sheets and blankets for you?


So if you don't want to get up on the wrong side of the bed, you'd better get a twin room (two separate beds) or two separate apartments, as kings and queens do -that would be my favourite. What about you?

• READ THIS If you want to learn more about sleep basics-problems, solutions, health benefits,etc
• or THIS if you want to know the connection between sleep and memory
• If you are a siesta lover, maybe you could take part in the annual siesta championship
• And if you want to delve into the world of dreams-types, theories and intrpretation- DREAM MOODS is your page.

Good night...
...and some music to go with it.



Sleepwalker, by The Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan's band. Jakob Dylan is Bob Dylan's son, much better than his father, to my mind.

Talking about body language, did you know that now you can control Gmail with your body?



Learn more (and give it a try) at gmail.com/motion

Or... could this possibly be one of these?

Lie Detector

We'll be talking about the senses and body language this week -you know all these signals and postures and gestures we do depending on our internal emotions and mental states.Body language is an important part of communication -it is said that it is 50% or more of what we are communicating. Sometimes we are aware of our body language, but most of the time we are not, particulary when we are lying. Do you often lie? Did you know that it shows in your face (or in your whole body) when you are lying? How good are you at detecting lies?

KEY WORDS: Deception (a false friend!), signs, the more... the more (lots of this sturcture), the catch is..., average, looks like. Are you getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Do you want to know the tell tale signs that will give you away when you are lying?

• Watch this video


• READ articles / vocabulary work dealing with LIES


• Are you a good liar? Try this TEST

So do you think you are a good liar/a good lie detector?

The End of Whatever

As promised, I did some serious research into this Mayan calendar doomsday prediction, and I must say that I'm quite a lot more confused now, but here you have the basics:The Maya, an Ancient civilization with the reputation of being more intelligent than us (as it usually happens with all ancient civilizations), predicted a sort of galactic alignment on Dec 21st 2012 (winter solstice). Apart from this, there's a planet that is also going to be very near our orbit, thus influencing the movement of the earth, and adding to the speculation of 'we are not alone' conspiracy theories. Of course, this is going to translate into tsunamis, earthquakes, pole shift, hurricanes, planetary collisions, unexpected visits from outer space, and many other special effects. So everything is going to happen at the same time.



Needless to say, the Maya Calendar agrees with I-ching predictions, Nostradamus, other seers and fortune tellers and, of course, scientific evidence of all sorts -although the scientists are already dead.

KEY WORDS: startingly precise predictions, take seriously, obsessed with, accurate, take place, white skinned bearded gods, arrive in, alignment, pole shift, worldwide disasters, backed by science, mass extinction of species, doomsday, profecy, intriguing

	Rem - End Of The World .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

"It's the end of the world as we know it, but I feel fine"

Others think that, the end of the world "as we know it" only means the beginning of something new, a spiritual awakening, a global transformation of consciousness, and a collective rebirth into the new era: the age of Aquarius (or flower-power revisited).

• WATCH VIDEO

(**sorry about the studpid adverts, it's a real nightmare to try to get rid of them, and not always possible, not even in the age of Aquarius)

	HAIR - Age of Aquarius .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

When the Moon is in the 7th House, and Jupiter aligns with March, then peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars -this is the dawning of the age of aquarius ....READ lyrics

There is still a third group of people who think this is all b....** , a HYPE, a HOAX

• WATCH VIDEO
  

BUT why, oh why does the Mayan calendar end in 2012?

This is all the information I managed to gather , so if you have any more facts and figures from a reliable source, please let me know. It's important to plan for the future.

Supermoon

If you look up in the sky on March 19th you'll see a 'Supermoon', which is when "the moon’s orbit is nearest the Earth - and the sun, moon and Earth are all in alignment."

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

• Transcript?

Some people think this supermoon might have been the cause of so much devastation in Japan READ ON

Astrologers and scientists have different versions of their own on the supermoon and its effects, something that’s pretty expected. READ ON
Read on 2
Whatever the effects of the supermoon, the moon will be bigger and brighter, it's going o be a beautiful sight, so we can only hope that it won't cause any more harm to the Earth.

And just to remind you of some idioms containing the word moon:

Baby rips it up

I'm not very fond of 'viral' videos, you know, these funny videos that spread out like a virus in the internet, but I liked this one. In spite of the many bad things happening around the world, I thought I wanted to share it. Laughter is highly contagious ...and it can be understood in any language.

• READ: Mail Online: Laughter is the best cure
• WATCH: CBS News. Laughter as medicine
• READ: What's funny?
• Smile? Laugh? Giggle? Chuckle? The McMillan dictionary: All U can learn

By the way, the baby is ripping up his/her daddy's job rejection letter.

The most typical face in the world

The National Geographic Magazine has revealed what the most typical human on the planet looks like, as part of their new series which focuses on the human race called ‘Population 7 billion’.


The research found that a 28-year-old Han Chinese male is the most typical person on the planet, with 9 million around the globe. So was learning English the right choice? Shouldn't you be learning Chinese? They won’t be dominating for long, though. The National Geographic also found that within the next 20 years, the most typical person will come from India. So what now ?
Watch this video and check how similar to/different from the most typical person you are.
 If you want to know more on this topic, watch The Economist: 7 billion video
7 billion? Aren't there TOO MANY people on the planet?

Blah, blah, blah...

How can I improve my spoken English? This video is more inspirational than practical, but it goes to the core question of 'dancing' with your partners rather than 'monologuing' or producing 'memorised' sentences that 'the teacher will like' (ahem...). Below you'll find some more tips that you'll have to adapt to your own habits (like talk to yourself). You'll see that language skills are obviously connected and part of a whole - the time invested in reading, listening, writing, and working on gr...ooops ...sorry 'use of English' will sure contribute to your speaking skills-and vice versa.
- E.How , more EHow
- English at home
- Learning tips ( tips n.2,3,5,6,13 particularly interesting)

And a very important one: KISS (Keep It Short and Simple), which means DON'T get entangled in your own story -generally because you wanted to translate it word by word from your mother tongue. You don't need to do this. You know more than what you think, so USE IT. Make life easier for your partners who should understand what you are saying so that they can react to what you are saying so that you can dance all together.

Sorry there's no pill. Or rather, the only pill is regular practice and patience. But you know all that, don't you? It's just a reminder (remember 'remember'/'remind'?).

Of course, frustration may be part of the process, but it's transitory -and you can always scream and shout in this blog if you need it.