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.

BUT HOW DID IT ALL START?

Watch the video to learn a bit about St.Patrick's history.



WHY GREEN?

Originally the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue however over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century. He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day.Then in 1798 in hopes of making a political statement Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on 17 March in hopes of catching attention with their unusual fashion gimmick.
Even the city of Chicago has developed a unique tradition of colouring the river water green. It started in 1962 when 100 pounds of green vegetable dye were added to its river, enough to keep it green for a week. The tradition has continued till date. Now, 40 pounds of a green food colouring keep the river green for only a few hours.

MODALS OF DEDUCTION

We use modal verbs to say how sure we are about something.

1 must

We use must when we feel sure that something is true because there’s very strong evidence.

• He must live near here because he comes to work on foot. We don’t know where he lives but we’re sure it’s not far away.
• Come inside and get warm – you must be freezing out there.
• You’re a zookeeper? That must be very interesting.

Notice that must is followed by an infinitive without ‘to’.

2 might, may, could

We use might, may or could to say that we think something is possible but we’re not sure.

• Did you hear that? I think there might be a burglar downstairs. She’s not sure there’s a burglar but she thinks it’s possible.
• We’ll try to get there early but we may arrive late if there’s a lot of traffic.
• Don’t put it up there. It could fall off and hit someone.

Might, may and could are also followed by an infinitive without ‘to’.

3 can’t

We use can’t when we feel sure something is not true.

• It can’t be a burglar. All the doors and windows are locked. He doesn’t know it’s not a burglar but he feels sure it’s not.
• It can’t be far away now. We’ve been driving for hours. Where’s the map?
• Really? He has to work on Christmas Day? He can’t feel very happy about that.

Like the other verbs, can’t is followed by an infinitive without ‘to’.

Remember that all of these modal verbs – must, might, may, could and can’t have other uses.

BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT - Susan Boyle

We talked about Susan Boyle in class and how we judge people by their appearance.

When Susan Boyle first appeared on stage, everybody laughed at her. Small, rather chubby, no make-up and with unkempt hair, she said she was unemployed, single, lived with a cat called Pebbles, wanted to become a professional singer and had never been kissed. But then she started singing and eveything changed. It was ashtonishing.

Watch the video to judge by yourself, and remember: you can't judge a book by its cover!

 

15 USEFUL PHRASAL VERBS

DESCRIBING PEOPLE

Watch these two videos to learn how to describe people. Not only you'll practise listening and grammar but also you'll learn vocabulary.

Video 1



Video 2

CAMPANYA DE DONACIÓ DE SANG

 

 La donación de sangre es necesaria

La sangre es absolutamente necesaria para el organismo, es la encargada de transportar, a través de los vasos sanguíneos, todos los elementos necesarios para realizar las funciones vitales.

La sangre es necesaria para realizar intervenciones quirúrgicas, para atender accidentes de tráfico, para tratamientos contra el cáncer, para realizar transplantes y para curar otras muchas enfermedades.

La sangre no se puede fabricar y solo puede obtenerse de otras personas.

Cualquier persona sana, entre 18 y 65 años y que pese más de 50 kilos puede donar sangre.

Actualmente en las Islas Baleares cada día se necesitan más de 200 donaciones de sangre.

Es un placer informarte de la próxima campaña de donación de sangre:

ESCOLA OFICIAL D’IDIOMES

Seu Central Eivissa

C/Des Raspallar, 1

Dimecres 13 de març de 2019

de 17:00 a 20:30 h.

Ajudan’s a difondre aquest missatge. Una donació, 3 vides.

Si aquest  día no pots venir, també pots realitzar la teva donació cada dijous en el punt  fixe  de la Fundació Banc de Sang i Teixits de les Illes Balears, Hospital Can Misses Vell (antigues Urgències) de 10 a 14 i de 17 a 21 hores.

Contacta-nos:  www.donasang.org ,  infodonant@fbstib.org  o   971302468

 

THE PASSIVE

Passive voice is formed by…

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

Peter builds a house (active)

A house is built by Peter (passive)

Remember passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.  In the example My bike was stolen, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it.

Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows, A mistake was made. In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake.).

As always, you can go to 'Grammar' to see, download and/or print a document on the passive voice plus an overview on the active/passive 

And now, time to practise!!!!

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5 (A page with lots of practice!!!)

Exercise 6

Exercise 7 (A game)