Stereomood

Here goes a nice website a student of mine (Jeff) showed me the other day.

www.stereomood.com 

You can listen to songs according to your mood. So, how do you feel today? Romantic? Angry? In need of love? Sleepy?

There's even the "saudade" option where you can find some of our most popular (and appreciated) Brazilian performers.

Enjoy it!

Something to think about

So much is being said about sustainability and saving the Earth nowadays. I personally think this is something we all should think about.

Check this article from newsweek to have some food for thought. I especially liked the video, which talks about Brazil too, by the way.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/18/10-big-green-ideas.html

Non-defining relative clauses

This is a quiz about non-defining clauses I got from bbc.co.uk

Before you take it, keep in mind that:




1)Non-defining clauses are common in written English;


2)We never use THAT in non-defining clauses;


3)We have to use commas before non-defining clauses;


4)And, finally, it's not usual to omit the relative pronoun in non-defining clauses.

Let's get to work now! =)



http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quiznet/pdfs/qnet_304_clauses.pdf

And the world's best country is...

It starts with an F. Nope, not that one! The Newsweek study of health, education, economy, and politics ranks the globe's true national champions. 

I must say I have mixed feelings about it, but check it out let me know what you think of it.

I added a short glossary to help you out with the reading if you find it difficult (in order of appearance in the article). However, remember that trying to understand words in context is a very good strategy when reading.

When learning new vocabulary, try to use it in class (when speaking or doing a written assignment) or at work (when e-mailing, for instance).

upwardly mobile life: able or wishing to move into a higher social class and become more wealthy

yield: verb - to produce something useful such as info or evidence

constrain: verb - to limit

play out: phrasal verb - to develop or end in a particular way

myriad: many

worsen: verb -to make things worse

choosy: adj - someone who's choosy has definite ideas about what they like and will not accept other things

gauge:verb - to make a judgement/ guess about a situation, action, or person based on the info you have

MRI: noun - Magnetic Ressonance Imaging

backslide: verb/noun - to start doing the bad things you used to, after having improved your behavior.

a rash of: a lot of

root something out: phrasal verb - to find out where a particular kind of problem exists and get rid of it.

textbook: adj - to describe something that happens exactly as it should happen

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/the-world-s-best-countries.html

A or AN?

Choose the correct option:
1) "I have to wear ____ uniform to work" 
     a) A                  b) AN


2) "He's been waiting for you for over ____ hour!"    
     a) A                   b) AN


If you chose a)A for 1, you're right! Every so often my students ask me: "But teacher, don't we have to use AN before uniform since this word begins with a vowel?!"


Careful! It's not the ortographic (written) representation of the letter that justifies the use of the indefinite articles A or AN. The phonetic (sound) quality of the first letter in a word does it, though. 

Because A X AN is taught in grammar books, people might think this is a grammar rule. Even though, u is a vowel,  its sound in the word uniform or university is of a semi-vowel: /y/.  Before semi-vowels we use the article A. So you say a unicorn, a European country, etc. We also use A before consonant-type sounds, such as A teacher, A car, etc.



The correct option in 2 is b)AN because although the word hour begins with a consonant, its pronunciation starts with a vowel-type sound.
So you say an umbrella, an egg, an uncle, an honest person, etc.



Fonte: English Pronunciation for Brazilians - The sounds of American English. 

Worth a click

 "Does you language shape how you think?"

That's the title of an interesting article I came across the other day from the New York Times. 


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html