Hemos retomado el curso con fuerza; los mantecados parece que nos han sentado bien. No obstante, en cuanto a las tutorías presenciales, hemos notado que ha disminuido bastante la asistencia, por distintos motivos, pero parece ser que el puñetero covid está haciendo más estragos de la cuenta.
Santa Paciencia.
Allá por el mes de noviembre, en concreto el día 22 -¡qué lejos queda ya!- os envié un mensajillo en el que os recomendaba que, si podíais, intentarais completar las actividades del ejercicio 3.1 de la plataforma, maravillosa ella, ¿verdad?, Moodle.
Algunos sí habéis podido y me habéis enviado la tarea para que os la corrija, pero me gustaría que todos o mientras más, mejor, la hagáis porque es un compendio de 7 ejercicios que resume todos los contenidos básicos del trimestre, a saber: oraciones condicionales del tipo 1 y 2, oraciones de relativo, especificativas -sin comas- y explicativas -con comas y puñeteras-, presente continuo, presente perfecto y adverbios como 'yet, already, still', etc.
Os dejos aquí en este enlace los ejercicios para que los descarguéis y los hagáis y, si podéis, me los enviáis a través de la plataforma. De todas formas, la semana que viene pondré todas las soluciones en otra entrada de este blog.
Os dejo las tareas aquí en el blog también porque lo que no se ve, no se hace. Santo Tomás reina por estos lares.
Saludos y buen final de semana.
Y ahora, vamos a por las correcciones que podéis mirar en estos archivos descargables en pdf:
De nuevo, vuelvo a recurrir a nuestros amigos del British Council, a quienes les doy las gracias por su ayuda, para poner en práctica vuestros 'reading skills' y aprender mucho vocabulario.
https://www.blablacar.es
El texto de hoy lleva por título 'The sharing economy' y, de nuevo, es un tema de rabiosa actualidad, pues vivimos en una época en la que, por diversos motivos, vamos de blablacar en blablacar, por ejemplo. Y algún motivo habrá para ello, innit?
Vamos al surco:
'If we look around us at the things we have purchased at some point in our lives, we would no doubt notice that not everything we own is being put to good use: the thick woollen coat which we thought looked trendy despite the fact that we live in a tropical country, the smartphone that got put away when we bought ourselves the newest model, the car that only gets used at the weekends, or even the guest room in our house that somehow got turned into a storeroom.
Those underutilised items may seem useless to some, but could be an asset to others. With the advent of the internet, online communities have figured out a way to generate profit from the sharing of those underused assets. Using websites and social media groups that facilitate the buying and selling of second-hand goods, it is now easier than ever for peer-to-peer sharing activities to take place. And this is known as the sharing economy.
These democratised online platforms are providing a chance for people to make a quick buck or two. To give an example, busy parents previously might not have bothered with setting up a stall at the local market or car boot sale to sell their children's old equipment, but with online marketplaces, parents are now able to sell on those hardly worn baby clothes that their children have outgrown and the expensive pushchairs and baby equipment they have invested in, so as to put some cash back into their pockets.
Businesses have also caught on to the profitability of the sharing economy and are seeking to gain from making use of those underutilised resources. A business model that has rapidly risen in popularity sees companies providing an online platform that puts customers in contact with those who can provide a particular product or service. Companies like Airbnb act as a middleman for people to cash in on their unused rooms and houses and let them out as lucrative accommodation. Another example is Uber, which encourages people to use their own personal cars as taxis to make some extra cash in their free time.
This move towards a sharing economy is not without criticisms. Unlike businesses, unregulated individuals do not have to follow certain regulations and this can lead to poorer and inconsistent quality of goods and services and a higher risk of fraud. Nevertheless, in the consumerist society we live in today, the increased opportunities to sell on our unwanted and underused goods can lead to a lesser impact on our environment.'
Buenas tardes. Es un decir. Me acabáis de escribir 3 de vosotros para informarme que el covid ha entrado en vuestras casas durante una temporada de vacaciones de Navidad. Esto es un desastre.
Pero tenemos que seguir trabajando.
Para hoy, he cogido prestado un texto de un examen de vuestro nivel, en este caso, del British Council, de un tema de actualidad, como siempre hacemos, porque como os he dicho muchas veces, los temas de los exámenes suelen ser temas de actualidad y relevancia social.
Hoy vamos a traducir el texto y, además, vamos a hacer dos tareas más: por un lado, tenéis que completar 5 huecos con 5 frases que os dejo a continuación. Por otro lado, tendréis que completar 8 frases con 8 palabras, nada más.
Vamos a la tarea.
CÓDIGOS DE COLORES:
AZUL: Traducciones.
ROJO: Aspectos gramaticales.
VERDE: Aspectos culturales.
NARANJA: Estructuras concatenadas
MORADO: Traducción y sinónimos, antónimos, etc.
Amarillo: Palabras con trampa.
Os dejo una plantilla para que, sobre la marcha, podáis ir completando con sinónimos, antónimos, etc -si los sabéis- así como el significado de cada palabra. Espero que os sea de utilidad. Pinchad aquípara descargarla.
A Plastic Ocean is a film to make you think. Think, and then act. We need to take action on our dependence on plastic. We've been producing plastic in huge quantities since the 1940s. Drink bottles, shopping bags, toiletries and even clothes are made with plastic. 1) _____. What happens to all the rest? This is the question the film A Plastic Ocean answers. It is a documentary that looks at the impact that plastic waste has on the environment. Spoiler alert: the impact is devastating.
The film begins as a journey to film the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale. But during the journey the filmmakers (journalist Craig Leeson and environmental activist Tanya Streeter) make the shocking discovery of a huge, thicklayer of plastic floating in the middle of the Indian Ocean. 2) _____. In total, they visited 20 locations around the world during the four years it took them to make the film. The documentary premiered in 2016, and is now on streaming services such as Netflix.
It's very clear that a lot of research went into the film. There are beautiful shots of the seas and marine life. 3) _____. We see how marine species are being killed by all the plastic we are dumping in the ocean. The message about our use of plastic is painfully obvious.
Pincha en este enlace para descargarte unos apuntes realmente buenos sobre la voz pasiva, que ya va tocando. Incluye un total de 17 ejercicios que iremos haciendo hasta final de curso. Para hoy, deberás traducir el siguiente cuadro:
4) _____. In the second half, the filmmakers look at what we can do to reverse the tide of plastic flowing around the world. They present short-term and long-term solutions. These include avoiding plastic containers and 'single-use' plastic products as much as possible. Reuse your plastic bags and recycle as much as you can. The filmmakers also stress the need for governments to work more on recycling programmes, and look at how technology is developing that can convert plastic into fuel.
We make a staggering amount of plastic. In terms of plastic bagsalone, we use five hundred billionworldwide annually. Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year, and at least 8 million of those are dumped into the oceans. 5) _____. Once you've seen A Plastic Ocean, you'll realise the time is now and we all have a role to play.
Vamos a trabajar en esta entrada el conocido en inglés como 'pasado perfect o past perfect', verbo que usamos para contar que 'habíamos realizado' una acción en un momento concreto, antes de hacer otra tarea, etc.
👉👉👉 Empezaremos con un video muy sencillo, de los que van al grano y se dejan de zarandajas, que os recomiendo que veáis: pincha en este enlace:
Es fácil:
'I had eaten my dinner before you phoned me.' (pasado perfecto simple).
'Yo había cenado antes de que me llamaras.'
'I hadbeeneating my dinner when you phoned me.' (pasado perfecto continuo).
'Yo había estado cenando cuando me llamaste.'
'It hadbeenraining all the evening'.
'Estuvo lloviendo toda la tarde.'
✋✋✋ Todas las personas se van a conjugar de la misma manera. Observa:
I had eaten pasta for dinner when you came with the pizza.
You had eaten pasta...
She had eaten pasta...
It had eaten pasta...
We had eaten pasta...
You had eaten pasta...
They had eaten pasta...
👉👉👉 Para poner ese verbo en negativa, basta con poner la palabra 'not' después de 'had' o bien usar la forma contraída 'hadn't'.
I had not eaten pasta for dinner when you came with the pizza.
You hadn't eaten pasta...
She had noteaten pasta...
👉👉👉 Para hacer una pregunta, basta con poner 'had' delante de la persona.
'Had you eaten pasta for dinner?
'Had she eaten pasta...?
✋✋✋ Pincha en este enlace para ver la diferencia entre la forma simple y la forma continua. Por favor, pincha en el enlace, lee la información y completa el ejercicio online que hay al final del texto y que puedes ver aquí:
El verbo que usamos es muy fácil de conjugar: usamos el verbo auxiliar 'have' en pasado, o sea, 'had' y siempre seguido de un participio, para entendernos, la tercera forma de los verbos irregulares o un verbo acabado en -ed.
'I had already sold my old clothes in Vinted when you asked to buy them'.
'Yo ya había vendido mi ropa vieja en Vinted cuando tú me pediste comprármela'.
'You hadpayed for the food at the restaurant when I wanted to invite you'.
'Tú habías pagado la comida del restaurante cuando yo quería invitarte'.
✊✊✊✊✊ Past perfect passive: pasado perfecto pasivo, más fácil todavía:
'I had beentold to be punctual for the meeting'
'Me dijeron que fuera puntual para la reunión'
'You had beenasked to do the entrance exam'.
'Te pidieron que hicieras el examen de acceso'.
'She had beengiven a new laptop for her new job'
'Le dieron un nuevo portátil en su nuevo trabajo'.
'He had beensolda broken car'.
'Le vendieron un coche averiado.'
'We had beenrequested to pay more taxes'.
'Nos pidieron que pagáramos más impuestos'.
'You had beenordered to leave your job and look for another one'.
'Se te ordenó dejar tu trabajo y que te buscaras uno nuevo'.
'They had been presented with a new computer for their birthday'.
'Les regalaron un nuevo ordenador por su cumpleaños'.
Comenzamos el III Año de la Era Covid con el virus Omicron ligando con su primo Delta y pariendo el flurona. Solo esas palabras demuestran que algo huele a chamusquina.
The Washington Post
Retomamos con energía y ganas el curso comenzando hoy el 2º trimestre de vuestros cursos, algunos con los exámenes en abril y otros en junio. Pero recuerden,tempus fugit.
Y, de nuevo, vamos con noticias de actualidad: la opereta bufa entre el tenista Novak Djokovic y el gobierno australiano, que ocupa los titulares de todos los medios de comunicación. Me pregunto si este es el principal problema de nuestra sociedad, con flurona paseándose por Las Ramblas como si nada.
Bueno, al tajo que es noche.
CÓDIGOS DE COLORES:
AZUL: Traducciones.
ROJO: Aspectos gramaticales.
VERDE: Aspectos culturales.
NARANJA: Estructuras concatenadas
MORADO: Traducción y sinónimos, antónimos, etc.
Amarillo: Palabras con trampa.
Os dejo una plantilla para que, sobre la marcha, podáis ir completando con sinónimos, antónimos, etc y los significados. Espero que os sea de utilidad. Pinchad aquí para descargarla.
The judge’sruling initially unleashed a wave of celebration among Djokovic’s supporters, scores ofwhom gathered in Melbourne’s Federation Square to dance and sing.
Butasfalse rumors began to circulate that Djokovic had beendetainedagain — something the government threatened to do Monday — the celebration turned toanger.Pulsa aquí para ver una explicación sobre el uso del PAST PERFECT (HAD BEEN)
Several hundred Djokovic supporters, shouting “Free Novak,” marched to the skyscraper where the tennis star had been brought earlier in the day to watch the online proceedings with his attorneys.
When a car with tinted windows emerged from the parking garage, Djokovic supporterssurrounded it and began to boo, curse and block the road. When the protesters got too close to the police officers ringing the car, the police began deployingpepper spray.
Djokovic supporters reacted angrily, screaming obscenities. At least one unmasked man spit on officers, whileseveral threw plastic water bottles, hitting at least two officers, one in the head. An officer who was pepper-sprayed in the chaos fell to the sidewalk as a colleague helped him wash out his eyes. A Djokovic supporter and his daughter were also pepper-sprayed, with the family washing their eyes out with milk.
“It’s crazy,” said the girl’s mother. “There were kids as young as 5.”
Police officers said they did not know whether Djokovic was in the car.
“I’m pleased and grateful that the Judge overturned my visa cancellation,” Djokovic wrote on Twitter, adding that he wanted to remain in the country and play at the Australian Open.
“I remain focused on that,” he wrote. “I flew here to play at one of the most important events we have in front of the amazing fans.”
The high-profile case captured headlines by pitting the steelySerb against Australia’s strict pandemic protocols. Djokovic’s family denounced his treatment, and Serbian and Australian officials traded criticism. The case transformed the unvaccinated sports star — a skeptic of coronavirus vaccines — into a lightning rod for the global vaccination debate.
In a news conference in Serbia, Djokovic’s parents thanked supporters and described their son’s ordeal but abruptly stopped taking questions when asked about his recent covid infection.
“There was a time when he didn’t have a telephone on him and we didn’t know what was
,” said his mother, Dijana. “We didn’t know if he was okay, if he was sick … As a mother that was [difficult].”
Buenas tardes, estimada familia IPEP#inglésipep #ingléspagsypau (en Twitter).
Vamos otra semana más, con otro texto con el que vais a reciclar vocabulario ya trabajado, además de ser de los temas habituales en las pruebas: medioambientales, cuidado de la naturaleza y similares.
De nuevo, es un texto extraído de un artículo del periódico The Washington Post, y que podéis leer entero para aprender más vocabulario aquí.
The Washington Post. Democracy dies in Darkness
Amid drought, conflict and rocketing prices, a global food crisis could be approaching, top expert warns.
You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter.
Global food prices are soaring. Fertilizer costs are sky-high. In Afghanistan, nearly 23 million people — more than half the population — are expected to facepotentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter. Madagascar is confronting its worst drought in 40 years, with more than a million people there in need in urgent food aid.
Is a new global food crisis coming?
In an interview this week, Maximo Torero Cullen — chief economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization — told me the answer is: Not yet, but we could be on the brink. The world is witnessing an increase in localized and conflict-driven food crises, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But across the globe, the food price surges of recent months are still not as bad as the two critical spikes sparked by weather, biofuel production and surging Asian demand in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012.
That doesn’t mean we won’t get there. Because of the pandemic, global hunger shot up by an estimated 118 million people worldwide in 2020, jumping to 768 million people, the most since as far back as 2006. The number of people living with food insecurity — or those forced to compromise on food quantity or quality — surged by 318 million, to 2.38 billion.
As vaccination rollouts lag in the developing world, Cullen told Today’s WorldView that he fears the slower economic recoveries in low- and medium-income nations could worsen the food insecurity picture further in 2022.
How did the pandemic change the nature of global food insecurity, and how is the problem evolving?
The major drivers before covid-19 were conflict, and climate and economic downturns. Lockdowns and covid-19 have exacerbated those problems.
But what is new are two things: One is the significant recovery plans and inflation we are seeing as the U.S., China and other countries create excess demand, which has affected, of course, prices because of their demand for commodities. The competition for containers has exacerbated the situation, making transportation costs higher.
The other element is fertilizer prices and scarcities. Countries like Bolivia that used to export to Peru, for instance, are exporting much, much less. An incredible shrinkage. Russia has put some export limits on fertilizers. China produces one-quarter of the fertilizers in the world, but now they are also importing. So the pressure on that sector is a different than we’ve faced before.
Esta semana vamos a aprender y repasar vocabulario sobre el puñetero Covid, puesto que es normal que en los exámenes se usen textos y temas de actualidad.
Boris Johnson reports U.K.’s first known death from the omicron coronavirus variant.
LONDON — At least one person has died from of the omicron variant, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday as he urged Britons to quickly increase their protection with a booster shot. It was the first reported fatality in the country from the variant.
Johnson, who was speaking to reporters during a visit to a vaccination clinic in West London, said that the omicron variant “was producing hospitalizations, and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with omicron.”
“I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognize the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population,” he said.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately offer any further details about the victim.
Officials in England and Scotland say omicron cases appear to be doubling every two to three days and is spreading faster than it has in South Africa.
On Sunday, Britain reported 1,239 new cases of the omicron variant, a near-doubling of the 633 cases confirmed on Saturday. There are now a total of 3,137 confirmed cases of the variant in the country. Scientists suspect there are in reality 10,000s of new infections.
The Washington Post. Democracy dies in Darkness.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said Friday that the omicron variant will overtake the common delta strain “within days, not weeks.”
The prime minister said, “the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.” Johnson made the comments as Britons stood in long lines outside clinics on Monday, waiting to get their third dose of vaccination.
Others who tried to book appointments via the National Health Service website were told to try again later. Some people said that the NHS website had crashed.
On Sunday evening, Johnson announced in a televised address that Britain would try to get booster shots to everyone age 18 and over by New Year’s Day, bringing forward an earlier deadline by a month.
“A tidal wave of omicron is coming,” Johnson said. “And I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need.”
To reach that target, the NHS will need to carry out about a million vaccinations a day, double what it is doing now.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid warned Monday that omicron infections were doubling at “phenomenal” rate.
“We’re once again in a race between the vaccine and the virus,” Javid told Sky News. “Two doses are not enough, but three doses still provide excellent protection against symptomatic infection.”
The good news: the health services agency said preliminary studies found that third, booster jab of Pfizer would likely raise protection from omicron considerably — to 70 to 80 percent range.
Teresa Lambe, a co-author of the study and a professor at the Jenner Institute at University of Oxford, said neutralizing antibodies might not tell the whole story and that other immune responses against omicron may be stimulated by the vaccines.
Lambe said that early studies by others also suggested that a booster dose of existing vaccines may be effective against omicron.
She urged people to get a booster and said, “I am carefully optimistic,” but that is currently sensible to “prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.”
Lambe and other scientists said it is a numbers game: if there are suddenly, quickly millions of new omicron infections in Britain, even if the variant is not more deadly, the large number new cases will send a lot of people to the hospital, where some will die.
