The classic bedtime story narrated by professional voice talents.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY STUDENTS!

First speaking test 2015

                                                         


                                                                                   From English is Fun

                                                        From English is Fun

Origen y formación de la bandera del Reino Unido

La bandera del Reino Unido es conocida como Union Jack, debido a la palabra jack mast que se refiere al mástil de las naves de guerra. Esta bandera es oficialmente conocida como Union Flag (bandera de la unión) debido a que es la combinación de las banderas de Inglaterra, Escocia e Irlanda del Norte, tres territorios que, junto a Gales, forman el Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña y los Reinos del Norte.

La bandera representativa del Reino Unido es muy fácil de reconocer, pero suele confundirse con la bandera de Inglaterra al referirse a esta. La diferencia entre la bandera de Inglaterra y la del Reino Unido está en que la bandera de Inglaterra forma parte de la del Reino Unido y es solamente la cruz roja con fondo blanco.

La actual bandera del Reino Unido es la combinación de la bandera de Inglaterra, que es la cruz roja de San Jorge. El aspa blanca de San Jorge sobre fondo azul que representa a Escocia, y el aspa roja de San Patricio sobre fondo blanco que sería la bandera correspondiente a Irlanda. Gales no sale representada en la bandera porque ya formaba parte de Inglaterra cuando se creó la misma.

La Union Jack se formó en 1606 entre las banderas de Inglaterra y Escocia. No fue hasta 1801 cuando se une la bandera de San Patricio correspondiente a Irlanda para crear la Union Jack final que ahora conocemos.

Actualmente podemos encontrar la Union Jack en gran cantidad de ex-colonias y colonias británicas como pueden ser las de Australia, Nueva Zelanda, Hawái, Malvinas, antigua bandera de Canadá y Sudáfrica, o la bandera de las Tres Colonias que precedió a la actual bandera de Estados Unidos.

En este video encontrareis una recopilación de los principales homófonos en inglés, es decir, palabras que aunque se escriben de forma muy diferente que se pronuncian igual.



                                                                                     

                                                                    From analiveandlearn.blogspot.com.es

The best Christmas advert

This year’s Christmas advert from Sainsbury’s (a famous British supermarket) – Christmas is for sharing. Inspired by real events from 100 years ago, it commemorates the extraordinary events of Christmas Day, 1914, when the guns fell silent and two armies met in no-man’s land, sharing gifts – and even playing football together. 
The chocolate bar featured in the ad is on sale now at Sainsbury’s. All profits (50p per bar) will go to The Royal British Legion and will benefit our armed forces and their families, past and present. 



If you enjoy the ad, I recommend you to see all the sources and references they have used following this link
http://inspiration.sainsburys-live-we...

Cambios en los exámenes Cambridge en 2015

Como muchos ya sabeis, en el año 2015 se van a producir cambios en los 
exámenes Cambridge. Concretamente se van a producir cambios en los

exámenes de nivel B2 (First) y en los exámenes de nivel C1 (Advanced).

Te estarás preguntando ¿qué cambios se van a producir en los exámenes 
Cambridge?. De manera general, los cambios en los exámenes Cambridge se 
pueden resumir en 2 puntos principales:

1.      Las partes de Reading y Use of English se unifican en una sola prueba, por lo  que el examen pasa de tener 5 papers a sólo 4.

2.      La duración del examen se reduce 30 minutos en el caso de los exámenes de    First, nivel B2. En el caso del examen de Advanced o nivel C1 la duración se ha  reducido un total de 45 minutos.

Por supuesto, estos son los cambios más importantes, pero existen otra serie de cambios respecto a contenidos, tipos de ejercicios, formatos de textos, etc. y que ahora mismo voy a tratar de exponer para cada uno de los exámenes que han sufrido modificaciones.

Cambios en el examen del First de Cambridge (Nivel B2)

Versión actual hasta 2014 Versión a partir de 2015 Formato de 5 bloques (conocidos comopapers) Duración: 4 horas y 40 minutos 19 secciones 114 preguntas Formato de 4 bloques: Reading y Use of English se unifican. Duración: 3 horas y 55 minutos 18 secciones 86 preguntas

Análisis de los cambios en los exámenes de B2 de Cambridge en cada uno de los bloques

Reading and Use of English

·       Las pruebas de Reading y Use of English quedan unidas en un sólo examen.

·       Se reduce el tiempo para hacer este ejercicio en 30 minutos, por lo que la nueva versión tiene una duración de 1 hora y 15 minutos.

·       Tendrá 7 partes con un total de 52 preguntas.

·       La parte de Use of English se hace antes que el Reading.

Writing

·       El ejercicio obligatorio consistirá en escribir un ensayo. (Hasta 2015 había que escribir una carta o email).

·       El ensayo debe contener entre 140 y 190 palabras.

·       En la segunda parte del Writing, los alumnos deben escribir un texto a elegir entre de 3 opciones; será un artículo, carta o informe.

Listening

·       Las partes del examen se mantienen sin cambios.

·       En la primera parte las opciones no serán leídas por los examinadores.

·       En la tercera parte habrá 3 preguntas extra.

Speaking

·       La 1ª parte, la de preguntas personales y presentación durará 2 minutos.

·       En la 2ª parte (describir y comparar fotografías), el tiempo para responder aumenta hasta los 30 segundos.

·       La 3ª parte, de discusión con el compañero, ahora se realizará en base a unos temas escritos, y no en base a una serie de imágenes.

·       La 4ª y última parte, la parte de discusión sobre un tema específico, durará 1 minuto más

Cambios en el examen de Advanced de Cambridge (Nivel C1)

Versión actual hasta 2014	Versión a partir de 2015
Formato de 5 bloques (conocidos comopapers)Duración: 4 horas y 40 minutos 19 secciones 114 preguntas	Formato de 4 bloques: Reading y Use of English se unifican Duración: 3 horas y 55 minutos 18 secciones 86 preguntas

 Básicamente los cambios en el examen de C1 son los mismos que en la prueba de B2. Los cambios más destacados son la unificación de las pruebas de Reading y Use of English y la reducción del tiempo para hacer esta parte del examen. Además, los contenidos del examen de C1 o Advanced, harán especial hincapié en temas académicos y/o laborales.

Why we all love number 7

Bestselling author and Guardian math blogger Alex Bellos explores our affinity with the number seven. Maybe it's not your favourite number but it's quite interesting.

10 THINGS THAT ARE SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO MAKE YOU UNHAPPY

For centuries, philosophers have been searching for an answer to what makes us happy. But perhaps more interesting is what's scientifically proven to make us unhappy. It wouldn't take a genius to work out that tiredness, stress and loneliness are lead causes. But more surprising candidates include living at altitude and poor sibling relationships. Or who would guess that the end of your favourite TV show could lead to all-out misery, let alone a wandering mind?

Come check out the ten unusual factors that have been empirically linked to feeling low:

USING FACEBOOK

If you're addicted to checking status updates on Facebook every two seconds, it may be time for a breather. A study by University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross last year found a direct correlation between time spent on the social media site and feelings of dissatisfaction, loneliness and isolation.

His team sent text messages to eighty-two residents in the Michigan town of Ann Arbor five times per day over a two week period, asking about their feelings at any given point and their use of Facebook. They discovered that the more people used Facebook in the time between the texts, the less happy they felt.

"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection," said Kross. "But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result - it undermines it."

Other studies have backed up these findings, blaming the "compare and despair" envy effect of social media sites and their potential to spark jealousy and suspicion in relationships.

And it's not just social media, but the internet in general that could be the risk; a 2010 study in the US found "a small detrimental effect of internet use on psychological well-being."

Lisa Kelly, a Toronto-based psychotherapist, says she has observed the way in which social networking is linked to depression and anxiety.

"People have lost the ability to be honest with each other about their feelings, insecurities or needs," she says. "They often do not know how to authentically connect with themselves and with others."

TOO MUCH MONEY

Obviously, money is important to lifestyle and well-being - especially when it comes to eliminating financial stress. But studies that show that beyond a certain threshold of income, where people are comfortable and don't need to worry about paying the bills, money doesn't have much connection to happiness.

In fact, some research has shown that very wealthy people actually suffer from higher rates of depression. A World Health Organization survey from 2010 interviewed 89,037 people in 18 countries and found that depression was more likely to hit those living in high-income countries than poorer ones (France was highest with 21% occurrence of depression, next to 6.5 percent in China, the lowest country).

It's unclear why richer countries experience higher rates of depression. The study's authors suggest a greater inequality of wealth in those countries, but other research has indicated that a desire for wealth and material possessions is linked to a need to mask inner discontent. And a continual striving for greater wealth and more possessions leads to unhappiness, because we cannot satisfy or change the reasons behind that desire.

"No matter how much we try to complete or bolster our ego, our inner discontent and incompleteness always re-emerges, generating new desires," reads a paper by psychology lecturer Steve Taylor. "No matter how much we get, it's never enough. As Buddhism teaches, desires are inexhaustible. The satisfaction of one desire just creates new desires, like a cell multiplying."

Instead, we need to aim to make enough to live a comfortable life and then focus on social connections, says scientist Tyler Cowen.

"A threshold earner is someone who seeks to earn a certain amount of money and no more ... in order to experience other gains in the form of leisure -- whether spending time with friends and family, walking in the woods, and so on."

LACK OF CONTROL AT WORK

A study by a Danish university last year found no link between workplace depression and heavy workload. Instead, said researchers at the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University, work environment and the feeling of being treated unfairly by management can most dramatically alter an employee's mood.

The researchers handed out questionnaires to 4,500 public employees at Danish schools, hospitals, nurseries, offices and more. They found perceived unfair treatment led to a higher rate of the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn can make work assignments appear insurmountable. But the depression in itself is caused by management behaviour and work environment, rather than workload.

"When the employees’ sense of justice plays such a central role in minimising the risk of depression, this is probably the area that the preventive work should focus on," says psychologist Matias Brødsgaard Grynderup, PhD, leading the study.

"I recommend a management style in which there is a clearly expressed wish to treat employees properly – combined with a transparent organisational structure."

Dr. Greg Couser, M.D., the medical director of the employee assistance program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has also observed that employees with more control enjoy a greater work life - regardless of how demanding their jobs are.

"In general, you can have a demanding job and if you are able to have control over factors such as the work pace it can be more manageable," he says. "But if you are at the bottom of an assembly line and things are coming at you at a rapid pace you don't control, eventually you can't keep up."

TOO MUCH CHOICE

Choice is a buzzword of the modern age, whether that's five types of organic honey in your local supermarket or a string of pilate classes to select from at the gym down the road. But a 2010 research paper from Stanford University's Department of Psychology discovered that too much choice makes us miserable.

Scientists at the university looked into the cultural ideas surrounding choice. They found that freedom and choice are less important or mean something different among non-Western cultures and working-class Westerners than they do for the university-educated people. They also found that the latter group became paralysed by too much variety and wracked with uncertainty and regret about whether they had made the right decision.

"We cannot assume that choice, as understood by educated, affluent Westerners, is a universal aspiration, and that the provision of choice will necessarily foster freedom and well-being," Professor Hazel Rose Markus writes in Does Choice Mean Freedom and Well Being?

"Even in contexts where choice can foster freedom, empowerment, and independence, it is not an unalloyed good. Choice can also produce a numbing uncertainty, depression, and selfishness."

A famous jam study conducted by Colombia University in 1995 also concluded that choice can be debilitating. In the survey, people were made to select from a larger or smaller selection of jams in a gourmet Californian supermarket. A larger proportion of people (60%) went for the larger selection, but only 3% from that group went onto actually buy a jam. In the smaller selection group, 30% of people went onto choose and buy a jam; suggesting too much choice can be bewildering.

Similar studies conducted over the years with everything from chocolate to speed dating have reached similar conclusions.

POOR SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS

Anyone who's grown up with brothers or sisters will know that fights are inevitable and usually harmless in the long-run. But a 2007 study in the American Journal of Psychiatryfound that men who had very poor relationships with their siblings during childhood are at significantly greater risk for depression in adulthood, compared to those who get along better with their brothers and sisters.

The researchers emphasised that their findings do not mean that a poor childhood relationship with a sibling causes depression, but they concluded that the two factors are strongly associated, and sibling relationships are more of an influence on adulthood depression than how a child is brought up by their parents.

"Sibling relationships have been underemphasised in learning about child development," says Dr. Robert J. Waldinger, the lead author of the study.

It's not clear why the link exists but researchers believe that good sibling relationships in childhood could help children socialise and relate to their peers - and the opposite could be true if they do not have good sibling relationships.

In 2012, psychologists at the University of Missouri concluded that teenage siblings who argue over two topics in particular - personal domain conflicts and fairness issues - are more at risk of suffering depressive symptoms, low self-esteem and anxiety.

"We believe that there are particular types of conflict that are setting kids up for problems," says Nicole Campione-Barr, assistant professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri.

A WANDERING MIND

We all like to daydream now and again, but a 2010 study from Harvard researchersMatthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert identified mind-wandering as a major cause of unhappiness.

The researchers collected data from 2,250 volunteers, who used a specially developed iPhone app that contacted them randomly to ask how happy there were feeling, what they were doing, whether they were thinking about what they were doing, and, if not, whether they were thinking about something pleasant instead.

They discovered that our minds are wandering about 46.9 percent of the time in any given activity and that people's feelings of happiness had much more to do with where their mind was than what they were doing. Only 4.6% of a person's happiness could be attributed to what they were doing, but 10.8% of it was caused by what they were thinking about at the time, and people consistently reported being happiest when their minds were on what they were doing.

To investigate whether unhappiness caused mind wandering or vice versa, the Harvard psychologists compared each person’s moods and thoughts as the day went on. They found that if someone’s mind wandered at 10 in the morning, then quarter of an hour later that person was likely to be less happy than at 10, perhaps because of daydreaming. But if people were in a bad mood at 10, they weren’t more likely to be worrying or daydreaming at 10:15.

"We see evidence for mind-wandering causing unhappiness, but no evidence for unhappiness causing mind-wandering," the report found.

The findings are backed up by age-old philosophy that living in the here and now leads to greater happiness.

"Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment. These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind," Killingsworth and his team note.

THE END OF YOUR FAVOURITE TV SHOW

The prospect of no more Breaking Bad is a bit gutting, one might think, but it's hardly a cause for serious unhappiness.

However, Emily Moyer-Guse, PhD, assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University, has found that people form ''parasocial" relationships with their favourite TV shows and "experience distress" when they end or are taken off air.

Moyer-Guse surveyed 403 college students ages 18 to 33 during the 2007-2008 Hollywood writers' strike, when many shows were taken off air. The students answered questions about their viewing habits, reasons for watching, how important the shows were, and how close they felt to their favourite characters.

Those who watched TV to relax, to enjoy the companionship of the characters, or to escape pressures were more distressed, she found, that those who said they watched TV just to pass time. Those who watched for companionship were most likely to be distressed.

Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, PhD, professor of English at Central Michigan University, who reviewed the study, says some people invest a lot of their time in TV shows and when they disappear, "it's like you have lost someone important to you. It does leave a hole there for a while. It's a form of mourning."

This chimes with reports of the Avatar effect in 2010, when there was said to be an outbreak of depression among some viewers of the film because the utopian planet created in it was not real. After the Harry Potter franchise ended in 2011, a number of fans reported feeling similar levels of unhappiness and desertion.