Wishing You a very Happy New Year 2012

Polar bear cub is cool in care. So cute!

A polar bear cub has been taken into care in Denmark after his mother did not produce enough milk.Siku was born last month at the Scandinavian Wildlife Park in Denmark. For the first year of his life he will need 24-hour attention and three people have been given the job of looking after him.

I wish you all a Merry Xtmas and a Happy New Year!

176th anniversary of Mark Twain

Google created this marvellous doodle to celebrate the 176th anniversary of Mark Twain

Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn were two of the most famous characters invented by the American writer Mark Twain

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "the Great American Novel."

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which became very popular and brought nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well-received. Twain had found his calling.

He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

The Superlative of Adjectives

Formation of Superlative Adjectives:

As with comparative adjectives, there are two ways to form a superlative adjective
•short adjectives: add "-est"( the oldest)

•long adjectives: use "most" ( the most intelligent)

We also usually add 'the' at the beginning.

Exceptions


The following adjectives have irregular forms:

•good → the best

•bad → the worst

 Links for online exercises:
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1876

http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-44392.php

Happy Hallowe'en !

http://holidays.kaboose.com/halloween/

Criminal penguins- Watch and laugh!

Notice how clever they are!

Verb HAVE GOT (Revision)

Betty has got a computer

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/have_got.htm

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5255

http://inglesnanet.com/grammar/havegot.htm

Classroom language

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/download/classroom_phrases.pdf

God Save the Queen- The United Kingdom National Anthem ( with lyrics)

Holidays are over. Let´s study!

School is about to start!

I wish all my pupils a successful school year!!!

I'm sure we'll get on very well

Temperature ( night and day) wind and humidity, pressure and visibility

 

Weather Forecast

What's the weather like? (all over the world)


Weather vocabulary

Dog sets new world record for longest ears

This black and tan Coonhound has got no excuse for not hearing when he's called. Why? Because he's got the longest ears of any dog in the world!

Eight-year-old Harbor's left ear is 31.1cm long, while his right ear is even longer, at 34.3cm.

They've made him a bit of a celeb in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, but having such big ears isn't easy.

As a puppy, he used to trip over them and roll down the stairs, and these days he gets a LOT of attention.

Harbor's owner, Jennifer Wert, said: "Cars will literally stop in the street to take a closer look and get a picture.

"Often strangers will tug his ears which he really doesn't enjoy."

Coonhounds are known for having long ears, but they're actually designed to help the dogs smell by sweeping different scents nearer their noses.

Freddy Mercury's 65th Anniversary

California man arrested for biting pet python twice

A man in the Californian city of Sacramento has been accused of biting a pet snake, leaving the python seriously hurt, police say.

Police were called to the northern part of the city on Thursday evening expecting to respond to an assault.
While officers were speaking to David Senk, 54, found lying at the scene, a witness accused him of taking two bites out of the snake.
The python is recovering after being given emergency surgery.
It was turned over to the city's Animal Care Services after losing a few ribs.
"She's doing well," Gina Knepp, acting animal care services manager, told the Sacramento Bee. "We did surgery on her last night and I think we saved her life."
Mr Senk was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully maiming or mutilating a reptile.
While in jail, Mr Senk told local media that he had no memory of the incident and that he had a drinking problem.

Meerkat pups debut at Kirkcudbright wildlife park

Five meerkat pups have made their debut appearance at a wildlife park in Kirkcudbright, about three weeks after they were born.

The meerkat pups are making their first visit outside their underground burrow

The pups were born underground and only opened their eyes when they were two weeks old.Their appearance at Galloway Wildlife Conservation Park is their first visit outside their underground burrow.

Conservation manager John Denerley said: "The five pups at only 10cm tall are still being nursed by mum,"

"[They] have started to eat mealworms, fruit and one even tried a locust but seemed to have more fun carrying it around."

Diurnal creatures

Meerkats are active during the day and forage together as a mob in the morning and evening, shading under bushes or underground during the hottest part of the day.

They typically live in social groups of between three and 50 with a clearly dominant breeding pair.

Last year, a pair of meerkat babies became the first pups to be born at the conservation park for four years.

Beyoncé reveals she's pregnant

Beyonce revealed her pregnancy after performing at the show - courtesy MTV Video Music Awards

Beyonce's pregnancy news at Sunday night's MTV video music awards (VMAs) has broken a Twitter record.

Users on the microblogging site posted 8,868 tweets per second when the singer showed off her baby bump after her performance at the event.
The previous record was 7,196 after Japan's win over the US in the women's World Cup final in July.
This will be the first child for 29-year-old Beyonce and her husband of three years Jay-Z, who is 41.

It's raining money! Chaos on Dutch motorway

Drivers couldn't believe their eyes when it started raining money on the Dutch A2 on Monday. A money transporter had lost a container containing innumerable Euro notes – which were all flying about on the motorway.

The A2 motorway near Maastricht was dotted with Euro notes on Monday: tenners, twenties and fifties were scattered around the road near Esloo in the south of the Netherlands.
The unexpected money shower caused huge traffic jams, as many motorists decided to stop and pick up some dosh. Police took over an hour in order to get the traffic flow back to normal.
While most motorists handed back the money they found to the police, some managed to sneak away with a few notes. It is not yet clear as to how much money was lost during the incident.
An investigation is now being launched into how it could be that the back door of the money transporter opened up and lost these valuable goods…

UK's atomic clock 'is world's most accurate'

An atomic clock at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has the best long-term accuracy of any in the world, research has found.

Studies of the clock's performance, to be published in the journal Metrologia, show it is nearly twice as accurate as previously thought.

The clock would lose or gain less than a second in some 138 million years.

The UK is among the handful of nations providing a "standard second" that keeps the world on time.

However, the international race for higher accuracy is always on, meaning the record may not stand for long.

Inside the clock, caesium atoms are gathered into bunches of 100 million or so, and passed through a cavity where they are exposed to these electromagnetic waves.

The colour, or frequency, is adjusted until the spins are seen to flip - then the researchers know the waves are at the right frequency to define the second.

At the last count in 2010, the UK's atomic clock was on a par with the best of them in terms of long-term accuracy: to about one part in 2,500,000,000,000,000.

5 9 EARTHQUAKE Virginia East Coast USA, BREAKING NEWS, 5.9 RICHTER SCALE

5.9M Earthquake Rocks Virginia East Coast USA

A magnitude-5.9 earthquake has struck the east coast of the United States.

The quake was felt in Washington, where the Pentagon and US Capitol Building were evacuated, as well as in New York.

There were no immediate reports of any major damage or injuries.

Scottish SPCA helps silly cow remove head from ladder

Poor cow!

                        

An animal charity has rescued a cow in South Ayrshire which got its head stuck in a ladder.

Members of the public called the Scottish SPCA after spotting the bewildered beast in a field beside the Troon to Barassie road last month.

An inspector contacted the farmer who owned the Belgian Blue bullock and helped return it to the herd unharmed.

The farmer, who recently took on the lease to the land, said he had no idea how the ladder ended up in the field.

'Surprisingly calm'

Scottish SPCA Inspector Kerry Kirkpatrick contacted the farmer after being alerted to the cow's plight.

He said: "When the job came through my first thought was, this is a wind up, but I arrived at the field to find the cow looking confused but surprisingly calm despite having his head wedged tightly in between the rungs of the ladder.

"The farmer's family rounded up the whole herd into a holding pen and we managed to gently pull the ladder off the cow's head.

"The farmer had no idea how the ladder ended up in his field as he only recently took on the lease for the land. It may have been used to patch up a hole in the fence or it could have fallen off a passing van or lorry. Either way, it's a rescue I won't forget in a while."

Teen Awards

Highlights from the Teen Awards

Can polar bears and people coexist?

CUTE  BUT  DANGEROUS!

We have an odd relationship with polar bears.

As we watch them pace inside their zoo enclosures, or marvel at their portrayal within natural history documentaries, we are drawn to their big paws, fluffy white fur and button-like black noses. We find polar bear cubs adorable.

We grant them special status, elevating polar bears to represent all that is most majestic about the frozen parts of our planet.

Yet we often forget that polar bears are killers.

It is in their nature. As the top carnivore in their icy world, and the largest land predator alive, polar bears hunt to survive, mainly stalking other large mammals such as seals, walruses and whales.

Occasionally, and tragically, we now know, they will also kill people, as evidenced by the death of a young British tourist in Norway and the mauling of four others.

Incidents like this, however, could become more common.

The reason is climate change. As rising temperatures melt the sea ice, the number of polar bears may rapidly dwindle. That could mean that there are far fewer bears surviving for people to come into conflict with. But if polar bear numbers fall, we may revere them even more, with more tourists and adventurers flocking to catch a final glimpse of these animals.

If the sea ice retreats, it will also mean that more polar bears will be forced to hunt further inland. And that means more polar bears roaming around parts of the Arctic and sub-Arctic that people call home.

A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E !!!

Online Vocabulary Games

Don't know what to do with your time these summer holidays?
Try these games!



http://www.vocabulary.co.il/





http://www.vocabulary.com/






http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/





                                             

                               http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm

http://www.hangman.learningtogether.net/sports/index.htm
http://www.hangman.learningtogether.net/countries/index.htm

 Search for other Hangman Games
http://www.hangman.learningtogether.net/
http://www.manythings.org/hmf/8963.htm

Hangman game

Indonesians flee volcano eruption on Sulawesi

Thousands of people on an Indonesian island have been forced to flee a fierce volcanic eruption.

Beautifully scary!

Mount Lokon spewed ash, sand and rocks thousands of metres into the air

Mount Lokon, on Sulawesi, started erupting at around 2230 local time (1530 GMT) on Thursday, according to reports.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The last month has seen a significant rise in volcanic activity in the area, and the alert status was raised to the highest level just days ago.

The eruption saw ash, sand and rocks thrown 1,500m (4,800ft) into the air, government volcanologist Kristianto was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

A 3.5-km (two mile) evacuation zone was established last weekend, within which around 28,000 people live, of whom 4,400 have been moved so far.

"There is no mass panic because the community has already been warned of the situation and we are continuing to evacuate people," Kristianto added.

Among the dozens of volcanoes in Indonesia, the 1,580-metre (5,184ft) Mount Lokon is one of the most active. It last erupted in 1991.

RoboCup football world cup for robots in Istanbul

Humanoid and wheel robots have battled it out in Istanbul for the coveted title of global number one mechanical superstars.

RoboCup 2011 puts engineers from 40 countries to the test.

The annual challenge is aimed at building a robot one day with enough artificial intelligence to beat humans on the pitch

East Africa drought: DEC appeals for funds

 The Horn of Africa (Eastern Africa) is facing the worst drought in 60 years

 

Watch, think and take decisions, NOW!

Zebra crossed with donkey

Donkra?  Zonkey?

Cute, he is!

A rare offspring of a female zebra and a male donkey has been born at the Haicang Zoo in China.

According to zoo officials, the donkra nearly died during delivery but is now doing well.

The animal stands at one metre tall and already weighs 30kg (66lb).

Eric Camara reports.

Watch this!

Firefighters free kitten trapped inside a pipe

So small and so cute!

Look how luky Piper was!

Firefighters in a small town in California are congratulating themselves after rescuing a four-week-old kitten from inside a length of pipe.

A concerned citizen dropped off the pipe at the fire department last week saying a cat was stuck inside.

With the help of a mechanical pipe cutter the firefighters gently cut it in half and freed the tiny animal. They decided to call the kitten Piper.

Speaking in this video are Mike Anderson and John Clark of the Redding Fire Departmen

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer Official HD (Part 2)

At last!

The longest lunar eclipse in nearly 11 years!

Skywatchers in parts of Europe, Africa, Central Asia and Australia have been observing the longest full lunar eclipse in nearly 11 years.

It occurs when the Earth casts a shadow over the Moon but indirect sunlight can still illuminate the surface turning it a dramatic shade of red.

How pasta became the world's favourite food

Do you like pasta too?

Pasta has topped a global survey of the world's favourite foods. So how did the dish so closely associated with Italy become a staple of so many tables around the globe?

While not everyone knows the difference between farfalle, fettuccine and fusilli, many people have slurped over a bowl of spaghetti bolognese or tucked into a plate of lasagne.

Certainly in British households, spaghetti bolognese has been a regular feature of mealtimes since the 1960s. It's become a staple of children's diets, while a tuna-pasta-sweetcorn concoction can probably be credited with sustaining many students through their years at university.

But now a global survey by the charity Oxfam has named pasta as the world's most popular dish, ahead of meat, rice and pizza. As well as being popular in unsurprising European countries, pasta was one of the favourites in the Philippines, Guatemala, Brazil and South Africa.

Dyfi osprey produces first osprey chicks for 400 years

The two ospreys chicks at the Cors Dyfi reserve are doing well

Wildlife experts are celebrating the arrival of two osprey chicks at a nature reserve in Powys.

Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust said it was the first time in 400 years the birds had bred in the Dyfi valley, near Machynlleth.

The trust had been waiting two years for romance to blossom when at Easter adult ospreys Monty and Nora produced three eggs.

On its website, Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's Dyfi Osprey Project said: "On Sunday 5 June, at 1:10pm, the first osprey chick began to make its way into the world.

Continue reading the main story

“

Start Quote

This is a wondrous event for us, and for the ospreys”

Emyr EvansDyfi Osprey Project manager

"Within two hours, the first chick had emerged, closely watched by proud parents Monty and Nora.

"The second chick finally struggled free of the egg at 6:35am on Monday 6 June."

Dyfi Osprey Project manager, Emyr Evans said: "This is a wondrous event for us, and for the ospreys.

"It was in 1604 that ospreys were last recorded breeding on the Dyfi and now we are witnessing history in the making.

"The osprey is Wales' rarest bird of prey and today we are delighted to be able to say that Wales has two breeding pairs. It's incredible to think that the last time an osprey chick hatched in the Dyfi estuary, James I had just succeeded Elizabeth I to the throne.".

THE HOUSE



http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=44

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1684

Who has a mother has everything!

Watch this scene! So tender so careful!
This cat mom really loves her child

Past Simple Questions

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simple-past/exercises?06 ( Direct questions)

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/simple_past.htm(Direct questions)

http://members.iinet.net.au/~adelegc/grammar/past_tense/past_simple_quests2.html (WH questions)

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/pastnq3.htm ( WH-questions)

http://members.iinet.net.au/~adelegc/grammar/past_tense/past_simple_quests2.html (mixed)

http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/project3rdedition/level2/unit3/grammar/exercise5 ( mixed)

Mapman Game

Welcome to the Mapman® Game. Scholastic's cartographer, Jim McMahon, has written four questions for you which will score instantly after you answer each one. Don't worry. If you don't know the answer, Mapman has a tip to help you figure it out. Click on Tips and Hints for the information.

And check back soon for an all-new set of questions!

Click on the link to access the game

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/games_quizzes/mapman/index.asp

Look Out, Exploding Fruit!

Chemicals have caused thousands of oversized watermelons in China to burst open.

China is facing an explosive problem. Thousands of watermelons pumped with a chemical that quickens and increases growth have burst open, affecting 115 acres of farmland.

The chemical was used late in the season, which made the melons more likely to burst. Heavy rains only added to the problem. Soon, 20 farmers near Danyang City, China, found their fields littered with exploded melons.

“On May 7, I came out and counted 80 [burst watermelons], but by the afternoon it was 100,” farmer Liu Mingsuo told China Central Television. “Two days later, I didn't bother to count anymore.” The ruined crops were fed to fish and pigs.

Chinese farmers often double as migrant workers, or workers who travel to other farms to help harvest crops. They sometimes do not have enough time to work on their own farms. So they rely on special chemicals that make fruits and vegetables grow faster and larger.

Blind boy uses his ears to 'see'

Lucas uses the same echolocation technique that bats and dolphins use

A seven-year-old blind boy has been taught to "see" using his ears.

Lucas Murray from Poole in Dorset has learned to use echoes to picture the world around him - similar to sonar techniques used by bats and dolphins.

He clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth and from the sound that returns he tries to work out the distance, shape, density and position of objects.

The echolocation technique has helped Lucas, who was born blind, play basketball and rock climb.

He was taught the system by blind Californian Daniel Kish, 43, who founded the World Access for the Blind charity.

Lucas's parents Sarah and Iain saw Mr Kish on TV and asked him to visit.

Mr Kish said: "Lucas is one of the first in the UK to use this technique.

"He is able to click his tongue and determine where things are around him and what things are around him and he is able to travel comfortably without holding on to people.

"The click basically emanates a sound which bounces off the environment a bit like the flash of a camera."