Travelling and Holidays

Hello there!
Watch this video and revise and extend the vocabulary we've seen in class.

Now go HERE and learn all you need about airport vocabulary.

Psychics, Fortune Tellers and the like...

Hello everyone,

Here we have three activities to work with> 1) reading for pleasure; 2) video and questions; 3) Reading and creating your own questions:

___________________________________________________READING 1_____

Psychic readings are more than just predicting the future. They are true spiritual consultations. In many ways, talking to a psychic is like talking to a therapist or a good friend. They will listen to you and offer suggestions, all the while reminding you that you have free will.

Overall a psychic reading will give you a little more clarity to your situation. It may also give you information that you were not quite ready for, but a psychic’s job is to help you, not tell you what you want to hear. Although some details may be slightly challenging, a reading will give you some a-ha moments and enlighten you.

Fortune telling is often synonymous with psychic reading, and while they share certain element, they are not one in the same. Many times fortune telling is focused on the future rather than taking a holistic view of people and their problems. You may find that a fortuneteller asks you a lot questions in order to gain information or “hits.”

If you are seeing a fortuneteller in person, you’ll be sized up by your appearance, mannerisms, speech, etc. These techniques are known as “cold reading.” The idea is for the reader to pick up signals in order to gain knowledge about you to use for a reading. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you may not end up with an authentic reading.

When having your fortune told, you are often given vague details. You may be told that you will meet a new lover or that money is coming your way. They rarely mention free will or your own self-empowerment. You will often be told what you want to hear, not what will truly help you on your path. 

Essentially it’s a parlor trick—fun and exciting for the time being—but not to be taken seriously.

____________________________________VIDEO and QUESTIONS___________

(C) Questions by Cristina 

Watch the video and answer the questions:

1  For how long has Amanda been a psychic?

2  When did she realize she was a psychic medium?

3  In which period of her life did she disconnect from seeing spirits?

4  What does she call the second sight?

5 Are there other people in her family with it?

6  What did she use to do throughout her teen years at family get-togethers? Did she enjoy it?

7 How does she get the messages from the spirits? What happens when they communicate with her? How does she see and feel them?

8  How many spiritual guides does she have? Are they always there? Are the messages clear?

9  Does she ever lose her psychic ability?

________________________________________READING 2__________

 READ this text about PALMISTRY and MAKE/ WRITE FIVE questions to ask your partners next day in class:

From Chinese Palmistry (Chinese Palm Reading)

Palmistry with the meaning of palm reading or hand prediction is to learn about a person’s personality, fortune and future by analyzing his/her hands. It is also called Chiromancy. By reading one’s palm lines, hand shape and size, finger length and flexibility, fingernail…, we can predict their character traits, health, wealth, wisdom, career, marriage and many more aspects.
The palmistry has its roots in Indian, Chinese astrology as well as Roman fortune-telling.

Before reading your palm, you should choose the right hand to read and the left for supplement. 

    The life line is one of the three major lines in palm reading. It starts from the palm edge between the thumb and forefinger and extends to the base of the thumb. You can find its exact location from the left picture.

Most of the people may think the line is used to see the length of one's life. It's a partial understanding. In fact, it mainly reflects a person's physical vitality and life energy. Also, it shows if one will have accidents or serious illnesses during the whole life.

 If other lines of your palm are clear and only the life line is absent, it's not a good sign. It indicates a poor health and a short life. You are easy to get sick or have accidents during the whole life.

 A long, deep, tender and rosy life line stands for that you are highly resistant to disease. On the contrary, the short life line shows you are susceptible to illness.

A broken life line represents an unexpected accident, danger, disaster or illness during the life. The greater the interval is, the longer the illness will last. 

    The heart line (also called love line) is just above the head line starting from the edge of the palm under the little finger, running across the palm and ending below the middle finger or forefinger or the place where they join. 

 The heart line usually shows a person's attitude to love and quality of love. Whether you have a deep affection or not, your emotion is complicated or simple, if your love and marriage life go smoothly and whether you could have a good personal relationship can all be reflected from the line.  

In general, if your heart line is deep, clear, curved, unbroken, not mixed or disorderly and extends to the forefinger or between the forefinger and middle finger, you have a good love life and emotion. If there are two or three forks at the end, it’s much better. It shows you are responsible, good - hearted, friendship weight and popular among friends.

    The head line (also wisdom line) is the second important line in palm reading. It starts from the palm edge between the thumb and forefinger, and extends across the palm in the middle part with the life line below and the  above. You can find its exact location from the left picture. 

The head line reveals a person's wisdom, belief, attitude, thinking ability, strain capacity, creative ability as well as abilities of memory, self-control and more. 

In general, a deep and thin head line is good for a person. If you have such a line, it indicates you are smart. 

____________________________________________________________________

Have a nice weekend!!!

Do you?

                      DISAGREEING

I’ve been to Mexico >>> I haven’t. What’s  it like?

I like eating snails>>>I don’t. I think they are disgusting

I didn’t watch TV last night.>>> I did. I saw a great comedy film

I am a fan of George Clooney  >>>I am not. I prefer John Malkovich

I can’t relax easily >>> I can. Have you tried doing yoga?

AGREEING

I’ve been to Mexico >>> So have I.

I like eating snails>> So do I.

I didn’t watch TV last night.>>> Neither did I.

I am a fan of George Clooney  >>>So am I.

I can’t relax easily >>> Neither can I.
ALSO: 
My car needs cleaning >> So does mine.
You shouldn't arrive late >>Neither should you! 

 Showing surprise (Echo questions)

I've been to Brazil twice. -Have you?
My parents have never travelled. -Havent't they?
Susie is ill. -Is she?
We are eaing out tonight. -Are you?
This is my first class. -Is it?
I can't swim. -Can't you?

FOR Further practice

Click HERE and HERE

;-)

Unit 1 (question formation and phrasal verbs)

To revise the question formation : Visit this post and this one.




PHRASAL VERBS

In this exercise you must read the sentence and the clue in brackets and try to put an appropriate phrasal verb in the correct tense in the gaps. The missing phrasal verbs are popular.

1 – This is a pretty dress. Shall I ------ it ---? ( to see if something fits or looks good on you )
2 – The pasta has gone bad. I should --------- it ------. ( to put something in the rubbish bin )
3 – I know that learning English is difficult, but don't ------ ---. ( to stop doing something )
4 – We are going to miss our flight. -------- ---! (to move/do something quicker )
5 – She's on the other line, could you ------- --- a minute please? ( To wait a little )
6 – I gave you some money last week. Can you ---- me ----- please? (to give money to someone who borrowed it to you)
7 – Don't stop writing. -------- ---. (to continue doing something )
8 – Some agents came to my school, so I ------- them ----------. ( to take someone on a tour )
9 – Could you ----- your cigarette ---- please? ( to extinguish/switch something off )
10 – Please ------- --- this word in the dictionary. I don't know how it's spelt. ( to check the meaning/spelling of a word)

Phrasal Verbs

A – hurry up
B - go on 
C – look up 
D – put out
E – pay back
F – hold on
G – throw away 
H – show / around
I – try on
J – give up

 from Nicoletta Di Gia, EC Cape Town English School

ANSWERS IN CLASS!
______________________________________________
Now you can watch this video and the ones which follow to learn some phrasal verbs further.

Happy weekend!

Hello! 2018/19

 Welcome 

I hope you have a gorgeous year!

A visit to Our Museum

"You use a glass mirror to see your face, you use works of art to see your soul."

(George Bernard Shaw)

Dear students,
You did the job of outstanding guides for the works of art of those artists whose exhibitions are permanent in the museun Casa Gourié in our town, Arucas.

Thanks also to the museum staff for letting us do the activity there.

Santiago Santana Díaz

Santiago Santana Díaz was born in 1909 in Arucas, although he moved from an early age to Moya. In 1923, he received his first scholarship and he studied in Madrid. He travelled to Paris in 1932 with another scholarship from the Cabildo where he attended the Free Academy. There he receives influence from the works of Modigliani and Cezanne. In 1933 he studied at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Barcelona where he receives classes of sculpture and ceramics and eventually exhibits in the gallery Syra ( Barcelona). He also exhibits in the Balearics and in Madrid where he shows the landscapes and flora of Gran Canaria. After that period, he returns to this island and becomes director of the School Luján Pérez where he would work for thirteen years.

Santana  is usually defined as a multifaceted genius (urbanist, draftsman, painter, ceramist, sculptor and cultural advisor). He mixes classicism (and its harmony) with  modernity , represented in the ‘indigenista’ character influenced in its passage by the School of Luján Pérez. As a faithful indigenist painter, he translates his interest in popular culture into architecture. For this reason, he chooses those simple buildings that do not clash with the landscape, using materials of the place for his works of art (sand, clay…)

In 1948, Santana intervened, among other works, in the refurbishment  of the House of Columbus , mainly carving the facades overlooking  Calle Herrería and  Plaza del Pilar Nuevo in Las Palmas, as well as El Pueblo Canario. In Arucas he acted in the remodelling of Casa de la Cultura, helped by the labeler (labrante) Pedro Pérez Viera. He also worked in the design of the square and church of San Andrés, as well as in some paintings inside the church.

A faithful example of Santiago Santana's pictorial work is in the hall of the municipal museum that bears his name. From the pictorial collection we will highlight the work entitled "Escorzo de mujer" or " Mujer Tumbada ". It uses the so-called mixed technique, which means the use of various techniques: oil, almagre, earth .... As we contemplate this canvas, we admire the careful stylization of the drawing of bodies, barely veiled by simple tunics; the delicacy of color, almost always based on white, gray, blue and pink ranges; the balance of the composition, not subjected to stress, naturally assembled all its elements. Nothing tragic seems to be in this harmonious and flowing world.

With this work, Santana demonstrates his love for the popular, creating an insular Indian painting, and  showing his preference especially for the Canary woman. The clear and vital colors, together with the full and compact forms, present a woman of humble and hardworking condition (peasants, fishermen, washerwomen) often solitary . He likes to  draw /paint these women with big hands and feet,  which involves their work and effort. Santana was a singer of the southern woman, with thick lips and broad cheekbones, who alone faces the work of the field and the care of the children.

(Anabel & Brenda)

Guillermo Sureda Arbelo

Sureda was born in Arucas in 1912 and he moved with his family  to Santa Cruz de Tenerife at the age of 14. There  he studied at the School of Arts and Crafts. Since his childhood, Sureda demonstrated a great ability to perceive and feel, that manifested itself, professionally, in a great skill for the drawing and for the music, arts that  he initially discovered in an autodidact way. This quality along with his sociable character, the search for perfection and detail, as well as that interest in everything around him, especially for the stories of the people, was reflected in his paintings.

Guillermo Sureda has excelled in the field of painting for the use of watercolor, managing to perfect this technique to the point of being recognized internationally. Perhaps the choice of this technique was due to its spontaneous nature, its sensitivity together with the somewhat impulsive desire for the work to take place.

Sureda's extraordinary manual dexterity coupled with his capturing ability has always allowed him a speed, almost without limit, to execute a landscape. On many occasions, he dropped  the drawing and attacked them directly with the colours. The brushstroke is therefore loose, quick, lively, simple, full of colour and light. With the watercolour, he manages to reflect with total mastery the transparent effects of the water and its reflections, as well as the luminosity of the landscapes.

His bohemian life led him to represent countless landscapes and urban scenes from different places, like London, Venezuela, Puerto Rico or  the Caribbean and of course,  his homeland. Hence, it is said that he was a man of two worlds: the Old World and America, especially of Puerto Rico, defining himself as the pictorial singer of San Juan, its capital.

 However, he also stands out for the strength of his portraits, generally, of anonymous people. This choice leads him to represent, with care and dedication, the humble and sincere expression of his models, their typical clothes and their customs.

(Alexandra)

Manolo Ramos González

Full name: Manuel Esteban de los Reyes Ramos González . He is one of the Spanish sculptors of all time. His timid personality, calm and confident, led him not to sign many of his works, conforming to the client's knowledge. He was very critical of his own production so, on many occasions, he destroyed his sculptures or drawings.

 Ramos was born in Arucas in 1899. From  1921 to 1925  he studied  in San Fernando school and some times worked in Miguel Blay’s workshop as his pupil. Later he lived for some time in Paris where he sold his works in the streets. After that, he travelled to London where he left a few busts, two of them in Lord Carlaysle’s collection. He comes back at the time of the Civil War.  EL Cristo Yacente belongs to this period. This breathtaking sculpture  we find in Arucas church. It  is made of  wood and stands out for the treatment of the nude and the expressive  power of the head. It shows on the whole the great knowledge Ramos had of the human body.

The way  Manolo Ramos carves his sculptures  is, above all, figurative. He always looks for the motives in which you can unleash the violent movements and positions of the human body . He  cultivated with equal profusion the subjects of religious and profane character. Within the profane subjects portraits, nudes, and, to a lesser extent, racial subjects, children, maternities and animals abound.

Manolo Ramos basically worked the wood, especially the noble one, like the barbarian, the cedar, the mahogany or the ebony. But he  also carved the stone and sometimes used the bronze.

In the room there are interesting drawings made with coal where he carefully studies the forms of the human body and the expressions of the faces. Of great expressive force is the theme Canary peasants where he reflects the principles of the Canary indigenismo in every detail: the hardness of their faces by the work and the suffering, the clothes, etc., but within a great harmony and serenity. That is to say, Manolo Ramos reflects the social concern, not based on an exaltation of the worker, but of a certain denunciation, putting itself face to face with the harsh reality of the disinherited, but with a bitter tint, almost leaving no chink for a solution.. .

(Ignacio)

Abraham Cárdenes and his students

He was born in Tejeda and he entered the Luján Pérez School. He founded the Municipal Academies of Fine Arts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1942-1971), playing the role of director.

Boys and girls of different ages and social and cultural conditions gathered around him so as to learn from his work. It was a public with a common interest:  the illusion and the fascinating attraction of Abraham Cárdenes, who had an absorbing personality and leonine head.

He was always cheerful, affable and optimistic in the face of adversity, his life evolved around his work,  and  later around his disciples. On many occasions, the work of his pupils presented in exhibitions, competed with his.

Several authors, some of them disciples of Cárdenes, emphasized his high sense of friendship, the goodness of his heart and his disconcerting cordiality. For example, Santiago Vargas, speaks of his vigor and vehemence, always smiling in spite of misfortune and misunderstanding. In the same way, Berlamiño, stands out his ingenuity and bohemian romanticism.

His art was original as he was himself, unmistakable, arrogant, grim, strong, expressive, vigorous and Cyclopean. The mountain, the rocks and the pyramid are his starting point, adjusting the forms to this short conception. He is, therefore, a giant sculptor in the style of Michelangelo. He does not add strange grafts of sculptures  to the Canary race or to the integrity of nature…

(Carmen)

Animals

How much vocabulary about animals are you familiar with?
Let's look at some