How to Write a Book Review

Book reports and book reviews are similar. Book reports tend to be a little more descriptive (What is this book about?) and book reviews are usually more persuasive (Why a reader should or shouldn't read this book). Both offer a combination of summary and commentary.
They are a way to think more deeply about a book you've read and to demonstrate your understanding.

General elements of a book review:
      
      Introduction
Here you want to provide basic information about the book, and a sense of what your review will be about. You should include:

• Title (underlined)/Author
• Publication Information: Publisher, year, number of pages
• Genre
• A brief (1-2 sentences) introduction to the book and the review.

        Body
There are two main sections for this part. The first is an explanation of what the book is about. The second is your opinions about the book and how successful it is.
Explain the author's purpose and/or the main themes of the book. Then you can summarize.
Provide brief descriptions of the setting, the point of view (who tells the story), the protagonist , and other major characters. If there is a distinct mood or tone, discuss that as well.
Give a concise plot summary. Along with the sequence of major events, you may want to discuss the book's climax and resolution, and/or literary devices such as foreshadowing. But be careful not to give away important plot details or the ending.
Analysis and Evaluation
In this section you analyze or critique the book. You can write about your own opinions; just be sure that you explain and support them with examples. Some questions you might want to consider:

• Did the author achieve his or her purpose?
• Is the writing effective, powerful, difficult, beautiful?
• What are the strengths and weaknesss of the book?
• What is your overall response to the book? Did you find it interesting, moving, dull?
• Would you recommend it to others? Why or why not?

    Conclusion
Briefly conclude by pulling your thoughts together. You may want to say what impression the book left you with, or emphasize what you want your reader to know about it.

(adapted from http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreporths.html)

Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol (2011) Official Trailer

"The mission, should you choose to accept it, ..."
An excellent example of 1st conditional inversion:

I Wish You A Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & may all your dreams come true
More Christmas stuff here

Fining parents

A discussion on Five News about fining parents over their children's absence from school.

Truancy

Here's the video we watched in class. Below you can find some vocab to help you understand it.



supply teacher: a teacher employed to replace other teachers when they are absent
kit: clothes and equipment needed for a sport
uncommunicative: not willing to talk or to give information
boundaries: the limits of an activity or experience
standards: principles of propriety, honesty, and integrity
let someone have their way: allow them to have or do what they want

Stand up straight!

This is the listening we did the other day about posture.
Many of us do not stand, sit or walk correctly and according to research, people in the UK have the worst posture in Europe. Join Rosie and Kate as they discuss the problems a bad posture can cause and hear from an expert about how we should be walking.

Download the audio
Read the transcript

Spain's Stolen Babies

Katya meets the heartbroken families in Spain searching for their children and the trafficked babies, now grown up, searching for their biological relatives and their true identities.
Listen to the report from the BBC World Service: Download audio

Find out more about this news here

Psycho & Poltergeist

Since we've been talking about horror films, here's the trailer for Hitchcock's
Psycho and Spielberg's Poltergeist.

This is the first reading for this course. Click on the title to find some information about the book and also read an extract from the novel, Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes.

Secrets of Body Language

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously.
In this documentary we can see examples of famous people's body language.

The Human Face

This is from a BBC series which tries to uncover the secrets of the human face.
The presenter is John Cleese accompanied in sketches by actress Liz Hurley for a touch of humour.

Mobile madness Game

 See if you can understand text messages.

Play the game by clicking here.

Too easy? Try these.

ETA Separatist Group Declares End to Violence

ETA Basque separatist group published an official statement declaring the end of its violent campaign which started in the late 1960s.



You can read the transcript here

Body Language

Robert Phipps on the Five O'Clock Show with host Richard Hammond giving tips on how to catch a liar by watching their body language.

Wordmaster

Play the game to test your vocabulary skills. There are thousands of words to practise and 3 levels of difficulty: Wordmaster

The Course Book

Hi everyone,
The coursebook is Upstream Proficiency from Express Publishing.

Spider-Man the musical opens in Broadway, again.

"Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" finally had its opening night Tuesday, and the show once beleaguered by a sluggish plot, scathing criticism and an injured cast has in many ways redeemed itself, but critics are still mixed on whether the production is a true theatrical success.

Rows over cucumber E.coli outbreak

A row's broken out over the cucumber E.coli outbreak as Andalucia's government say Germans blame Spanish cucumbers for the illness.

Informe Semanal Report on the Centennial of the Official Language School

You can watch it here

Sports News Golfing Legend Severiano Ballesteros Dies at Age 54

After an extended battle with brain cancer, golfing genius Severiano Ballesteros passed away on May 7, 2011 at age 54.

Spain rocked by earthquake

Emergency services are sifting their way through rubble from collapsed buildings in the Spanish town of Lorca after an earthquake which left eight dead.


It's reported as many as a third of the town's 90,000 residents spent the night outdoors after the 5.3 magnitude earthquake.


A military task force of 200 troops is in the area backing up emergency services and providing aid.


Earthquakes with substantial damage are rare in Spain although the south of the country has extensive faultlines.


Roger Musson, a seismologist at the British Geological Survey, said: "It's only really caused such damage because it was so shallow and the epicentre was so close to the town of Lorca. A magnitude 5.2 is not that big - it's not considered a large earthquake."


Dozens of injured people were treated at the scene and a field hospital was set up in the town with a population of around 85,000.

April Fool's Day

Last Friday was April Fool's Day and it's traditional for the media, companies and individuals to play pranks. Among the pranksters you can find Ikea, RyanAir, The Independent, The Daily Mail, Google or the BBC.
Read this to find out more.
You can also watch a couple videos:

Key to self-assessment module 2

Here you can find the key to self-assessment module 2

A tongue twister

 This is a slightly different version of the tongue twister I taught you today you can see in Singin' in the Rain:

The classic version goes:

Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
but Moses supposes erroneously;
for nobody's toeses are posies of roses,
as Moses supposes his toeses to be.

The film version goes:

Moses supposes his toeses are Roses,
But Moses supposes Erroneously,
Moses he knowses his toeses aren't roses,
As Moses supposes his toeses to be!

How To Pack Everything For Your Vacation Into a Carry-on

Here it is: another chance to watch and listen to this.

Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Worsens

Rapping safety information

Because some people like to do things differently:

Key to exercises 38 & 39, unit 4

Exercise 38:

have give either/usually on At is tend on

within enough/any To ahead plenty because/as/since at

Exercise 39:

charitably unforgettable significance useless contentedly

deterrents distraction turbulence barely salted

George Carlin - Airline announcements

The truth about airline talk


VOCAB
bogus = fake
Dr Pepper = a soft drink brand name
Kahlua = a coffee-flavored liqueur

And here's the link to a site with the text

Japan hit by Tsunami

A couple videos on the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan which triggered a tsunami that has killed hundreds of people.

Oil Prices Up: Why?

Here again is the video for today's listening exercise:

 

Vocab: gouge is slang for swindle

March composition

Just wanted to remind you that the March composition will be done in class on the 23rd.

Podcasts

If you spend a bit of time travelling between home, work and school you may be interested in podcasts.
Podcasts are multimedia files distributed over the internet for playback on a mobile device or a personal computer.
In this case they're programmes which you can download and listen to on your mp3 player, ipod, etc.
You can sort them out by average duration to fit your needs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts
These are for English learners:
http://www.englishmeeting.com/esl_podcast_page.htm

How To Cope With a Fear Of Flying

Since unit 4 deals with means of transport, this video could be interesting:

How To Cope With a Fear Of Flying on Howcast

London

Here's a presentation about London:

Listening exercise: Would you buy carrot snacks from vending machines?

Watch the video and answer these questions:
- What's the difference between the carrot vending machine and the other snack machines?
- What's the price of the bag and how many carrots does it contain?
- What are the expectations expressed by the interviewees?






Now watch one of the commercials for this campaign. 
Do you think it will be successful?
What does the male voice in off say?
What is this commercial a parody of?

Key to the self-assessment for module 1

By popular demand here is the link to download the key to the self-assessment  for module 1.
 It's in PDF format.
Click here for the Key

Extended screen time linked to depression

According to a study, children who watch television or use a computer for more than two hours a day are more likely to experience psychological problems down the road.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

NY subway riders drop their pants

Jan 9 - Thousands of New York subway commuters go pantless on the trains for the annual ''No Pants Subway Ride'' event. 

- What do you think about these people?
- Are they crazy or would you like to join them?

The smoking ban: the day after

How do you feel about the ban? Are you for or against?

Spain's new ban on smoking takes effect

The new antismoking law has taken effect. How do you feel about it? Leave a comment!
This is how foreign TV has covered the news.