Five years
ago, I had one of the most exciting and interesting experiences of my life. In
fact, I can say that there was a before and an after of my volunteering
experience at the NGO: Fundación Vicente
Ferrer. There, I didvolunteer work teaching
English and German to women from different rural areas in the RDT Professional
School in Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh / Telangana state in southeast India).
During
these six months a little seed was introduced to me that would go, without me
realizing it, germinating and growing inside me. After a long literary
pregnancy I have given birth to triplets, all of them born of the same mother
but speaking 3 different languages: Valencian, Spanish and English. However,
the brothers, despite having a different language, are able to communicate and
transmit the same message. The triplets want to make us aware of the reality of
three Indian women in three different life stages. In spite of undergoing so
many difficulties, they will not surrender but will fight for what they really
long for.
The title Veera Naari means brave women in Telugu,
the local language of the state of Andhra Pradesh / Telangana. The book has
explanatory notes at the end of each story because it has a didactic purpose.
It is aimed not only at a young audience, but also adult.
It can be
purchased in paper version or e-book in the following link:
Why Do Cats Sleep in Unusual
Places? - Simon's Cat
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1. How many cats has Simon had in his life?
2. What did his second cat , Chloe, use to love?
3. Where do cats usually like to sleep?
4. What are they fond of?
5. What kind of hiding places can you find for them to
sleep?
Let sleeping cats lie
6. Complete the following sentence:
Please,
resist the temptation to ____them ___
7. How many hours do cats sleep a day? What sort of
cats do preferably do this?
8. What do cats
usually do as soon as you get up? Why?
9. Why do cats love laundry?
10. Why do cats prefer dirty or clean laundry?
11. What do cats do when the sleeping place is a box,
a laundry pile or a suitcase?
Cats that sleep together
12. Complete the sentences:
a) If cats are
sleeping together with interlocking paws, grooming each other or rubbing
against each other, this is because they___________________________________
b) If they are carefully spaced out on the bed, in a
crouched position and they avoid eye contact with the other cats
they__________________________________
13. Do cats dream? What do R.E.M stand for?
14. What do other owners like to think when their cats
are twitching or moving their paws?
Simon´s real cats sleeping places
15. Why does Hugh make Simon smile?
16. What is Teddy´s favourite place?
17. What is Jess´s favourite sleeping place?
18. What does Simon have to do on his bed?
19. Where does Maisy, the ginormous cat, sleep and what
does she do?
Words from the video:
To sneak-
to move in a furtive way.(ir a hurtadillas)
To tumble dry- to dry
clothes with a dryer.
Interlocking paws- connected, joined together.
To Groom- to clean its fur or hair made by using the tongue.
To crouch-adopt a
position where the knees are bent and the upper body is brought forward and
down,
Polytunnel-a tunnel
typically made from steel and covered in polythene, usually semi-circular.
Overgrown-covered with
plants that have been allowed to grow wild because of not cutting them.
Stingers- here they mean plants with stings (pinchos)
Brambles- Sp.zarzas
Ginormous- very,very big (gigantic+enormous)
ANSWERS (These are highlighted in red) :
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1. How many cats has Simon had in his life? 6
2. What did his second cat , Chloe, use to love? The airing cupboard
3. Where do cats usually like to sleep?Somewhere safe, usually up high.
4. What are they fond of? Somewhere dark and warm.
5. What kind of hiding places can you find for them to sleep? igloo beds, radiator beds, cardboard with a nice blanket.
Let sleeping cats lie
6. Complete the following sentence:
Please, resist the temptation to make them up
7. How many hours do cats sleep a day? What sort of cats do preferably do this? 16 , kitten or elderly cats. 8. What do cats usually do as soon as you get up? Why? They steal your seat because it´s nice and warm and it smells of the owner
9. Why do cats love laundry? It provides a comfortable place for cats to sleep.
10. Why do cats prefer dirty or clean laundry? It smells familiar to them and it has a scent of the owner on it.
11. What do cats do when the sleeping place is a box, a laundry pile or a suitcase?They tend to rotate round when they are sleeping.
Cats that sleep together
12. Complete the sentences:
a) If cats are sleeping together with interlocking paws, grooming each other or rubbing against each other, this is because they are probably friends.
b) If they are carefully spaced out on the bed, in a crouched position and they avoid eye contact with the other cats, they are not in the same social group.
13. Do cats dream? What do R.E.M stand for? Yes, they do. It stands for Rapid Eye Movement.
14. What do other owners like to think when their cats are twitching or moving their paws? They´re chasing squirrels and thing outside.
Simon´s real cats sleeping places
15. Why does Hugh make Simon smile? Because his sleeping place is a big compost bin.
16. What is Teddy´s favourite place? An old-run down polytunnel
17. What is Jess´s favourite sleeping place? Next to Simon´s pillow.
18. What does Simon have to do on his bed? To make a space by pulling his pillows up.
19. Where does Maisy, the ginormous cat, sleep and what does she do? At the bottom of his (Simon´s ) bed. As she is so big (ginormous) she sprawls out(spreads out, expands) and dominates the entire area. READING
Wildlife
Convention Protects Animals Great and Small
Delegates from around the world met this
week in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss how to stop the trade in endangered animals.
Representatives from 183 countries
attended the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species
conference, known as CITES.
The delegates discussed about 500
animals. The pangolin, or scaly anteater, was among them.
Pangolins are mammals found
in Asia, India and Africa. They eat insects. Hunters catch pangolins and sell
them for their meat and their scales. Some cultures believe the
scales can be used in medicine.
They are the most illegally traded
animal in the world.
While CITES often deals with the
protection of large animals like big cats, elephants and rhinoceroses, it also
pays attention to smaller animals.
One of the first agreements to come from
the convention was to reclassify all eight species of
pangolins. They are now in the most protected group of animals. This means the
CITES considers them in danger of extinction.
John Scanlon is the CITES Secretary
General. He said they used to call the pangolin “little-known.” But in recent
years, Prince William spoke out against the pangolin trade.
canlon said he is pleased a famous
person brought attention to the pangolin. But he noted that there are still
hundreds of small, unknown animals that need help.
“But, we’ve got the snakes here, we’ve
got the lizards here, we’ve got the frogs here. And some really interesting
ones, the earless monitor [lizard], the Titicaca frog, the psychedelic rock
gecko; there are some really interesting animals there that nobody’s paid much
attention to.”
Dan Ashe is the director of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service. He said it is hard to make people aware of
strange animals.
“We’re dealing with things like the
Delhi Sands flower-loving fly or the Houston toad. These are things which often
the public questions, ‘why is this important, why should we save this?"
Jen Creamer is president of Animal
Defenders International. She said even a cockroach has a “strange sort of
beauty.” Events like CITES provide the chance for discussion of all sorts of
animals.
“With certain species it takes time to
realize that they’re in trouble.”
One of the species Ashe is happy to see
thriving is a small fish called the Oregon chub. It took nearly 20 years to
bring the fish’s population back to strong levels.
The Titicaca water frog is another
endangered animal that could use the support of a prince, or even a movie star.
The Peruvian animal faces the threat of fungal infection and predatory fish.
I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.
Anita Powell wrote this story for
VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the
editor.
What do you think of the efforts to
protect these animals? __________________
Words in This Story
endangered – adj. used to describe a type of
animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely
mammal – n. a type of animal that feeds milk to
its young and that usually has hair or fur covering most of its skin
scale – n. one of many small thin plates that
cover the bodies of some animals (such as fish or snakes)
psychedelic – adj. suggesting the effects of
psychedelic drugs by having bright colors, strange sounds, etc.
predatory – adj. an animal, fish or insect that
lives by eating others
aware – adj. knowing that something (such
as a situation, condition, or problem) exists
reclassify – v. to reconsider an arrangement of
people or things that have already been grouped by ways they are alike
ANIMAL IDIOMS AND SAYINGS:
Answer to the idiom on the presentation picture of this entry about pets: It´s raining cats and dogs. This idiom must sound a bit strange as it´s impossible that dogs and pour down from the sky. If you want to find more about the origin of this curious expression read the following links:
Even if it´s a funny expression actually it´s becoming a little bit old-fashioned as there are other expressions which are more frequently used instead such as : "It´s chucking it down", "It´s bucketing down", "It´s raining pitchforks" or "It´s pouring down" and even one which might sound a little bit rude " It´s pissing down".
Here are some animals sayings we´ve seen in class and several more.
Guess what they are by looking at the pictures made up with whatsup emoticons. The Spanish equivalent has been given for each case to help you;
1.Vender la piel del oso antes de cazarlo
2. Oler a gato encerrado 3. Estar como pez fuera del agua 4. Irse de la lengua 5, Tener la voz ronca o carraspera 6. Coger el toro por los cuernos 7. Llover a cántaros 8. A todo el mundo le llega su día afortunado.
The answers will be given in the REMINDER section of this blog soon.
VIDEOS and other activities on ANIMAL SAYINGS AND PROVERBS: Animal sayings 1
After having worked with phonetics, English sounds and rhymes I asked my students to compose a short poem based on their favourite dish , an object animal,or a person they were really fond of .The conditions were that they had to rhyme and have a message.Some of them are even humorous and creative.
Congratulations to all of them as they did a good job!
MEAT
Meat, Meat
Oh, how I do love meat!
When I see a steak,
I don't want to eat cake.
Instead of some porridge,
I prefer the sausage.
Just one thing makes me happy,
that's a steak very fatty.
Written by
Jonas Ader
PASTA
They're often long
and also soft
but sometimes strong.
There are many kinds
where you can find
many forms and colors
that you can taste.
Written by Alba Lizandra
LITTLE BROTHER
You are like a hobbit in my house
You are this great little mouse
I want you to go to see the waves with me in the beaches
and to eat many many peaches
Only you are my prince
and I would eat you like an ice cream
Written by Analía Sandí
MACARRONI
I love macarroni
the reason, I don't know
I love them with cheese
always with a lot of cheese!
Pasta in general I love to eat,
oh macarroni, oh cheese
I need your mix!
With sauce of tomato and milk
it sounds weird
but it's very tasty.
If you don't eat it,
you can understand it!
Oh macarroni, oh cheese
you make me happy
when I eat your magical mix!
written by Nuria
Cheese
Oh cheese, oh cheese
I want you for me,
when I put you inside
I'm out of my mind.
You sometimes make me obese
but I don't care about this
Oh cheese, I love you to the infinite.
Written by B.
CHOCOLATE
Oh, delicious chocolate!
black,or with milk
you are the king.
I like you with me
or I´ll change you for tea.
You are delicious in the cake
because you are easy to make.
Written by Alba Ruiz
My
House
What can I say
to my public
today?
My house, Oh my house!
It's like
a mouse
My elevator is very fast
It's never the last
My bed, Oh my bed!
The sheets are red
My little kitchen, Oh my
kitchen!
It reminds me of a chicken
Sleeping with my teddy bear
makes me breathe fresh air
Can I ask for anything else?
No Inés, you have the best.
Written by Inés Gil
SWEET APPLE OF MINE
Oh, sweet apple of mine
I just want you in my life
I don't care
If you are green , yellow or red.
Let me be your Snow White
Let me fall into your enchantment
I'll be enchanted to be your wife
Let me approve that challenge
So , give me a favor
Let me taste the touch of your flavour.
written by: Laura Vidal
ICE CREAM
Oh delicious
ice cream your taste
makes me scream Sometimes with strawberries Often with chocolate or cherries In winter for lunch, in summer four but always we want more.
written by: Melanie Palomino
A CAT
Oh,
my dear !I want a cat
Believe it! it's not so bad!
An
animal with a long tail
Might heal that big pain
Don't
blame me for doing that
But I
want a white cat .
Written by
Lucía Iñigo
Flowers Everyone loves flowers,
because they have all kinds of colours,
and there are many types of flowers.
They are fun and colourful,
beautiful and wonderful,
and they have a wonderful scent.
They can be carnations,daisies,
roses and sunflowers,
and you can find them in beautiful gardens.
Flowers are amazing!
Written
by Clara and Laura Somolinos
Hamburguer Oh hamburguer, hamburguer!
greasy and beautiful hamburguer
your colour is as bright as the sun
when I see you...
I can't wait to know when you decide to return
Do not leave me,hamburguer!
I know that I left you for vegetables
but forgive me, it will not happen again,come back to me , I miss you..! Written by Carlita Saldaña
