Features of the detective story 

·         A mysterious MURDER......it must be significant

·         A professional DETECTIVE ....he is clever,eccentric, he is a bit out of ordinary

·         A DETECTIVE Friend......he usually helps the detective,but he is usually slower than him

·         All the suspects are present early in the story.

·         There are false suspects and false clues

·         The criminal must be a worthy opponent. As the detective must show off his great skills, he must match wit with adversaries of equal cleverness

·         An inefficient Police force

·         All clues discovered by the detective must be made available to the reader, he must get the clues as the detective

·         A DETECTIVE story is a jigsaw puzzle, the true detective story challenges the reader to a mental contest to solve the crime along with the characters in the story

·         The solutions must be logical

·         An unexpected final twist

·         A detailed reconstruction of the crime 

The first detective story is considered to ne Edgar Allan Poe The Murders in the Rue Morgue 1841

Another example  is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins published in 1868.

The most famous fictional detective following in Poe footsteps was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1887 he published A Study in scarlet, the first of four novels about Holmes and Dr Watson. In addition, Doyle wrote over fifty short stories featuring the famous detective. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of detective story

Why the detective story?

• ·         The 19th century was characterized by the birth of slums having problems  of poverty and crime
• ·         The press was particularly interested in crime news 
• ·         Police forces were reorganised.

King Charles I (1600-1649) - Pt 2/3

King Charles I (1600-1649) - Pt 2/3

SECOND PART

1. What happened to Sir Buckingham?
2. What about Sir Elliot?
3. What happened in March 1629?
4. How many years did Charles I rule without Parliament?
5. What did the king do to modernize the country?
6. Did the relationship with his wife improve?
7. Did the king like art?
8. What did many people believe about the king?
9. What was the Scots’ reaction when Charles I introduced the Common Prayer Book?
10. What happened in April 1640?
11. When was  Parliament summoned again and for the last time?
12. What happened in January 1642?

King Charles I (1600-1649) - Pt 1/3

King Charles I (1600-1649) - Pt 1/3

1. Charles I believed in the Divine Rights of Kings. What was that?
2. Who was left behind when James I moved from Edinburgh to London?
3. What about the health of Charles when he was a child?
4. What about his brother Henry?
5. What happened when he was 12?
6. What about the personality of the young Charles I?
7. Did Charles I approve his father’s lifestyle?
8. What happened in 1625?
9. Who did Charles I  get married?
10. What about their relationship?
11. What happened in June 1625?
12. Which social class did the members of Parliament belong to?
13. What was the king’s reaction when Parliament refused to give him the money he asked for?
14. Did Sir John Elliot hate the King?

Top 10 Notes: The Picture of Dorian Gray

THEMES 
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

• SPLIT BETWEEN APPEARANCE AND REALITY------------physiognonomy (appearance reveals character)
• ART for ART's SAKE
• SIN AND REDEMPTION
• VANITY
• THE DOUBLE ------------Good and evil
• THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF INFLUENCE/MANIPULATION
• ("Corrupting influence")
• THE SUPREMACY OF YOUTH AND BEAUTY
• THE OVERREACHER

The influence of Walter Pater 

Walter Pater was an English critic, essayist, and humanist whose idea of “art for art’s sake” became a cardinal doctrine of the movement known as Aestheticism.

In the concluding essay in The Renaissance, Pater stated that art only exists for the sake of its beauty, and that it has neither moral standards nor utilitarian functions.

Art shouldn’t  instruct or deal with  social, moral, or political problems.

The Artist is the creator of beautiful works of art. 

A real fun game!

On the first day I had my English lesson in a second class, after Christmas holidays the students were asked to do the following activity.

I told them to write a sentence on a sheet of paper about something they had done or hadn't done during their Christmas holidays, using the Present Perfect.

Then I asked them to make a small ball of each paper and to throw them away to the other classmates.

The thing was really enjoyable...they went on throwing the paper balls ( while music was going on) till I told them to stop.

After being sure that everyone had a paper ball, each student was invited to read the sentence and the others were asked to guess who had written that sentence.
Of course,they had a great time.....and I had the opportunity to make them consolidate some past participle forms. They also learned new expressions and words.

A game to revise Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous


The class was divided into two teams and I dictated them ten short sentences to be translated into English giving them 20 seconds to write them. Then I gave them some extra time to revise the sentences and be quite sure about the final version of the sentences.
Each team got one point for every right sentence. At the end, of course there was a team which won the competition.
The activity was far more interesting and fun than an ordinary translation made by each student working on his/her own. They also seemed to be more focused on the mistakes.

1. Nelle ultime settimane mi sto allenando per la gara
2. Suono il violino da due anni
3. Da quanto tempo conosci il tuo migliore amico?
4. C'e Sara alla fermata del bus. Mi chiedo da quanto tempo sta aspettanto.
5. Lui ha dipinto più di 200 quadri. Dipinge da molti anni
6. Non ti vedo da secoli. Cosa hai fatto?
7. Il test scritto era troppo difficile. Non sono stato in grado di finirlo
8. In questo momento il mio allenatore, che è un tennista professionista, è malato
9. Che tempo terribile! piove da un giorno intero
10. Smetti di guardare la Tv. La guardi da due ore!
    
    
    
    
    
    

Consolidation games

A game to get started after the Christmas break to  revise the vocabulary related to music and entertainment.

I've realized recently that one of the main challenges for an English teacher is to make  students to learn words and use them properly.

It's much easier to teach grammar...but words? After all,  in some situations, words are more important than grammar to be understood.

As a result, over the last months I've been trying to do lessons where the center of interest or of the activity done is vocabulary.

However ...there's a problem.... what about the students' involvement and their easily getting bored?

So yesterday I divided the class into teams and I dictated the students the definitions of some of the words related to music and entertainment they should know, as we have paid a particular attention on them recently.

There's no need to say that I realized that I had taken lots of things for granted. It wasn't so easy to write the right words and in some cases to write the words using the right spelling.
Anyway, while doing the activity, time flew off quickly and students had a good time.

These are the definitions I dictated:

1. A person who performs music in a public place to get money from people walking past (Busker)
2. to make a Cd or a movie available for people to buy or see (Release)
3. The people who sit and watch a performance at a theatre, cinema... (Audience)
4. the words of a song (Lyrics)
5. The raised area in a theatre where actors perform (Stage)
6. In a gradual, regular rate (Steadily)
7. A natural ability to do something (Talent)
8. A large musical instrument with strings inside and black and white bars that produce sounds when you press them (Piano)
9. To copy computer programs, music or other information electronically using the Internet (Download)
10. An informal word to refer to a performance of pop or rock music (Gig)
11. A collection of songs (Album)
12. A person whose job is to find talented musicians and singers (Talent Scout)
13. A gig or a concert in front of an audience (Performance)
14. A metal musical instrument that you play by blowing into it and pressing buttons to make different notes (Trumpet)

Hard Times mind map

Conditional sentences 1 st type

This is an activity students did in the second year some days ago.
After having listened to a famous song of the 1970s If you leave me now by Chicago students were explained the use of the conditional sentences first type.

Then they were divided into groups of four and they were given the following activity:
Write down about the crazy things your parents said to you when you were a child. 
They wrote sentences starting If you..............

During the next lesson I asked them to stand, I read each of their sentences and I told them:  go on the right if you  have really heard in your lives that sentence from your  parents....or go on the left if you have never heard the sentence......

They had fun......this was a way to make them do a writing activity and a listening activity as well.

Of course this will also be a reading activity....since they will read all of their sentences on this blog!

When I was a child my parents thought Playstation 2 was bad for me.
They said: if you spend too much time on PS2, you won't see very well (your eyesight will get worse and worse)

When I was a child I always made a face and my mum said:
 if you make that face, an angel will change your face and your face will make like that forever.


When I was a child my grandmother said:
if you look at a fixed point for a long time, you'll go blind

My mother always said:
if you eat lots of spinach, you'll be as strong as Braccio di Ferro (Popeye)

My father said: if you eat lots of carrots you'll see better

My parents said: when you see blood in action movies, don't worry, it'll be just tomato

My parents said " when one of your teeth falls, a fairy will come close to you during the night and she will bring to you some money

My mum said to me: if you eat too much, one day you'll explode (burst)

When I was a child my mum said: if you drink too much water when you eat, some frogs will grow into your stomach

My mum said to me: if you keep singing, it'll rain
My mum said to me: if you misbehave, a witch will bring to you a lot of coal

When I was a child my parents always said:

if you eat a lot of fish, you'll be an intelligent girl one day
They said to me: if you stay on your phone too much, you'll lose your eyesight one day
They also said: if you put one of your fingers in your mouth, your hands will fall down
My parents said. if you go in the darkness, Giufà will eat you

If you don't sleep in the afternoon, Mommy Serra will come and make you sleep forever
If you wear your mother's wedding ring, you'll always be unlucky.

7 Years Old - By: Lukas Graham (LYRICS)

RHYMING WORDS

RHYMING WORDS

The purpose of this activity was to make students in a second school year realize that it’s not so difficult to build up sentences by linking two rhyming words. I gave each student a word and I told him/her to find the student having the connected ryming word and then create a line using both words.

This is what they have written.

1)MEET                                                               GREET

When my friends I meet with my hands I greet

2)WRITE                                                                             RIGHT

If you study, read and write all your tests will be right

3)RAIN                                                                REIGN

The cold rain over you will always reign

4)DISH                                                                    WISH

I wish to clean a dish

In wonderwish if you break a dish is a wish

5)SELL                                                                      CELL

 Soon I’ll sell my cell

6)FAST                                                                    LAST

The last one becomes the  fast one

7)FREE                                                                     TREE

 Plant a tree and you’ll get free

8)BAND                                                                  SAND

 I’ll create a band and it’ll be like a castle  in  the sand

9)NEST                                                                    BEST

 The best place for a nest is a big forest

10)PEN                                                                      MEN

 I need a pen to write a book about men

Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1 Education | To Be Or Not To Be

Oliver Twist's characters

Oliver Twist

Fagin Fagin takes in homeless children and trains them to pickpocket for him

Nancy -  A young prostitute and one of Fagin’s former child pickpockets. Nancy is also Bill Sikes’s lover

Rose Maylie -  Agnes Fleming’s sister, raised by Mrs. Maylie after the death of Rose’s father. She ends up marrying Harry Maylie

Mr. Brownlow Mr. Brownlow owns a portrait of Agnes Fleming and was engaged to Mr. Leeford’s sister when she died

Monks  Edward Leeford, Oliver Twist's half-brother; son of Edwin Leeford and his legal wife. With Fagin, he schemes to give Oliver a bad reputation.

Bill Sikes  -  A brutal professional burglar brought up in Fagin’s gang

Agnes Fleming -  Oliver’s mother. After falling in love with and becoming pregnant by Mr. Leeford, she chooses to die anonymously in a workhouse rather than stain her family’s reputation.

Mr. Leeford -  Oliver and Monks’s father, who dies long before the events of the novel.

Oliver's father dies in Rome after having claimed that he intended to pass his inheritance on to Oliver and Agnes.

CONCLUSION

Oliver is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Edwin Leeford and Agnes Fleming. Leeford has fathered the evil Edward (Monks) through a failed former marriage. After seducing Agnes, Edwin dies, leaving a will which states that the unborn child will inherit his estate if "in his minority he should never have stained his name with any public act of dishonor, meanness, cowardice, or wrong" in the event of which all would go to Edward (Monks), hence Monk's attempt to corrupt Oliver via Fagin.

USEFUL WORDS and EXPRESSIONS to talk about the passage Oliver wants some more

• Estrarre a sorte qualcosa= to draw something by lot

ex. Oliver's name is drawn by lot

• Tirare a sorte=To draw lots
• La sorte volle= It happened that..........................
• I tiri della sorte= The tricks of fortune

• Condividere la sorte di qualcuno=to cast (to throw) in one's lot with someone

ex. Oliver casts in his lot with the other boys

• Essere in balia della sorte

Ex. Oliver is at the mercy of fate

• Meritare una sorte migliore

Ex. Oliver deserves a better fate

• Toccare in sorte a qualcuno=To fall to someone's lot

Ex. It (asking for some more food) fell to Oliver's lot

• Affidarsi alla sorte=to trust to chance....

Asking for and giving directions

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-practice/giving-directions#

transcript

A.

Go straight on. Then take the first left on to Green Street. Walk past the library and it’s the building next to the library on the left. 

B.

Go straight on. Go past the traffic lights. You will see a shop on the right. Go past that and it’s on the right next to the shop. 

C.

Go straight on. Go past the traffic lights and go straight on until you get to the roundabout. At the roundabout turn left. Go past the theatre. It’s the building next to the theatre, opposite the hospital. 

D.

Go straight on. Go past the traffic lights and take the second right on to King’s Road. Go past the bookshop. It’s the building next to the bookshop opposite the café.

An example of persuasive essay

Write an article for your school magazine with the title " Why I'm not a fan of industrialization?"

Industrialization is a phenomenon that influences our lives every day and we don't know how.

Probably most of us believe that industrialization has brought just positive things, such as better transports, better products in less time......a modern society!!! But are we sure  all that is positive?

Our nature has been disappearing, everything has been changing. We don't have a place in the world that isn't polluted.

What we have created has been destroying us! Is that really necessary? Do we need all that technology to live? Do we really need to destry our world? Ourselves?

Pollution has been taking over our world, changing everything.

Summer is winter and winter is summer, autumn and spring don't exist anymore. The weather conditions are unbearable and nature is revolting against us.

We are obsessed with technology and we've forgotten howthe countryside with a lot of trees and plants and flowers is! We can travel around the world in a minute but we only see lots of fog and mist, because the best and biggest cities in the world are just surroundes by heavy smoke.

I'm not saying that industrialization doesn't have any benefits, because I know that it would be a lie. Maybe our lives are longer now thanks to it, but how long will it last?

To sum up, I think that one day all that will have more drawbacks than benefits and we will regret destroying the environment.

↔

Why I'm not a fan of industrialization.

I'n not a fan of industrialization because I think that people lived better in the past than they do now.

First of all, industrialization has increased pollution and as a result also the level of mortality because everyday we breathe dirty air. A lot of people that live near industrial areas are ill or their children are born with illnesses. It isn't right that people have to suffer because of industrialization, while other people get rich thanks to that!

In the second place for many years and also today, somewhere in the world, businessmen and factory owners use children and women to pay them less than men. So a lot of children have been deprived of their childhood and that still happens nowadays in very poor countries and no one does anything.

Furthermore, industrialization has increased the number of the unemployed, because their jobs have been replaced by machines so that the employers don't have to pay their employees and workers!!!

In conclusion, I'm sure people lived in better conditions when they weren't any factories and huge capitals to be invested on new, thighly technological companies.

Traduci le seguenti frasi

Il Teatro Elisabettiano non aveva luci artificiali

Il loro amore non svanirà mai

Prima di incontrare Romeo, Juliet era molto apprezzata dai suoi genitori

Prima di uscire, i miei genitori mi costrinsero a studiare

Io e tuo padre non comprendiamo perché

Shakespeare critica l’estate perché è troppo breve

La regina Elisabetta voleva che le persone si uniformassero alla religione protestante

Lei dovette combattere contro la Spagna

Lui non ha mai visto una tale straordinaria bellezza prima

Romeo paragona Juliet alla luce del sole

Romeo vede che Juliet è morta

Romeo dice a Juliet queste parole perché …..

Juliet è concreta ed è anche determinata

Juliet è la ragazza più luminosa che Romeo abbia mai visto

Juliet lascia che Romeo la baci al primo incontro

I ruoli femminili venivano dati ai ragazzi

Il poeta racconta che il conte di Southampton vivrà finché ci saranno persone che leggeranno il sonetto

Il conte vivrà in quei versiL’unica mia opzione è negare te

Juliet, perché non dichiari il tuo amore a Romeo?

Non è meglio un messaggio su Whatsapp?

Lei è costretta a sposare Count Paris

I genitori vogliono che Juliet sposi il conte Paris

Tu rinuncerai al tuo nome, vero?

La regina Elisabetta salì al trono all’età di 25 anni

Juliet è presentata come una ragazza non convenzionale e diretta

Alla fine i due amanti sono pronti a tutto

Loro si innamorano a prima vista

Il commercio estero aumentò durante l’epoca elisabettiana

Romeo è un po’ malinconico all’inizio dell’opera

Should-ought to-had better

Should and ought to have the same meaning. They are used to give advice, or say what is the right thing to do; for examples:
You should  call your friend to thank her. 
You should go to the doctor's
We should stop misbehaving

Ought to is less frequently used and is more formal.
Ought to is not usually used in questions or negative statements

Should I open the window?
You shouldn't tell lies
You shouldn't talk so much during the classes
(You oughtn't tell lies)

Had better (or 'd better) has also the same meaning, but it's stronger. It implies a warning or threat of possible bad consequences; There's a danger or a problem if we don't follow the advice. For examples, 

It's raining; you'd better take your umbrella. 
I have a very important meeting at 8; I had better not be late!
I'd better study for the test!
I'd better not hang out with my friends today


https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/everyday-grammar-modals-should-ought-to-had-better/3458578.html

Video SparkNotes: Shakespeare's Hamlet Summary

Answer the questions

1. In which country does Hamlet primarily take place?
2. Who is Hamlet in love with?
3. How is Claudius related to Hamlet?
4. How did Claudius kill Hamlet's father, the king?
5. Who returns as a ghost and tells Hamlet to kill Claudius?
6. Who is Polonius?
7. What does Claudius ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do?
8. Why does Hamlet decide to stage the murder of his father?
9. What does Claudius do when the actor pours the poison into the king's ear during the play?
10. Why does Hamlet not kill the king while the king is praying?
11. Who does Hamlet kill when he finds him spying?
12. How did Ophelia die?
13.  Who drinks from the poison goblet that Claudius gives to Hamlet?
14. Who does not die in the final scene?
15. Who ends up ruler of Denmark at the end of the play?

SONGS

https://www.esolcourses.com/topics/easy-song-quizzes.html

Rising Intonation - English Pronunciation with JenniferESL

Falling Intonation - English Pronunciation with JenniferESL

How to Write an Argumentative Essay - Planning

Taylor Swift - Love Story

A song inspired by the story of Romeo and juliet
Love Story 

Taylor Swift 

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there on a balcony in summer air

See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say hello

Little did I know
That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you, please, don't go

And I said,
"Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all that's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby just say yes

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew
So close your eyes, escape this town for a little while
'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said "Stay away from Juliet"
But you were everything to me, I was begging you, please, don't go

And I said Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story, baby just say "Yes"

Oh, oh

I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town

And I said
"Romeo save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head? I don't know what to think"

He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said
"Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby just say yes"

Oh, oh,
Oh, oh

'Cause we were both young when I first saw you.

TONGUE TWISTERS 

WEATHER

When the rain is splashing  down 
on the fields and on the town 
singing winds begin to blow 
and the flowers start to grow









TH VOICED SOUND

Whether the weather is warm,   
whether the weather is hot,
we have to put up with the weather,
whether we like it or not





Whatever the weather we'll be together

THE VICTORIAN AGE

QUEEN VICTORIA

bbc queen victoria

Victoria (1819-1901) was queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901). She was the last of the House of Hanover and gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age.  She and her husband, Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had nine children.

Her reign saw advances in industry, science (Darwin’s theory of evolution), communications (the telegraph, popular press), and other forms of technology; the building of the railways and the London Underground, sewers, and power distribution networks;  a greatly expanded empire; unequal growth of wealth, with class differences; tremendous poverty; increase in urban populations, with the growth of great cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham; increased literacy; and great civic works, often funded by industrial philanthropists.

Here is a video about Queen Victoria (first part)

https://youtu.be/wEOtVXydiEI

http://www.bassi.gov.it/documents/FCANTINOTTI/24.%20VICTORIAN%20CONTEXT.pps

SLIDES

http://www.iispandinipiazza.gov.it/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/The-Victorian-Age-1.pdf