Thursday 14 May 2015

THAT TAKES THE BISCUIT!


That takes the biscuit informal
You say that something or someone (really) takes the biscuit (BrE) when it or they have done something that you find extremely annoying or surprising:
     And you say she's opening your letters now? Oh, that really takes the biscuit!

(AmE that takes the cake)
(Taken from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/britanico/that-really-takes-the-biscuit

Photocopy from 12th May: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Nb3d84W0THSDBOQ3ZTc01JdDQ/view?usp=sharing

Link to some more information about complaint letters: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Complaint-Letter-to-a-Company
Link to information about reviews -and other types of writing, for that matter. It was Oscar who found this site. Thank you!!!: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/book-reviews/ 



Thursday 7 May 2015

GOLDEN WATTLE





Did you know that the golden wattle, a type of acacia tree, is a symbol, an emblem of Australia?
I didn't!!! I only learnt it when I read that the newborn princess Charlotte Elisabeth Diana has received "a cot blanket made of merino wool from Tasmania with embroidered wattle" as a gift from the Australian people.

This year we are learning a lot of things about Australia's fauna and flora!!! Bilbies, wombats, echidnas, pigmy possums, etc.

Anyway, here are the photocopies from 7th May: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Nb3d84W0THcUFQRkRqVmhUZjA/view?usp=sharing

Links to websites with information about writing REVIEWS: 
          http://www.slideshare.net/rrrosaco/writing-a-review  
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/creativewriting/movingimagesrev2.shtml
          http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/writing-film-book-review.php
          http://www.xtec.cat/~vfeliu/writing/revi3.htm

Listen to Muriel Spark talking about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/bc/bc_20040801-1600b.mp3
Listen to this programme about Christopher Isherwood in Berlin: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f9y25
Don Bachardy on Christopher Isherwood: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v3mb1
Listen to David Mitchell on an interview in 2007: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mdcg

Friday 1 May 2015

JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON

climb/jump on the bandwagon  (informal, disapproving)  to join others in doing sth that is becoming fashionable because you hope to become popular or successful yourself.

  

Photocopy from 30th April:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Nb3d84W0THU29mQkxVS094ZG8/view?usp=sharing