This is the News!

Thursday 26^th March

Hi everybody! Easter holidays!!!

I hope you are enjoying your holidays!

How are you celebrating Easter? This is how Easter is celebrated in The U.S.A and in The U.K.

Do you remember what we did in our last class?

We talked about the news!

Heading head•ing /ˈhɛdɪŋ/n. [countable]

something that serves as a head, esp. a title or caption:The heading was: "Verb tenses in English.''

Headlines head•line /ˈhɛdˌlaɪn/n., v., -lined, -lin•ing. 

·  Journalisma statement printed in large letters at the beginning of a newspaper article, summarizing the subject of the article.

  Journalismheadlines, [plural] news stories important enough to appear on the front page of newspapers:The peace conference has been in the headlines all week.

Title  /ˈtaɪtl/

ti•tle /ˈtaɪtəl/n., adj., v., -tled, -tling.

  [countable]the name of an artistic work, as a book, painting, etc.

  [countable]a heading, as of a chapter of a book, that describes what is contained:The title was: "Chapter 4: Issues and Implications.''

Remember: we use present tense in headlines, (the “titles” in the news) so the item of news looks more interesting or shocking. After that we use a variety of tenses, past simple, continuous or present to report the piece of news.

Look out! News is uncountable in English and takes the singular form of the verb.

I’ve got two news. I’ve got some news. 

The news are bad.  The news is bad.

First we listened to some headlines and tried to get the key words (the words that carry important information). After that we tried to make up (to arrange, to compose) the actual (finished) news item. And this is your homework for Easter: write the four pieces of news we talked about in class. And, download or get a cut-out from a newspaper with a news item. You’ll have to tell the class about it.

This was the news we listened to in class and some of the key words:

·         “Murder Mystery of Dolphin Lover” swim-with-dolphin centres, found dead in her car, shot twice, British animal rights activist, Santa Lucia’s island, the Caribbean.

·         “Workmen steal Van Gogh” dress as gas inspector, luxury Manhattan apartment block, private collection, gas leak, break into, worth over $20 million.

·         “Police and Protesters Clash at World Trade Conference” they tried to stop cars arriving, protesters, demonstrators, over 40 arrests, sitting on the road, prevent cars from getting to the Conference Hall, European leaders, Frankfurt, casualties, nearby hospitals.

·         “Tea can stop cancer” American doctors, cream, skin cancer, test all new products, at least two years, great Britain, available.

We didn’t take part in the ‘flea market’ because only Jorge brought something.

We ended the class playing a board game called “Around the world in 100 days!” No, not this.

The game consisted in throwing the dice and following the instructions we had on the square we had landed. Sometimes we had to make decisions, sometimes we didn’t. For example, you land in Berlin: “You’ve forgotten your traveller’s cheques! Go back to London and get them! So, you had to go back until the ‘London square’. Delhi: “you’ve started to feel ill, what do you do? a) Go straight to the doctor. b) Stay in your hotel room and wait. c) Push on with your journey.

One of the answers made you lose no time, another one meant to add four days to your journey time and another one made you add seven days.

Did you make the right choice? Did you consider the advantages and disadvantages of going to a doctor in India, keeping travelling despite your illness, going to an Indian hospital…?

The winners were the team who got to the end of the journey, that is, who got to the finish square making the journey in the fewer days. None of you were able to finish in 100 days! The boys started losing a lot of days but in the end they made up for (recuperate) them!

 That was all!

Enjoy your holidays!