Lola's Blog

Public domain Can you answer these questions?: Do you know the difference between work and job ? Which words collocate with do and make ? For example, what is correct make or do a living ? Have you been made redundant recently?  Which big company has announced a new round of layoffs ? How much paternity leave can you take in Spain? If you are a parent, how do you juggle work and family life ? What is the state retirement age ? Do you get any perks in your company? Vocabulary What words come to your mind if somebody mentions the following?: unemployment job security casual employment changing work patterns employment opportunities maternity/paternity leave sick leave childcare retirement Can you speak for 4-6 minutes on each topic? Well, you'll have to work at it or work your socks off! Topic 1. Unemployment Follow this link to read an article about Spain . Follow this link to read about benefits in the UK , and this one to read about redundan...

We talked about writing, different types of text and analysed some reports. A report is a formal written account that gives information about a subject, a place, a person or an event. Broadly speaking there are four types of report: an assessment report, an informative report, a survey report, and a proposal report. The task in class You read somebody's report which followed these instructions:  "An international research group is carrying out an investigation into changing trends in the way young people spend their free time. You have been asked to write a report about the situation in your country". It was quite clear that this was an informative report. It was divided into five paragraphs, the first one being the introduction or purpose, and the last paragrah a conclusion with suggestions and/or recommendations. Suggested titles for a report Your writing task was to write a similar report but applied to your country. However, you suggested other titles ...

Public domain. Pixabay Check Free Online Resources on this blog. You will find an amazing page to practise your listening skills. There is an archive of gripping real life stories. Please let me know how you get on with your listening. Hope you find this site useful.

Public domain Dear C1 students Please follow the link to download the scheme of work for Fahrenheit 451 . Have a nice read!

Cenote, Mexico. Public domain Bimmah, Oman. Public domain China. Public domain Mendoza, Argentina Guatemala City Describing a place or building of a historical interest Read complete text in Wikipedia   The 65-metre-long (213 ft) main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room, was built between 1712 and 1732 and houses 200,000 of the Library's oldest books. Initially The Long Room had a flat ceiling, shelving for books only on the lower level, and an open gallery. By the 1850s the room had to be expanded as the shelves were filled due to the fact that the Library had been given permission to obtain a free copy of every book that had been published in Ireland and Britain. In 1860, The Long Room's roof was raised to accommodate an upper gallery. The Long Room is lined with marble busts. The marble bust collection was formed when 14 busts from the famous sculptor Peter Scheemakers were acquired by the college. Many of t...

Photo by Petr Kratochvil. Public domain Do you like tea? Do you think that the British drink a lot of tea? And how about the Spanish? Are the British falling out of love with tea? How much do you know about it? Is coffee culture strong in the UK and Ireland? Can you name three main coffee chains in the UK and Ireland? Click here to find out more. What is happening in Dublin at the moment? Click here to find out. Lola la Torre. Own work The tea-drinking queen Catherine of Braganza, who was Portuguese, married King Charles II in 1662. It is said that when she arrived in England, she brought with her a chest of tea, the favourite drink at the Portuguese court. Queen Catherine  invited her friends to her chamber to drink tea and that is how drinking tea in aristocratic circles started to be fashionable. Click on her image to find out more. Queen Catherine of Braganza. Wikimedia Etiquette and history of the Afternoon Tea Party The British have...

PublicDomainPictures.net Has technology ruined childhood? That is the title of the opinion essay you were asked to write in class last Monday. The topic generates a lot of debate and can be viewed from different angles. You can now download the handout with some tips on how to improve your writing.  I hope you find it useful.