Leap Day

29th February is a Leap Day, meaning an extra day that is inserted into the calendar in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. Practise your English with British Council while you learn about calendars, Take a look at the article, story, cartoon, poll, word game and trivia.

Magazine article: To the first people it was obvious that time went in circles.Listen to the article at the bottom of this post.

Word games: Four games connected with time: Mittens' afternoon reading puzzle (easier) time idioms jigsaw puzzle (1) (medium) time idioms jigsaw puzzle (2) (medium) time idioms reading puzzle (difficult)

Story: Nowadays New Year is celebrated on January 1. But this has not always been so. Now you can listen to the story of a salesman below.

Cartoon: "Why are you so jumpy?" "I'm excited. I was born on February 29th ...".

Trivia: Number: 146097: the Gregorian calendar is based on a cycle of 400 years, which comprises 146097 days. Since 146097 is evenly divisible by 7, the Gregorian civil calendar exactly repeats after 400 years.

Poll: "Which season is it where you are?" (Poll taken 22-28 February).

How to Get Sympathy When Injured

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"Basic Instructions" is a comic strip. Any advice contained herein is intended as humor, and should not be followed as actual instructions or advice.

Nicknames for places? IV

This is the last chapter about US states and their original nicknames such as The Buckeye State, The Cowboy State or Little Rhody, enjoy listening to it.

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Learning from the News: The Oscars' Night

BubbleShare: Share photos

Last night glamour and hope appeared on Kodak Theatre and now we can learn about the ceremony by trying these exercises in PDF, listening to the radio programme, doing the Cinema Quiz or even clicking on the Oscar's web page.
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"Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think that I could do that and put one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head"
Javier Bardem, picking up his best supporting actor award, on the haircut of his hitman character Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men

Listening to Jokes: Looking for a Wife

Fred is 32 years old and he is still single.
One day a friend asked, "Why aren't you married? Can't you find a woman who will be a good wife?"
Fred replied, "Actually, I've found many women that I have wanted to marry, but when I bring them home to meet my parents, my mother doesn't like them."
His friend thinks for a moment and says, "I've got the perfect solution, just find a girl who's just like your mother."
A few months later they meet again and his friend says, "Did you find the perfect girl? Did your mother like her?"
With a frown on his face, Fred answers, "Yes, I found the perfect girl. She was just like my mother. You were right, my mother liked her very much."
The friend said, "Then what's the problem?"
Fred replied, "My father doesn't like her."



And now try the quiz.

How Come?

Why are hurricanes named after people, and in a certain order?
Why does the moon change color in the fall?
How does dry ice go from gas to solid without becoming a liquid?
How come your hands get all wrinkled after they’ve been in water?
How does a boomerang return to the person who threw it?

Have you ever thought about any of these topics? I have, and how-come.net gives us the answer, read and enjoy with them, or even make your own question!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Monkeying Around

Just like humans, young chimpanzees spend a lot of time playing and wrestling. See a young chimp in action at National Geographic for Kids

You'll Never Walk Alone

Yesterday morning after reading about Premiere League and Liverpool FC, one of my students asked me to post its anthem; here you are, Rubén, in their most incredible match, and if you want to listen to the original song by its creator, visit this link.

When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.

Text Terminator

"I destroy texts! You recreate them!" says the Text Terminator. A text disappears and you have to reconstruct it. You can just guess the words or get help by listening to it if you want.
Read how to play Text Terminator, click on the title you want and enjoy fighting against Text Terminator!

List of texts:

No Parents Alone

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Lunch in Pubs

We all have an image of other nationalities, and for the British, it is very traditional with London and pubs, as we've read in our last post . Are British people as traditional as we all think? What do they do for lunch on Sunday?
Find out by doing these four listening exercises:

Exercise one
Exercise two
Exercise three
Exercise four

(By Caroline Brown)

Du Llus Pikinglis?

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How Much do You Know about Love?

Try this web-based task from Isabel Pérez's page and learn everything about this strange feeling: symptoms, love addiction,true love, definition...

Bob Marley's This Is Love

Love Signs

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Love and Relationships Quiz

How much do you know about these topics? Try this BBC Quiz and guess!

How to Make a Valentine Candy Box Pop up Card

Are you skillful? Are you in love? Create your own candy box pop up card.

How to Cope with Future Form

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After working in class with this topic, enter this hot potatoe practice to test your comprehension about future:
General Future
Simple Future
Complex Future

George Michael's Secret Love

Be my Valentine

If you are too shy to write love poems, try these ones to get used to them, and enjoy yourself!

Inspector Clouseau Learning English

Face up to Phrasals?

'Face up to Phrasals'? What's it all about?

Phrasal verbs are quick, easy and fun with Face up to Phrasals! Follow the adventures of Fred, Betty, Zoe, Alice and the rest of the gang - and learn about a new phrasal verb with every episode!

Who are Fred and Betty?

The first series of 'Face up to Phrasals' is all about Betty and Fred. They've been together for years, but Betty's very upset with Fred right now. She's about to tell him what's made her so angry - listen in to their conversation and practise your phrasal verbs by logging on to
Fred and Betty: Is this the End? (1st episode).
There's a new episode every week so make sure you come back every Wednesday!

It sounds like fun - how can I get involved?
Visit this page every week for the next twelve weeks to catch up on each new episode. If you want to chat about the Betty and Fred story and to practise using phrasal verbs join the BBC Learning English Facebook group. It's quick and easy to do!

The History of the Dot

Advertising is an Art and, as everybody knows, English is all around. Agencies do not translate their spots in order to catch customers' eye. One of my students gave me proof of it with the Guinness advert as part of a class project about spots. Have a look and enjoy!

How to Pronounce the Sound TH

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The Year of the Rat

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day, and ending with the Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the month.On 7th February the Year of the Rat begins.
Learn English while you have a look at the British Council articles, story, word game, trivia and puzzle.

Magazine article: There are many tales to explain the origins of the Chinese New Year celebrations. The legend of the Nian is one of the most colourful!

Word game: Chinese Zodiac reading puzzle. Read the text, put the animals in the correct order and match synonyms.

Story to read and listen to: The Jade Emperor (Emperor of Heaven) called for a contest on his birthday: a race! All the animals of the kingdom were invited to participate, but there would only be 12 winners, and the prize was a permanent place in the Zodiac Years.

Trivia: Numbers: After 1,750 trials, each trial lasting for 120,976 years, he attained Golden Immortality.

Puzzle game and listening: Chinese New Year is celebrated in many countries around the world. Each new year is named after one of twelve animals. 2007 was the year of the pig. 2008 is the year of the rat. People born in the year of the rat are funny, clever and hard-working.
Listen to a girl telling us about why she likes Chinese New Year, and what she does at this time.

Find out if you are a dragon, a dog or one of the other animals of the Chinese Zodiac!

The Adventures of Rick Mansworth

Follow the exciting adventures of Rick Mansworth, Private Detective as he fights evil and saves the world.
Each episode practises a different aspect of the language, so improve your English with La Mansion del Inglés star personality Rick, private dick.
This time he goes on holiday so read and choose the best future expression.

Way to Ruin Full Moon

Listening to Jokes

When I tell my students a joke they do not always laugh as I hope, perhaps the joke is not so good or....I'm a bad joke-teller, anyway it is a a funny way to learn....isn't it? Try these and learn!.
At Learning Jokes section you can learn new vocabulary apart from listening to the jokes.

Oxford

Everybody knows the name Oxford, a very famous city in England with its university. But what is it really like?
Find out by doing these four exercises:
Exercise one Pre-listening
Exercise two Listening
Exercise three Listen again and complete
Exercise four Is this exactly what you've heard?

Nicknames for US States? III

As we mentioned in previous posts I and II American States are called by their popular nicknames: for example the state of Alabama is known as the Heart of Dixie, Alaska is called the Last Frontier,Iowa's nickname, the Hawkeye State, is in honor of Black Hawk, an Indian chief who spent most of his life in neighboring Illinois! ...If you want to know about it read and listen to Voice of America

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Listening to Authentic English about Football

How good are you at listening to authentic English? Try BBC new interactive audio quiz to find out.
There are five different audio clips connected with the World Cup 2006 for you to test yourself.
Click on one of the buttons to start, each match has three different activities.
Your total score for all matches played is shown at the bottom of the main screen.

Are You 16? II

Meals

Do you know all the words for the meals that we eat during the day?

Most people probably eat about three main meals every day, but here are 7 words for main and other meals that we often use:

BREAKFAST The first meal of the day. Usually around 6am-9am.
BRUNCH A meal eaten in the late morning, instead of BReakfast and lUNCH. (informal)
ELEVENSES A snack (for example, biscuits and coffee). Around 11am.(BrE, informal)
LUNCH A meal in the middle of the day. Usually around noon or 1pm.
TEA A light afternoon meal of sandwiches, cakes etc, with adrink of tea. Around 4pm. It is also sometimes called AFTERNOON TEA. (mainly BrE). TEA can also refer to a cooked evening meal, around 6pm. (BrE)
SUPPER A light or informal evening meal. Around 6pm-7pm.
DINNER The main meal of the day, eaten either in the middle of the day or in the evening. Usually when people say "dinner", they mean an evening meal, around 7pm-9pm.

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