The Flying Beetle: May 2012

Tuesday 15 May 2012

2s.7 Robots: a webquest

Exercise 1 In this units we are talking about robotics in class. Listen to a recording about robots and films here. How many of these robots did you know? Answer the questions below on the blog.

a. What is the text about?
     1. The history of TV
     2. Robots from films and TV programmes
     3. Robots in the future

b. Write the names of the characters next to the statements.
     1. The robot is a small metal dog. Dr Who
     2. This robot can talk, but it cant talk.
     3. He's a police officer with a robotic arm.
     4. This robot is half human, half-robot.
     5. He's strong, he's fast and he's bad.

Exercise 2 How much do you know about toy robots? Check out this website and answer the questions on the blog.

a. What does the robot dog behave like?
b. What is Robocup?
c. What is Kismet's most special characteristic?
d. How many facial expressions can Kismet make?
e. What does the robotic head examine?

Exercise 3 To finish, read again this text about Carl's favourite gadgets. Then, take out some of the words. Can you reconstruct the text?

Sunday 13 May 2012

3-4s.1 Getting ready for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

The 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is near and it's high time we got ready for it!

The contest is a good opportunity for you to discover new music every year and have fun at the same time while you practise your English, since most countries decide to send in the contributions in English. It's also helpful to keep up with the European music scene. Did you know, for example, that the Swedish song has been among the top-5 most-played songs on Spotify for the last two months? And the contest hasn't even taken place yet!

You are going to listen to some of the songs participating in this year's competition. Discuss these questions with your partner before:

Why do you think many countries give up their languages and send their songs in English? Do you think it's a good idea? In your opinion, should Spain do the same? Why (not)?
What do you think most songs taking part in the contest are about?

Here are some of the top favourites to win the competition. Download the activities, put on your headphones, lay back and... place your bets!

Who do you think will win? Who do you think will get the worst place? What do you think their performances will be like? Write your comments below!

Country: Sweden
Artist: Loreen
Song: "Euphoria"

Country: Norway
Artist: Tooji
Song: "Stay"

Country: United Kingdom
Artist: Engelbert Humperdinck
Song: "Love will set you free"

Country: Belarus
Artist: Litesound
Song: "We are the winners"

Country: Italy
Artist: Nina Zilli
Song: "L'amore è femmina (Out of love)"

2s.6 Crime time

The following videos are part of this year's portfolio project in English about crimes taking place at night. Combining writing techniques and storytelling, 2nd ESO students from IES S'Arenal in Majorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) have recorded in a voiceover their self-penned script of silent cartoon stories originally created by Future Thought. We hope you enjoy the videos and give us feedback! We invite you to write your comments at the bottom of this post.

CARTOON STORY #1 "THE GIFT"
By Jorge Soler and Irene Vilardell