Hey,

today we first corrected the exercises you had to complete about Irish culture (meaning of some words, important places to visit, adjectives, ...). Here is what we wrote in our copy books:

• A) Curraghs / Eyeries / Guinness
  
  Adjectives in order to depict Ireland:
  - colourful, green, bigger than Ulster, extentive, gorgeous, amazing, attractive, awesome.
  
  B) I would like to visit Dublin because it's an attractive city and there are lots of pubs where we can drink Guinness.

Then we watched the extract you had listened to yesterday. Watch it again here:

Here are the hypotheses we made about the event (who is reponsible for the bomb and why was there a bomb in that pub?):

Analysis of the sounds:
The rhythm of the music grows faster and faster / louder and louder / more and more fearful / scarier and scarier.
It conveys a feeling of anxiety, fear, and distress.
It creates suspense.

We can hear:
- Celtic [k] music: bagpipes / violin
- An explosion: people shouting after the explosion, broken / shattered windows.
- Voices in a pub: friends talking / chatting, glasses, people having a toast.

• Who is responsible for the bomb? Why a bomb?

Maybe a party of Catholics planted a bomb in order to punish / kill the Protestants because they are at war.

Irish people wanted to provoke a war with the UK.

Ireland took their revenge because they had problems with the British.

Maybe they wanted to take Ulster back.

Maybe it was a sort of menace / threat / blackmail.

The IRA threatened England.

Vocabulary: (to) menace / (to) threaten / (to) blackmail

NB:

Protestants -> Ulster
Catholics -> Eire

Finally we commented on grammar and particularly on how to make hypotheses in the past.

Grammar: Faire des hypothèses portant sur un événement qui a déjà eu lieu

Sujet + may/might + have + participe passé

Ex: He might have gone to the cinema yesterday

HW: for next time, you need to re-write your hypotheses with the new grammatical structure and get ready to talk about them.

Hey,

today we first watched an extract from Man Vs Wild and we commented on it. You can watch it below:

Here is what we said:

It sounds as if the man were in a TV show like "Survivor". He is an adventurer who is lost in the wild and needs to survive. He is looking for giant larvae in the bark / birch of a tree.
As he doesn't have fire, he doesn't cook them; he eats them raw. It's disgusting / yucky. However, the presenter says it is a good source of protein.

Sounds: we can hear twigs crackling. It sounds crispy when he chews the insect. It sounds as though he were chewing gum / it sounds gooey.

Then we continued the lesson with a global recap of what we said for the text:

C) Miami: a positive memory

In her last concert, Billie H. wants to make the audience feel guilty and to react. "She is flailing the audience" so that they can picture the scene of the necktie party.

HW: for next time, you could answer this question:

"Do you think singers and stars should be committed and defend a cause?" (300 words). Devoir facultatif.

Hey,

today, after speaking about the trip to London, we started a new sequence entitled "A tour of Ireland". We studied this picture to try and get a brief overview of what Ireland is and explain why Ireland is a divided country.

Here is what we said:

Ireland is said to be a « green » country because of its landscapes. The nickname of Ireland is: « The emerauld isle ». The symbol is the shamrock / clover.
The country has been divided into two parts for a long time because of political and religious reasons. Ulster (Northern Ireland) belongs to the UK whereas Eire (the Republic of Ireland) is independent. The religious problems actually date back from 456 AD when St Patrick brought catholicism to Ireland.
On Saint Patrick's Day, people are said to drink beer (the famous Guinness, a dark ale).
The Irish people are of Celtic [k] origins and are said to be very traditional.

Then we finished the lesson with listening to this video. You only had sound (and Nadia only had the images). You had to guess where and when it took place; who were the characters; and what was happening.

Here the full video so that you can check your hypotheses:

HW: for tomorrow, you need to complete questions A and B from your worksheet.

Files:

- Download the worksheet here

Hey,

today as you hadn't done your homework properly for most of you, we had to continue the class without correcting it...

So we began to listen to a new document about San Francisco. You can listen to it again below: 

Here is what we said about it:

"to be written by ..."

HW: for next time, you need to complete the phonetics worksheet about American places to visit.

Files:

- download the worksheet here.

- download the activity worksheet here.

MESSAGE à l'attention des élèves ayant participé au voyage scolaire en Angleterre

Des objets (vêtements et téléphone portable) ont été oubliés dans le bus. Voici les photos de ces items. Merci de vous manifester s'ils vous appartiennent par voie de commentaire afin de pouvoir vous les restituer au plus vite:

Hey,

today we first did a quick recap of what we have said about the text so far. Here are the notes you took:

"to be written by ..."

Then we continued explaining an important grammar point and we gave examples from the text: how to express the notion of goal. 

"to be written by ..."

Finally, I gave you back your essays. You will have to correct your mistakes for next time and design a better structure in general (intro / development / conclusion with clear paragraphs).

HW: re-write your essays about the importance of succeeding in school to you.

Hey,

today you first had to report about the different trips you were advised to take in the US. It was a complete disaster as you had not prepared your homework correctly!

SHAME ON YOU!

Here are the notes concerning the different journeys:

"to be written by Florian"

Then we continued the lesson with listening to a new document about San Francisco:

Here is what you could say about it:

The document is about San Francisco. A woman is speaking about the activities you can do when you are in San Francisco, if you are interested in history and culture / relaxing / visiting monuments / sightseeing:

You can go to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Other possible activities:
- Cable cars
- Shopping
- Golden Gate park

Vocabulary:
- A historic landmark
- A monument
- A sight

HW: for next time, agencies have to create a poster of the dream trip to the US for $200 max. They will have to present this poster to the class and explain why it's the best.

+ the riddles worksheet to complete + learn your lesson (recap and vocabulary). 

Files: Download the Riddles here.

Hey,

today we first commented on a gruesome picture that is going to be depicted on cigarette packs by the end of April in France. Here is what we said:

The new law in France:

Type: awareness campaign

Target: everyone, in particular people who smoke

Goal:

- to prevent people from smoking
- to shock people
- to make people react

Efficient? Yes, power of the picture

It's on cigarette packs:
You can really picture the consequences of cigarettes.

Here:

- throat cancer / lung cancer
- mouth disease (teeth, gum)
- gangrene
- risk of miscarriage of the baby

+ problems of erection

Then we continued the class with a quick recap of what we had said about the situation in the text and we went on talking about the characters feelings and reactions:

The feelings of the characters:

Philip is deeply in love with Stella, he wants to marry her. He is in search of a wedding ring. He doesn't know Stella and Joe are having an affair.
Stella feels guilty not telling Philip but she wants to break up face to face. She is not cruel / heartless / disrespectful.
She has not had the opportunity to tell him.
She doesn't want him to come back because she has already cheated on him.
She tries to hide her real feelings for Joe and Joe also tries to conceal their affair.
The verbs of speech that are used are neutral ("said") and reinforce this idea.
The unlawful couple doesn't want their relationship to be revealed / disclosed.

HW: Get ready to answer this question briefly -> "If you had been Stella, would you have stood by Philip?" Why or why not?