Thursday 13 November 2014

SHALL I COMPARE THEE ...? SHAKESPEARE IN MUSIC


Watch the video and listen to the song. It's one of Shakespeare's sonnets sung by David Gilmour (Pink Floyd): Sonnet 18 - Shall I compare thee
Worsheet 
 (poem and text analysis questions)
.

Sunday 20 July 2014

THE A TEAM & THE BIG ISSUE

Ed Sheeran, the worldwide popular British singer and songwriter, wrote this beautiful ballad in 2011 after  following a last-minute performance at an event for the homeless. It tells of a crack-addicted girl (crack is known as a "class A drug"). It was written after Sheeran visited a homeless shelter and heard some of the stories of the lives people had been living. Making the song upbeat was Sheeran's way of masking the heavy subject matter. Also using the term "Class A Team" was another way of masking it a little more. Watch the video, listen to the song and complete the tasks 1 and 2 in the worksheet (HERE)

Wednesday 25 June 2014

SUMMER ACTIVITIES 1 - YOUTUBE CELEBRITIES: CHARLIE MCDONNELL

Hello and happy summer time! As promised, here are some activities to revise, consolidate, improve your English. Do you like YouTube? What are your favourite channels? And what are your best favourite videos? Have you got a favourite Youtuber? Charlie McDonnell is one of them and he is a real celebrity in the UK and USA. Discover more about him. I have prepared listening comprehension and reading comprehension activities in  a worksheet  (you find it HERE),  as well as some Grammar and Translation exercises. I can already imagine your complains: BUT ...  Charlie speaks very fast! Yes, maybe,  but he is  great fun to watch! 


After completing all your tasks you can send your work via e-mail to learnonline.mgs@gmail.com for correction. I hope to hear from you soon!

(Download the worksheet, add your answers directly on it below the questions or below the sentences you have to translate using a different colour or different font, then send it as a separate word / txt file attached to your e-mail)


Next Summer Activities post will be up on 7th July. Till then, enjoy your holidays!


Monday 12 May 2014

FROM THE SATIRICAL NOVEL TO SATIRICAL PAINTING - WILLIAM HOGARTH, MARRIAGE A LA MODE

Hogarth was the inventor of the narrative sequence of paintings. Each sequence followed a theme such as the failure of combined marriages or the corruption of political elections, for examples. Hogarth's oil paintings were then engraved and sold as sets of prints, which made them much cheaper and very popular. Hogarth is at once a realistic and comic artist, a satirist.

Let's give a close look at his Marriage à la Mode (fashionable marriage in French) sequence (1743 - 45) .

1. The Marriage Settlement


This is the first scene in this series of paintings on the misfortunes of a marriage between people of fashion. The marriage is being arranged in the Earl of Squander's house. The Earl suffers from gout and rests his bandaged foot on a stool. He is receiving the dowry for his son's marriage to a rich merchant's daughter: her money for his old ancestry - he points to the genealogical tree, on the right. The Earl is in debt because of the expenses for the still unfinished Palladian villa seen through the window. The groom, on the left, is dressed as a perfecto fop and has a black patch on his neck (the sign of a venereal disease) . The bride sits with her back to him and looks sad; she's listening to the lawyer Silvertongue, her secret lover.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

DIVERGENT FROM THE BOOK TO THE MOVIE - READING & WATCHING

Let's improve our English with a book and a movie: Divergent by Veronica Roth and its adaptation for the big screen starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James.

Task 1. Reading comprehension: Read an excerpt from Chapter 1 and answer the questions



Task 2. Listening comprehension: Watch the trailer and fill in the gaps


Wednesday 22 January 2014

MOVIE PROJECT - ANITA B. BY ROBERTO FAENZA


Anita B. is the new movie directed by Roberto Faenza starring Eline Powell, Robert Sheehan, Antonio Cupo, Andrea Osvart, Nico MirallegroMoni Ovadia. We are going to see it at the cinema on the international Holocaust Remembrance Day (27th January).