$100 Laptop: this is not a toy.

When the idea of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) — popularly known as $100 Laptop — was first announced in 2005, nobody thought it was possible. Two years later in November 2007 the little computer that could went into mass production in China, and is now called the XO laptop. Read the whole article clicking here. Also, watch the presentation of this surprising laptop. Very interesting material.

Handwriting

Does your handwriting reveal aspects of your personality? Listen to an interview with an expert on the topic here, do a listening comprehension quiz by clicking here, and read the tapescript here to have a good look at vocabulary and expressions. Have fun.

Christmas Routine

Listen to this dialogue about Christmas traditions in Canada. You can also read the script by clicking on "transcript" on the web page, and do a listening comprehension quiz as well. Click here, and get to work. Merry Christmas!

Darwin´s Surprise

When the sequence of the human genome was fully mapped in 2003, researchers discovered that our bodies are littered with fragments of retroviruses. These dangerous viruses managed to embed themselves in the DNA of our ancestors millions of years ago. They are called endogenous retroviruses, because once they infect the DNA of a species they become part of that species. One by one, though, after molecular battles that raged for thousands of generations, they have been defeated by evolution. Like dinosaur bones, these viral fragments are fossils and they reside within each of us, carrying a record that goes back millions of years. Read the complete article by clicking here, and listen to its audio version here. Excellent material for those of you interested in science and evolution.

World population in real time

Do you want to know how our population increases by the second? Click here and see by yourself!

Living in Japan

Listen to this conversation between two people living in Japan. You can do a quiz, and also read the script to check on vocabulary. Start working by clicking here. Have fun!

Addictions!

What are you addicted to ? Coffee? Sports? Your job, maybe? Do this fun activity listening to people talking about their addictions! You need to click on the faces of the speakers and solve the exercise. You can read the script, which appears below on the same page to get every word they say. Click here. Enjoy it!

Tennis

Listen and do the exercise following a dialogue about tennis. You can click "transcript" on the page when you finish your exercise, listen again and read at the same time. Excellent activity to gain vocabulary. Listen to it once and again. Click here and have fun!

Do schools kill creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now." Enjoy it!

Personal information

This is a short dialogue to practise names, occupations, and numbers. Click here and listen to the conversation. If you have problems with the vocabulary, you can press "Quiz Script" on the page and you can read the conversation and listen to it at the same time. Enjoy it!

What a Friday night!

How many things can go wrong on a Friday night? Listen to the dialogue by clickinkg here and do the exercises online. You can also read the script going to "Quiz Script" on the same page. You can use this dialogue to practise conditionals type 3 and reflect on all those things that would - wouldn´t have happened if... Have fun!

A pet looking for a new home

What´s the story of Lucy, the pet which appears on this video? She is staying at the Burlington Pet Adoption Center, waiting for a new owner. What is this pet like? Pay attention to vocabulary connected to description of personalities,even in a dog! By the way, you can very well adopt her, if you happen to live near the Center.... Have fun!

Football and Riquelme!

This is for students of English who love football. The announcers on this video make it clear that Juan Roman Riquelme is one of the best players in the world.... and these two goals prove it..... Enjoy the football jargon, and the pronunciation of "r" in Roman Riquelme!. Try to catch those phrases that create suspense just before the goals are scored. Enjoy it!

Telephone complaints

This short investigation finds that a number of customers -- most of them elderly -- are having problems with their phone bills. Maybe some of you have experienced any of this before? Watch it and enjoy it.

Rugby time!

Yes, Rugby, why not? Everybody is talking about it these days, so let´s join the crowd. This video is entertaining and it explains the bases of the sport. Great material to practise numbers, descriptions of roles, and to learn about Rugby, of course! By the way, the Argentinian Rubgy team "Los Pumas" is playing the Worldcup Championship in France these days. Good luck to them from Argentina!

Your worst quality!

What are your best qualities? And what are your worst ones? Do this audio exercise, listen as many times as necessary and read the scrip if necessary. Then you can discuss it in class with your companions and teacher. Just click here and get to work. Have fun!

Mission to service Hubble space telescope

Imagine yourself suspended in space, just like the astronauts appearing on this video! NASA has given the green light for a fifth Servicing Mission to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The rescue mission will be aimed at upgrading and increasing Hubble’s life expectancy in the hope that the observatory continues uncovering some of the most fascinating mysteries of the universe. Enjoy the views of space and study the vocabulary appearing in it.

Hubble Servicing Mission in 2008
Uploaded by spacetelescope_org

Pizza for dinner!

Click here and listen to this activity, do the multiple choice exercise and read the script to check on vocabulary. Enjoy your pizza!

Adsense: making money online

Follow the instructions by clicking Click here to do a listening activity on Adsense, by Google. As you listen, you can complete a multiple choice exercise, and go to the quiz script section, to read and listen again as many times as you want. Enjoy it.

Peru, the world´s catalogue

Do you feel like travelling? Let´s travel to Peru, then. Fantastic views and easy vocabulary to describe the pictures. Enjoy this mini vacation!

Did you know? Great Documentary

Don´t miss this documentary called "Did you know? Shift happens", about some of the effects of the revolutionary times we are going through -- as regards technology and language use-- on our immediate future. Really interesting to discuss among colleagues and in class. I hope you enjoy it.

Being redundant

In this listening activity, we hear from a famous business expert and writer, Charles Handy some useful advice about coping with redundancy. You can download an mp3 version of the programme and a script at the bottom of the activity page. Click here to work on this interesting material, as often as you want.

A pale blue dot

Astronomer Carl Sagan´s voice is heard on this video. Maybe some of you do remember his documentary Cosmos? This is Sagan´s attempt to get us, human beings, in perspective within the vastness of the universe. Watch the scene, work with your teacher on its vocabulary, and watch it again, as many times as you feel like. Real food for thought. Enjoy it.

What´s your dream job?

Play this game listening to six people talking about their dream jobs. Different accents, different jobs, very nice material to work with. Just click here. As usual, you can repeat the listening as many times as you want. Have fun!

A woman, a man and a horse.

Listen to different descriptions to identify the corresponding photographs. Are the descriptions about a woman, a man and a woman, a horse a man and a woman? Listen and follow the activity on the web-page. If you have problems with understanding, you can read the script clicking on "tapescript" on the page. Click here.

News programme listening quiz

Enjoy this set of short sequences while doing a multiple-choice. You can also read the tapescript by pressing that button on the page. Good and varied material. To listen to it click here.

Money in life and in marriage

This is a great activity to practise vocabulary and expressions connected money savings and sharing it when married! You can listen to the conversation, read the tapesript as you listen, or do a multiple choice exercise by pressing "slide quiz" on the page. To start listening just click here.

The media Revolution

What´s the future of the media, and what´s our future like in this sense? Interesting and controversial short futuristic documentary on Prometheus - the media revolution. The video is captioned in English, so it will be easy to follow. Have a good time.

Steve Jobs by Steve Jobs. Don´t miss it!

I know we have other videos with Steve Jobs as protagonist. This time, you have Mr. Jobs talking about memories from his life. I do recommend watching it, it´s interesting, inspiring and really makes you think about a number of things in life. Thanks, Martin, for sending the link and for suggesting including this material in the blog. I hope you all enjoy it very much as well.

Colours in context

A conversation about colours and where you find them. Activities of all types about this topic. Really excellent material. Click here. and start working.

Numbers, dates, birthdays.

For beginners who want to practise numbers: 13 or 30? 14 or 40? etc, this is a nice video with people talking about their ages and their birthdays. Very good to practise cardinal and ordinal numbers. Watch the sequence with your teacher and have fun!

Lesson - 08-Numbers
Uploaded by realdogswimming

Real people, easy English.

Watch the video as often as you like. You will see different people giving personal information. The second part of the video brings captions in English to help you understand all they say. Have a good time!

Real English Lesson 6 - 3/3
Uploaded by realdogswimming

Phrasal Verbs, our friends!

This is not audio or video, but a very nicely organized page to check meanings of usual phrasal verbs, examples to see them " in action" , and activities online to work with our dear friends, phrasal verbs. Let´s give them a try by clicking here. Have fun!

The Real Steve Jobs!

Enjoy the real presentation by Steve Jobs when he launched Apple´s iphone. Nice, clear English. Then you can compare the real Steve Jobs with the imitation in the activity below. Enjoy it!

iPhone Steve Jobs présentation
Uploaded by cosmosam

Business telephone conversation

Listen to this conversation about some computer equipment and do the exercises online. You can listen as many times as you want, you can read the script, and read extra material just clicking here.

UFOs: a story to remember

Listen to a crazy dialogue between a police officer and a man reporting a UFO encounter! There are online exercises with answers and you can also read the script and practise vocabulary. Very funny. Just click here!

More irregular verbs

Irregular verbs again! Read the list and then click here to listen to them like a song. Practise a few times every day for one week!

feel, felt, felt
hold, held, held
stand, stood, stood
understand, understood, understood
lose, lost, lost
catch, caught, caught
buy, bought, bought
send, sent, sent
fall, fell, fallen
choose, chose, chosen
sleep, slept, slept
speak, spoke, spoken
meet, met, met
lead, led, led
bite, bit, bitten
hit, hit, hit
drive, drove, driven
break, broke, broken

Cool irregular verbs

Is it possible to study irregular verbs and have fun? Yes, it is! Read the irregular verbs that follow. Then click here and listen to them like in a song. Repeat the exercise every day if you want!

take, took, taken

put, put, put

tell, told, told

give, gave, given

read, read, read

keep, kept, kept

begin, began, begun

let, let, let

hear, heard, heard

cut, cut, cut

eat, ate, eaten

run, ran, run

bring, brought, brought

become, became, become

grow, grew, grown

draw, drew, drawn

show, showed, shown

mean, meant, meant

Looking for a job

An article ideal to work with your teacher, or to do as homework. Read it, work on the vocabulary, do the activities online and listen to it. Just click here and start working!

Visit Great Britain online!

BBC World Service is full of great resources for English students. By clicking here you will find a section called "Beyond the postcard", with a large map of Britain and a list of cities to visit. As you click on a city on the map, you´ll get to text, audio and video information about that city in particular, together with exercises online. So, choose a location in Britain and just imagine you are there!

Free cell phone

A listening exercise with very interesting vocabulary and expressions. You can do the listening exercise, complete the script, read it, listen again and so on. Click here and enjoy it.

Telephone message

Listen to a message left in an answering machine clicking here . You can read, do a quiz, complete the script, read the complete script... really good material to work and practise.

Job Hunting

This is a listening activity which includes English slang and idiomatic expressions. Click here to listen to the dialogue, do the activities, analyse vocabulary items and read the script if necessary.

Business English Tenses review

An activity to check your tenses in a business English context. to do it click here. The answers to this online exercise are supplied by the end of the activity.

Present forms: simple or progressive?

A questionnaire to practise Present Simple and Present Progressive. Do the exercise clicking here. You will go to an exercise with answers on-line. You can do it as many times as you like. Have fun!

Symbols!

The name of symbols which we use in writing and spelling. You will see the symbol and its name in English. Check how to pronounce them with your teacher!

. full stop
, comma
? question mark
! exclamation mark
: colon
; semi-colon
- hyphen (dash)
& ampersand
/ virgule (forward slash)
\ reversed virgule (backward slash)
@
at
#
hash
£
pound symbol
€
euro symbol
$
dollar symbol
'
apostrophe
~
tilde
*
asterisk
´
acute accent
`
grave accent
"
quotation mark
( )
left / right parentheses
[]
left / right square bracket
{}
left / right brace
< >
left / right angle bracket