C2. READING. CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE.

    Walden  (1854) by Henry David Thoreau
Chapter II: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

    "(...)The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.
      I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."
Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. (...)"
                                                   FROM WIKISOURCE

A2 / B1 GRAMMAR- STATIVE VERBS

Some English verbs (the stative verbs) aren’t used in the continuous tenses (such as the present continuous, the past continuous or the future continuous ). They usually express a state, feeling or condition, not an action. Here is a list of the most common ones:

Stative Verb List

·        Agree /  Appear /  Astonish

·        Be / Believe /  Belong

·        Consist / Contain

·    Deny / Depend / Deserve / Disagree / Dislike / Doubt  
 Fit  / Fancy

·        Hate /  Have (possess) / Hear

·        Imagine / Impress /  Involve

·        Know

·        Lack / Like / Look (seem) / Love

·        Matter / Mean / Measure / Mind

·        Need

·        Owe / Own

·        Please / Possess / Prefer / Promise

·        Realise/ Recognise / Remember

·        Satisfy / See / Seem / Smell / Sound / Suppose / Surprise

·        Taste / Think (have an opinion)

·        Understand

·        Want / Weigh / Wish 

Some verbs can be stative and dynamic (verbs that represent an action and can be used in the progressive form –ING), depending on the meaning:

Be is normally a stative verb, but when it is used in the continuous it means ‘behaving’ or ‘acting’ (in some way or other) :

a)      you are crazy = that’s your personality  STATIVE

      b)  you are being crazy = at the moment you are behaving in a crazy way  DYNAMIC

Have when refers to possession is stative.

a)      He has two dogs. STATIVE

   But when it is part of an expression, it can be used as a dynamic verb:

b)      She is having breakfast / a good time / a party / a shower … DYNAMIC

Look: Your new garden looks wonderful (has a certain appearance) STATIVE

            I’m just looking (see) DYNAMIC

Measure: It measures 5 m (actual length). STATIVE

                 At the moment, the engineers are measuring the area (They are working on it). DYNAMIC

Think: I think it will rain tomorrow (opinion) STATIVE

             I’m thinking about the exam (action in progress in the mind) DYNAMIC      

See: I see your point now.  (view / understand) STATIVE

        I’m seeing my old friends tomorrow (meet) DYNAMIC

Taste: It tastes wonderful.  (It has a certain taste) STATIVE

          She is tasting the coffee (she is performing the action of tasting something) DYNAMIC

A1 / A2 / B1 - LISTENING & READING

News for students of English.

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EDUCATION. TALK. IDEAS FOR TEACHERS - Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS - PhoTransEdit (English Phonetic Transcription) Text to Phonetics

 Text2Phonetics is a PhoTransEdit Online application that transcribes small English texts into broad phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

PhoTransEdit (English Phonetic Transcription) Text to Phonetics

ALL LEVELS - PRONUNCIATION: Phonemic chart (by the British Council / BBC)

This is the new British Council phonemic chart. Help your students hear the sounds of English by clicking on the symbols below. Click on the top right hand corner of each symbol to hear sample words including the sounds. 
Phonemic chart

B1 / B2 WORD FORMATION

1. Affixes

The words in the alphabetical list may be extended by the use of one or more of these affixes:

mini- with nouns, sometimes without a hyphen, e.g. minibus, mini-tour

non- with nouns and adjectives, e.g. non-essential

re- with verbs and their related nouns, usually without a hyphen, e.g. rename, renaming

self- with nouns and adjectives, e.g. self-importance, self-confident

un- negative prefix, e.g. unsafe

-able with verbs, to form adjectives, e.g. affordable

-ed (-d) with verbs, to form adjectives, e.g. limited, used

-er (-r) with verbs, to form nouns, e.g. teacher, advertiser; shopper, also comparative forms, e.g. brighter                                                                                                                             

-ese for nationalities/languages, e.g. Japanese

-ess referring to a woman or female animal, e.g. princess, lioness

N.B. it is less common to refer to women in this way nowadays, and usually safer to use the ‘standard’ form e.g. actor, author

-est superlative forms, e.g. tallest

-ful with nouns, for amount contained, e.g. spoonful; with nouns to form adjectives denoting

        characteristics or qualities, e.g. painful, peaceful

-ing with verbs, for activity or state, e.g. reading, frightening

-ish for nationalities or languages, e.g. Swedish; with nouns to form adjectives, e.g. childish

-ist with nouns, for occupations, e.g. novelist, guitarist

-less with nouns to form adjectives, e.g. breathless

-ly with adjectives to form adverbs, e.g. seriously; with nouns to form adjectives, e.g. friendly

-ment with verbs to form nouns, e.g. enjoyment

-or with verbs to form nouns, for people, e.g. inventor

-y with nouns to form adjectives, e.g. hair- hairy, sun- sunny