Blog de Cristina

Sent by Estela Alvarez, a fourth year student. 

A long time ago single women who had a romantic meeting always went with a chaperone who kept an eye on the couple, whereas nowadays people can flirt from their personal computer while they are surfing the  Internet because there are websites where they chat possible partners up. It seems incredible, but there are people who go out with someone without having ever seen them .

Certainly, we live in a stressful world and some people are too busy to look for love. As a result, new ways of meeting the person of your dreams are coming along. Actually, travel agencies arrange special trips only for single people and TV programmes organize blind dates for their contestants. But one of the most original systems to meet your Mr or Miss Right is a speed date, which is becoming more and more popular in different countries, especially among young people.

It consists of a group of people, where there is the same number of men and women, who are gathered together in a room where they have a few minutes to find out as much information as they can about each other in order to see if some of them is their perfect soul mate. At a speed date a person talks one to one to a member of the opposite sex during a while and as soon as a bell rings the participants have to move on to the next person and then, they start a conversation again. At the end of the event they submit to the organizers a list with people they fancy and they would like to see again because they believe they could be compatible. If the other person also feels the same attraction the organizers will get them in touch .

 In Spain a sort of “speed date” is becoming fashionable between university students, although this way to meet a possible pick-up is slightly different. It is called «traffic lights party» and it is usually celebrated in discos. It consists of wearing a sticker with the shape of a traffic light in the lapel and the colours of the signal have different meanings, so if you are wearing the green light switched on, it means you are not engaged; the yellow light means you are single but you are not especially interested in meeting anybody; and the red colour means you already have a boyfriend or a girlfriend.  Funny , isn’t it?

The death toll from the Burma cyclone could hit 100,000, the top US diplomat in the country said, as thousands of shell-shocked survivors emerged from devastated areas, desperate for food.

It is the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh. Rangoon is the largest city and former capital of  Burma  but now it is like a dead city .Most of the trees have fallen down. Many roads have been blocked by the big trees.Water is the main problem for people now. Everybody is talking about the shortage of water. At the moment, monasteries and mosques are providing water to people.

Burma’s government has been criticised over its handling of the crisis.

A number of Burmese nationals and some foreigners have said they had not been properly warned by the country’s military leaders about the approaching storm.

Some witnesses have also said the government’s response to the disaster has so far been slow and inadequate

This review has been sent by Irene Miguez Garcia, 2º Basic Level

“Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland” is a book written by Lewis Carroll, who was born in 1832 and was the third child in a family of eleven children.
It’s a fantasy story which takes place in the country while two sisters were sitting under the trees on a sunny day. One of them, called Alice  was too tired and sleepy while the other one was reading a book. Alice fell asleep and the story started. The book tells strange and stupid things about strange people too, in a country where everybody was mad. In Wonderland there were a lot of strange people, for example the Cheshire cat, which was always grinning and vanishing every second, the Hatter and March Hare who were always drinking tea in a boring party, a White rabbit who was always worried about the time and the mad Queen, the Duchess, a pack of cards and a Queen of hearts who wanted to cut everybody’s head.
Alice lives unbelievable adventures that she couldn’t understand, like ” The Croquet game”, where the balls were hedgehogs and the mallets flamingos, she suffered many changes too, getting taller and smaller when she ate or drank  some things, she was in a trial only with animals, etc.
At the end when she was feeling afraid, sad, unhappy and worried, she woke up, it just was a stupid dream.
I think the book was a little bit difficult and it wasn’t because of the language, but it was difficult for me because it’s all nonsense! And I thought I was always lost while I was reading it.
I didn’t like it so much, maybe because it’s a story for little children and it’s a little childish , although I think it’s  quite difficult to read for them, so If I were a little child I wouldn’t choose this one, although the title sounds fabulous!   

Here is a very interesting site to visit . Here you can practice reading   and do comprehension exersises.

You can choose to select:

The story: as provided by CNN SF and CBS 5. Intended for adults with moderate reading and speaking comprehension skills including advanced ESL or non-native English speakers.

The Abridged Story: Modification of original story text by simplifying complex ideas and sentences, exchanging advanced words with less difficult ones, and change difficult concepts into precise terms. Intended for adults with low reading comprehension skills including beginning ESL or non-native English speakers.

Story Outline: Outline summary of basic edited story elements.

And what is more, along with the text you can see the video.