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WEEKLY PICKS - 10

This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

Article from BBC EARTH: The river that runs through the dawn of life, by Vivien Cumming. Every river has a story to tell and this one covers 500 million years.
Rocks sculpted by the Coppermine River took us on a journey through 500 hundred million years of Earth’s history, starting over 1.5 billion years ago when the earliest multicellular life was beginning to emerge. By studying and sampling the rocks along the riverbanks, and hiking into the wilderness using drones to map the area, we hoped to expand our understanding of early life on Earth.
The Coppermine River winds its way through the high Arctic landscape, cutting the easiest path through a remote part of the world until it reaches the Arctic Ocean and the Inuit settlement of Kugluktuk, where we ended our journey. (Continue reading)

Article from BBC FUTURE: How your age affects your appetiteby Alex Johnstone. Our relationship with food changes through our lives, and there are seven stages of life that affect how we eat.
Do you eat to live or live to eat? We have a complicated relationship with food, influenced by cost, availability and even peer pressure. But something we all share is appetiteour desire to eat.
While hunger – our body’s way of making us desire food when it needs feeding – is a part of appetite, it is not the only factor. After all, we often eat when we’re not hungry, or may skip a meal despite pangs of hunger. Recent research has highlighted that the abundance of food cues – smells, sounds, advertising – in our environment is one of the main causes of overconsumption. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:


MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

The US island that feels like Russia, by John Zada (from BBC Travel)

Unalaska Island in the remote Aleutian archipelago was part of an epic, but now mostly forgotten, military campaign during World War II.
(Credit:John Zada)
⇒ A slice of Russia in the US

After Danish explorer Vitus Bering and his Russian colleague Alexei Chirikov became the first known Europeans to visit the Aleutian Islands in 1741, waves of Russian fur traders flocked to the archipelago to hunt sea otters and fur seals. In the late 1700s, the islands became a colony of the Russian Empire. Today many inhabitants still have Russian surnames.

The Russian Orthodox Church followed the fur hunters, building small houses of worship across the islands and converting many Unangax to their faith. Although the US gained control of the Aleutian Islands when it purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, the Russian Orthodox legacy has survived. Unalaska’s Church of the Holy Ascension (pictured above) is one of a few Russian Orthodox houses of worship that remain. Built in 1896, it is the oldest cruciform-style cathedral in North America and contains original icons and interior sections from earlier churches built on the same site in 1808 and 1825. (Credit: John Zada)

🔗 Go to FULL ARTICLE ⇒ The US island that once belonged to Russia


RECOMMENDED: NEWS REVIEW (From BBC Learning English)

💡 How to use the language from the latest news stories:

Check out the videos below and click on the links above for more!

(New videos on YouTube every Tuesday)






GRAMMAR PILLS: OTHER OR ANOTHER? – OTHERS, THE OTHER AND THE OTHERS

💡 Quick answer:
  • ANOTHER (otro/otra) + singular countable noun There is another book in my bag. (Hay otro libro en mi bolso.)
  • OTHER (otros/otras) + plural countable noun There are other books in my bag. (Hay otros libros en mi bolso.)
  • OTHER (otro/otra) + uncountable noun The embassy website has general information about visas. Other travel information can be obtained by calling the freephone number. (From Cambridge English Grammar Today)
🔺WARNING: ANOTHER + NUMBER / 'a couple of' / 'few' etc. + PLURAL NOUN.
'ANOTHER' se utiliza con nombres contables en plural cuando incluimos un NÚMERO o frases como 'a couple of', 'few', etc.
  • Another 2,000 nurses are needed in NHS hospitals. (Macmillan Dictionary)
  • For another £30 (= for £30 more) you can buy the model with a touchscreen. (Cambridge Dictionary)
  • My passport is valid for another two years. (Cambridge Dictionary)
  • We’ll have to wait another three weeks for the results. (Longman Dictionary)
  • We'll have to wait for another two weeks / another couple of weeks.
  • I've decided to stay in the UK another few weeks after I finish my course.
    💡 EXTENDED ANSWER:
    We can use OTHER and ANOTHER as ADJECTIVES and PRONOUNS.
    Al igual que en español, podemos usar ‘otro/otra’ y ‘otros/otras’ como adjetivos y como pronombres.

    As an ADJECTIVE, they describe a noun.
    Como ADJETIVO, describen un nombre (sustantivo).
    As a PRONOUN, they replace a noun.
    Como PRONOMBRE, reemplazan un nombre (sustantivo).

    COUNTABLE SINGULAR NOUN
    As an ADJECTIVE
    As a PRONOUN
    I need another book.
    (Necesito otro libro.)
    I don’t need this book; I need another.
    (No necesito este libro; necesito otro.)
    I don’t need this book; I need the other book.
    (No necesito este libro; necesito el otro libro.)
    I don’t need this book; I need the other.
    (No necesito este libro; necesito el otro.)

    COUNTABLE PLURAL NOUN
    As an ADJECTIVE
    As a PRONOUN
    I need other books.
    (Necesito otros libros.)
    I don’t need these books; I need others.
    (No necesito estos libros; necesito otros.)
    I don’t need these books; I need the other books.
    (No necesito estos libros; necesito los otros libros.)
    I don’t need these books; I need the others.
    (No necesito estos libros; necesito los otros.)

    🔺 WARNING: ‘OTHERS is always a PLURAL PRONOUN, meaning ‘other people or other things’
    ‘OTHERS’ en plural con -s es siempre PRONOMBRE ⇒ Some people think that Tom is a great teacher, but others think just the opposite.

    🎬 From Learn English with Adam [EngVid]

    🔗 Read more:
    🔗 Free online exercises:
    🔗 SEE ALSO:

    WEEKLY PICKS - 9

    This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!

    📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

    Article from BBC CAPITAL: Your vocal quirks could be costing you jobs, Video by Kat Sud, Maeve Burke and Bowen Li, research by Debbi McCullough. These vocal tendencies can cost you at a job interview, but is it fair to judge people based on these vocal habits? (Continue reading)

    Article from BBC FUTURE: The dangerous diseases hidden in caves, by Zaria Gorvett. The rescued Thai boys faced infectious organisms underground and are now in quarantine – but which diseases could they have been exposed to, and how serious are they? (Continue reading)

    🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

    LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
    5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
    A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
    💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:


    MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

    The language of mental or physical disability (from OXFORD Living Dictionaries)

    Read full article: Avoid using dated or offensive words with these guidelines for use of specific terminology.
    The language that is now considered suitable to refer to people with physical and mental disabilities is very different from that used a few decades ago. The changes are due partly to campaigns by organizations that promote the interests of particular groups of disabled people and partly to the public's increased sensitivity to the issues. People are now keen to avoid using terms that might reinforce any negative stereotypes of people with disabilities, in the same way that they try to avoid the racist or sexist terms that were once commonly used.

    The word disabled itself came to be used as the standard term for referring to people with physical and mental disabilities from the 1960s onwards. It's still the most generally accepted term in both British and American English and has replaced terms that are now seen as offensive, such as crippled, handicapped, or mentally defective.

    If you want to use appropriate language you not only need to avoid words which have been superseded, such as mongolism or backward. You should also try to do the following:
    • avoid using the + an adjective to refer to an entire group of people, such as ‘the blind’, ‘the deaf’, or ‘the disabled’. This type of collective term is seen as dehumanizing: in essence, it reduces the people with a disability to the disability itself. It also ignores the individuality of those people by lumping them together in an undifferentiated group. The preferred forms are now ‘a person with …’ or ‘people with ……’ wherever possible, i.e. ‘people with sight problems’, ‘people with disabilities’, etc. If that isn't suitable, use ‘blind people’, ‘disabled people’, and so on.
    • avoid using terms such as victim, suffer from, be afflicted with, or wheelchair-bound which suggest that the person concerned is the helpless object of the disability. Instead of suffer from, you can just say have:
    Their youngest child has cystic fibrosis.

    Another alternative is ‘be diagnosed with’:

    In 1984, he was diagnosed with autism.

    Rather than describing someone as wheelchair-bound, you can just say that they ‘use a wheelchair’.
    • avoid using words which once related to disabilities, but which are now generally used as insults, such as mongol, cretin, spastic, schizo, dumb, etc.

    WEEKLY PICKS - 8

    This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!

    📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

    Article from BBC CULTURE: The world’s most beautiful libraries, Cameron Laux. If like the writer Jorge Luis Borges you believe that Paradise is a library, fasten your seatbelt and prepare to be transported to heaven on earth. (Continue reading)

    Article from BBC FUTURE: The ‘quiet eye’ of elite concentration, by David Robson. The way in which athletes can maintain their focus even under high pressure can help doctors, and it is of increasing interest to the military. (Continue reading)

    🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

    LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:

    5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
    💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

    MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!

    GRAMMAR PILLS: GOOD OR WELL?

    What's the difference between GOOD and WELL?

    💡 Quick answer ⇒ GOOD = ADJECTIVE / WELL = ADVERB

    GOOD is an ADJECTIVE ⇒ (bueno/a) i.e. it describes a noun or pronoun.
    Ejemplo: That is (a good book) / That book is good.
                                           noun           noun

    WELL is an ADVERB ⇒ (bien) i.e. it describes a verb.
    Ejemplo: Mary speaks English well. / I did well in the exam.
                             verb                          verb

    🔺 WARNING: WELL may also be an ADJECTIVE, BUT only when it means

    1) In good health; free or recovered from illness.
    → ‘I don't feel very well
    → ‘it would be some time before Sarah was completely well
    → ‘It has also correctly labelled as disease free most, but not all, of the well people.’

    1.1) In a satisfactory state or position.
    → ‘I do hope all is well with you and your family’

    2) Sensible; advisable.
    → ‘it would be well to know just what this suggestion entails’
    → ‘Only--if we decide to buy, it would be well to be moved in and settled before winter.’ (From Oxford Dictionaries)

    So, which one is correct?I'm good or I'm well?

    💡 You may also want to watch this video!
    🔗 Read more and practice:

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