INTERESTING LINKS

• It's a web page where you can practice your listening:

Listening

• This web is a "virtual teacher". If you write something on the box below, she will pronounce it for you. (I hope you don't prefer her!).

Virtual teacher

Songkran Festival
(Thai New Year)

Thailand's most celebrated festival is the Songkran Festival. It starts April 13 and lasts between 3 and 10 days, depending on where you are in Thailand. The word Songkran is from the Sanskrit meaning the beginning of a new Solar Year, but nowadays Thailand celebrates the New Year on 31 December.

The Thai people celebrate this festival with water. Everyone gets soaking wet and since it is the hottest season of the year, the custom is quite refreshing. Songkran is a Public Spring Cleaning Day, supported by the religious belief that anything old and useless must be thrown away or it will bring bad luck to the owner.

During the afternoon of the 13th, Buddha images are bathed as part of the ceremony. Young people pour scented water into the hands of elders and parents as a mark of respect while seeking the blessing of the older people. In ancient days, old people were actually given a bath and clothed in new apparel presented by the young folks as a token of respect for the New Year.

Ivrea Carnival

In 2007 Ivrea carnival took place for the 200th time, but the area had started celebrating the events as early as the 1600s. Its main history dates back to the end of the 12th century, in 1194 to be exact.
At that time a Count that ruled the town, (Conte Rainieri di Biandrate) had made a new law to sleep with every new bride, he called it the "right of the first night" (yes...that story in "Braveheart" is true!!). Well, he got away with it until a miller's daughter, named Violetta, rebelled against him. Violetta's father ran one of the floating mills that once exploited the waters of the Dora. She killed him with a sword she had hidden under her dress, and then she proceeded in showing his cut off head to the people, she then started a fire in the castle (Castellazzo), which started a revolt against the tyrant's troops. They fought by mainly throwing stones to them, and they won.
That fight for liberty is recreated with the Battles of the Oranges, which substitute stones.

"Stand by me" around de world

Dedicated to the people who play music on the street...

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won't be afraid
No I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Oh, stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Darling, darling stand by me
Stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

How to Make a New Year's resolution.

To make a New Year's resolution, write down all the aspects of your life or situation that you would like to change and pick several goals to work on. Make realistic goals for New Year's that work in steps using instructions from an event planner.

It’s about that time of year again, folks. And, we go to start making our New Year's Resolution lists.
So what I recommend, first of all, is take out a piece of paper and a pen……and write down all the things that you would like to change about yourself, or your situation. So whether it be a financial goal, a physical goal, a spiritual goal, choose one thing. Or you could choose one from each category.
The big thing is, you don't want to have 10 or 15 goals. It's a little overwhelming. Get through one goal, and then focus on the next one. So, write out a list of all the different things that you want to change, and choose one. And make sure it's realistic. That's the number one thing I can tell you. Be realistic. If you want to lose weight, don't go with an unrealistic amount, you know? Maybe say, I want to lose 10 pounds, or I want to lose 20 pounds. Ahm, and start with that goal and then go from there. You want to break down your objectives. So let's say, eventually, you want to lose 100 pounds. Start with 10 or 20, so that you can see your, you know, progress happening. Also, do something that's going to make you feel good. Something that you can imagine would make your life better. So those are a couple of hints - uhm, you know, if it's a bad habit or something… …uhm, choose something that you want just get rid of in your life, and you will feel so good about making this resolution that it will have to stick.

And that's how you make a New Year's Resolution!!!

Tutorial para descargar el libro de lectura

Vamos a explicar (in Spanish) paso a paso la forma de descargar el libro a partir del siguiente enlace:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JDD8IBIS

1) Situamos el cursor encima del enlace anterior y hacemos clic con el ratón. Se abrirá una ventana del navegador, que mostrará la siguiente imagen:



Debemos observar, en la parte superior derecha, tres caracteres que hay que introducir en el cuadro de texto (ver imagen).

2) Si hemos escrito estos tres caracteres de forma corrrecta, se iniciará el proceso de descarga. Al ser un servidor gratuito, debemos esperar 45 segundos para poder descargar el fichero:



3) Una vez que el contador ha llegado a 0, podemos lanzar la descarga haciendo clic en el botón 'Free download'



4)Guardamos el fichero en nuestro disco duro.