Dear all,
today we bring you a series of activities for you to improve your listening comprehension skills. It's a 10-minute program aired on CNN on May 24th, 2010. So, the pieces of news you'll be working with are relatively recent.
Hope you find the exercises both interesting and useful!
EXERCISE (answers included)
Kind regards,
Prof. Mariano Ignacio
Centro Univ. de Idiomas
29 de mayo de 2010
27 de mayo de 2010
2010: Year of the Bicentennial
2010 is an important year of bicentennial celebrations in the Americas. Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico all commemorate 200 years of independence.
Following is the video message and transcript of Secretary Clinton on "Year of the Bicentennial":
This year, people across our hemisphere will celebrate the “Year of the Bicentennial.” Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico are marking 200 years of independence. All of us across the Americas are joining together to honor our shared history and the values of democracy, diversity, and tolerance that form our common heritage.
In the last year, our hemisphere has been challenged -- from Honduras to Haiti to Chile. And our ability to respond to these crises as a community has been tested. But we have met these challenges together, with faith in our institutions, confidence in our values, and compassion for our friends and neighbors.
We must strive to carry that same spirit of cooperation beyond times of crisis in order to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities facing the people of the Americas. There is so much we can learn from each other and so much we can accomplish together. We can encourage broad-based prosperity, champion democracy and human rights, and ensure that every child born in the Americas has the opportunity to fulfill his or her God-given potential.
This “Year of the Bicentennial” is a time to honor our past while we look to the future -- as we continue on our common journey to create better lives for our citizens and even stronger ties between our nations. On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, congratulations and best wishes.
Following is the video message and transcript of Secretary Clinton on "Year of the Bicentennial":
This year, people across our hemisphere will celebrate the “Year of the Bicentennial.” Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico are marking 200 years of independence. All of us across the Americas are joining together to honor our shared history and the values of democracy, diversity, and tolerance that form our common heritage.
In the last year, our hemisphere has been challenged -- from Honduras to Haiti to Chile. And our ability to respond to these crises as a community has been tested. But we have met these challenges together, with faith in our institutions, confidence in our values, and compassion for our friends and neighbors.
We must strive to carry that same spirit of cooperation beyond times of crisis in order to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities facing the people of the Americas. There is so much we can learn from each other and so much we can accomplish together. We can encourage broad-based prosperity, champion democracy and human rights, and ensure that every child born in the Americas has the opportunity to fulfill his or her God-given potential.
This “Year of the Bicentennial” is a time to honor our past while we look to the future -- as we continue on our common journey to create better lives for our citizens and even stronger ties between our nations. On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, congratulations and best wishes.
15 de mayo de 2010
Unique School Faces Familiar Battle
Dear all,
most of the CC3 courses at the Centro de Idiomas must have finished working (or may well be about to do so) Unit 7 (Education.)
To round off the topic of the Module we bring you today a video clip on a school in NYC facing some problems when it has to share its building with another school.
Hope you find the report interesting, and as you can see people in NYC are living similar situations we are familiar with.
Best regards,
Prof. Mariano Ignacio
Centro Univ. de Idiomas
most of the CC3 courses at the Centro de Idiomas must have finished working (or may well be about to do so) Unit 7 (Education.)
To round off the topic of the Module we bring you today a video clip on a school in NYC facing some problems when it has to share its building with another school.
Hope you find the report interesting, and as you can see people in NYC are living similar situations we are familiar with.
Best regards,
Prof. Mariano Ignacio
Centro Univ. de Idiomas
_____________________
SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO CLIP -not a transcript-
SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO CLIP -not a transcript-
A recent hearing at PS 347 in Chelsea was quieter than many hearings the Department of Education has held on its controversial plans for schools to share space. That's because many in the audience speak with their hands. But the students, parents, and alumni at the only public school in the country where deaf and hearing students learn side by side, say they feel even more passionate about preserving the space in their school building -- space they would lose under a plan to move almost 300 students from the Clinton Middle School into the building.
"We are a very unique school of very high risk students. We cannot be crammed into small classrooms. We have to sit in 'U' shapes where students can see the teachers. Everything is visual with deaf students," said PS 347 teacher Patti Anderegg.
"We need space. We need space to sign," said PS 347 teacher Aviance Pride.
The American Sign Language and English dual language schools serve students from pre-k through 12th grade, and already share the building with a program for students with severe handicaps. Students say they've already lost the space for many programs.
"We had a cooking class we had an art class we had a media class, we had everything. There was nothing needed. Now we don't have an art class. The only extracurricular activity we basically have is a media class," said PS 347 student Kiana Diaz.
"The people who are making this decision, I wonder how many of them send their own kids to schools without science lab, music room and art room," Anderegg said.
Clinton Middle is being forced into the sign language school because it's being squeezed out of the building it has shared for more than three decades with PS 11. Many of the students at P.S. 11 come from outside the neighborhood to attend its gifted and talented program, which many blame for causing the space squeeze for the other schools. They also question whether the DOE is taking the required public hearings seriously.
"Four-hundred boxes arrived at the school, moving boxes, on the day of the public hearing to decide whether it was a valid move or not, they delivered boxes. They came and picked them up, they were a little embarrassed," said Clinton Middle School parent Heather Tarrant.
Parents and teachers say they are worried that if the DOE gets its way, the education and safety of hundreds of special needs students may suffer.
6 de mayo de 2010
CNN - Student News
CNN Student News is a student news program targeted for the classroom that runs at 4:00AM Monday to Friday as part of the cable industry's Cable in the Classroom inititave, as presenter Carl Azuz reports the day's news in a simplified format (stories with graphic imagery or adult themes are usually left out from this newscast). It is not intended for students of English, but for High School students in the USA.
Today, we bring you the program aired on May 3rd, 2010 focusing on these pieces of news:
* Car bomb found in parked SUV
* Gulf Coast Oil Spill
* Mighty Weather conditions
* Arizona Immigration Law
DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT HERE
Enjoy the show!!
Prof. Mariano Ignacio
Centro Univ. de Idiomas
Today, we bring you the program aired on May 3rd, 2010 focusing on these pieces of news:
* Car bomb found in parked SUV
* Gulf Coast Oil Spill
* Mighty Weather conditions
* Arizona Immigration Law
DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT HERE
Enjoy the show!!
Prof. Mariano Ignacio
Centro Univ. de Idiomas
2 de mayo de 2010
The Secret in Their Eyes
Hi everyone!
It goes without saying that most of us in Argentina know what "El secreto de sus ojos" is. Though for most Americans "The Secret in Their Eyes" is just a movie that has come from distant and unknown Argentina. Critics have written strikingly beautiful reviews about Mr. Campanella's movie, and I just want to share with you one of them. Originally published by Los Angeles Times on Friday April 30, 2010. Enjoy this write-up, and also have sneak peek at the Trailer released in the US!
"There's something about a haunting mystery being solved by a haunted mind that's particularly seductive. That's just one of the many pleasures of "The Secret in Their Eyes," whose string of knots challenges and charms in a way that make its win of the foreign-language Oscar this year perfectly understandable.
Argentine writer-director Juan José Campanella has given audiences a beautifully calibrated movie in the most traditional sense of the word — the ideal marriage of topic, talent and tone. It's anchored by the unsolved murder of a young wife that won't let former criminal investigator Ben Espósito (Ricardo Darín) rest easy even after 25 years.
In addition to being one of Argentina's best-known filmmakers, Campanella has earned Emmys here, plus attention for directing episodes of "House," "Law & Order Special Victims Unit" and "30 Rock." He brought all that case-solving and comedy experience to bear in adapting the Eduardo Sacheri novel, interweaving the parallel worlds of the personal and the professional as his central character comes to realize that there is much more in his life to resolve than this single case.
The story begins in Buenos Aires in the '70s with the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old wife of Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago), an ordinary young man with an extraordinary love for his wife and the life they were beginning to build. All these years later, Espósito sets about turning the case into a novel in an effort to answer all that remains unanswered.
As the puzzle of the past unfolds in flashbacks, the present reconnects him with his own lost love, Irene (Soledad Villamil), who was his young boss on the case and is now a respected judge with a family; he is just older and alone. But the spark remains, and Campanella strings a tight wire of crackling dialogue between them packed with all the tension and tease of a couple dancing around the edges of a relationship.
The filmmaker is careful not to overuse their substantial chemistry, sprinkling it through the film like a hot spice as Espósito tries to figure out what clues he overlooked years ago. Another key player in this well-cast ensemble is Espósito's partner Sandoval, a sometimes-brilliant investigator forever sidetracked by his love of booze, played with an amusing blend of ironic pathos by famed Argentine comic Guillermo Francella.
Campanella has been clever in using the blueprint of a cold-case procedural to explore a range of emotional themes from love and obsession to justice and retribution, all cast against a dark time of secret police and political intrigues in his native land. The action is moved along as much by patterns of human behavior as by events, and in doing so the filmmaker has given texture and depth to what could otherwise have become a more conventional thriller.
While Espósito sorts through his second thoughts and reconsiderations of decisions he and others made so long ago, director of photography Félix Monti and the production team work to both connect and separate the eras by keeping much of the focus on the faces and, of course, the eyes. When the camera pulls back to let more in, tension usually comes with it, as when Espósito spots the husband in a train station and learns that he spends his days moving from one station to another, hoping to spot the killer who's never been caught.
Darín is captivating as Espósito, and despite the years etched on the actor's face, he still brings his scenes as a much younger Espósito to life. He is the spine of the film, and it is the strength of the connection he builds with each character in turn — the lost love, the drunken partner, the destroyed husband, the killer — that ultimately makes the film a timepiece of precision and artistry. Like the murder at the heart of this tale, "Secret" is bound to linger in the memory for years."
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
It goes without saying that most of us in Argentina know what "El secreto de sus ojos" is. Though for most Americans "The Secret in Their Eyes" is just a movie that has come from distant and unknown Argentina. Critics have written strikingly beautiful reviews about Mr. Campanella's movie, and I just want to share with you one of them. Originally published by Los Angeles Times on Friday April 30, 2010. Enjoy this write-up, and also have sneak peek at the Trailer released in the US!
"There's something about a haunting mystery being solved by a haunted mind that's particularly seductive. That's just one of the many pleasures of "The Secret in Their Eyes," whose string of knots challenges and charms in a way that make its win of the foreign-language Oscar this year perfectly understandable.
Argentine writer-director Juan José Campanella has given audiences a beautifully calibrated movie in the most traditional sense of the word — the ideal marriage of topic, talent and tone. It's anchored by the unsolved murder of a young wife that won't let former criminal investigator Ben Espósito (Ricardo Darín) rest easy even after 25 years.
In addition to being one of Argentina's best-known filmmakers, Campanella has earned Emmys here, plus attention for directing episodes of "House," "Law & Order Special Victims Unit" and "30 Rock." He brought all that case-solving and comedy experience to bear in adapting the Eduardo Sacheri novel, interweaving the parallel worlds of the personal and the professional as his central character comes to realize that there is much more in his life to resolve than this single case.
The story begins in Buenos Aires in the '70s with the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old wife of Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago), an ordinary young man with an extraordinary love for his wife and the life they were beginning to build. All these years later, Espósito sets about turning the case into a novel in an effort to answer all that remains unanswered.
As the puzzle of the past unfolds in flashbacks, the present reconnects him with his own lost love, Irene (Soledad Villamil), who was his young boss on the case and is now a respected judge with a family; he is just older and alone. But the spark remains, and Campanella strings a tight wire of crackling dialogue between them packed with all the tension and tease of a couple dancing around the edges of a relationship.
The filmmaker is careful not to overuse their substantial chemistry, sprinkling it through the film like a hot spice as Espósito tries to figure out what clues he overlooked years ago. Another key player in this well-cast ensemble is Espósito's partner Sandoval, a sometimes-brilliant investigator forever sidetracked by his love of booze, played with an amusing blend of ironic pathos by famed Argentine comic Guillermo Francella.
Campanella has been clever in using the blueprint of a cold-case procedural to explore a range of emotional themes from love and obsession to justice and retribution, all cast against a dark time of secret police and political intrigues in his native land. The action is moved along as much by patterns of human behavior as by events, and in doing so the filmmaker has given texture and depth to what could otherwise have become a more conventional thriller.
While Espósito sorts through his second thoughts and reconsiderations of decisions he and others made so long ago, director of photography Félix Monti and the production team work to both connect and separate the eras by keeping much of the focus on the faces and, of course, the eyes. When the camera pulls back to let more in, tension usually comes with it, as when Espósito spots the husband in a train station and learns that he spends his days moving from one station to another, hoping to spot the killer who's never been caught.
Darín is captivating as Espósito, and despite the years etched on the actor's face, he still brings his scenes as a much younger Espósito to life. He is the spine of the film, and it is the strength of the connection he builds with each character in turn — the lost love, the drunken partner, the destroyed husband, the killer — that ultimately makes the film a timepiece of precision and artistry. Like the murder at the heart of this tale, "Secret" is bound to linger in the memory for years."
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
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