From this television special Francis Albert Sinatra does his thing. Cycles is a very beautiful song, and it's one of my most favorite. HC

So I'm down so I'm out
And so are many others
So I feel like tryin' to hide
My head 'neath these covers
Life is like the seasons
After winter comes the spring
So I'll keep this smile awhile
And see what tomorrow brings

I've been told and I believe
That life is meant for livin'
And even when my chips are low
There's still some left for givin'
I've been many places
Maybe not as far as you
So I think I'll stay awhile
And see if some dreams come true

There isn't much that I have learned
Through all my foolish years
Except that life keeps runnin' in cycles
First there's laughter, then those tears

But I'll keep my head up high
Although I'm kinda tired
My gal just up and left last week
Friday I got fired
You know it's almost funny
But things can't get worse than now
So I'll keep on tryin' to sing
But please, just don't ask me how

LAUGHTER’S THE BEST MEDICINE

Sunday morning at the Congregation


The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers. Suzie Smith stood and walked to the podium. She said,

- "I have a praise............ Two months ago, my husband, Tom, had a terrible bicycle wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed. The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn't know if they could help him."

You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagine the pain that poor Tom must have experienced. "Tom was unable to hold me or the children," she went on, "and every move caused him terrible pain." We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it in place."

Again, the men in the congregation cringed and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery performed on Tom. "Now," she announced in a quivering voice,

- "thank the Lord, Tom is out of the hospital and the doctors say that with time, his scrotum should recover completely."

All the men sighed with unified relief. The pastor rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say.

A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium. He said,

- "I'm Tom Smith." The entire congregation held its breath. "I just want to tell my wife the word is sternum."




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Songs as a teaching tool

Hugo Caldas



Should we use songs in class?

Advantages

A – Learning becomes something fun and enjoyable.
B – Music warms up the atmosphere and creates conditions for the approach of a new subject.
C – Students improve their English vocabulary and get acquainted with the culture and the spirit of the people whose language they are learning.
D – Students develop listening and pronunciation skills.
E – Students feel gratified and proud of being able to use English from the very beginning of learning it.
F – Singing together helps socialization.

When should we sing?

A –When we want to encourage then to learn.
B –When we notice that they are tired.
C –When they ask us to.
D –When the song has something to do with the lesson we’re studying.
E – At the end of a term and at the beginning of a new one.
F – On the eve of a special holiday, students’ birthday, Xmas, etc.

What songs should we sing?

A – The ones which have a lot of repetition and which contain the vocabulary and grammatical structures, we want to emphasize in that particular class.
B – Songs appropriate to the age and educational level of them.
C – Folk songs, which are familiar in both the students’culture and the culture of the new language they are learning.
D – Songs that are not familiar in the students’culture but they are likely to hear because of the international nature of the songs.
E – Hit Parade songs which are also known here.
F – Try different styles but do not forget to ask students what they would like to sing.

Reading & Comprehension

Worksheet

Old Jake

Everybody knows him as Old Jake. He lives in a little cabin in the middle of a small wood, about as mile from the nearest village. He goes to the village store twice a week to buy food and kerosene, and occasionally he collects letters and his pension from the local post office. Some time ago, a reporter from the local newspaper interviewed him.

Here is what he said:

“I get up with the birds. There is a stream near my house where I fetch water from there. It’s good, clear, fresh water, much better than you get in the city. Occasionally, in the winter, I have to break the ice. I cook simple food on my kerosene stove; mostly stews and things like that. Sometimes I go to the pub and have a drink or two, but I don’t see many people. I don’t feel lonely. I know this wood very well, you see. I know all the little birds and animals that live here and they know me. I don’t have much money, but I don’t need much. I think I’m a lucky man.

Now, answer the following questions:

1 – Where does Old Jake live?
2 – Who interviewed him recently?
3 – How far is it to the village?
4 – How often does Old Jake go to the village?
5 – What does he buy from the village store?
6 – What does he collect from the Post Office?
7 – Where does he get his water from?
8 – What does he say about the water in the stream?
9 – What sort of things does Old Jake cook?
10 – What does he cook on?

Teaching Tips

Tag Questions

A Question Tag is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a mini-question. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the mini-question at the end is called a "question tag". A "tag" is something small that we add to something larger. For example, the little piece of cloth added to a shirt showing size or washing instructions is a tag.

We use tag questions at the end of statements to ask for confirmation. They mean something like: "Am I right?" or "Do you agree?" They are very common in English.

The basic structure is:
A statement, a comma and the question
e.g. The sky above us is blue, isn't it? - You don't like vegetables, do you?

Always remember:
Positive statement, negative tag
Negative statement, positive tag

Practise - Complete the Tags:

1 - You study Japanese,_______? She doesn't eat potaes,_______?
2 - We don't play the piano,_______? The like to play soccr,_______?
3 - You are from Japan,_______? She likes to travel,_______?

Video Clip of the Day

Gilda is a 1946 American black-and-white film noir directed by Charles Vidor. It stars Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth in her signature role as the ultimate femme fatale. "There never was a woman like Gilda". The film's plot is continually narrated by Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), a small-time American gambler newly arrived in Buenos Aires. When he wins a lot of money cheating at craps, he has to be rescued from a robbery attempt by a complete stranger, Ballin Mundson (George Macready). Mundson tells him about an illegal high-class casino, but warns him not to practice his skills there. Farrell ignores his advice, cheats at blackjack, and is taken by two men to see the casino's owner, who turns out to be Mundson. Farrell talks Mundson into hiring him and quickly gains his confidence. The film was noted for cinematographer Rudolph Mate's lush photography, costume designer Jean Louis' wardrobe for Hayworth, particularly for the dance numbers, and choreographer Jack Cole's staging of "Put the Blame on Mame" and "Amado Mio", sung by Anita Ellis, who dubbed the singimg voice of Rita Hayworth. Miss Ellis also sang on the radio and was a regular guest on The Red Skelton Show. She eventually ended her career in 1987. Enjoy the Clip. HC

Wise Sentence of The Day

“Thirty years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash and Bob Hope. Now we have no jobs, no cash and no hope ” An American citizen.

LAUGHTER’S THE BEST MEDICINE

Doctors meeting

A group of psychiatrists were attending a convention. Four of them decided to leave, and walked out together. One said to the other three, "People are always coming to us with their guilt and fears, but we have no one that we can go to when we have problems." The others agreed.

Then one said, "Since we are all professionals, why don't we take some time right now to hear each other out?"

The other three agreed.

The first then confessed, "I have an uncontrollable desire to kill my patients."

The second psychiatrist said, "I love expensive things and so I find ways to cheat my patients out of their money whenever I can so I can buy the things I want."

The third followed with, "I'm involved with selling drugs and often get my patients to sell them for me."

The fourth psychiatrist then confessed, "I know I'm not supposed to, but no matter how hard I try, I can't keep a secret..."

Rules Are Rules
Hospital regulations require a wheelchair for most patients when they're being discharged. However, this girl working as a student nurse found one elderly gentleman -- already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase as his feet -- who insisted he didn't need her help to leave the hospital.

After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let the nurse wheel him to the elevator. On the way down, she asked if his wife was meeting him.

"I don't know," he said. "I think she's still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown."

Jake and the CowFarmer Jake had a nagging wife who made his life miserable. The only real peace that he got was when he was out in the field plowing. One day when he was out in the field, Jake's wife brought his lunch to him.

Then she stayed while he quietly ate and berated him with a constant stream of nagging and complaining. Suddenly, Jake's old mule kicked up his back legs, striking the wife in the head, and killing her instantly.

At the wake, Jake's minister noticed that when the women offered their sympathy to Jake he would nod his head up and down, but when the men came up and spoke quietly to him, he would shake his head from side to side.

When the wake was over and all the mourners had left, the minister approached Jake and asked, "Why was it that you nodded your head up and down to all the women and shook your head from side to side to all the men?"

"Well," Jake replied, "The women all said how nice she looked, and her dress was so pretty, so I agreed by nodding my head up and down. The men all asked, 'Is that mule for sale?' and I shook my head, no."

Now, Ponder these

Steven Right



What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

Useless Erudition

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

"lollipop" is the longest word typed with your right hand.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

Our eyes are always the same size from birth,
but our nose and ears never stop growing.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' , and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (they are known as palindromes).

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious and facetious

TYPEWRITER
The longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Word Origins

Beefeater

This term has been around since 1610. It originally meant a well-fed servant. The more famous use in reference to the Yeoman of the Guard of the English royal household and later to the Warders of the Tower of London dates to 1671. Beefeater is quite literal in origin, being a reference to the diets of well-off and spoiled servants. It contrasts with loaf-eater, a reference to a servant who eats the bread provided by his master, a term that dates back to Old English.

It is often incorrectly postulated the term comes from a supposed French word, buffetier. This alleged root, which would mean one who eats from a buffet, does not exist. Sometimes the word beaufet is presented as a transitional form, but this is simply a 17th century alternative spelling of buffet and appears later than beefeater.

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)

Word of The Day

Anonymous - adjective

MEANING

Not named or identified
e.g. The donor wishes to remain anonymous. An anonymous buyer purchased the painting.

Made or done by someone unknown
e.g. The college received an anonymous gift. He made an anonymous phone call to the police. The reporter got an anonymous tip.

(more anonymous; most anonymous)

Not distinct or noticeable
Lacking interesting or unusual characteristics.
e.g. She works in an anonymous (bland, nondescript) brick building. His was just another anonymous face in the crowd.

— anonymously adverb
e.g. They made the donation anonymously.

Clip of the Day

Joe Brown, is an English entertainer. He's worked as a rock and roll singer and guitarist for more than five decades. He was a stage and television performer in the late 1950s and a UK recording star in the early 1960s. Mr. Brown has made six films, presented specialist radio series for BBC Radio 2, appeared on the West End stage alongside Dame Anna Neagle. In recent years he has again concentrated on recording and performing music, playing two tours of around 100 shows every year and releasing an album almost every year. Described by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, as a "chirpy Cockney", Brown was one of the original artists managed by the early rock impresario, Larry Parnes". He is highly regarded in the music business as a 'musician's musician' who 'commands respect and admiration from a wide spectrum of artists'. His performance of "I'll See You In My Dreams" at the "Concert for George" shows that he is still great after all these years. HC

Now, Ponder these

Steven Wright

Steven Alexander Wright is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes and one-liners with contrived situations. If you're not familiar with the work of Steven Wright, he's the guy who once said:

"I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...and replaced by exact duplicates."

Here are some more of his gems:

"I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize."

"Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back."

"Half the people you know are below average, 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name."

"Half all statistics are made up on the spot."

"A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good."

"A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory."

"If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

"All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand."

"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. (Think about it some more.)

LAUGHTER’S THE BEST MEDICINE

What They Don't Teach You At Harvard

Two gentleman walked into the men's locker room at their prestigious country club; one was wearing a Harvard jacket, the other a Yale pullover.

After taking a leak, the Harvard man stopped to wash his hands--while the Yale man walked towards the door.

The Harvard man looked at the Yale man disapprovingly. "At Harvard, we take care to wash our hands after using the lavatory."

"Well," the Yale man replied, "at Yale, we know not to piss on our hands."

At the Church

A little boy was attending a wedding for the first time. After the service, his cousin asked him,

- "How many women can a man marry?"

- "Sixteen," the boy responded. His cousin was amazed that he had an answer so quickly.

- "How do you know that?"

- "Easy," the little boy said. "All you have to do is add it up, like the Bishop said: 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer"

A "marriage of the 90's"

Jack and Jill got married. John thought this would be a "marriage of the 90's", equal roles for equal partners. So, the first morning back from their honeymoon, he brought Jill breakfast in bed. Jill wasn't impressed with his culinary skills, however. She looked disdainfully at the tray, and snorted,

- "Poached? I wanted scrambled!"

Undaunted, the next morning, Jack brought his true love a scrambled egg. Jill wasn't having any of it.

- "Do you think I don't like variety? I wanted poached this morning!"

Part II

Determined to please Jill, the next morning Jack thought, "third time's a charm" and brought her two eggs: one scrambled and one poached.

- "Here, my love, enjoy!" Jill looks at the plate and says, "You scrambled the wrong egg."

The Wedding Ring

A young bride and groom-to-be had just selected the wedding ring. As the girl admired the plain platinum and diamond band, she suddenly looked concerned.

- "Tell me," she asked the elderly salesman "is there anything special I'll have to do to take care of this ring?" With a fatherly smile, the salesman said,

- "One of the best ways to protect a wedding ring is to dip it in dishwater three times a day."

The Certificate

This guy was talking to his buddy, when he said,

- "I don't know what to get my wife for her birthday. She has everything, and besides, she can afford to buy anything she wants. So, I'm stumped." His buddy said,

- "I have an idea. Why don't you make up a certificate that says she can have two hours of great sex, any way she wants it. She'll probably be thrilled!"

So the first fella did just that. The next day his buddy asked,

- "Well, did you take my suggestion? How did it turn out?"

- "She loved it. She jumped up, thanked me, kissed me on the mouth, and ran out the door yelling, 'I'll see you in two hours'."

LawnmowerWoman: - "Doctor, for the last eight months, my husband has thought that he's a lawnmower."

Doctor: - "That's terrible, why didn't you bring him in sooner?"

Woman: - "Because the neighbor just returned him this morning."

Famous Quotations

"A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesnt believe, and leaves before she is left." Marilyn Monroe. One of the most enduring sex symbols of our time.

Famous Last Words

"Are you guys ready? Let's roll".

Todd Beamer, passenger on United Flight 93, September 11, 2001. These are his last recorded words, coming at the end of a cell phone call before Beamer and others attempted to storm the airliner's cockpit to retake it from hijackers who were part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Word Origins

Was the first computer 'bug' a real insect?

The story goes that one of the early electromechanical computers suffered a failure because an insect had crawled into the machine and been squashed between the moving parts of a relay switch, thereby jamming it. The incident was written up in the logbook and spread from there throughout the whole of the infant computer industry. However, although the account seems to be genuine, the word is older: the event was recorded as an amusement for posterity precisely because the term 'bug' was already in use.

The term in fact originates not with computer pioneers, but with engineers of a much earlier generation. The first example cited in the 20-volume historical Oxford English Dictionary is from the Pall Mall Gazette of 11 March 1889:

"I was informed that Mr. Edison, had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in his phonograph - an expression for solving a difficulty, and implying that some imaginary insect has secreted itself inside and is causing all the trouble."

It seems clear from this that the original 'bug', though it was indeed an insect, was in fact imaginary.

RULES OF THUMB

You can identify a bad writer before you have seen a word of his copy if he uses the expression "we writers." Gardner Botsford - Veteran editor at The New Yorker magazine.

Word of The Day

OUTBREAK noun (count)

Plural - Outbreaks

MEANING
A sudden start or increase of fighting or disease:

e.g. a cholera outbreak — often followed by of

They are preparing for an outbreak of the virus.