1. Which object(s) does Terminator want from the Three Wise Men?
2. What were the Romans going to do with Jesus?
3. What does Terminator mean when he calls Jesus a 'glutton for punishment'?
4. Which of God's Ten Commandments is Terminator breaking?
5. Why does Jesus ask for Terminator's forgiveness?
6. 'Thou shall not miss this movie'. What's the modern word for 'thou'?
7. 'Pontius Pilatus at ten o'clock!'. What does this mean? In which context is this expression commonly used?
8. Can you identify two predictions made by Terminator using 'going to' and 'will'?
* Notice the use of 'question tags' ('You just don't get it, do you?'), passive voice ('I'm supposed to die for the sins of the mankind')
Practise and learn English in a funny way with entertaining videos at www.yappr.com.
Sign-up is not required, although it's free and quite interesting. Just click on the 'videos' button, choose your level (intermediate/difficult) and watch the videos with/without English and/or Spanish subtitles. You choose.
A few years ago I started to take kite-surfing lessons. Kite-surfing, like many other 'extreme sports', requires a lot of skill, control and patience. The air conditions are not always appropriate, especially at an early stage. The wind strength must be perfect. Not too light, not too strong.
But when I watched the following video, I soon realised that it was about time I quit kite-surfing... I'm a successful chess player now...
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY:
Listen to the interview and try to get familiar with some vocabulary related to kite-surfing, the wind and its risks.
1. What common high-tech cheating procedures does Kim Clark mention? Apart from copying & pasting from Wikipedia and similar pages, students scan Coca-cola labels with the nutritional information, and manipulate them with Photoshop so that the teacher does not realize they have copied it.
2. At what levels does hi-tech cheating usually occur? Usually at high-school level, more than at a college level, where students are less likely to cheat (as they are paying for their studies, cheating is considered nonsense)
3. What percentage of current students have admitted to cheating at least once in their lives? 40%
4. What was the percentage of cheating students back in the 1940s? Only about 20%
5. What is the main reason why hi-tech cheating has increased in recent years? Students are so good at technology that it's very tempting to take out a cell phone, hide behind another student and use it to cheat. They can store lots of books and extra stuff and use them in exams.
6. What are educators doing in order to fight hi-tech cheating? They are also using technology. For instance, the use of special software that electronically compares papers that are sent by the students so that they cannot steal ideas from other documents.
7. Who is winning this ‘war’, educators or students? Professors and educators are.
8. What methods are being used in order to control cheating in online tests? They are using webcams to control online cheating, software to block internet access to other websites while taking the exams, etc.
9. According to researchers, what is one of the reasons why students cheat? Students find tests boring and tests are not really reflective of the real world.
10. What suggestion is made in order to prevent students from cheating? To design more realistic tests so that students enjoy the tasks.
Watch the following video about Jenna Fischer, an American actress, and answer the questions below:
1. When does Jenna feel most comfortable?
2. What's her secret for being so beautiful?
3. What's the most beautiful city she's ever been to? What was she doing there?
4. What does Jenna like the most about people?
Use the Comments section to make notes of as much extra information as you may have understood.
Berlitz is one the most popular language agencies in the world. Have a look at one of their commercials:
- Can you explain the punchline of the joke?
- Did you find this commercial funny?
- Do you still believe that a good pronunciation is not so important as other aspects of languages (good grammar, rich vocabulary, etc.)?
You can use the Comments section to post your impressions, as usual.
