Funny video

I like this video a lot. It is a funny joke about fruits and computers. Please check it out!

Scripts: The Fox and the Crow

Do you know Aesop's fables? One very famous fable is The Fox and the Crow. In this fable, a fox tricks a crow who has some cheese in her mouth into dropping the cheese, which the fox eats. The moral of the fable is: Don't be fooled by flattery.

Aesop's Fables: The Fox and the Crow

A crow had stolen some cheese. A fox saw her and decided he wanted the cheese. He told her how beautiful she looked. The crow believed him. Then the fox praised her voice. The crow wanted to show off her voice so she opened her mouth to sing. The cheese fell into the fox's mouth and ran away happy.

The moral is: Don't be fooled by flattery.

A few interesting-looking movies started this weekend. Probably the most interesting one is Argo. This is directed by Ben Affleck, of Good Will Hunting fame, and is based on a true story. It's playing five times a day at Cineplex.

Reading aloud

1. Don't emphasize articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions.
2. Usually, go up at commas and down at periods.
3. Stop at periods.

My podcast: The Lion and the Mouse

The Lion and the Mouse is one of Aesop's Fables. I'm sure you've heard of it! The moral of the fable is: "Little friends can be good friends". Please listen!

The Lion and the Mouse script

One day, a mouse was caught by a lion. The lion was intending to eat the mouse, but the mouse persuaded the lion to let the mouse go. The following day, the mouse heard the lion crying out. She hurried to help him. He was trapped in a net. She bit the net and set him free.
The moral is: Little friends can be great friends.

Aesop's Fables: The Lion and the Mouse

A mouse was hurrying home and not paying attention. She ran over a sleeping lion's paw by mistake, and the lion grabbed her.

The lion said he would eat the mouse, but the mouse said that, if the lion would help her, one day she would help the lion. The lion was impressed, so he let her go.

The next day, the lion was trapped in a net and cried out. The mouse heard him and decided to go and help the lion. She bit the net until it broke and set the lion free. The lion was very grateful and they said goodbye to each other.

The moral is: Little friends can be great friends.

Premier League weekend

Premier League matches went ahead without any problems or interruptions at the weekend. The biggest and most eagerly anticipated match was Chelsea against Manchester United. The match was quite dramatic, with Manchester United going two goals in the lead but Chelsea fighting back to 2–2. Then two of Chelsea's players were sent off, and Manchester scored a goal. Commentators say that a Manchester United player was offside, but the goal stood, and Manchester United are now in 2nd place, just one point behind Chelsea.
Arsenal won their match against QPR, without looking very convincing. Manchester City won, and Everton got a draw against Liverpool, leaving Arsenal in 6th place.

October 29th (Session 5)

Today, let's find some ways to improve our podcast episodes. Some guidelines:

1. Make a short script.
2. Make sure the script is different from your previously posted review.
3. Write a sentence or two introducing your episode. This should be different from the script.

Blog Stats

We're now approaching the end of October and the semester is one-third over. It's important to know how you are doing with your blog so that, if you're falling behind, there's still time to increase your posts.

We probably won't have time to do this in class today, so please do a Blog Stats post for homework and post it BEFORE THE END OF OCTOBER!

Blog Stats should include:

1. Word Count for September and October
2. Total Posts this semester, i.e. after September 1st
3. Number of book reviews this semester
4. Number of podcast episodes (number of posts with the tag my podcast)

Safe

There haven't been so many great movies playing the last week or two. But I did get to see Safe, the latest Jason Statham movie. It is a fairly typical Jason Statham movie, with lots of violent action, but I found it very enjoyable because the Chinese girl that he was protecting was very interesting. The rivalry between the Chinese and Russian mafia and the corruption of the police formed the backdrop to the story and that was quite involved and interesting.

This weekend's football

After a couple of weeks' international break, the Premier League was back in action over the weekend. Probably the most exciting and important match was Spurs against Chelsea. Chelsea won 4–2, showing that they are probably the team to beat this year. Spurs looked exciting, and were winning 2–1 in the second half, but were overwhelmed by Chelsea in the end. Spurs have become a very attacking team and look like they will do well, but it looks like the two Manchester teams and Chelsea are the Big Three that it will be very difficult for other teams to approach.

October 22nd

Hi, everyone. Today, let's go through the whole cycle of reading a book, writing a simple review, recording yourself reading aloud.

Greek myths

In today's class, everyone read one of the following books:

1. The Amazing Adventures of Hercules
2. Jason and the Golden Fleece
3. The Amazing Adventures of Ulysses

All of the books are in Usborne Young Reading, Series 2.

Your task is in two stages:

1. Write a simple post, with a quote and a simple outline of the story and a few remarks on what you thought.
2. Write a longer post (an essay) about the book. You can also include information you picked up from Wikipedia.

Please include a link to the book on Booklog. In the essay, also include some pictures related to the story (not only from the book).

International break

The Premier League closed down last week for the international break. During the break, many teams are playing qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, while some are playing friendlies. England played San Marino last week in a World Cup qualifier, winning 5–0, while Japan played a friendly against France. I didn't know about the match beforehand, so I wasn't able to watch it, but from what I heard France had the majority of possession. Japan, however, won the match 1–0, Japan's first time to beat France, a major power on the world stage, in history.
Tomorrow, England will play Poland in another World Cup qualifier. I'm not sure about Japan.

The Sun & the Wind

"See that man? Can you take his coat off?"

listen to ‘The Sun & the Wind’ on Audioboo

The Sun & the Wind

"See that man? Can you take his coat off?"

This is how the sun and the wind try to prove to the other that they are the strongest. Which do you think wins?

Mackinnon, Mairi. (2007). The sun and the wind. London, UK: Usborne.

The Sun and the Wind (Usborne First Reading)

Usborne Publishing Ltd

発売日：2007-07-27

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The Bourne movies

In my last post, I mentioned The Bourne Legacy. As you know, this is the fourth Bourne Movie, the preceding three being The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

A New Classroom

Mrs May looked at the trench. "It's for a new classroom," she said.

listen to ‘A New Classroom’ on Audioboo

A New Classroom

Mrs May looked at the trench. "It's for a new classroom," she said.

This book, at Stage 5 in the Oxford Reading Tree series, is very easy. It has 24 pages with about 13 words on each page. Most of the sentences are about 6 words long. The setting is the children's school, where they see some workers putting a fence up and doing some building. They discover that the workers are going to make a new classroom. This becomes an opportunity to learn about diggers. The classroom is a prefabricated one, so they get the chance to watch it being installed. There's an interesting problem with the classroom!

New Classroom

Roderick Hunt

Oxford University Press

発売日：2011-01-01

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Bourne Legacy & Hunger Games

I volunteer as tribute.

As you may know, two movies that started this past weekend are The Bourne Legacy and The Hunger Games. I really wanted to go and see both of them, but I haven't had time yet. Has anyone seen them? Although I would like to see Matt Damon as Bourne again, I hear that Jeremy Renner is pretty good in the role. The Hunger Games is based on a book. The book is actually part of a trilogy, so I imagine there will also be three movies.