Are you jealous Mr. Bond?

Article written by Jeannette Schilliger

Are you jealous Mr. Bond?
The legendary James Bond had so many different cars. He could do all kinds of fancy things with his cars, therefore almost everything was possible.
But now Mr. Bond, Mr. James Bond, somebody else has the most fascinating and most wanted car in the world, sorry. The new President of the United States proudly presented his presidential Cadillac with the unbelievable nickname ‘The Beast’ at the inauguration parade.
You’re wondering ‘Cadillac and Beast’- do these expressions really fit? Why is the world interested in a car that doesn’t belong to James Bond ? What is so special about a car, if there are some more important problems to solve in this world?
The car is a secret. Photographers were allowed to take shots only from the outside, which makes it even more interesting to have a look at the interior. The maker of the car doesn’t want to talk about the inside. It’s probably the most secure and the most heavily armoured car that was ever built.
Wouldn’t it be nice to glance at the inside of the car and to see how it looks? I wouldn’t concentrate on security details but all the other wonderful items.
We’re only allowed to guess about the conveniences in the new presidential car. Use your fantasy and imagine what you would want to have in a Cadillac like the President’s. I’m sure there are a lot of ideas out there!

The 56th Presidential Inauguration

Here are some of the links I used in preparing the lesson. You may want to browse or play after the lesson is over:

Helping out with the speech generator
The official site to follow, and learn more about the history of the Presidential Inauguration.

And now for our speech...

(soon to come)

gingerbread fruit cake

dear cake lovers

To have the gingerbread-fruit-cake- feeling once (or even more) again
I involve you in my secret receipe ideas:

The ingredients you need:

200g soft butter or margarine (take it out of the fridge half an hour befor using)
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinammon
1 tablespoon gingerbread spice
100g finley ground hazelnuts, almonds or coconut
250g wholemeal flour
200g frozen plums, berries or fresh apples

do it yourself now...

* put butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well
* add brown sugar and mix
* add eggs and mix
* add cinammon and gingerbread spice and mix
* add hazelnuts/ almonds or coconut and mix
* add wholemeals flour and mix

* prepare a round baking tin (30 cm diameter) and a round baking paper

* put the whole mixture regularly on the round baking tin (with a knife)
* distribute the halfes of frozen plums (cut them once again)/ berries or fresh apple pieces on the mixture (press a little bit or else they get black in the ofen)

* put the cake in the middle of the 180°C hot ofen
* bake during 40 - 50 minutes

* enjoy (but not allone...sharing is allowed)

Further speaking tools

This is been a long string of posts, but I hope you will find something useful in all of it. I decided to split things up so that you can follow the topics better.

As you can see on the side bar, I've illustrated a way to practice speaking with voicethread a nice easy and many-sided tool. If you agree, I can add pictures and tasks for you to practice together.

I also made another place for speaking for the last course. It never got used, so I hope you will find it valuable: Chinswing . Here you can comment on a topic for about a minute or two.

Other tools include simply recording your voice using Audacity , which lets you make recordings and then change them to MP3 or wav format. You can then send it to me via e-mail. A further idea is to use skype and practice the sections where you talk to each other. There is a recording tool attached and you can record and send it.

Well, if you would like to try anything out and want help, let me know. We can devote time in class, since ultimately, it means more speaking practice for you.

IELTS speaking exams

THere are several youtube videos that you will find useful and a site you can sign up for in order to get more information.

Here is the link for an example of the IELTS speaking part 1

This is from a site similar to that of flo-joe for CAE: http://www.ipass.uk.net/
. Like flo-joe, there is a free section and one with more possibilities for pay.


and here is a link with advice on how to take notes for IELTS speaking part 2

and finally a description of IELTS speaking part 3

There is more out there, so if you're interested in seeing more, put IELTS speaking into the search box in YOutube, or if you want some advice on paper, you can google IELTS as well.

Speaking practice - splendid speaking

I promised you quite a lot for your speaking, so I hope I can fulfil my promise here.

First, there are a couple of videos for you.
The first is from the makers of flo-joe. They have a site where you can watch speaking practice: http://www.splendid-speaking.com/

And below is a video showing how it works.

Happy New Year!!!

A very HAPPY 2009 to you all!!!