MERRY XMAS!!!

Christmas or Christmas

Day is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

But, nowadays, popular modern customs of the holiday

include gift-giving, music, exchange greeting cards, Secret Santa (amigo secreto), church celebrations, a special meal, and various decorations.

The holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. It has grown over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

Talking about gifts, what would you like to get as a present?

Run out of ideas? CD’s, DVD’s, clothes and shoes are boring? So here you have some options that can be very unique:

• customize gifts, show that you put special thought into your purchase. Customized gifts are guaranteed to be unique – one of a kind.
• a magazine subscription for any interest. What’s your favorite? Or you can find out the favorite one of your friend.
• a beautiful painting is a different and classy gift idea. But it can be a sculpture, any piece of art.
• Pet puppies and kittens are classic Christmas pet. Well, be sure parents won’t be mad at you!
• One day in a spa, beauty saloon, or massage sessions. Women will love it.

Below you will find sites you can surf in order to find your friends’ Christmas gifts.

http://perfumes.sacks.com.br/site/categoria.asp?id=1

http://www.americanas.com.br/

http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/scripts/cultura/index.asp

http://www.submarino.com.br/

Which team do you support?

Who's gonna win this championship? Flamengo, Inter, Palmeiras or Sao Paulo? What's your favourite team? You can vote on the the quizz. Good luck!!!!

O QUE VOCÊ ESTAVA FAZENDO NA HORA DO APAGAO?deixe seu comentário

So, what were you doing during the outage?

I had just arrived at Kispeto, and I couldn't order beer. We had to pay for it first and take it then. At first it was funny and cozy, but then people started leaving the place and we decided to do the same.

Here there's some information about the massive power failure and some photos.

Sao Paulo overview and Copacabana beach

A massive power failure blacked out Brazil's two largest cities and other parts of Latin America's biggest nation overnight, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went offline.

Paraguay was also affected when the Itaipu dam straddling the two nations' border stopped producing 17,000 megawatts of power, resulting in outages in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least several other big Brazilian cities.

The cause of the failure had not been determined, but Edison Lobao, the Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister, said strong storms had uprooted trees near the Itaipu dam just before it went offline and could be to blame.

Rio de Janeiro, which is due to host the World Cup soccer championship in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, was the hardest hit city. Rio’s famous Copacabana beach, usually illuminated by the bright lights from the skyscrapers lining the boulevard, was plunged into darkness.

Have you ever...?

I found a very good video about Present Perfect. You can also practice the grammar on one of my posts called What have you done recently?. That's it.

IS YOUR HOUSE A MESS?

The first time I read about this subject I thought of my brother’s bedroom. It was always a mess. I consider myself disorganized.

What about you? Just look around. What do you see? clothes on the floor? shoes in the kitchen? towels on your bed? relax….YOU’RE NOT ALONE!!!!!!!

Compulsive hoarding – people that have a large number of useless possessions but can’t discard them. It causes significant clutter to basic living activities such as mobility, cooking, cleaning, showering and sleeping.

WATCH A VIDEO THAT SHOWS A HOUSE OF A HOARDER. Click here and have a look.

In this VIDEO you can see a group of professionals trying to help the hoarder family.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE LITTLE BOY THAT BEHAVE THE SAME WAY AS HIS PARENTS. (VEJA O GAROTINHO QUE SE COMPORTA DO MESMO JEITO, QUERENDO GUARDAR O BRINQUEDO VELHO PARA OS FILHOS QUANDO ELE TIVER UM)

Characteristics:

· the acquisition of many things and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value

· living spaces sufficiently cluttered(very disorganized) so as to avoid activities for which those spaces were designed

· significant distress or impairment (deterioração) in functioning caused by the hoarding

· reluctance or inability to return borrowed items; as boundaries blur, impulsive acquisitiveness could sometimes lead to kleptomania or stealing

If you have your fridge filled with expired food, and you are reluctant to throw it away, maybe you’re a compulsive hoarding in some degree.

Would you like to share any experience? Do you anyone like this? write your comment.

Passive Voice

Na voz passiva é o sujeito que sofre a ação. O acontecimento é mais relevante do que o sujeito. A voz passiva é sempre formada por um verbo auxiliar mais o verbo no Particípio Passado. Veja os exemplos para cada tempo verbal.

Present Simple

Someone cleans the office every day. The office is cleaned every day. (passive)

Butter is made from milk. (passive)

Past Simple

Someone cleaned the office yesterday. The office was cleaned yesterday. (passive)

The problem was explained to me. (passive)

Present Continuous

My father is painting the house. The house is being painted (by my father). (passive)

The office is being cleaned at the moment. (passive)

Past Continuous

I was writing a letter. The letter was being written (by me). (passive)

Present Perfect

Somebody has painted the door. The door has been painted. (passive)

I’m not going to the party. I haven’t been invited. (passive)

Past Perfect

The room looked nice. Somebody had cleaned it. The room looked nice. It had been cleaned. (passive)

The car was 3 years old but it hadn’t been used very much. (passive)

Future

Somebody will clean the room later. The room will be cleaned later. (passive)

Infinitive

A new supermarket is going to be built next year.

A mystery is something that can’t be explained.

The situation is serious. Something must be done.

Perfect Infinitive

She should have cleaned her bedroom. (active) The bedroom should have been cleaned. (passive)

If you hadn’t left the car unlocked, it wouldn’t have been stolen. (passive)

Comic Strip

Site para crianças

Estava procurando exercícios para alunos e encontrei esse site Muiiito legal para crianças. Tem a prática do Listening, Reading and Speaking. Site divertido que ajuda com vocabulário. Com alguns cliques você aprende 'as horas', 'roupas', 'meios de transporte' e mais..... Indicado para crianças até 10 anos.

CLIQUE AQUI!!!

CONDITIONALS

ZERO CONDITIONAL

IF + PRESENT + PRESENT

É usado para afirmar algo verdadeiro, situações verdadeiras.

If you heat water, it boils.

If you don’t drink water, you get thirsty.

Clique aqui e pratique com exercícios (ligar as frases).

FIRST CONDITIONAL

IF + PRESENT SIMPLE + WILL

Em minha opinião, a mais fácil de todas (2nd and 3rd). É uma condição no futuro, algo pode acontecer no futuro (provável), mas depende do que é feito agora. Por exemplo, “se você estudar para prova,você passará”. “Se você se apressar, pegará o ônibus”, “se não chover, eu jogarei tênis”, e por aí vai. Há também a possibilidade de usar outros modais no lugar do will. Veja os exemplos abaixo:

If it rains tomorrow, I will stay at home. (há uma possibilidade de chover amanhã, se acontecer, ficarei em casa).

If you come early, you can see my mother before she leaves. (há uma possibilidade de você ver minha mãe se chegar cedo).

If they don’t pass their exam, their teacher will be sad. (se eles não passarem na prova, o professor ficará triste).

O contrário da frase também é válido. A frase que contém will pode vir antes, apenas preste atenção na vírgula.

Their teacher will be sad if they don’t pass their exam.

I will stay at home if it rains tomorrow.

You can see my mother if you come early.

Clique aqui e pratique com exercícios (múltipla escolha).

SECOND CONDITIONAL

IF + SIMPLE PAST/CONTINUOUS + WOULD

Fácil também. Indica uma situação no presente ou futuro, algo improvável, meio impossível de acontecer, imaginário.

If I won the lottery, I would buy a castle in France. (se eu ganhasse na loteria, eu compraria um castelo na França…….coitada de mim).

If I married Brad Pitt, I would be happy. (talvez não, mas penso na possibilidade de casar com ele e ser feliz).

If it rained next vacation, what would you do? (se chover nas próximas férias, o que você faria?)

If you could be an animal, what would it be? (qual animal seria se pudesse escolher?)

O contrário da frase também é válido. A frase que contém would pode vir antes, apenas preste atenção na vírgula.

What would you do if it rained next vacation?

I would be happy if I married Brad Pitt.

I would buy a castle in France if I won the lottery.

Clique aqui e pratique com exercícios (múltipla escolha).

THIRD CONDITIONAL

IF + PAST PERFECT + WOULD + PRESENT PERFECT

Um pouco mais difícil por usar estrutura gramatical que os alunos insistem em evitar. É usado para se referir ao passado. Você imagina que algo poderia ter sido diferente. Pode soar como um arrependimento.

If I had done my homework, my teacher wouldn’t have shouted at me. (se eu tivesse feito a lição casa, o prof. nao teria berrado comigo…..que estúpido).

If Sarah had been free yesterday, I would have invited her. (se Sarah estivesse livre, eu a teria convidado.)

If he hadn’t driven very fast, he wouldn’t have had an accident. (se ele nao dirigisse tão rápido, nao teria se envolvido em acidente.)

O contrário da frase também é válido. A frase que contém would pode vir antes, apenas preste atenção na vírgula.

She would have passed her exam if she had studied more.

I would have invited her if she had been free yesterday.

Clique aqui e pratique com exercícios (múltipla escolha).

Você sabia?

1. Há mais pessoas que falam inglês como segunda língua do que os próprios nativos da língua inglesa. Cerca de 350 milhões falam inglês como língua nativa, e cerca de 1.5 bilhões falam como língua estrangeira!

2. Acredita-se que cerca de 80% dos dados dos computadores do mundo são armazenados em inglês.

3. Estima-se que cerca de 20.000 palavras em inglês são introduzidas nos outros idiomas todo ano.

4. Formas simplificadas do Inglês existem para ajudar vários profissionais a se comunicar internacionalmente; por exemplo: 'língua do ar', para pilotos e controladores de vôo, 'língua dos policiais' para ajudar policiais a solucionar crimes internacionais.

5. A gramática e o vocabulário usados pelos nativos variam muito, mesmo no Reino Unido. Em algumas localidades, pessoas dizem 'we was', algo como 'nós estava', e alguns quilometros para frente você ouve pessoas dizerem 'he were', algo como 'ele estavam'. (será que pode ser comparada com a estória do 'nóis fumo e nóis vortemo'?

6. Os Britânicos modernos não seriam capazes de entender o inglês falado no tempo de Shakespeare. Muitas palavras tinham significados diferentes, por exemplo, 'nice' (agradável) significava 'foolish' (tolo) no século XVI. Are you a foolish or a nice guy?