A CHRISTMAS CAROL flipbook (intermediate)

Click on the following image and read a Christmas classic story by Charles Dickens.

You can also listen to it.

Enjoy it!

A CHRISTMAS SONG & A QUIZ (intermediate)

  

CHRISTMAS WORDS (elementary)

Christmas is just round the corner. Are you prepared to welcome it?
Perhaps some revision of essential vocabulary would come in handy, don't you think?

Let's see if you can complete this worksheet with basic Christmas words.

Ok, ok... maybe it was a bit too difficult.

 Click on the arrow to download it with the answer key included!

I bet you'll enjoy a visit to this wonderful site, full of activities for Christmas (games, stories, colouring pages and lots more!)

Click on the image to enter.

But first, let's sing a song!

Let's start the countdown till Christmas!

Is there a Santa Claus?

This is the question that Virginia O'Hanlon, aged 8, asked her father one day in 1897. She had doubts about Santa's existence and wanted to know the truth. Her father's reply was a suggestion: Why don't you write a letter to the Sun? If you find it there, it is so.

Virginia followed her father's advice and this is the answer she could read in the New York Sun on September 21st.

Read and listen to her letter and the newspaper's editorial.

This is the newspaper clipping.

Read the complete text of the editorial the newspaper published.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Since then, Virginia became an icon of the Christmas holidays in the U.S.A. and received thousands of letters until her death in 1971.

Answer these questions:

• What are your thoughts about the story?
• Do you think Virginia could still have doubts after reading it?
• When and why did your own uncertainty begin?
• Does the real world threaten innocence?

Here 's a trailer of an animated movie made in 2009:

Films & Music (intermediate)

In this video you'll find a lot of scenes from classic movies. Watch it and say:

• How many actors can you identify?
• Can you name the films?
• Who sings the song?

Read the lyrics of the song:

Nelson Mandela (intermediate)

Nelson Mandela, 1918 - 2013.

A life has ended, the struggle will continue.
Nelson Mandela's battle against discrimination has not died with him.

There were others before him, and more will follow.

He became the first black president of South Africa in 1994.

One year before, he had received the Nobel Peace Prize award.

 

Read some of his thoughts and words:

Visit the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory and learn more facts about the man and the leader.

 

For more biographical information click below.

 

These words are often associated with Nelson Mandela, even though they are not his.

 The message is powerful:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

SHOP TILL YOU DROP (intermediate)

Shopping, shopping, shopping...

We have to shop now and then, right? A present, some food, clothes, a book, you name it.

And some people keep it at that: they go to a store when they need to buy something. But, is it so for most? Or rather, has shopping become a form of entertainment for many?

Isn't it true that lots of teenagers (and even entire families) can spend a whole day at a shopping mall? 

Imagine the situation:

It's a rainy winter Saturday. Or maybe it's dreadfully hot. Who knows, perhaps we simply are out of ideas on how to spend our free time. Why not go to a shopping area? Actually, there is something for everyone there: bowling alleys, cinemas, restaurants, supermarkets, games and rides for kids, and so on. And then there are shops, and more shops, and bunches of shops. Enough to satisfy everyone's desires. 

It sounds like heaven, doesn't it?

Beware, though! All that convenience is not designed to make your life easier. The purpose of it all is to lure you to make you buy as much as possible, whether you can afford it or not. All those facilities around shops are but baits. The music, the decoration, the colours and even the smells you perceive are carefully selected to transform you into the perfect CUSTOMER, an addict of shopping.

Just take a look at the way a supermarket is organised. Every detail is aimed at getting you to buy even what you don't need!

Latest Infographic from CouponCabin

Find answers to the following questions:

1. How often do you go shopping?
2. What do you normally buy?
3. How much time can you spend shopping?
4. Do you make a previous list? If so, do you stick to it?
5. Do you prefer small stores or big shopping areas?
6. What is a "shopping spree"?
7. What does "aroma marketing" refer to?
8. Find the meaning of  "planned obsolescence".
9. Do "bargains" exist?

FOOD VOCABULARY / AT THE RESTAURANT (intermediate)

Here are some words for food you'll need at a restaurant:

Learning Fruit Berries and Vegetables English lesson from Easy Pace learning

Aren't you hungry now?
Let's go out for something to eat!
But first, take a look at this video. You'll learn the basic structures needed to order your food at a restaurant:

Perhaps we should practise a little more, shall we?

Try this game. Just click below:

 

Enjoy your meal!