"It's awful to see small and midsized business owners crying and begging you to pay them because they have no money for food."

An article about how ordinary Spanish villagers find themselves working voluntarily to pull their villages out of debt.
Phrases and vocabulary:
work off a debt: to pay a debt by working.
bankruptcy: quiebra, bancarrota
to do their share: to contribute
drastic measures: medidas drásticas
stretchers:  portable beds to carry patients to hospital,  camillas
power grid: red eléctrica
bailed out: rescatado
rundown, a rundown sports centre: a building in bad condition, in a neglected state

shameless scoundrels: sinvergüenzas

to breathe a sigh of relief: sentir alivio

unpaid bill, a million euros in unpaid bills: facturas sin pagar

Fluorescent Dye Lights Up Cancer Cells

I saw this piece of news a while back and I remember thinking  "Wow"  then I saw it more recently and I still felt the same way so I thought to myself  "Let me share it with the kids".  

A very basic explanation of the situation is - to light up the bad cells the investigators worked from the basis that the majority of these bad cells had a tendency to attract folic acid.  So folic acid was mixed with a fluorescent substance and injected into the patient who is then monitored with a camera during surgery.

A really simple article with an easy-to-understand video, take a look.

Here is the interesting vocabulary from the article:

envisioned: imagine as a future possibility

to varying degrees: in different levels (en varios grados, niveles)

to branch and wind their way: to break off in different directions (ramificar y serpentear)

Vocabulary from the video:

Shedding light, to shed light on the matter: (a CAE collocation I am sure) to bring information to the subject which makes it clearer.

to take a significant step

to enable

to target other forms of cancer: to make other forms of cancer your objective

stark, the contrast is stark:  obvious, evident, well defined

Dull and Boring, often said about my classes!

Kids often ask me what dull means, so when I saw this article I thought it might be a way to remember the meaning.

Useful phrases:
to pair: to become a couple in this case a couple of towns.  We also use the word to twin, a twin town.
quirky roadsigns: odd, unusual
profess to be: claim to be
keen to: really want to do something,  eager to do something
cash in on: a phrasal verb meaning to make money or receive some kind of benefit from a situation
stop someone in their tracks: to make someone stop immediately drawing their attention towards something.
brainchild (this word comes up in Laser do you remember?): invento, idea genial, idea original

But what does dull mean?  Here is a simple listening link.
Do you know the English word "dull"?  Dull is the opposite of "bright".  Often means "uninteresting".  We can talk about dull weather, which means cloudy weather. We can talk about......

"This was how it used to be in the old days before money was involved."

As it might be imminent that Greece comes out of the Euro, watch this short video about how these poor people are struggling to cope.

Useful language

from X to Y, from handicrafts to food

handicrafts:  artesanía

a bartering system: A system of swapping items without money

a grassroots initiative: an idea that came from the ordinary people.  This would be good to use in Advanced.

to spawn: It has spawned other bartering systems around the country. To cause the system to spread, to multiply. In this context (impulsar)

soaring unemployment: rising

reenergize: to give more energy to something

a glimmer of hope: a tiny shining light of hope

A face with two ages

As summer approaches here is a cautionary article about the effects of the sun.

Useful vocabulary:

sagging: loose, not tight (caída, que no está tersa)

taut: tight not loose (tenso)

unblemished: not marked or distorted (puro, impecable)
sought: the past of seek, to look for
to raise awareness: to let people know what is going on.
sales rep: sales representative, someone whose job is to sell company products
regard something as being (ING): They don´t regard their job as being an outdoor job.
perceive something to be (INFINITIVE): They don´t perceive their job to be an outdoor job.
to trigger: to set something in motion, to start it moving
smoking-induced wrinkles: a nice compound adjective which shortens the phrase - wrinkles which have been produced by smoking.

"Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere,"

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

An article about the giant soup of plastics floating in the Pacific. Apart from the intrinsic value of being informed about environmental problems, I am sure that, in one form or another, a question on this matter will  arise in the CAE exam. I am going to look for other environmentally based articles to give you ideas and vocabulary etc. Meanwhile read this article and the following article linked here.  They are both pretty easy to read and the second one is especially informative.
Below are some useful phrases for the first article:

growing at an alarming rate
debris / a vast expanse of debris:  detrito oceanic
flotsam: restos flotantes
a build up of plastics in the seas: a growth of plastics...
leash: una correa
to barf: American English to vomit.
to cut back on: a good phrasal verb meaning to reduce the amount of something.

Not all garbage ends up at the dump. A river, sewer or beach can't catch everything the rain washes away, either. In fact, Earth's largest landfill isn't on land at all.

"We need to turn off the taps at the source. We need to educate people on the proper disposal of things that do not break up, like plastics," she says. "Opportunities for recycling have to increase, but, you know, some people buy three bottles of water a day. As a society, we have to get better at reusing what we buy."

Useful phrases for the second article:
The second article is written in more of a chatty style to attract attention. It is very informative.  Read it carefully.

The floating junk yard sloshed into the public spotlight / slosh: the slap or splash of liquid
thanks to growing media coverage
despite the oft-cited claim that: despite the fact that it is often claimed that..
This is an example of using a noun phrase instead of a verb phrase, which I believe is valued in CAE writing.  It makes it sound more advanced.
ghost fishing: abandoned nets that float around and catch animals on their own
to entangle: enredardse
to mistake something for something or somebody for somebody else: confundir algo con algo
swallow plastic bags mistaking them for jelly fish
plentiful : abundante
wreak havoc: causar estragos
an increasingly evident link between plastic trash on land and plastic trash at sea

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

An easy to understand video (an American girl´s school project) describing exactly what we were talking about in 1ºeso.  There are loads of passives which the Trinity examiner will want to see and the content and phrases below are equally valid for any article about recyling at any level.

Interesting phrases:
Going green: to become environmentally friendly.
Ignorance is bliss: Being really happy because you don´t know what is going on.
Another phrase we did in 2ºEso which means more or less the same is "out of sight out of mind"
plus another one for maybe advance level "what the eye does´t see the heart does´t grieve over"
purchases are made: things are bought
to purchase: to buy
consumption: consumo
landfill site: a hole in the ground where all our waste gets dumped
biodegrade, decompose
junk mail: the letters and publicity that come through the post that you haven´t asked for.
opt out from mailing lists: ring up companies to tell them you don´t want this junk mail anymore.
switch to electronic statements and bills: receive your banking information by email and not paper.
She asks:"What if teachers gave extra points to students who used both sides of the paper for homework etc?" Interesting idea eh 1ºeso!!

"I want to tell the factories they make too much pollution. Because of them Xinglong village is sick."

An article and video about pollution in China.

Phrases and vocabulary
breakneck economic growth: incredibly fast economic growth, maybe so fast it will break your neck.
takes its toll on the nation´s health: has a negative effect on the nation´s health
I looked up take its toll because it is a common phrase in English but there is no specific translation in Spanish so click above and have a look.
impoverished: extremely poor
outsourced dirty industry: in this context outsourced means that other countries have sent out (exported) their dirty industries for China to deal with, obviously paying China to do so, but it is the citizens who pay the price.
acrid stench: a really unpleasant strong smell
layer of soot: thick black smoke

Feeding the Chinese Medicine Market

A disturbing picture of a tragic situation unfolding in many parts of Africa.  More than 200, maybe closer to 300 elephants have been slaughtered in Cameroon.  Read the article and the links within the article and find out why locals in the national park don´t mind this happening.

Phrases and vocabulary:

slaughter: matar brutalmente

a smuggler: contrabandista

poaching: caza furtiva

unbridled: desenfrenado

ivory tusk: colmillo de marfil

[hunters] leave trails of dead elephants in the wake of their hunts: tras su caza

groups of ten strong: groups of ten people

Dr Jekyll and Mister Mourinho

They say you either love him or hate him.  I know I don´t feel like that about him  but I can definitely say that he fascinates me.

I have copied an article from El País (a rather long article) about Mourinho. Throughout the article I have highlighted phrases that I think will be useful for a CAE  competition entry where you have to nominate a person to receive a prize or title etc. At the end I have collected them all together to make it easier to remember them and use them. The article isn´t difficult to understand but there will be words you don´t know.  If you are a Real Madrid fan it might be of more interest. However, despite it being a long article, try and read it through obviously making note of the relevant phrases.

Elephants are paying the price for Asian economic success.

Because more Asian people are living in Africa, especially Chinese, there is an increased demand for the sex organs of elephants which in some Asian cultures is considered an aphrodisiac.
A link to another video will shortly follow.

Phrases: 

under severe threat: in great danger, in this case of extinction

dwindling herds:  disminuir (dwindle), manada (of elephants)

a by-product of: in this context, a secondary and sometimes unexpected result
to pay their respects: presentar sus respetos
prompted: instigated

smugglers: contrabandista

Elephant Hunting in Thailand

In 2ºeso we were talking about keeping animals in zoos and words like "poaching" and "in danger of extinction" came up.  Here is an easy article containing these words along with these others.

Phrases:

Elephant tusks are sought: passed of seek, to look for

Baby elephants are poached: to poach is to hunt illegally

A comparison: the longer...... the sooner

logging: cutting trees into logs
pachyderm: animal with thick skin

Spanish advertising regulators say Metro advertisements are misleading

The follow-up story to the Madrid Metro ad campaign.

It is only short so should´t take long to read.

Useful phrases:

Complaints are upheld (the past of uphold): the complaints are said to be valid complaints

Plastered across: an area is covered with, in this case, graffiti

Misleading "subway users could be misled": tending to confuse or be deceptive

Withhold information: to not give all the relevant information, to hold it back.

the watchdog: an organization acting as a protector against illegal practices

New year, new fake partners for China's young singletons with parents to please

Not only Eithiopian girls are under pressure to get married,  Chinese twentysomethings  have resorted to hiring partners to placate impatient parents.

Interesting phrases:

twentysomethings: people in their twenties

go into overdrive: do something with great enthusiasm and determination.

fake: false

matchmaking: to try and put a boy and girl together for marriage

to get hassle from someone:  to be caused trouble 

haggling:  to argue over the price of something in order to reduce it

to vet: to inspect for approval

chores: simple tasks you don´t usually want to do

filial: expected of a son/daughter

reluctant to do something: you don´t really want to do something

A Spanish success story and model in the fight against violence against women

Interesting Vocabulary

wage a war against

a pioneer in the field

battered women, women who are beaten

to make an empty threat, say you´ll do something bad towards someone and then you don´t do it. 

handcuffed esposado
bruising / swollen, moretónes / hinchado

commit a crime

Apple Suspends iPhone 4S Sales in Mainland China Stores

Crowds outside the Apple store in Beijing waiting to buy the iPhone 4

Interesting vocabulary:

flagship store- the latest most modern shop in a chain of shops

jacked up prices - inflated prices

to be bussed in - a large number of people transported by bus

to cordon off - to separate an area by means of a rope or tape

a fast-growing market

scalpers - People who hold a position or buy a product for a short period and then sell it on to someone else.

Ethiopia: girls available for marriage

In 1º Bach. we were talking about women´s rights after reading the news about  Gulnaz the Afghan woman who was ordered to marry her rapist. This is an easy to understand video about the improving situation of some young girls in Ethiopia with regards to women´s rights.

Here is my selection of phrases and idioms that you might not know:

in-laws: your husband´s or wife´s parents

to leave scars

to have nightmares

people skills: the ability to get along with people

to rule the roost: to dominate or be in charge

through thick and thin: through good times and bad times

to sow the seeds of hope

to be better off: to be in a better situation than before

Merry Christmas (again)

In this blog I found called Trans-Iberian I like the writer´s observations on Spain´s extended Christmas holidays and on the Spanish concept of fiestas.

Some interesting vocabulary:

blow something (clean) out of the water: to (completely) defeat someone or destroy

someone´s ideas.

all and sundry: everyone

40-strong: forty residents in the village

élan: enthusiastic vigor or a distinctive style. (I confess I looked this one up in the dictionary) 

Madrid Metro: More for less?

An interesting article about the rise in ticket prices on the Madrid metro. It includes a couple of  nice phrases  "launch a campaign" "sparks a backlash", the word "refute", which I am told is the same in Spanish, as well as a "no sooner" construction.


Anyway, are you convinced it is more for less?