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By P. Ruiz, AIT Language School

I’m sure you will totally agree with me if I say that penguins are one of the cutest animals on earth. But more than being adorable and sometimes comical, you will be surprised to discover that they can also teach us some «life’s lessons”. Do you think you have to improve your communication skills? Or maybe you want to learn more about love? Read about what this animal has to teach you.

Let me introduce you to the Emperor Penguin.

Before winter arrives in icy Antarctica, the emperor penguins have a very important mission to do, they have to choose a couple. And, as it could not be any other way, they do it in a funny but crucial manner. The males and the females start shouting at one another. Can you imagine how nosy may it be being there in the courting period?

Once they find the couple with which they will remain together forever, the female lays an egg, but she won’t be the responsible for taking care of it, neither incubate it during a while. The dad will be in charge of the egg and the mum will go to the sea to find food to feed herself. About 65 days, what is more than two months, she returns after going across the ice and the sea up to 150 kilometres. Can you imagine? This is like going three times from La Garriga to the centre of Barcelona walking!

Finding the colony is a miracle in itself, but how does she find her mate and their new-born chick among tens of thousands of penguins? During their courtship, each bird memorizes the other’s songs so well that even after months of separation, they manage to find each other!

In addition to a phenomenal variety of sounds, animal communication includes gestures, captivating colours, flashing lights, and complex smells.

Check your understanding!

Answer the following questions.

1. Do penguins use to change their couple?
2. Who incubates the egg?
3. How does a female emperor penguin find her mate?
4. Which animal communication do you find funnier?

Patricia Denning stars in a sad movie about ambition and heartbreak.

When Cecilia leaves college in Texas, she has everything: a wonderful boyfriend, Carl, an interesting job and an expensive house in a pretty town. Her life is perfect. Even her black Labrador dog, Perky, is a star: he wins the local dog competition and Hollywood wants to put him in a movie. 

Cecilia goes to Hollywood with him and leaves her boyfriend alone back home. When the studio fires Perky, Cecilia decides to stay in Hollywood and tries to get other movie roles for her beautiful dog. 

Carl gives Cecilia an ultimatum: come home and stop behaving crazily, or stay there forever. Cecilia decides to stay in Hollywood and wants to become an actress herself. She sends Perky back to Texas and starts an acting course. After six months, Cecilia realizes she can’t act and she misses home, but it’s too late. Carl has found another girlfriend. Cecilia tries to win him back, and also discovers a lot about herself on her long journey. 

This is a very sad movie, which makes you think about what we want from life. Patricia Denning is very convincing as Cecilia, but the star of the movie is gorgeous Perky, the black Labrador who steals our hearts. Black Hollywood is in cinemas from next week.

Your Turn!

Answer the following questions by choosing the best answer.

1. What does Cecilia not have?
   a. A pet
   b. A great job
   c. A wonderful husband
   d. A house she loves
2. When does her wonderful adventure begin?
   a. When her dog wins a competition
   b. When she goes on vacation to Hollywood
   c. When she marries her boyfriend, Carl
   d. When she buys the house in a pretty town
3. What happens to Perky in Hollywood?
   a. He becomes a star
   b. He makes two movies and retires
   c. He isn’t very successful
   d. He’s too nervous to work
4. What is Carl’s reaction to Cecilia living in Hollywood?
   a. He’s supportive
   b. He’s angry
   c. He doesn’t care
   d. He doesn’t know she went
5. Why does Cecilia stay in Hollywood?
   a. She has no money
   b. She hates Carl
   c. She wants to become an actress
   d. She is too busy making movies

SOURCE: https://www.esl-lounge.com/student/reading/2r11-pre-intermediate-reading-black-hollywood-multiple-choice.php

By M. Jaime, teacher at AIT La Garriga

Many astronauts on board the International Space Station have celebrated Christmas in space. However, the crew aboard Apollo 8 were the first to do it back in 1968.

The mission

Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to the moon: their objective was to land on it and return safely to Earth. Apollo 8 launched on the 21 st of December 1968 for a six-day mission and entered the moon’s orbit on Christmas Eve.

Apollo 8 crewmembers. Left to right: James Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman (NASA)

That evening, the astronauts held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from space.

Let’s celebrate Christmas!

The crewmembers enjoyed a Christmas dinner of hot cocoa, sugar cookies, corn chowder, and chicken and gravy, as well as some orange juice.

The astronauts also read a holiday message from the Bible and they said goodbye with the following words:

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

The astronauts came back to Earth on the 27 th of December. Although they hadn’t landed on our nearest neighbour, Lovell, Anders and Borman were the first humans to witness and photograph of the Earth rising over the moon. The picture, called Earthrise, was taken by Anders and it is one of the most iconic ones of our time.

Earthrise: our home planet as seen from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, 1968 (William Anders/NASA)

Nowadays, crewmembers of the International Space Station celebrate with Christmas decorations, phone calls to Earth and some special holiday food. They have great holiday parties in orbit!

Your Turn!

1. Would you like to spend Christmas in space? Why/Why not?
2. What did the astronauts have for dinner? Find pictures of what they ate and compare their meal with what you usually eat on Christmas.
3. Astronauts usually send Christmas messages to people on Earth. If you had to send a message on Christmas Day from space, what would you say?
4. How do you think the astronauts aboard Apollo 8 felt when they saw the Earth rising for the first time? Write the conversation you imagine they had in that amazing moment.

By P. Ruiz – Teacher at AIT Language School

Do you have a dog? Whether you have one or you like them, you will be very surprised to discover one of its superpowers: its incredible sense of smell!

Researchers say that dogs can use their sense of smell to detect the age, gender, and even the mood of other dogs! Dogs can even be trained to detect explosives and illegal drugs. While humans mainly use sight to investigate their surroundings, dogs use their sense of smell. They “read” with their nose.

To understand how superior it is from ours, consider this: imagine that you dissolve a quarter part of a teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The dog would be capable of detecting this in the pool!

But, why is the smell of the dog much better than ours? Let’s consider three reasons:
● A dog’s nose is wet and is therefore better able to capture the most difficult smells to detect.
● A dog’s nose has two airways​—one for breathing, another for smelling.
● A dog’s olfactory has 300 million olfactory receptors while ours has 6 million.

All this enables a dog to differentiate between the components of a complex smell. For example, we can smell soup, but a dog can detect every ingredient in the recipe, according to some experts.

Researchers at the Pine Street Foundation, a cancer research institute, say that the dog’s brain and nose work together to be “one of the most sophisticated odour detection devices on the planet.” They discovered that dogs can detect some cancers, can you imagine? Isn’t it amazing?

Your Turn!

1. Why can we say that dogs can “read” with their nose?
2. Why is the smell of the dog much better than ours? Say one reason.
3. Can dogs detect all kinds of cancer?
4. Which of the things the dog can detect surprised you the most?

Hello! How are you? My name is Yarina and I’m a teacher. I love music and dancing! Do you like music?

It’s very difficult to have a favourite song. Do you have a favourite song?

My favourite song has a lot of instruments. My favourite instrument is the guitar. I love playing the guitar!

What is your favourite instrument? Do you like the guitar, like me? Or, do you like the piano? The violin? The drums? Or something different?

Your Turn!

Please draw your favourite instrument with your favourite colours and take it to class next week. I want to see beautiful instruments in class!

Text written by M. Jaime (Teacher at AIT La Garriga)

That is a difficult question! We do not know who invented school, but we know some things about the first schools in history: the ‘edubbas’.

Let’s travel

It is the time of the pharaohs and the pyramids, but we are not in Egypt —we are in Mesopotamia!

Mesopotamia is near Egypt, but far from our country!

Mesopotamia is near Egypt, but far from our country!

This is Sem

Hello! My name is Sem. I am eight years old. I live in Eridu, a city in Mesopotamia. I live in a small house with my parents. I have got two little sisters. I am a pupil at an ‘edubba’.

What do you do at an ‘edubba’?

An ‘edubba’ is a school for scribes. In Mesopotamia many people cannot read or write. Scribes are very important because they can read and write very well, they help people!

Every morning I get up, I have breakfast and I go to school. I read and write a lot because our alphabet is very difficult, look!

The name of this alphabet is ‘cuneiform’.

 The name of this alphabet is ‘cuneiform’.

I study numbers too. Mathematics is my favourite subject!

These are numbers! Wow!

These are numbers! Wow!

My friends and I love going to school. What about you?

Your Turn!

1. What do you do at school?
2. What does your school look like?
3. Write secret messages to your friends using a fake cuneiform alphabet!

Text written by Alicia Martínez (English and German Teacher at AIT)

Reading an interesting book has always been a pleasure for bookworms.

On one hand it is a way to see the world through the eyes of another person, to live in another reality just for the moment you want or to be another person for some time. Reading can be done anywhere and it prevents boredom and promotes relaxation.

On the other hand, it encompasses a wide range of genres and includes both fiction and non-fiction.

• Fiction: Novels, short stories, jokes, comics, poetry, lyrics, plays and scripts
• Non-fiction: Reference books, newsletters, letters, emails, biographies, memoirs, newspapers, magazines, websites

Today I would like to talk about a novel called “The grass is singing”. This novel was written by British Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing and the most significant postcolonial writer. It was her first novel, published in 1950.

The novel begins with a newspaper clipping about the death of Mary Turner, a white woman, killed off by her black servant Moses for money. The news actually acts like an omen for other white people living in that African setting. After looking at the article, people behave as if the murder was very much expected. The bulk of the novel is a flashback of Mary Turner’s life up to her murder at the hand of Moses in the last chapter.

When you usually read a murder mystery novel you expect to know the name of the murder at the very end after going through the whole novel. But not in this novel as you know it from the very beginning and the author leads you through the protagonist´s miserable life on her husband´s unsuccessful farm.

Start reading
Adapted version clicking here
Penguin version clicking here

Once you start one cannot stop reading!

Questions on the text:

1. Who is found murdered?
2. Who is arrested for murder?
3. What is the extraordinary thing about the murder?
4. Who are the Afrikaners?
5. Who knows more about the Turners than anyone else?
6. Who discovered the body?
7. How many miles does Slatter live from the Turners?
8. How does Slatter notify the police about the murder?
9. Who confesses to the crime?
10. What type of car does Charlie drive?