Verb Machine

DESCRIPTION
Idioms are one of the trickiest parts of the English language. Native speakers use them without thinking about them too much, but for language learners they often cause mix-ups and confusion. English Idioms Interactive is an iOS app from Cambridge English Online featuring 45 colourful cartoons illustrating some of the funniest English idioms, plus quizzes and information to help improve your knowledge and command of English idioms. The full app costs €1.99 but there is a 'lite' version with three idioms at each of the three levels.

 The Academy Awards Ceremony (aka the Oscars) takes place this Sunday, so to get you in the right frame of mind, why not test your knowledge of movie history with this fun quiz?






ALSO SEE • Full list of Oscar nominations 2016 • Oscars 2016: 12 Major Nomination Snubs (Rolling Stone) • John Oliver Eviscerates the Oscars and Hollywood’s Whitewashing Epidemic (The Daily Beast)

THE CARTOON
This cartoon by Chappatte from the International New York Times relates to the UK's upcoming EU referendum. A man dressed as a stereotypical English 'city gent' complete with umbrella and briefcase is looking at the 'new EU flag', which now consists of the old EU flag, overlaid with the Union Jack. The man comments, "Not enough concessions."
EXPLANATION
The message is that some people, i.e., hard-line Eurosceptics and Europhobes, will never be satisfied with membership of the EU, no matter how many concessions the UK government manages to wring from Brussels, and David Cameron's much-vaunted/derided EU renegotiation deal was never going to make them change their minds.

Today, February 29th, is Leap Day. To mark the event, here's a quiz I created for my EM Normandie students. See how well you do!

Video: What Is a Leap Year?

You probably know that 2016 is a leap year. And that means that this year we get an extra day on February 29th. Great--an extra day. Who really cares? Well, leaplings (people born on Leap Day of a previous year) care, because they finally get to celebrate their actual birthday. But for the rest of us, it's just a day like any other day. So why do we go to all the trouble to have a leap year? In this video, Epipheo shows you how, based on astronomy, the Gregorian Calendar uses leap years to keep us in tune with the sun, the stars, and the universe.
NOTE
The name "leap year" comes from the fact that while a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar normally advances one day of the week from one year to the next, the day of the week in a leap year will advance two days (from March onwards) due to the extra day added at the end of February (thus "leaping over" one of the days in the week). For example, Christmas Day fell on Tuesday in 2001, Wednesday in 2002, and Thursday in 2003 but then "leapt" over Friday to fall on a Saturday in 2004. [Wikipedia]

OBJECT PRONOUNS

Object Pronouns (Pronombres Objetos) son pronombres que reciben la acción del verbo. Se colocan:

I. Después de un verbo:

          I call her every day.     La llamo todos los días.

II. Después de una preposición:

         The present is for her.       El regalo es para ella.

Subject Pronouns		Object Pronouns
I	I kicked the ball	me	John kicked the ball to me.
you	You like to study.	you	John wants to talk to you.
he	He eats green cheese.	him	Mary doesn’t like him.
she	She likes ice cream.	her	John kissed her.
it	It bit John.	it	John smashed it.
we	We enjoy going to the movies.	us	The politician lied to us.
you	You are the best students.	you	I wouldn’t lie to you.
they	They are not happy.	them	Mary didn’t invite them.

Now practice
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5

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