Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) wrote poetry, plays, stories for children and a novel. He is one of the most quoted writers in English. We sincerely hope you enjoy reading this his best known play, and hope you leave your comments in this section.
7 de octubre de 2008
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Wilkie Collins
342 comentarios:
1 – 200 de 342 Más reciente› El más reciente»Hello, thirds and welcome to our blog. We hope to read your posts and that you use this forum to improve your English as much as you can!
Hi, I´m magdalena, I´m 12 years old. Though I haven´t read The Importance of Being Earnest, I´ve seen a play and have watched a film it is really good and I hope you read it,because you will really enjoy it!
Hi, I'm Antonio (3ºB) I'm happy with the book (play) we have to read. I like Oscar Wilde, his work and all about his life that it was very interesting.
I have seen some of his plays and films based on them but I only read short stories of him.
By the way, the prices of Moet&Chandom are from 20,90 € to 350 €. You can see it on the El Corte Inglés internet page.
Thanks, Antonio as you ccan see it is affordable!!! and as Lane says in Bachelor establishaments brands are normally better!!!
I´m glad you like the play, by the time we finish it you´ll love it.
Yes, it's true I thought it was more expensive, but about Lane said, nowadays I think the point is not to be married, the point is the childrem. If you have kids, of course, you have less money to expend but if not, marriage people are two, and two salaries are more than one.
Have a good weekend.
Antonio 3ºB
Hello!!! I´m Belén (3ºB too) and I´m studying architecture.
I´ve never read an Oscar Wilde´s play but I think that´s the most fantastic and funny way of improving English.
I believe we´re going to enjoy the book a lot.
Enjoy the last days of the Architecture Week.
Belén (3ºB)
Hello I´m Reyes (3ºB).I read The Portrait of Dorian Grey last year ( in Spanish) and I loved it. So I hope this new play I like it too. I watched some movies based on Oscar Wilde´s plays and they´re very , very funny.
And about the champagne, in "El Corte Inglés" the bottle costs about 30€ , and Dom Perignon about 180€, so if someday I win the lottery..... I will drink a lot of bottles of Dom Perignon, of course.
Have a nice weekend.
Hello, I´m Elisa, from 3ºB. About the prices of champagne, you can find a good one, Juve Camps (Brut Nature), in Mercadona, for 16 euros; it isn´t Don Perignon, but it´s a good brand, which a family with two children could buy (one day, a bottle, at least!!).
I've also tried Juve de Camps and it's really nice. Moet&Chandom is also really nice. As to Don Perignon, I've heard it mentioned on TV, because the other day they showed a documentary on Champagne, but I've never tried it! I get those champagnes in Macro.
I don't know what you'll think of this (I don't know if it was a good idea), but once I created a cocktail with champagne. It's called "Cocktail Bibliotecas". You take a champagne glass. You put in it three peeled and seedless grapes, a bit of mango and then you pour the champagne!
Oscar Wilde would be delighted with this very sophisticated thread, I pressume, mixing literature and champagne, because of it's elegance and distinction! :D
Magdalena, your English is brilliant! Well done!
I should be leaving now. I've decided to make some apple puree for some poor little chicken that got killed and is now roasting in the oven... It's a pity we don't have some champagne for that! :) They say that in France they have chicken and champagne...
Hello guys. I disagree absolutely with Lane's assertion. I think the only difference between a bachelor or a married man is the lack of time, not the money nor good taste. This lake of time makes married people not go out nor attend reunions with friends as frecuently as singled ones do. But this makes you save money and spend it in good goods.
In fact I've had better dishes, meat, seafood or wine in familiar reunionns than in other kind of parties where the important issues were dancing, drink and ...
Comming back to the book, I think that Lane tried to suck up his landlord because he was feeling guilty after drinking his beverage.
By the way, nowadays is not very popular having champagne in reunions, is it?
Language feedback: "I've had better MEALS, meat, seafood or wine in FAMILY reunions"
mcm by the time I finish with yiu your ideas will be widely different..and champagne is very popular in some meetings, people love it, personnally I prrefer wine and Spanish, not French!
welcome to all of you, I´m glad you have joined the discussions and liked the play, Oscar Wilde,etc. Belén you are wise, it´s a very enjoyable way of learning a language!
The price of 16 e makes Champagne affordable but that one is cava, isn´t it? Michelle has liked it and,Michelle, I´m going to try your recipe with the seedless grapes and mango, it sounds nice and...fattening, but worth giving it a try.
I do not think Lane was sucking up to his master, he was giving him an honest answer!! Servants had a mind and were not afraid of poltely giving their opinion. think of Sncho Panza.
Hello classmates. I'm Isabel. I can see that you are very interested about champagne.
Let’s go to play, ok? You must imagine that it isn't the Goya school’s blog. You must think that this is e-bay’s web. I have one bottle of Dom Perignon in my house. It was a present but we don't like champagne. I sell it for a reasonable price hahaha...
Who gives something?
Changing the subject, I have never read about Oscar Wilde but I hope his plays are as exciting as Carmen says.
See you tomorrow
Hi! I´m elena from 3º B too. I´m a teenager and i´m going to try improve my level of english this year. No... I´m not going to try it, I´ll get it!
I really like this play, I think it can help us to learn more expressions.
About the conversation of champagne... I have some news.
I´m not very interested about the price of the different champagnes because I don´t like it too much, but I have been speaking with my father who sells wines and he has told me that a bottle of krug can be cost 600 euros, and the champagne bollinger up to 1500 euros!!!!
I hope that this bottle will be the best bottle of champagne of the world.
Does anybody knows which are the “ingredients” of champagne? It has got gold?
I think i´ll need to win more than one lottery to buy a great bottle!
See you tomorrow ^^
Hi! I´m elena from 3º B too. I´m a teenager and i´m going to try improve my level of english this year. No... I´m not going to try it, I´ll get it!
I really like this play, I think it can help us to learn more expressions.
About the conversation of champagne... I have some news.
I´m not very interested about the price of the different champagnes because I don´t like it too much, but I have been speaking with my father who sells wines and he has told me that a bottle of krug can be cost 600 euros, and the champagne bollinger up to 1500 euros!!!!
I hope that this bottle will be the best bottle of champagne of the world.
Does anybody knows which are the “ingredients” of champagne? It has got gold?
I think i´ll need to win more than one lottery to buy a great bottle!
See you tomorrow ^^
Hi, Isabel and Elena. it´s nice to have new posters on line!! Well 1500 e is a heck of a lot for me but I supose this mega millionaire in Russia, the ownwer of the Manchester United can have a bottle everyday!! it´s amazing that if you do not know something you can live without it but if you know..then you miss it!
Isabel, drink that bottle and enjoy it yourself,live is about that too!!
Hi, I'm Elena B.(3ºB). I write my initial surname for differme from the other Elena.
Last summer I had the opportunity to see The Importance of Being Earnest in the theater, and I enjoyed a lot the play even though the performance was not very good.
So now I want to compare with de original play from the book.
By the way, Sorry Isabel but I'm not going to bid for your bottle of champagne, bacause I don't like champagne.
See you later at Class,
Elena B.
"SONATA DE OTOÑO" Teatro Bellas Artes. Día 23 de Octubre, jueves
Hora 8.30-10.15 pm
Precio 18e
Traer dinero JUEVES those who want to attend.
Hello! I´m Susana (3ºB). I would like to go to the theatre and the cinema, but I work at radio station until 1:00 am. I only can write in reading club. I like very much the play but I don´t understand some expressions. I was the narrator last day and It was very hard. I can´t pronounce very well the english words.
See you later at class.
Hi!!
This is Azu, How are everybody??
I'm fine..and I'm very happy because I love Oscar Wilde(ok, I love him like a Writter -).
The most powder story by Oscar Wilde is "De Profundis". And the most beautiful is "El ruiseñor y la rosa".
I've never read "the Importance to being Earnest".
Hi Azu, I feel the same as you about "The rose and the nightingale"! In fact, I love every Wilde´s tale.
You will like "The importance...", I assure you!
Hi, a little post about "Sonata de Otoño" because I haven't found nothing in the theatre blog.
I saw the play weeks ago and I loved it, it's very good, the text is great(I'm a huge fan of Ingmar Bergman), Marisa Paredes and the other actress (her daughter in the play) are really great, and I liked the staging so much.
I recommend you the play, it's really good.
Antonio 3ºB
We haven´t had time to do the section yet!!Sorry
Thanks, Antonio, It´s good to know that some people are going to go to the theatre!!
Wilde´s tales are really good, I bought myself a painting because it reminded me of the Nightingale and the rose and the painter has become quite well-known!!! Do not think it´s Picasso,no but perhaps in two centuries it´ll be valuable!!!
Good evening!
I've just been visiting the blogs of the English department and I'm really amused!
In my way back home I've been reflecting on the last topic we spoke about today in class,"Manners over Morals?". Just in short: It makes me think of my own professional world with it's well-known fashion-architecture and some really habitable, common examples of flat buildings, for instance. "Less aesthetics and more ethics",as the Pritzker Award prizewinning Massimiliano Fuksas would say! On the other hand, it makes me also think of Ortega Gasset and his thesis about the necessity of a leading upper class...and so on!
Ana 3B
Who is the painter?? A little comment: I wanted to buy a painting or whatever which reminded me The woman in white (I was thinking of visiting London with that money, but someone told me that it would be better some other thing more special), but I didn´t find anything! Can you believe that I´ve got the money yet??
As for The importance...: I know you all have heard this, the fact is that it´s marvellous because it´s the Truth:“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.”
This quote is also useful to our discussion about parents and children in Jane Eyre section. Whether our mothers do well or not doesn´t mind, because at the end we all will be as they are..........................
Hi! I´m marta from 3º B.This is my first appearance on the blog and I´m a bit nervous about it.
I want to talk about manners and moral.
I think that it´s important to remember that Oscar Wilde lived in England during the reign of Queen Victoria.
In the Victorian society the most important values are puritanism and (DOUBLE STANDARDS???)
Because of this Oscar Wilde criticized the society of the time.
Does anyone have a different opinion?
Hi! I´m Susana from 3ºB. I´m agree with Marta. I think that it´s very important to know the moment in which the author of the text lived and its social context. This largely explains the merits of the play. We must reflect about Victorian values if we want to understand The Importance of Being Earnest.
Hello!
I would like to continue with the discussion that we begin in the last class about manners and moral.
From my point of view, good manners aren't in relation with upper,lower or middle class; its are related with the education recibed from your family
What do you think?
Enjoy the weekend!
Elena B.(3ºB)
Hello to all the new contributors. Do not hesitate to post your comments because it´s a wonderful experience to be able to discuss issues in English and it will help you tremendously with the language.
Manners are indeed important in the Victorian times but so are they now. What is the real meaning of this sentence you are so interested in? It means that any action can be covered up by sticking to the code which is used in your country, culture etc. Thus it does not just apply to a certain period but to all. Basically, provided you do somehting according to this code you can do it or get away with it, from a social point of view, not a moral one, of course, or even legal; we put up with things if they are covered up by good breeding, can you provide an example? I can, there´s been a couple who were fornicating on the beach in Dubai, had they done it in house or hotel nothing would have happened, even there, but they did it in the open, on the sand!!! so now they are in trouble. What shocking manners, by the way!!!
Hi! I'm from interm. 2F.
I'm very excited about the reading of "The Importance of Being Earnest".
I really love Oscar Wilde.
First I read " Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories" (1891) and then, "The Happy Prince and Other Stories" (1888, fairy tales) but in Spanish. And two years ago I went to the theatre with the EOI to see the play "The picture of Dorian Gray" with which I enjoyed a lot.
About the question Algernon makes to Lane about drink Cnampange and his answer. I've got some information about it.
This wine from the Champangne region was known before medieval times. Romans called it "vinum titillum". Kings appreciate the still, light and crips wine and offered it as an homage to others monarchs in Europe.
In the 17th century still wines of Champagne were the wines for celebration in Europe countries. The English were the biggest consumers of Champagne wines.
In France the first sparkling champange was created accidentaly, its pressure led it to be called "The devil's wine".
Champagne goined world known because of its association with nobility, royalty and then with high luxury, festivities and rites of passage.
The popularity of Champagne is attributed to the success of Champagne producers in marketing the wine.
This strategy worked, and, by the turn of the twentieth century, the majority of Champagne drinkers were middle class.
In the 19th century, Champagne producers made a concentrated effort to market their wine to women.
After that information, I need to think about Algernon's question and Lane's anwer and how it works nowadays.
See you here.
Hi everyone,
I would like to speak about the begining of the book we have to read this year (my group is 4F). In my opinion is quite dificult to caught the "double sense" of some conversations, but I have read only a few pages and maybe it will be a funny book. I hope so.
Regards
Jesús A. G. (NI2-F)
Hello everybody, I´m delighted to see that people from group F have decided to contribute to the blog.You´ll soon find out that it´s a great way to improve your writing skills and to exchange ideas and opinions with other people.
Azu and Lady silence, it´s good to hear that you love Oscar Wilde, I´m sure this comedy will hook you from the very beginning. Jesus, you´ll see that the play is not only entertaining but also illustrative, it provides a revealing insight into the nature of aristocrats, their manners and customs.
Lady silence,you really know a lot about the origin of champagne! I´m not very fond of it,I also think that its popularity and success is due to the fact that it is a French product, and they know how to sell anything.There are much better wines in Spain which are not appreciated abroad,such as Rioja,Ribera de Duero, Rueda, etc.
I believe manners, or better said, politeness is connected to empathy and not to social upbringing.
At least, you can be a polite person not only because you've been told what it is to be polite. Politeness also involves some intelligence on your part because you need to be able to see others.
Of course, there are things which are impolite and which you need to be told, but that is usually unrelated to the most fundamental politeness in life, which is, being considerate, walking in people's shoes.
I've sometimes been tricked by apparent politeness. I remember once I saw someone bringing cake to a meeting, and serving everyone, and thought, "What a kind person!", how agreeable, how kind, how polite that was. And then she turned out to be one of the worst people I have ever met, in moral terms and then all the rest. Because people who have had access to education, but which are not considerate people, can use that information to trick other people.
Then we have people who have not had access to education, who don't know about how unpolite it is not to clean the inside of the toilet bowl after you've used it, that chewing with your mouth open is noisy and revolting, or that it much more hygenic to use a hanky instead of one's sleeve to blow your nose, but who are utterly unable to abuse other people in favor of their personal interest, which is a sign, for me, of the worst manners ever! OK, I see politeness as something beyond manners -- that's why I relate it to empathy.
Then we have the very common problem of people abusing other people unknowingly, just because they are not working on their empathy, who are not caring at all about the people they expect to get help from, or who are incapable of perceiving the value (the existence) of others because they are immerse in their self. Again, a variation of not taking others into account.
For me, manners, politeness is about having enough intelligence to be able to live with other people nicely, avoiding violence, avoiding being stupid. It's a ground that allows us to create an atmosphere that can enable us to make the most out of our existence.
All of this doesn't mean that I'm not critical of some uses of politeness. I am. I know it is not polite to answer a question or to be honest when they ask you a question, and there, well, it all depends. There are cases in which being honest is considered aggression (impolite) but it isn't aggression, it is precisely respecting the other person, because you refuse to lie to that person, out of respect, precisely, but then, because it is considered impolite to tell the truth, your answer creates havoc!
Well, I've written in a carefree manner. I hope I haven't said too many inaccurate things. I suppose I was talking mostly from my emotional mind... ;) :)
After all the interesting reflexions that Michelle did about manners and moral, I want to say that I agree with she in most of them but specially when She talks about empathy.
I consider the Empathy one of the most important personality features. If you are a empathetic person you will have excellent communicative skills and good interpersonal relations.
See you tomorrow !!
Elena B.(3ºB)
Hi everybody.
Interesting reflexion Michelle but I disagree with you. I don't think empathy is connected with manners or politeness.
I think manners are a social code about what/how we have to do different things.
But the problem is we usually forget that manners is only a code and when we see a polite person we think he/she is a good person too. Big mistake.
Maybe the things should be like Michelle's said but I think it isn't.Specially with the upper class people who cover their bad acts with politeness.
In my opinion Wilde's sentence describes very well the upper class.
Antonio 3ºB
Hi there!
I see... I do agree with what you say, to some extend. But the question is, "what are manners for?" Why have we created them?
If the answer is: to establish who comes from an upper class upbringing, then, right, I'd agree with you, Antonio.
But my problem is I can't get myself to believe that. As an old leftwing person, I remember the times when people told me that being polite was "bourgoise" as if that were something really negative. (I've never had any problems learning from poor, non poor or rich, from heavy metal rockers or aristocrats, I really think I can make the most of different kinds of people, for me that's interesting! I try to take from anyone what I find it's best!) At that time, I didn't know how to "defend" myself (hahahahah) from those "accusations", but then I realized I was polite because that made our lives nicer.
I do agree with you in that some people use manners to trick other people into believing their kind, when they're not. Totally agree with that. But it seems to me, there's more to politeness than that... Anyway, you could be right!
So what did Wilde say about the upper class?
I´m of the same opinion as Michelle, I don´t think that manners were created to reveal the social background you come from. The way you´ve been brought up doesn´t identify you as a member of the upper, middle or low class, it is at home where you learn manners, no matter the social status of that home. I´ve been often surprised by the behaviour of some "upper class people " in social events.
I´m of the same opinion as Michelle, I don´t think that manners were created to reveal the social background you come from. The way you´ve been brought up doesn´t identify you as a member of the upper, middle or low class, it is at home where you learn manners, no matter the social status of that home. I´ve been often surprised by the behaviour of some "upper class people " in social events.
A very interesting discussion, whereever Michelle is it becomes interesting because you explain yourself very well.
Let´s have somthething clear about manners and politeness: we cannot live happily without them!! I totally agree with Antonio that it is a code and that code, cristina, can and must be taught at school for those people who do not have the opportunity of acquiring it at home!! can you imagine a happy life with savages in the middle of Africa?? Not honey moon and some phhotos, but zctually marrying the guy and staying there for good? the episode of the cake was not polite, it was nice to bring a cake but then our friend the devil offers many nicer things like power, riches, doesn´t he? it´s for us to see into the heart of a person, independentely of how he acts (mind I said the heart, not his stomach as he devours his dinner!!!!!)
Hello!!!
I´m on the waiting list of the tickets for "Sonata de Otoño" play.
I spoke with my one-month housemate and we decided to go to the theater, so we bought our tickets by internet.
See you then!!!
Belén.
Hi I´m the other elena B.
I have got a question about the composition. I don´t know what about we have to write. It might be because I don´t understand the mean of the title.
We can write about an expearance with english that we have ever had in another country, like something that happened when we were on a trip in Ireland.
Or in contrast we should speak about the first time that we listened this language when we were child.
Can anybody give me a clue?
thaks!
See you on thursday!
I agree with Carmen, what would be of all of us if we couldn't improve our manners, behaviour,...
would schools be usefull if we knew we can't be better after a good period of learning?
I'm Clara, Intermediate 2.
I'd like to talk about the Bumburist. Both, the two friends have an imaginary friend or brother to be able to scape from their 'exemplar' lives.
I think it's not a coincidence, the writer wanted to tell us how people in the 19th centrury used to behave and what a cynical people they were!
Clara, do you think that currently people do not have a double life? How many people have a wive and a girlfriend? Are we sure, when we meet someone that he/she is telling us the truth?
Hi again!
Can anybody answe my question?
I should finish my cpmposition!
thanks!!!
You're right Carmen, but I was not thinking about people who has a 'lover' but people who want to go away for a couple of days or a week or not to go to a dinner party with and old aunt and they need to find a 'reasson' to do that without being criticized by their family. In my opinion people currently do things without telling lies to their families. Nowadays both, men and women have much more freedom.
For me the author wanted to show us how the aristocratic life was.
Clara, unfortunately nowadays lots of people have double lives,as well!!! We see this on tv everyday, common people saying that their husbands have been unfaithful with their friends!! not only the upper class!!!
Elena phone someone and ask if not write something about yourself and your personality. If you are my student, by the way
Elena, the composition is about: "My experience with English so far". You have to write between 190 and 210 words. I hope that the information wasn't too late for you.
See you at class!!
Elena B. (3ºB)
Cucumber sandwiches
the reading of "The importance of being Earnest"means to get closer to british customs. Reading the first pages we found a curious subjet: the diferences between spanish and english diet. For exemple in Spain at around 6 pm we usually drink a cup of coffe with biscuits or cookies; however in England it's usual to eat cucumber sandwiches at tea time.I'm "devoted" to cucumber, I had never tried it in sandwiches , But I will propose you other combination,it's a delicious and easy dish.
Ingredients:oil, eggs, cucumber, spring onion and parsley.
Instruments:mixer and a bol.
How to make it: make the mayonnaise putting the oil and eggs in the bol and mix them with the blender. Then cut(very tiny) the cucumbers,spring onions and the parsley and put all together in the bol with the mayonnaise. Finally spread the sauce in scratchings or in toasts and serve it in a plate.
I'm sure you and your friends will love this new dish.
Come on and enjoy your meal!
C.P.I.Upper-Intermediate(L/X)
Ahahaha!!
Anonimus , thanks for your Combination!! I’ll try to cook it. It seems to be easy and this is perfect for me because cooking isn’t to me -))
We read a few in class yesterday. We talked about the flirt and relationships..
Almost all think that we don’t want to marry of people who usually flirt.
To be honest, Almost all from class don’t think to marry , ahahahaha.
In my opinion, flirting is healthy to look after your self-esteem, but it isn’t a good idea when you have a relationship because your partner could think she/he isn’t important to you.
Bye!
Azu.
It´s good to see the way we mix literature with recipes, first Michelle with her champagne coktail and now "anónimo" (I´d like to know your name and group)with the cucumber spread - it sounds very appetizing !! When I was in Athens I had a typical Greek dish, whose name I can´t remember, made with cucumber, yoghourt and garlic, it was very tasty and refreshing.
Azu, you say that some people flirt to keep their self-esteem high. I think they are probably insecure, vain or they have grown up with an inferiority complex. Who do you think are more prone to flirt men or women? Algernon disapproves of Jack flirting with Gwendolen, is he an overprotective cousin or is he just meddling? We´ll find out soon.
I haven´t finished to read The Importance of Being Earnest only I like to say you that I´ve enjoy reading here.
I´m María Intermediate-2
Hi, everybody!!! I think this blog gets more interesting each day.
Cristina, about flirting you may be right but in my opinion flirting is a pleasant moment between two persons. It could be frustraiting when you fall in love and she/he doesn´t feel the same.
About your questions, I think in general men are more prone than women because the society is as it is. About the second question I consider that Algernon overprotects Gwendolen because he thinks that she is very frail and innocent.
See you tomorrow
I do not expect Gwendolen to be innocent at all!! What is your opinion of Jack? who is cleverer, Jack or Algy? I think that Jack is going to be a bit of a fool, look at his explanation about neighbours!!! Algy is more to be wary of, he knows what he is about and says incredible things and this is always disturbing for a woman.
It´s very nice to flirt, provided both parties know it´s flirting,but women tend to think that flirting ends in marriage or a serious relationship, that is disturbing!!
Thanks for the recipe, I´m going to try it!! by the way the cucumber sandwiches are...tasteless, do not bother to try them, the English are good with toast, cakes-biscuits and spirits, that´s all.
I agree with you Carmen, Algy is more clever and interesting. I think Jack is a bit simple but his explanation about neighbours is very funny.
Talking about cucumber, if you like gin&tonic, try it with a cucumber slice instead lemon, it's delicious and very refreshing.
Antonio 3ºB
I would like to speak about something different. In class, we exchanged ideas about recycling our rubbish and about the strategies that the government has adopted. Here you have a summary about 'The importance of being Green'.
Climate Change or Global warming?
The term climate change is often used interchangeably with the term global warming, but according to the National Academy of Sciences, the phrase 'climate change' is growing in preferred use to 'global warming' because it helps convey that there are [other] changes in addition to rising temperatures.
Climate change refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer).
Climate change may result from:
-Natural factors, such as changes in the sun's intensity or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun.
-Natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation).
-Human activities that change the atmosphere's composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g. deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.).
Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth's surface and in the troposphere, which can contribute to changes in global climate patterns. Global warming can occur from a variety of causes, both natural and human induced. In common usage, 'global warming' often refers to the warming that can occur as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities.
Beginning late in the 18th Century, human activities associated with the Industrial Revolution have changed the composition of the atmosphere and therefore very likely are influencing the Earth's climate.
For over the past 200 years, the burning of oil fosil fuels, such as coal and oil, and desforestation have caused the concentrations of heat-trapping 'greenhouse gases' to increase significantly in our atmosphere. These gases prevent heat from escaping to space and are necessary to life because they keep the planet's surface warmer than it otherwise would be. But, as concentrations of this gases continue to increase in the atmosphere, the Earth's temperature is climbing above past levels. The eight warmest years on record (since 1850) have all occured since 1998, with the warmest year being 2005. Most of the warming in recent decades is very likely the result of human activities. Other aspects of the climate are also changing such as rainfall patterns, snow, ice cover and sea level.
Scientists are certain that human activities are changing the composition of the atmosphere, and that increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases will change the planet's climate. But they are not sure by how much it will change, at what rate it will change, or what the exact effects will be.
However, we know that climate change affects people, plants, animals and some changes are already occurring. Observed effects include sea level rise, shrinking glaciers, changes in the range and distribution of plants and animals, trees blooming earlier, lengthening of growing seasons, ice on rivers and lakes freezing later and breaking up earlier, and thawing of permafrost. Another key issue being studied is how societies and the Earth's environment will adapt to or cope with climate change. (For example, in Northern regions, Alaska are expected to experience the most warning).
And what can you do?
You can start by asserting your own contribution to the problem. There are some simple steps (that you can take at home, at the office, on the road, at school...) to reduce your emissions. Greenhouse gases are emitted as a result of the energy we use by driving and using electricity and through other activities that support our quality of life like growing food and raising livestock. Greenhouse gas emissions can be minimized through simple measures lide changing light bulbs in your home and properly inflating your tires to improve your car's fuel economy. Here you have over 25 action steps that individuals can take to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, increase the nation's energy independence and also save money.
At Home.
1-Change a light, and you help change the world.
Replace the conventional bulbs in your 5 most frecuently used light fixtures with bulbs that have the Energy Star and you will keep the environment while saving money on energy bills.
2-Look for Energy Star qualified products.
When buying new products, such as appliances for your home (lighting, home electronics, heating and cooling equipment...) get the features and performance you want and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
3-Heat and cool smartly.
Simple steps like cleaning air filters regularly and having you heating and cooling equipment tuned annually by a licenced contractor can save energy and increase comfort at home. When it's time to replace your old equipment, choose a high efficiency model and make sure it is properly sized and installed.
4-Seal and insulate your home.
If you are planning to replace windows, choose qualified windows for better performance. Forced air ducts that run through unconditioned spaces are often big energy wasters.
5-Use green power.
Green Power is environmentally friendly electricity that is generated from renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun. There are two ways to use green power: you can buy green power or you can modify your house to generate your own greenpower.
6-Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Recycle newspapers, beverage containers, papers and other goods. Use products in containers that can be recycled and items that can be repaired or reused. In addition, support recycling markets by buying products made from recycled materials.
7-Be green in your yard.
Use a push mower, which, unlike a gas or electric mower, consumes no fosil fuels and emits no greenhouse gases. Composting your food and yard waste reduces de amount of garbage that you send to land fills and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
8-Use water efficiently.
Saving water around the home is simple. Municipal water system requires a lot of energy to purify and distribute water to households, and saving water, especially hot water, can lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Be smart when irrigating your lawn or landscape, only water when needed and do it during the coolest part of the day (early morning is best). Turn the water off while shaving or brushing teeth. Do not use your toilet as a waste basket.
9-Spread the world.
Tell family and friends that energy efficiency es good for their homes and good for environment.
At The Office.
Business and home offices use a significant amount of electricity for heating and cooling, lighting and operating equipment.
1-Manage office equipment energy use better.
Activate the power management features on your computer and monitor, unplug laptop power cords when not in use and turn off equipment and lights at the end of the day.
2-Look for qualified products for the office.
Computers, copiers, printers, lighting, heating and cooling equipment, comercial appliances...
3-Use less energy for your commute.
Switch to public transportation, carpooling, biking, telecommuting and other innovative ways to save energy.
4-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Use two-sided printing and copying, buy supplies made with recycled content, donate used equipment to schools or other organitations...
On The Road.
1-Buy smart.
Think before buying a new or used vehicle (or even before renting a vehicle). Choose the cleanest, most fuel-efficient vehicle that meets your needs.
2-Drive smart.
Many factors affect the fuel economy of your car. To improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gases emissions, go easy on the brakes and gas pedal, avoid hard accelerations, reduce time spent idling and unload unnecessary items to trunk to reduce weight.
3-Tune your ride.
Keep your car well tuned, follow the manufacturer's maintenance schedule, and use the recommended grade of motor oil. Also check and replace your vehicle's air filter regularly.
4-Check your tires.
Check your tire pressure regularly. Under-inflation increases tire wear and reduces fuel economy.
5-Give your car a breath.
Use public transportation, carpool or walk or bike whenever possible to avoid using your car.
6-And... Use renewable fuels.
I think this steps are so simple...Remember always the three R: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Hi, I entirely agree with you NVP and I think the title "the importance of being green" is very ingenious.You have written many important things in your comment and in my opinion, we have to read it and we have to reflect on it. Now, I´m going to talk about the homework. In relation to, the questions in the student's book "What kind of person makes a good friend and a good politician?"my answers are...
Good friend:patient, loyal, cheerful, funny, comprenhensive, well-balanced, open-minded, sincere and mature.
Good Politician: Charismatic, talkative, open-minded, hard-working, calm, self confident, well balanced, credible and the most important adjective in my opinion is HONEST.
See you tomorrow.
I´m absolutely amazed !!!! at the extensive list of hints NVP has posted to make us aware of "The Importance Of Being Green".It´s very useful, I wish we were all of the same mind about recycling, but unfortunately many people still don´t care abut the future of the world.
I agree with the Magician on the qualities to be a good friend and a good politician, but do you know anybody with such a profile? I think it´s easier with friends but when it comes to politicians it´s more unusual, specially with the last you mention:"HONEST". Once they´ve tasted power and all the things it entails, most of them find it difficult not to yield to corruption.I suppose there must be honest politicians somewhere but I can´t recall any.
About the adjectives:
"comprehensive"means "complete,global".
A good friend is "understanding"
Hello!!
First of all,I'm grateful to nvp for the summary about 'The importance of being Green',I think that some good advices are always welcome.
And with regard to qualities to be a good friend and a good politician, I consider that the first adjetives (good friend) are the qualities that people should have in their personal or private life and the the others in your work life. Are you agree with me?
See you tomorrow!
Elena B. (3º B)
I agree with you, and I'd add that independently of our way to behave in each situation, if you have a friend, If you're a good friend of him or her, you want the best for him/her, and you'll always be there for him/her without exceptions. This give to you some especial qualities which can be invisible for other people.
Well, thanks for your information Mr. Green, most helpful. I´m one for recycling.
As for the post about politicians being HONEST quite honestly go to Shakespeare and the fifth year section, we are discussing that..I would be more practical and require a politician to be efficient..
As for friends well it does not follow that friends wish you well, does it? or always support you..again Shakespeare is very good on that.. my advide learn fast and try reading it in English.
Sosias first it was the champagne..now its gin and tonic...well we do like spirits, don´t we? By the way I´ve tried it, and it is good, have you tried it with lemmon rind, orange and lime? Very big glass and lots of ice...
Hi guys.This is Cova thinking about personality.
Thanks to personality we can have our own identity which make us different from each other, but also quite similars.This happen when look into a group of friends, we could realized that all of them have something in common:their personality has some common points.We could see it for exemple, in the group of friends that you would invite to a party at your house,they would be sociable,optimistic, cheerful, loyal and specially funny friends.
However, sometimes we choose friends whose character is the opposite of ours, this is the case of Algernon and Lane.According to the first pages we have read we can describe :
Algernon as an arrogant ,assertive,possessive,mean and stubborn person.
Whereas,Lane is a loyal,creative,polite and discret servant.
In my opinion I think it's fantastic to be able to show and express our aown personality, but be careful and don't forget that we live in a society!
Hello there! Are you enjoying the book? I would like you to give me some feedback about activities we can do after finishing it. I teach Intermedio II and suggested to my students writing a little play based on the novel to be played in front of the classroom. This can be fun and it´s very useful to learn English in a creative way. It can also be an end-of-course activity. Thanks a lot.
Hello. I would like to speak about something different. In class (4ºF), we exchanged ideas about recycling our rubbish and about the strategies that the government has adopted. Here you have a summary about 'The importance of being Green'. Visit http://climatechangeorglobalwarming.blogspot.com/
NVP from 4ºF.
I would like to speak about something different. In class, we exchanged ideas about recycling our rubbish and about the strategies that the government has adopted. Here you have a summary about 'The importance of being Green'.Visit http://climatechangeorglobalwarming.blogspot.com.
Many different conversations!!!
Well, I’m going to talk about Angy’s personality.
In my opinion, he is good people and he is a good friend. But I think he doesn’t like people don’t be honest with him.
Sometimes I think he is falling in love with Gwendolen and sometimes I think is jealous of Jack because Jack is more important than Angly for Gwendolen.
And sometimes I think Angy is angry because he isn’t the protagonist of this love story, because he need to be in love, or he need to have a relationsheep.
See us,
Azu
Hi!!
Azu, maybe Algy in a good person and a good friend but he can´t be in love with Gwendolen because she is his cousin, however, he can be jealous of Jack if he is more important for Gwendolen. I don´t think that Algy need love, he is a bachelor so, from my point of view, Algy just needs a lover and he does´t think neither about marriage or about a engagement at all, for him that is just bussines (or, at least, that was what I undestood).
And I agree with you, Covadonga about everything you has commented. The character differences between Algy and Lane are normal because they are no friends, their connection is the relationship between the boss and his employee; maybe the treatment is pleasant because of the years, but I don´t think they be friends.
We live in a society in which the majority of the people are bussy almost all the time and thanks of those compulsive activities the people with double live have the perfect alabi (e.g. Earnest or Jack?).
See you tommorrow!!
As Covadonga says, having a similar personality is a good ingredient for friendship,but sometimes the less we have in common with a person the better we get on with him or her.Haven´t you ever seen an extrovert person is the closest friend of a shy one? Perhaps it´s because they complement each other.
As for the relationship between Algy and Lane, I agree with Belén, they can´t be friends, an employer and an employee have different aims.
Azu,I don´t think Algy is such a good person, to the adjectives Covadonga has used to describe him I would add cynical and selfish, specially when he talks about marriage.
Hello third!
I was studying there for three years and I finished last June. I didn`t post before because of personal problem, so, sorry about all my mistakes, I need some practice .But here I am again.
I was going to write “fortunately I finished last June”, but to be honest, I don’t know if I am lucky or not, because I miss terrible weekly lessons.
With Carmen and Marta, you have the opportunity to learn English and enjoy like you have never done before. Believe me, even when you are tired of doing subjunctive’s examples.
What can I say about The Importance of being Ernest??? In my opinion the best play we had read in the school.
I’m looking forward to tell you the end!!!!
Be careful with Carmen mates! )) , probably she is going to complicate your minds talking about double life! And at the end you will surprise yourself wondering with the pillow if she was or not right.
I'd love to go one day to listen to your comments with our particular Jack, it would be fantastic, isn’t it Carmen? But Im afraid he is as busy as always.
Learn English and have fun guys, don’t loose that chance!
Talking about champagne …. Have you ever taste Taitinger? An expensive but really nice one (better than Spanish wine, sure). As always, its important to choose the best person to drink with.
Well Carmen has explained to us the subjuntiv form. and I spend a lot of time looking for it but I´m not able to find any of them, I try and try but at the end I hope to be able to find it.
I´m María Intermediate-2 B
Hi, Juliet!! Such a nice surprise to hear from you!! and thanks for the compliments. Well..it was also fantastic to have you and Jack with us for three years, I still miss yur wonderful sense of humour..particularly Jack´s he was and will always be my very best JACK!!!! Hope to see you on the blog frequently. all my love.
Algernon can do with all those adjectives but he is so clever and witty that anyone would forgive him, don´t you think?
hi I´m ruben I have to write because my teacher picked me when I was looking in my mobile :) so I´m going to speak about this book whe have just read page 14 in wich algernon and jack speaks about them excuses I don´t have a specially one but I usually say that I have to help my mom or something like that in order to avoid some plans. I think you have to say some lights lies wilthingly because some times you don´t want to do the same as your friens, but I prefer to say the truth and when I don´t want to do something or simply I can´t I usually say why and try to change it I think is better.I hope you can understan my comment and enjoy it bye
Ruben, you shouldn´t feel forced to post a comment in this blog just because your teacher has told you off. It is a wonderful tool to improve your writing skills you shouldn´t put aside. As for the excuses people make up to have a double life, there are many: Bunbury, a false name, helping your mum ..... The important thing is how you feel when you lie to people so that you can get rid of unwanted appointments.Algernon doesn´t seem to feel guilty after missing aunt Augusta´s dinner,but he´s not one to look up to.
Good evening!
I just want to share with you how satisfaying it was to distinguish a subjunctive!! Some days ago I was listening to the radio while taking a shower. It was just a normal day waking up early in the morning with the news about Obama who had won the American elections. Then I heard the following slogan:
"If I WERE 21, I would vote for Kennedy"
At this moment I thought of Carmen and of her insisting in teaching us the subjunctive...
"Oh pleasure, pleasure!" as Jack/Ernest would say!
Ana, 3B
I´m so glad, Ana that you feel so well. What you have felt comes from the very pleasant sensation KNOWLEDGE gives a human being. Keep going, wisdom is very rewarding.
Cristina, Algernon is someone to be admired!!!!I certainly look up to him. Not every one of his actions is to be imitated, but he KNOWS and then he chooses how to act. Not all his actions are admirable, but his mind,intelligence and wit are. As to that student who is forced to write because he has been told to do it firstly you should realize that this blog is a great opportunity to practise for you and not something you use because you´ve been "punished", and secondly you´ve done very well in doing the exercise because you understood you were punished. There is some hope in you after all...
Any anecdotes you would like to post about "not receiveng invitations" I seem to remember every single time I did not receive the wished for card....
I think it’s horrible when all your friends are invited at a party and you aren’t. I think everybody has ever had an awful experience like this, when they were children or a bit older. I don’t know if the person who didn’t invite you made it to cause you bad feelings and made you suffer from that or if he or she only was thinking about the people he/she wanted to stay with on a special day, such us his or her birthday.
I sometimes think that children and young people are so selfish that they don’t usually think of the feelings of the others.
But the real problem will be if it happens to me now, as an adult person, If a person I think is my friend, didn’t invite me at a party, neither I wouldn’t talk to her/him any more, nor I wouldn’t give he/her the chance to apologize.
Hi i want to talk about dine with your relationships. The last page i read on the book Algernon said that once a week were quite enough to dine with one's own relations. Well, I think that's ok but I think it would be more than enough. I think that dine with someone of your no-closest family once a month is enough. But I think that is important dine at least once a week with somebody, maybe your friends or your girlfriend or someone else, because is important to see them and talk quietly.
Maybe it is not a matter of how many times you dine with them. The problem is if you do it because you want or because you have to. If you get on well with them, spending time with your relations is not a problem, but if you don't, then even to dine once a year may be a hell!!!
I agree with you Goretti. In my opinion, Algernon has that problem. He has to dine with her aunt and her friends very often what drives him mad, even if she obliges him to seat next to a married woman who he doesn’t like whatsoever. If I had that problem, I would bumbury as well. To be very happy we should stay where and with people, we wanted to. However, this thing which hasn’t evolved over the centuries. We must be “polite and diplomatic”, because everybody expects that from us.
In the sentence: “However, this thing which hasn’t evolved over the centuries.” I shouldn’t write the word “Which”.
I see Goretti´s point,Sunday´s lunch can be an enjoyable time or a torture,it all depends on how well you get on with the relations you dine with. Still, I agree with Antonio and Algernon that once a week is more than enough, specially if the relations are people like aunt Augusta and a married woman flirting with her husband, however as Clara says we have to "behave" and endure these situations and accept them as part of our social life.
Now that Christmas is near, think of the family gatherings, think of the joy, happiness and stress of dining with your in-laws!!!!
Carmen, you seem to excuse Algernon´s conduct, I certainly don´t look up to him, and I wouldn´t like to have him as my son in law.
Neither would I.
Cristina an Clara why not? Algernon would make a wonderful guest in any family dinner!! and do you think that because someone is not so outspoken he is a better son-in-law?????
"del agua mansa libréme Dios que de la turbia me libro yo" I have known very many what woul be considered a good son-in-law in situations hardly respectable at all!!!How many of us are good because we do not have the guts, the money or we are not in a positon where we could "fall"? Algernon says it and does it, he is more honest than those who deny it and do it.
If you see things like that… you're right. It’s better to know people by what they say and behave than get a surprise when least expected.
I think to dine ones a week is too much. I talk with my mother, brothers and sisters every day. I usually see my mother ones a month, and my brothers and sisters...less than my mother.
However if my family need me I'll be there uncondicionaly or at all (is posible this expression: at all??).
I think everybody need a Bunbury.
My favorit Bunbury when I'm with friends is My Family, and when I'm with my family...my Friends.
Azu
See us -).
Algernon heard where Ernest lived in the country and he went there to meet Cecily, but he did that without Ernest’s permission. When Ernest saw him there, he tried to throw it out but Algernon didn’t pay attention to him and he stayed at his friend house. Was Algernon bribing Ernest because he was a Bumburyst and Ernest admitted his fault not sending him back to the city? I think it’s another prove that shows us Earnest is a Bumburist.
In my opinion, to be Bunburyist would be a great solution to many situations in daily life.
People tend to say that they do what they want, probably its because we say what we would like to be, not what we really are, we like to think that none say us what we have to do. But actually, how many times do we have to do the opposite?
Sometimes you have to share a meal with your boss, or what about
Family Sundays?
Probably, if you say more than twice to your boss that you are not able to lunch with him, he is not going to look you in the same way next time, which option do you prefer?
And with your family in law? Imagine a mother in law (oh! My God, It’s the thing that makes me think it’s a pleasure not being engage! ) You also have two options, stay as your husband and her expect, being a great wife, great mother, great everything or being jealous or unkindly with her and rejecting the invitation. Which one do you prefer in that case? Remember that, the result of the second one, it will be that your mother in law it going to hate you, what means a terrible threat in your daily life! Can you imagine a woman trying to annoy you all time, and telling any kind of gossip to her son, and….oh no! Probably one Sunday a month with a false smile every time its better than that!
Protocol its necessary in our lives.
But what I really admire, its people who do what they really want in every moment. Sometimes, Its not an easy subject. Don´t you think so?
Sorry about all my mistakes, Carmen and Marta don't kill me, age doesn't forgive (by the way, can we say that?) and Im forgetting everything!
Hello, I am newbie in this blog, but I will try to put my opinion about Bumburish people.I have been reading the different opinions and I liked it the issue.
Well, from my point of vew it is very hard to be a Bumburish, I believe you should be a special form, I will explain: for me is very difficult because I don't know to lie, this will get complicated my life because I will be worried about many things, I would have to remember what I say to each person, it is a hard work, so on the other hand, I would pay attention that people don't suspect I say a lie .It is easier to say always the truth
Hello.
This is the frist time I write here in the blog and I should say that I'm suprised because of the number of messages. The last time I viseted the blog there were really less messages than now, and it was onlye the last way.
So, ok, I think this is the time to say something about the book. Firstly, I want to say that I really prefer this kind of books, without corrections to make it easier to read, but I think too that the vocabulary and the kind of jocks are not so easy to undertand. And what can I say now about the story of the book with all this comments that talks about everything? Well, I supose I agree with juliet about Bunburyist. It's not very polite to say that, but everybody need one in their lives. How can you avoid a boring dinner without using a Bunburyist? The problem I think is when your Bunburyist "live" is as big as your live, and you need your Bunburyist very frecuently. This seems that you really need to change your life. But, white lie some times it's the perfect way to avoid an argument and hurting your friends and relatives feelings
Obama and Marc Antony are both appealing and they look very self-confident. However, I don't see they have anything in common...
On the other hand, I like the way in which Marlon Brandon speaks about Brutus. He repeats how 'honourable' is this man, in an ironic sense, and he shows as the internal fury of Marc Antony's character. I think I will look for this film...
As I can see, several people here are talking about ´telling lies`, it’s an option, but I don’t like it, I prefer telling the truth. I’ve been looking carefully the people who live and work near me for a long time, and I’ve learned that most people criticize the others they know and vice versa. It doesn’t matter what about, the important thing is that they spend their free time doing what they most like doing: gossiping.
Related to this, I think that if you tell the truth to your partner, husband or wife, for instance, I’m not going to have lunch with your parents next Sunday because I don’t fancy whatsoever, and please don’t make an excuse.
The first time, your parents in law will say that you’re a bit eccentric, or bad-tempered, or unfriendly, or what they want to say about you.
The second time it’ll be better, because they’ll say you’re like that, and if the situation is repeated very often, they just think you’re a hopeless case.
But they won’t mind it if you’re there when they need you. They’ll say you’re unsociable but a helpful person, which balances the situation.
So, don’t worry, be yourself.
There are situations in our life that we are afraid of telling the truth, we could lose some `good things or people´. In these situations is when our best known friend Bumbury takes part in our life.
Do you think Bumbury is for people who are not very brave?
Clara, I think Bunbury is just a very good excuse to avoid doing what you should do, this is why he is so popular
Lies are very usual nowadays. They are present in everything. Take a look to the label of any good at the supermarket or the text of any advertisement. We get children to believe in magic things like Christmas or the Perez Mouse. But the most irritating lies came from politicians. Do you know any politician saying the true?. Perhaps the public doesn't want to hear the truth, does it?.
Good evening to everyone!
I haven't read the blog during two days and there are a lot of new, interesting commentaries about Bunbury, truth and lies.
Well, in all this the thing that interests me most is the concept of Truth. It has been one of the most discussed themes throughout the mankind's history since classical philosophers like Platoo to nowadays. In the opposite of this wise man's ideas I don't belive in a unique Truth everybody is looking for. Instead of it I rather think that the truth has many faces which depend on the circumstances where it's developed. So for me Bunbury isn't really a question of lying, but of avoiding some situations in life. It's more about trying to change the circumstances I mentioned before than about having parallel lifes. In this way I share Carmen's opinion. However, I don't feel like judging this behaviour because I'm convinced about that there's somehow a little Bunbury inside of each person.
Ana 3B
I've been talking to a friend of mine today and I realized that "the importance of being Earnest" could have a double meaning. From the verb to earn, the person who earn most money in the world, Earnest, to be a winner, succesful, rich ... like a "buscavidas", a person who comes from a noble o very rich family and now is broken and need to keep his wellbeing...
Well, it's an idea.
I agree with some things which "Anónimo" says. Being a "Bunbury" is not exactly as lying. Everybody need an excuse to escape from reality of their lives and to find a little moment of happyness.
Insted of visiting a psychlogist, we invent our own therapy with a "Bunbury" and in some occasions this is a good solution, but not to solve, if couples to avoid conflicts or problems in our environment.
I remember a simple phrase that once was told by a TV presenter, "I never lie but I do not always tell the truth".
Depending on the moment, this is a good philosophy, Ins´t it????????.
From my point of view, telling the children things as "Wizar Kings" or "Perez Mouse" are good lies which are the childhood base, a happier one.
Everybody has been a bunburyist at least once in his life because all of us use excuses to avoid something. And that´s very useful, the life is a little bit better if we can avoid doing any of the hateful things which we should do. But we must be careful with lies, because it can easily become too big to defend it. And, as the old spanish proveb says: "se coge antes a un mentiroso que a un cojo".
And your phrase, Reyes, is a very good one, but it´s not simple at all.
I want to tell you that today, tomorrow, after tomorrow and next Sunday we’ll are able to catch a English (from London) Taxi in Madrid City Center.
There will are 5 Taxis around the city . The condition to go by these taxis are two:
First: To talk in English with the Taxidriver.
Second: The trip can’t be more expensive that 10 pounds ( 10 € more or less).
And the experience is for FREE!!
Do you remember when last year England show us a “mini Camdem”?? It Was great!!
But…I remember too many people walking into the market…
Come on!! Go out and catch your London-Taxi today!!
Enjoy!
PD. Everything is true, It isn't a joke.
AZU
I think we tell lies to children because it helps us to blackmail them. How many times have you listen this: If you are a bad kid, Wizard Kings will bring you coal. We have been taught to coexist with the lies from we were children. So it is normal that we use them in our own interest.
Hi, Anonimo, I am going to London in December, please could you tell me about your trip to London?. I think it is a good idea to take a taxi to practice English, -if my friends let me talk with the taxi driver- I hope so.
Please pay attention about how much you pay for taxis, I think it will be expensive. I am thinking is cheaper take a bus and try to speak with people because it won't be possible with the bus driver.
Let me know if you get to talk with taxi driver,I hope they will be friendly although your English won't be so perfect, sorry I want to say that you wouldn't speak English as English people, do you know what I mean?.
I am looking forward to hearing from you about London
Juliet, we have to use something which is politically correct to get out of things we do not want to do, that´s why Bumbery is so well-known to all of us once we are capable of admitting to ourselves that we all know him. It is quite frequent for people not to realize that they are using someone as an excuse. Not telling the truth is quite another matter, should we do it or not? In my opinion the less we tell the truth the better, I´ve discovered that NOBODY wants to be told the truth! If you tell a student that he will never speak English he will get angry at you!! if you tell your best friend that his wife is seeing someone that´ll be the end of your friendship, not of the marriage... and if someone makes you the object of his confidence he is sure to regret that you know his truth or true character. Observe, learn, know and keep your mouth shut!
Hi Mercedes, this is Anonimo (AZU).
The London Taxis are in own city, in Madrid, this weekend. And they are for free. You haven't pay anymoney. And you'll be able to talk in english with the taxidriver.
About the taxis in London, sincerenly are very expensive!! I prefer to get a bus or Metropolitan.
The Metropolitan is faster (there is jam everyhours)but is better to get a bus if you want to see the streets and the buildings and the Christmas Light.
I remember the cheapest option is to buy a ticket for a week to travel by bus or Metropolitan.
See us!
AZU.
Thanks for the information, Azu, I hadn´t heard anything about the London taxis in Madrid. Where can you take them? Are they really free? In your first post you said that there´s a maximun fare.Even if you have to pay for it, it´s worth going for a ride with an English taxi driver, it´ll give you the opportunity to speak English and sightsee Madrid from a different perspective.
Jesus, I completely agree with you about Bunburying, it´s something everybody needs some time in their lives, and nothing to worry about as long as you don´t overuse it and then it stops being effective. As for "white lies", they´re really useful and we can´t do without them if we don´t want to hurt people´s feelings. I agree with Carmen that nobody likes to be told the truth. How many times have we had to praise somebody´s dress or hair when we thought them perfectly horrid? How do we like that comment on our having put on weight after the holidays?
This is just to let you know there´s a very interesting exhibition in CAIXA FORUM, Paseo del Prado, 36.It´s called ETRUSCAN PRINCES. I went yesterday and spent two enjoyable and enlightening hours there. The exhibition gathers a selection of 170 works belonging to the Musée du Louvre and other leading Italian archaeological museums in Florence, Rome and the Vatican City. It will be opened until January 18, Mondays to Sundays, from 10:00a.m. to 8:00 p.m.The admission is free of charge.
Don´t miss it, it´s definetely worth seeing.
hello! I'm Yolanda (3ºB) I had to write on friday but couldn't I'm in the second course of high school and I have too much to study...it's my first time that I write in this blog and I don't know what to write.
Because of this I think to comment the text of the last class: get stressed, stay young.
I think that it's can be possible to existe a "good estress" because if you don't have a little obligations with the others and with your work and studies, you don't do too much things that in really are good for you...for example to write in this page! that is good to improve your English.
Carmen and Ana, absolutely agree with you two. Well, all of us agree, by the way. It’s very important to get the deference between lying or being Bunbury.
Observe, learn, know and keep your mouth shut as Carmen says it’s something perfect that everyone should practice more than they do in whole, we don’t have to judge anyone, but however, it’s not so easy. In that case, we would be perfect, and Im afraid we aren’t.
Aaaahhhh I don’t want to be in the situation again of saying to my friend that his/her couple is seeing someone, but If I had to, I would do again. The result, of course it’s not going to be the same if your friend is a woman, or if he is a man (better in that case) , but, anyway, I think that being Bunbury in life it’s not so bad, but not lying to your friend! I prefer say the true and loose temporally a friendship than let my friend discover the true by his/herself and loose him/her for ever.
Which page have you already reach? I would like to read the same part as you this week.
Have a nice week.
Hi, Azu,I am sorry, It was a misunderstanding about the taxi in Madrid instead of London, so if it was on last weekend I wouldn't take and talk to taxi driver, I will try to talk in London when I'll be there in my next trip.
Hi, Cristina, everyone said to me about the Etruscan exhibition I hope to go next Thusday, I am sure I will like it
Hi! I´m Elena (3º B).
I had to write yesterday but I have just arrive home. I have spend a great weekend in a rural house on the Atazar Village. I recommend us it. You should rest and switch off your problems and your stress there.
I think that If we are bubmurists, we should see the difference between different situations.
For me,saying a "white lie" to a friend about her dress, her hair or her weight is not a problem. I dont mind say it and she might be quite happy.
But,it change when the situation is seriously. I couldn´t lie to a friend about her relationship. I must say her the truth because it can be change her life.
Anyway, in my opinion we can find different kinds of bumburists. All is on our personality.
Well, I agree the truth is dangerous most of the time and can be painful, but sometimes is the best favour you can do it for the other. The problem in that cases is how to tell the truth, you have to be very subtle and careful.
Another important thing is to recognize what is the truth and what is your personal opinion about it.
About Bunbury, an anecdote maybe you all know, Heroes del Silencio singer created his artistic name, Enrique Bunbury, after reading this play.
Has anybody taken a London taxi this weekend? I haven't seen anyone.
Antonio
3ºB
I think the problem is not lying, but be serious, like his own name in town says. He pretends to be the most serious (and responsible and reliable…) in the world, because of Cecily. He wants her to think he is a kind of person he is not. He needs to live his own life and as he is in charge of her, he can’t, so he has to Bumbury.
Hi everybody!This is the second time I´m writing in this blog this year. I wrote in October, and it has taken me a lot of hours to read all the posts!! and several days!!
There are so many issues opened!!
So, another one, I´ve been in the conference this afternoon and it has been very interesting. We´ve been told how important Internet and social spaces have been in this campaign,...and this has reminded me of this blog...(in our English improvement).
(Juliet, in class 3ºB, with Carmen, we´re on page 16).
And about Bunbury...I´ve been reading all your comments, and I´m not sure about its meaning...and I don´t agree with all of you, with this issue we are able to write more than a composition...
For me, there´s a great difference between not telling the truth (and the kinds of truth) and telling lies (white or grey) to avoid things that you should do. I understood that Bunbury is more the second thing and the first thing could be "avoid problems" (like Carmen´s examples), but is it Bunbury as well? Did Bunbury appear to avoid problems, whatever they are?
Hi everybody¡ I was in the lecture by Jose Maria Peredo Pombo, it was very interesting because the speaker was clarify about the President Obama and his new policy. I would like to say which I observed in this lecture, it shows that Mr. Obama won last elections thanks to new tecnologies like the Internet, young people comunicate among their, this changes is very important in our, lifes,if little time ago something doesn't appear on TV this don't exist, now if something doesn't post on Internet don't exist.
On the other hand I would like to say that people put one´s hopes into Mr. Obama and I belive it is very difficult to get everything people wait for him.
I think that Obama will have to Bumbury a lot to keep everybody happy!!
Traducción: inglés » español
I´ve been listening to the lecture from Jose María Peredo Pombo and I´ve enjoyed because he has explained a lot of thing about the speech from Obama for instance that he has achived that people who never have gone to give his vote, this year have gone and there are some thing that it was surprised to me....Protectionism is like a war, or protectionismo would be bad. But if that is waht governments are doing now. Why the done it.
María. Intermediate-2-B
Today I’ve read The Importance of being Earnest again. I’ve read the part where Lady Bracknell is doing Jack an interview to know whether he is or not the perfect candidate to get married to her daughter, Gwendolen.
That’s why Lady Bracknell has just seen Jack proposing to her, and after a few words with her daughter, she decided to see if he could be included in the list of candidates.
The questions are so fun, such as ‘do you smoke?’ and she gets so happy because his answer is ‘yes’. Lady Bracknell thinks that is a good thing, because men need to have anything to do. She believe that there are too many idle men in London (is she comparing smoking to a job?),
Do you know everything or nothing? which he answers ‘nothing’ and the same as before, she is very happy. She doesn’t approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. It’s like a delicate exotic fruit; if you touch it, the bloom is gone.
Do you agree with me that Oscar Wilde was a very ironic person, who wanted to criticize the 19th century society by using a witty, overbearing, arrogant… woman like Lady Bracknell ? She’s concerned about silly things, and I imagine the way she asked this kind of questions
I like to correct some mistakes but I don´t kno how can I get it
Hello!!
I´m the same person who wrote before as belen from 3ºB but I have had some problems with my email address so I have changed my identity.
I think some people prefer the lies or not to know the truth because it hurts, but I believe there are some truths which must be told even if it is painful, otherwise, you are living a lie. The family and friends ought to wake you up to the real life. It´s true, Carmen, that maybe they will get angry at you; that´s because they don´t want to accept it and they see you as the person who has destroied their perfect life, but when they admit it, everything´ll start to get a bit better and they´ll make an effort to change wrong things. From my point of view, live a lie is not a good way to keep living, deny the problems doesn´t make them disappear.
I´m very pleased to see so many of you on line!!! Very good comments and do not worry about mistakes, the more you write the better you will write.
Lying? Let me be very clear as to do this, you cannto life without lying!!!! politicians,lie; mothers, lie; husbands, lie; wives, lie; teachers, lie; friends,lie; etc. what would life be like if we said the truth all the time?
I agree with Carmen. What would life be without lies?????? Sometimes , lies are very necessary to support and to keep on with our "real lives".
I think that everybody knows the film " La vida es bella"; it is a perfect example for our issue.
Guido uses the lie to create a different vision of what his child has in front of him. Some people think that this game is only to camouflage the reality and not to change it and the film is only a praise of the lie but Guido just pretend to help his child to survive.
"It is said that lying is not difficult, what is really difficult is to continue with the lie".So that, life is beatiful but we need to create a little of magic. Lies are necessary to survive, to save lives, to fight....this is a very good film and Guido and his family live a big lie...... But ¡¡¡¡what a lie!!!!
HI! I'm yolanda (3ºB)
what's more important: the beauty or the intelligence?
I think that in really all the womens like to be beautiful, but apart of this a think taht it's more important to be more intelligence than to be pretty.
I think so because if you are a very beautiful person, but you aren't inteligent it's probably that at the first moment you meet too much persons and you obtain every thing that you like, but not in the long, because persons prefer to have like a friend or at work an intelligence person with you can talk , to work good and to pass a good moments and it isn't depends on the beauty!
Yolanda, I thing both beauty and intelligence are very important in our lives, but I’ve learned that beauty is much more important in some occasions than intelligence. For instance in England when you send your CV to a Company you mustn’t attach your photo, they aren’t supposed to hire you according to your appearance, but here in Spain you must to.
So if you aren’t at least a very little beautiful, forget to get your new job, and in this case, how could you prove your intelligence?
Luckily this doesn’t happen very often when you are looking for a job but in relationships it’s more common, if you are ugly you’ll have less possibilities to find a partner, so all women try to make advantage of those things they know are beautiful in your face, body… all of us want to be attractive.
Hi everybody
Last Monday I attended a conference by Mr. José Mª Peredo. The lecturer Mr.Peredo is a very good speaker and helped me to understand Mr. Obama's speech and his political message. Now I've clearer the U.S.A. political operative and Its consecuencies en the world. So I think the lecture was fantastic.
Virginia Intermediate 2º B
Yesterday (a perfect day to stay at home) I watched the film "The Importance of Being Earnest" in English. I tried to understand it completely , it was a bit difficult but with the help of the book ,which we are reading in class, it was easier and finally I got the most of the dialogues.
I recomend you this film because the story is very, very funny and the movie is well done .It is perfect to improve our pronuntiation ( as a listening)because all the actors are English and , as well, because the principal actor is Rupert Everet ( I love him) and I think the role of Algernon is really perfect for him. The actors are all very good at their roles. ¡¡An excellent film!!
I can´t tell you if the movie is well applied , because we haven´t finished the book in class yet, but I think so, that the director has respected the scripts.
Hi Reyes, thank so much for your recommendation about the film, I will try to get it, did you buy it in a special shop? or I can find it in "El Corte Ingles". I will appreciate your answer because I would like to watch the film, I think may be easier to understand now I have read the book than before I didn't read it.
I have just finished the book, “The importance of…”. I think it is funny and satirical comedy, I have enjoyed a lot with this book
By the way, I have just watched the monologue by Laurence Oliver of "To be or not be" I suggest you it is so beautiful.
Hi Reyes, thank so much for your recommendation about the film, I will try to get it, did you buy it in a special shop? or I can find it in "El Corte Ingles". I will appreciate your answer because I would like to watch the film, I think may be easier to understand now I have read the book than before I didn't read it.
I have just finished the book, “The importance of…”. I think it is funny and satirical comedy, I have enjoyed a lot with this book
By the way, I have just watched the monologue by Laurence Oliver of "To be or not be" I suggest you it is so beautiful.
I am sorry my computer has put twice the post
Women, we have to recognize thet there is a little lady Bracknell inside each us...
Women, we have to admit that there is a little lady Bracknell inside each of us...
In my opinion we as women have to admit that being beautiful is a very important matter in our life. It's better then to accept it, so that we don't have to feel that it's the contrary of being intelligent or clever. For me it's a fact I can't deny, so now I'm more interested in knowing how do men see it.
This weekend I have met some male friends in a party and I have done a little request about "What's the most important for a man?". I have told them the first sentence of "Emma" and they agreed. Although, at the beginnig it has been difficult to get an interesting and sincere answer because none of them wanted to say something "politically wrong". To have enough money or to be rich was said by everyone, but this answer is just too general and I wanted to hear more. One of my friends said that all in all it's also very important for them to be handsome and attractive, thus they need to feel admired, desired, loved. After all this seems to be a very common feeling, so I wasn't very convinced by this argument because of it's general value. Unfortunately my lab-rats didn't want to continue cooperating in our investigation, so I don't have any conclusion yet. I tend to think that power and the feeling of controlling things and situations around them is something very important for men...
I hope some of our male classmates have something to say about this topic, I'm really curious about this and I've also promised to my friends to tell them what's the conclussion of our discussion here in the blog!
Ana, 3B
Hi Mercedes......... I downloaded the film by emule, but I saw it in El Corte Inglés and Fnac , as well.
If you like to watch movies based on Oscar Wilde´s books, you can get in English "An Ideal Husband" "The Canterville Ghost" and others..... In most of them the principal actor is Rupert Everet, his an theatre actor and I think his pronuntation is perfect and he speaks very clearly so we can understand the scripts very well.
And if you really like watching movies in original version , you can get " My Fair Lady" , this movie is very appropriated for us , who are learning English and we need to review the fonetic.
I hope you enjoy the films.
Hi all of you,
I’m going to Berlin next Thursday. Does anyone have some tips for my trip? I know several things about Berlin and its monuments, museums, parks,… but it probably has exciting things to do, a famous place to have a drink while seeing a show or spectacle, a well known pub … well, somewhere amusing where I can go with my husband and friends.
Now, I’d like to talk to you about our book. The other day we were reading the part where Lady Bracknell says what she thinks about Bumbury’s health. She thinks he should make up his mind about whether he is going to die or to live, because this shilly-shallying with the question is absurd.
Do you think upper class people in Victorian’s age were like that? It’s so sad to think that it was not important for those people if you feel good or not, if you’re about to die or not… She also says something alike about her husband; she always tells him that health is the primary duty of life.
Wilde treats the issue of someone’s health as if it was anything with no interest for the others, it’s much more important to go to parties than to worry about ill people.
Hi, thanks Reyes. I will try to get the film in any department store, I don't like to download free music or films on the Internet, I would like to see the movie, so I will try to find it.
By the way, I am thinking the subject about being ugly or good-looking. I think the most important thing is the intelligence,so sometime you know a person is not very beautiful but however she/he is very charming and you see this person so nicer than you don't see ugly, so on the other hand you can know a beautiful person but if that person is impossible, she/he looks horrible you.
What´s more important the beauty or the intelligence?.
Well I think that it is a good questions.I think that in real life beauty is able to open a lot of doors the first time you met with a person and you only can see his/her beauty and you can fell attracted by it, but when the time is going to pass.I think that you need to have more things than only beauty... so I believe that everybody need to have a little bit of everything because that way, with the time you can become in one interisting person when you are an adult person and you lose your beauty, at least the beauty that everybody see the firs time.
What´s more important the beauty or the intelligence?.
Well I think that it is a good questions.I think that in real life beauty is able to open a lot of doors the first time you met with a person and you only can see his/her beauty and you can fell attracted by it, but when the time is going to pass.I think that you need to have more things than only beauty... so I believe that everybody need to have a little bit of everything because that way, with the time you can become in one interisting person when you are an adult person and you lose your beauty, at least the beauty that everybody see the firs time.
Clara ,I can recommend to you a lot of wonderful places to go to in Berlin! I have lived there for two years and I LOVE this city!
I suppose you are going to stay there for the long weekend, is it right? So in my opinion and considering that it will probably be really cold you will have little time to enjoy the many possibilities it offers, but knowing the right places to stop to drink a nice coffee (or beer in the evening, of course!!) you will have a very nice time, that's for sure! You have to believe me, that's one of the activities Berliners prefer in winter! I don't have much time after our lessons, because I have to run back to my work, but if you bring a map tomorrow, it will be easier to tell you where are my favourite locations. :)
As you asked for, here I give you just in brief and without any order some names of cafés, bars,clubs and "Kneipen" to visit:
- For eating: Curry 69, Dada Falafel, Barcomi's, Anna Blume, Istoria, Tiergartenquelle, Schwarzwaldstube, the last floor of KaDeWe, etc.
- For a drink: Der Prater, Kastanienallee, Greenwich, Solar, Ballhaus, Grüner und Roter Salons, Hopetosse, Bergmannstrass, etc.
For tomorrow I will also try to think of somewhere to go to see a nice spectacle. In this moment I only remember the kind of circus-structure of the original "Cabaret": I didn't go there, but my aunt and my uncle did when they visited me and they liked it very much! They found it very "German"!
Well, the blog has been an interesting reading experience today!
Beauty or intelligence, what´s more important? Definitely for a woman beauty. No woman is really happy unless she has some of it!!! Whoever contradicts this and is a woman..lies! A woman with no beauty is forever sorrowing and insecure, what has "la Leti" done? She is suposed to be intelligent, self-conficent,made a fantastic match...well, what she has done,as soon as she had the money is go and get herself a new nose, face and boobs!!! Is this true of all women?...yes, only the tolerably pretty will contradict that!! Men are different, they like power and control, I think they prefer to be clever, it is not that they would willingly want to be ugly, but for them beauty is not so important. This is probably less obvious in Northern countries, but in ours and Southern countries in general BEAUTY is a key issue.
the conversation between Lady Bracknel and Jack is wonderful, Juliet is right, htere is a Lady Bracknell in all women, not found it yet, girls? You will! As to society being like that in the 19th century, let me tell you I have little patience with all those people who skip work with the very poor excuse of ill health!! They are always the same ones, don´t you have them in your jobs?
Beauty or intelligence, what´s more important? Both.
I think that we are in a society of nonconformity people.We always want more and more.
I consider that society ask too much of us,specially with women.We have to be pretty,well-dressed,smart and have a good figure. But, itsn't enough, because you also have be intelligence and have a good job and of course be a perfect wife ( a good housewife and lover) and the best mother. Don't you think that is exhausting be perfect everyday?
Elena B.(3ºB)
Ana, you're very kind. Sorry for I haven’t read your comment on time, if I had read it on time I would have taken a map to school the other day, but I'll take your suggestions with me tomorrow, then when I come back here I'd like to talk to you about my trip. It would have been nice to be able to talk to you before, but...
Well, about the book I agree with Carmen, because I think that every woman want to look beautiful, but nowadays there is a movement, or something like that, that in Spain is called 'metrosexuales' whose 'members' are men and they like beauty, so I think they like too much beauty, they are slaves of beauty. I think it's not neither for pleasure or necessity but for madness. Therefore, I don’t think it’s only a thing for women but also for men. And about being powerful, both men and women try to be more powerful each day. We are in the 21st century and women fight against men to get the power, but it’s another subject.
Well, picking here and there of the last comments I find two new topics:
- Carmen asks us for those who are always complaining about their ill health and using it as an excuse, and
- Clara wants somehow to avoid the subject she suggests but also talks very clearly about men and women fighting for power.
Concerning the first one I have to say that it's also very hard for me to stand this kind of persons who are only able to talk about their health problems and put them at the top of their priorities. In my opinion, they often use it not only as an excuse but even as a way of blackmailing people they are supposed to love as their family members. In "The importance..." we have got to know Mr. Bracknel through his wife, and all what she tells us about him leads me to think that he uses this excuse to avoid the huge among of social events which are typical for the Victorian society. Another related aspect is the ideal of the "weak lady", sensible and sickly, which mostly is to be found in the upper-class... Maybe because only one of its members could afford it!
And here we are again taking about the role of women in society -and as an exclusion of it of man's role, too. I'm commenting Clara's subject just very shortly: Of course do women fight against men for power and vice versa nowadays, but that does not mean that women had no power at all in the past. However, it certainly was another type of power or at least in other life's aspects (Back to Mrs. Bracknel with her season of receptions!).
A very good post, Ana. Women, when clever know how to manage men and thus get the better of them. Currently we want to fight in their fields and we are losing the battle..they´ve been ther longer, they know their way and the ways.
I was at a tea party yesterday, all women, different age groups and this question suddenly cropped up. All of them would rather be Beautiful than clever. One of them said "if you are not beautiful you are not seen" what about that? I´ve known several ugly women and they were all insecure and had tremendous complex you could kill them by mentioning the word ugly to them, always scared that they woulb be the example...
About women and beauty...
Women want to be seen, but...by the rest of the women? Or by the man? Because I think that a lot of women dress up for a special events, for example, to be seen and to make jealous their mates-party. I´ve been asking to man-friends and they really don´t realize what women are dressed, or how beautiful they are...(when I´m speaking about "beautiful medium"). If you ask a man for a women they have just met, they will describe her with a general idea, but if you do the same question to a woman, they will tell you details (and often not good details) that a man would not ever realize it...So, who do you think "la Leti" has done it for?
That one definitely for herself, and her self-confidence. She is so ambitious that she can only think of herself projected towards herself.
What about the question raised in class? why are arranged marriages more successful? You can post your thoughts in the blog.
Well I believe that woman are not brave to say no to what their parents have chosen for themselves and they are not able to do anything by themselves in the event that their marriages gous wrong, they never would say.For this reason seem to be successful. But in real life that kind of marriages is very difficult to go well, they are always waiting for something good happen in their life.
hi! I'm yolanda (3ºB)
About the marriages...I don't know too much about it, but I think that when the marriages it's for love, it's possible that it can't be lasting, because if you don't have a real reason to continue with a person and if you aren't happy with he or she, and always you argue about the least little thing, you used to leave this person because you can't support the situation...
But if you have some interesting in the person or his possessions, you don't have this problems, because you think of the marriage as a work and you sopport anything for the money or anything that the other person provide you...because of this you try to continue the relationship like you try to continue in a work that you need if you don't like your boss
Marriage is like a contract or a bussiness...... if the contract is well-done, well written and the clauses are clear , there is no problem because both parts are agree with it and know prefectly how to keep the commitment and how to support the obligations. But if the marriage is only for love , probably it will not last very much.....because love and passion are not permanent feelings, they change with the years and depending on the situations and the different moments of our live, they are more or less intensive..
Why our parents´marriages continue over years? Because man and woman know what they are looking for. Man looks for a sweet wife , a mother for his children, a partner ..... and woman looks for security, a person who takes care of her, a nice house, children......... In our parents edge , most of women didn´t study and work ... so that kind of agreement was perfect for them, it was the way to get everything they wished.
That´s why that marriages are lasting to nowadays.
I agree with you Reyes about the idea that you have mencioned "because love and passion are not permanent feelings", yes I think you are right,circumstances can change, but I would like to say that for me the difference between an agreement marriage and an marriage for loving is "freedom", I will explain this.
From my point of view, in societies where the marriage are an agreement the woman must support all her life to her husband and husband's family, she won't manage to escape at her agreement because she has not her own life, she needs husband's money and she must look after her children . India, for example, if a woman has been rejected or divorced she is dead in life, so she needs have a husband. But, in our society the woman is free to get a job, to manage money so she can decide either to continue with her husband or not and she makes decision about her life and she can look after her children without a husband, because she has money. This is for me the difference.
A marriage is much more than a romance. It is an agreement where two people share their lives. Usually couples think that the romance is going to last for ever. When the romance finishes both realize that they modified their habits so much and they miss things they used to do.
Convenience marriages (no forced ones) are larger because the new life is a continuation of the live they had.
Parents know you, your habits, your manias and your manners. When they select your partner, they consider all factors and select a person that is going to match you, so this sort of marriages have a high probability to success.
My recommendation is: if you are planning to get married, make sure that your partner is like you, live in the same way that you do, is not richer than you, and ... your parents approve her/his.
Manolo 3ºB
Reyes and mcm will make a successful marriage should they wish it to be so,you seem to know or unnderstand what is all about. Marriage is a question of suitability both economically, socially and attitudinally;love is about feeling and passion, is that eternal or lasting? NO. Now you know go out there and make a good job of it, avoid hurting or being hurt. GOOD LUCK.
"A man should have an ocupation of some kind" Why, men? is it because you still need to go hunting?
I see that most of the views on marriage posted in this blog are rather materialistic, you are not very romantic, indeed.What´s all this about love and passion not being lasting? Of course,passion become less intense as time goes by, it´s only natural, but love can grow over the years, even between husband and wife!!.Some people see marriage as business, but it´s not that many,if you think of the people around you I´m sure you´ll find more examples of marriage for love than for convenience.
In my opinion, this subject is not black or white; there is a mixture of feelings and needs. If you just think about money, possessions, and things like that, you will not be completely happy, and if you only look for love, it will be the same. All of us know some couples that got married without having enough money or with a bad job, they always have economic problems, and at the end, they will look forward to getting the divorce as soon as possible.
But you know, when you fall in love you don’t think properly about the things that are convenient for you... On the other hand, when the person who is getting married is your daughter, things change. You want the best for her and you have to be careful how to teach her to choose correctly. We all are like Mrs Bracknell but we have a big problem, nowadays our children don’t pay attention to what we would like they do. In Victorian times things were very different, children used to do what their parents wanted they did.
What’s going on? Is there nobody who wants to write today? I’ll do it.
Today in our class, we’ve been reading and talking about what Mrs Bracknell asks Jack before she downs him in her notebook.
Losing one parent is sad but losing both, it is carelessness; as if he was guilty about it. She seems not to have feelings.
Could anybody tell me why Wilde uses “To lose” one parent, instead of “losing”?
On the other hand, it’s so funny what Mrs Bracknell says “now to minor matters” and she begins to answer about parents, and uses those kinds of explanations about it.
An infinitive subject, "To lose one parent is very sad...",could be used at the beginning of a sentence in older English,
today it is more common to begin the sentence with"it"(preparatory subject) and the infinitive later:
"It´s very sad to lose one parent...
The -ing form can be used instead of an infinitive as the subject of a sentence:-.."losing a parent is very sad",particularly when it refers to a general activity:
"travelling by train is safer than travelling by car".
If it refers to a particular action the infinitive is more usual:"it´s safer to travel with my car"
Cristina, all marriages are love marriages, come on, but the thing is to fall in love with the adequate person..some people will say the right person, but we all know that they are synonyms and the real meaning of that!
Clara, I think that in Victorian times, as now, lots of children did what they liked against their parents´ will, quite like now. we seem to be repeating the same things and making the same mistakes, there have been some scientifical advances and some new laws, but ...pretty much the same errors
Thanks Cristina, you've been so useful for me.
I saw the play in YOUTUBE. If you put the title in English you can see it in English, It's the same as the book. It has 11 parts. I couldn't see the fifth one because it isn't available, I don't know why. But, you can see the rest of the play. I did the same with ‘An Ideal Husband’ but I couldn’t find it as a play but a film, I enjoyed it a lot. It has eight parts and all of them are available.
I understood many dialogues but I have to recognize that I couldn’t understand a 100%; I’d need to watch the play and film several times more. I’ll do it along the term; it’s a good idea. I recommend you to do the same as me; I think it’s a good way of learning. I’m sure, you’ll learn so much.
Clara, thanks for this useful information. I've downloaded all pieces of the movie starring Wedgy Hiller and I've joined them into one CD. If you are interested I can give you a copy.
Also, the film 'An Ideal Husband' made in 1969 is available from youtube. I'm downloading it as well. I hope I'll have the CD ready soon.
Manolo 3-B
Manolo, I'd like to have a copy, it's more comfortable to watch the play from a CD than from Youtube. Thanks.
Manolo, I'd like to have a copy, it's more comfortable to watch the play from a CD than from Youtube. Thanks.
Jack and Algernon seem to be friends but... While Jack is talking about Gwendolen, Algernon is laughing immoderately, and when Jack asks him what is he so amused at, he answers he’s anxious about poor Bunbury. Algernon has cheated him, he has overheard his country house address and he’s planning going there, even knowing he’s not invited. More exactly, Jack told him overtly he didn’t want Algernon to meet his ward, he was said just the opposite, something like: you don’t need to know where my country house is... In spite of that, he goes there and uses the story of his made up brother Ernest to meet Cecily.
One question about what we were talking about in our last class with Carmen; Jack is telling Algernon (Algy for short) that there are some things a man can’t say to a nice, sweet, refined girl, and criticizes his way to behave to a woman. Algy answers: there’s just a way to behave to a woman, to make love to her (it’s not used like nowadays. At first, I was a bit shocked when I read this and I thought it was a strong sentence for those days), if she’s pretty, and to someone else, if she’s plain.
I wonder if a woman is not pretty enough, or she isn’t from upper class, a man has the right of telling her the things in a wrong way or doing her bad things.
Should we have a plastic surgery to prevent this situation?
I’m sure every mother thinks her children have some good capacities but they know so well if they are clever or not. However, they always say their children are very clever. So it’s real what Jack tells in the play. He’s fed up with these people. In the play, Algy and Jack talk about this issue as if they were the only clever people in the world, and which is worse, nobody has the right to be like them. Jack says he wishes to goodness there were a few fools left and Algy answers they have some.
How isn’t going to have any fools left? Jack wonders what the fools talk about, and the obvious answer is about clever people.
I think that parent want to their children egually to all, however is the child who think that their parent prefer the other. Maybe the father or the mother will feel identified with any of your children more than another but only that, no more. Some time parent feel that one child need more help than another and that could done think that they prefer to another.
I agre with Clara parent always say their children are very clever. But we also can see the bad things that our children have although we never recognize it with anyone.
I´m María Intermediate-2 B.
I´ve just to write and I don´t know why this is not my name.
I´m going to do again.I´m sorry.
EVERYBODY IS CLEVER NOWADAYS.
Apart from being a very utilized word in every language the intelligence is the expression of an incomprehensible concept.
Our dog is intelligent.Our children are very clever as they get good results in their studies, but if they don`t it is because they didn`t do any work,they are very lazy or they are always thinking in other things instead of studying.
My friends are clever as well until I get ungry with them and then they are stupid.
So, the intelligence is instinct, memory, the hability to learn and understand things and something what we are talking about, we enjoy boasting and we use so that we can show that we are different from the rest.
Asking myself if the intelligence won`t be a quality that take us to get rid of all prejucides,fears and social conventionalities which deny our happiness.
Won`t be really clever anyone who under any circumstance knows to deal with life although doesn`t know to make an ugly Sudoku?
I use myself of the opportunity to wish you a happy Christmas.
EVERYBODY IS CLEVER NOWADAYS.
Apart from being a very utilized word in every language the intelligence is the expression of an incomprehensible concept.
Our dog is intelligent.Our children are very clever as they get good results in their studies, but if they don`t it is because they didn`t do any work,they are very lazy or they are always thinking in other things instead of studying.
My friends are clever as well until I get ungry with them and then they are stupid.
So, the intelligence is instinct, memory, the hability to learn and understand things and something what we are talking about, we enjoy boasting and we use so that we can show that we are different from the rest.
Asking myself if the intelligence won`t be a quality that take us to get rid of all prejucides,fears and social conventionalities which deny our happiness.
Won`t be really clever anyone who under any circumstance knows to deal with life although doesn`t know to make an ugly Sudoku?
I use myself of the opportunity to wish you a happy Christmas.
First thing today, I’d like to wish you all Merry Christmas and a less important thing good luck!!!!!!!! Tomorrow is the great day for everybody, if we don’t win a prize in the lottery it doesn’t matter, we’ll say we have the best thing we need: HEALHT. So since many years ago people call this day ‘Health’s Day’.
I agree with them, for me the most important thing in the world is being healthy. When you are healthy, you do not think about it at all. It’s a simple thing that ‘is like that ‘but when you are ill or anyone in your family is sick... things change.
Now that I’m talking about this issue, I’m starting to remember how Mrs Brecknell thinks about this, she always tells her husband how he has to react and behave about his bad health. But I agree with her, it’s horrible to live with a person who always feels bad but who has no illness whatsoever.
One of my friends’ grand-mother told her every day who will you comb tomorrow? and she died a few years ago, when my friend had been married for more than ten years.
I’ve been reading ‘An ideal husband’ and it has an interesting plot. The whole play takes place within about 24 hours. It’s set in Victorian Times, and is about a single thing an attempted bribery, as it’s about a prominent politician who is in danger of losing his reputation as an upright person, owing to a youthful indiscretion that a woman is threatening to expose. An Ideal Husband is often called a ‘‘social comedy’’ because it has both a serious (‘‘social’’) as well comedic plot line.
I wish everyone has a great time this Christmas Eve, and the same for tomorrow, Christmas Day, and I hope you don’t get so tired this days, I tell you this, because I’m having a rest as I’ve been helping my mother all morning long. That’s the only bad thing these days, we have to cook, set the tables,... but it doesn’t matter, after we doing all these things we’ll have a great time.
I don’t know whether you celebrate Santa Claus, I hope you’ll get many presents tonight (just in case).
Dear thirds B,
A very happy Xmas Eve and Xmas day!!!
With all my love and best wishes
Clara I´m very happy to have read your posts they are very well written , though you have some mistakes and I think you are communicating quite fluently in English!! `People who are always complaining and never satisfied with what they have are HORRIBLE and STUPID by the time they begin to feel ill-health really they are too old to get their lives back!!! They find they have lost it, suffering...no! Complaining!We should run away from this!!!
An ideal husband is very good and quite serious, more so than the importance: What wrong we do always comes back to us or we find ourselves discovered, which can be horrible to those trying to hide...
I´ve just read An Ideal Husband and I´ve found it very interesting and I like how Lord Goring have discovered that Mrs. Cheveley has also a secret, she stolen a bracelet a long time ago. Then Lord Goring could help to Sir Robert Chiltern now.
I have just finished to read "An Ideal husband", I liked it, it is enjoyed and trilling, the plot caught me right from the beginning to the end, it is about different subjects: blackmail scheme,the sense of morality in a married couple, friendship and Mrs Cheveley's hate to Lady Chiltern, so enough ingredients to spend a good time.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, AND YOU GET A LOT OF GIFTS FROM THE THREE WISE MEN.
Although these days all of us are so busy, I suppose there will be anyone who enter the blog to read and write something about An Ideal Husband, as Mercedes and María have done a few days ago. I say this because I need some ideas as I’ve been thinking about how to write about it but I find it very difficult. I’m sure my difficulty begins when I try to cut the play short. Using just 200 words is almost impossible in Spanish, so in English...
Carmen, you’ve encouraged me a lot in your last post, thanks, I’ll continue working to improve my English as much as possible.
Tonight is New Year’s Eve, so I’ll take advantage that I’m here to wish you a Happy New Year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO MY THIRDS IN PARTICULAR AND THE REST OF YOU, TOO!!!
Hello everyone, I want to wish you a happy new year.
Yesterday (last year) I finished reading 'An ideal husband'. It impressed me greatly. The plot has made me maintain the attention on the the book all the time without getting tired. I was unable to leave the reading even for having a look at the dictionary. I admire Wilde's ability to teach us, in the course of the story, with wise sentences. But who represents Oscar Wilde in this play?. Absolutely, I think he is Lord Goring.
Manolo 3ºB
Hello my dear fellows!!!!
I hope you had had good Xmas days with the family and you had rested during the holidays.
My holidays have been tiring: studying, helping my mother to cook first and clean after, buying gifts during the day and going out with friends at nigth...
But now, those wonderfull days have gone and I have to come back to the reality...and it´s hard to get up early again.
I agree with you, Manolo, Oscar Wilde is always the wisest character of the play.
So, welcome to the normal life and see you all tomorrow in class.
Belén.
I see in these two books:The importance... and An Ideal Husband a little bit misogynist. I can explain it in part:The Importance the women are little silly, they are fell in love because the man is called: Ernest.
However in the An Ideal Husband , men are honest, friendly,clever etc, woman are fighting between them and they hate each other since school.
When Lord Caversham says to Lord Goring: "No woman, plain or pretty, has any common sense at all, sir. Common sense is the privilege of our sex".Here a sexism comment.
What do you think about this?
Happy New Year!
Itake advance of this space to send all of you my best wishes for this new year. I hope that 2009 bring you happiness and succes to your purposes.
Covadonga (NI-2F)
Mercedes I agree with you, but my points of view are a bit different.
I’m not a specialist in Oscar Wilde, but this year I’ve been working on his plays a lot, like all of you, and I’ve learned that he didn’t like upper class Victorian women, he thought about them as if they were unimportant people, men and women were very different, and in those days things were very difficult for women, they couldn’t do anything without men's consent, even decide what thing to buy, when they should go shopping or go out,... they couldn’t go anywhere by themselves, and things like that, so even if a man likes women, he wouldn’t talk about them in the same way men talk about them nowadays.
We renew our classes tomorrow. Cheer up! We’re going to learn a lot.
Hi gyus,
Acording to our comments about sexist mind I would like to reflex with you the opinions of Lady Bracknell and Algernon on pages 19 and 24.
I totally disagree with Lady Bracknell. Fourtunatelly nowadays in Europe a couple has freedom to choose about their way of life, if they want to live together, been married or not.I think that these questions can only be answered by the own members of the couple . It's true that friends and relatives can advise them.
However, I weknow that this is not always respected.
The opinion of Algernon on page 24
I think that both, men and women are influenced by the people who are they living with, especially the first years of life.
Mam and dad are usually the closet people during this periode so they give much influence to their child. This means thatin the future, both, son and daughter wii become like their mother and father. Perhaps, the sex 's differences will produce then , that daughter become more similar to her mother and son similar to his father.
I think Akgernon has a sexist mind, if he think taht all women become like their mothers but not men.
Do you agree with me?
Covadonga (NI-2F)
I agree with Clara and Covadonga with regard to Oscar Wilde's plays show us a satire of Victorian Society, but Wilde might put the same level women and men, however women behave as silly and banal persons, they don't have a erudite talks. Men can be idle and dandies and have clever thoughts than they say and express with freedom.
Of course Victorian time is very different nowadays, and women were a secundary state in the society, but I would like to insist about of inferior treatment the woman in the Oscar Wilde's plays
I don’t know what’s happening on Jane Eyre’s blog, it has stopped on 6th November. Have you moved to another place? I was following your posts. I read the abridged version two years ago and I enjoyed it a lot, (I take advantage to recommend my classmates to read it also). Although when I read it, my English level was very low, I understood the whole novel. Now I’ve improved a lot my English, but not enough to read the original version, next year... It might be.
Yesterday night I went to the theatre to see “Un dios salvaje”. It’s a comedy, about two couples who are in the house of one of them to solve a problem in which their boys are involved. One of them had hit the other one with a stick and he had broken him two teeth. The plot is not very good, but you can laugh at the situation. It’s a common situation because nowadays parents try and solve children problems. When I was a child, people of my age didn’t explain their parents things that happened in the street. We used to cope our problems by ourselves.
Very good comment, Covadonga,I can´t understand why the rest of your classmates don´t participate in the blog and express their opinions, they are missing this great opportunity to practise their English.
As for Lady Bracknell´s words about getting engaged,it´s difficult to agree with her, she pictures young girls as stupid beings, unable to choose their partners, whereas it´s boys that generally need help to take the right decision, they are easier to manipulate.
You´re right about Algernon, he has sexist ideas, he´s always treating women as objects, particularly on page 24..."the only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she´s pretty, and to someone else if she is plain" He thinks that women don´t have any appeal other than beauty,I admit that physical appearance is important, and is the first thing you see in a person, but isn´t it the same with men?
Clara,you have to click on "the most recent comment" at the very top of the page if you want to read the posts sent after November 6th.
Thanks Cristina, I was lost, I'll do it.
Speaking about the books we need to read at home, in class is very interesting. I hadn’t realized several things about the play An Ideal Husband. So when I got home I had to reread these parts of the book. One of them was about the letter, I was completely wrong.
Lady Chiltern tried to drive her husband to renounce his career in politics. But Lord Goring told her not to do this. Then she’s forced to explain what had happened the day before and what she wanted to get with the letter she sent to Lord Goring.
She realized that she's not an always upright Lady. Due to that, she thinks she should forgive her husband.
I´ve read several times An Ideal Husband and I thought that I have undertood the whole story but when I read the commentary to another person have written I can see that the things that for me are very important for another person is not important and it made me think that is a good idea give your opinion in this blog because it is the way the learned to each other.
PLEASE, GO TO THE FILM CLUB!
Thank you.
Hi!! I am Lara from 3ºB and it is my first post here. Last few months my line of internet at home dind´t work very well at all so I could´t writte here before..sorry!
I have been reading all the interesting things you had post in the blog..and really, I have spend long time reading but it have been interesting, now I know how to comment how is it going.
Last day, the first class after Christmas, I couldn´t go to class beacuse of my illnes. Could someone tell me something you did in class?
See you next day..Lara!
Hi!!!!
On thursday, as Clara and others students, I went to Alcazar Theatre. In my opinion, the play was great. Everything sets just in one room, that´s why the stage was so simple, and the four-actor performances were wonderful; the play was said to be an hilarious one.
Last friday I watched "The Importance.." black-&-white film. It was a pitty it was in spanish but I keep looking for it in english because, and I don´t know why, that youtube´s file doesn´t work. The film wasn´t as fun as the book, so it would be better if you just watch the Wilde´s original version.
Thanks a lot for your advice, Clara, I´ll read Jane Eyre´s novel. Nowadays, I have to split my time between Pride and Prejudice and "Medida por Medida", the latter I started two days ago. Jane Austin´s books are always on my things-to-do list, but I´m afraid I´m not going to read any of them until summer holidays (except "Pride..", of course).
Regards to all of you and see you in class.
Belén.
Hi Lara the other day we correct listen 2.16 and 2.17 in pag. 32,. In the book Importance of Being Earnest we read pag. 28 and 29.We need to write a story about "It was only a small mistake, but it changed my life" This is a composition how we use to do every 15 days. It is in the pag 33 from our book..
I hope that you will be better next class.
I realize Cristina has the same opinion I have noted in my previous post about sexist ideas and inferiority of woman in the Victorian Society.
On the other hand I would like to mention,in the end of Act II, the Sir Robert Chiltern´s speech to Lady Chiltern. Lady Chiltern is saying -"I think that I made of a man like you my ideal¡ ¡the ideal of my life¡", and the answer of Mr Chilter (for me) is the best speech of the book, he says, e.g.: -"A man's love is like that.It is winder, larger, more human than a woman's. Women think that they are making ideal of men. What they are making of us are false idols merely".....
I tell you this dialogue is good from start to finish, excellent.
I see here as women is too demanding,inflexibles with regard men. "Men are more human than women" ¡ole¡ .
What do you think about this
It's amazing this comment which was told by Miss Prism "Cecily! surely such a utilitarian occupation as the watering of flowers is rather Moulton's duty than your? Especially at a moment when intellectual pleasures await for you." She knows perfectly well that Cecily doesn't like studying German at all. Nowadays people who work very hard the whole week, and is so stressed, like watering their plants and look after their gardens at weekend. things have changed a lot. And on the other hand if we recommend our children to exchange that kind of action for studying something, I think they would laugh at us and as Cecily they would prefer not to study.
It's amazing this comment which was told by Miss Prism "Cecily! surely such a utilitarian occupation as the watering of flowers is rather Moulton's duty than your? Especially at a moment when intellectual pleasures await for you." She knows perfectly well that Cecily doesn't like studying German at all. Nowadays people who work very hard the whole week, and is so stressed, like watering their plants and look after their gardens at weekend. things have changed a lot. And on the other hand if we recommend our children to exchange that kind of action for studying something, I think they would laugh at us and as Cecily they would prefer not to study.
(I am Lara, 3ºB) María, thanks a lot! Your information is very useful for me.. now I am ok so tomorrow we will met at class..the only point I need to check is the date of the composition..is it for the 22 of January?
see you tomorrow classmates!
Miss Prism isn't in favour of the modern mania for turning bad people into good ones in a second. It seems to be an impossible task if they are weak and vacillating.
But I think that our government must always try to do it with all kind of criminals we have in jails, in different institutions, in the streets,...
When a person is a difficult one, it's usually due to either a wrong education, a lack of it, a lack of money, food, or home, ...
It's so unfair to have grown up in a very low class family, with a lot of problems, that our society should repair this situation,
Hi Lara, I am very happy to know that my information have done useful for you and yes the composition is for next 22 of January.
I´ll see you in our class next day,
Could anyone tell me what do the following sentences mean? And I’d also like to know if there are sentences in Spanish that have the same meaning.
One of them is ‘I would hang upon her lips’ and the other one is ‘my metaphor was drawn from bees’.
I shouldn’t be asking these things because we’ve been talking about it in class today, but I was a bit lost.
It’s very funny to read the part in which Miss Prism tells Cecily she can read her Political Economic in Miss Prism absence, but she may omit the chapter on the Fall of the Rupee, that in her opinion, it’s a sensationalist article and have a melodramatic side. In those days, it was so typical for women not to worry about economical subjects. On the other hand, Cecily doesn’t like studying any subject, which is why I think Miss Prism is not very clever when she says this, she should know Cecily wouldn’t read anything of these matters and less if Miss Prism is not with her.
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