The runner up must get a special medal!

You're a winner, Valéria!!

Love from all the contributors to The CPE Madureira Blog!

All Hail the big time Champion!

Congratulations, Maitê!

All the best!

From all the CPE Madureira contributors!

I'll never leave you guys! :p (OPEN CLOZE)

Global EnglishGlobal English exists (0) ... a political and cultural reality. Many misguided theories attempt to explain why the English language should have succeeded internationally, whilst (1) ... have not. It is because there is (2) ... inherently logical or beautiful about the structure of English? Does its simple grammar (3) ... it easy to learn? Such ideas are misconceived. Latin was once a major international language, desoite having a complicated grammatical structure, and English also presents learners (4) ... all manner of real difficulties, (5) ... least its spelling system. Ease (6) ... learning, therefore, has little to (7) ... with it. (8) ... all, children learn to speak their mother tongue in approximately the same period of time, (9) ... of their language.English has spread not so (10) ... for linguistic reasons, but rather because it has often found (1) ... in the right place, at the right time. (12) ... the 1960s, two major developments have contributed to strengthening this global status. Firstly, in a number of countries, English is now used in addition to national or regional languages. As (13) ... as this, an electronic revolution has taken (14) ... . It is estimated that (15) ... the region of 80% of worldwide electronic communication is now in English.

Gapped sentences for more medals!

He is a tremendous musician who many say is ahead of his .........

The player was cautioned by the referee for delaying the game by playing for ........

I'm living with my parents for the ........ being while my ownplace is being decorated

Has anyone seen this lady around?

If you happen to know the whereabouts of the lady in the above picture,

please contact the contributors to this blog in order to end their agony... sniff... sniff

Happy Birthday, Levi!!!!!

Mock Speaking Paper (Adult Center)

When : December the 5th

Where : Adult Center (124 Av. Rio Branco, 2nd floor)

What time: From 4:30 PM to 6 PM

Please, post a comment here stating whether you will be able to make it or not so that Angela and I can sort things out for the mock exam.

Keep on blogging!

Snack list for next Friday (10/10)

Hi guys,
I was wondering, why don't we organize a snack for this Friday?

I could make a cake...What do you think about it?

hilariously red-necked

The Guardian (Interesting issue...)

Ecosystem destruction costing hundreds of billions a year

guardian.co.uk, 2008

The decine of vast areas of mangroves is an environmental problem that must be urgently addressed, experts say. Photograph: Theo Allofs/Corbis
The steeply accelerating decline of the natural world is already costing hundreds of billions of pounds a year, say leading economists, in a review of the costs and benefits of forests, rivers and marine life. The losses will increase dramatically over the next generation unless urgent remedial action is taken, they say.
An interim report presented to world leaders meeting in Bonn yesterday warns of the "severe consequences" to all economies if forests continue to be felled, seas overfished and if land is turned to intensive farming. The report says that the world has lost 40% of its forests in 300 years, and half its wetlands in just 50 years. More than one third of mangroves have disappeared in just 20 years and there is increasing soil loss, as well as severe erosion, and growing water scarcity. Details on how to estimate the costs associated with this environmental degradation will come in the final report, due by 2010.
The new Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity review argues that biodiversity loss is already leading to wars and political destabilisation and international tension. Furthermore, the livelihoods of billions of the world's poorest people who depend directly on nature to earn their living are being undermined.
"We are consuming the world's biodiverse ecosystem at an unsustainable rate and this is starting to have serious socio-economic impacts", say the authors, led by Deutsche Bank economist Pavan Sukhdev. "We must ultimately answer to nature for the simple reason that it has limits and rules of its own. There are no economies without environments but there are environments without economies."
The review is modelled on the UK government's Stern review of climate change which in 2006 warned that the global economy would effectively collapse if countries did not address greenhouse gases, and that countries could not afford not to act.

“With biodiversity loss we are not only considering long term horizons as we are with climate change," the authors write. "Ecosystem degradation is already extensive and observable and its effects are dramatic. Significant losses are happening right now."
The economists warn that on current trends, 11% of the world's untouched forests and 60% of its coral reefs could be lost by 2030. About 60% of the Earth's ecosystem, examined by the researchers, has been degraded in the past 50 years. Population growth, changing land use and global climate change will lead to further declines.
The review references previous economic studies suggesting biodiversity loss could cost the world 7% of its economic wealth by 2050, a figure that would be measured in trillions of dollars a year. "This is a conservative estimate because it is partial, and does not account for loss of marine services", say the authors.
They call on governments to rethink subsidies to reflect tomorrow's priorities, and to urgently find a better way to value ecosystem damage. "The fundamental requirement is to develop an economic yardstick that is more effective than GDP for assessing the performance of an economy. Countries, companies and individuals need to understand the real costs of using the Earth's natural capital", they say.

LATEST RESOURCES FROM SPLENDID SPEAKING

If you're preparing for the CPE Speaking Paper you'll know you're required to make a 'long-turn' or short presentation during your interview. It's a good idea with a task like this to structure your thoughts with a clear beginning, middle and end, making the organisation of the talk transparent with signposting words and expressions. This week we listen to Eun-Kyung from South Korea who was asked to talk for about two minutes on the subject of a place in her country she would recommend to tourists. You can listen to the recording from the link below where you'll also find the transcripts and this week's 'Get Speaking' task sheet giving you the chance to carry out a similar activity.

http://splendid-speaking.com/blog/?p=27


Keep on blogging!

Who's (not) afraid of the rain?

Except for one person in this picture, everyone else was absent for our last meeting. Can you guess who was not afraid of the bad weather?

Tips for Paper 2, as promised

DOs and DON'Ts

Before you start writing:
Read each question very carefully.
Remember that Part 1 is compulsory.
Choose Part 2 questions on the basis of what interests you the most but also bear in mind the task type.
Decide exactly what information you are being asked to give.
Identify the target reader, your role as writer and your purpose in writing.
Check which task type you are being asked to write.
Organise your ideas and make a plan before you write.

Don't attempt a set text question if you have not read the book or seen a film adaptation of the book.
Don't attempt a question if you feel unsure about the format.

When you write:
Use a pen.
Write your answers in the booklet provided.
Write in an appropriate style.
Remember in Part 1 to use all the content points and to add your own ideas.
Make sure in Part 2 that you deal with all parts of the question.
Calculate how many words on average you write on a line and multiply this average by the number of lines to estimate how much you have written - don't waste time counting words individually.
Follow the plan and keep in mind your purpose for writing.
Use as wide a range of structure and vocabulary as you can but think carefully about when to use idioms.
Use paragraphs and indent when you start a new paragraph.
Check the use of punctuation such as capital letters, apostrophes and commas.
Cross out errors with a single line through the word.

Don't include irrelevant material.
Don't write out a rough version and then try to write a good copy - you will not have time

After you have finished writing

Check for spelling and punctuation errors.
Check structures: subject – verb agreement, tenses, word order, singular and plural nouns.
Make sure that your handwriting can be read by the examiner.

U guys put up a helluva competition!!

And you've got two more, Pat!

Congrats!

We love USE OF ENGLISH!

One medal for the whole answer key! :P

Good luck, you guys!

The stars shine brighter and brighter!

My goodness! I am running out of medals!

Just kidding!

Keep up the outstanding work girls!

Speaking Mock Test

When?

We've had a change of plans... check the comments please.

May I contribute?

Which one word fits all three sentences?

1. If he has criticisms to make of me I wish he would tell me to my ........ rather than talking behind my back.

2. It was a very serious situation yet I found it really difficult to keep a straight ........

3. On the ........ of it, the course appears to be just what you've been looking for.

In the news: "Patrícia joins , Valéria leads!"

Congratulations, girls!

YOU ROCK BIG TIME!!!

Gapped Text

One medal for the whole answer key :)

SPORTSWRITING

Offices and bars are full of casual obscenity, but most British newspapers are ... well, not necessarily careful about language, but careful about bad words anyway. The phrase 'family newspaper' is an ineluctable part of our lives. Newspapers are not in the business of giving gratuitous offence. It is a limitation of newspaper writing, and one everybody in the business, whether writing or reading, understands and accepts. There are many other necessary limitations, and most of these concern time and space.

Newspapers have dominated sportswriting in Britain for years, and have produced their own totem figures and doyens. But ten years ago, a new player entered the game. This was the phenomenon of men's magazines; monthly magazines for men that had actual words in them - words for actually reading. GQ was the pioneer and, in my totally unbiased opinion as the long-term author of the magazine's sports column, it leads the way still, leaving the rest panting distantly in its wake.

Sport, is of course, a blindingly obvious subject for a men's magazine - but it could not be tacked in a blindingly obvious way. Certainly, one of the first things GQ was able to offer was a new way of writing about sport, but this was not so much a cunning plan as a necessity. The magazine was doomed, as it were, to offer a whole new range of freedoms to its sportwriters. Heady and rather alarming freedoms. Freedom of vocabulary was simply the most obvious one and, inevitably, it appealed to the schoolboy within us. But space and time were the others, and these possibilities meant that the craft of sportswriting had to be reinvented.

Unlike newspapers, a magazine can offer a decent length of time to research and to write. These are, you would think, luxuries - especially to those of us who are often required to read an 800-word match report over the telephone the instant the final whistle has gone. Such a discipline is nerve-racking, but as long as you can get it done at all, you have done a good job. No one expects a masterpiece under such circumstances. In some ways the ferocious restrictions make the job easier. But a long magazine deadline gives you the disconcerting and agoraphobic freedom to research, to write, to think.

To write a piece for a newspaper, at about a quarter of the massive GQ length, you require a single thought. The best method is to find a really good idea, and then to pursue it remorselessly to the end, where ideally you make a nice joke and bale out stylishly. If it is an interview piece, you look for a few good quotes, and if you get them, that's your piece written for you. For a longer piece, you must seek the non-obvious. This is a good quality in the best of newspaper writing, but an absolute essential for any writer who hopes to complete the terrifying amount of words that GQ requires. If you write for GQ you are condemned to try and join the best. There is no other way.

GQ is not restricted by the same conventions of reader expectation as a newspaper. You need not worry about offending people or alienating them; the whole ethos of the magazine is that readers are there to be challenged. There will be readers who would find some of its pieces offensive or even impossible in a newspaper, or even in a different magazine. But the same readers will read the piece in GQ and find it enthralling.

That is because the magazine is always slightly uncomfortable to be with. It is not like a cosy member of the family, nor even like a friend. It is the strong, self-opinionated person that you can never quite make up your mind whether you like or not. You admire him, but you are slightly uneasy with him. The people around him might not altogether approve of everything he says; some might not care for him at all. But they feel compelled to listen. The self-confidence is too compelling. And just when you think he is beginning to become rather a bore, he surprises you with his genuine intelligence. He makes a broad joke, and then suddenly he is demanding you follow him in the turning of an intellectual somersault.


1 What does the writer say about newspapers in the first paragraph?
a) They tend not to include articles readers will find very challenging.
b) Articles in the do not reflect the way people really speak.
c) They are more concerned with profit than with quality of writing.
d) They fail to realise what kind of writing would appeal to readers.

2 What does the writer imply in the second paragraph?
a) GQ magazine contains articles that are well worth reading.
b) Some of the more recent men's magazines are unlikely to survive.
c) The standard of sportswriting in newspapers has improved in recent times.
d) He is in a position to give an objective view of sportswriting in magazines.

3 Why were sportswriters for GQ given new freedoms?
a) The restrictions of newspaper writing do not aply to writing for GQ.
b) The magazines initial plans for its sports articles proved unrealistic.
c) Notions about wha made good sports journalism were changing.
d) The writers that it wanted to employ demanded greater freedom.

4 What does the writer say about the amount of time allowed for producing articles?
a) The best articles are often produced under great pressure of time.
b) Having a long time to produce an article encourages laziness.
c) Writers are seldom satisfied by articles produced in a hurry.
d) Having very little time to produce an aticle can be an advantage.

5 Why can't writers for GQ use the same methods as writers for newspapers?
a) Articles in GQ are not allowed to consist mainly of interviews.
b) Thay want to be considered better than writers for newspapers.
c) Writers for newspapers do not have so much space to fill.
d) They've been told to avoid the conventions of newspaper writing.

6 What does the writer say in the penultimate paragraph about certain pieces in GQ?
a) They will create enormous controvery.
b) They unintentionally upset some readers.
c) They are a response to demand from readers.
d) They match readers expectations.

7 The writer likens GQ magazine to a person who
a) says things you wish you had said yourself.
b) frequently changes his point of view.
c) forces you to pay attention to him.
d) wants to be considered entertaining.