Chinese New Year

Dragon dances, acrobats, fireworks, a parade ... London is buzzing with excitement at Chinese New Year. Find out what you can do to join in the excitement!

Preparation

The event

For London’s Chinese community (and everyone else who loves a party!), Chinese New Year is a huge event. Before Chinese New Year, people make sure their houses are clean and tidy, buy new clothes and have their hair cut, to bring good luck for the new year. London has the biggest celebrations outside of Asia. Hundreds of thousands of people go to watch the parade from the West End to Trafalgar Square, which includes Chinese acrobats, and traditional lion and dragon dances. 

Online safety UK

How do you make sure you stay safe online? Everyone who uses the internet needs to know how to use it safely. Read about online safety in the UK.

96% of young people in the UK regularly use the internet to communicate according to a survey of 24,000 British people aged 9-11. A report shows that only 40% of young people know that personal information shared online stays online forever. There are about 250 million tweets generated every day and around 800 million Facebook users - that means a lot of information is shared online. So are young people using the internet safely?

Private or public

Do you know how to change your privacy settings on social media? For example, you can click on the ‘flower’ icon or on ‘settings’ on Facebook to get to your privacy settings. Then you can decide who sees your posts and personal information: friends, friends of friends or everyone. Do you want everyone in the world to be able to see your email address or just friends?

What is space tourism?

Space tourism is the term used to describe space travel for recreational or leisure purposes. What was once only a dream - described in books such as Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey - is now becoming a reality.

Futurologists are scientists who attempt to develop predictions of what life will be like in the future. After the first man landed on the moon in 1969, they thought that hotels would be built on the moon by the year 2000. Futurologists also considered the possibility that, in the 21st century, families might go for a holiday on the moon. Neither of these predictions have come true yet - but the rapid development of technology may mean these predictions are a possibility in the years to come.

A postcard from Scotland

Read about Jenny's holiday in Scotland and do the exercises to practise and improve your writing skills.

Preparation

Pancake Day

Mmm ... did someone say pancakes?! Read about Pancake Day and learn how to make this delicious treat for yourself.

Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday is a special day celebrated in many countries around the world. It is celebrated in English-speaking countries like the UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada. In some countries, like France and the USA, it is called 'Mardi Gras' or 'Fat Tuesday'. In other countries, like Spain, Italy or Brazil, Shrove Tuesday is at the end of Carnival. On this day many people eat pancakes, a thin, flat cake made in a pan.

Pancake Day is always on a Tuesday in February or March. It is the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days before Easter when people often give up or stop eating things that are bad for them like chocolate or fast food. At the end of Lent is Easter. Easter takes place on a different date each year because it depends on the moon. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. Traditionally, during Lent, people didn’t eat rich foods like butter and eggs, so they made pancakes from these ingredients on Shrove Tuesday.

Mind maps

Mind maps help you remember because they are very visual.

• You can use mind maps for groups of words that are connected.
• Write the main word in a circle, e.g. fruit.
• Draw lines out of the circle and write words at the end of the lines, e.g. apple, banana, strawberry, cherry, pear, pineapple, etc

My Funny Valentine

It's panic time! If you have as bad a memory as I do they you will be shocked to learn that this Saturday is Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is the day dedicated to the person that we love. We buy them presents and a card to tell them that we love them. It is when we go for walks along the beach, eat a romantic dinner at a restaurant and a lot of people propose (a bit cheesy!). Valentine´s Day is also where we are brave and tell that person that we fancy the truth. If we have a crush on someone then Valentine´s Day is the perfect chance to tell that person how we feel and whether they feel the same. We have nothing to lose.

Of course, for people like me who are a bit forgetful the 13th February is a day of stress. We try to find any possible romantic card from a shop that might relate to our significant other or try to find a restaurant that isn't fully booked.

Adjectives ending in -ed and -ing

-ed and –ing adjectives

Adjectives that end ‘-ed’ (e.g. ‘bored’, ‘interested’) and adjectives that end ‘-ing’ (e.g. ‘boring’, ‘interesting’) are often confused.

-ed adjectives

Adjectives that end ‘-ed’ describe emotions – they tell us how people feel about something.

• I was very bored in the maths lesson. I almost fell asleep.
• He was surprised to see Helen. She’d told him she was going to Australia.
• Feeling tired and depressed, he went to bed.

-ing adjectives

Adjectives that end ‘-ing’ describe the thing that causes the emotion – a boring lesson makes you feel bored.

• Have you seen that film? It’s absolutely terrifying.
• I could listen to him for hours. He’s one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.
• I can’t eat this! It’s disgusting! What is it?

Remember that people can be boring but only if they make other people feel bored.

• He talks about the weather for hours. He’s so boring.
• NOT I was very boring at the party so I went home.

Here are some more adjectives that can have both an ‘-ed’ and an ‘-ing’ form

• amused
• amusing
• annoyed
• annoying
• confused
• confusing
• disappointed
• disappointing
• excited
• exciting
• exhausted
• exhausting
• frightened
• frightening
• satisfied
• satisfying
• shocked
• shocking

Adjectives: -ed and -ing

A lot of adjectives are made from verbs by adding -ing or -ed:

-ing adjectives:

The commonest -ing adjectives are:

amusing	shocking	surprising	frightening
interesting	disappointing	exciting	tiring
worrying	boring	terrifying	annoying

If you call something interesting you mean it interests you.

If you call something frightening you mean it frightens you.

• I read a very interesting article in the newspaper today.
• That Dracula film was absolutely terrifying.

-ed adjectives:

The commonest –ed adjectives are:

annoyed	bored	frightened	worried
tired	closed	excited	delighted
disappointed

If something annoys you, you can say you feel annoyed. If something interests you, you can say you are interested.

• The children had nothing to do. They were bored.

Solarbox

Do people use public phones in your country or do most people have their own mobile phone? In London there are lots of phone boxes that aren't used very often and in this video you'll see an interesting new use for them.

Preparation