Weekly news lesson 399: 31st July 2014: Students prefer pain to sitting and thinking

Thu, 31 Jul 2014

A report from psychologists at Virginia and Harvard Universities tackles the question of why most of us find it so hard to sit and do nothing.

Infinitives of purpose

A domino team game that practises infinitives of purpose: to, in order to, so as to and negatives so as not to and in order not to.

Live from London: Art

This month, the onestopenglish reporters went to Trafalgar Square to find out what tourists and visitors of the National Gallery had to say about art.

Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad: Part 1

In Part 1 of this horror story, Professor Parkins discusses with colleagues his plans to spend a few days in Burnstow. In this lesson, the students will: make predictions about the main character; listen for specific information about the main character’s holiday plans; listen in detail to a short extract and look at sentence stress; listen to a longer extract to answer comprehension questions and role-play a phone call between the main character and a hotel receptionist.  

USA-themed resources

Put your cowboy hats on and give us a yeehaw because we’re sharing our best resources with you on North American history, culture and current affairs! Take your pick from a large selection of audio resources, readers and lesson plans which span topics from Columbus to Obama.

Weekly news lesson 362: 31st October 2013: Takahito Iguchi: the visionary who sees beyond Google Glass

A Japanese entrepreneur, Takahito Iguchi, is taking on tech giant Google with Telepathy One, a device that will focus on real-time visual and audio sharing. In an interview, Iguchi shares his dream of bringing people together.

Your English: Word grammar: clear

There’s no need to steer clear of this helpful word as Tim Bowen makes everything clear.

Beyond: Arts and Media: Graffiti

In this lesson, students read about famous walls and graffiti, create their own graffiti artwork, describe a bedroom wall and learn wall idioms.

Fun with grammar: Evidence: Past modals

Students work together to decide who they think commited a burglary and how they think the burgler did it using evidence cards and practising past modals.