Celebrating Autumn

Music: Duffy

The 23-year-old Welsh singer Aimee Anne Duffy, known professionally as Duffy, is the latest British soul star, following Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone. Her debut album, Rockferry, was released in March and the single Mercy went straight to number one on download sales. Her new single, Warwick Avenue, is released next Monday (26th May).

Warwick Avenue
When I get to Warwick Avenue
Meet me by the entrance of the tube
We can talk things over a little time
Promise me you won't stand by the light
When I get to Warwick Avenue
Please drop the past and be true
Don't think we're okay just because I'm here
You hurt me bad but I won't shed a tear
I'm leaving you for the last time, baby
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I've been confused out of my mind lately
You think you're loving but I want to be free
Baby, you've hurt me
When I get to Warwick Avenue
We'll spend an hour but no more than two
Our only chance to speak once more
I showed you the answers, now here's the door
When I get to Warwick Avenue
I'll tell you baby that we're through
I'm leaving you for the last time, baby
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I've been confused out of my mind lately
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I want to be free
Baby, you've hurt me
All the days spent together
I wish for better
But I didn't want the train to come
Now it's departed
I'm broken hearted
Seems like we never started
All those days spent together
When I wished for better
And I didn't want the train to come
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I want to be free
Baby, you've hurt me
You don't love me
I want to be free
Baby, you've hurt me

Mercy
Yeah Yeah Yeah (x4)
I love you
But I gotta stay true
My morals got me on my knees
I'm begging please stop playing games
I don't know what this is
'Cause you got me good
Just like you knew you would
I don't know what you do
But you do it well
I'm under your spell
You got me begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me
You got me begging you for mercy
why won't you release me
I said release me
Now you think that I
Will be something on the side
But you got to understand
That I need a man
Who can take my hand yes I do
I don't know what this is
But you got me good
Just like you knew you would
I don't know what you do
But you do it well
I'm under your spell
You got me begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me
You got me begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me
I said you'd better release yeah yeah
I'm begging you for mercy
Yes why won't you release me
I'm begging you for mercy
You got me begging
You got me begging
You got me begging
Mercy, why won't you release me
I'm begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me yeah yeah
You got me begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
Why won't you release me yeah yeah
Break it down
Begging you for mercy
You got me begging
Begging you for mercy
You got me begging

Greatest Film Scenes: "Casablanca"

The classic and much-loved Casablanca, a 1942 Warner Brothers film directed by Michael Curtiz, won three Academy Awards - including Best Picture - and it is considered one of the best films ever made. With a wartime romantic story focused on lost love, honour and self-sacrifice, a superb musical score and unforgettable characters, the film has some of the most memorable lines of dialogue and scenes of all time.

Rick: Louis, have your man go with Mr Laszlo and take care of his luggage.
Renault: Certainly, Rick. Anything you say ... Find Mr Laszlo's luggage and put it on the plane.
Orderly: Yes, sir. This way, please.
Rick: If you don't mind, you fill in the names. That will make it even more official.
Renault: You think of everything, don't you?
Rick: And the names are Mr and Mrs Victor Laszlo.
Ilsa: But, why my name, Richard?
Rick: Because you're getting on that plane.
Ilsa: I don't understand. What about you?
Rick: I'm staying here with him 'til the plane gets safely away.
Ilsa: No, Richard. No. What has happened to you? Last night we said ...
Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I've done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you're getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.
Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I... I...
Rick: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louis?
Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.
Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.
Rick: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
Ilsa: But what about us?
Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we'd lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now... Here's looking at you kid.

Renault: It might be a good idea for you to disappear from Casablanca for a while. There's a Free French garrison over at Brazzaville. I could be induced to arrange a passage.
Rick: My letter of transit? I could use a trip. But it doesn't make any difference about our bet. You still owe me ten thousand francs.
Renault: And that ten thousand francs should pay our expenses.
Rick: Our expenses?... Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


One of the lines most closely associated with the film—"Play it again, Sam"—is, however, a misquotation.

Ilsa: Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake.
Sam: I don't know what you mean, Miss Ilsa.
Ilsa: Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'
Sam: Why, I can't remember it, Miss Ilsa. I'm a little rusty on it.
Ilsa: I'll hum it for you ... Sing it, Sam.

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As Time Goes By
And when two lovers woo
They still say 'I love you'
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As Time Goes By

Rick: Sam, I thought I told you never to play...

Students' Corner: In fifty years' time...

In fifty years' time there will be many improvements when it comes to transportation. Flying cars will not be trendy by then and they will have to "step aside" to make room for transportation machines which will be coming out to market. Scientists won't have been able to add a heuristic analyzing method into robots, instead they will be converting people into robots by adding electronic modules and microchips into their heads. In fact, people will be controlled by computers that will be part of them. This internal system will be really capable. It will control everything that happens inside us including the beating of our heart. It will include a GPS (Global Positioning System) for an easier tracking of our movements. At first, it will be employed to track delinquents, and if the case is severe enough, "penetrate" their minds, control them, punish them and, finally, kill them. It will seem to be an efficient way of security but, as always, hackers will be very interested in these tempting new possibilities. These people won't content themselves any longer with stealing from our bank accounts, they will have our lives to play with. By that time, I will be retired. I will have been working as a commercial pilot for over thirty-four years. I will be one of the last real flying pilots. After I retire, technology will replace the need for pilots in flight companies but I will have had enough of flying for a lifetime.

Tero (1º Bachillerato)

Music: Tracy Chapman "Baby Can I hold you tonight"

Sorry
Is all that you can't say
Years gone by and still
Words don't come easily
Like sorry like sorry
Forgive me
Is all that you can't say
Years gone by and still
Words don't come easily
Like forgive me forgive me
But you can say baby
Baby can I hold you tonight
Maybe if I told you the right words
At the right time you'd be mine
I love you
Is all that you can't say
Years gone by and still
Words don't come easily
Like I love you I love you

Human Rights: Amnesty International - Get Involved

These great Amnesty International's advertising campaigns have won several awards, including a Gold Lion (for "Signature") and a Silver Lion (for "Bullet") at 2007 Cannes International Advertising Festival.

More AI's advertising campaigns here and here.

Some information about Amnesty International's actions since they started campaigning for human rights in 1961:

John Hurt makes an appeal for action:

Transcript: For nearly half a century now I have made my living as an actor. In this role, I have participated in the telling of many stories. They were set in many different cultures and involved people from all races, religions and political beliefs. But today, I want to tell you some different stories; stories that contain some bleak and unacceptable statistics -- facts that affect us all in the world we live in. One in three women are beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused throughout the world. Look around you. One in three women.... Every year, eight million small arms and 16 billion units of ammunition are produced, more than two new bullets for every human on the planet, enough to kill us all twice over. 20,000 people worldwide are on Death Row. Beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, shooting and stoning are still government-sanctioned forms of execution. And we claim to be civilised. Torture is commonplace. Refugees suffer unnecessarily. Companies sacrifice human health and even life for profit. But this isn't a movie script. These stories are real. This is the world in which we live and these are the lives of our fellow human beings. But we don't have to accept it. Amnesty International is a movement of ordinary people from across the world. We stand up for humanity and human rights wherever truth, justice and freedom is denied. Human rights are ours by birth. They cannot be given or taken away by any individual, organisation or court. They are inalienable. They belong to all of us. Protect the Human is our call to action. It shows we celebrate our shared humanity and have the determination to protect it. This is our story and we're all players. By the year 2010, we want one million people in the UK to stand up for humanity and human rights. Be one of them.

A New Hero: Grammarman!

More video adventures and comics to learn English here.

Animation: More Typography

Students' Corner: Are you influenced by advertising?

Of course I am. I believe nobody can escape from it. It does not matter how hard you try to avoid advertising: it's everywhere. You could live alone in a cave and you could probably see sometimes advertising aeroplanes crossing the sky. The world we have made is an empire of purchasing and selling, and money is the engine that makes it all move, so it has become the most important thing.

I don't usually watch TV, mainly because I don't like commercials at all: I hate the idea of somebody trying to influence me to make me think that I need things that aren't really necessary in my life. But, anyway, I see lots of banners on the Internet, and there are many advertisements anywhere you look in the street: shops, posters ... Even when you are wearing designer labels, you are publicizing them.

If you don't see advertisements, you don't think you need their products. But once you've seen something and somebody has told you how useful and cool it is, automatically you want to have it. On the other hand, I believe luxurious things attract us someway. I don't know exactly why: maybe when we see that something is expensive, we believe we will be more important if we can buy it. But we don't become important if we get it, we are only more stupid and insecure, because we're trying to give a good image of ourselves to everyone basing it on how much money we have. But that does not define us as a person.

Paloma Prados Ruiz (1º Bach.)

Culture: Book Day

To celebrate Book Day, here are some of the most famous love poems in British Literature, from Classic Poetry Aloud:

Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.





Sonnet 30, by Edmund Spenser (1552 – 1599)

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentile mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.





How Do I Love Thee?, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.