Humor4u

Photo by KRIS AUS67 on Flickr  [CC BY 2.0] Although I haven't been a very active blogger this year - but check my posts on the CUP blog  -  the traditional end-of-year news quiz is here as always! Focusing on key news stories from 2018 I tried to keep a balance between politics, showbiz and sports. And as usual, it's packed with lots of lexical chunks and other vocabulary items for your students to explore. The quiz is available in two levels: - Intermediate (B1+/B2-) including a multiple choice version - Advanced (B2/C1 or higher) Both versions can be downloaded in Word format if you want to adapt them. The Intermediate level quiz has been rigorously checked using English Vocabulary Profile  and VocabProfiler on LexTutor. The former helped ascertain that the quiz includes vocabulary appropriate for the B1-B2 levels (on the CEFR scale) and the latter that the majority of the words (96%) are in the top 3000 most frequent words in English (K1-K3). There are only 11 words (tokens

TENTANG RINDU By : VIRZHA [Verse 1] F G pagi telah pergi Em Am G mentari tak bersinar lagi F G entah sampai kapan Em Am ku mengingat tentang dirimu [Chorus] C Em ku hanya diam Am A Dm menggenggam menahan segala kerinduan G C Em memanggil namamu di setiap malam Am A F G ingin engkau datang dan hadir di mimpiku C rindu [Verse 2] F G dan waktu kan menjawab Em Am pertemuan ku dan dirimu F G hingga sampai kini Em Am G aku masih ada disini [Chorus] C Em ku hanya diam Am A Dm menggenggam menahan segala kerinduan G C Em memanggil namamu di setiap malam Am A F G ingin engkau datang dan hadir di mimpiku C rindu [Bridge] F G C Em A dan bayangmu a

DENGAN CARAKU By : Arsy Widianto feat Brisia Jodie [Intro] C G/B Bb A Ab Bb G [Verse] C G F Em A Tak mengerti apa yang telah terjadi Dm G C Kau tak lagi sama, engkau bukan engkau C G F Em A Yang selalu mencari dan menelponku A Dm G Dering darimu tak ada lagi [Chorus] C G/B Walau kau menghapus menghempas diriku Am Mengganti cintaku Dm Em Semua tak mampu hilangkan cinta Dm G Yang tlah kau beri C C7 Walau kau berubah, aku kan bertahan F Em Di sepanjang waktuku Dm G C Biarkan aku mencintaimu dengan caraku [Verse] A C#m D C#m Tak mengerti, mengapa engkau membisu F# Bm E A Kau tak lagi sama, engkau bukan engkau A C#m D C#m Sampai aku ragu untuk menelponmu F# Bm E Mengerti kah kamu aku rind

MENUNGGU KAMU By : ANJI [Intro] C G Am G F C G [Verse] C G Am G Ku selalu mencoba F Em Dm Untuk menguatkan hati Em C F G Dari kamu yang belum juga kembali [Verse] C G Am G Ada satu keyakinan F Em Dm Yang membuatkku bertahan Em C F G Penantian ini kan terbayar pasti [Chorus] C E7 Lihat aku sayang Am A Dm Yang sudah berjuang menunggumu A Dm G Datang menjemputmu pulang C E7 Ingat slalu sayang Am A Hatiku Kau genggam Dm Em Aku tak kan pergi F G C Menunggu kamu disini [Intro] C G Am G F G [Verse] C G Am G Jika bukan kepadamu F Em Dm Aku tidak tau lagi Em C F G Pada siapa rindu ini kan kuberi Em C F G Pada siapa rindu ini kan kuberi [Chorus] C E7 Lihat aku sayang Am A Dm Yang sudah berjuang menungg

INDONESIA BERPESTA By : ANJI intro : C Dm sudah tiba waktunya G yang dinanti nanti kita Dm Indonesia kan berpesta Dm Palembang dan Jakarta G membawa jejak negara Dm harum di mata dunia chorus C G aku yakin kita mampu Am G membawa nama bangsaku F C ke tempat yang lebih tinggi Dm G dengan berjuta prestasi C G teruslah bersatu padu Am G menyambut hari yang baru F C indahkan nama bangsamu Dm G seindah untaian lagu int : F-Em-Dm-C G Dm ini pesta olahraga G bukanya hura hura Dm G apalagi huru hara (hara) Dm kita harus bertekad G dalam satu semangat Dm G jadi tuan rumah hebat chorus C G aku yakin kita mampu Am G membawa nama bangsaku F C ke tempat yang lebih tinggi Dm G dengan berjuta prestasi C G teruslah bersatu padu Am

Karna Su Sayang By : Near feat Dian Sorowea [Intro] C G Am Em F C Dm G [Verse] C Biasa sa cinta G satu sa pinta Am Em jang terlalu mengekang rasa F C karna kalau sa su bilang Dm G sa trakan berpindah karna su sayang C jangan kau berulah G sa-trakan mendua Am Em cukup jaga hati biar tambah cinta F C karna kalau sa su bilang Dm G sa trakan berpindah karna su sayang [Instrumental] C G Am Em F C Dm G x2 [Verse] C Biasa sa cinta G satu sa pinta Am Em jang terlalu mengekang rasa F C karna kalau sa su bilang Dm G sa trakan berpindah karna su sayang C jangan kau berulah G sa-trakan mendua Am Em cukup jaga hati biar tambah cinta F C karna kalau sa su b

'The sun rises in the east' - a commonly used example of the Present Simple Photo by @CliveSir via  ELTpics  on Flickr In a recent discussion in one of the Facebook groups (this is what seems to prompt my occasional posts these days), the Present Simple was referred to as 'one of the  hardest tenses for students to get'. This made me wonder whether the Present Simple, contrary to what its name suggests, is indeed not so simple, or it is just another one of those teacher-induced neuroses. Let's see why there's so much ado about the most common, unmarked English tense. Form and Function Structurally, the Present Simple is indeed simple : Subject + Verb. Granted, there is that annoying little 3rd person singular -s ending that complicates the matters, but research has convincingly shown that it's acquired invariably late - both in L1 and L2 speakers (see Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2001 for meta-analysis). As far as the function is concerned, things are less

Photo by Hana Ticha via eltpics on Flickr A friend of mine has mastered English - which is attested by a CPE certificate - by looking up a word and carefully studying examples in a dictionary every day before going to bed. It was before the days of online dictionaries, so he was using a copy of the excellent Longman Dictionary for Advanced Learners . In the 1990s learners' dictionaries, such as Longman or Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), started breaking away from the native speaker dictionary format (such as dictionary.com ) by introducing two innovations. First, they started providing definitions using a controlled vocabulary - in the case of Longman it was the Longman Defining Vocabulary (LDV), a carefully graded list of the 2000 most frequent words in English, similar to West's General Service List (GSL). Second, they shifted the emphasis from purely defining meanings to highlighting usage through carefully chosen examples. As dictionary publishers moved

Dairy Queen and Rita’s Italian Ice are welcoming spring with a taste of  summer  by giving out free ice cream cones on this first official day of spring. Participating Dairy Queen and DQ Grill & Chill stores nationwide are giving out free small vanilla soft-serve cones with the signature  curl on top while supplies last. The limit is one free cone per person, and mall locations are not participating. Rita’s will be giving away free Italian ice on Tuesday from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. While Dairy Queen is not charging for the cones, it is soliciting donations for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.  Dairy Queen said it raised $300,000 for the charity on the same day last year. Dairy Queen said that donations will stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. This is ice cream company’s fourth annual “Free Cone Day.” Dairy Queen has 6,800 locations worldwide. Click here  to find a Dairy Queen location near

Forecasting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has become an American tradition, a fun activity for fans of all ages as winter fades and three weeks of March Madness begins. It’s easy to drift off course, however, so here are seven mistakes to avoid when filling out your bracket. 1. Following your heart, instead of your head Of course you want your school to win the national championship. The NCAA tournament is a popular and entertaining event because every team starts off six wins removed from clipping the nets. Don’t let loyalty cloud your judgment, though, and foolishly project your squad into the Final Four or, even worse, pencil them in as the national champion. Be honest in your assessment of their chances to survive-and-advance. Nobody knows your team better than you do, you’ve watched them through the good and bad all season. Try to make a sober and rational decision when deciding how long they’ll enjoy the Madness.   2. Picking a No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 No. 1s

Activities for reviewing the language from News Quiz 2017 Collage made with photos by www.kremlin.ru [CC BY 4.0],  Beyoncé ( @beyonce )  on Instagram [fair use], Alex Fau on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/qKyoQ2 [CC BY 2.0] I hope you enjoyed the traditional end-of-year news quiz I posted  last week .  As promised, here's a follow up: lots of activities aimed at reviewing and practising vocabulary (and a bit of grammar) from the quiz. If you haven't seen the news quiz, click  HERE . You can preview the activities below or download them in Word format and edit/adapt them as you wish. This year, the key (answers) and teachers' notes are provided at the end of each level - not as a separate file. For a suggested sequence of activities, see last year's News Quiz Follow Up - click HERE Update : Vocabulary from the quiz on Quizlet:  https://quizlet.com/leosel/folders/news-quiz-2017/ Downloads Advanced level (with answer key) click  HERE  to download Word doc or preview below: Inte