London restaurants - EOI Aragón inglés B2 resuelto

A. Anchor & Hope

Great things at friendly prices come from the open kitchen at this packed, no-reservations, leading gastropub on the Cut in Waterloo: pot-roast duck and chicken pithivier (puff pastry pie) are two standouts. It's cramped, informal, and highly original, and there are great dishes for groups, like slow-roasted leg of lamb. Expect to share a table, too.

B. Boxwood Café

Attached to the Berkeley and in the Gordon Ramsay stable, the Boxwood is the best uptown but relaxed place to dine in Knightsbridge, with opulent marble, brown, and greens. The New Yorkstyle restaurant is open late (until midnight Thursday-Saturday) and set lunch is useful at £28. Favorite dishes range from Orkney scallops to yellowfin tuna, and veal burger to treacle tart. Service is top-notch, and you'll find a fashionable buzz.

C. Great Queen Street

Expect crowds and a buzz at Covent Garden's leading gastropub that showcases classic British dishes in a burgundy and bare oak-floor-and-table setting. Old-fashioned dishes like pressed tongue, mackerel and gooseberry, and mussels and chips may be revived from a bygone era, but Londoners adore them. Dishes for the whole table—like venison pie or seven-hour shoulder of lamb—are highly convivial. There's little for nonmeat eaters, and no dinner Sunday.

D. Skylon

Located in the Royal Festival Hall, Skylon is the Southbank Centre's destination restaurant/bar/grill. Spacious, attractive, and with huge picture windows with spectacular views of the Thames, Skylon guarantees a classy pre- or post-performance meal in the '50s Festival Hall.

Against a background of dancing and music, concertgoers sip lush cocktails at the central bar and dine on lamb and harissa at the grill, or Anjou pigeon, spelt risotto, and sea bass with bok choy in the restaurant. The food is accomplished, and the setting impressive.

E. Yauatcha

It's a superbly lighted slinky Soho classic. Well designed by Christian Liaigre—with black granite floors, aquarium, candles, and a starry ceiling—the food is a match for the seductive setting.

There's wicked dim sum (try prawns or scallops), crispy duck rolls, silver cod, fancy cocktails, and tea and colorful cakes in the first-floor tearoom. Note the quick table turns, and ask to dine in the more romantic basement at night.

F. Cecconi's

Enjoy all-day buzz at this Italian brasserie opposite the Royal Academy on Burlington Gardens.

Between Savile Row and New Bond Street, clients pitch up for breakfast, brunch, and Italian tapas (cichetti) at the bar, and return for something more substantial later on. Ilse Crawford's green-andbrown interior is a stylish background for classics like veal Milanese, Venetian calves' liver, and tiramisu. Note: it's a nice pit stop during a shopping spree.

G. Scott's

Scott's is so hot that it's where the A-list go to celebrate. Founded in 1851, and recently renovated and reborn as a glamorous seafood haven and oyster bar, it draws beautiful people who pick at Cumbrae oysters, Red Sea prawns, and Stargazy pie. Standouts like cod with chorizo and padron peppers are to die for. Prices are high, but you're dining at the hippest joint in town.

H. Tayyabs

City finance boys, Asians, and medics from the Royal London Hospital swamp this high-turnover halal Pakistani curry canteen in Whitechapel. Expect queues after dark, and bear in mind it's BYOB, jam-packed, noisy, and mildly chaotic. Nonetheless, prices are dirt cheap and you can gorge on minced meat shami kebabs, skewed beef seekh kebabs, karahi chicken, or marinated lamb chops.

A talent for spying - EOI Islas Baleares inglés C2 resuelto

The publication of the history of MI6 reveals the British gift for espionage. The concept of an authorised history of a secret agency, which did not officially exist until 1992, is slippery, to say the least. The publication of Professor Keith Jeffery’s MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909 – 1949, is notable for the very fact of its existence as well as the secrets that it reveals. It also invites a much broader question. Why is British identity so bound up with espionage and subterfuge? Have the British made unusually good spies, and if so, do they continue to do so in today’s very different diplomatic environment?
MI6 began with a mistake. ―We went to the office and remained there all day but saw no one, nor was there anything to do‖. That was the verdict of Mansfield Cumming in 1909 after his first day at work as head of the foreign section of the new Secret Service Bureau, the agency that later became the Secret Intelligence Service (or MI6). For once there was simple explanation: Cumming had accidentally started work a week early.
That inauspicious start quickly gave way to serious victories. La Dame Blanche, the most successful intelligence network of the First World War, orchestrated 880 men and women working behind enemy lines. During the operation to penetrate occupied France and Germany in the Second World War, an agent’s average life expectancy was three weeks. An incalculable debt is owed to the bravery of those men and women.
But even armed with the evidence of this book, taking measure of MI6 is unusually difficult. First, although MI6 has opened up in recent years (it now has a more conventional recruitment process than the donnish tap on the shoulder) it remains much more secretive than its sister agency MI5. Second, Mr Jeffrey’s evidence covers only 1909- 1949 – perhaps because it stops just short of the most embarrassing era in MI6’s history. In 1951, a Cambridge spy ring was exposed, in which double agents such as Kim Philby had betrayed British state secrets in the service of the Soviet Union.
That MI6 was once so dominated by Oxbridge and the public schools exposes both the genius and the fault line in British intelligence. The British class and education system, by honing the ability to hide real feelings beneath charm and polish, made for natural spies. Charm, in Evelyn Waugh’s phrase, ―is the English disease‖. But the ability to say one thing while feeling another has practical benefits. ―For the British it could be said that the inclination to deceive is already available as a natural asset,‖ concluded one American intelligence chief. Indeed, the United States did not even have a secret service until 1942.
In recent decades, MI6 has been accused of being slow to adapt. The absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq undeniably tarnished its reputation. And MI6 was influenced by America’s overreliance on high-tech intercepts, rather than face-to-face human intelligence. But 9/11 showed that high-tech systems can only augment traditional intelligence, never replace it.
MI6 has continued to punch above its weight. Oleg Gordievsky’s defection was a Cold War triumph. And Libya’s decision to abandon its nuclear programme in 2003 owed much to MI6’s relationships, its agents’ ability to persuade. When it comes to human intelligence, it remains the case that nobody does it better. 

Adapted from The Times, August 2010.

A magician with numbers - EOI Aragón inglés B1 resuelto

Daniel Tammet has an extraordinary gift for mathematics. 

He can also speak 10 languages as well as his own invented language, "Mänti". 

Daniel’s mathematical abilities are so extraordinary that it took a long time for them to be recognised. He struggled at school. He got a B at Maths GCSE. He wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome until three years ago, at 25. Sooner would have been better "both for me and my parents".

 “As a child I didn't speak very much. I used to put my fingers in my ears to feel the silence. It was hard for me to find my voice because I was, for so long, absorbed in my own world," says Daniel "I had to teach myself to look in somebody's eyes," he explains. "Before that, I used to look at their mouth, because it was the part of their face that was moving."

Daniel's condition brings him great riches: his visualisation of numbers means he can perform extraordinary mathematical achievements. Daniel's world is a rich and strange one, where every number up to 10,000 has colour, texture and emotional resonance. More remarkable still, he has described it all in Born on a Blue Day, his memoir of his life with a rare form of Asperger's; consciousness-raising is part of his motivation for writing his book. "My condition is invisible otherwise."

Scientists at California's Center for Brain Studies were amazed when, two years ago, they discovered his facility for discerning prime numbers. They had assumed he must have been trained to do it. But to him, it is more like an instinctive process.

"The scientists and researchers come to me so I can help them design the parameters of their experiments," he says. It is important to Daniel that he uses his gifts responsibly, perhaps for science, perhaps for teaching: he is already devising a new system of visualisation to help with language learning and dyslexia.

Daniel was lonely. Forming relationships was difficult. "I was desperate for a friend and I used to lie in bed at night thinking about what it would be like. My younger brothers and sisters had friends and I used to watch them playing to try to work out what they did and how friendship worked. Then, I would have traded everything for normality”.

Falling in love with Neil has changed everything. They have been together for six years. Now his emotional life is more like everyone else's. "Neil is very patient with me, and the routines I need to have to help with my anxieties," says Daniel. "I don't know what I'd do without him."

Generally, Daniel feels he is progressing all the time towards "outgrowing" his autism." He is getting steadily better at social interaction. "Every experience I have I add to my mental library and hopefully life should then get easier." I've learned that being different isn't necessarily a bad thing." In this, he seems to sum up the progress we all hope for.

Working for the Royal Household - EOI Aragón inglés B1 resuelto

The Royal Household provides unique career opportunities for those who wish to take a new direction. 

REWARD AND BENEFITS

There is a wide range of benefits and facilities available to permanent and fixed-term contract employees of the Royal Household. These include the following:

•    Eligibility to join the Royal Household Stakeholder pension scheme and receive a 15% employer contribution to a portable pension, death in service cover (four times salary), and ill health cover after six months' service

•    25 days' annual leave rising to 30 days after 10 years' service (pro rata for part-time or fixed-term contracts)

•    Excellent staff dining facilities at Buckingham Palace. Staff at all sites are provided with a free lunch each working day

•    Supportive sick pay and family-friendly policies

•    For those who are eligible, subsidised accommodation and housing, for which an abatement is charged

•    20% discount in all Royal Collection Shops and 10% discount in Windsor Farm Shop

•    Complimentary tickets to the occupied Royal residences and galleries

•    Employee Assistance Programme (independent information and counselling service) open to all employees and their immediate family 

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

The Royal Household aims to ensure that all employees have the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to contribute to their maximum potential. Many training and development opportunities are available to staff, including:

•    Full induction training for all new employees

•    Structured on-the-job programmes

•    Technical training

•    IT training

•    Personal skills and management training

•    Financial support and study leave for relevant professional qualifications.

All employees receive a structured performance development review at least once a year, when there is an opportunity to discuss performance and training and development needs with managers.

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

The Royal Household aims to employ the best people from the widest available pool of talent. It also strives to ensure that all employees are able to contribute to their maximum potential, irrespective of gender, race, ethnic or national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation or age. The Royal Household does and will:

•    Take steps to attract employment applications from talented individuals in all sections of the community;

•    Review periodically selection criteria and processes to ensure individuals are recruited and promoted on the basis of their merits and abilities relevant to the job;

•    Provide a working environment in which no employee experiences discrimination, harassment or intimidation.

The decline in home cooking - EOI Extremadura inglés B2 resuelto

Image: Daragh Mc Sweeney

Once they were upheld as the paragons of feminine genius in the kitchen, but all that remains now of Les Mères de Lyon —the famous 20th-century French mother cooks— are their names. Mère Brazier may be written above the door of the restaurant at No. 12, Rue Royale in France's second major city, but there's a male chef in Eugenie Brazier's former kitchen. Mère Lea's stove at La Voûte (Chez Léa) is today tended by chef Philippe Rabatel and the restaurants of those equally renown priestesses, Mère Paulette Castaing and Marie Bourgeois, were long ago taken over by male chefs, who work very differently to their female forebears.

These bistros, or porte-pots as they were known, originated as places where the Lyon white-collar work force could stop and eat perfectly cooked, comforting, motherly food made from seasonal, often inexpensive ingredients.

Les Mères often worked with only one assistant, and their short menus and practical techniques are in marked contrast to the technique heavy "haute cuisine" prepared by brigades of male chefs today.

The decline in French home cooking—specifically the nurturing, bourgeois home cooking for which French women have always been admired-- joins a trend that has affected all major European nations as their societies and economic structures changed post World War II.

Home cooking is in decline in Southern Europe as it is in the northern and Nordic countries, yet in each there are variables in the style of change. It is happening faster in certain countries—such as the U.K., where total industrialization was complete in the 19th century—than others.

Analyzing the decline across these nations is mainly a matter of reading the figures for sales of convenience and fast food, and collecting statistics that mark change in attitude and trend. Market-research firm Euromonitor carried out a comprehensive study of changing habits across Europe from 2000–2007. It found that among large, less affluent populations in European countries, the take up of fast food and convenience food is increasing. The researcher's latest figures this year for sales of packaged food in the U.K., France, Italy, Denmark and Germany, for example, show an average increase of 15% in consumption.

But there is a parallel story of a much smaller number of wealthier women and men in the same countries becoming increasingly concerned about their health, trying organic and cooking fresh foods from scratch. When this group buys convenience food, they tend to buy the healthier, often natural or organic, option.

You cannot pin the demise of home cooking in European countries on a single issue. The loss of structured mealtimes can be put down to a number of causes including urbanization and smaller households, but the changing role of women in European society in the past 40 or 50 years is very significant. Exercising their right to equality in the workplace raises the family income and the hardpressed career woman relies more on prepared food or eating out when it comes to feeding her family. Mr. Marquis, an acclaimed chef, believes that aspirational tastes have put good traditional home cooking lower on the agenda in upwardly mobile European families. "In my youth, we had one car and ate very well on a budget supported only by my father's salary," he says. "Now everyone wants three cars, Apple technology and long-haul holidays, so both parents must work. Food becomes less significant," he adds.

There is the added dynamic that women are sometime sole breadwinners.

Their male partners can enthusiastically take up the home-cooking role. Male keenness for cookery remains in the margin of wealthier families, but there is a role reversal that fits with the eminence of chefs in the media and heading up kitchens in the world's "best restaurants."

Controversially, there is the accusation that liberated women (who gave up cooking) inadvertently generated a modern irresponsible food industry. The women that chose not to follow their mother and grandmother's career, left the door open. Had the food companies created a healthy surrogate for all and not just wealthy society—we might not have the fast-food industry and ensuing health problems, such as rising obesity. It is important to note that no feminist would have intended such an outcome, and that other environmental and economical factors have contributed to the problem.

It is not that women in Europe need leave their jobs and go back to housework, but families risk rearing a generation of "kitchen orphans," men and women who have never witnessed their parents cooking. There is no substitute for this; no popular TV chef can replace the effectiveness of the conversation about the right way to prepare a dish between mother and daughter, or indeed father and

son. The talented Les Mères gave up their kitchens to male chefs and their brigades of helpers, worn down by an unequal society that gave them too much work and little assistance, as did millions of stay-at-home mothers throughout Europe. In a culture where gender roles are more evenly balanced, there is a chance to revive the heroic, nurturing motherly food of each nation. It isn't just a sociological need, but an economic one. Mr. Marquis, whose life's work has been to emulate this, says a return to these basics is politically necessary. "In the past there were economic reasons for women getting out of the kitchen; now there is an economic reason for their simple, perfectionist cooking to be restored. This is the culture that is the envy of the world."

From The Wall Street Journal

Fathers fight for family flexy-time - EOI CyL inglés B1 resuelto

Growing numbers of men are rejecting the culture of working long hours in favour of spending more time at home, according to a study which reveals a social revolution is taking place as fathers become increasingly involved in bringing up their children.

Men are a substantial and fast-rising proportion of those seeking their employer's permission to work flexi-time, with shorter hours or fewer days. But they face more obstacles to securing a better work-life balance than women.

In the last two years 1.2 million men, around 10 per cent of the mat workforce. have asked their employer if they can work flexibly. That is far less than the 2.3 million women (19 per cent) who have sought the same change in their hours, but a big increase on previous years.

‘ More men are seeking the right to switch to working flexi-time, a nine-day fortnight or four-day week so they can be around to help their children and partners. And even more would do so if the rules on flexible working were changed so that all workers, not just parents, could do that', said Jo Morris, the1TUC'swork-life balance policy officer.

Jenny Watson, the chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said the TUC's research confirmed that Britain was in the middle of 'a social revolution' in how much time fathers want to spend with their families. More fathers are more concerned to be more involved with their families than ever before. Their desire to do so is moving faster than politicians' attitude to this. ‘This is a very private revolution, which often happens within a family that has to make a decision about childcare, and it has gone relatively unnoticed by those making public policy', said Watson.

'While some employers are good on flexible working, in other workplaces there can be an assumption that flexible working is for mothers, and fathers can find it not just hard to get but even hard to ask for it, because the prevailing culture is that, if you request it, you aren't serious about your job,' said Watson.

Since April 2003 parents of children under six have been able to ask their employer to vary their hours of work. But employers are only legally obliged to give "reasonable consideration" to such requests.

'Employers' greater unwillingness to let male workers change their hours is unhealthy because it reinforces the pattern of women with children being locked into low-hours and low-paid jobs and deepens wonen’s financial dependence on men, such as in their pension prospects in old age,' said Morris.

1 Trade Union Congress

Although allowing flexible working leads to happier, more productive employees and greater staff retention, some employers see it as difficult to implement and unfair to other workers. There is a slow but definite trend towards a woman being the bread-winner in a growing number of households. The number of men choosing not to work at all so that they can look after their home or children has risen according to the Office of National Statistics.

Adapted © The Observer 2006

The most powerful woman in Hollywood - EOI Castilla y León inglés B2 resuelto

On the morning of 5th September 1932, the Hollywood producer Paul Beern was found dead on the floor of the house he shared with his new wife, the then popular actress Jean Harlow. The housekeeper rang Harlow, one of MGM's most glamorous stars, who was staying with her mother, and her mother. in turn, knew just who to call: not the police, not 311 ambulance. She called Howard Strickling, MGM's head of publicity.

Strickling spoonfed stories to the gossip columnists. When actors were hired at MGM they were immediately sent to Strickling's office, where he would ask, after hearing their life story. 'Are you holding anything back? Is there anything embarrassing in your past that we should know about? If you tell me now. I can make sure anything like that stays out of the press.’ Contractually speaking, the film studios in those days virtually owned the stars who worked for them and stage-managed their lives, and when that wasn't possible, their lives were rewritten with happier endings. Strickling, in the words of his biographer, 'was as likely to arrange a wedding as cover up a death.'

Although film studios no longer own their stars, publicists still wield the power in Hollywood and one of the most powerful is Pat Kingsley. She is feared by the press and revered by her clients. Stories of her techniques are legendary. Believing overexposure to be one of the prime risks of celebrity, she will drastically curb the number of interviews her clients give, she will demand that her stars appear on the cover of magazines or not at all, that they have the right to veto over writers and photographers, that they get copy approval, and often she herself will be present throughout the interview. In short, she will ensure that nothing escapes her control. If she doesn't like what a writer or magazine has done with one of her clients, she is reputed to forbid access to all of her other clients for ever more -- and she represents everyone (or did until recently). In the past 18 months she has been fired by Tom Cruise in favour of his fellow Scientologist sister (resulting in outlandish behaviour that vindicates, to most eyes. Kingsley's conviction in exercising restraint.)

Still, no one who relies on celebrity interviews to keep their circulation up dares to cross Pat Kingsley. If you have ever read an interteriew with say, Al Pacino, or Jodie Foster or, in the past, Nicole Kitdman, Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise, and found it somewhat unrevealing, you have Kingsley to thank. It would he hard to overstate the reach of Kingsley's invisible touch. For instance. many of her clients have come to rely on her opinion so extensively that they ask her advice on scripts they are sent. Another example: the work of Kingsley's company is 30 per cent corporate — they represent big companies like American Express, Reebok, Cadillac, among others, and their aim is to fuse their entertainment contact with their corporate clients. So. for example, their film star clients are driven to the Oscar Awards in Cadillacs; for Tom Cruise's film, Minority Report, Kingsley arranged for it that Cruise would walk into a shopping mall in which the shops and advertisements that were seen all belonged to her corporate clients. Her influence may be subliminal, but that's why it works - on all of us.

When I told one of my Los Angeles friends I was coming to meet Pat Kingsley, she gasped and said: 'Here that's like saying you're coming to meet the Queen.' All this was rather awe-inspiring and with some unease I waited for Kingsley to arrive. She eventually walks into the room. At 73, she has greying ash-blond hair, a well-meaning look in her eye and a leisurely Southern accent that seems in its lilt, conspiratorially sly. Kingsley, of course. plays down her power. She believes that stars can't be manufactured any more and she says that it is all based on the quality of their work, and that is something she is not responsible for. When I suggest that some excellent actors don't get the attention they deserve, meaning that there is more in the publicity aspect than she is letting on, she replies sympathetically, 'That's always been the case and always will be. Some of our best actors still struggle mightily to get work.'

Adapted © The Observer Review 2005

Slow movement - EOI Canarias inglés B1 resuelto

The Slow Movement began with a protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization. Over time, this developed into a subculture in other areas, such as Slow Travel, Slow Shopping and Slow Design. A principal characteristic of the Slow Movement is that it is propounded, and its momentum maintained, by individuals that constitute the expanding global community of Slow. Although it has existed in some form since the Industrial Revolution its popularity has grown considerably since the rise of Slow Food and Cittaslow in Europe, with Slow initiatives spreading as far as Australia and Japan.

 

Slow Parenting

Slow parenting encourages parents to plan less for their children, instead allowing them to enjoy their childhood and explore the world at their own pace. It is a response to hyper-parenting and helicopter parenting, the widespread trend for parents to schedule activities and classes after school every day and every weekend, to solve children´s problems, and to buy services from commercial suppliers rather than letting nature take its course. It was described most specifically by Carl Honoré in "Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children From The Culture Of Hyper-Parenting".

 

Slow Travel

Supporters of slow travel argue that all too often the potential pleasure of the journey is lost by too eager anticipation of arrival. Slow travel is a state of mind which allows travellers to engage more fully with communities along their route, often favouring visits to spots enjoyed by local residents rather than merely following guidebooks. As such, slow travel shares some common values with ecotourism. Its supporters and devotees generally look for low-impact travel styles, even to the extent of avoiding flying.

 

Slow Art

Slow art is a developing movement championed by such proponents as Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic and columnist for the New York Times. It supports appreciating an art work in itself as opposed to a rapid, ephemeral state of art common in a chaotic societal setting. One of its central beliefs is that people often search what they already know as opposed to allowing the artist to present a journey or piece in itswhole.

Adapted from www.en.wikipedia.org

The story of newspapers - EOI Madrid inglés A2

Read about the ancestors of our newspapers

The oldest British national newspaper is about one hundred and eighty-five years old, but news-sheets of various kinds have been known in different parts of the world for many centuries. The Romans sent news in the form of letters to their distant soldiers. There was no paper, as we know it, in those days. Few people could read. The messages were hand-written on a material made from the skin of a sheep, and read aloud to the soldiers.

In 60 B.C., Emperor Julius Caesar started a daily bulletin in the Forum at Rome. The Forum was the meeting place of the Senators who governed the city. The bulletin was fixed at a convenient point where the senators could read the news on their way to and from their discussions.

This method of giving information is still used today. Notices and bulletins are pinned to notice boards in offices and factories; schools and colleges run wall newspapers. Typed sheets of news or articles are placed on large notice boards. The entire contents of the board are changed at fixed intervals, in the same way as a new edition of a newspaper is printed daily or weekly.

In the 16th century, the commonest form of news-sheet was a leaflet, consisting of a single sheet printed on one side only. Leaflets were sold in markets and country fairs on the Continent, and English translations appeared in this country. The leaflets were published only when there was news of wars, battles or disasters. No-one had yet thought of publishing a bulletin regularly.

The first English publication to contain domestic news appeared in 1641. It was called Diurnal Occurrences, and it was concerned mainly with the activities of Parliament. This was just before the start of the Civil War, in 1642.

In 1665, the first number of a twice-weekly paper, The Oxford Gazette, was published. A few months later the name was changed to The London Gazette. This paper was the official paper of the Government. It did not contain news, and it did not try to entertain. It circulated among people such as bankers, solicitors and Members of Parliament.

Adapted from© The Story of Newspapers, by W.D. Siddle, Wills & Hepworth Ltd.

Pubs in Derry - EOI Extremadura inglés A2

1- Café Roc 1, College Terrace

Very fashionable pub that is divided into two parts. The best of these two parts is the ground floor with good music like pop or rock. There is a dance floor and also seats and tables. Although it is not one of the cheapest places in Derry, some days it is too busy and it is difficult to move around inside.

Pint price: 2.20 pounds (except special offers)

Anecdotes: The DJ is so nice that you are allowed to choose the music if there are just a few people.

 

2- Sandino's Water Street

It is more similar to a typical Irish pub at least on the ground floor. It is a suitable place to have your drink and talk without hearing loud music. The first floor is like a disco, where the music is louder. This floor is better for dancing.

Pint price: 2.20 pounds

Anecdotes: This pub is full of photos of Che Guevara, Sandino,…

 

3- The Ice Wharf 22, Strand Road

It is not a dancing venue, but it is a comfortable place to have a drink and to talk.

During the day you can also have meals. It is cheap, and also, every night, there are different promotions. The Ice Wharf is a big place and it has comfortable seats.

Opening hours: open during all day

Anecdotes: It has the best toilets in Derry. They are better than the bar itself.

 

4- Sugar Niteclub ( Downeys Bar) 33, Shipquay Street

Opposite the River Inn, Sugar Nightclub is a nice place playing all types of music to suit all tastes. It has two floors, but there is no difference between these ones.

Like most of the places in Derry, there is a dance floor and places to sit.

Anecdotes: One night they played songs by Bob Dylan, Shakira and Barry White in this order.

 

5- The River Inn Shipquay Street

It is the oldest pub in Derry. Good place, good atmosphere, good people, good offers. It has two floors. One of them is the typical Irish pub (the ground floor), the other one is like a club (the subterranean floor).

Pint prices: 2.20 pounds. ☺ 1.00 pound on Sundays and Thursdays

Anecdotes: One of the waiters has no idea about serving drinks. In the ground floor there are only old people.

 

6- Jackie Mullans: 13, Little James Street

Club with three floors with no difference between them. You only can hear disco, dance, techno music, and it is a really expensive place. The pint price is the most expensive one in Derry. It is really strangely decorated, and it is very hot.

Pint price: 3.20 pounds

Anecdotes: There was a horrible lamp decorated with dead fish.

The seats remind one of the TV programme (with Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox, hummmmmmm…) "Friends".

One of the waiters, apart from being really ugly, is really unfriendly and unpleasant.

 

7- Becketts 26-28 Foyle Street

It is an expensive pub without any interest. We have spent lots of nights there, and we are very ashamed about this. Becketts is the place where the biggest Spanish parties took place. The music is awful. Although the DJ is a very good guy.

Anyway, it is a good place to give up drinking and start studying English!

Pint price: 2.20 pounds

Anecdotes: The bouncers are really rude and they shout a lot. It is something very unpleasant for us.

Source: adaptado de un texto que se encuentra en la siguiente dirección: Isabel Pérez

Reality TV - EOI Islas Baleares inglés B1 resuelto

There's a new kind of programme on television, and it's hardly like television at all! It's called reality TV and, as the name suggests, it is supposed to show us something very real. The participants aren't actors at all, but ordinary people in their daily lives. We, the viewers, might see them eating, sleeping, arguing or having a good time. We can hear all their conversations and watch their every move. Reality shows, therefore, are not regular television programmes at all. Instead they give us a close-up look into other people's lives. 

Why have reality shows become so popular? What makes us want to watch reality shows on TV? To begin with, we feel that we get to know the participants. We know their names from the beginning and gradually we learn more about them. We might even come to like some of them. Others, we might not like at all! Reality shows take us inside the lives of other people. Mostly, people wonder what it's like to be someone else. Experiencing other people's lives can be a great escape from our own. 

Some people say this has a very healthy effect on society and it's a harmless and entertaining way of passing the time. Other people, however, are not in favour of reality TV. Critics say that it is not really entertainment at all. What could be entertaining about two people doing their laundry or preparing the evening meal? Who wants to watch that? Who wants to hear all of their secrets and gossip? Some social scientists even say that reality TV could have damaging effects on society. 

What kinds of people take part in reality programmes? Well, since the participants may win a prize, they might be doing it for the money. There could be other reasons as well. For example, the participants on these shows become well known to the viewers. They may even become famous and find more work in TV after the reality show ends. Not only that, but some people may really like the attention of millions of eyes on them every day and night. Clearly, reality TV is not for shy people! 

New reality shows appear all the time. They can take place on a farm, in an apartment or even on an island. Each time a new show begins, it seems to be even more daring than the previous one. What do you think the future holds for reality TV? Could the next show take place in your city, neighbourhood or school? Eventually, the day may come when we can all be part of reality TV! 

Source: Adapted from article: “Reality Shows” by Chris Dufford.

Life in Japan - EOI Extremadura inglés A2 resuelto

1. During the mid-summer, it can be really hot and humid, which can be uncomfortable. Snow falls in part of the country during the mid-winter months. From summer to autumn, there are typhoons (tropical storms) every year. The months of June and July are the "rainy season" in Japan.

2. You usually go into a Japanese home after you take off your shoes. At most offices, you don't take off your shoes to enter, but there are some traditional businesses where you take off your shoes.

3. When you visit someone's house or a public bath, wash your body before you enter the bathtub. Do not wash your body inside the bathtub. Traditionally, in Japan, the hot water in the bathtub is not changed after every person takes a bath. When you finish your bath, leave the hot water in the bathtub.

4. At most Japanese and Chinese restaurants, chopsticks are usually served. If you can't use chopsticks, ask for a knife and fork.

In most restaurants and bars in Japan, you never pay for individual drinks or snacks, one at a time. You simply pay your total bill when you leave the restaurant or bar at the cash register.

5. For most shopping, you usually pay in cash, but nowadays, a limited number of places, such as hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets, accept credit cards.

6. A lot of government offices, banks and post offices are closed on Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays in Japan, but a lot of department stores, shops and restaurants are open on these days. In Japan, if a National Holiday falls on a Sunday, the next day (Monday) is a holiday. A lot of public offices, banks and schools close for some days in mid-August too, for "Obon" (the Buddhist event), and at the end of the calendar year and the beginning of the new year (especially January 1 to 3).

My last birthday - EOI Extremadura inglés A2

Mathew

I've spent my last few birthdays in Japan - birthdays, along with Christmas, are the times that I miss family and friends back home a little more than usual. Last birthday all my friends were working but I had the day off, so after feeling sad about it all the day before, I went snowboarding for the day.

 

Alan

Last birthday.......I was floating in the Dead Sea in Jordan....;-)!! With about 11 new friends that I met during the trip from Egypt to Jordan!! It was an amazing experience ;-)!!!! I have been living in Dubai for over a year and when you live in the centre of the world you just use every opportunity to explore other countries....;-)!!

 

Jane

I was in San Francisco for my cousin's wedding. We are a big family, so we rented a huge house and all stayed in it together. In the morning I walked from the Golden Gate Bridge to downtown Toyko and back again for a day adventure. Truly one of my favourite cities to visit. When I got home my aunts had bought a huge chocolate cake and I blushed as they all sang to me in the dining room. Good family is an amazing gift.

 

Nikki

Today is my boyfriend's birthday. We are off to the zoo here in Munich when my daughter gets home from school. Then, afterwards, a restaurant in the centre of Munich and a walk around the old town with some ice creams.

EOI País Vasco inglés B2 resuelto - Au Renoir mister Franglais

The British are notoriously bad at learning foreign tongues. But with Franglais anyone could get by on holiday with just a petit peu of effort. If there is one foreign language that English speakers always seem to crack, it's Franglais.

Its rules are simple. Insert as many French words as you know into the sentence, fill in the rest with English, then speak it with absolute conviction. Although it wasn't known as such then, Franglais is found in Shakespeare and has probably been used for as long as the English and French have had to talk to each other.

But Miles Kington did it best. After all, he coined the name for this hybrid tongue. Kington studied languages, and it showed. In a long-running series of columns for Punch he satirised the earnest but doomed efforts of native English speakers to handle French. Like a phrase book, each of his "lessons" covered a particular situation.

Bodged attempts at foreign languages are as important as food poisoning to a good holiday anecdote, but Franglais is a daily reality for millions working in Europe, Africa and Canada.

The Canadian journalist Karl Mamer, author of a website on Franglais, says many Canadians speak "cereal box French", as they only get to practise it by reading the bilingual text on the back of the box in the morning.

When they then travel to French-speaking centres, like Montreal or Quebec City, their few words of French are used as a kind of peace offering to shopkeepers. He says they're thinking: ‘Look, I'm going to try speaking as much French as possible, showing you I'm making a sufficient effort, and then you please switch to your fluent English as soon as I've linguistically self-flagellated myself before you.’

Franglais might be good enough to buy your oignons, but it's different if you want to win votes.

Politicians running for office in an officially bilingual country need to try to master both languages, although some have made it to high office without knowing their coude from their elbow. According to Janyce McGregor, a producer who covers parliament for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ‘they may be very clever, but their language skills are always going to be a factor.’

It's not just high office either. A Francophone bus passenger in Ottawa complained to the city transport authority last December that drivers must be bilingual, and be sent off for language training if necessary. But as Ms McGregor points out: ‘If people are bilingual, they probably won't apply to be bus drivers.’

In Canada, Franglais helps French and English speakers co-exist, even if it's a shoddy compromise for some. In France it is something quite different. It is a cultural attack. This is not the Franglais of the tourist asking awkwardly for a cup de cafe. What concerns them is the creeping advance of English words, especially American-English, into their language.

The Toubon Law, passed in 1994, was an attempt to restrict them. It makes French compulsory in government publications. Public bodies weed out English words and suggest French ones where they previously did not exist. So it was goodbye "e-mail", hello "courriel", although "le weekend" - for some the dark heart of Franglais - has survived.

London-based French journalist Agnes Poirier says those who suggest new words are often too late. ‘The man in the street will have already adopted English words to describe new trends.’

It's true that, like a really good French waiter, Franglais always seem to be hovering nearby with a suggestion. Need a three-word headline to sum up the man who has cost Societe Generale billions? Le Rogue Trader, as the Independent - Kington's own paper - described him last week.

So e-mails still swamp courriels on French web pages. And despite the Toubon Law, Ms Poirier says the internet has led to an invasion of English words, which are picked up by newspapers because they seem fashionable, and then find their way into speech.

But why does it matter? Ms Poirier's book, Touche, a French Woman's Take on the English, has plenty of examples of the English language adopting French words and phrases, even if some of them, like "double entendre", are not actually said in France. It's a kind of Franglais, but it has never seemed to bother anyone.

Other mixed languages like Spanglish and Denglisch (German and English) also exist without causing nearly so much anguish. The French see it differently because English is taking over the world and French isn't. English doesn't need defending, but French, once the European language of freedom and culture, does. And English is not just 600,000 eccentrically spelt words in a very large book, it is, to some, a symbol of Anglo-American cultural imperialism, the language of junk food. You might think we were talking about the last two speakers of a native American dialect, rather than French, which is used by more than 350 million people. But to some, a future of Franglais n'est pas un future at all.

Adapted from BBC.co.uk

The life of a record shop owner - EOI Asturias inglés A2

David Griffin left school at seventeen, went to college and then worked as an assistant in hisparents’ newsagent’s. After two years, he went to work for a big national chain record store as an assistant manager although very soon he got a job as a store manager. In May 2005, tired of working for others, he opened a shop called Elvis Shakespeare.

This is what he tells us about his job.

“As its name suggests, in my shop literature goes hand in hand with music -my main interests-. Prices go from £2 for second-hand books to £200 for rare collector’s items and I expect that, very soon, you can benefit from our excellent online payment facilities.

My shop is in Leith Walk and I spend most of my time buying small and large collections, which I get in the Edinburgh area. I hardly ever travel abroad.

Last week, I was alone in the shop and I had to work from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and with Christmas coming, next month I am going to work from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day but my working hours are normally from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.”

Adapted from different Internet sources

Edinburgh cafés - EOI Asturias inglés B1 resuelto

Water of Leith Café Bistro

I visited it on a weekday at lunch time and had fortunately booked a table, as people were being turned away. Despite the place being busy, we did not feel rushed and service was very friendly. I had a good courgette quiche, followed by a delicious pear and almond cake. The café is family friendly and there were some noisy kids. Very friendly greeting both on the phone and when we got there. Nice atmosphere, tasty menu and the food did not let it down. We all really enjoyed our meal. Great to chat to the chef afterwards. Thoroughly recommend this little gem.

The Haven Café

This little gem is not that easy to find as it is on the shore at Newhaven and not actually in Edinburgh but it is well worth the trip out from the city. It is small and cosy and tables were never free for more that a few minutes. It is clearly a favourite with locals and visitors alike. The food is excellent. We had the all day breakfast which is a comprehensive Scottish breakfast which is full of flavour, freshly cooked and made with fresh local ingredients. Particularly of note is the haggis which is the best I have had in a long time. You get a large cup of tea, bigger than in most cafés, with plenty of milk on the table. The girls behind the counter work very hard to ensure a great eating experience. We will definitely be back.

Elephant House

Great little café. Obviously, if you're a big Harry Potter fan, you want to come to where it all started, and that alone is well worth the five-star review. The café itself is not catered specifically to fans (though they do have souvenir mugs and shirts for sale), which is nice, still the same atmosphere as when JK Rowling came here to write, I think. Make sure you check out the toilets if you're a fan, though, and bring your camera and a pen with you. For non-Potter fans, this little café is definitely still worth it. Breakfast was fantastic though a bit pricey. I got the pancakes with bacon, an almond croissant, and some tea. My companions got beans on toast and the full breakfast, respectively, and we all enjoyed our food. It's a nice, quiet atmosphere even for such a now well-known place and we stayed for over an hour. The food sustained us all day, so we ended up not eating "lunch" until almost 4 pm! Make sure you check out the view out the back windows, too, you can see the castle!

Ship on the shore

I went to the Ship on Saturday, and I have to say that I’m very pleased with the choice. The place is wonderful, it's like having dinner in a restaurant of centuries ago, candle light, foggy windows… super. Scallops and mussels are AMAZING, we've also had a paella which was OK - the fish was very good, the rice however, was overcooked. I tried the crumble pie for dessert. Price is expensive, but fair for the things you'll eat; good quality fish is expensive. I'll definitely come back.

Wildfire

This is a very small restaurant, with only about 30 places, and not having booked we were very lucky to get a table for two. We had the fish chowder, a steak and steak pie, and all the food was brilliant. Unfortunately, we could not manage a sweet, but they also looked great. The service was attentive and friendly.

Angels with Bagpipes

Fabulous little bar and restaurant. If we had known about it, we would definitely have eaten here as the food looked fantastic. Recommended by the lady on the bus tour.

From tripadvisor

Spanish supermarket chain finds recipe - EOI Asturias inglés B2

You are going to read an article about Mercadona, a popular Spanish supermarket chain.

As Country's Jobless Rate Approaches 25%, Mercadona Keeps Hiring and Boosting Sales Using a German Template

By D. BALL and I. BRAT

MADRID—Spain's unemployment rate is near 25%, retail sales have declined for 25 straight months and the country is closer than ever to a bailout from the European Central Bank. Yet supermarket chain Mercadona S.A. hired 6,500 employees last year, more than any Spanish company, and its sales increased 8% and remain on the rise.

The secret to its success: a German-style recipe for higher productivity that includes flexible working conditions, extensive employee training and performance-linked bonuses - a rare mix in Spain. As a result, the family-controlled retailer is fast becoming a model in a country urgently trying to rewrite the rules for its economy.

A decade ago, corporate Germany reached a compromise with employees who agreed to work more hours and for wages growing more slowly than productivity. In return, workers were awarded better job security, even in difficult times. Labour costs fell 1.2%, while productivity rose 9% between 1999 and 2006, according to Deutsche Bank. But in Spain, easy money silenced companies into accepting rigid labour contracts. Corporate earnings were artificially boosted by inflation, relieving the pressure to keep costs under control. The result: Spanish labour costs rose 23% over the same period.

"The whole country went over the top - including trade unions, businessmen, bankers and politicians," Juan Roig, Mercadona's billionaire owner, said at a company presentation this year.

Mercadona has become a point of reference in Spain, though it will take a while for anyone to copy it, says Luis Simoes, who runs the Spanish office of consulting firm Kantor Worldpanel. "Mercadona has invested in its employees for years and years." The chain had 1,356 stores and 70,000 permanent employees at the end of last year. Profit increased 19% to €474 million on €17.83 billion in revenue. The closely held company doesn’t release quarterly figures.

Mr. Roig's drive to transform Mercadona began in the early 1990s. Big international chains such as Carrefour S.A. started raising competitive pressure on Mercadona, which started as a butcher shop in eastern Spain in the 1970s. Mr. Roig decided that Mercadona needed to offer consistently low prices to compete. "We had to find a model that would differentiate us from our competitors," he says by email. Among his models was Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Mr. Roig visited his stores and noticed poorly stocked shelves and managers checking employee bags for stolen items at the end of shifts. He decided that temporary contracts - which then covered about 60% of Mercadona's workers - hurt morale. He abolished the practice. Today, about 90% of Mercadona workers have permanent, full-time contracts. At other big Spanish retailers, 60% of employees work part-time, according to the country's General Workers' Union.

Mercadona invests about €6,500 and four weeks of training in each new employee - largely unheard of in Spain. Employees receive an additional 20 hours of training a year. The Spanish government recently followed Mercadona's example by granting all workers in the country a right to 20 hours of training a year.

Mercadona also pays above-average wages and never has conducted mass layoffs. If the company hits certain profit targets, nearly all employees receive a bonus of up to two months' salary. In exchange, Mercadona requires dedication from its employees. They are sometimes called on to help with other jobs around a store, giving the company freedom to adjust to changes in shopper traffic. Workers are trained to keep a close eye on customer needs. When a shopper spends a long time before a fresh-food shelf, for example, an employee can offer help in around seven seconds, the company says.

Although Mercadona unions have expressed support for the company, the approach occasionally causes tension. Workers with minor medical conditions face pressure to consult company physicians instead of independent doctors who might authorize longer sick leave, some union officials say. A company spokesman says workers are free to visit any doctor and that under federal law, sick-leave can only be approved by state health-service doctors.

Adapted from online.wsj.com 23 October 2012

Bats - EOI Asturias inglés B1 resuelto

Many people fear the small flying animals called bats. There are stories about bats attacking people and drinking human blood. However, bats are not dangerous. In fact, they are an important part of our environment. Bats are mammals, just like humans. There are about one thousand different kinds of bats in the world. Some weigh less than ten grams. Yet the largest bats are almost two meters long when their wings are extended.

Most people think bats are rare. That is because they hide during the day and are active only at night. However, bats can be found in almost every part of the world.

Not all bats spend their days underground in dark caves. Some rest in trees or other places that keep them safe from attack and changes in weather. Unlike other animals, their bodies are designed to hang upside down. This is the best position for them to take flight suddenly.

Bats are the only mammals that can really fly. Their wing structure, bones and muscles help them to move quickly. This helps bats in their search for food.

Most bats eat insects. Bats provide one of the most effective controls on insect populations. A single, small, brown bat can catch more than one thousand insects in just one hour. Twenty million bats live in Bracken Cave in the western American state of Texas. They eat about two hundred tons of insects every night.

Some bats eat fruit. Other bats like to eat pollen on plants. They help to make new plants by spreading pollen from flower to flower.  A few bats eat meat. They catch small frogs, birds or fish.

No report about bats is complete without a discussion of vampire bats. Three kinds of vampire bats feed on blood. They live in parts of Central and South America. These bats feed mainly on the blood of birds, farm animals and wild animals. They rarely attack people. The bats bite their victims and drink the blood, usually while the animal is sleeping. The harm from such bites comes not from the amount of blood lost, but from any resulting infection.

Source: The VOA Special English Science Report

The Houses of Parliament - EOI Islas Baleares inglés A2

To know something about the world of Britain’s politicians, you should explore the Houses of Parliament. They are part of the Palace of Westminster, which stands on the banks of the Thames across the river from the London Eye. At the Northern end of the Palace there’s a clock tower. As soon as they see it, tourists shout “That’s Big Ben!” Actually, Big Ben is only the name of the impressive 13-tonne bell. You should visit the House of Commons’ public gallery, where you can observe debates on weekday afternoons and evenings. Once inside, visitors pass through the octagonal Central Lobby (where the public can meet members of parliament- MPs), and then enter the House itself. The Government and the Opposition sit on green benches divided by a long table and two parallel red lines. MPs mustn’t cross these lines. The debates are often noisy affairs where The Speaker has to control the proceedings: MPs must attract his attention if they want to speak. Sessions begin with open questions and then new laws are considered. The rest of the Palace of Westminster is only open to public tours during the summer, when you can see the Victoria Tower, the Royal Apartments and the spectacular Westminster Hall. This used to hold the law court where famous people like Guy Fawkes were condemned to death: he failed to blow up the House of Commons in 1605, but a German bomb destroyed the chamber in 1941. It was rebuilt to the original design in 1950.

Source: Speak Up

Travelling to the USA - EOI Galicia inglés A2

As part of your English course you are planning to go to The United States of America this year. You are looking for some information about travelling to the USA in the edupass web site.

Tipping

Restaurants do not include a service charge in the bill, so you should tip the waiter 15% of the total bill. If service was slow or particularly bad, some Americans will tip only 10%. Likewise, if service was particularly good, it is appropriate to tip 20%. If service was so bad that you would never eat in the restaurant again, leave two cents. This is a deliberate insult, because it tells the waiter that you didn't forget to leave a tip. Tipping is only appropriate in restaurants which offer table service. You do not tip the cashier in a fast food restaurant.

Taxi drivers expect to get a tip equal to 15% of the total fare. If the driver was especially helpful or got you to your destination more quickly than you expected, give a 20% tip. Hotel bellhops expect a $1 tip for helping you with your bags. If you order room service, the gratuity is included in the bill. Coat checkroom attendants expect $1 per coat. Hairdressers and barbers expect a tip of 15% of the bill. Valet parking attendants expect a $1 tip.

Gift Giving

If you are invited to a wedding, baby shower, or other celebration, it is expected that you will bring a gift. Unless you know the host very well, the gift should be modest in value, about $25.

For a wedding, the bride will have "registered" at one or two local department stores, indicating the items and styling she prefers. You can buy the couple a gift that isn't listed, but most people buy something listed on the registry. If you buy an item listed on the registry, be sure to tell the store that you are doing this, so that the couple doesn't receive duplicate gifts.

If you wish to give a gift when you leave to return to your home country, the best gift is something that is unique to your country. It does not need to be especially valuable or rare, just reminiscent of your home. Possibilities include a book about your country, an inexpensive handicraft or piece of art, or something else that reflects your culture. If the children collect coins and stamps, they would be very pleased with a set of your country's coins or a selection of mint stamps from your country. Items that are common in your country but difficult to find in the United States are also good.

When giving gifts to a business acquaintance, do not give anything of a personal nature, especially to a woman. Do not give cosmetics. A scarf is ok, but other types of clothing are not. Something appropriate for the office is best. But gift giving is not as important in America as it is in other countries, so there is nothing wrong with not giving a gift.

From: http://www.edupass.org/culture/