Express Publishing (ELT)

Apologies to all you Trekkies out there, but Space is not the final frontier; that space is reserved for death: “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns.” – Hamlet

Is it a bit of a taboo subject in class – death?
Well, if the only two sure things in life are death and taxes, and we can at least try to fiddle our way out of the latter, why not think a bit about the former, which we cannot wriggle out of.

We may not be afraid to die, but we probably don’t want to be there when it happens – unless it’s Robert Patterson sinking his canines into your neck perhaps.

So, doing death in class. (Not the practical!)
First a warning! Do not use activities which might upset students in your culture! You have to be sensitive when dealing with death, ghosts, vampires, zombies and intolerance.     read more >>

This text and exercise can be used with higher level classes as a fun activity. After the matching task, they could try and make up their own silly author names and books or share any amusing names in their own language.

What do you call some of the most unlucky people in Britain?

Justin Case, Barb Dwyer and Stan Still. It sounds like a bad joke, but a study of online telephone records has revealed that there really are unfortunate people with those names in the UK. Joining them on the list are Terry Bull, Mary Christmas, and Anna Sasin. And just imagine having to introduce yourself to a crowd as Doug Hole, Tim Burr or Dawn Hobbs. Researchers also scoured phone records in the US and found some unlikely names there too. Spare a thought for Anna Prentice, Annette Curtain and Bill Board the next time you sign your name.     read more >>

Do you know the scene in Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian” where a crowd has gathered outside his house and are chanting as one.     read more >>

1. Think of a number… double it… add ten… divide by two… take away the first number… and the answer is? (always 5)

2. Think of a number… multiply it by three… add one… multiply this by three… add the number you first thought of… add two… take away five… divide by ten… and the answer is… (the number you first thought of)     read more >>