The English Corner

Thursday, 13 January 2011

Queen of the Sky

Next autumn the biggest passenger plane in the world - the Airbus A380 - is going to make its first public flight.

The plane is enormous - it's nearly 35 metres high and 75 metres long. To give you a better idea of its size, try imagining ten buses placed on top of each other for nearly an entire football field (a field measures 90 metres)! The wings on the Airbus are long enough to park 70 cars on! There are also 500 kilometres of cables.

When it is full, the Airbus will carry 853 passengers - that's over 300 more than today's jumbo jets. Inside the plane there's going to be lots of space for people to relax and travel in comfort. There are also going to be cinemas, bars, shops, and even a gym with showers!

The new super-plane has Rolls Royce engines, which are very quiet, so it isn't going to cause as much noise pollution as ordinary planes.

The Airbus A380 is going to take holidaymakers between London Heathrow and Changi airport in Singapore.

GLOSSARY:
Passenger - pasajero
Wings - alas
Engine - motor
Holidaymakers - turistas

ACTIVITIES

1. Read the text and answer the questions.

a) Is the Airbus A380 big or small?
b) Is the plane going to be comfortable for passengers?

2. Read the text again and decide if the sentences are true or false.

a) The Airbus flights started last autumn.
b) There is a football field on the plane.
c) There are parking spaces in the plane.
d) Jumbo jets carry more passengers than the airbus.
e) People can watch films on the plane.
f) The engines don't make much noise.

3. Vocabulary. Find the opposites of these words in the text.

a) smallest
b) last
c) very small
d) empty
e) outside
f) noisy

Monday, 10 January 2011

Reading: Claudio and Chul

Claudio

Hello, my name's Claudio. I'm from Italy and I'm a student. I'm twenty-five years old and I'm single. I live in an apartment with my parents. I go to university five days a week. I like going to the disco on Saturdays. I don't like playing sports. I have one sister and one brother, Maria and Antonio.

Chul

Hi, my name's Chul and I come from Korea. I'm a businessman and I work in Seoul. I'm married and have two children, Min-Jee - a girl, and Dak-Ho a boy. I like in a small house in the suburbs. I take the subway to work from Monday to Friday. I like playing golf in my free time. I don't like singing karaoke!

Take the quiz about Claudio and Chul to check your understanding.

These two reading selections focus on basic descriptions with the verb 'to be'. You can learn more about the verb 'to be' here.

My friend PEter

My friend's name is Peter. Peter is from Amsterdam, in Holland. He is Dutch. He is married and has two children. His wife, Jane, is American. She is from Boston in The United States. Her family is still in Boston, but she now works and lives with Peter in Milan. They speak English, Dutch, German and Italian! Their children are pupils at a local primary school. The children go to school with other children from all over the world. Flora, their daughter, has friends from France, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden. Hans, their son, goes to school with students from South Africa, Portugal, Spain and Canada. Of course, there are many children from Italy. Imagine, French, Swiss, Austrian, Swedish, South African, American, Italian, Spanish and Canadian children all learning together in Italy!

http://esl.about.com/library/beginner/bl_beginner_read_pete.htm