Another year has come to an end. We are all looking forward to some time spent at home or at a holiday resort. We are eager to break from duty and obligations so that we can indulge in good company, some reading, a lot of great food and even better parties.
Here at LCTIDIOMAS, we are also looking forward to seeing you again, happy and restored, when everything comes back to normal. When we come back home.
Thank you for being there and for coming back. Merry Christmas.
And see you next year!
This week, everyone here got stuffed with these delicious and super easy thumbprint biscuits. They ran out really quickly, so you’d better bake two or three batches ;o)
Ingredients:
Directions:
Make sure not to overfill them with jam, the biscuits may overflow onto the biscuit sheet. Make the hole deep enough to actually hold some jam.
Merry Christmas and have fun!
Make this Christmas more personal by cooking your own recipes and making food gifts to give your loved ones. Today we start with a special recipe for biscuits. And it’s dedicated to a special fan of this blog. You know who you are ;o)
Ready to bake some star-shaped biscuits?
FESTIVE JAMMIE DODGERS
(source: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/)
Ingredients:
Method:
Do you dare cook these delicious biscuits? If you do, you might want to take into account some comments from people who have already tried this recipe. Let’s have a look at what they have to say:
If you finally decide to give it a try, why not send us a photo of the result? We are looking forward to seeing those yummy biscuits with our own eyes!
Be hungry. Be free.
This year we are feeling a bit mysterious and mischievous. All your teachers are thinking about Christmas, family, and fun times. So they’ve thought of a way to surprise you and make you wonder.
The mystery is a game.
And the game is called `Who is Who?´
Here are some photos of your teachers when they were kids. Do you think you can match the face with the name?
Out and about, two girls sharing colours but not a name. 
She’s giggling about something, as usual
Two blonde ladies smililng the day away
Now here is the big question: a girl or a boy?
Nothing like a hat to make you look the part.
So cute. The four of them ;o)
Now it’s your turn to try and guess where on earth your teacher is hiding in all these pictures. Wanna bet?
And each teacher will tell you a little bit about themselves when you solve the mystery. If you dare.
We are having exams.
Pay attention to your teachers and do your best. Remember to be punctual. Good luck! ;o)
As that lovable time when we have exams is approaching fast, I thought the new word for this week should have some kind of association with it. Actually, it’s more an idiom than a single word. Think about how you feel before an exam, then you’ll be ready for the WORD OF THE WEEK.
GET THE JITTERS
Definition: the jitters
Pronunciation:
/ ˈdʒɪtərz /
Synonims:
Become nervous
Begin to shake
In use:
Europhiles get the jitters as anti-EU talk gains momentum.
“He gives me the jitters, that feeling you had as a child on Christmas Eve when you couldn’t sleep because you knew something exciting was going to happen tomorrow.”
In image:
So, try not to get the jitters these days and good luck with the oncoming exams.
Be calm. Be cool.
Yeap, it’s that time of the year again. We love them. We need them. We just can’t live without them. They are the substance of dreams and daydreams. Yes, we are talking of…
EXAMS
Tantalizing as it may seem, an exam is not something to be taken lightly. So, we encourage you to stay calm and think in English ;o)
Exams Timetable
Monday, 10
Tuesday, 11
Friday, 14
Marks and report
Wednesday,19
Thursday, 20
Friday, 21
Good luck, everyone! (and study!)
We all love new things. We all need to learn new things. So today we are going to start a new section in the blog. It’s called WORD OF THE WEEK. No mysteries there. Every week we’ll be looking into the meaning and uses of an interesting word. It might be new to you or not, but it will hopefully help you out in a given situation.
Ready for today’s word?
AWESOME
Definition:
Pronunciation:
/ˈɔːsəm/
Synonyms:
impressive, astonishing, amazing
great, excellent, wonderful, remarkable
In use:
That new car you’re driving is awesome!
It’s an awesome show.
In image:
Isn’t this awesome? Yeah! Now go and spit it out!
Be creative. Be free.
If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité Source
OMG, that was the challenge of the century? How did you do?
Be free. Be talkative in English.
When you hear about British food, do you recoil in horror? Do you laugh like a mad clown at the dubious qualities of British cuisine? If so, why? Let’s think about some examples of British food. Yes? What? Sorry? What did you say? English breakfast… oh, yeah. And that’s good, right? What else? Mmm, nothing else, you say. That’s preposterous. If you don’t know any more dishes from the UK, how can you be so against it?
I believe in miracles. Yes, I do. I think that if I can offer you some balance for your first negative reaction towards British food, we may well be on our way to discovering a whole new world of tastes and good opinions.
First of all, let’s have a look at these wonderful pictures.
It looks healthy and wholesome enough.
Tasty and original too.
Never forget the quintessentially English English breakfast ;o)
Not convinced yet? Really? Oh, well, you’re a tough customer. I have, nonetheless, a secret weapon you won’t be able to survive with your prejudices intact. Ready for dessert?
You’re dead from ecstasy, right? Right? You have to like it now. I sincerely hope so because now I’m hungry as a wolf and no one with whom to share my pictures of food, glorious British food.
Eat well. Eat British food.
One of the healthiest, longest, soul-touching hobbies in this world is READING. Do you practice this mind sport regularly? If so, what is you purpose? Enlightening your knowledge? Promoting yourself at work? Learning new skills? Or is it just pure fun?
FUN
Is it really possible to talk about fun when considering a book? A book, an inanimate object that prevents you from moving your body or doing anything else with you valuable time. But what exactly are you doing while reading?
discoveringfeelinglearningconnectingtravellingfinding
What is your reason to read? And what are you reading these days?
ME:
I read to live more.
I’m reading…
Author’s website:
Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment. Please :-)
Reading is one of the easiest pleasures in this world. As easy as time allows, of course. Let’s have a look at a step-by-step instruction to do the deed:
It’s on step 4 where we can sometimes find ourselves in trouble. What if you don’t have any decent read at hand? Or if you happen to have one of those super modern e-Readers but no ebook to feed it with? No worries, my friend, here comes technology to the rescue.
If you’re eager to read and have a PC or any reading device but you don’t have much money to spend on expensive ebooks, check out this list of ebook sites on the internet that offer a nice selection of free choices:
latest ebooks you can find here
That’s all for today, you reading folks. I hope that keeps you busy for a few days 
Be happy. Be an avid reader.
First, dessert, now a mummy ready for a nap. Makes perfect sense in a Halloween dimension, right? :-)
Try a mini version with cocktail sausages.
source: operation santa
No one is going to resist this abominable charmer.
Happy and horrible Halloween.
Ready for a mouth-watering dessert that will scare away monsters and hunger alike? Perhaps you can entice some creature to become your friend with this gorgeous pie with a blueberry filling.
INGREDIENTS
Pastry (can be bought ready-made)
2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
4 to 6 tablespoons cold water
Filling (you can use canned blueberries)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, if desired
6 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, if desired
STEPS
source: betty crocker
You are sure to lick you bony fingers with this one. Next time, I’ll tell you how to prepare some Mummy Rolls.
Happy and horrible Halloween.
Here is the traditional recipe for the most (in)famous pumpkin dessert that will turn your party into a monster success.
Prep: 15 mins
Cooking: 55 mins
Level: Easy
Cooling: 120 mins
Yields: 8 servings
MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
POUR into pie shell.
BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.
source: verybestbaking
Mmm, yummy, I can’t wait to try it… or eat it all.
Happy and horrible Halloween.
