Garrett McNamara surfs 'highest ever' wave off Portugal

An American man, McNamara has ridden what may be the highest wave ever caught by a surfer.

And it was here in Portugal near a beautiful town called Nazaré!Watch this! Beautiful and scary!

If verified, McNamara will have broken his own previous record by more than 20ft

Continue reading the main storyGarrett McNamara surfed the wave on Monday off the coast of Portugal, in the same spot where he surfed the current world-record wave of 78ft (24m) in November 2011.

Experts will now have to certify the new record.

The giant wave formed above an underwater canyon famous for being the world's biggest wave generator.

Some reports say the wave may have been as high as 100ft (30m), although this is yet to be confirmed.

"You are just going so fast," McNamara told ABC television. "It's really, really similar to snowboarding on giant mountains.

"And you're just chattering, flying down this bumpy, bumpy mountain. Your brain is getting rattled. Your whole body is getting rattled."

He said he was relieved to have avoided a rocky section of the coast.

McNamara began surfing at 11 and turned professional six years later.

From BBC News

Charities launch 'food for everyone' campaign to end hunger

More than 100 UK aid organisations have come together to launch a huge campaign to try to end world hunger 'for ever'.

Well done!

The 'Enough Food For Everyone IF' campaign aims to put pressure on the world's most powerful countries to keep their promises to give aid to poorer countries - despite the world's economic problems.

Charities like Save The Children and Oxfam, as well as Bill Gates - the man behind Microsoft - are asking the public to back the campaign too.

Around 870 million people around the world go hungry, according to the United Nations, which monitors levels of famine in different countries.

Famines can happen if food can't grow in places where lots of people live, and can be affected by government policies.

African countries like Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan have been hardest hit in recent years because of drought and civil wars, with thousands of people dying of starvation.

Charities' biggest joint campaign

The 'Enough Food For Everyone IF' campaign is the UK aid groups' biggest joint campaign since Make Poverty History in 2005.

The organisations want rich countries to give more aid to help the poorest families feed themselves.

They also want governments to make companies in poor countries pay more tax to those countries.

Campaign organisers said: "Hunger is the greatest scandal of our age. The problem is not a shortage of food, but that millions do not get the food they need. We know we can change this if we persuade our governments to act."

Justin Forsyth, head of Save the Children, added: "We could be the first generation to end hunger for ever".

Another supporter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said he believes that hunger is something that can be tackled.

"Hunger is not an incurable disease or an unavoidable tragedy. We can make sure no child goes to bed hungry," he said.

From CBBC News

What is Holocaust Memorial Day?

In the UK, Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January.

It marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by soldiers of the Soviet Army in 1945.

The day is a national mark of respect for all victims of the Holocaust as well as victims of other genocide around the world.

It helps to educate people about the terrible events and it shows how important it is to be tolerant of other people and their beliefs.

Marking the day also makes sure the Holocaust is not forgotten and can help to stop anything like it ever happening

What was the holocaust?

The Holocaust was the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of other people leading up to and during World War II.

The killings took place in Europe between 1933 and 1945. They were organised by the German Nazi party which was led by Adolf Hitler.

The largest group of victims were Jewish people. Nearly 7 out of every 10 Jews living in Europe were murdered.

Most of the victims were killed because they belonged to certain racial or religious groups which the Nazis wanted to wipe out. This kind of killing is called genocide.

The Nazis also murdered politicians, trade unionists, journalists, teachers and anyone else who spoke out against Hitler.

We will never know exactly how many died but there were many millions of non-Jewish victims, including:

• Civilians and soldiers from the Soviet Union
• Catholics from Poland
• Serbs
• Disabled people
• Homosexuals
• Jehovah's Witnesses
• Polish civilians
• Roma and Sinti people (Gypsies)
• Slavic people

Why did the holocaust happen?

In 1921 Adolf Hitler became leader of the Nazi party. The Nazis were racists and believed that their Aryan race was superior to others.

To them, an Aryan was anyone who was European and not Jewish, Romany or Slavic.

They also thought Germany was a more important country than its neighbours.

Laws against the Jews

In 1934 Hitler became Germany's head of state. He introduced anti-Semitic laws which discriminated against Jewish people living in the areas he controlled.

Some of these laws meant that Jewish children could no longer go to school, keep pets or have a bicycle.

The Nazis believed that Jews were a problem that needed to be removed. The mass killings of the Holocaust were what Hitler called "The Final Solution".

Hitler also wanted to make Germany bigger, so he invaded neighbouring countries and took them over.

Many of the non-German people living on land that he wanted for Germans were also sent to concentration camps.

Today we call this ethnic cleansing.

The Nazis and their collaborators were able to do these things partly because not enough people stood up to them.

Why didpeople die during the holocaust?

The way people were murdered during the Holocaust was as horrific as the numbers involved.

From the start of the war in 1939 the Nazis moved many hundreds of thousands of Jews into areas very small, overcrowded areas of cities called ghettoes.

They were not allowed to leave, and if they tried to they would be executed.

Many died of starvation because they didn't have enough food, and others of disease because the living conditions were very poor - there were hardly any toilets and sewers, and no heating during the winter.

Concentration camps

The Nazis set up huge prisons called concentration camps - where prisoners were starved, often tortured and worked to death.

They housed people who opposed the Nazis, prisoners of war and those who the Nazis felt were a threat.

Conditions inside the camps were appalling, and starvation and diseases were very real dangers.

When in 1945 British troops entered the concentration camp at 
Bergen-Belsen in Germany, they found 60,000 starving survivors and many thousands of unburied dead bodies.

Many of those who were found alive were to die in the weeks and months after the liberation.

Extermination camps

In 1942 the Nazis set up six extermination camps in Poland which used specially-built poison gas chambers to kill people.

The largest of these was Auschwitz-Birkenau - a vast collection of slave labour camps, the concentration camp of Auschwitz and the extermination camp of Birkenau.

Around 2.7 million Jews were murdered during 1942 alone. This was the most intense period of killing in the Holocaust.

the concentration camp of Auschwitz

From CBBC News

The Present Perfect is used to refer to actions that started in the past and continued until now (they may continue in the future). These actions are usually followed by time expressions such as "since", "for", "yet", "already", "just"," "never"...

Formation: Auxiliary Verb 'Have'/' has' + Past participle of the main verb
e.g.: I have never seen "Garfield".

Exercises just on the Present Perfect Tense
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html


http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/present-perfect-simple


http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/present-perfect-simple/exercises?07

Present Perfect with For and Since:
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect_fs.htm


http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/preint/a_grammar/file07/grammar07_a01/

Vocabulary on SPORTS

 Click on the links for funny vocabulary games


http://enjoyenglish.free.fr/english/primaire/concentration/outdoor1/outdoor1_.html

http://enjoyenglish.free.fr/english/primaire/concentration/outdoor2/outdoor2_.html

http://www.learningchocolate.com/content/sports-2

http://www.eflnet.com/vocab/dictionary/sportsquiz1.php

http://www.learningchocolate.com/content/activities

http://www.eflnet.com/vocab/dictionary/sportsquiz3.php

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topics/sport/football/football-picture-quiz.html

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topics/sport/sport-wordsearch.html

Original Batmobile sold for $4.2m at US auction

The customised 1955 Lincoln Futura better known as the Batmobile

The Batmobile used by actor Adam West in the original TV series of Batman has sold for $4.2m (£2.6m) at a US auction.

The car was bought by Rick Champagne, a logistics company owner from Phoenix, Arizona.

The 56-year-old, who was just 10 when the high-camp TV series began in 1966, said it "was a dream come true".

The Batmobile design was based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura, a concept car built in Italy by the Ford Motor Company.

It was the first time that car had come up for public sale since it was bought in 1965 by car-customiser George Barris for a nominal fee of $1.

Barris then spent $15,000 (roughly £5,370 at the time) to transform it into the famous superhero vehicle, over a period of 15 days

It had a V-8 engine, arguably one of the first in-car phones, and parachutes, which were deployed to help Batman turn sharp corners.

Mr Barris told reporters at the auction: "The car had to be a star on its own. And it became one."

Since the show was cancelled in 1968, he has toured the Batmobile and was eventually housed in a private showroom in California.

The newer Batmobiles have been much more brutal machines

The newer Batmobiles have reflected the more brutal portrayal of Gotham City's saviour, such as the "Tumbler" of 2005's Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale

From BBC News

Exercises on the Present Perfect

Great Link!

http://www.eclecticenglish.com/grammar/PresentPerfect1B.html

UK garden step 'is ancient Sri Lankan moonstone' artefact

A garden doorstep at a home in Devon in the UK has been identified as a rare Sri Lankan artefact expected to fetch more than £30,000 ($47,500) at auction.

The auctioneer's website describes the stone as "beautifully carved"

The auctioneer Bonhams says the carved granite step is a Sandakada Pahana - or moonstone - similar to those found in temples dating from Sri Lanka's Anuradhapura period (c400BC-1000AD).

Sri Lanka's director of archaeology says it is unclear if it is authentic.

But if so, he believes the authorities should take steps to acquire it.

The stone was found in the garden of a bungalow in Devon. Its owner said that it was originally in a home in Sussex that her family had bought in 1950.

Bonhams says the house had been purchased from a tea planter who had lived in Sri Lanka.

Experts say that the discovery of such a stone outside of Sri Lanka is extremely rare.

Senerath Dissanayake, head of Sri Lanka's archaeology department, said it could prove very difficult to secure the return of such an item to Sri Lanka because legislation might not be adequate to support such a move.

The auctioneer's website describes the stone as "beautifully carved" and "featuring a curved procession of animals including lions, horses, elephants, birds and Brahim cows."

Bonhams said it believed the "provenance to be accurate and fulsome and correct and the object is as described".

The stone will be put up for auction in Bonhams' Indian and Islamic sale in London on 23 April.

The original owner of the moonstone was four years old when they moved to Sussex, her husband, Michael Hickmott, told BBC Sinhala. "As a child she would be playing with it in the garden."

They moved the stone with them every time they moved house.

But it weighs almost a tonne and measures 8ft by 4ft. The owners were keen to move to a smaller house and, after meeting with a Bonhams expert, invited him to look at the stone, which was lying at the end of a path in their garden.

From BBC News

Inauguration: Barack Obama tells US to seize the moment

Barack Obama has told the American people to "seize the moment", in a speech in Washington DC inaugurating his second term as US president.

President Obama: "My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it"

He issued a plea for political unity while embracing liberal causes such as immigration reform, gay rights and the fight against climate change.

Mr Obama, 51, who is the 44th US president, was sworn in for his second term by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Hundreds of thousands of people crammed the ceremony on the National Mall.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, along with dozens of senators, congressional leaders and other dignitaries, attended the event at the US Capitol.

In his inaugural address, the Democratic president laid out his vision for the next four years and repeatedly declared: "Our journey is not complete."
From BBC News

WE all hope you're right Mr Obama!

Go ahead, don't give up the dreams you believe in!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Elephant poo coffee created in Thailand

Picking coffee beans from elephant poo sounds like a trial from I'm A Celebrity - but it's not!

A new, unusual type of coffee made from elephant poo has been developed by Canadian Blake Dinkin.

A coffee bean picked from elephant dung

Elephants in Thailand are fed coffee beans which are picked out of their poo when it pops out the other end.

Mr Dinkin claims the beans make an earthy and smooth coffee because elephants break down a protein which makes the drink taste bitter.

From CBBC News

But it's not cheap - a serving of the Black Ivory Coffee costs around £31 - and it's only on sale overseas in places like Thailand so far.

Has chip and pin had its day?

Go to a cash machine in Japan or Poland and there's a good chance you'll find a finger-sized scanner next to the keypad.

The pattern of veins inside your finger is said to be more distinctive than your fingerprint, and is being heralded by some experts as a more secure alternative to the chip and pin (Personal Identification Number) card system currently favoured by British banks.

Electronics giant Hitachi already manufactures a PC-compatible finger vein scanner, which is about the size of a computer mouse and contains LED lights and a video camera.

Currently retailing online for £195 plus VAT each, they are not a cheap option.

"It is the fastest and most accurate technology we've seen to date," said Roberto Fiorentino, chief executive of British firm Croma Security Solutions, which has fitted finger vein-based security systems in UK hotels, airports and most recently a police armoury.

"I have no doubt we will see this technology operating in banks - and perhaps cash machines - in the UK High Street in the future."

A trial currently underway at Southampton General Hospital's intensive care ward has so far shown that health conditions such as high and low blood pressure do not seem to affect a patient's finger vein pattern to the extent that they become unrecognizable.

'Cover your pin'

By installing a small digital camera above a cash machine criminals can literally watch people keying in their pin codes to access their accounts. They then trap the accompanying cards in the machine, sometimes using metal loops or false sleeves - to recover afterwards.

"The best tip I can ever give anybody is cover your pin," said DCI Carter. "It prevents so much fraud."

American cash machines still read data from a magnetic strip on the back of cash cards, so UK cards also have to contain this strip so that they can be used abroad.

A cloned card can then be made fairly easily without the owner even realising the data has been taken.According to Mr Krebs, who has blogged extensively about the various kit used by criminals in the US to target cash machines- they can skim the data contained on that magnetic strip just by using a cheap MP3 player - although more complex software is then required to decode it.

A PIN capture device seen by American security expert Brian Krebs

"Anything with a magnetic strip on it can be wiped and re-encoded," said Mr Krebs.

From BBC News

Sydney bakes in hottest day on record as bushfires rage

Thousands of people have been escaping the heat on Sydney's Bondi Beach

The Australian city of Sydney is experiencing its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching nearly 46C.

A temperature of 45.8C was recorded at Observatory Hill in the city at 14:55 local time (01:55 GMT).

Some areas in the wider Sydney region were even hotter, with the town of Penrith, to the west, registering a temperature of 46.5C.

In Victoria state, one man has been killed by a bushfire, one of dozens raging across southern Australia.

State police said the body of the man, who has not been identified, was found in a burnt-out vehicle close to Seaton, a small town some 200km (120 miles) east of Melbourne.

He is the first person confirmed to have been killed by this year's fires, though a firefighter died while tackling a blaze in Tasmania earlier last Sunday. Officials have not yet determined how he died.

Firefighters are still battling dozens of wildfires sparked by the intense heat in New South Wales and Victoria.

The small town of Licola in eastern Victoria is reported to have been cut off by a 44,500-hectare fire, as its sole access road is blocked.

Officials said dozens of people had been evacuated but 10 locals were still there.

Rob Gilder, a sheep farmer, said he and two employees had found themselves trapped on their farm and were "in grave danger".

Australia faces wildfires each year as temperatures climb. In February 2009, on what has come to be known as Black Saturday, 173 people were killed in fires in the state of Victoria.

Officials in Sydney have warned people to be ready for the heat, take care, avoid strenuous activity and stay out of the sun.

The heat has damaged wiring to urban railway lines, bringing delays to much of the network - CityRail have warned passengers to carry water with them.

The emergency services has received dozens of calls from people seeking help for heat-related health issues, including dizziness, fainting and vomiting, ABC News reports.

Chief Superintendent Ian Johns said elderly and ill people tended to suffer the most, but warned that "people underestimate the heat and overestimate their ability and that would be particularly so for younger, fitter Australians".

The heatwave across Australia in recent weeks has been so intense that the Bureau of Meteorology has had to add a new shade to its colour-coded temperature chart, so the scale now reaches above 50C.

However, meteorologists have forecast a dramatic change in weather overnight in Sydney, with thunder storms expected to bring a rapid drop in temperatures.

Thank God!

From BBC News

Vocabulary games and exercises on FOOTBALL

http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/sports-football.htm#vquiz

http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-84257.php

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topics/sport/football/football-picture-quiz.html

http://www.anglik.net/football.htm

Bond theme wins Adele Golden Globe

British singer Adele has won a Golden Globe for her theme to the James Bond film Skyfall.

She bagged the Best Song gong at the Hollywood ceremony and thanked her newborn son during her acceptance speech.

Brits Daniel Day-Lewis, Dame Maggie Smith and Damian Lewis also walked away with trophies.

The Golden Globe awards are held every year and are a major ceremony in the world of film and television.

Ben Affleck's film Argo was another big winner on the night - the film won the best drama award and Affleck was named best director.

From CBBC News

Oscar nominations announced in Hollywood

Nine year-old Quvenzhane Wallis has become the youngest ever nominee for 'Best Actress' at the Oscars.

She's nominated for her role in the fantasy drama Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Quvenzhane was only five when she auditioned for the part and says it is like a "dream" to see herself on the big screen.

The Oscars is seen at the biggest and most glamorous film awards.

Tim Burton's Frankenweenie is up against Disney Pixar's Brave and Paranorman to win 'Best Animation'.

Quvenzhane Wallis on screen.

Adele's theme tune to Skyfalll was listed for best song - the only major nomination for the Bond film.

Stephen Spielberg's film Lincoln, about former American president Abraham Lincoln, received the most nominations - 12 in all - including 'Best Film'.

The big-budget musical Les Miserables and 3D spectacular Life of Pi, were also nominated.

A total of 24 categories have been announced, including the best acting performances of the year and technical awards in editing, design and music.

The ceremony will take place in Hollywood on 24 February and will feature a tribute to 50 years of James Bond movies.

List of Oscar Nominations 2013 ( click here)

Click for less

150th Anniversary of London Underground

On 9 January 1863, the world’s first underground train pulled out of Paddington station to make the first passenger journey - around three and a half miles to Farringdon, travelling underneath the streets of London.

Tubes began life in the late 1860s, with a short-lived subway under the Thames along which a single carriage with up to 12 passengers was cable-hauled by two stationary steam engines. That was followed in 1890 by the first electric tube line from the City to Stockwell and, four years later, by the Waterloo and City line. The Central line, which was originally called the Central London Railway and ran from Shepherd's Bush to Bank, was the third tube line, and proved an immediate success when it opened in the summer of 1900. "London, all agape, crowds to the twopenny tube," the Daily Mail reported in the week of its opening. It now costs £8.90 rather than tuppence for a go-anywhere ticket, but the crowds still congregate. Today, in its much-extended form, it remains central to London life, connecting the suburban north-west with the East End, bringing shoppers to Oxford Circus and tourists to Marble Arch, serving God at St Paul's and Mammon at Bank.

Women and children shelter from German bombers in Bethnal Green tube station in 1943. Photograph: Alamy

A restored original locomotive hauls a Victorian first-class carriage through Baker Street station in a test run for London Underground's 150-year anniversary celebrations

In a test run for London Underground's 150-year anniversary celebrations, a restored original locomotive hauled a Victorian first-class carriage from Earl's Court to Moorgate.

Skyfall, Brave and Les Miserables get BAFTA nominations

The shortlist for this year's BAFTAs have been announced in London.

Stephen Spielberg's film Lincoln, about former American president Abraham Lincoln, received the most nominations, with 10 in all including 'Best Film'.

Musical adaptation Les Miserables and Life of Pi, about a boy who is stranded on a boat with a tiger, have both received nine nominations.

And Bond film Skyfall is close behind with eight nominations, including 'Best British film'.

In the 'Best Animated Film' category, Disney Pixar's Brave is up against Tim Burton's Frankenweenie and ParaNorman, a 3D comic horror movie.

The awards will be handed out in a ceremony on 10 February.

There were some big names missing from the list of nominees.

Bond star Daniel Craig missed out on a nomination for his role in Skyfall, as did the film's Oscar-winning director, Sam Mendes.

Peter Jackson's Hobbit movie received three technical nominations.

Razzies 'worst film' shortlist

The final instalment of the Twilight saga has dominated the shortlist for this year's Razzies, which single out the worst movies of the last 12 months.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, has 11 nominations in 10 categories, including worst film and worst sequel.

The film's stars Kirsten Stewart and Robert Pattinson are up for Worst Actor awards too.

This year's Razzies winners will be announced on 23 February, the night before the Oscars.

From CBBC News

Click for less

Live giant squid caught on camera for the first time

A team of scientists have filmed a live giant squid in its natural habitat for the first time.

The team from Japan's Natural Science Museum plunged nearly 1km below the surface of the Pacific Ocean searching for the creature.

Several giant squid have been caught and brought to the surface in the past.

However, no one has been able to film the mysterious monster deep down in the sea where it lives.

The creature the team spotted was about three metres long.

In order to get close to the squid, the team used a special submarine kitted out with lights that are invisible to the creature's eyes.

It's thought the giant squid inspired the myth of the 'kraken', a tentacled monster that's talked about in old sea stories.

Really huge!

Architeuthis show to approximate scale next to the Shinkai 6500, a famous 31-feet-long Japanese manned research submersible.

Its silver skin glimmering in the dark under the submersible's lights, looking suspiciously at the sub with its giant black eyes, the sea monster was amazing, according to Tsunemi Kubodera, the mission leader:

It was shining and so beautiful. I was so thrilled when I saw it first hand, but I was confident we would because we rigorously researched the areas we might find it, based on past data. Researchers around the world have tried to film giant squid in their natural habitats, but all attempts were in vain before.

From CBBC and Gizmodo 

The Past Continuous

Yesterday at 10 p.m. Bill WAS VACCUUMING

Form

Auxiliary Verb 'To Be' in the Past Simple (was/ were)

+

Main Verb + - ing

	Positive	Negative	Question
I / he / she / it	I was speaking.	I was not speaking.	Was I speaking?
you / we / they	You were speaking.	You were not speaking.	Were you speaking?

Use of Past Progressive

• puts emphasis on the course of an action in the past
  Example: He was playing football.
• two actions happening at the same time (in the past)
  Example: While she was preparing dinner, he was washing the dishes.
• action going on at a certain time in the past
  Example: When I was having breakfast, the phone suddenly rang.

Signal Words of Past Progressive

• when, while, as long as

LINKS FOR VERY USEFUL EXERCISES

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-progressive/exercises?03

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-progressive/exercises?04

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-progressive/exercises?05

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-progressive/exercises?06

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-progressive/exercises?07

http://www.inglesvip.com/exercises/past-continuous-tense.html (HOMEWORK)