Paella

 Paella is perhaps the most famous dish of the rich and varied cuisine Spanish. It is a well-known culinary recipe internationally and is found in  the menus of thousands of restaurants around the world.

Most experts agree that the dish was developed in the Spanish city of Valencia.

The word paella  derived from the Latin patella. It receives its name from the large frying pan used to cook it in, made of iron or steel, which must have no more than 5 or 6 cm of depth.  Another particularity is that the long handle has been replaced by two ears. So when the word paella is mentioned, it may mean the dish, it may mean the frying pan!

Read more 

HUESOS DE SANTO

Recipe “Huesos de santo”
Despite the odd name, huesos de santo or "saint's bones" are delicious .
Spanish people traditionally eat “huesos de santo”( saint's bones) on November 1st, All Saints Day. That is the day when families gather and visit their loved-ones' graves.
The funny name of this sweet comes from the appearance of a white bone on the outside, and is filled with a sticky yellow filling.

Suffragettes

Facts and Figures Up until the middle of the 1800s less than 10% of the population could vote in elections in the UK- and they were all men!

Emmeline Pankhurst set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903; the Daily Mail newspaper coined the term ‘Suffragettes’.

From 1908 the WSPU adopted the colour scheme of purple, white and green: purple symbolised dignity, white meant purity, and green stood for hope.

In 1918, after a long campaign by women (and some men) from all over the county and from all backgrounds, around 8.4 million women in Britain were given the vote.
The People  
Constance Lytton was born into a privileged family but rebelled against the conventions of her class and campaigned for better treatment of women, particularly in prison. She disguised herself as

Jane Wharton to make sure she was treated like other Suffragettes. She once carved a V for ‘votes’ into her chest whilst in prison, and was constantly active in the campaigns against the government, even after becoming very ill.

Emmeline Pankhurst was the leader of the British Suffragette movement. Her campaigns used more extreme methods.

Emily Wilding Davison was imprisoned nine times, and force fed on forty-nine occasions. She once spent the night hidden in Parliament to claim it was her address on the census. She was killed at the 1913 Epsom Derby horse race, when she stepped out in front of the King’s horse, to highlight the Suffragette cause.

Herbert Asquith was the Prime Minister from 1908-1916, and was an opponent of giving women the right to vote. 

Key Dates  
1869: Some female tax payers were entitled to vote in local elections around the UK.

1912: The Suffragettes began to use militant tactics, partly in protest of Mr Asquith breaking his promise by not signing a bill to give women the vote, arguably due to fears that they would use their votes against his party!

1914: Militant tactics stopped due to the First Wold War, however during the war women begin to take on a wider range of roles in society, convincing many people that they deserved greater equality and suffrage.

1918: The government created a law enabling women over 30 to vote, this dropped to 21 in 1928, and 18 in 1969.

1919: Nancy Astor became the first women to take a seat in the House of Commons.

1979: Britain got its first, and so far only, female Prime Minister: Margaret Thatcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..............................................................................................................................

To + Infinitive

We use the to-infinitive:
• to express purpose (to answer "Why...?"):

He bought some flowers to give to his wife.
He locked the door to keep everyone out.

We sometimes say in order to or in order not to:

We set off early in order to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly in order not to wake the children

… or we can say so as to or so as not to:

We set off early so as to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly so as not to wake the children.

• after certain verbs (see verbs followed by infinitive), particularly verbs of thinking and feeling:

choose, decide, expect, forget, hate, hope, intend, learn, like,
love, mean, plan, prefer, remember, want, would like, would love

… and verbs of saying:

agree, promise, refuse

They decided to start a business together.
Remember to turn the lights out.

Some verbs are followed by a direct object and the infinitive(see verbs followed by infinitive):

advise, ask, encourage, invite, order, persuade, remind, tell, warn,
expect, intend, would prefer, want, would like

She reminded me to turn the lights out.
He encouraged his friends to vote for him.

• after certain adjectives.
Sometimes the to-infinitive gives a reason for the adjective:

• disappointed
• glad
• sad
• happy
• anxious
• pleased
• surprised
• proud
• unhappy

We were happy to come to the end of our journey
= We were happy because we had come to the end of our journey
John was surprised to see me
= He was surprised because he saw me

Other adjectives with the to-infinitive are:

• able
• unable
• due
• eager
• keen
• likely
• unlikely
• ready
• prepared
• unwilling
• willing

Unfortunately I was unable to work for over a week.
I am really tired. I’m ready to go to bed.

We often use the to-infinitive with these adjectives after it to give opinions:

• difficult
• easy
• possible
• impossible
• hard
• right
• wrong
• kind
• nice
• clever
• silly
• foolish

It’s easy to play the piano, but it’s very difficult to play well.
He spoke so quickly it was impossible to understand him.

We use the preposition for to show who these adjectives refer to:

• difficult
• easy
• possible
• impossible
• hard

It was difficult for us to hear what she was saying.
It is easy for you to criticise other people.

We use the preposition of with other adjectives:

It’s kind of you to help.
It would be silly of him to spend all his money.

• As a postmodifier (see noun phrases) after abstract nouns like:

• ability
• desire
• need
• wish
• attempt
• failure
• opportunity
• chance
• intention

I have no desire to be rich.
They gave him an opportunity to escape.
She was annoyed by her failure to answer the question correctly.

• We often use a to-infinitive as a postmodifier after an indefinite pronoun (See indefinite pronouns):

When I am travelling I always take something to read.
I was all alone. I had no one to talk to.
There is hardly anything to do in most of these small towns.

Passive Voice

Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:

active		passive
The hunter killed the lion.	>>	The lion was killed by the hunter.
Someone has cleaned the windows	>>	The windows have been cleaned

The passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:

	be	past participle
English	is	spoken	all over the world
The windows	have been	cleaned
Lunch	was being	served
The work	will be	finished	soon
They	might have been	invited	to the party

We sometimes use the verb get to form the passive:

Be careful with the glass. It might get broken.
Peter got hurt in a crash.

If we want to show the person or thing doing the action we use by:

She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
The money was stolen by her husband.

We can use the indirect object as the subject of a passive verb:

 

active		passive
I gave him a book for his birthday	>>	He was given a book for his birthday.
Someone sent her a cheque for a thousand euros	>>	She was sent a cheque for a thousand euros.

We can use phrasal verbs in the passive:

 

active		passive
They called off the meeting.	>>	The meeting was called off.
His grandmother looked after him.	>>	He was looked after by his grandmother.
They will send him away to school.	>>	He will be sent away to school.

Some verbs very frequently used in the passive are followed by the to-infinitive:

 

be supposed to	be expected to	be asked to
be scheduled to	be allowed to	be told to

John has been asked to make a speech at the meeting.
You are supposed to wear a uniform.
The meeting is scheduled to start at seven. 

-ing form

We can use the -ing form of the verb:
• as a noun:

I love swimming.
Swimming is very good for your health.
You can get fit by swimming regularly.

-ing nouns are nearly always uncount nouns

• as an adjective:

The main problem today is rising prices.
That programme was really boring.
He saw a woman lying on the floor.

Because the -ing noun or adjective is formed from a verb it can have any of the patterns which follow a verb, for example:

• ... an object:

I like playing tennis.
I saw a dog chasing a cat.

• ... or an adverbial:

You can earn a lot of money by working hard.
There were several people waiting for the bus.

• ... or a clause:

I heard someone saying that.

The -ing noun can be used:

• as the subject of a verb:

Learning English is not easy.

• as the object of a verb:

We enjoy learning English.

Common verbs followed by an -ing object are:

 

admit	like	hate	start	avoid
suggest	enjoy	dislike	begin	finish

• as the object of a preposition

Some people are not interested in learning English.

The -ing adjective can come:

• in front of a noun:

I read an interesting article in the newspaper today.
We saw a really exciting match on Sunday.

 The commonest –ing adjectives used in front of the noun are

 

amusing	interesting	worrying	shocking	disappointing
boring	surprising	exciting	terrifying	frightening
tiring	annoying

• after a noun:

Who is that man standing over there?
The boy talking to Angela is her younger brother.

• and especially after verbs like see, watch, hear, smell etc.

I heard someone playing the piano.
I can smell something burning.

 

Current events

23 April 2016 the world will commemorate 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare.

Learn more about the writer in our Literature Page