English in Madrid

Spain's hot summer election: A simple guide Spain is holding a highly unusual election next Sunday at the height of a scorching summer, after four years of left-wing rule . Current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the vote in response to a dismal performance at the May local elections in which his Socialist party came second to main rival, the conservative Popular Party. No general election in Spanish history has ever been held so late into the summer, in this country of 48 million people. The timing of the 23 July vote has been widely  criticised when temperatures in many parts of Spain have reached 40C and up to 10 million Spaniards are on holiday. The Popular Party (PP) under Alberto Núñez Feijóo have their eye on victory but their lead has narrowed in the polls . To win a majority, they need to secure more than half the 350 seats in the lower house of parliament. Spaniards will also vote for their upper house. Neither the PP nor the Socialists are projected ...

00:00 Back in New York, I am the head of development for a non-profit called Robin Hood. When I'm not fighting poverty, I'm fighting fires as the assistant captain of a volunteer fire company. Now in our town, where the volunteers supplement a highly skilled career staff, you have to get to the fire scene pretty early to get in on any action. 00:19 I remember my first fire. I was the second volunteer on the scene, so there was a pretty good chance I was going to get in. But still it was a real footrace against the other volunteers to get to the captain in charge to find out what our assignments would be. When I found the captain, he was having a very engaging conversation with the homeowner, who was surely having one of the worst days of her life. Here it was, the middle of the night, she was standing outside in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, in her pajamas, barefoot, while her house was in flames. 00:53 The other volunteer who had arrived just before me -- let's call...

Image created with Chat GPT Double comparatives are phrases commonly used in English to say that when something increases or decreases, it causes something else to change as a result (cause and effect). It can be used with nouns, adjectives and adverbs. The word order is different than a normal sentence. The comparative + subject (+ verb) – the comparative + subject (+ verb) THE + MORE / LESS / -ER ….. THE + MORE / LESS / -ER The more I think about the idea , the less I like it. The less you spend on eat ing out , the more  (money) you'll have for your summer holiday. The older I get , the less patience I have. The longer you leave it , the harder it will be. In other words - don't procrastinate! The more he drinks , the more he talks. The louder  he shouts, the less attention I pay. The closer to the city centre a flat is , the more expensive it will be. The lower  the price , the worse  the quality. The better your grades, the greater  your cho...

00:01 Let's play a game. Mena says, clap once. 00:04 (Audience claps) 00:06 Great, well done. Mena says, high-five someone next to you. Very good, OK. Mena says, touch the hair of the person in front of you. 00:17 (Audience laughs and talks) 00:19 I'm serious. 00:20 ( Laughter ) 00:22 OK now, touch the hair of the person next to you. Guys , guys. Mena didn't say that time, come on, you know the rules. Thank you for playing. 00:35 Just want to see by show of hands , how many of you just had your hair touched by someone you've never met before? Yeah, it's quite a lot of people. And just by show of hands, how many of you were like , " Nah , I'm not touching anybody's hair today." I'm with you guys. 00:51 I launched the "No, You Cannot Touch My Hair" campaign survey in the summer of 2017. And just under half of the respondents said they had their hair touched on a monthly basis by people they've never met before. And within that,...

Source:  Curtis Thornton en Unsplash Naps are healthy, scientists say – so why has Spain given up on the siesta? As study shows a daytime doze may help brain’s health, for Spaniards the idea is outdated and cliched News of a study showing that a short nap during the day may help to protect the brain’s health as it ages has resulted once again in frequent deployment of what is, for Spaniards, the dreaded S-word. Although all the recent talk of siestas may call to mind restful visions of daytime dozes, the very notion of a long daily nap in most of 21st-century Spain is as outdated as it is cliched and irksome . In fact – barring anglosajón attempts to add chorizo to paella – there are few surer ways to annoy a Spaniard than to suggest the entire nation crawls into bed every day for a three-hour kip . Far from be ing an indolent slumber , the siesta of old was a much-needed escape from agricultural work in the punishing heat of the summer afternoon. But as time moved on...

Silvio Berlusconi’s memorable quotes and quips Silvio Berlusconi, the outspoken four-time Italian prime minister and billionaire media mogul who died on Monday at the age of 86, had a sense of humour that often landed him in trouble . Here are some of his memorable quotes and quips: DEC 2022: Berlusconi tells players of his Monza soccer team he would bring "a bus of whores into the locker room " if they managed to beat a top Serie A rival. OCT 2022: Despite anger in the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Berlusconi stood resolutely by his old friend , President Vladimir Putin: "Putin for my birthday sent me 20 bottles of vodka and a very sweet letter. I replied with bottles of Lambrusco and an equally sweet letter." NOV 2010: "As always, I work without interruption and if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay," he tells a meeting at a motorcycle industry show in M...

Source: Pexels (David Riaño Cortés) Colombian ‘miracle’ children found alive 40 days after Amazon jungle plane crash The Indigenous children – one of whom was just 11 months old – are thought to have eaten food dropped by rescuers and used their own ancestral knowledge Malnourished and covered in insect bites , four Indigenous children were rescued alive from the Colombian Amazon on Friday afternoon, 40 days after the plane they were travelling in crashed into the jungle. In a remarkable feat of resilience , the children survived heavy storms in one of the most inhospitable parts of the country, home to predatory animals and armed groups. “They’ve given us an example of total survival that will go down in history ,” said Colombian president Gustavo Petro, calling it “A joy for the whole country!” The four siblings , aged 13, nine, four plus an 11-month-old baby, were from the Huitoto Indigenous community. Although malnourished , none of the children were in serious conditio...

Source: Pexels ( Foto de Element5 Digital) Spain’s PM calls snap election after opposition triumphs in local polls Pedro Sánchez says Spaniards need to clarify what they want after gains by conservative and far-right parties Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has responded to the triumph of the rightwing opposition in Sunday’s regional and municipal elections by calling a risky snap general election that will determine his political future and that of his minority coalition government. The conservative People’s party (PP) – which used the votes as a de facto referendum on Sánchez’s coalition with the far-left, anti-austerity Unidas Podemos alliance – scored an emphatic win, far exceeding expectations and building on its momentum in the polls . As well as securing absolute majorities in the Madrid region and the city council, it took regions including Aragón, Valencia and the Balearic islands from the prime minister’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE). The PP...

Source: Pexels ( Liliana Drew) Spain hopes domestic tasks app will ensure men * pull their weight Free app designed to shed light on ‘mental load ’ overwhelmingly carried by women * when it comes to chores The Spanish government is hoping to encourage men to do more at home by developing a free app that will log how much time each household or family member spends on domestic chores. Announcing the measure in Geneva earlier this week, Spain’s secretary of state for equality, Ángela Rodríguez, said the aim was to shed light on the invisible “mental load” overwhelmingly carried by women when it comes to domestic tasks. Rodríguez told the UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women: “We’ll soon be unveiling an app that will allow people to log the household chores that different members of the family perform so we can see how many hours of work we each spend on housework and thus reorder the time we spend doing that housework.” She said the new app, whos...