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MISCELÁNEA

En esta sección podrás encontrar actividades de todo tipo que iremos ampliando con el tiempo en la medida de lo posible.
De momento, te proponemos dos de carácter audio visual dirigidas, en principio, a los alumnos de BACHILLERATO.

  1. SONGS WITH A STORY
  2. WHAT'S THE MATRIX?

1. SONGS WITH A STORY

 All these three songs have one thing in common, a woman called  Patty Boyd. But who's Patty Boyd? Google, find out and send us an email enviarwith your answer to the following questions:
  1. Who was Patty Boyd and what did she do for a living?
  2. What was her relationship to George Harrison and Eric Clapton?
  3. What was the relationship between George Harrison and Eric like?
  4. What happened?
  5. How did it all end?
  6. What's Something about?
  7. What's Layla about? Who is Layla?
  8. What's Wonderful tonight about? When was it written?
Help: you can listen to the story of these three songs pressing here (listening taken from English File Upper-Intermediate, Oxford University Press), but the document won' t open unless you write the correct password, which is the name of  Eric Clapton's little child (6 letters, no capital letters), who died in a terrible accident in 1991. His death also meant the writing of a precious song, which you can listen if you want: Tears in Heaven.

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These songs have to do with Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Find the answer to these questions and email us enviar

  1. Who is Angie and what did she have to do with David Bowie?
  2. What happened between Angie and Mick Jagger?
  3. What's Angie about?
  4. How did the whole end, according to Angie?
  5. What's the funny thing in the video of the song Dancing in the street? How do Jagger and Bowie behave in that video and why? 
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This song is a metaphor of the end of the golden, glorious rock'n'roll days. It is based on the death of  Buddy Holly ( who died together with Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper).
Google and  email us with the answers to the following questions: enviar

  1. Who was Buddy Holly and why was he important in the world of rock'n'roll?
  2. When and how did he die?
  3. When was American pie written? What is it about?
  4. What is the American pie a symbol of?
  5. What does "the day the music died" refer to?
  6. Which actress was known as the American pie in the 1950s?
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2. WHAT'S THE MATRIX?

Sure you' ve seen the famous film The Matrix  and, whether you like it or not,  you probably think it's just another action-packed movie with great visual effects and quite a messy and inconsistent at times plot...or not. Perhaps there's more in its guts than what comes to the eyes. Would you fancy to have a try and find out what the Matrix really is?

Watch it again and try to think and answer the following questions. Then send us an essay with your conclusions. enviar  
The film has been divided into six different sessions, each one corresponding approximately to 20-25 minutes, so that you can analyse it step by step.

SESSION 1. QUESTIONS.

1.    Names. What do they mean? Morpheus, Trinity, Neo, Agent Smith.
2.    What are Morpheus and Trinity trying to do?
3.    What does Neo do for a living?
4.    What does he do in his free/secret time?
5.    Why does Neo want to meet Morpheus?
6.    Does Neo blindly trust Trinity or is he reluctant to follow her? Why?
7.    What is Neo doing when he first appears on screen?
8.    What’s the first thing Trinity says  to Neo when contacting him through the computer?
9.    Is Trinity a “normal” person? Does she have special “powers”? Why?
10.    How does Trinity convince Neo to follow her? 

SESSION 2. QUESTIONS.

1.    What, according to Morpheus, is The Matrix?
2.    What happens after Neo takes the pill? Explain in your own words.
3.    Which would you have taken, the blue pill or the red one? Why?
4.    Why is it dangerous to “free” an adult? Why, then, did Morpheus free Neo, his being so old?

QUESTIONS. SESSION 3.

1.    What is Neo’s training for?
2.    Comment these sentences. What do they say to you?
       a.    If you can free your mind, the body will follow.
       b.    Everybody falls the first time.
       c.    If you never know failure, how can you know success?
       d.    The body cannot live without the mind.
       e.    Ignorance is bliss.
3.    What’s body, what’s mind, for you?
4.    Who represents Cypher in Christian tradition?

SESSION 4. QUESTIONS.

1.    What does Cypher throw to the dustbin? Why?
2.    What did the Oracle tell Morpheus when he went to her for the first time?
3.    The Oracle doesn’t tell Neo that he is the One. Why not?
4.    What does she tell him instead?
5.    Why does Cypher betray his colleagues?
6.    Comment these sentences. What do they mean for you?

       a.    It is not the spoon that bends. It's only yourself.
       b.    Know Thyself.
       c.    No one can tell you you're in love. You just know it.
       d.    It looks like you're waiting for something.

QUESTIONS. SESSION 5.

1.    What was the first Matrix designed for and why was it a disaster, according to Agent Smith?
2.    What do the agents want from Morpheus? What’s the solution for Trinity, Tank and Neo?
3.    What’s the choice Neo makes? (Referring to what the Oracle told him).
4.    What does Neo do for the first time when he is on the flat roof of the building where Morpheus is being held?
5.    “There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path”. Explain.
6.    Why doesn’t Neo turn away from Agent Smith?


QUESTIONS SESSION 6. FINAL SESSION.

1.    Does the Oracle prophecy come true? (“One of you- referring to Morpheus or Neo- is going to die...")
2.    Who saves Neo from final/absolute death and how?
3.    What is it called Neo’s coming back from death?
4.    Who did the same thing in Christian tradition?
5.    Matrix, the film, as a metaphor. A metaphor is a means to describe one thing in terms of another; example: “The pearls in your mouth”, referring to your teeth.
If  Matrix virtual world represents OUR WORLD, which would the world outside Matrix represent? Think carefully about this and explain your answer in a few lines.


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