Black Gold-Little fly Esperanza Spalding

Hold your head as high as you can
High enough to see who you are, little man
Life sometimes is cold and cruel
Baby no one else will tell you so remember that
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold
Now maybe no one else has ever told you so
But you're golden, baby
Black Gold with a diamond soul
Think of all the strength you have in you
From the blood you carry within you
Ancient men, powerful men
Builders of civilization
They'll be folks hell-bent on putting you down
Don't get burned
'Cause not necessarily everyone will know your worth
Think of all the strength you have in you
From the blood you carry within you
Ancient men, powerful men
Builders of civilization
Think of all the strength you have in you
Powerful, powerful men
Builders of civilization

Hold your head as high as you can
High enough to see who you are, little man
Life sometimes is cold and cruel
Baby no one else will tell you so remember that
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold
There'll be folks hell-bent on putting you down
Don't get burned
Not necessarily everyone will know your worth
Think of all the strength you have in you
From the blood you carry within you
Ancient men, powerful men
Builders of civilization
Think of all the strength you have in you
Powerful, powerful men
Builders of civilization

Hold your head as high as you can
High enough to see who you are, little man
Life sometimes is cold and cruel
Baby no one else will tell you so remember that
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold
Think of all the strength you have in you
From the blood you carry within you
Ancient men, powerful men
Builders of civilization
All the strength
All the blood
That you carry
Ancient men
Powerful men
In you
Builders of civilization

Hold your head as high as you can
High enough to see who you are, little man
Life sometimes is cold and cruel
Baby no one else will tell you so remember that
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold
You are Black Gold, Black Gold
You are Black Gold

Hold your head as high as you can
High enough to see who you are, little man
Life sometimes is cold and cruel
Baby no one else will tell you so remember that
You are Black Gold
You are Black Gold
You are
You are
You are
Hold your head up
Don't give up
You are Black Gold
You are
You are
Black Gold
Black Gold, Black Gold, Black Gold

Little fly

The summer's play

My thoughtless hand

Has brushed away

Am not I

A fly like thee

Or art not thou

A man like me

Little fly

For I dance

And drink and sing

Till some blind hand

Shall brush my wing

I thought is life

And strength and breath

And the want

Of thought is death

Little fly

Then am I

A happy fly

If I live

Or if I die

Open your ears!

 LISTENING

Audio webpages with exercises

http://www.esl-lab.com/ A wonderful page with  many excerpts graded by difficulty and topic and some vocabulary tips. They come with pre- listening exercises which we recommend you do to focus well on the listening task, you can check your answers on line. Start with the easy level before you try the medium one.

http://www.ellloplus.org/elllo_blog/ offers you the chance to look for content by topic (content), level, speaker and nationality. You’ll find complete listening lessons with activities that include multimedia, free MP3 files, vocab tasks, language notes, print page and more. Your level is intermediate so try low-intermediate first. You even have the possibility to download your  audio and listen to it offline.

http://www.listenaminute.com/ In this webpage, you will find 1 minute audio clips arranged by topic with a variety of exercises

http://dictationsonline.com/ Why don’t you try a dictation? here you will find a good graded selection. Listen to the whole passage first, then it is read slowly to allow time for writing, finally, you will be able to listen to the whole thing before you check.

http://www.lyricstraining.com/index.php is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your English through the music and lyrics of the songs.

http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00.htm

USED TO practice

exercise 1         

exercise 2           

exercise 3            

exercise 4

PART 1

VERB

I USED TO go on foot.

I DIDN'T USE TO drive a car.

DID YOU USE TO play games on your own?

PART 2

ADJECTIVE

I AM USED TO working hard.

I GOT USED TO sleeping less.

I AM GETTING USED TO living far from home.

exercise 1          exercise 2           exercise 3            exercise 4

Subject and object pronouns. (he vs. him)

try this on line exercise

Ellis Island 1892-1954

THINKING OF ALL THOSE BRAVE MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM AFRICA WHO TRIED AND TRY TO COME TO EUROPE BY ALL MEANS, AS IT WAS A PROMISE LAND, WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK!!!

A virtual trip to Ellis island

Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson and later a naval magazine. The island was made part of theStatue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and has hosted a museum of immigration since 1990. A 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found most of the island to be part of New Jersey. The south side of the island, home to the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is closed to the general public and the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island. The island has been closed to the public since Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 with re-opening date projected for 2014.

On the first day of January,

Eighteen Ninety-Two,

They opened Ellis Island and they let

the people through.

and the first to cross the threshold

of that Isle Of Hope And Tears,

was Annie Moore from Ireland

who was only fifteen years.

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears,
but it's not the Isle you left behind.
that Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain,
Isle you'll never see again
but the Isle of Home is always on your mind.

In a little bag she carried
all her past and history,
and her dreams for the future
in the Land of Liberty.
And courage is the passport
when your old world disappears
but there's no future in the past
when you're fifteen years

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,

Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears,

but it's not the Isle you left behind.

that Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain,

Isle you'll never see again

but the Isle of Home is always on your mind.

When they closed Down Ellis Island

in Nineteen Forty-Three,

Seventeen Million people

had come there for sanctuary.

And in springtime when I came here

and I stepped onto its piers,

I thought of how it must have been

when you're fifteen years.

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears,
but it's not the Isle you left behind.
that Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain,
Isle you'll never see again
but the Isle of Home is always on your mind.

Ellis Island, now a 27.5-acre site located just minutes off the southern tip of Manhattan Island, New York, is likely to connect with more of the American population than any other spot in the country. It has been estimated that nearly half of all Americans today can trace their family history to at least one person who passed through the Port of New York at Ellis Island. Now, nearly a century since the peak years of immigration, Ellis Island is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the National Park Service.