What's the key to success in life?

What is your understanding of success in life? Is it a career, a happy family, fulfilled goals? Maybe a nice amount of money in your bank account?
What is it that decides that you are successful in life? Is it your intelligence? Talent? Luck? Good grades at school? Character? Maybe a combination of all of them? The scientists have long thought that it could be the intelligence, but they are not so sure now. They begin to understand that the key to success is something they call a 'grit'. What is it? Watch this short video and find out.

 Key to success

Do you agree with them? Do you know anyone who has it and is really successful despite not scoring high on IQ tests? Share below

The (Present) Perfect Song!

Ah, Present Perfect! The mysterious and incomprehensible tense that gives headache to so many students of English. Rather than remembering the formulas (although they are useful sometimes!) when to use Present Perfect, see it in action!  The Irish rock band, U2, have created a perfect song in Present Perfect. It tells a story of what a person has done so far in their lives in search of their happiness.

So every time you want to talk about of what you have done so far in your life, just think about this song!

*** PS. Can you spot a mistake with past participle in the song?

To practise the use of the tense, please follow the links:

Create positive sentences
Create negative sentences
Sentences with 'never'
Create questions
Present Perfect vs Past Simple Quiz

The Passive Voice- who ate whom???

Did the cat eat the mouse? Or did the mouse eat the cat? I have never heard of a mouse that ate a cat, but you never know! :)

Compare:

The cat ate the mouse. (Active voice- we emphasize that the the cat is doing the action of eating)

The mouse was eaten by the cat. (Passive voice- the cat is still doing the action of eating but we emphasize the fact that it was the mouse is receiving the action. Poor mouse, it's dead.) 

Passive Voice is  formed by 'to be' and past participle. Remember that you need to keep the tense when you change the sentence from the Active to the Passive voice, like in the example above.

Active Voice: The cat ate the mouse. ('ate' is the Past Simple of the verb 'to eat')

Passive Voice: The mouse was eaten by the cat. ('was' is the Past Simple of the verb 'to be', we keep the tense; 'eaten' is past participle). 

Below you have a quiz. The first sentence in is the Active Voice. Select the correct sentence in the Passive Voice. Remember the tenses need to match.

by mariolahejduk

Below you have some links to practise Passive Voice:

Various tenses in Passive
Active or Passive?
Plenty of other online exercises here

Pure emotions- what are the best words to describe them?

Have a look at this beautiful video showing 20 strangers who were asked to kiss for the first time. What emotions accompany these people? Is is excitement, happiness, nervousness? Do the have butterflies in their stomachs? Are they bundles of nerves? Are they on cloud nine?

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you watch the people? Maybe you have an idiom in your own language that describes their emotions- can you translate it to English? Post your comments here to build a bank of vocabulary describing feelings and emotions!

20 complete strangers were asked to kiss for the first time