Cold front approached Brazil

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A severe cold front is expected to reach Brazil this week.

And it’s so good when we can talk about the things that are happening around us in English, don’t you agree? So notice the nouns related to weather, and the verbs we combine with them.

Heavy rain is forecast for this week, and a large mass of polar air is expected to make it snow in some cities in Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul by Wednesday evening.

The cold front is also going to hit the Southeast, Center-West, and even some northern states.

In the next few days, temperatures will drop between 8 and 10 degrees. The relative humidity, the gusts of wind, the frost, and, consequently, the wind chill factor will make us feel the cold even more intense.

To learn how to talk about the weather click on What’s the weather like?

You’ve got a friend…

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Wow! Four months already! The virus, safety measures, lockdown, herd immunity, work from home, remote classes, feelings, good messages, songs, a poem… All that to give you content and language support to get through this challenging time of our lives. And support is something that a true friend gives us when we need. So, here it goes:

This is You’ve Got A Friend performed by the worldwide cast of Beautiful (in quarantine) for The Actors Fund.

Listening to this song is good enought, but to make it even better, go to lyricstraining, select a game mode from beginners to expert, and work on the lyrics! It’s so fun and it’s a super way of learning and practicing your English!

“When you’re down…” You know what ‘down’ means! We have already looked at that! So now, enjoy the song!

Saying email addresses

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When you say an email address:

Remember that @ is pronounced ‘at’ and . is pronounced ‘dot’: reservations@beachhotelbern.com is ‘reservations at beach hotel bern dot com’.

Sometimes there is a . in the person’s name: jeffery.amherst@britishcouncil.org is ‘jeffery dot amherst at british council dot org’.

_ in an email address is called ‘underscore’: teaching_ job@english_academy.com is ‘teaching underscore job at English underscore academy dot com’.

Lockdown and uncertainties

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About four months ago, our governor, here in one of the southernmost states in Brazil, ordered a lockdown. The Coronavirus COVID-19 nightmare was just reaching this part of the world.

Since then, we have been learning many words, expressions, idioms, in order to be able to speak about the virus, herd immunity, safety measures, our new routines, work from home, remote learning, emotional responses… Videos, songs, poems, jokes, which refer to the pandemic, that inform, entertain or motivate us.

Scroll down andreaalthoff.com.br, if you want to review them.

The pandemic came, and apparently is at its peak now, or not… There’s a lot of controversy about it.

We were placed on lockdown one more time about a week ago, but it was already lifted. So, Blumenau is not in lockdown anymore.

“When major decisions must be made amid high scientific uncertainty, as is the case with Covid-19, we can’t afford to silence or demonize professionals with different views. Even worse, we can’t allow questions of science, medicine, and public health to become captives of politics. Misinformation about Covid-19 is abundant and today, more than ever, we need vigorous academic debate.

Since Covid-19 first emerged at the end of 2019, thousands of scientists have been working to answer fundamental questions. How lethal is it? How many people have already had it? If so, are they now immune? What drugs can fight it? What can societies do to slow it? What happens when we relax our public health interventions? Can we develop a vaccine to stop it?

Scientists agree that it will take 18 months or longer to develop a vaccine. Even for cloth masks, we see arguments on both sides.

Some believe that nations which instituted social distancing but with fewer lockdown restrictions, are pursuing the wisest course — at least for that country — while others favor the strictest lockdown measures possible. We think it is important to hear, consider, and debate these views without hostility.”

So, here we are! What do you think about all this? How do you feel about it?

This text contains excerpts from the article https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/27/hear-scientists-different-views-covid-19-dont-attack-them/, which were selected with the solely purpose of providing a basis for class discussion, through vocabulary learning and practice of an issue we’re all experiencing. A couple of more difficult words were replaced by more easier ones, to facilitate understanding.