Ashton United F. C. Crest

 

Ashton United Football Club is a football club in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football, and play at Hurst Cross.

Non-League Ashton United claim to have made a cheeky bid to sign Erling Haaland on loan from neighbours Manchester City during the World Cup. With top-flight football taking a break for the global showpiece in Qatar, the prolific Haaland will be out of action in the coming weeks as Norway failed to qualify.

Ashton, of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, English football’s seventh tier, believe they can offer the striker the perfect solution to help him maintain his match fitness. “It just makes sense,” the Robins manager, Michael Clegg, told the club’s website. “City aren’t playing, and we want to help by keeping Erling fit. It makes more sense than him playing golf for six weeks."

“We think he will be a great fit for us and would slot in with our squad dynamic really well.”

Ashton, who are based six miles from City’s Etihad Stadium, are 11th in their division and were beaten 2-0 in front of a crowd of 622 at Gainsborough on Saturday. Haaland has scored 23 goals in 18 appearances for Premier League champions City since his £51m summer move from Borussia Dortmund.

Pep Guardiola said last week Haaland would be allowed some time off – which he expected him to split between a holiday in Marbella and a visit home to Norway – before returning to training in early December.

But now, ESO students, the important detail here... take a good look at Ashton United crest (the image at the top of this post):

Can you notice anything familiar in it?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Aspas: Simply the Best

Iago Aspas has been La Liga's best player, and best ambassador, this season

(by Sid Lowe, reblogged from ESPN)

You might not have heard about this, but Iago Aspas took a bad corner once, six-and-a-half years ago. He is top scorer in La Liga: corner. He has been directly involved in more goals and earned more points than anyone else in Spain: corner. In the past five years, he has scored more goals than any Spaniard, anywhere. More assists, too. Corner. Celta de Vigo have never, ever had a better player. Corner, though.

In that time, no one -- apart from Lionel Messi, that one-man footballing category, an outlier lying so far out he's off the graph -- has done what Aspas has done. Yeah, but no one has done a corner like him either.

He has just scored again, right now, as this is being written. Look it's there on the screen, the ball in the net at the Coliseum, where players like him are usually eaten for breakfast. Ah, but it's on this screen too. YouTube.com: Aspas corner.

You get the picture, and look, maybe it shouldn't matter. Maybe no one should go on about it anymore, still less write things like this anymore. And surely everyone knows that Aspas is actually good by now. Especially if they have been reading these pages, which you would like to think they have. Maybe it's not a thing.

Only ... it is a thing. And people do go on about it.

'Chacho man', by Sid Lowe

'Chacho man' makes Celta the most fun team to watch in Spain now

Since Eduardo Coudet took over, no one in La Liga has won more, scored more or conceded fewer. It is a new dawn

(Reblogged from The Guardian)

Eduardo Coudet was pissed off, getting angrier and more drunk by the minute. That Rosario Central had been beaten 4-0 in the first leg of the Copa Conmebol final was bad enough, but it was past two in the morning and he was still stuck inside an empty stadium, unable to escape the humiliation, left with nothing to do but dwell on it. That and drink. His name came up with Pablo Sánchez, sent to the anti-doping room together. But however hard they tried, however much beer they downed – and it was a lot – they couldn’t provide a sample. Time passed and Coudet got increasingly agitated: he was going to have them.

This wasn’t the place and certainly wasn’t the time so Sánchez tried to calm him down. Let’s make a promise, he said: if we turn this round, we’ll spend the night inside the ground, our ground. Incredibly, Rosario won the second leg 4-0, claiming their first international trophy on penalties. And, as the players celebrated in the dressing room, preparing to hit the town, Sánchez reminded Coudet they had a promise to fulfil. He went home and came back with a pizza, a torch and a radio. Together they sat in the centre circle wondering why they hadn’t thought up a better promise than this and waiting for the sun to rise, which it always does.

How to See Germs Spread

Please share this with anyone who doubts the science behind social distancing.Wash your hands people and stay at home, even if you're not in the at risk categories. Stay home for those people who are at risk.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

COVID-19 Quiz

ESO 2, 3 & 4 Students,

1 extra point up for grabs in the next unit test (whenever that text takes place...) to the student who sends to our e-mail the first full, complete, exact and correct answer (in English!) to the following question:

What does COVID-19 exactly stand for and why?

NB: This quiz is for our children, our students... not for their parents! 😠😠

Take care and stay safe! All the best!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Do you believe in superstitions?

Are you afraid of black cats? Would you open an umbrella indoors? How do you feel about the number 13? Would you walk under a ladder even if you had no other choice?

Whether or not you believe in them, you’re probably familiar with a few of these superstitions. But where did they come from? The narrator speaks about the weird and specific origins of some of our favorite superstitions.

Here is also a scene from a 3D animated movie about an unusual day in the life of a person who happens to be very superstitious.

 

Now it is time for you to test how superstitious you actually are! Click on the question below...

How Superstitious Are You?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Tears and cheers as Iago Aspas returns to save Celta Vigo again

(Reblogged from The Guardian)

It’s not that Iago Aspas is Celta’s best player; it is that, 

as this weekend demonstrated once again, Iago Aspas is Celta

In the end, it all became too much and Iago Aspas broke down and wept, slumped into his seat sobbing. One by one, his team-mates came to him, putting an arm around his heaving shoulders, taking it in turns to hold him. All around, they sang: 22,315 of them, people just like him, chanting his name. He sat, eyes red, and half-watched the final minutes of a match he had won, lost in his thoughts. Through his tears, football was a better place, more meaningful. Balaídos certainly was, signs of life at last – and this was life. Here was a glimpse of feeling and of salvation, something for Celta de Vigo to hold on to. Him, basically. Hope had returned but it hurt.

Saturday was always going to be significant and so was Aspas, but few expected it to end quite like this. In Vigo, they were celebrating the reconquest, when the city rose against Napoleon’s troops in 1809 but it was another reconquest that occupied many of them, and if the old town filled with people in 19th-century costume, carrying swords, guns and axes, bagpipes and drums, the streets around Balaídos filled with light blue shirts, flags and flares, the team bus edging to the ground through the smoke, scarfs swirling. Celta were in the relegation zone, 18th, four points from safety, and were playing 17th-placed Villarreal: opportunity but also obligation.

Football Quiz

1 point is up for grabs at the next Test for Unit 4 for the ESO student who sends the first correct answer to our email:

What football team does the shirt in the photograph above belong to?

NB: This quiz is for our students, NOT FOR THEIR PARENTS. Answers must be in English, of course, in correct English.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Unit 2 Quiz

1 point is up for grabs at the next Test for Unit 2 for the ESO student who sends the first correct answer to our email:

Who is the film character in the picture above and, most importantly, what is the origin and the inspiration of his name?

NB: This quiz is for our students, NOT FOR THEIR PARENTS. Answers must be in English, of course.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Riddle

A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and conundra, which are questions relying for their effects on punning in either the question or the answer.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

20 Things We Should Say More Often

I would definitely add "I love you".

Kid President believes the things we say can help make the world more awesome. Here he shares a special list of 20 things we should say more often. What would you add to it?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes.

Dzień dobry, Koszalin

Ten ESO 3 and ESO 4 students were lucky enough to spend one week in Koszalin, Poland, from 9^th to 16^th February, in the context of the Comenius Project that CPR Labor has been running for ten years now.

Let’s have a brief look at what Alejandro, Alicia, Diego, Iago, Iria, Jennifer, Meres, Pedro, Rubén and Santiago were up to with teachers Manuel and Raquel:

Simon's Cat

For those of you who like cats and especially for those who have this kind of pet, we’d like to introduce you to “Simon’s Cat”, a series of sketches with which you’ll certainly feel identified…

Info retrieved at: http://www.simonscat.com/About/

What is Simon's Cat? Simon’s Cat is a charming, yet mischievous cat that lives with Simon. He made his first appearance online, in a film called 'Cat Man Do'.  Since then he has also appeared in his own books, game and comic strip. Who is Simon Tofield? Simon is an English animator who has a great interest in British wildlife, painting, the great outdoors and of course cats. Simon started animating at a very young age. Inspired by cartoons on TV, he used to create basic flip-books in an attempt to emulate the techniques he saw being used on screen.

Play Station

TBWA Advertising Agency along with Play Station have launched a new campaign to raise public awareness. In this occasion, parents are encouraged to spend more time playing with their kids through the TV spot and the campaign behind it.

The TV commercial includes a catchy song with the aim of keeping children away from the couch for them to enjoy playing in various places: “in the kitchen, on the floor, on the table, at the door...” Lyrics are good to revise basic grammar aspects such as prepositions... ;)

Where the Hell is Matt?

Matt is a 36-year-old American guy who decided to quit his job as a game designer to travel until money ran out. Once, when travelling, his friend said: "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do your stupid dance. I'll record it." Matt did it, and he thought it looked pretty funny, so he kept on doing it everywhere he went.

That turned out to be a very good idea. He put the video of his dancing adventures on his blog (later on Youtube) and became famous as "That guy who dances on the internet”.

In the meantime, Matt got an email from a chewing gum company called Stride. They asked if he'd be interested in making another dancing video for them. This was only the beginning of a series of four different videos shot at various different places all around the world.

In his beginnings, he mostly just danced in front of iconic landmarks, but along the way he went to a country called Rwanda, and since there aren't any landmarks in Rwanda that you'd want to dance in front of, instead he just went to a small village and danced with a bunch of kids. The kids joined him immediately and without hesitation, and taught him that people are a whole lot more interesting than old landmarks and monuments.

The video below was released in June 2012. It was shot at 71 different locations, comprising 55 countries and 11 US states. The interesting thing about Matt’s videos is to be able to visually travel to many different countries in about 5 minutes, appreciating, in some cases, various aspects of their culture, architecture, environment or traditions.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Warner Bross and Universal Pictures present...

Dear students,

There’s only one month left to celebrate the 25^th December, aka Christmas Day. A good plan for this day, apart from spending it having those lavish dinners with the family, is to go to the cinema, in spite of the recent increase in prices that the big screen has suffered.

Literature has always been one of the main sources of inspiration for the development of movies. From LEZ, we’d like to recommend you two films which will be released precisely on Christmas Day this year, based on two key classic English and French literary works: The Great Gatsby and Les  Misérables.

In case you’d like to watch the movies in original version, there are some cinemas in Vigo which offer that possibility, such as Cines Yelmo and Multicines Norte. Nevertheless, we do not promise they’ll precisely screen these films in English...

An All Black in Galicia

Yesterday, Thursday 22nd September, C+ broadcast an excellent documentary ('Informe Robinson') on Vigo Rugby Club and Norm Maxwell. Maxwell, who played for the New Zealand national rugby team (the 'All Blacks') 36 times, left it all behind in his country to come to Vigo as joint manager of our university's rugby team.

Sundays

On 30th July 2010 at LEZ (Labor English Zone) we told you about 1000 Awesome Things, a website listing the small things that make us smile on a bad day which has become a worldwide hit. They have just published their number 275 wonderful thing (as they started counting back from 1000): Sundays.

We are sure most of you will like and agree with what they have written:

It’s a beautiful day.

Don’t let it get away.

Now whether you’re holding hands in church, running with your dog at the park, just taking a break from the world, or just sleeping in till it’s dark, well … Sunday’s a good time to relax and enjoy some smaller moments:

1. Worship the Sun and ice cream. The word Sunday was originally named after “Sun’s Day” — just like Monday was “Moon’s Day”, Saturday was “Saturn’s Day.” Now it’s come to include giant bowls of ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and nuts. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a chance to worship both on a wobbly picnic table on some sandy grass by the water.

2. Couch potatoes unite. Sunday is the perfect time to practice the ancient lost art of Completely Lazing Around. Curl up on the futon with your boyfriend during the ballgame, pop open a pizza box with your pals for kickoff, or flip the recliner beside Grandpa for a marathon session of bird chirps and whispers during golf.

3. I’ve got all my sisters with me. After wading through work and before diving back in again, it’s time to pause and enjoy quality time with your friends and family. Maybe it’s a holiday dinner at Grandma’s, maybe you’re visiting dad in the home, maybe you’re dining out at college, or maybe you’re laughing with friends on the phone.

Yes, sometimes if you’re lucky the world slows down a bit on Sundays. Today we say when those highways unjam, when phones quit their buzzing, when your tensions untangle … it’s time for some Sunday loving.

AWESOME!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

New Year's Day

"New Year's Day" is a song by rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven by Adam Clayton's distinctive bassline and The Edge's keyboard playing. It was the band's first UK hit single, peaking at #10 on the singles chart, #11 on the Dutch Top 40 and charting on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in their career. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at #427 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The video was one of their first to see heavy rotation on MTV. It was filmed in Sälen, Sweden in December 1982 and directed by Meiert Avis. The band only appeared in the performance scenes of the video as it was filmed in the dead of the Swedish winter. U2 guitarist Edge revealed in the official U2 biography that the four people riding on horseback in the video that appeared to be the four U2 members were in fact four Swedish teenage girls disguised as the members of U2 riding on horseback with masks over their faces. This was done as the band were frozen from shooting the video in sub-freezing temperatures the day before. Their biography states that Bono refused to wear any headgear despite the cold weather and had a lot of trouble mouthing the lyrics. The video also features footage of Soviet troops advancing in winter during World War II.

U2 allowed free-of-charge use of this song in a spot prepared by the European Commission. This clip published on YouTube shows a transformation of Poland in last 20 years mixed with short scenes from today’s Warsaw seen from a perspective of a 20-year-old woman.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Quiz:

Hi there, ESO Students!

10 points up for grabs valid for the 1st term to the student who sends the first correct answer to our mail. This is the quiz:

A man got up from his table in a restaurant and left a note for the waiter. This is what was written on the piece of paper:

I004I80

What do you think it means?

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.