MAGICAL OBJECTS IN HOGWARTS, THE PRANK OBJECTS

Today, The Weasleys & The Grandma have been reading about some magical objects that you can find in Hogwarts, the prank ones. Before this, they have practised The Passive in English and some vocabulary.

 

More info: The Passive

 

DL The Passive Tenses

 

DL Money and Shopping

 

DL Living Space

 

DL Personal Matters

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Prank objects from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes are made and designed by the owners of the shop, Fred and George, who test their new creations on themselves and other Hogwarts students.

-Weasley's Wild-fire Whiz-Bangs are enchanted fireworks that have overly spectacular and remarkable effects. In the books, they are engineered to not generate any amounts of heat, light, or noise that could be harmful. In the film of Order of the Phoenix, however, the fireworks create a large fiery dragon that attacks Umbridge, burning her and leaving her covered in soot.

-Skiving Snackboxes are sweets that are designed to make the eater temporarily ill in order to skip or skive off class. Each variety of Snackboxes causes a different effect, such as vomiting, fainting or developing nosebleeds. One end of the sweet causes the malady, while the other end subsequently cures it. The snackboxes include: Nosebleed Nougat, Fever Fudge, Fainting Fancies, Blood Blisterpods and Puking Pastilles.

-Patented Daydream Charms are kits that put the user into a realistic 30-minute daydream which they imagine, and can easily be customised so as to be fitted into any lesson.

-A Headless Hat creates a limited field of invisibility that covers the wearer's head, giving them the appearance of not having a head. Its counterpart is a Shield Hat, which deflects minor hexes and curses. Though Fred and George design the Shield Hat to be a trick item, Ministry officials are impressed by its practical value and order 500 of them for the protection of the Aurors. Shield Cloaks and Shield Gloves are also on sale following the Shield Hat's success.

-Trick Wands are magical fake wands that turn into a silly item (rubber chickens, tin parrots, etc.) when someone tries to use them. More expensive varieties beat the unwary user about the head and neck.

-Ton-Tongue Toffees make the eater's tongue temporarily grow to an alarmingly large size, as read about in Goblet of Fire when Fred accidentally drops some in front of Dudley, who subsequently eats one they forgot to retrieve.

-Canary Creams make the eater turn briefly into a large canary; when the effect wears off, the person moults and returns to normal.

-U-No-Poo causes the consumer to have constipation, or as Fred and George refer to it: The constipation sensation that's gripping the nation. Its name is a play on You-Know-Who, commonly used to refer to Voldemort.

-Extendable Ears are long flesh-coloured strings, one end of which is inserted into a user's ear and the other end placed further away towards a conversation or sound. Much like a listening device, the user will be able to hear the sounds as if they were much closer to the source. They were first introduced by Fred and George Weasley in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when they used the ears to listen to the Order's meetings, until one was destroyed (and eaten) by Crookshanks.

-Portable Swamps are, as the name suggests, realistic pop-up swamps. They were first seen in Order of the Phoenix after Umbridge is named Headmistress. Fred and George set one off in a corridor, partly as a distraction for Umbridge so Harry can use her fireplace, and partly to just cause general mayhem. They seem to be reasonably difficult to remove: Umbridge cannot remove it and forces Filch to punt students across, while Professor Flitwick vanishes it almost instantly later on in the novel. He leaves a small patch untouched as a tribute to Fred and George, who have left Hogwarts by this point.

-Decoy Detonators are described as black horn type objects that will run out of sight, and make a noise giving the user a good distraction. Introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. First used by Harry while breaking into Dolores Umbridge's office at the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

-Guaranteed Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher

-Pygmy Puffs (miniature Puffskeins)

-Edible Dark Marks

There are also prank items which the Weasleys import from elsewhere, such as:

-Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, which throws an area into darkness that cannot be penetrated by wand light or any magical means, although the effect wears off in a few minutes. Draco Malfoy uses it to avoid members of Dumbledore's Army in Half-Blood Prince. It is also used in the Half-Blood Prince film by Harry in order to gain access to the luggage space above Draco Malfoy's table on the Hogwarts Express.

More information: Wizarding World

Zonko's Joke Shop

Zonko's Joke Shop was a favourite place for Hogwarts students to shop on Hogsmeade trips. It carried jokes and tricks to fulfil even Fred and George's wildest dreams. Such products include Hiccough Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap, and Nose-Biting Teacups. Fred and George tried to buy the place to expand their shop in Hogsmeade during Harry's sixth year, but they turned it down due to the dark times coming up.

Other prank objects

Other prank objects include Belch Powder, Dungbombs (which explode and cause a large and extremely smelly mess), and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs (which hit their target repeatedly after being thrown). Fanged Frisbees are quite literally normal Frisbees with fangs and are first mentioned in Goblet of Fire as one of Filch's newest restricted items during Dumbledore's start-of-term speech. However, they make their first appearance in Half-Blood Prince when Ron whirled one around the Gryffindor common room, it changed course with a mind of its own, and took a bite out of a tapestry. Most of these objects are banned at Hogwarts due to the possibility of injury.

More objects include Screaming Yo-Yos, which scream very loudly when worked, and Stink Pellets, which are used to distract prefects and teachers, and give a most unpleasant smell.

More information: Wizarding World

Special discounts to Hogwarts students
who swear they're going to use our products
to get rid of this old bat.

George Weasley

WEST SIDE STORY, THE JETS & THE SHARKS IN THE UPPER

Today, The Grandma has visited the Upper West Side.

Meanwhile, The Newtons have continued preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied The Passive.

More information: The Passive

The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighbourhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West Side is adjacent to the neighbourhoods of Hell's Kitchen to the south, Columbus Circle to the southeast, and Morningside Heights to the north.

Like the Upper East Side opposite Central Park, the Upper West Side is an affluent, primarily residential area with many of its residents working in commercial areas of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Similarly to the Museum Mile district on the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side is considered one of Manhattan's cultural and intellectual hubs, with Columbia University and Barnard College located just to the north of the neighbourhood, the American Museum of Natural History located near its center, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School located at the south end.

The Upper West Side is bounded on the south by 59th Street, Central Park to the east, the Hudson River to the west, and 110th Street to the north. The area north of West 96th Street and east of Broadway is also identified as Manhattan Valley. The overlapping area west of Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Park was once known as the Bloomingdale District.

From west to east, the avenues of the Upper West Side are Riverside Drive, West End Avenue (11th Avenue), Broadway, Amsterdam Avenue (10th Avenue), Columbus Avenue (9th Avenue), and Central Park West (8th Avenue). The 66-block stretch of Broadway forms the spine of the neighborhood and runs diagonally north–south across the other avenues at the south end of the neighborhood; above 78th Street Broadway runs north parallel to the other avenues.

Broadway enters the neighbourhood at its juncture with Central Park West at Columbus Circle (59th Street), crosses Columbus Avenue at Lincoln Square (65th Street), Amsterdam Avenue at Verdi Square (71st Street), and then merges with West End Avenue at Straus Park (aka Bloomingdale Square, at 107th Street).

Traditionally the neighbourhood ranged from the former village of Harsenville, centered on the old Bloomingdale Road (now Broadway) and 65th Street, west to the railroad yards along the Hudson, then north to 110th Street, where the ground rises to Morningside Heights. With the construction of Lincoln Center, its name, though perhaps not the reality, was stretched south to 58th Street.

More information: Trevor

With the arrival of the corporate headquarters and expensive condos of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, and the Riverside South apartment complex built by Donald Trump, the area from 58th Street to 65th Street is increasingly referred to as Lincoln Square by realtors who acknowledge a different tone and ambiance than that typically associated with the Upper West Side. This is a reversion to the neighbourhood's historical name.

The long high bluff above useful sandy coves along the North River was little used or traversed by the Lenape people. A combination of the stream valleys, such as that in which 96th Street runs, and wetlands to the northeast and east, may have protected a portion of the Upper West Side from the Lenape's controlled burns; lack of periodic ground fires results in a denser understory and more fire-intolerant trees, such as American Beech.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Upper West Side-to-be contained some of colonial New York's most ambitious houses, spaced along Bloomingdale Road. It became increasingly infilled with smaller, more suburban villas in the first half of the nineteenth century, and in the middle of the century, parts had become decidedly lower class.

In the 1900s, the area south of 67th Street was heavily populated by African-Americans and supposedly gained its nickname of San Juan Hill in commemoration of African-American soldiers who were a major part of Theodore Roosevelt's assault on Cuba's San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. 

By 1960, it was a rough neighbourhood of tenement housing, the demolition of which was delayed to allow for exterior shots in the film musical West Side Story. Thereafter, urban renewal brought the construction of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Towers apartments during 1962–1968.

The Upper West Side is a significant Jewish neighbourhood, populated with both German Jews who moved in at the turn of last century, and Jewish refugees escaping Hitler's Europe in the 1930s. Today the area between 85th Street and 100th Street is home to the largest community of young Modern Orthodox singles outside of Israel. However, the Upper West Side also features a substantial number of non-Orthodox Jews. A number of major synagogues are located in the neighbourhood, including the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States, Shearith Israel; New York's second-oldest and the third-oldest Ashkenazi synagogue, B'nai Jeshurun; Rodeph Sholom; the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue; and numerous others.

More information: Untapped Cities

West Side Story is a 1961 American musical romantic drama film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. 

With a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, the film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same title, which in turn was inspired by Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris, and was photographed by Daniel L. Fapp in Super Panavision 70. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Released on October 18, 1961, through United Artists, the film received high praise from critics and viewers, and became the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (in addition to a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a musical.  

West Side Story is regarded as one of the greatest musical films of all time.

The film has been deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1997.

A second film adaptation of the same name by Steven Spielberg was released on December 10, 2021; it was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and six other Oscar nominations, winning one Oscar for DeBose's performance.

It stars Ansel Elgort as Tony, Rachel Zegler as Maria and Ariana DeBose as Anita; Moreno returns as a new character, Valentina, who is Doc's widow.

More information: Rogert Ebert

I was miserable in West Side Story.
They really miscast me.
I came from the Midwest;
what they really needed was
a guy that was street smart.
The first time I saw the movie,
I had to walk out.
I looked like the biggest fruit
that ever walked on to film.
My character was so weak.

Richard Beymer

GUANACOS & CHULENGOS, LLAMAS IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Today, The Stones and The Grandma have been riding guanacos, a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. It has been an amazing experience that they will never forget. 

Before riding guanacos, the family has been revising The Passive in Present and Past.

The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Its name comes from the Quechua word huanaco, modern spelling wanaku. Young guanacos are called chulengos.

Guanacos stand between 1.0 and 1.3 m at the shoulder, body length of 2.1 to 2.2 m and weigh 90 to 140 kg. Their color varies very little, unlike the domestic llama, ranging from a light brown to dark cinnamon and shading to white underneath. Guanacos have grey faces and small, straight ears.

Guanacos are one of the largest terrestrial mammals native to today's South America. Other terrestrial mammalian megafauna to weigh similar to or exceed guanaco include the tapirs, the marsh deer, the white-tailed deer, the spectacled bear, and the jaguar.

Guanacos have thick skin on their neck, a trait also found in their domestic counterparts, the llama and in their relatives, the wild vicuña and domesticated alpaca. This protects their neck from predator attacks. Bolivians use the neck-skin of these animals to make shoes, flattening and pounding the skin to be used for the soles. In Chile, hunting is allowed only in Tierra del Fuego, where the only population not classified as endangered in the country resides. Between 2007 and 2012, 13,200 guanacos were legally hunted in Tierra del Fuego.

More information: The Passive

Guanacos are often found at high altitudes, up to 4,000 meters above sea level, except in Patagonia, where the southerly latitude means ice covers the vegetation at these altitudes. For guanacos to survive in the low oxygen levels found at these high altitudes, their blood is rich in red blood cells. A teaspoon of guanaco blood contains about 68 billion red blood cells -four times that of a human.

Guanaco fiber is particularly prized for its soft, warm feel and is found in luxury fabric.

The guanaco's soft wool is valued second only to that of the vicuña. The pelts, particularly from the calves, are sometimes used as a substitute for red fox pelts, because the texture is difficult to differentiate. Like their domestic descendant, the llama, the guanaco is double-coated with coarse guard hairs and a soft undercoat, the hairs of which are about 16–18 µ in diameter and comparable to the best cashmere.

Guanacos inhabit the steppes, scrublands and mountainous regions of South America. They are found in the altiplano of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, and in Patagonia, with a small population in Paraguay.

In Argentina they are more numerous in Patagonian regions, as well as in places such as Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. In these areas, they have more robust populations, since grazing competition from livestock is limited.

Guanaco responded to forage availability, occupying zones with low to intermediate food availability in the breeding season, and those with the highest availability in the non-breeding season. Estimates, as of 2011, place their numbers at 400,000 to 600,000; 466,000–520,000 in Argentina, 150-200 in Bolivia, 66,000 in Chile, 100 in Paraguay, 3,500 in Peru. A small introduced population exists on Staats Island in the Falkland Islands, with a population of around 400 as of 2003.

More information: Animal Diversity

Guanacos live in herds composed of females, their young, and a dominant male. Bachelor males form separate herds. While reproductive groups tend to remain small, often containing no more than 10 adults, bachelor herds may contain as many as 50 males. When they feel threatened, guanacos alert the herd to flee with a high-pitched, bleating call. The male usually runs behind the herd to defend them. They can run at 56 km per hour, often over steep and rocky terrain. They are also excellent swimmers. A guanaco's typical lifespan is 20 to 25 years.

Natural predators of the guanaco include pumas and foxes. When threatened, they alert the rest of the herd with a high-pitched bleating sound, which sounds similar to a short, sharp laugh. Though typically mild-mannered, guanacos often spit when threatened, and can do so up to a distance of six feet.

Mating season occurs between November and February, during which males often fight violently to establish dominance and breeding rights.

Eleven-and-a-half months later, a single chulengo is born. Chulengos are able to walk immediately after birth. Male chulengos are chased off from the herd by the dominant male around one year of age.

Guanacos have long been thought to be the parent species of the domesticated llama, which was confirmed via molecular phylogenetic analysis in 2001, although the analysis also found that domestic llamas had experienced considerable cross-hybridization with alpacas, which are descended from the wild vicuña.

More information: Nathab

We all have a responsibility
to protect endangered species,
both for their sake and for the sake of
our own future generations.

Loretta Lynch

THE MARINE IGUANA OF THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS

The Jones with some iguanas

This morning, The Jones have decided to visit the beautiful beaches of Santa Cruz Island. After their meeting with some scientists who explained them the last researching in the islands, the family has decided to go to the beach to relax, to study some English and to discover the wonderful world of the marine iguana.

The family has revised The Passive in Present and Past Simple and have read another new chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Finally, the family has been talking about the difficulties of working in some environments, the bureaucratic rules that difficult our work and the obsession of a great part of the society of getting as money as they without any kind of ethics or responsibility. 

More information: The Passive-Present Simple & The Passive-Past Simple

The Grandma has offered her opinion about her lifestyle where money is something necessary to survive in a capitalist system but it mustn't be the centre of our lives, a place destined for real important things like family, friends and health. She has been also talking about the importance of reading the documents from the beginning to the end and has remembered her old times studying phonetics with some spectrograms, an incredible tool to identified voices, sound and messages.

Download The Passive

This afternoon, the family is enjoying the Ecuadorian beaches and they are listening incredible and amazing stories told by Claudia Jones who is an expert in The Galápagos Islands and who has invited the family to taste some of the best Ecuadorian chocolates. Thanks a lot, Claudia!

The marine iguana or Amblyrhynchus cristatus, also known as the Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to forage in the sea, making it a marine reptile. 

This iguana feeds almost exclusively on algae and large males dive to find this food source, while females and smaller males feed during low tide in the intertidal zone. They mainly live in colonies on rocky shores where they warm after visiting the relatively cold water or intertidal zone, but can also be seen in marshes, mangrove and beaches.

More information: Galápagos Conservation

Marine iguanas vary in appearance between the different islands and several subspecies are recognized. Although relatively large numbers remain and it is locally common, this protected species is considered threatened.

Joaquín Jones is diving in the Galápagos Sea

Its generic name, Amblyrhynchus, is a combination of two Greek words, Ambly- from Amblus (ἀμβλυ) meaning blunt and rhynchus (ρυγχος) meaning snout. Its specific name is the Latin word cristatus meaning crested, and refers to the low crest of spines along the animal's back.

Researchers theorize that land iguanas, genus Conolophus, and marine iguanas evolved from a common ancestor since arriving on the islands from Central or South America, presumably by rafting. The land and marine iguanas of the Galápagos form a clade, and the nearest relative of this Galápagos clade are the Ctenosaura iguanas of Mexico and Central America. The marine iguana diverged from the land iguanas some 8–10 million years ago, which is older than any of the extant Galápagos islands. 

It is therefore thought that the ancestral species inhabited parts of the volcanic archipelago that are now submerged. The two species remain mutually fertile in spite of being assigned to distinct genera, and they occasionally hybridize where their ranges overlap, resulting in the so-called hybrid iguana of South Plaza Island.

More information: World Wild Life

My favorite animal on the Galapagos is the Galapagos Marine Iguana. The first rule of iguana-dom is that iguanas hate the water, 

yet somehow, these poor iguanas landed there and had to figure it out. 

Michael Bastian

FROM BUCKINGHAM PALACE TO HOGWARTS

Queen Elizabeth II

Yesterday, The Holmes were revising several aspects of grammar: Pronouns, Connectors, Verb Tenses, Vocabulary, The Passive… it was an intensive day.

More information: Possessive Pronouns

The family is enjoying these last days together. Next March, 8 to commemorate the Women’s Day, the English sessions will finish.

More information: Subject & Object Pronouns

Meanwhile, they continue visiting the most important London’s sights. Today, the family has received the visit of four men from Liverpool. They have been singing their hits. After, the family has gone to Buckingham Palace where an old lady, near 90, had met them to have tea and eat British cookies. It has been an interesting afternoon.

Finally, they have gone to Platform 9 ¾ in King’s Cross Station where they've taken their tickets to travel to Hogwarts where Harry and his friends are waiting for them.

 Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time 

when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.

Albus Dumbledore

BUILDING CITIES: PAST IS FUTURE

James Bond

Tonight, The Holmes are in the theatre watching The Phantom of The Opera. They’re excited and they’re enjoying the show.

This morning, the family has received the visit of a mysterious man called Bond, James Bond, who has offered his service to them. The family has been grateful with him but they needn’t anyone because M. Carmen is a great professional and it’s enough.

They continue working with their English classes and they’ve revised The Passive and some connectors. They’ve worked with long and difficult texts to practise in better conditions thinking in their future PET exam.

More information: PET Listening

More information: PET Reading

More information: PET Writing

More information: PET Speaking 

Finally, they’ve studied Third Conditional and they’ve talked about Ildefons Cerdà, a very important engineer who created “L’Eixample” in Barcelona a very beautiful design plenty of octagonal groups of houses which remind the ancient Roman cities with Cardum and Decumanum.

More information: Third Conditional Exercises 

More information: Because/Because of Exercises

Great effects do not always arise from great causes. Small causes especially when they provide mutual support and assistance, often manage to produce effects of the greatest significance, as much within the physical as in the moral order. The challenge, in such cases, lies in finding and identifying there small causes and knowing how to give them the importance they deserve. This cannot be impoverished but is always the product of time, observation, and study.

Ildefons Cerdà, The Five Bases of the General Theory of Urbanization

THE HOLMES, BRITISH STYLE

Leo Messi

The Holmes have been continuing their visit to London. They’ve been in the British Museum; climbed Tower Bridge and gone to the Tower of London. They have driven by bus and by taxi and they’ve sailed through the Thames.

They are intensive days and they are taking profit of everything when they visit these emblematic places.

Yesterday, the family went to the Emirates Stadium to watch a football match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona. The Grandma was very happy with the final score and to celebrate it, she invited all the family to drink and dance in a private party in 221B, Baker Street where they were talking about Past Perfect and sharks, playing to guess characters and remembering Rosa’s TV appearances.

More information: Past Perfect Exercises

Today, the family has continued its English classes studying some passive forms and practising with a PET exam example.

More information: The Passive

Tomorrow, they are going to read another chapter of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and continue with passive forms.

More information: PET Samples

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Our love we can not hide
Our hearts are open wide
To cheer you along the way