In the Year 2020...

Week 21^st – 23^rd

Welcome back!

We finished our music quiz. Sergio and Jorge were the winners! They know more about music than Raquel and Loli. Or they were luckier, who knows?

Loli knew that Bob Marley died of cancer. The cancer started under his toe nail!

We also learnt some geographical facts:

·         Mount Makalu is higher than Annapurna.

·         The Pacific Ocean is bigger than the Atlantic.

·         Asia’s population is bigger than Africa’s.

·         The country East Timor is younger than Palua.

We made predictions and gave opinions about the year 2020.

·        You think that most people will do most of their shopping online.

·        Planes might be able to fly without pilots, although that sounds scary for some of you.

·        People may have computers inside their heads.

·        But you don’t think that robots will take over (assume control of) the world!

Will is used for predictions. May for possibility. Might is also used for possibility but it’s more tentatively (less certain) than may.

We use “be able to” when it’s impossible to use “can”.

·          I won’t be able to come to class next Monday. I won’t can…

·          I’d like to be able to speak Chinese. I’d like to can …

·          I love being able to lie in (stay in bed longer) on Sundays. I love + ing

·          I haven’t been able to find him anywhere. Have + participle

Can, could, be able to - exercises

Don’t forget to revise for the test:

·         Present simple, continuous, perfect.

·         Future simple, going to, present continuous.

·         Comparative and superlative adjs.

·         Quantifiers: too, enough, much, many, little, a few

·         “the” or no article.

A Song and Games

Week 7^th- 9^th April

Hi! How are you doing?

Fine, aren’t you? Me, too. Because next week is Easter and we’ll be on holiday. After such a long term, we really deserve (to have as a reward, to get something good) a holiday; don’t you think?

We started the week with music! Song: “Sk8ter boy” by Avril Lavigne.

He was a boy, she was a girl. He was a punk, she did ballet…

…she sits at home, feeding the baby, she’s all alone…

You can listen to the song here, and pay attention to the use of articles (the, a, an, no article)

Sk8ter Boi

We worked in pairs so as to complete a crossword by using definitions.

·         It’s a place where you …

·         It’s a person who …

·         It’s something you say / do when …

·         It’s the opposite of../ a kind / sort of…

·         It’s made of…

·         It’s used for…

We also practised making questions and answers so as to fill in the missing information we had on our pieces of paper.

We had to find out (discover) details about Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.

·         When was Keira born?

·         Who really was Orlando’s father?

·         How many films has Keira made since 2001?

·         Why did Orlando have a lot of problems at school?

·         How long has Keira lived in London?

We found out that both of them live in London. Both of them had problems because they’re dyslexic. Keira was born in Teddington and Orlando was born in Canterbury, (beautiful town, by the way); so, both of them are British. Both left school when they were teenagers and concentrated on acting.

If you want to know more about Canterbury, here you have their official website

Canterbury - Coast, city & countryside

You can do exercises on this topic on the following link:

Keira Knightley's Biography

Reading:

An Interview with Orlando Bloom

And we started a ‘Music Quiz’.

·         Which singer played football for Real Madrid?

·         Which group did Beyoncé sing in?

·         What kind of music did the ‘Sex Pistols’ sing?

·         When did MTV begin?

·         Who sang Philadelphia in the film of the same name?

Remember how we make questions in simple tenses in English:

               (Q)                      A                             S                           I   ?

(Question Word)       Auxiliary Verb         Subject            Infinitive?

 

Whose daughter            did                Michael Jackson    marry     in  1994?

But, what about…?

Which group sang ‘Losing my Religion’?

Which group did (where’s the subject?) sing ‘Losing my Religion’?

In this case the subject and the question word are the same; that’s why we don’t use the auxiliary. So, we make the question using the verb in a suitable tense depending if the question is present, past future…

When the question word is the subject in a question, we don’t use auxiliary verb.

Who painted ‘Guernica’?

Who did paint ‘Guernica’?

Which famous masterpiece did Picasso paint?

              Q                                    A       S        I    ?

We’ll have to wait until after Easter so as to know who the winners of our quiz are!

In the A- Team, Loli, Alex and Raquel gave these answers: 1a, 2a, 3b, 4b, 5a

In the B-Team, Sergio and Carlosl gave these answers: 1a, 2a, 3a, 4b, 5b

Anyway, enjoy your holidays, relax and we’ll see each other on Monday 21^st !!!

Institutions

Week 31^st – 2^nd April

Hi again!

We finished talking about differences between men and women.

Yes, women remember every outfit they have worn for the past two years. Men can’t remember what they were wearing yesterday.

Men appreciate the importance of a 42-inch plasma screen TV. Women do not. A man can choose and buy a pair of shoes in 90 seconds!

And etc.etc.

Yes, I know it isn’t easy to know which prepositions go with which verbs or adjectives.

It’s just a question of learning the verb together with the preposition. Don’t try to translate from Spanish because most of the times we use different prepositions.

·               What are you thinking of doing at the moment?

·               I’m not good at names. What about you?

·               He’s very different from his sister.

·               They definitely disagree with each other all the time.

·               She’s going to apply for a job. She wants to work as an interpreter.

·               How are they going to pay for their new car? They don’t have any money.

We read about “Symbols of Power” and did a listening quiz.

·        Did you know that the name of “ballot” comes from ball? At one time voters used a small black ball to vote in the elections.

·        Directions are used as symbols for political views.

·        Colours: blue is the colour of the U.N. (United Nations). It’s used as a protective sign so as not to be mistaken for the enemy. Red is the colour for socialism or communism. The colour green is related to the environment.

·        Government buildings are massive so as to remind the public of the great power of the state.

·        The five-pointed star is a very common symbol of military power.

·        Animals. Lions and eagles are very popular symbols because they represent strength.

As for grammar, we learnt that:

We don’t use the article with names of individual people. But we use the article with positions and organizations.

·        Did President Mandela meet the president of Tanzania?

·        Where’s the headquarters of the United Nations?

·        What’s the name of the president of the USA?

And don’t forget that we pronounce /ði:/ before vowel sound and /ðə/ before consonant sound.

The European Union                              The United Nations

/ði:/                                                       /ðə/

The Irish people                                    The president of Ecuador

/ði:/                                                       /ðə/

General Elections in the UK - Reading Quiz

Gap Filling text

We’ll learn more tomorrow! Bye!