Working hard...

These last weeks have been really intensive!

And in part is due to our new classmate because he’s working really hard so as to sit his CAE exam (take in or sit an exam) in March! Daniel you are making us work really hard!

Don’t misunderstand us! We are not complaining because it’s good practice.

By the way, welcome to our class!

Week 18^th – 20^th

We went on working really hard!

That week we focused on the “Use of English” part.

It consists of five parts.

Part 1- Multiple - choice text

Part 2- Gapped- text

Part 3- Word building

Part 4- Homonyms

Part 5- Rewriting

We also did the reading part.

Part 1- Three extracts from a scientific research background. Multiple choice answers.

Part 2- An extract from a magazine article where six paragraphs had been removed.

Part 3 - Newspaper article. Also, multiple choice answers.

Part 4- Reviews of crime novels. Choosing from the reviews so as to answer the questions.

We revised some idioms with “out of”

·         When do you feel out of breath?

·         How long have they been out of work?

·         Did you know that a translator computer translated the expression “out of sight, out of mind” into “invisible, insane”?

·         Is this information out of date?

As well as “Animal Idioms”

·         Have you ever talked until the cows came home? Who with?

·         When you buy a bargain, it usually smells a rat!

·         My daughter is so clumsy! She’s like a bull in a China shop!

·         The problem with teenagers is that they don’t pay any attention to your advice. Talking to them is like water off a duck’s back!

·         The atmosphere at work was OK until somebody set the cat among the pigeons and rumours got to the boss.

Finally, could you make the difference between these pair of words?

Policy /politics      economic/ economics    economy/economies    safety/ security        

take over / overtake            complimentary / complementary  

Specially / especially

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv265.shtml

I hope you get lots of stamina (energy) because this week promises to be really intensive, too!

Week 11^th – 13^th

We had a second listening. A full listening part, too.

It seemed to me that this time it was easier for you. According to Eduardo the parts that were easier in the previous listening, were more difficult in this one and viceversa.

Here you are the listening links, in case you want to go through them again!

http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_listening1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_listening2.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_listening3.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_listening4.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_listening5.htm

We extended our knowledge of “get”.

We read about women who “got their own back”! (took revenge)

Hot verb: “GET”

+ Adjective or participle	Different meanings	As a phrasal verb
Get dark	Get a paper (buy)	Get on with (have a good relationship / manage)
Get ready	Get a taxi ( call)	Get out of (avoid doing)
Get old	Get an email (receive)	Get through (contact by phone)
Get angry	Get help (find help)	Get up ( rise from bed)
Get married	Get to (arrive)	Get at (reach, imply)
Get lost		Get over (recover)

And don’t forget the passive meaning: “I got my hair cut yesterday”

Nor the expressions:

Get in touch and get in my nerves!

How do you get in touch with your friends? By email, phone or personally?

Which things get on your nerves? (can’t stand, can’t bear)?

We definitely got a lot in our plates!

Phrasal verbs with "get"

And also we had some exercises on “make” and “do”

Could you do me a favour?

Can I make a phone call from your office? My mobile is dead!

Do you really think that the only goal of doing business is making a profit so as to make a lot of money?

My suitcase is full! Can you make room in yours so as to carry these bottles of wine for me?

See you tomorrow!