Money, Money

Week 8^th – 10^th April

Easter is over.

I hope you had time for relaxing and also for doing your homework!

I heard from Gabi and he was glad with his exam. He was optimistic about it, so I think he must have passed.

Do you remember what we did in the week before Easter holidays?

We corrected a “Use of English” paper from a sample test. “Dinosaur Discoveries”, “The Best Books”, “Volunteer Project in Lesotho”, homonyms and rewriting.

As promised, we practised the “speaking” part for the FCE test.

 We talked about money.

Rich, affluent, loaded, wealthy and well-off are synonyms.

·         Which one is rather formal?

·         Which one is very informal?

·         Which one is often used in negative sentences?

Poor, hard up, penniless, broke are also synonyms.

·         Which one is informal?

·         Which one is informal but not used before a noun?

·         Which one is rather literary?

We also learnt some idioms related to money.

·         Do people nowadays find difficult to make ends meet?

·         Have you ever been in the red?

·         Is anybody in your family tight-fisted?

·         Do you know anybody who spends money like water?

·         Politicians think that citizens lived beyond their means and that was the beginning of their economic difficulties.

And we finished with a listening.

We listened to an interview with the vice president of Women’s World Banking.

She talked about how that bank lends money to women in developing countries as a means of making them more independent. In this way, women can also help in the household economy.

She gave three examples of how their bank helped three women in the DR (Dominican Republic), India and Jordan.

Would you like to listen to some songs related to money?

 Here's a link:

 Top 10 Money Songs

Adverb Collocations and Phrasal Verbs

We talked about and listened to sounds and noises.

• Which noise annoys you the most?
• The crunch of people eating crisps?
• The “hold” music on the telephone?
• People tapping the keyboard of their computer?
• The hum of the air conditioning?
• People slurping tea or coffee?

We practised pronunciation of consonant clusters. That is, the combination of two or more consonant sounds. E.g. screech, scream, mumbled etc.

We checked an exercise on adverb collocations and we did other exercises on the same subject and also, adverbs with two forms.

·         I desperately need a holiday!

·         I hate cold climates. I’m sorely tempted to emigrate somewhere warm.

·         Two people escaped unhurt the accident, but unfortunately the third passenger was fatally injured and died on the way to hospital.

·         Bad weather has severely affected the roads this weekend. Driving conditions are treacherous.(dangerous)

·         I work with a highly motivated sales team.

·         The remake of the film is eagerly awaited.

·         She gazed longingly (expectantly, wishfully) through the window, waiting for his return.

·         He deliberately broke (on purpose) the vase her mother in law had giving her for her birthday.

·         He worked conscientiously (with attention to detail, carefully) so as to pass his exams.

·         He apologized profusely (repetitively) when she realized the mistake she had made.

Adverbs with two forms.

·         Manchester won the match easily.

·         Relax! Take it easy!

·         “Can you lend me some money?” Sure! (of course)

·         Surely (tell me I’m right) you can see that your plan just wouldn’t know.

·         She has travelled widely (extensively) in Europe and Asia.

·         When I got home, the door was wide opened.

We carried on with noises, sounds and the human voice.

We did a listening comprehension trying to identify different noises and making up stories or just writing sentences including the “noise” words.

·         We heard a clock ticking, a man snoring, a mosquito buzzing…the man groaned, “Oh, no!” and he banged the mosquito.

·         We could hear street noise, a woman yelling “He’s got my bag”,a door slamming, a car driving off ,cars hooting, the screech of brakes and… a car crash!

·         …the wind was whistling, an owl was hooting, a man and a woman were whispering, we could hear a creaking door opening and the woman screaming…

As you were a bit fed up of noise, we also did a Reading paper.

·         How useful is the term “Non-verbal expression”?

·         Public speaking.

·         Iowa State University: Business and Technical Communication.

·         Chocolate cake wars.

·         Fake art meets real money.

·         Offshore vestments.

And  we finished the week with a speaking game on phrasal verbs.

·         I remember a job opportunity I turned down (rejected). I shouldn’t have.

·         Most teenagers never get round to (find the time to) tidying their rooms.

·         Have you ever nodded off (fall sleep for a little while) in English class?

·         Living in an English speaking country is a good way to brush up (improve, make better) your English.

·         Who usually washes up in your home? Who tidies up? Who messes it up?

·         Do you throw away (discard, put into the rubbish) old clothes, books, etc. or do you hang on to them (keep)?

We’ll continue this evening. We’ll practise speaking for Gabi’s sake!

Gabi, take it easy! Don’t feel stressed out by tomorrow’s test, calm down (relax)

We’ll be supporting you!

Good Luck! You’re going to pass!