Use of English, Reading, Use of English and Books!

Week 22^nd - 29^th April

We are working basically on “Use of English”, which seems to be the part of the test you feel more worried about.

So, we did exercises under these headings: “Getting to the Root of Bonsai Crime”, “Lost Luggage”, “Jogging”, “Opera Review”, “Crime Prevention Leaflet” and “Waste Not…”

We also did another “Use of English” and a “Reading”.

We reviewed modal verbs and expressions.

We’ve gone through the different uses of Modal verbs. Here’s the summary:

+	-	Modals of probability ( present and future)
Will	won’t	They express what we strongly believe to be true about the present. Based on our knowledge of people and things: routine, character etc.	Is that the phone? It’ll be John. He said he’d ring around now.
Must	can’t	Must is used to express what we infer or conclude to be the most logical or rational interpretation of events. (less certain that “will”) / “can’t” is the negative of must.	- Look over there! That must be Jon’s new car. - She can’t have a ten-year-old daughter! She’s only 25!
Should	shouldn’t	It expresses what may reasonably be expected to happen; also that we want that whatever is predicted to happen.	- Our guests should be here soon. (If they haven’t got lost) - This homework shouldn’t take you long.
May	may not	It expresses the possibility that sth will happen or is already happening.	- We may go to Greece for our holidays. We haven’t decided yet. - We may not have enough money to go abroad this year.
Might	might not	It expresses possibility bur in a more tentative way.	- It might rain, but I doubt it. - I might not be back in time for supper, so don’t wait for me.
Could	might not	is used in a similar way to “might”	- It could rain, but I doubt it. - It looks like it could rain, but it might not.
*The negative “couldn’t” has a similar meaning to “can’t,” only slightly weaker. She couldn’t have a ten-year-old daughter! She’s only 25!
Can		We use it to express what it is generally and all-time true. It cannot be used to predict future possibility.(Will be possible or will be able to)	Cycling in town can be dangerous.
Modal  auxiliaries in the past
All the modal verbs given above are also used with have + past participle to express different degrees of certainty about the past.

·         You met a man with a moustache? That would have been my uncle tom.

·         It won’t have been Peter you met at the party. He wasn’t invited.

·         It must have been Simon. He looks like Peter.

·         It can’t have been a very interesting party. No one seems to have enjoyed it.

·         Where’s Henry? He should have been here ages ago!

·         He might have decided not to come. He could have had an accident.

·         He can hardly have forgotten to come.

·         “Can have” is only used in questions or with “hardly, only or never”.

·         Where can he have got to go?

·         They can only have known each other for a few weeks.

Remember:

·         You’d better (had better) go with them or they’ll get lost. You should go with them or they’ll get lost. You ought to go with them or they’ll get lost.

·         I’d rather (would rather) go by train. It’s cheaper. I’d prefer to go by train. It’s cheaper. BUT I’d rather you cooked. (When you want sb to do sth and you use “would rather” you have to use the verb in the past).

·         He wasn’t used to driving on the left but he got used to driving on the left while he was living in the U.K. (to be used to/ get used to +-ing)

·         When we were children, we used to go to the village every weekend. (used to + infinitive. Repeated actions or states in the past)

We revised the use of “in, at, on” for place.

·         He lives in the south of England. BUT He lives on the south coast of England.

·         I’m sitting on a chair. BUT I’m sitting in an armchair.

·         Write your name at the top / bottom of the photocopy. BUT Write your name on the front /back of the photocopy.

·         Children have to sit in the back of the car; not in the front.

·         We could see the performance perfectly because we had seats at the front of the hall. BUT in the front row.

And we had some time to talk about books.

·         Which book did you find heavy- going?

·         Do you like reading thought-provoking books?

·         I don’t like fantasy books because their characters are implausible.

·         I absolutely adore thrillers because they are intriguing, gripping and usually fast-moving.

·         “The Hunger Games” trilogy is said to be directed to teenagers but I find it gripping and thought-provoking.

·         Is there a book you haven’t been able to put down?

Well, guess what we are going to do this week… ‘Use of English’! and something else…

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!

The blog that should have been posted last week and I forgot to!

Week 18^th – 20^th March

Hi everybody!

Well, after these hectic (frenetic) weeks racing towards the CAE test, it seems to me we can take it a bit easier. I don’t mean, Gabi, who now faces the countdown towards his own FCE test!

By the way, Daniel, we would like to hear from you! How did you get on with your test? Everybody here thinks that you passed it with flying colours (you had great success) and… so do I!

As mentioned above, Tuesday was a bit more relaxed, although Eduardo felt rather stressed because he’s taking in his university exams at the moment! We also think you’ll pass them. Don’t worry!

We checked exercises that had fallen into oblivion (we forgot about); I feel rather poetic today; it may be the spring.

 We checked the reading paper from Test 1.

The reading had these headings, ‘Orchestra on Tour’, ‘Maser of the Deep’, ‘When E-mail Becomes E-nough’ and ‘My Children don’t Go to School’.

Don’t forget to:

·         Read the instructions and questions.

·         Read through the text quickly to get a general idea of what it’s about and how it’s organised.

·         Underline the key words in each question and find the parts of the text where these ideas are discussed.

·         The words used in the questions are unlikely to appear in the text. Look for parts of the text containing related ideas and vocabulary. Highlight names and key words in the text.

·         Read carefully the parts of the text where the answer is likely to be found.

·         Note: the text contains information you will not need.

After that, we checked different exercises on grammar related to distancing (using seem, appear and passive constructions) and past habits (would, used to) or states (used to).

We also checked vocabulary related to prefixes, suffixes, idioms and phrasal verbs. (For these parts you can consult the blog entries for February)

Besides, we corrected an exercise on nouns from phrasal verbs.

Have you ever had a break-in (burglary)? I hope not. Fingers crossed!

Last time we had a pic-nick there was such a heavy downpour (rainfall) that we had to ran for shelter!

Many bands make a comeback (an attempt to become popular again) just because they have run out of money!

It seems that in the last years there’s been an outbreak (epidemic) of diseases that we thought had been eradicated.

Eventually, we started listening to a song called “An  Lady of a Certain Age’ by Divine Comedy.

I find it quite interesting, so I would like to go though it because it has quite a few metaphors. It’s more to it than the shallow (superficial) fact of the lady taking away (subtracting, decreasing) years from her real age!

Good Luck for your CAE Speaking test!

Week 4^th – 6^th

Hi!

I see you’ve taken to (develop a liking for) the “use of English” paper of the CAE exam!

We did another one of this kind of exercises.

We have a new classmate: welcome Gabi! We hope not to frighten you with the speed of the lessons. We are in a bit of a hurry because it’s the countdown for Daniel’s test!

Apart from that, we did a listening focus on “Time and Technology”

·         The speaker mentioned:

·         The negative effect of remote controls.

·         TV when he was a child.

·         TV in Iceland in 70s and 80s.

·         A technological meltdown.

·         The new heroes.

And we also listened to some people being asked in the street questions related to technology.

We finished the week focused on the “Speaking” part of the exam.

We tried to rehearse the interview for Daniel’s sake. But I don’t think he really needed because he has worked very hard and has watched all the video recording of this part of the CAE test.

We wish you the best of luck! Let us know how you got on!

 http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/index.php

http://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_speaking.html

Listening, Use of English and Picture description

Week 25^th – 27^th

We indeed needed the energy!

This week we did a listening:

Part 1: a woman who works as a tour guide talked about her work.

Part 2: a radio announcement about two events happening later today.

Part 3: a woman who works as a casting director in the film industry is interviewed.

Part 4: five short extracts in which various people talk about holidays where they                     

          studied as a group.

We also did another “Use of English” test paper.

By now you already know that it consists of five parts:

Part 1- Multiple - choice text

Part 2- Gapped- text

Part 3- Word building

Part 4- Homonyms

Part 5- Rewriting

And we started comparing and describing pictures for the Speaking part.

Chus had the pictures of two different boats.

Daniel had the pictures of two different masks

And Eduardo had two women feeding the birds in different places.