The Last Classes of December 2013

Wednesday 18^th December

Our last class of the year!

We had a look at modal verbs, again, with a summary of their different uses.

After that we talked about our plans for Christmas and you tried to do a “Winter Quiz”.

Of course, you didn’t need to have all the answers. It was mostly for fun and out of curiosity.

It surprised me you hadn`t heard before that Father Christmas used to wear green clothes. It was in a Coca-Cola commercial when he was first seen in his red clothes.

Interesting to know that the Christmas tree which stands in Trafalgar Square is a present from Norway to thank the British people for their help in the Second World War.

Or that in Scotland, giving a piece of coal as a present on New Year’s Day, means good luck.

And what about the origin of “Boxing Day”, the public holiday on 26^th December?

I’m sure you learnt some new things.

I gave you some homework but I expect you to relax and enjoy your holidays.

Charge your batteries because we’ll see again in 2014.

Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!!!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I hope you enjoy this typical Christmas carol!

Wednesday 11^th December

Actually, we didn’t read about Steve Jobs, but we worked on modal verbs, didn’t we?

Modal Verbs can express:

ability	He can’t ski.
advice	You should stop smoking.
obligation	You must stop at the crossroads.
	You must see the film.
permission	Can I go to the party?
probability	He must be rich.
	It might rain.
	It’ll be a good party.
willingness	I’ll help you.
unwillingness	I won’t help you.

·         If I were you, I’d swallow my pride and forgive and forget.

Why don’t you swallow your pride…

·         Never! I refuse to.

I won’t

·         You’ll have no choice in the end. You won’t be able to ignore each other forever. You’ll have to in the end. You can’t ignore…

·         Maybe I’ll forgive him but I’ll never be able to forget.

I may forgive him but I won’t forget.

·         Surely it’s possible to talk it over and work something out. You have to for the sake of the children.

It must be possible to … You must, for the sake ….

·         Oh dear! I just don’t know what to do for the best.

We also have some related verbs:

ability	manage to / be able to
advice	had better / Why don’t you
obligation	have (got)to be required to
permission	be allowed to
probability	be bound to be supposed to be likely to
willingness	promise to
unwillingness	refuse to

Two Famous Brands

Wednesday 4^th December

Last Wednesday we read about two famous brands : Starbucks and Apple Macintosh.

Although Starbucks business is based on high quality of the coffee they serve, it seems you and I prefer having coffee at the corner’s coffee shop!

 It was interesting, nevertheless, finding out that Starbucks was named after a character in “Moby Dick” and “Apple” was Jobs’ favourite fruit.

We discussed vocabulary and found adverbs ending in –ly.

Rapidly                 passionately                      immediately                     eventually

Truly                      utterly                                  bitterly                               vitally

In our next class we’ll read about Steve Jobs. And we’ll work on modal verbs. Get ready for it!

 See you.

Documentary - Starbucks

A Psychological Test? Mobile Phones and Gorillas?

Wednesday 20^th / 27^th

Today we did a communication activity. Sort of a psychological  test.

Our story started with a walk on a beautiful summer’s day. We went through a forest. Then we came to a house. After that we came across a bear. We carried on walking and found a garden. And out of the garden we saw a very high wall!

The descriptions of these places led us to the interpretation of different situations in our lives. The forest is how you see your life at the moment; the house, how you see yourself …and so on.

I’m glad you enjoyed the exercise.

We worked a bit on grammar.

We did a review on countable and uncountable nouns.

And we revised how to express quantity.

There is	There are
a huge amount of	several
lots of	lots of
isn’t much	aren’t many
a little	a few
a couple of
hardly any
no

Remember to use much and its compounds (too much, so much, how much) for singular or uncountable nouns.

Use many and its compounds (too many, so many, how many) for plural or countable nouns.

A lot (of), lots (of) and plenty (of) are used in affirmative sentences.

Much, many, in negative and questions.

Some,any are used with plural and with uncountable nouns.

Some,  in affirmative sentences. Although it’s used in questions when we make a request or when we expect an affirmative answer.

E.g. Would you like some coffee?

Could you give me some sugar?

Any, is used in negative and questions. When we use it in affirmative sentences there´s a change in meaning.

“Can I borrow a pen?”

“Red or blue?”

“Any pen.” (I don’t mind)

We read an article entitled “The environmental cost of your mobile phone.”

I was afraid you felt disappointed because you told me you weren’t really interested in mobiles. But it turned out that the article attracted your attention.

We found out interesting facts. For example, it was amazing to discover that manufacturing a mobile, something so small, takes about 75kg of raw materials!

And we found the answer to the following question: “How can a mobile phone kill a gorilla?”

I´m pleased you liked the link for MP3 listening practice. Although I agree with you and www.breakingnewsenglish.com is my favourite, I also like this one www.podcastsinenglish.com  

You may also find interesting to view this documentary

 Planned Obsolescence. The light bulb conspiracy