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