'How the West was Won'

Wednesday 10^th December,

Hello again, Isabel.

In our class last week, we corrected homework.

We had been reviewing verbs of probability in the present and in the past.

We remembered how to deduce and express certainty and possibility.

We listened to a telephone conversation between two people. We only heard a part and we deduced who she may have been talking to, what the relationship between them could have been, what may be happening.

·         She could be talking to her ex-husband.

·         She could be the ex-husband’s mother in law because she seems to be defending her daughter.

·         I don’t agree, I think she may be the ex-wife.

·         They can’t have got divorced in good terms because she sounds really angry.

·         The kids can’t be happy because they’re going to the zoo because they hated it the last time they went there.

·         The kids might not be looking forward to spending the weekend with their father.

Then we changed the subject. We started reading about ‘How the west was won’.

We read about the migration which began in 1843. The pioneers, the first settlers had to cross mountains, deserts and huge treeless plains. They used to start in late April or early May so as to avoid blizzards and the bad weather conditions in the winter. The journey was harsh and one in 25 of the immigrants failed to make their destination.

The first contact with Native Americans was that of a friendly relation and commerce and trading. But this changed because of the gold fever conflict.  This brought about the virtual extinction of Native Americans by the mid-1880s.

 Read & watch some videos clicking here 

In tomorrow’s lesson, which is the last for this year, we’ll see a film. Make a choice!

See you tomorrow!!!!

Ötzi the Iceman

Wednesday 26^th November, 2014

Hello again, Isabel!

We are a bit lost because we only had two lessons last month!

We started the lesson with…Phrasal Verbs!!!!

Come up with a solution to a problem	Scientists will have to come up with new methods of increasing the world’s food supply.
Break into a house or a flat to steal sth	The thieves broke into the warehouse and stole goods worth £20,000
Break off a relationship, an engagement	Charles is miserable. Penelope broke off their engagement last week.
Tell off a naughty child	She told Tom off because he hit her older sister.
Bring up children to be honest and hard working	My parents brought me up to finish all the food on my plate.
Count on your best friend to help you	I’m running for president. I hope I can count on your support.
Deal witha problem, a complaint, a difficult customer	You have a problem with your order, madam? I’ll just get someone to deal with it for you.
Drop out of a university course after one year.	Why did you drop out of university after just one term?
Fit in with the other people in the group	I had a new student today. He seems very nice. I’m sure he’ll fit in with the rest of the class just fine.

Then we started talking about ‘Ötzi the iceman’

We reviewed modal verbs for deduction and possibility. These were our conclusions.

·         We could have been a shepherd.

·         He might have got lost in the mountains.

·         He must have lived in a cave.

·         He must have worn animal furs.

·         He may have fallen asleep and died of starvation.

·         He shouldn’t have gone to the mountains on his own.

·         He can’t have eaten fish because it’s very improbable there was a river in the mountains that wasn’t frozen.

And, that was it! See you tomorrow

Remember, Remember 5th November

Wednesday 5th November, 2014

Hi! How are you doing?

Last week we worked on homophones. We find it funny and useful.

·         There was a huge wave caused by the storm.

·         Look that’s your dad on the drive! Wave (say hello moving your hand) to him.

·         They caught the burglar and took him to court.

·         The student was bored trying to follow the lesson looking at the board.

·         You aren’t allowed to speak aloud in hospitals. The patients need silence.

·         They wanted to hire a car of a higher range.

We made sentences using phrasal verbs.

·      The burglars broke into (force a way into a building) the house through a window.

·      We had to tell off (reprimand) the kids who misbehaved in class.

·      He didn’t study a degree. He went to university but he dropped out (left) in the second year.

·      If you have a problem, you can count on (trust, rely on) me.

·      They have always looked up to (admire) their parents.

And, as it was 5^th November, we watched a video on Guy Fawkes’ Night or Bonfire Night. A traditional celebration in England.

See you on Wednesday!

Making your Point!

Wednesday 29^th October, 2014

Hello how’s everything? I hope everything is fine.

Have you enjoyed the weekend? You should have because it seems it was the last spring weather weekend in autumn!

It’s amazing how people change. I didn’t use to like the fall (U.S. English for autumn) But I took to it (I got to like it) when I lived in the U.K. It was then that I realised for the first time the different colours of the leaves in the trees. There was gorgeous scenery (landscape) with all those different shades of brown and yellow. Before then, I used to think that autumn was synonym of dark and grey; dull and gloomy…but my stay in England changed my mind (made me think differently) and I now appreciate the autumn much more.

 

The typical autumn celebration in the UK and the USA is Halloween. What do you know about this festivity? You can find out (learn) about its history watching this video.

Last week we learnt how to make our point!

We listened to three people talking about whether people should pay more for taxes for fast food. There were three people, consequently, we had three different points of view: in favour, against and neutral.

We learnt some words and expressions that we can use for this purpose. Do you remember them?

If you ask me	As far as I’m concerned
The point I’m trying to make is that…	That’s not the point..
To tell you the truth	I suppose the problem is that…
If you want my opinion…	Anyway, as I was saying…
What really worries me is that…	As I understand it …
Another thing is that…	But the main point is that …

Don’t forget to give a sequence of your reasons.

First of all	In my opinion	As far as I know
As well as this	Generally speaking	To be exact
Finally	The problem is,	To be honest

In our next class, you’ll make your point on one of these topics: being vegetarian, diets, smoking in public places, experiments on animals.

We read a romantic love story about a couple that got married despite the girl’s father opposition to the marriage.

The girl was just sixteen when she married the boy. Although her father used to (would) lock her in her room and she used to (would) cry a lot, in the end (finally) she got it her way and the two lovers got married.

We did exercises using expressions with get and be.

You can do more exercises clicking on this link  Exercises with GET

So, we did work hard!

See you on Wednesday!

A song "Let her Go" and a video "Friends"

Wednesday 22nd  October, 2014

Hi Isabel! How’s everything!

I was glad to see you last week because that meant that you have got over (recovered from) your illness. Welcome to class again.

After over two weeks we had to bring things up to date, that is, we had to catch up with delayed work. But we took it easy (in a relaxing way). We finished correcting the song “Let her go” by passenger. It’s so romantic!

We used it to practise phonetics and pronunciation with the rhyming words.

You can listen to it again in here; if you feel like it …

And after that, we watched the first episode of “Friends” a classic!

It was the most popular sitcom (situation comedy) of the 1990s. A short time ago it was their 20^th anniversary! Time flies!

My favourite part is when Ross says something like “I want to get married” and Rachel, in a wedding dress, comes out of the blue (unexpectedly appears). And then, the other guy, I forgot his name, says, “I want a million dollars”. And he stretches out his hand…but nothing happens.

What’s your favourite or more hilarious (very funny) scene?

Watch it again and let me know….

And this was it! Tomorrow we’ll set out to work hard! So, be ready for reading, homophones and every day expressions!

See you!!!

A Bit of Everything! Songs, Pronunciation & Friends!

Wednesday 1^st October, 2014

Hi Isabel. How is it going?

We have done lots of things these days!

We listened to these songs: “I will survive” and “I don’t want to miss a thing”

You can listen to them again by clicking here:

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

 I Will Survive

We read an interesting article on pronunciation and we found out (discovered) that some words can be pronounced in different ways and it’s correct. For example garage, scone, schedule, neither & either and…Byzantine which can be pronounced correctly in ten different ways!!!,

Carrying on (continuing) with pronunciation we practised the pronunciation of the third conditional, that is:

If I’d known you were ill, I would’ve visited you.

I wouldn’t’ave told him if he’d told me it was a secret.

 3rd Conditional, Pronunciation Practice

We talked about TV programmes specially TV series. We read and talk about a classic “Friends”. I must admit it’s not one of my favourite but most people obviously disagree with me! It was a great success! You told me you hadn’t seen it either. You have a little sample in here: Funny moment at Ross's Wedding- Friends

Then, we listened and practised homonyms and homophones.

Homonyms: words which have the same spelling but different pronunciation.

Homophones: words with the same pronunciation but different spelling. 

And finally, it seems we cannot get round to(find time to do) finish correcting the reading comprehension about school days.

“Were they the happiest days of your life?” so, I’ll give you the answers to the vocabulary section.

WERE THEY THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE?

3- Look at the interview with Lucy Jackman.

a)    Try to guess the meaning of the following words or phrases, looking carefully at the context to help you.

·         Loathed (line 2):                hated.

·         Boarder (line 7):                a person who lives at school, (eats and sleeps   

                                           there).

·         Dormitory (line 15):           a big room with a row of beds (in a school, prison.).

·         Bunch of kids (line 17):    a group of children.

·         Petty (line 32):                  foolish, silly, unimportant.

·         A soft spot (line 44):         to be fond of.

·         Dragon (line 59):               fantastic monster with wings which spit fire.

·         Load of lines(line 63 -64): a lot of lines.

·         Drive (line 75):                  determination.

b)    Try to find a phrasal verb or idiomatic expression which is similar to each of the following.

·           Comfortable/peaceful:                                     settled down (line 14).

·           Emotionally disturbed:                                     hung up (line 21).

·           Tying:                                                              doing up (line 24).

·           Acted very emotionally:                                  freaked out (line 34).

·           Speak severely to someone about their faults:        tell off (line 41).

·           Giving out:                                                       handing out (line 43).

·           Make (someone) exasperated:                       to drive round the bend (line 50).

·           Hated:                                                              couldn’t stand (line 53).

·           Became clear::                                                dawned (line 64).

4- Look at the interview with Jillian Hall.

a)    Try to guess the meaning of the following words or phrases, looking carefully at the context to help you.

·                To slog my guts out (line 29):                         to work hard.

·                Teacher’s pet (line 30):                                   the favourite student of the teacher.

·                Got cross with (line 31):                                  got angry.

·                Cocoon (line 39):                                             shell.

·                To stand on my own two feet (line 40):          to take her own decisions.

b)    Try to find a phrasal verb or idiomatic expression which is similar to each of the following.

·                Had a good relationship:                                 got on with (line 10).

·                Was expelled:                                                 thrown out (line 25).

·                Managed:                                                        muddled through (line 27).

·                Unhurt:                                                            scraped by (line 28).

·                Isolated:                                                          left out (line 33).

5- Look at the interview with Stephen parker.

a)  Try to guess the meaning of the following words or phrases, looking carefully at the context to help you.

·                Public school (line 2):                                      an expensive, private school.

·                Wholeheartedly (line 13):                                wholly, completely.

·                Raking the money in (line 20):                        making a lot of money. (Rake: rastrillo)

·                Naïve /naı’i: v/ (line 36):                                  ingenuous /ın’dی зnjuəs/

c)   Try to find a phrasal verb or idiomatic expression which is similar to each of the following.

·                The goal to achieve:                                        the be all and end all (line 9).

·                Supported:                                                       backed up (line11).

·                At a long term:                                                 in the long run (line 19).

·                Planned:                                                          mapped out (line 25).

·                Travelling:                                                        bumming around (line 29).

HTH!

(HTH=I hope this helps! )

See you next Wednesday! Have a nice week!