It was nice to see you again after these weeks without
classes.
Well, this is the countdown for summer holidays. We
need a break, don’t we?
We
started our lesson last week revising ‘moans and groans’.
·What a waste of time! Ten minutes listening to music and ‘All our lines are busy. Thank you
for waiting’. I know, it drives me mad. But worse still is that you
never get to speak to a real person anyway!
·I could kick myself. As soon as I handed it in, I remembered what the answer was. Oh, I hate it when
it happens! But do you think you’ve still passed?
·It’s not fair. I’d been looking forward to watching it all day and then the phone goes
and rings! Typical!
And who was it? Anyone interesting?
·How many times do I have to tell you? Take them off before you come
into the house! Give
me a break! I was in a hurry. Anyway, they’re only a bit muddy.
This opening line ‘How many times…’ reminds me of a song. Here it
is!
After that, we checked the meaning of some phrasal
nouns.
Bear in mind (take into consideration) that we not only have phrasal verbs, but also
phrasal nouns or phrasal adjectives. Phrasal verbs are usually two
or three words: a verb + one or two particles. Phrasal nouns or
adjectives, are usually spelt hyphenated or in one word. Most of the times,
the phrasal verb does not have the same meaning as the phrasal adjectives or
nouns that come from them.
a.The breakdown (interruption)
of communication between management and workers means the strike will continue.
b.The car broke down(stop
working) and we had to call the tow away car.
a.The outcome(result)
of the election is that the Labour party has a majority of 90.
b.I like spring; when
flowers come
out (appear, bloom).
a.There has been a
significant breakthrough(improvement,
advance) in the search to find a cure for the common cold.
b.I hate fiestas
because every place is too crowded. You have to break through (force a way through all the
people) if you want to cross the road!
a.He used to be a
highly successful pop star, but taking too many drugs was his downfall (the end
of his career).
b.He fell down
the stairs and broke his leg.
Yes, pop stars and drugs are many times related. Do you remember Amy Winehouse? I like this song: ‘Back
to black’
And we finished the class with a new topic: Determiners. That we will
continue tomorrow.
By
the way, did you dream of teeth last night? What does it mean? Why do you think
you did?
Just
kidding! (It was a joke)
Yesterday we talked about
dreams!
We continued talking about this topic and listen to
the narration of a weird dream. The weird (strange, odd) thing wasn’t exactly the
dream but the amazing coincidence that both, the man talking about the dream
and his girlfriend, had the same dream. They dreamt that they bumped into
each other while they were walking along the boy’s hometown and they kissed. The
most striking
(surprising) thing was that although the girl had never been to that
town before, she was able to describe everywhere in great detail! The boy added
that he had heard about this kind of things on a TV programme. The name for
this sort of dreams is called ‘telepathic dreaming’. We read about three dreams and their possible interpretation.
And to finish talking about dreams, you may like
listening to this song by Eurythmics ‘ Sweet dreams.’ (Marilyn Mason also has a version but I’d rather listen to this one)
But, we didn’t only talked about dreaming and dreams
yesterday. We had time to review the ways of introducing conditionals other
than (different from) using ‘if’.
INTRODUCING CONDITIONALS
UNLESS
IN CASE
Unless means except if.
In case means the first action is a
precaution: it happens because the second action mighthappen.
We´ll go swimming unless it rains.
I’ll take my umbrella in case it rains. (I plan to take my umbrella)
I’ll take my umbrella if it rains. (I don’t plan to take my
umbrella if I don’t have to).
SUPPOSING
SUPPOSE
IMAGINE
These mean the same
as Imagine if…? What if…?
The condition
is more improbable, so they are more
often found in 2nd
and 3rd conditionals.They are questions and they come at the
beginning of a sentence.
Supposing you could go on holiday tomorrow, where would you
go?
Imagine you were rich, what would you buy?
INVERSION (FORMAL STYLE)
(The auxiliary is dropped and the verb
inverted)
Were you to(if you were going to ask me) question
me about the matter, I would deny all knowledge.
Had I known(if I had known) that he was a
journalist, I would have said nothing.
Should the meeting(if the
meeting lasts) last longer than expected, I’ll have to cancel my dinner
engagement.
Long weekend, beautiful weather, what else could
you long for (wish)?
We started our class last week reading about ‘What I wish I’d known when
I was 20.’
·Annette Newman wishes
she had known what a hard work being a mother was! When she was
twenty she used to
take her mother for granted.
·Simon Hewitt wishes she
had been able toovercome(get over) his shyness earlier! He was painfully shy(terribly
shy) when he was in his teens and twenties.
·James Garner wishes he
had realized earlier that not having school qualifications doesn’t
mean you’re a
failure. There are other things, gardening in his case, that can
help you to
develop a career. He is now a landscape gardener.
After that we read about Philippa Forrester and her first crash!
She was
so unlucky that she crashed into the car of a new workmate for whom
she had a crush(be in love,
fancy, feel infatuated)! That crushturned
into a crash.
Then, we continued talking about word pairs.
Finally we started reading an article about bullying. Did you know
that ‘Bullied kids are at higher risk of mental health problems?’
Last week we read an interesting article entitled ‘Have you ever
wondered?’ and we talked about it afterwards.
I must admit I had never wondered
about what would happen if the gravity on Earth was suddenly turned off. I’m glad to know that buildings
and trees, which are rooted into
the Earth, would not easily fly off.
Does it mean that earthquakes are more dangerous
than the lack of gravity? Tornados,
hurricanes and such natural disasters cause bigger damage than
not having gravity?
I haven’t wondered why we dream, either. I think it’s because I have a pretty accurate idea of the reason why we
dream. For most of people it’s difficult to
forget their daily worries or concerns and they –
we- take these troubles with us when we sleep and cannot stop thinking about
them.
It was quite interesting to read about the origin
of the symbol @. It confirms my theory that we haven’t invented anything new and
that it sometimes feels as if we were getting back
to the past. I mean there were cameras able to deliver photos instantaneously when
I was a kid – over 40 years ago! Yes, it’s true that they were big, expensive
and their resolution left a lot to be desired. And now, this new symbol, - @ -
the symbol of IT, the internet, the technology progress, the 21st
century symbol…was invented by monks
in the Middle Ages!
We learnt some word pairs. Do you remember?
Ifs or buts
Excuses or arguments.
Wait and see
Be patient and find out later.
Ins and outs
Exact details.
Give and take
Compromise, be flexible.
By and large
Generally speaking.
Grin and bear it
Tolerate it as best as you can.
Odds and ends
Things.
Take it or leave it
Accept it or refuse. I don’t care!
And that
was about it!
We’ll
continue on Wednesday. We’ll read and talk about the problems bullied kids can
face, too.
I hope you had a nice weekend. It was an eventful (full of
events) weekend, wasn’t it?
On the one hand it was International Labour Day. On the other hand, we celebrated the
day of Madrid Community (remembering the Independence Spanish War against the French)
and it was also Mother’s Day on
Sunday.
In our last classes…
…we finished watching the film ‘In Good
Company’.
I’m glad you liked it and I expect you to have
learnt some vocabulary and expressions.
·This
is an important issue
that we all have to face.
·There’s
no benefit
to be gained from treating the employees like dirt!
·We
can’t deny the situation is a real nightmare: it can’t get any worse.
·Everybody
is worried about the layoffs: who’s going to be next?
·We’ve
already over-extended our budget, so we can’t spend any more.
The bonds between them are so strong, they’re
almost like brothers. We learnt expressions with ‘if’.
·Would it be OK if I leave a bit earlier today?
·If anything went wrong, I’d never forgive myself!
·Win?
What do you mean? If you ask me, they don’t
stand a chance!
·Well,
if the worst
comes to the worst, we can always postpone it.
·You
haven’t made much progress, if I remember
rightly.
·I
don’t think he’s cold or arrogant. If anything,
he’s a bit shy.
And we talked about our regrets.
·I
regret
saying that to her. If only I hadn’t said that to her!
·Why weren’t you
watching the road?You should have
been watching the road.
·I don’t like it when Meg stays out so late. I wish Meg wouldn’t
stay out so late.
·I don’t want you to
tell her.I’d rather you didn’t
tell her.
In our last classes we continued
seeing the movie ‘In Good Company’.
We haven’t finished seeing the film yet. What we have learnt so far is
this:
Dan doesn’t agree with the new situation at the
company but there’s nothing he can do about it. He has to dismiss two of his
colleagues but life goes on. His elder daughter moves to New York
University, after he has taken out a second mortgage to pay for that.
Meanwhile, Carter has divorced and has moved to a different neighbourhood in
New York. One day he bumps into(finds by chance) Dan’s daughter
and they start going out together.
There’s a basketball game between departments
and Dan gets injured. He breaks his arm. A short time later he celebrates his
birthday. Former
(past) and current(present) colleagues are invited to Dan’s birthday
party. It’s then, when he finds out his daughter and his boss’s (Carter)
affair. He follows them to a restaurant and reveals them that he knows about
their affair. He punches Carter and leaves the restaurant furious with his
daughter and …there’s very little left for the outcome (the end,
the result)…
By seeing the film we
have practised:
Everyday expressions
Who’s at the helm?
To be in charge
He’s been on a spree
To spend a lot of money
It’s not a big deal
To be important or significant
The mag’s (magazine is) a cash cow
To earn a lot of money
He’s gonna get canned
To be dismissed
To be a young new star
He’s the latest hot-shot from Globecom
And in the previous class we learnt,
also with the film:
I believe in
Worried
about
Qualified
for
On their honeymoon
My money is on…
Apologize for
On the 29th floor
A bit rough on
We can make words by adding suffixes and
prefixes.
pregnant
pregnancy
develop
development
maintain
maintenance
commit
commitment
analyse
analyst
tap
untapped
We’ll probably finish seeing the film next
Wednesday.
