GRAMMAR: Narrative Tenses (B1+ / B2)

Read the grammar theory and do the activity below.


Narrative Tenses

NARRATIVE TENSES

Fill the gaps with the correct tense of the verb in brackets.

James Bond 1. (need) a drink. The fight in the carpark with the dwarf 2. (make) him thirsty. He walked quickly along 46th Street in search of an air-conditioned bar where he could get out of the heat and think.

He 3. (walk) for only a few minutes, when it suddenly 4. (occur) to him that somebody 5. (follow) him. There was no evidence for it except for a slight itchy feeling on the top of his head. But he had faith in his sixth sense. It 6. (never / fail) him. He 7. (stop) in front of the shop window he 8. (pass) and 9. (look) casually back along the street. He 10. (examine) the Swiss watches in the window and then 11. (turn) and walked on.

After a few yards he turned into a shop doorway where a man 12. (look) at Japanese cameras. As he did so, something grabbed his right arm and a voice snarled, 'All right, Limey*. Take it easy unless you want lead for lunch', He 13. (feel) something press into his back just above his kidneys. Bond 14. (try) to swing his arm to hit whoever it was that 15. (hold) him, but a strong hand 16. (catch) his fist**. An amused voice , 17. (say) "No good, James. The angels have got you."

He turned his head to find himself looking into the grinning hawk-like*** face of Felix Leiter. A face he last 18. ( see) covered in bandages in a hospital bed in Cairo nine months earlier. The face of the American secret agent with whom he 19. (share) so many adventures.

* limey - an old fashioned American slang expression for an British person.

** fist - the shape of your hand when you hold your fingers and thumb tightly together when you want to hit someone.

*** hawk-like - like a hawk, a kind of hunting bird.

SOURCE: www.eltbase.com

ANSWER KEY:

1. needed 2. had made 3. had been walking 4. occurred 5. was following 6. had never failed 7. stopped 8. was passing 9. looked 10. examined 11. turned 12. was looking 13. felt 14. tried 15. was holding 16. caught 17. said 18. saw 19. had shared

VOCABULARY: Personality Adjectives (B2)

Personality Adjectives




What do yo call a person who...?

• doesn't say what they really think
• feels sure about their ability to do things
• keeps their head in a crisis
• acts without thinking
• thinks is better and more important than others
• has a lot of knowledge because their experience
• never changes their opinion even when they are wrong
• is determined to be successful
• takes care to do things carefully and correctly
• is different and unusual
• has a great sense of humour
• is always in a bad mood
• is emotionally in control
• is not very good at expressing their feelings or opinions
• is fairly relaxed about things

ANSWER KEY:

• insincere, hypocrite
• confident, secure
• calm
• impulsive
• arrogant
• wise
• stubborn
• ambitious
• conscientious
• eccentric
• funny
• bad-tempered, moody
• well-balanced
• reserved, shy
• easy-going, laid-back

PRONUNCIATION: -ed ending for the past simple

Hi everyone!

Here is a very home-made video about the pronunciation of -ed, it's not big thing but I hope it will help you practise at home.

GRAMMAR: Auxiliary Verbs (B2)

Read the grammar notes and do the activities.

Auxiliary Verbs



1. Read the conversation.

A: You've never been to England, (1) have you?

B: No, (2) I haven't.

A: (3) Haven't you? . (4) I have. And I'm sure you'd love it!

B: (5) Would I? I'm not that sure...

A: (6) I am. You would love it and (7) so would your husband. 

B: In that case, I have to start planning my next trip.

A: (8) So have I!



2. Can you find the following...

A. An echo question
B. A question tag
C. A short answer.

3. Which auxiliary is used to...

a. to show surprise
b. to disagree
c. to check information
d. to avoid repetition.
e. to agree.


4. Now read the sentences and write correct echo questions for them.

1. I don’t like chocolate.
2. I’ve never been abroad.
3. I always go swimming in the morning.
4. I went shopping last night.
5. I’ll never come back.
6. I’d like to see her again.
7. I was sick yesterday.
8. I’m staying at home tonight.
9. She hasn’t come to class.
10. They are visiting us next weekend.

5. This time write questions tags for these sentences.

1. You don’t like getting up early.
2. She never exercises.
3. He usually does his homework at night.
4. They didn’t go to work yesterday.
5. She will tell us next week.
6. He’d like to meet us again.
7. She wasn’t at home last week.
8. You are going to buy a new car.
9. You have never seen her.
10. They are staying at home this weekend.

ANSWER KEY:

2.

A. 3, 5         B. 1          C. 2

3.

a. 3, 5          b. 4, 6       c. 1          d. 7         e. 8

4. 

1. don't you?

2. haven't you?

3. do you?

4. did you?

5. won't you?

6. would you?

7. were you?

8. are you?

9. hasn't she?

10. are they?

5. 

1. do you?

2. does she?

3. doesn't he?

4. did they?

5. won't she?

6. wouldn't he?

7. was she?

8. aren't you?

9. have you?

10 aren't they?

LISTENING: Women in the Arab World (B1)

Women in the Arab World

Below I propose you do a listening activity on stereotypes. Before you watch the video, think about the following questions:

• What is your idea about Arab women? 
• Does Queen Rania of Jordan stick the idea of the typical Arab woman?

Now watch the video and complete the questions below. Do not use more than three words.

People frequently ask Queen Rania the following questions:

     Do all Arabs (1) ________ Americans?

     Can Arab women (2) ________?

     Are there any "you tubers" (3) ___________?

She thinks YouTube is a (4) ________ for dialogue.

She hopes to receive from Youtubers the (5) ___________ that they have and the (6) ___________ that they hear about the Arab world.

Queen Rania wants people to know the (7)____________.

What do you think of Queen Rania's iniciative? Do you think it can help to break down stereotypes?

ANSWER KEY:

1. hate 2. work 3. in Jordan 4. great platform 5. questions 6. common stereotypes 7. real Arab world.

VOCABULARY: Personality Adjectives (B1 / B2)

Have a look at the adjectives to describe personality.

What do yo call a person who...?

1. doesn't say what they really think
2. feels sure about their ability to do things
3. keeps their head in a crisis
4. acts without thinking
5. thinks is better and more important than others
6. has a lot of knowledge because their experience
7. never changes their opinion even when they are wrong
8. is determined to be successful
9. takes care to do things carefully and correctly
10. is different and unusual
11. has a great sense of humour
12. is always in a bad mood
13. is emotionally in control
14. is not very good at expressing their feelings or opinions
15. is fairly relaxed about things

ANSWER KEY:

1. insincere
2. self-confident
3. calm
4. impulsive
5. arrogant
6. wise
7. stubborn
8. ambitious
9. conscientious
10. eccentric
11. funny
12. bad-tempered
13. well-balanced
14. reserved
15. easy-going

VOCABULARY: Crime and Punishment (B2 / C1)

Below you will find a mindmap with the most common vocabulary related with the topic of "Crime and Punishment". Have a look at all the words there and do the activity below.

1. Match the crimes with the examples.

1. BLACKMAIL

2. BRIBERY

3. BURGLARY

4. DRUG DEALING

5. FRAUD

6. HIJACKING

7. KIDNAPPING

8. MUGGING

9. MURDER

10. RAPE

11. ROBBERY

12. SMUGGLING

13. TERRORISM

14. THEFT

15. VANDALISM

A. A gang took a rich man's son and asked the family for money.

B. She went to her ex-husband's house and shot him dead.

C. A passenger on a flight made the pilot land in the desert.

D. After the party the man made the woman have sex against her will.

E. We came home from holiday and found that our TV had gone.

F. Someone tried to sell me some marijuana during a concert.

G. When the border police searched his car, it was full of cigarettes.

H. Someone threw pain on the statue in the park.

I. He said he'd send the photos to a newspaper if the actress didn't pay him a lot of money.

J. An armed man walked into a bank and shouted, "Hands up!"

K. A man transferred company money into his own bank account.

L. A builder offered the mayor a free flat in return for a favour.

M. Two men left a bomb in the supermarket car park.

N. Somebody stole my car last night outside my house.

O. A man held out a knife and make me give him my wallet.

2. Read the following text and choose the correct alternative in each pair.

Last year my house was broken into and 1 robbed/stolen. I immediately informed the police. A police officer came to the house and asked me to make a list of what had been 2 robbed/stolen. I told him my neighbours had seen someone suspicious at the time of the 3 forgery/burglary, so they had to go to the police station and 4 make/do a statement. About a month later the police contacted me to say they had arrested a 5 defendant/suspect. When the case came to court, I went to 6 give/tell evidence. Of course, the man 7 admitted/pleaded not guilty. The 8 jury/lawyer decided there was not enough proof to 9 try/convict him,and he was 10 let off/let go.

ANSWER KEY:

1)
1.I
2.L
3.E
4.F
5.K
6.C
7.A
8.O
9.B
10.D
11.J
12.G
13.M
14.N
15.H


2)

1. robbed

2. stolen

3. burglary

4. make

5. suspect

6. give

7. pleaded

8. jury

9. convict

10. let off

VOCABULARY: Expressions with "care" (B2)

Match the expressions with their meaning.

1. Take good care of
2. Couldn’t care less about
3. Well care for
4. Longer than I care to
5. Take great care with
6. Have a care in the world

A. Look after well
B. A very long time
C. Not be at all interested in
D. Be more careful
E. Look after well
F. Not be worried about anything


ANSWER KEY:
1.A / E
2.C
3.E / A
4.B
5.D
6.F

A.

VOCABULARY: expressions related with health (B2)

I've been feeling a bit off colour lately, actually, I think I'm coming up with something and this is why I thought it would be useful to write a post on expressions and idioms related to health.





Read the following expressions and try to match them with their meaning.

1. to feel blue

2. to be on the road to recovery

3. to black out

4. to be as fit as a fiddle

5. to have a cast iron stomach

6. to be full of beans

7. to look the picture of health

8. to be under the weather


A. to be able to eat and drink no matter what without any stomach problems

B. to lose conciousness

C. to start feeling better

D. to be in good health

E. to feel sad or depressed

F. to be healthy and active

G. to feel bad

H. to look very healthy




ANSWER KEY:
1.E
2.C
3.B
4.D
5.A
6.F
7.H
8.G


What about YOU? Are you as fit as a fiddle? Are you full of beans?
Or on the contrary you've been feeling blue? Have you been under the weather lately?

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Developing listening

Hi everyone,


I thought it is necessary to speak about listening. 

Listening is usually the most difficult skill to master by foreign students. When you speak to native speakers, you don't usually have difficulties talking but the problem arises when they reply, you don't understand... 

You put on the TV to watch an American film or TV series and you don't understand. 

But how come I can speak quite fluently but I am not able to understand a single word I hear??? This is what you normally ask yourselves.

Well, the answer is very simple you don't listen enough. It's hard to accept but it's the truth, in order to be able to understand native speakers you need to practise much much more your listening.

I'll give a clear example. My 2 year-old daughter is starting to speak now, she can put together two or three words now and she can transmit very simple messages related with her needs and priorities. She's now starting to speak, however, she's been able to understand us for more than a year. She does not understand everything completely, but I dare say she understands 80 % of what we say. And when she does not understand she doesn't care, she repeats what we say and laugh and probably next time she will understand what we say.

Why am I talking about my little girl now?? 

She's also learning a language and so are you. In my opinion we should all learn from her if we want to master a foreign language. Babies start listening to the language the will learn before they are able to utter a single word, they listen and listen for around a year and a half before they actually start saying their first words. Then, they start repeating the same words over and over again. They don't miss a chance to show off and let everybody know the new words they have learnt, when they don't understand something, they don't get frustrated or demotivated, instead they repeat what they hear without even understanding what they are saying but they are confident they will pick up the new words and one day will understand them.

So what is the lesson here:

1. Start listening more (and more and more).

2. Don't be demotivated if there are things you don't understand.

3. Learn to live happily with that level of "not knowing and not understanding".

4. Practise the new vocabulary, if you learn it you will be then able to recognise it.

5. Practise pronunciation, if you know how words are pronounced, it will be easier for you to recognise them.

6. Practise your speaking, the more you'll speak the more you'll listen.

7. Enjoy your learning experience because it can be lots of fun!!


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The importance of writing

Hello everyone,

This is a quick post about writing to remind you about its importance. 

In class teachers normally focus on speaking and listening because these are the skills you need the most. However, we cannot overlook the importance of writing.

You normally practise writing at home when you do the grammar activities, answer the reading comprehension questions or when you do a composition. In class we hardly ever write and, when we do, is normally very small things. For this reason you need to write more. You need to find opportunities to learn new things and revise the language you already know and writing is a good method.

Writing gives you a good opportunity to learn new words, revise the words you already know and expand your knowledge of them. Writing also helps you to practise grammar structures and patterns studied at the previous lessons. In addition, the more you practise the better you write. By practising writing your reading, listening and speaking skills also improve.

All the works you hand in are marked and corrected very accurately for you to learn from your mistakes, but sometimes you need to write just for the sake of writing and communicating and this is what you need to do more. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes, it doesn't matter if your text isn't perfect, the simple fact of writing will activate your knowledge and this will help you learn and fix the structures in your brain.

Try to find opportunities to write (and therefore learn):

1. Write your shopping list in English

2. Write your "To do list" in English

3. Text or whatsapp your friends in English

4. Write the comments in our Facebook group in English

5. Write comments to my blog entries (this is particularly useful because you always have a writing sample that you can copy so it's an excellent opportunity to revise the language we've seen in class)

Can you think of other ways of improving your writing?

Do you reckon you will start writing more in English from now on?



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