Christmas exercise

Read the text about Christmas then do these exercises to check your understanding.

1. Check your understanding: true or false

Circle True or False for these sentences.

1.Some modern Christmas traditions date from Roman times.

True               False

2. British people send money to friends, family, colleagues, classmates and neighbours at Christmas.

True               False

3. Gold, frankincense and myrrh are popular Christmas presents for young people in the UK.

True               False

4. Santa Claus is another name for Father Christmas.

True               False

5. ‘Killing in the name’ won number one position in the UK music charts at Christmas.

True               False

6. It doesn’t always snow at Christmas in Britain.

True               False

7. A Christmas cracker is a type of dessert.

True               False

8. Only Christians celebrate Christmas.

True               False

Christmas in the UK

Christmas in the UK is the biggest holiday of the year. Family gatherings, turkey, presents and parties are just some of the things that come to mind when we think about Christmas time.

Christmas can mean different things to different people. For many people it means eating a lot and spending time with family and visiting relatives and friends. For children it often means presents, presents and more presents!

The origins of Christmas

In ancient times people had mid-winter festivals when the days were short and the nights were very long. They believed that their ceremonies would help the sun’s power return. The Romans decorated their homes with green plants in December to remind Saturn, their harvest god, to return the following spring. In CE440 the Christian church decided that the birth of Christ should be celebrated every year on December 25th. Some of these ancient customs were adopted by early Christians as part of their celebrations of the birthday of Jesus Christ. Green plants are still used to decorate many British homes in December. At Christmas we cover trees (real ones or reusable synthetic trees) with shiny balls and flashing lights!

Time prepositions

about - aproximadamente, alrededor de
around - aproximadamente, alrededor de
before - antes de
after - después de
during - durante
over - durante
for - durante, por
throughout - durante todo

Direction prepositions

up - por, hacia arriba

down - por, hacia abajo

into - dentro de, al, hacia adentro

out of - de, afuera de, fuera de

on / onto - sobre, al

off - de, fuera de

over - sobre, por encima de

under - debajo de, bajo

to - a, hacia

from - de, desde

Place prepositions

on - sobre, en, encima de
upon - sobre, en, encima de(formal)
in - en, dentro de
at - en
inside - dentro de, en
outside - afuera, fuera, fuera de
above - encima de, sobre, arriba
below - debajo de

A food review

A review should…

• use interesting vocabulary.
• try to catch the reader’s interest.
• be clearly organised.
• use a neutral style, but you have to check who you are writing the review for.

What should you do before you start review writing…

• be sure about what you are reviewing and its purpose
• check who will read it.
• decide what style you will use for your review.
• be careful not to follow a report style.

Prepositions On, At and In

A preposition is a word that links a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to some other part of the sentence.

Prepositions can be tricky for English learners. There is no definite rule or formula for choosing a preposition. In the beginning stage of learning the language, you should try to identify a preposition when reading or listening in English and recognize its usage.

• to the office
• at the desk
• on the table
• in an hour
• about myself

A preposition is used to show direction, location, or time, or to introduce an object.

Here are a few common prepositions and examples.

How to write a story

What should contain a good story for FCE

• A good plot
• A good ending: fun, dramatic, shocking…
• The paragraphs must be well linked and should convey an atmosphere with adjectives and verbs (you can visualize what is happening)
• The narrative tenses should be used correctly.

Most prepositions

Prepositions are short words (on, in, to) that usually stand in front of nouns (sometimes also in front of gerund verbs).

Even advanced learners of English find prepositions difficult, as a 1:1 translation is usually not possible. One preposition in your native language might have several translations depending on the situation.

There are hardly any rules as to when to use which preposition. The only way to learn prepositions is looking them up in a dictionary, reading a lot in English (literature) and learning useful phrases off by heart (study tips).

The following table contains rules for some of the most frequently used prepositions in English:

Idioms

Nothing to write home about – nada del otro jueves

Just in case – por si las moscas

To call a spade a spade – llamar al pan, pan y al vino, vino

My name’s John Blunt – a mí me gustan las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso

Miles from anywhere/at the back of beyond – en el quinto pino/donde Cristo dio las tres voces/perdió la gorra

Someone’s better half – la media naranja de alguien

The straw that broke the camel’s back – la gota que colma el vaso

To play second fiddle – ser plato de segunda mesa

Pronunciation of past simple regular verbs

Simple Past Tense Regular Verbs - ed Pronunciation

              / t /                           / d /                         / id /

stop = stopped	learn = learned	decide = decided
look = looked	listen = listened	want = wanted
wash = washed	play = played	start = started
watch = watched	enjoy = enjoyed	wait = waited
like = liked	live = lived	visit = visited
walk = walked	stay = stayed	invite = invited
help = helped	open = opened
work = worked	love = loved
change = changed	learn = learned
miss = missed	call = called
relax = relaxed	arrive = arrived
	smile = smiled
	clean = cleaned

• We pronounce / t / after voiceless sounds: / p /, / k /, / s /, / f / and voiceless / th / sound
• We pronounce / d / after voiced sounds: / b / , / g /, / v /, / z/ , / m/ , /n /, / l /, / r / , voiced / th / sound and all vowels.
• We pronounce / id / after / d / and / t / sounds.

Nationalities

COUNTRY	ADJECTIVE	NOUN
Africa	Arican	an African
America	American	an American
Argentina	Argentinian	an Argentinian
Austria	Austrian	an Austrian
Australia	Australian	an Australian
Bangladesh	Bangladeshi	a Blangladeshi
Belgium	Belgian	a Belgian
Brazil	Brazilian	a Brazilian
Britain	British	a Briton
Cambodia	Cambodian	a Cambodian
Chile	Chilean	a Chilean
China	Chinese	a Chinese
Colombia	Colombian	a Colombian
Croatia	Croatian	a Croat
the Czech Republic	Czech	a Czech
Denmark	Danish	a Dane
Egypt	Egyptian	an Egyptian
England	English	an Englishman  an Englishwoman
Finland	Finnish	a Finn
France	French	a Frenchman  a Frenchwoman
Germany	German	a German
Greece	Greek	a Greek
Holland	Dutch	a Dutchman  a Dutchwoman
Hungary	Hungarian	an Hungarian
Iceland	Icelandic	an Icelander
India	Indian	an Indian
Indonesia	Indonesian	an Indonesian
Iran	Iranian	an Iranian
Iraq	Iraqi	an Iraqi
Ireland	Irish	an Irishman  an Irishwoman
Israel	Israeli	an Israeli
Italy	Italian	an Italian
Jamaica	Jamaican	a Jamaican
Japan	Japanese	a Japanese
Korea	Korean	a Korean
Mexico	Mexican	a Mexican
Morocco	Moroccan	a Moroccan
Norway	Norwegian	a Norwegian
Peru	Peruvian	a Peruvian
the Philippines	Philippine	a Filipino
Poland	Polish	a Pole
Portugal	Portuguese	a Portuguese
Rumania	Rumanian	a Rumanian
Russia	Russian	a Russian
Saudi Arabia	Saudi,  Saudi Arabian	a Saudi,  a Saudi Arabian
Scotland	Scottish	a Scot
Serbia	Serbian	a Serb
the Slovak Republic	Slovak	a Slovak
Spain	Spanish	a Spaniard
Sweden	Swedish	a Swede
Switzerland	Swiss	a Swiss
Thailand	Thai	a Thai
the USA	American	an American
Turnisia	Turnisian	a Turnisian
Turkey	Turkish	a Turk
Vietnam	Vietnamese	a Vietnamese
Wales	Welsh	a Welshman  a Welshwoman
Yugoslavia	Yugoslav	a Yugoslav

How to write a short story

Your story will be better and will get more marks if you include…

1. Three different tenses. You want to show the examiner that you know the story telling tenses, which are:

a) Simple Past

b) Past Continuous

c) Past Perfect.

Here’s an example:  It was raining. (Past continuous)

                             Billy hadn’t eaten for two days. (Past perfect)

                             He saw some apples. He decided to steal them. (Simple past).

Of course, in order to use these tenses you absolutely MUST know all your irregular verbs!

2. Adjectives: It was raining. Billy hadn’t eaten for two days, so he was wet, hungry and miserable. He saw some delicious, red apples. He decided to steal them.

3. Adverbs: It was raining hard. Billy hadn’t eaten for two days, so he was wet, hungry and miserable. He saw some delicious red apples and quickly decided to steal them.

4. Direct speech: “Hey, you!” shouted the shopkeeper, “I know you, Billy Brown! I’ll tell your mum!”

5. Rich vocabulary, good grammar, detail and idiomatic expressions: Examples: Quick as a flash – soaking wet – starving hungry – to grab – to pass away – an idea popped into his head – to go straight (to hospital) (home) – to have a little chat

Grammar Unit Past simple

Past simple: be

• We use it to talk about actions and events in the past.
• Past simple of be is was/wasn´t or were/ weren´t

          Ex: I was in town yesterday

                We were at a friend´s house last nite

                My sister wasn´t with me.

                We watched some videos but they weren´t very good.

• Questions: we put the verb before the subject:

          Ex: Were you in the park yesterday? No, I wasn´t

                Was James with you? Yes, he was

Grammar Unit Past simple: Irregular Verbs

PAST SIMPLE: IRREGULAR VERBS

• A lot of common verbs are irregular. This means that the past simple form is different, they don´t have the usual ed ending.

          Ex: go – went

                see – saw

• Past time expressions are often used with the past simple. Remember that we say, last night, not the last night.

• Yesterday, yesterday morning, last night, last week, a month ago, two years ago, on Sunday.

          Ex: We played ice hockey yesterday or yesterday we played ice hockey.

• Past simple questions and short answers are formed the same for regular and irregular verbs, using did.

          Ex: did they play tennis yesterday? Yes, they did/No they didn´t.

Remembrance Day - 11th November

Remembrance Day takes place on the second Sunday of November or the Sunday nearest the 11th November. This is to commemorate the First World War which ended at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918 (11 o'clock on the 11th November 1918).

Armistice day, as it was then known (when the warring forces agreed to stop fighting) has been observed ever since. The First World War or Great War marked the beginning of the use of modern technology in warfare and led to millions of deaths. It was felt that the dead should be honoured and King George V initiated a 2 minute silence at exactly 11 o'clock to commemorate those who had died for their country.

Vocabulary about holiday travel

ACCOMODATION: alojamiento
ADMISSION FEE: costo de la entrada
BROCHURE: folleto
CAMPING SITE, CAMPSITE: sitio para acampar
CAR RENTAL/CAR HIRE: alquiler de autos
CAR PARK: estacionamiento
CARAVAN: caravana
CITY CENTRE: centro de la ciudad
CRUISE: crucero
DOUBLE ROOM: habitación doble
DOUBLE ROOM WITH TWIN BEDS: habitación doble con dos camas
DOWNTOWN: centro de la ciudad

How to write and article

What is an article?

An article

• is a piece of writing usually intended for publication in a newspaper, magazine or journal.
• is written for a wide audience, so it is essential to attract and retain the readers’ attention.
• may include amusing stories, reported speech and descriptions.
• can be formal or informal, depending on the target audience.
• should be written in an interesting or entertaining manner.
• should give opinions and thoughts, as well as facts.
• is in a less formal style than a report.

VERB + TO or ING

LIKE, LOVE, HATE, PREFER + ING
They tend to have a general meaning whereas the Infinitive is used more for particular situations.

Ex: I like singing (general meaning)
      I like to sing in the shower (particular situation)

Verbs change meaning depending on wether they are followed by -ing or the infinitive.
STOP, TRY, REGRET ( to do/ doing sth)

REMEMBER: where the infinitive is needed, it must be the full TO Infinitive.

Verbs + ING
Enjoy, feel like, practise, admit, avoid, fancy, finish, mind, miss, suggest.
Deny, dislike, can't help, imagine, mention, put off, can't stand.

Verbs + Infinitive
Agree, seem, afford, decide, expect, hope, learn, manage, promise, want, would like.
Appear, attempt, intend, offer, pretend, refuse.

Verbos que rigen TO o -ING

Verb + ing

stop, enjoy, fancy, admit, consider, miss, finish, mind, imagine, deny, involve, postpone, delay, suggest, regret, avoid, risk, practise, give up, put off, keep on, go on ( continue), carry on.

E.g. are you going to give up smoking?

Verb + infinitive

Agree, offer, decide, appear, forget, refuse, attempt, plan, seem, learn, promise, manage, arrange, pretend, dare, threaten, fail, hope, afford, tend, take.

E.g. He dedided to take a taxi home.

Exercises Bonfire Night

Read the text about Bonfire Night then do these exercises to check your understanding.

1. Check your understanding: gap fill

Complete the gaps with a number from the box.

36                                      5th                                    18                 1605                                     9                                    First

1. A group of people wanted to kill James the _______________, the King of England.

2. Guy Fawkes planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in _______________.

3. Guy Fawkes and his men put _______________ barrels of explosives in the Houses of Parliament.

4. People remember the plot to destroy the Houses of Parliament and kill King James with fireworks and bonfires on November _______________.

5. Edenbridge in Kent burns a _______________ metre Guy on a bonfire every year.

6. People under _______________ can’t buy fireworks in the UK.

Bonfire Night

Bonfire Night

In the UK, Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes is celebrated on November 5th and the night skies are filled with colour. It’s a special day in honour of a historic event.

Phonics rules

Listed below are some of the phonics rules that we will learn this year to help us to decode words and apply in the reading and writing process. We will learn these skills through whole group, small group, individual practice time, and games to reinforce each rule and make it fun to learn and recall.

False friends

absolutely	completament	completamente, totalmente
actually	en realitat, realment, de fet	en realidad
blank	en blanc, buit	espacio en blanco, hueco
carpet	catifa, moqueta	alfombra, moqueta
complexion	cutis, pell	cutis, tez
exit	sortida, eixida	salida
fabric	roba, tela	tejido, tela
library	biblioteca	biblioteca
parents	pares (pare i mare)	padres (padre y madre)
pretend	fingir,fer veure	fingir, aparentar
recluse	ermità	ermitaño
sane	en el seu seny, entenimentat	cuerdo
sensible	sensat	sensato
vase	gerro	florero, jarrón

Pumpkin soup

Cooking time

Prep: 20 mins    Cook:25 mins

Skill level

Easy

Seakettle

Informal letter - structure

Hi Leo,

It's been a while since we wrote, so I thought I'd drop you a line to bring you up to date with

what's been happening here.

I suppose the most important thing is that Jane's job is more secure than we thought. At the

beginning of the year, when she got the job, we thought it might only be for one semester, but

we just found that she has a permanent contract of sorts. Obviously this is great, as it means

we can relax a little. I still don't have what I really want work wise, but it will happen soon.

You have to stay positive, don't you?

My parents are both fine, and I think they are really happy that we've moved back. For us, it's great to be so close to family again, an extra sense of comfort and security. We see my sister quite often as she's in London, although we're not that bothered about going into the city. So, what about you these days? Are you still stuck in that old job? Since I've been having so much trouble getting a job I understand your reluctance to change. There is nothing worse than filling in endless application forms, with no idea of what it will lead to.

Anyway, I've got another form to fill in so I'll love you and leave you.

Regards

John

Recommended Reading Books

Macmillan Graded Readers 

Beginner Level

Gaston Leroux: The Phantom of the Opera

George Eliot: The Mill on the Floss

Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Elementary Level

Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Pre - Intermediate Level

Henry James: Daisy Miller

Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe

Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden

Set Texts for Cambridge English Exams FCE 2013

William Thackeray: Vanity Fair

Mary Stewart: This Rough Magic

Other Recommended books for FCE

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Anthony Hope: The Prison of Zenda

George Orwell: 1984

Audio words - Vocabulary bank

To extend your vocabulary and practice pronunciation.

https://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/elementary/c_pronunciation/?cc=global&selLanguage=en

Pronunciation of English Sounds

These are fun activities to practise pronunciation - Elementary Level

https://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/elementary/c_pronunciation/?cc=global&selLanguage=en

Leisure and pleasure activities

Sports of risk/extreme sports. Match the sport with its definition:

a. bungee jumping

b. hang-gliding

c. paragliding

d. parkour/free running

e. potholing

f. snowboarding

g. white-water rafting

h. canyoning

1. moving along a route, typically in a city, trying to get around or through various obstacles in the quickest and most efficient manner possible, jumping, climbing, or running.
2. riding on a raft over rough, dangerous parts of a fast-flowing river.
3. gliding through the air while hanging suspended from a harness resembling a large kite.
4. leaping from a bridge or other high place with a long length of a special rope that stretches tied to your legs, so that you go up again without touching the ground.
5. jumping into a fast-flowing stream at the bottom of a canyon and allowing oneself to be carried downstream at high speed.
6. sliding downhill on snow while standing on a board resembling a short, broad ski attached to the rider’s feet.
7. jumping from a plane or a high place and floating slowly to the ground wearing a type of parachute that allows you to control where you go.
8. exploring underground caves.

Learning Phrasal Verbs Can be fun

Some students find phrasal verbs very difficult to learn, and some even hate them. To those students, I say that phrasal verbs are not really so difficult to learn if you go about it the right way.

Here are a few hints for teachers, drawn on my long teaching experience:

• Teach your students a limited number of Phrasal Verbs each time.
• Have your students learn the verbs in context. Give them a non-phrasal equivalent for each new phrasal verb they learn, whenever there is one. If there isn’t one, give them a good definition, either in English or in Spanish, of the phrasal verb in question.

Learning phrasal verbs

1.- What do we understand by ‘phrasal verb’?

A ‘phrasal verb’ can be defined as the combination of a verb plus one or sometimes two particles whose meaning is different from the sum of its components: to put up = to give lodging to somebody, for example, is a phrasal verb but to belong to (pertenecer a) is just a verb which patterns with the preposition to, but this preposition does not alter the meaning of the verb= ‘pertenecer’.

Present Perfect vs Present Perfect Continuous

En líneas generales, puede decirse que la diferencia entre el present perfect y el present perfect continuous es la que hay en español entre 'haber hecho algo' o 'haber ocurrido algo' y 'haber estado haciendo' o 'haber estado ocurriendo' algo, es decir con el present perfect expresamos que hemos hecho algo o que ha ocurrido algo y que la acción está acabada aunque la acción guarde alguna relación con el momento actual:

I've repaired the car myself; you needn't take it to the garage - he arreglado el coche yo mismo; no tienes que llevarlo al taller (la acción está completada), mientras que, si usamos el present perfect continuous y decimos:

Phonetic chart

http://www.stuff.co.uk/calcul_nd.htm

Grammar Unit 2 Countable and uncountable nouns

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

• Nouns in English are countable or uncountable. Countable nouns have a singular and plural form.

         Car – cars
         House – houses
         Man – men
         Woman – women
         Child – children
         Person – people

Grammar Unit Present simple

PRESENT SIMPLE

• We use it for actions that happen repeatedly or habitually.

           Ex: Sally often goes to the swimming pool
                 We have breakfast at 7.30 in the morning.

• We also use the present simple for things that are always or normally true.

          Ex: Apples grow on trees
                He lives in Italy