Merry Christmas!

IMPORTANT NEWS

There will be NO CLASS tomorrow, Monday 29th November, at EOI Arucas because of the bad weather.

There will probably be class as usual on Tuesday 30th November, but watch this space to make sure.

Take advantage of your "free" afternoon and do some extra revision!

Important News: Diane's Classes

Please note that Básico 2 (Diane's classes only) will NOT have class on Thursday 18th or Friday 19th November. We will do our end of Unit test on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th. Study hard!

Holidays...(unit 2A)

In Unit 2 our topic is HOLIDAYS, here you have some vocabulary to start practising!

to go on holiday (GB), on vacation (US) to go abroad to go camping to go climbing to go hiking to go mountaineering to go sightseeing to go skiing to go swimming to go to the beach to have a good time to have a bad time to make a to rent a car  to sunbathe to fly	Accommodation to book reservar agency  travel agent camping site hotel camping site youth hostel inn posada double room double room with twin beds _____________ high season low  season
flight cruise one-way/ single ticket return ticket car rental (US) car hire (GB) car park	sightseeing sun lotion sunglasses sunburn quemadura de sol  guide

Halloween

 

Halloween is celebrated on the 31st of October.

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Samhain festival celebrated by the Celts to signify the end of summer.

Many of today’s Halloween customs can be traced back to Celtic times.

Halloween is also known as All Saint’s Day. The Roman Catholic Church created this name to celebrate saints without their own specific days during the rest of the year.

Bonfires are often lit in Ireland on October 31st. This tradition dates back to the Celts, who used fire to ward off evil spirits. The Celts also dressed in animal skins on Halloween, and believed that the dead returned to earth disguised as various creatures. One of these creatures was a black cat, which remains a familiar symbol of Halloween...

 

>Watch these easy videos and practice further:

VOCABULARY

1D Relative Clauses

Relative Clauses NB2

Vocabulary FAMILY

Unit 1B

Who  is your sister's husband?
Who is your cousins father?
Who is your mother's father?

brother in law, niece, stepfather

 uncle. aunt, grandchildren,

grandfather...

Click HERE and practice Vocabulary for family members!

NOW watch, listen, read and REPEAT! 

with this video:

Clothes vocabulary

FILE 6

Maybe you would like to revise some of the topics we're studying in this file; if so, click here for all the grammar points in English File.
To revise modals, watch this presentation first, then look at these pages:
- MAY: explanation, exercise,
- MIGHT: explanation,difference may/might,
- SHOULD: explanation, quiz, 

 Try to complete this text with the appropriate modals and choose the best modal here , here and here.

For a complete list of animals (translated and with pronunciation), click here. Obviously they're too many, but just in case you're interested.... Then you can try these pastimes. For an extra listening on animals, go here. Please do not read the text until you have heard it at least twice and do the activities online (on the right).

What would you say if you had to ask for a medicine? Check it here.

FILE 6: CONDITIONALS

For further explanation of the FIRST CONDITIONAL ("probable"), click here. There are exercises at the end. For the SECOND CONDITIONAL ("hypothetical") click here. 
Let's now check if you can tell the difference: do this exercise. this one and this text.

Remember that in hypothetical conditionals with TO BE, we use WERE for all persons. Now let's see if you'd survive these situations... I told you about the conditionals being used in songs. This is the song we heard in class and these are just two more examples. Enjoy them!


What would you do if you were rich?  This man has it very clear!


Beyoncé tells you what she would do... if she were a boy!

Now

Rewriting texts practice

Don't forget you can try to rewrite the texts from English File. Select the unit and the text you want to practise and try to remember or guess the words that go in each space. Click here and good luck!

Practical English - At a department store

Click here to practise the dialogue for returning a product to a shop.

Vocabulary: verb + infinitive or -ing

Click here for the link to the English File website to practise all those verbs which take the infinitive or -ing. Do you remember them?

EXTRA LISTENINGS FILE 5

For File 5B, you can do "A perfect day", it's number 54. Click here to download it. For 5C ("Class rules") go here and for the practical English section ("Clothing styles") click here. Just make sure you listen to the dialogue and do the activities without reading it. You should only read everything after you finish.

INFINITIVES AND GERUNDS

Here we are again!

This is not an easy topic, because there are few rules and what you normally find is lists of verbs like this one. For more explanations and practice, try here. Then the only thing you can do is to practise a lot and do many exercises, like this one, this one, this one or this one.

Click here for all the exercises from English File Preintermediate. Take it easy, in any case!

FILE 4 COMPLEMENTARY EXERCISES

Here are the links to the official Oxford English File Pre-intermediate website.

Click here to practise the grammar from Unit 4.

Click here to practise clothes vocabulary and here to practise opposite adjectives vocabulary from Unit 4.

Click here to practise phrases from the Practical English section 'Lost in San Francisco'.

If you want to try to reconstruct the texts from Unit 4, click here and choose one of the texts you have read. Read the text, then take out 25%, 50% or all of the words. Try to guess which words they are by writing them in the space.

And if you want to shop for clothes in English, then go to this website for topshop (women's clothes) and this website for topman (men's clothes). They are both famous clothes shops in the United Kingdom. Can you find anything you like?

Enjoy yourself!

IT'S CARNIVAL TIME!

Hello everybody!
As you well know, these days we're celebrating carnival in Las Palmas. But what do you know about its origins? Read this post to find out. For this year's programme, go here. By the way, next week there are no lessons. We're coming back on Monday 22nd.

And since it's Saint Valentine's on Sunday, you can look here to send a romantic letter to your Valentine. Or to practise more your WRITING, you can do some of the compositions suggested below

Extra Writing Units 1-4

FILE 4

Hello!
First of all, I would like you to have a look at "el blog para aprender inglés", where there are plenty of useful links to practise grammar, pronunciation, listening, etc
They also have some activities and explanation for the Present Perfect. This explanation in Spanish is quite clarifying too, don't miss it! For more explanations and exercises, go here and here. This post from the blog from EOI Guia offers you further practice. They also have another interesting post on giving and asking for directions. I hope you find them useful.

Finally, you can watch this "Real English" video. Notice that people use the present perfect to describe what they have done TODAY (because today hasn't finished) and the past simple to talk about what they did yesterday (because it has a past time reference - 'yesterday'). See how many things you can write down that they have done today and that they did yesterday.

Listenings - Moving Home and A Town Called Hamilton

Click here to listen to the extra listening 'Moving Home' (number 27) and 'A Town Called Hamilton' (number 4) on the website www.podcastsinenglish.com. Happy listening!

Talking of rain...

The weather forecast only spoke about storms, heavy rain, possible floods... but they didn't say... it's raining men!

This is Geri Halliwell's version of a song from the 80s by The Weather Girls. The original video (quite funny and very, very 80s) is here.
Now, let's get a bit more serious. If you want to listen to podcasts from the Internet, this blog offers  you many useful links that can help you to prepare yourselves more for the final exam.

Listening and singing in the rain...

Are you bored because there is no English lesson today? Well, why not use the Internet for some practice? Click here for a listening exercise and if you like it, click here for the menu of more listening exercises on the same website. Choose the 'easy' level... but don't worry, it's not too easy!

And if you love the rain, then why not sing (or even dance) along to this famous song 'Singing in the Rain' with Fred Astaire? This song uses the present continous to describe what he is doing at the moment (singing and dancing) and weather vocabulary (rain, rain, rain).

FILE 3

We have just finished this unit, but do you still feel you don't control the contents in it?
For the futures, go here. or sing along this song, because I feel that tonight is going to be a good night

To revise the practical English section (problems with a meal), see this. and for the text builder section go here.
Do you want to read in English and not spend a penny? You can download some books for free at mansioningles. I hope you find something you like!