Sunday, 20 December 2009

Darren's Christmas


Darren's talks about his feelings for Christmas season.

Listen to him and answer the following questions.

1. What does he like about Christmas?

2. What doesn't he like about it?

3. In his opinion what is the true meaning of Christmas?

4. What does he like to eat and drink at Christmas?

5. Does everybody like Christmas pudding?

6. What is it made of?

Do you agree with him? Give your opinion. You can either write it down here in the section for comments or/and speaking on your own.

Sunday, 13 December 2009

The sound /ə/



Watch this video about this sound

Thursday, 10 December 2009

Prepositions of time

Click here to find a list and examples with prepositions of time.
More examples with at, in, on


Click here to do some exercises using at, in, on.
More exercises

Monday, 7 December 2009

Questions with like

Questions with 'like' '
Like' is a word frequently used in English.
It is used in different ways and in this programme they compare three different uses: talking about personality, physical appearance and hobbies.
Click here and you will listen to the programme about this point.

Do Quiz 1 to check how much you have learned
Now do quiz 2

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

Booking a hotel


Click here to learn some vocabulary you may find useful

Click here to listen to a conversation

and do the exercises

Sunday, 29 November 2009

Word order past sentences


Click here and put the words in order

Past tense irregular verbs


Click here to revise irregular verbs
More irregular verbs

Past tense regular verbs



Click here and you will find some exercises
Past tense negative sentences
Past tense questions
Past tense wh-questions

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Pronunciation of the "-ed" ending


Click here to practise the pronunciation of the ed ending it is either /d/, /t/ or /id/.
You can also practise on the following link. Although the phonetic transcription is not very accurate I think it will be useful for you to listen how to pronounce the verbs .
You can also do this quizz

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

San Francisco Scott Mackenzie

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there


Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Landing in London


Click here to listen to the Flatmates' episode in which they land in London

Here is some vocabulary about airports and air travel.
Now try a quiz here to check how much vocabulary you can remember.


Monday, 9 November 2009

Moulin Rouge-Your song


My gift is my song
And this one's for you
And you can tell everybody
That this is your song
It maybe quite simple
But now that it's done
Hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is now you're in the world
Sat on the roof
And I kicked off the moss
Well some of the verses well
They got me quite cross
But the sun's been kind
While I wrote this song
It's for people like you that
Keep it turned on
So excuse me for forgetting
But these things I do
You see I've forgotten
If they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is what I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen
And you can tell everybody
This is your song
It may be quite simple
But now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is now you're in the world
I hope you don't mindI hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is now you're in the world

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Present continuous

The Present Continuous is used:
1. For actions taking place now, at the moment of speaking.
e.g She's cooking dinner.
2. For temporary actions; that is actions that are going on around now but not at the moment of speaking.
e.g. She is working hard these days.

The present continuous is used with the following time expressions: now, at the moment, these days, at present, tonight, nowadays, still, etc.

Spelling rules for the formation of the present participle.

Consont+ e. drop the -e and and -ing
e.g: make - making, dance-dancing, come-coming

However, when a verb ends in an e which is not silent, the final e is not dropped before the ending ing is added. e.g. : to be- being to see- seeing

b. Verbs ending in ie When a verb ends in ie, the ie is changed to y before the ending ing is added. to die -dying to lie -lying
When a verb ends in y, no change is made before the ending is added. fly-flying

c. One-syllable verbs ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel.
the final consonant must be doubled before the ending ing is added. put-putting, sit-sitting
Except when the final consonants are w,x, and y e.g. show-showing, fix-fixing, say-saying

d. When a verb of more than one syllable ends in a single consonant other than w, x or y preceded by a single vowel, the final consonant is doubled to form the present participle only when the last syllable of the verb is pronounced with the heaviest stress.

In these examples, the syllables pronounced with the heaviest stress are underlined. For example: to ex'pel- expelling ,to be'gin-beginning ,to o'ccur- occurring ,to o'mit-omitting

Exercise: add -ing to the follwing verbs
cry, mix, read, stop, dance, move, run, take, repair, play, save, wash, get,put,smile,wear,hope, rain,stay,get, save, wash, type, plan, add, hurry, fire, agree, swim.

Click here to see the answers.



Tuesday, 3 November 2009

You've got a friend in me. Randy Newman



You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
When the road looks rough ahead (/rʌf/ difficult or unpleasant,agitated)
And you're miles and miles
From your nice warm bed
You just remember what your old pal said (/pæl/friend)
Boy, you've got a friend in me
Yeah, you've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
If you've got troubles, (/ˈtrʌbəl/difficulty)
I've got 'em too
There isn't anything
I wouldn't do for you
We stick together and can see it through (remain united /give attention and support)
Cause you've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me

Some other folks might be (/foʊk/people in general)
A little bit smarter than I am (clever)
Bigger and stronger too
Maybe
But none of them will ever love you
The way I do, it's me and you
Boy, and as the years go by
Our friendship will never die
You're gonna see it's our destiny
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me
You've got a friend in me

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Friends



My best friend
David is one of my oldest friends. We were at college together. We didn’t get on well at first, but later we became good friends. We come from similar backgrounds and we have a lot in common. He lives in Spain now, so we don’t see each other very often, but we keep in touch by phone and email.

Complete the questions with the missing word.
What sort of people do you ____ on well with?
How often do you and your best friend ___ each other?
Do you ___ a lot in common with your best friend?
How do you ____ in touch with friends in other towns or countries?
Steve's best friend
Listen to Steve talking about his best friend.
http://eoiutebo.educa.aragon.es/maripaz/bestfriend.mp3

Answer the following questions:
1. Where did they meet?
2. Do they ever argue?
3. Do they have anything in common?
4. How often do they see each other?
5. Do they keep in touch/ are they in touch?


Check your answers.
My best friend is Bill. I first met Bill when I was five years old. We met at school. We always used to play together at school, and we got on very well because we both loved football! . We used to argue sometimes when we were younger. Now we're older and we don't argue at all. We've known each other so long, I suppose Bill is like a brother to me. We still see each other, but no very often because he lives abroad now. We see each other about once a year, if that- but we keep in touch by email.



Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Halloween


Halloween traditions
It's celebrated on October 31st. When the Celts lived in Ireland, Britain and France over 2,000 years ago, they had a pagan agricultural festival on this day. They believed that the dead came back, so they used to light large bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought this tradition to North America in the 19th century.

The word "Halloween" is a shortened form of "All Hallows' Eve", meaning the evening before "All Hallows' Day" or "All Saints' Day", which is November 1st.

In the past, poor people went around asking for food in exchange of a prayer for the dead. Nowadays, this tradition was changed. In Ireland and the United States, children dress up and go door-to-door collecting candy. This is called "trick or treat", meaning that if they don't receive candy they will make a trick.

The carved pumpkin has become the symbol of Halloween. It's called "Jack-o-lantern", from an Irish legend about a man called Jack. He was a lazy farmer, who tricked the devil and refused to free him unless he agreed to never let Jack go into hell. So, Jack started to wander the Earth looking for a resting place, carrying a carved turnip with a candle inside.
Listen to ESLPodcast 73 - Halloween
 

Friday, 23 October 2009

Talk about your family


Listen to some people talking about whether
it is better to have a big or a small family.

http://www.elllo.org/PagesMixer/33-MX-BigFamily.htm

Talk about your family include the following topics:
What are your parents' names , their jobs and their interests?
How many children are there? What are their hobbies?
Is there a family pet?
When does the family eat together? What is your favourite food?
What does your family do at weekends and in the holidays?

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Going to


From: Grammarway 2 ed. Express publishing

Sunday, 4 October 2009

My Girl



I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside
I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?

My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

I've got so much honey
the bees envy me.
I've got a sweeter song
than the birds in the trees.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?

My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).
Hey hey hey Hey hey hey Ooooh.

I don't need no money, fortune, or fame.
I've got all the riches baby one man can claim.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?

My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day with my girl.
I've even got the month of May with my girl.

Wednesday, 30 September 2009