20/12/12

Programme:

Grammar: Third conditional

The third conditional is used to talk about things which are:

1. in the past, and therefore impossible to change
2. we use it to express regret

---

If +	Past Perfect +	would have +	Past Participle
	(continuous)	wouldn't have
If	I hadn't studied, I	wouldn't have	passed the exam.
If	I had seen him, I	would have	told him.
If	she hadn't gone out, she	wouldn't have	got sick.
If	John hadn't been driving, he	wouldn't have	got a fine.

If the result is not sure, we can use: Would Probably, Might Have or Could Have

If	I had studied, I	might have	passed the exam.
If	I had seen him, I	could have	told him.
If	she hadn't gone out, she	probably wouldn't have	got sick.

---

Would(n't) have +	Past Participle +	if +	Past Perfect
could/might have			(continuous)
I could have	passed the exam	if	I had studied.
I would have	told him	if	I had seen him.
She might have	gone to the party	if	she had known about it.
He wouldn't have	bought it, even	if	he had had the money.

Note:

Sometimes the ‘IF’ clause is implied, but not spoken:

• He wouldn’t have said that. (if he had been there)
• I would have done it. (if you had asked me)
• I wouldn’t have let him get away with it. (if I had been there)

Exercise 1

Change the words in brackets into their correct form

1. If you ______________ interrupting me the whole time, I would have enjoyed the movie. (be)
2. If I had had your number, I _____________________ you. (phone)
3. They _____________________ that route if they had known that there were road works. (take)
4. I wouldn’t have booked that holiday if I ______________ there was a cheaper deal. (know)
5. If I _________________ my job, I wouldn’t have moved to London. (lose)
6. I ________________ used Groupon if I had known that it existed. (have)
7. If I had seen the weather forecast, I _________________ an umbrella. (pack)
8. If the weather ________________better yesterday, I would have gone for a swim. (be)

Exercise 2

Compete the sentences with a third conditional in your own words.

• ….. I would have been happier
• If I had been born in the 19th century…..
• If I had been an only child…..
• …..the world would have been a better place.
• If Superman had been a girl….
• If the 2nd World War hadn’t happened….
• …..I would have been a supermodel.
• …..I wouldn’t have got an education.

Exercise 3:  Write down five regrets you have. Now go back and try and think of something positive that resulted from this regret.

eg: If I hadn't had a car crash I never would have broken my leg. But if I hadn't broken my leg and gone to hospital, I might not have met that lovely nurse!

Listening ex: 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4A_18kf4PY

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QQ-31Eeulk8EWFuQjNRotM1qO8seOnfnuSq5FiLng8o/edit

Pick ten scenarios from the song. Imagine they happened to someone you know. Make sentences  using the third conditional.

eg: If he hadn't done his own electrical work, he wouldn't have burnt his house down!

Reading ex:

Pre-reading discussion:

1. How much of a person’s recovery from serious injury or illness is due to medicine, 
and how much is due to mental attitude?
2. Do you know anyone who has recovered from injury or illness despite the poor 
predictions of the doctor? It could be a personal friend, acquaintance, or famous 
person. 
3. What sort of character do you think a person needs to have in order to face a 
challenge like this?

Now read The Times article 'Journalist. 52. Fallen off horse...' and answer the following questions:

1. What characteristics is she displaying that are helping her face the challenges before 
her?
2. What characteristics does she think help people to overcome difficult situations?

18/12/12

Grammar focus:  Third conditional

Grammar Presentation

These are things which are:

1. in the past, and therefore impossible to change
2. we use it to express regret

---

If +	Past Perfect +	would have +	Past Participle
	(continuous)	wouldn't have
If	I hadn't studied, I	wouldn't have	passed the exam.
If	I had seen him, I	would have	told him.
If	she hadn't gone out, she	wouldn't have	got sick.
If	John hadn't been driving, he	wouldn't have	got a fine.

If the result is not sure, we can use: Would Probably, Might Have or Could Have

If	I had studied, I	might have	passed the exam.
If	I had seen him, I	could have	told him.
If	she hadn't gone out, she	probably wouldn't have	got sick.

---

Would(n't) have +	Past Participle +	if +	Past Perfect
could/might have			(continuous)
I could have	passed the exam	if	I had studied.
I would have	told him	if	I had seen him.
She might have	gone to the party	if	she had known about it.
He wouldn't have	bought it, even	if	he had had the money.

Note:

Sometimes the ‘IF’ clause is implied, but not spoken:

• He wouldn’t have said that. (if he had been there)
• I would have done it. (if you had asked me)
• I wouldn’t have let him get away with it. (if I had been there)

Exercise 1

Change the words in brackets into their correct form

1. If you ______________ interrupting me the whole time, I would have enjoyed the movie. (be)
2. If I had had your number, I _____________________ you. (phone)
3. They _____________________ that route if they had known that there were road works. (take)
4. I wouldn't have booked that holiday if I ______________ there was a cheaper deal. (know)
5. If I _________________ my job, I wouldn’t have moved to London. (lose)
6. I ________________ used Groupon if I had known that it existed. (have)
7. If I had seen the weather forecast, I _________________ an umbrella. (pack)
8. If the weather ________________better yesterday, I would have gone for a swim. (be)

Reading comprehension and free practice:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hXYkGg1Hv3VFNlh8WlmxU6DAewUy0rr8pcG50rBYx-M/edit

End of class ex: 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4A_18kf4PY

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QQ-31Eeulk8EWFuQjNRotM1qO8seOnfnuSq5FiLng8o/edit

Pick ten scenarios from the song. Imagine they happened to someone you know. Make sentences  using the third conditional.

eg: If he hadn't done his own electrical work, he wouldn't have burnt his house down!

13/12/12

Grammar focus: Complex adjectives / adjective lists

Here is a table with some basic adjectives and their rather more sophisticated synonyms. Put them in the correct order.

thin (nice)	drab, hideous, unsightly, frightful, plain, awful
happy	lovely, magnificent, marvelous, stunning, exquisite
beautiful (things)	cheerful, delighted, upbeat, chipper, jolly
few	dejected, despondent, dismal, downcast, bleak
ugly (things)	petite, slender, slight, slim
fat (nice)	scrawny, emaciated, haggard, skinny
unhappy	well-built, stocky, plump, chubby
many	flabby, obese
thin (not nice)	colossal, humongous, immense, mammoth, massive
fat (not nice)	puny, scrawny, minuscule, tiny, diminutive
big	sparse, meager, paltry, scarce
small	abundant, substantial, numerous, bountiful, ample

Order of Adjectives

Look at the sentence below. What category does each adjective fall into?

Think of a category for each.

Yesterday I bought a beautiful, small, new, pink, French, plastic, hair brush.

There's a great, big, hairy, black spider in my bedroom!

beautiful/great – 

small/big/hairy – 

new – 

pink/black – 

French – 

plastic – 

hair – 

So the correct order of adjectives is...?

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   
7. 
   

Controlled Practice

Place the following descriptions in the correct order 

1. pink, silly, Hello Kitty ball
2. scratch-proof, new, sleek iPad
3. 3-week old, rotten, smelly pear
4. intelligent, young, beautiful French woman
5. South African, hand-made, fascinating rug
6. golden, ancient, tiny coin
7. vintage, Italian, sports, incredible car
8. flatscreen, brand new, HD TV
9. busy, high-level, American executive
10. delicious, mocca, frothy coffee

Complete the Table with the correct Order of Adjectives

Compete the table, by adding more adjectives to each category:

Opinion	Appearance	Age	Colour	Origin	Material
ridiculous	rectangular	antiquated	striped	beach	plastic
beautiful	big	new	red	Spanish	wooden

Language focus: Talking about travelling 

Look at the pics below. Brainstorm adjectives for each: 

 You work in the marketing department of a big travel agency who are going to start offering package holidays to the above destinations.

 For each holiday write an advert.You will have to use a lot of positive descriptions to sell your product!

Speaking activity:

Conversation roleplay

Student A:	You want to take your wife/husband on a trip this weekend. First, decide where you want to go. Then, phone your travel agent to reserve a plane ticket and hotel. Also, ask for recommendations of things to do there.
Student B:	You are a travel agent. Student A will soon phone you. Try to sell him/her one of the below travel packages. (He/she will tell you the destination.) Option 1: round-trip, first class, $950. Hotel: Hilton, $250/night, ***** Option 2: round-trip, economy class, $310. Hotel: Doug’s Inn, $99/night, ***

06/12/12

Programme:

Grammar: Continue working on Past Perfect (Use in writing exercise)

Language focus:  Talking about dangerous sports.

Make a list of what you consider to be ten dangerous sports.
Taboo: Describe each sport without giving its name (What injuries could be had? Is any special equipment needed? Who does this? In which countries?)

Read the article on the world's most dangerous sports: http://www.forbes.com/2002/08/07/0807sport.html
Do you want to change your choices?


Reading comprehension:

Read the article: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0RXkfKgkFzXVzlmdUJjZkh6d1k

Speaking: Making a short presentation

Useful language:

Signposting
Function	Language
Introducing the subject	I'd like to start by... Let's begin by... First of all, I'll... Starting with... I'll begin by...
Finishing one subject...	Well, I've told you about... That's all I have to say about... We've looked at... So much for...
...and starting another	Now we'll move on to... Let me turn now to... Next... Turning to... I'd like now to discuss... Let's look now at...
Analysing a point and giving recommendations	Where does that lead us? Let's consider this in more detail... What does this mean for ABC? Translated into real terms...
Giving an example	For example,... A good example of this is... As an illustration,... To give you an example,... To illustrate this point...
Dealing with questions	We'll be examining this point in more detail later on... I'd like to deal with this question later, if I may... I'll come back to this question later in my talk... Perhaps you'd like to raise this point at the end... I won't comment on this now...
Summarising and concluding	In conclusion,... Right, let's sum up, shall we? I'd like now to recap... Let's summarise briefly what we've looked at... Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues we've covered... If I can just sum up the main points...
Ordering	Firstly...secondly...thirdly...lastly... First of all...then...next...after that...finally... To start with...later...to finish up...

Homework: Pick a different extreme sport from the Forbes List. Prepare a presentation for next week's class about this sport. In your presentation you can use video clips to show how the sport is played.

04/12/12

Grammar focus: Past perfect

Grammar Presentation

Sentences

---

Subject +	had +	(adverb) +	Past Participle
(He'd) He	had	just	finished his dinner.
(We'd)We	had	already	left.
They	(hadn't) had not		bought the tickets.
(I'd) I	had	stupidly	missed the bus.

---

Questions

---

Had +(not)	Subject +	(adverb) +	Past Participle
Had	she	deliberately	left the key there?
Had	they	already	arrived?
Hadn't (had not)	he		called to remind them?
Had	he	really	finished school by then?

---

Uses of the Past Perfect

1. The past perfect shows a completed action before something in the past.

When I arrived at the party, she had already left.

She came to fetch me, but I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.

I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Hawaii.

Had you ever visited London before your trip in 2001?

2. It shows the duration before something in the past with non-continuous verbs

We had had that car for twelve years before it broke down.

By the time you met her, I had already known her for a long time.

By the time I finished studying, I had been in London for six years.

3. Non-specific and specific times in the past

If the Past Perfect action happened at a specific time, the Simple Past can be used as well as the Past Perfect when ‘before’ is used in the sentence, as ‘before’ indicates the timescale. BOTH the following sentences are correct:

I had been to London once in 1997, before I moved there in 1999.

I was in London once in 1997, before I moved there in 1999.

But if specific times are not mentioned, we HAVE to use the past perfect:

I had been to London once before I moved there.

I was in London once before I moved there. THIS IS INCORRECT

- Check how much you know: http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/gr.pastperf.i.htm

- Think of an answer to the following questions:
Why was Anne's husband so angry?
Why did Emma not want to watch the film?
Why was the train delayed?
Why couldn't Ivan have a nut-free meal on the plane?
Why did David not know about the meeting?

- Write down ten important historical events (eg: the fall of the Berlin wall, the invention of electricity, the end of WWII)
Now put them in chronological order by writing sentences about each.
(eg: WWII had already ended when the Berlin wall fell)

Language focus: Talking about holidays

Write a diary entry from while you were on your last holiday (tip: You are still on holiday so you will use the present perfect)

Now present it back to the class after the holiday is over (tip - You aren't on holiday anymore so you will use the past perfect)

29/11/12

Programme:

Begin travel topic (originally planned for Tuesday's lesson)

Grammar focus: Phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions to use when travelling!

Comprehension text:  http://www.englishisapieceofcake.com/support-files/cutting-travel-costs-ss.pdf

27/11/2012

Programme:


Present perfect to talk about life experiences (review) 

Complete the questionnaire and give details for each answer

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0RXkfKgkFzXQVBBS3FnUVd5djg/edit

Present perfect for unfinished time:
For or Since?
http://www.eslflow.com/Present_perfect_since_or_for_worksheet.pdf

• 1971 – Harry is born in London.
• 1976 – Harry and his family move to Kuwait.
• 1988 – Harry finishes school and starts working for an Cleanoil, an American oil company.
• 1996 – Harry is promoted to manager at Cleanoil.
• 1997 – Harry meets Amina.
• 2000 – Harry and Amina get married.
• 2001 – Harry Jr. is born.

Make sentences about Harry’s life up to now.

Language focus: Talking about travelling 


Which types of travel/transport do you think are:
Safe,  Affordable,  Romantic,  Boring,  Pricey,  Stressful, 
Dangerous?


Here is some vocab about the cost of travel. Make two lists, one for a budget traveller and the other for a rich traveller. Which words go in which list?


Discounts,  Reductions,  Bargains,  Inexpensive,  Splurge, 
Complimentary,  Upgrade,  Exorbitant,  Overpriced, 
Pricey,  Freebies,  Save a bundle, Hidden charges,  Slash 
rates, Early bird discounts, Affordable

22/11/12

Programme for today's lesson:

Grammar: Phrasal verbs and present perfect to talk about life experiences (review)

Complete the questionnaire and give details for each answer

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0RXkfKgkFzXQVBBS3FnUVd5djg/edit

Language:   Review language from yesterday (music) and do a music-themed reading comprehension:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0RXkfKgkFzXYkpXUXRSQ3NYdEE/edit

New target langauge: Telephone English roleplays:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0RXkfKgkFzXVXFyanpkRUp1YlE

New vocab: Back to the board with new vocabulary

What makes talking on the phone so difficult in a foreign language? Bad pronunciation!!
So today we will work on pronouncing words correctly in English: The difference between bit/bet, hit/heat, hot/hut, boot/boat, left/left, at/hat

What do we say on the phone in English?

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0RXkfKgkFzXS21EMGNLRFRKR2c

Telephone Vocab

Here are some of the words and terms that we use to talk about telephoning.

answer	to say "hello" into the phone when it rings
answering machine	something that you can record a message on if the person you are calling isn't home
engaged signal	a beeping sound that tells the caller that the other person is already on the phone
voicemail	answering machine on a mobile
caller	the person who telephones
call back/phone back	to call someone who called you first
call i.d.	a screen that shows you who is calling
mobile phone/cell phone	a telephone that you can take with you away from your house; mobile phone
cordless phone	a phone that is not attached to the wall (you can walk short distances with it at home or in the garden)
dial	to press the buttons on the phone
dial tone	the sound the phone makes when you pick it up
directory/phone book	a book that alphabetically lists local phone numbers of people and businesses
to hang up	to put the receiver down and end a call
operator	a person who answers telephone-related questions when you dial "0"
pager	a small machine you wear that makes a noise (or vibrates) when someone wants you to call them
phone	a telephone; to telephone
phone booth/pay phone	a place where you can pay to use a telephone in public
pick up	to answer the phone
receiver	the piece on the phone that you speak into and listen from
ring	the sound a phone makes when somebody calls; to make that sound

12/11/12

Programme:

Review vocab and grammar from last week's class

Topic: Music

Listening:  The Beatles surprising contribution to brain science
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=164101652&m=164669412

Reading comprehension: Return of underground rave culture is fuelled by the recession and Facebook  (The Guardian)  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oT6dp7EEX9nt4SQstOpTOCSYt2eeOUeU8Ce65rmaB8Y/edit

Disucssion topic (based on newspaper article)

Writing: Presentation about music 

Listening Questions (up to 2:39)

What was the lasting image of the 2008 election?

What difference was there between the reaction this year and the reaction fours years ago when Obama was first elected?

James is confident  that Obama will eradicate race issues during his mandate. True or false?

Did African-American voters have a mostly positive impression of the 2012 presidential campaign?

The presenter gives 3 examples of possibly racist attitudes/comments made by other politicians  towards Obama. What are they?

Expressions for Agreeing and Disagreeing

Decide which of the following expressions are formal or informal.

Stating an opinion	In my opinion... The way I see it... If you want my honest opinion.... According to Lisa... As far as I'm concerned... If you ask me...
Asking for an opinon	What's your idea? What are your thoughts on all of this? How do you feel about that? Do you have anything to say about this? What do you think? Do you agree? Wouldn't you say?
Expressing agreement	I agree with you 100 percent. I couldn't agree with you more. That's so true. That's for sure. (slang) Tell me about it! You're absolutely right. Absolutely. That's exactly how I feel. Exactly. I'm afraid I agree with James. I have to side with Dad on this one. No doubt about it. (agree with negative statement) Me neither. (weak) I suppose so./I guess so. You have a point there. I was just going to say that.
Expressing disagreement	I don't think so. (strong) No way. I'm afraid I disagree. (strong) I totally disagree. I beg to differ. (strong) I'd say the exact opposite. Not necessarily. That's not always true. That's not always the case. No, I'm not so sure about that.
Interruptions	Can I add something here? Is it okay if I jump in for a second? If I might add something... Can I throw my two cents in? Sorry to interrupt, but... (after accidentally interrupting someone) Sorry, go ahead. OR Sorry, you were saying... (after being interrupted) You didn't let me finish.
Settling an argument	Let's just move on, shall we? Let's drop it. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. (sarcastic) Whatever you say./If you say so.

08/11/12

Programme

Listening comprehension about the American election:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=164631087&m=164631060

Grammar focus: Infinitive or -ing after verbs?

Language focus: Expressing your opinion and disagreeing politely

06/11/12

Good or Bad?

Click on the link below to access this worksheet about healthy eating and living

http://www.englishisapieceofcake.com/support-files/good-or-bad.pdf