jeudi 20 décembre 2012

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
IfI hadn't studied, Iwouldn't havepassed the exam.
IfI had seen him, Iwould havetold him.
Ifshe hadn't gone out, shewouldn't havegot sick.
IfJohn hadn't been driving, hewouldn't havegot a fine.
If the result is not sure, we can use: Would Probably, Might Have or Could Have
IfI had studied, Imight havepassed the exam.
IfI had seen him, Icould havetold him.
Ifshe hadn't gone out, sheprobably wouldn't havegot sick.

Would(n't) have +Past Participle +if +Past Perfect
could/might have(continuous)
I could havepassed the examifI had studied.
I would havetold himifI had seen him.
She might havegone to the partyifshe had known about it.
He wouldn't havebought it, evenifhe 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: 


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?

mardi 18 décembre 2012

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
IfI hadn't studied, Iwouldn't havepassed the exam.
IfI had seen him, Iwould havetold him.
Ifshe hadn't gone out, shewouldn't havegot sick.
IfJohn 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
IfI had studied, Imight havepassed the exam.
IfI had seen him, Icould havetold him.
Ifshe hadn't gone out, sheprobably wouldn't havegot sick.

Would(n't) have +Past Participle +if +Past Perfect
could/might have(continuous)
I could havepassed the examifI had studied.
I would havetold himifI had seen him.
She might havegone to the partyifshe had known about it.
He wouldn't havebought it, evenifhe 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)
End of class ex: 




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!




jeudi 13 décembre 2012

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
 happylovely, magnificent, marvelous, stunning, exquisite
beautiful (things)cheerful, delighted, upbeat, chipper, jolly
fewdejected, despondent, dismal, downcast, bleak
ugly (things)petite, slender, slight, slim
fat (nice)scrawny, emaciated, haggard, skinny
unhappywell-built, stocky, plump, chubby
manyflabby, obese
 thin (not nice)colossal, humongous, immense, mammoth, massive
 fat (not nice)puny, scrawny, minuscule, tiny, diminutive
bigsparse, meager, paltry, scarce
smallabundant, 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...?







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:

OpinionAppearanceAgeColourOriginMaterial
ridiculousrectangularantiquatedstripedbeachplastic
beautifulbignewredSpanishwooden



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, ***

jeudi 6 décembre 2012

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
FunctionLanguage
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.






mardi 4 décembre 2012

04/12/12

Grammar focus: Past perfect




Grammar Presentation

Sentences

Subject +had +(adverb) +Past Participle
(He'd) Hehadjustfinished his dinner.
(We'd)Wehadalreadyleft.
They(hadn't) had notbought the tickets.
(I'd) Ihadstupidlymissed the bus.

Questions

Had +(not)Subject +(adverb) +Past Participle
Hadshedeliberatelyleft the key there?
Hadtheyalreadyarrived?
Hadn't (had not)hecalled to remind them?
Hadhereallyfinished 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)