Get rid of your old clothes

Here's a video of an American man throwing out clothes he hasn't worn in 10 years. Watch it and see how much you can understand... he talks REALLY fast, but you will be surprised at how much you can follow. Listen for words you have seen in the course to describe clothes... and how many times he says the word 'hideous'. Notice American words such as 'pants' for 'trousers'. Do you think he should keep any of these clothes? Leave a comment.

Clothes

Click here for a word search to practise clothes vocabulary.

Adjectives Unit 4A

Click here for some extra practice on adjective word order and the structure 'the... the... + comparative'

must have/can't have etc.

Click here for extra practice on making deductions in the past using might (not) have, must have, can't have and infinitive.

FINAL EXAMS

We have to do two sets of exams this year: the "pruebas de dominio " and the "pruebas de certificación". You have already done one prueba de dominio (in January) but there is another in May. The dates are as follows:

Pruebas de dominio (in your usual lesson time):
WRITING: Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th May
LISTENING & READING: Monday 10th & Tuesday 11th May
SPEAKING: Wednesday 12th, Thursday 13th, Monday 17th & Tuesday 18th May (talk to your teacher beforehand, to arrange a time). After the exams, we will have normal lessons to prepare more for the certification exam and finish the course. You will get your results ("notas") on Wednesday 2nd & Thursday 3rd June.

Pruebas de certificación: from June 4th until June 14th, but we do not know the exact dates yet. We will keep you posted.

Extra practice for rainy days

Are you bored because there is no English today? Here are a few ideas for you to practise from home on your computer.

Although the schools are closed for two days, people literally crawl to school in the UK before they close them! Watch this clip from the BBC news.

Here's another link to a news report about freezing cold weather in the UK. Don't forget to watch the video of police officers sledging on their riot shields!

If you want pronunciation practice so people can understand you when you speak English, why not try these online pronunciation quizzes? Click here.

3rd conditional... and all the others

And if you're really hooked on conditional practice or simply confused, here's a page which has many interactive exercises on all types of conditional sentences. Just select the one you want to practice. You also have an example of each to help you. Click here and have fun!
And here's another exercise to practise the 3rd conditional. Click here.

3rd Conditional

Click here for more practice on the 3rd conditional. Do the exercises so you don't have any regrets... you don't want to be thinking in June; 'If I'd done those exercises, I wouldn't have made as many mistakes in the final exam!'

Happy New Year 2010

So it's a new year and a new decade! And what shall we call it? The first decade of the new millennium seems to be called 'the noughties' - a play on words as '0' is 'nought' but 'noughty' sounds like 'naughty' suggesting we've all been behaving badly for the past 10 years. But what shall we call this year and this next decade? Here is an article from The Guardian about this problem.

Don't forget classes start again on 11th January and one week later the 'prueba de dominio' begins... that is, the mid-year exam. So now is a good time to get those books out and brush up on the last few months. See you in a week!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Click here to watch the video about 'How to Survive a Family Christmas' on the excellent video website videojug.com. You can find all sorts of videos about Christmas on this website by clicking here. And if you particularly want to know how to make Christmas mince pies, click here. Remember 'mincemeat' does not have any meat in it! Of course, you'll have to make it yourself unless you go to one of the English supermarkets down south in Puerto Rico or el Tablero where they sell it.

If you want to find out a bit more about how Christmas is celebrated in the UK, then click here to do a webquest on a fantastic primary school website which tells you all you need to know and more! Feel free to surf the website - it's amazing and you can spend hours following up all its links. Click here to read the first of many pages about a British Christmas. If you want an idea of what Christmas cracker jokes are like, click here.

And finally, if you're in the mood for some singing, then here's the karaoke video to 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' Just remember that you have neighbours and close the windows before you hit the first note!

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY YEAR!
Why happy? Because the English lessons start again! Remember the half year proficiency test starts on the week of January 18th!!! See you on the 11th or 12th.