lunes, 24 de octubre de 2016

FOR AND AGAINST ESSAY and OPINION ESSAY

Dear students, 
here you have two documents that I think are quite useful for your writings. Read carefully to learn the structure of both types of essays. It is very important that you know them, and it is really easy too, if you follow step by step.
 I hope you find them useful.

 Natalia

viernes, 14 de octubre de 2016

HORROR MOVIE PRESENTATION

Dear students,
You will have to present a poster of a horror movie you have made up to the rest of the class.

Miriam and me will mark your speaking, so please don't be lazy, we want to hear really good and scary stories. Remember you have to introduce the characters (los personajes) and the plot (el argumento). You will also have to explain your poster
For the characters, you can talk about:
- Physical appearance (tall/short, hair, fat=plump=chubby=overweight/ thin=skinny/slim, clothes...)
- Personality (friendly/unfriendly, evil/good, generous/selfish, adventurous/calm, brave/coward...)
For the plot:
- Make sure you answer these questions: Where? When? Why? with whom? (con quién)

Remember to speak loud enough for us to hear you, clearly and slowly (but not too much!). Use appropriate grammar (past simple) and vocabulary.

Your presentations should last for about 4-6 min.
We'll spend two sessions last week of October, one with Eric and another one with me (and Miriam!). 

We are looking forward to hearing those scary stories of yours!! (¡Estamos deseando escuchar vuestras historias de miedo!).
Natalia

ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -ED OR -ING

Dear students,
As we have seen in class, there are some adjectives that can end in -ed or in -ing. Depending on their meaning, we should choose one or the other:
- I have nothing to do. I am so bored
- I never want to do anyting. I am so boring!
Nobody wants to be boring but we are sometimes bored (not in the English class, of course!).
We translate the verb to be as ESTAR with adjectives ending in -ED; and we translate the verb to be as SER with adjectives ending in -ING.

Here you have a very useful explanation of this and some online exercises.

Present perfect continuous vs Past perfect continuous

We use the present perfect continuous 
  • For actions that started in the past and continue to the present:

He has been waiting for you all day (= todavía está esperando).

I've been working on this essay since eight o'clock this morning (= todavía no lo he terminado).
They have been travelling since last July(= todavía no han vuelto).




  • For actions that have just finished and the important thing is the result:

She has been cooking since last night (= y la comida preparada tiene un aspecto delicioso).

It's been raining (= y las calles aún están mojadas).
Someone's been eating my chips (= quedan la mitad).

REMEMBER that we usually translate this tense with the Spanish expression "llevar haciendo" (She has been waiting for you for hours! =¡Lleva esperándote horas!)


If you want to practise some present perfect in songs here you have Mr Postman by The Beatles and Counting Stars by One Republic.



We use the past perfect continuous 
  • for actions in progress in the past before another action happened:
I had been working for hours before I fell asleep (había estado trabajando desde hacía horas, cuando me quedé dormida).
  • To express cause and effect:

I was really tired because I had been working for hours. (Estaba muy cansada porque había estado trabajando desde hacía horas).

REMEMBER that we usually translate this tense with the Spanish expression "llevaba haciendo" :

was really tired because I had been working for hours. (Estaba muy cansada porque llevaba trabajando desde hacía horas)

And if you want to practise here you have some exercises with answers:


* Images from Google Images