SOME HOMEWORK NI2

This set of activities are for my NI2 students. I´ve taken them from the Oxford supplementary activities CD.
- Test 1. Answers. Audio
- Test 2. Answers. Audio
- Test 3. Answers. Audio
- Test 4. Answers. Audio

- Grammar: If you haven´t done the following units yet , please do them now.
- Unit 48. Questions 1
- Unit 49. Questions 2
- Unit 50. Auxiliary verbs
- Unit 72. The 1

WRITING
- Connectors
- Writing letters: expressions
- Punctuation

SPEAKING
- Speaking guide
- Topics for interaction and speech
- Debates: agreeing and disagreeing
- Go back to the 16/12/09 post where you´ll see activties of both interaction and speech.

LISTENINGS
- Listening 1: Djs. Exercises. Answers. Audio
- Listening 2: Gadgets. Exercises. Answers. Audio
- Listening 3: Mobiles. Exercises. Answers. Audio
- Listening 4: Sports. Exercises. Answers. Audio

EOI NEWS

I won´t be able to go to class until 15th ,Monday,March, 2010. I´m awfully sorry but I have a few leaks that have to be repaired and their require a little time since the plumber in my case is a doctor. In the meantime here below you have some activities to do .

Hampton House

“Hampton House” was written by Jenny Dooley in 1996. I´ve chosen this book because I like thrillers. This is an intrigue story of a young girl ,Kathy, who starts to work in Helping Hand. In her job she discovers an old woman and an old house, Hampton House which keeps secrets from her past.
The story is divided into two parts. In the first part Kathy knows William, her boss and they become very good friends. She starts to work in Helping Hand and in her first job she goes to The Old People Home and she knows Miss Emily. She´s an old woman who tells Kathy about Hampton House and his owner Lord Hampton. She workedin the house when she was young. Miss Emily tells Kathy her story because remembers it.
The second part is few days after when Kathy has an accident with her bike. Helping Hand needs to find a place for its office because The Council is going to pull this place. Kathy thinks in Hampton House because it is in the town and is uninhabited.
In the final part of the history Kathy, William and other workers visit the house. Only Kathy hears voices and noises and she hears Lord Hampton’s voice who tell she a story about her grandmother and her past. The other workers and William don´t believe Kathy.
Finally Hampton House is pulled down and instead the new Helping Handare office is built, William who loves Kathy is reconciled with her.
The most exciting part if the story is Lord Hampton´s Story that he tells Kathy. He met his grandmother years ago when he was poor. She helped him but he stole her a diamond. Years later Hampton gave him work when he was rich but he never told her what had happened. Lord Hampton gave Kathy the diamond .
The main character is Kathy, other important characters are William, her boss, who loves Kathy. Miss Emily, an old woman who speaks to Kathy about Hampton House and Lord Hampton.
I like the book because the story is interesting, although it´s something predictable. I thought it would be more intriguing. Nevertheless it was not bad.
NATALIA ANDRÉS RODRIGUEZ NB2

JASON CAUSES CHAOS

Introduction

• Jason Causes Chaos is a novel by Jeremy Taylor.

• I ´ve chosen the book because the story seemed very funny and entertaining, but the story is a little short.

• It´s an adventure story.

Theme:

The main idea of the story is to have fun because there are several jokes and things that make us laugh, like throwing a pot on someone's head.

Setting:

The history takes place on a Saturday in a house at The Lodge on Waterbridge Road. The place is invented, because the author doesn’t tell us the town where the story takes place.

Plot:

A girl called Eva is a babysitter. She is 15 years old. She is going out with her friend on a Saturday and she is very happy, but Mrs Day calls her house and she tells her mother that she has to baby-sit that night. Eva goes to the house, and she meets Mr and Mrs Day and Jason Day, a child who is 10 years old. When his parents go out , he begins to behave very badly. He eats chocolate and ice-cream without his parents permission, blackmails Eva to let him do things, throws a rat to Eva’s hair, and many more things. Mrs Day realises that there is a murderer loose. Jason goes to the bathroom while Eva is preparing his bed. But Jason doesn’t go to sleep, he wants to watch TV. When he is watching TV, he hears a noise in the garden. They go upstairs and Eva picks up a flower pot next to the bed, and she throws it to a man, because they think that he is the murderer. But when Eva calls the police, Jason tells her that the man is a policeman. Eva cures him and he tells them that he is warning the people. When he leaves, the doorbell rings. A person that looks like the other policeman says that he wants to call the police station, but Eva and Jason think that he is the murderer, and Eva hits him. They hide him in the cellar of the kitchen. However, the other policeman returns to the home, and he tells them that the police have caught the murderer, and the man in the cellar is his twin brother.

When Jason’s parents come back home, the mother runs into her house and she kisses Jason. Finally Jason tells his parents a lie: Eva’s boyfriend came to our house. They sent me upstairs, but I watched them. First of all, they kissed…

Characters:

The main character: Jason. He is Mr and Mrs Day´s son

Eva: Jason´s babysitter.

Eva´s mother

Mr and Mrs Day: Jason´s parents.

The twins: they are policemen.

I liked the story, because it was very funny and quite entertaining.

The best part is when Jason throws a rat to the Eva’s hair, because it is very funny.

It has made me feel funny, because when the story seemed complicated, Jason and Eva were doing something to encourage it.

I really enjoyed reading it.

I have learnt many jokes and how we should act against a thief or a murderer.

I think that this book is the best that I have read in English, because the others were very boring and this is very entertaining. I like the story and the topic, and I will read it again.

ALBERTO GONZALEZ TORRE. NB2

NI2
-Speaking: Get your opinion ready , some of you in favour , the others against . This photocopy will be useful to state your point of view .
- Listening 1: Radio Ads , exercises and script, audio.
- Listening 2: Bibi Kahnim and the Muslim veil , exercises and script , audio.
- Song: "You´re so vain " ,exercise and video by Carly Simon.

-Grammar: Adjectives in -ed/-ing. eg: interested and interesting.
- Reading: Two reading activities and their answers
ROMINA ALONSO ALONSO has sent this song.Good girl. I wish everybody did the same.

BROOMTAIL FISH

In this photo you can see a colorful www.virtourist.com/africa/redsea/07.htmbroomtail wrasse (cheilinus lunulatus). The family of wrasses (labridae) is one of the most diverse Among the fish. They vary from several cm in size to almost 2 meters long. This broomtail wrasse was more than 30 cm long.

A feature of this family of fishes is specially curious: they are born as females, but can change sex to male if needed. Wrasses are active predators, they hunt smaller fishes and shellfish. Probably the most known is the cleaner wrasse, a small fish feeding on parasites, pieces of dead skin and scales. Other fish concentrate in their "cleaning stations" and willingly submit themselves to this service.

www.virtourist.com/africa/redsea/07.htm

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
Ali ibn-Abi-Talib (602 AD - 661 AD),

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC),


The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC),

Being friendless taught me how to be a friend. Funny how that works.
Colleen Wainwright

Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.
Czech Proverb

Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
Elbert Hubbard (1856 – 1915

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
George Washington (1732 - 1799)

In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.
John Churton Collins

Adversity does teach who your real friends are.
Lois McMaster Bujold,

www.quotationspage.com

NB2
- Homework: Compositions about describing a drawing.
- Test: Listening . Here you have the exercises ,audio and answers.
Reading: With the passages and the answers
- Speaking: I gave you another drawing. We dealt with the vocabulary which was related to the beach and you did the activity with the notes at sight.

NI2
- Homework : Reading. St.B.p.25 "Eternal youth", with an exercises about formal and informal register and a multiple choice one.
- Speaking: St.B.p,24 about ages, the best/wort age of your life and so on, after that some questions about cosmetic surgery with its advantages and disadvantages.
- Listening: A video about Cindy Jackson , a woman who has undergone more than 20 cosmetic surgery operations. Exercise :order que questions first and then write down the answers and script . I´m awfully sorry, I don´t know how to work with videos in my blog yet. I promise I´ll post it next week.
Here is another interview .
- Homework: Picture description , Wk. 1C,2A.

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the greatest fourteenth century text. It was written by an unknown author between 1375 and 1400. The story begins at Christmas time, and there are many symbolic elements. The Green Knight is a color which symbolizes Christmas. Also, changing seasons and the coming of winter symbolize the passing of life and reminds us that Death is unavoidable. The author also skillfully illustrates human weaknesses in the descriptions of Gawain's temptations.
The story tells about adventures of Sir Gawain, who takes the Green Knight's challenge. One year after cutting Green Knight's head off, which did not kill him, Gawain has to travel to find the Green Knight and take his blow in return. He finds a strange castle, and while he awaits there for the final day, his knight's ethical code is put to a test by the host and his wife.
In this part, Green Knight, in an unmannerly way, enters the hall where King Arthur and his Knights feast and cleverly gets them committed to take his game without revealing what it is he wants to play.
In this passage from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Green Knight enters the hall on his horse. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are having their feast. They are astounded to see a green knight on a green horse. They don't take any action; instead they stare at the stranger. The Green Knight challenges the king and his companions to take his game. He is arrogant, and he uses their pride to get them committed to his game. He is successful, as the king promises to take the game, although he does not know what it is yet.
The Green Knight comes into the hall where King Arthur and his knights feast on a horse, and does not greet anyone. He carries a huge axe with "The Spike of green steel" (Norton 207) and with green engravings. He carries no armor and no other weapons. When he enters, not only he does not greet the people present, but he looks down rudely at them and asks: "Where is the captain of this crowd? Keenly I wish to see that sire with sight, and to himself say my say."
The knights of the Green Table are so surprised, they fail to protect their king. They stare at the Green Knight, for they have never seen such a sight. They do not take any action, waiting what he will do. King Arthur answers saying he is the head of the party and invites Green Knight to introduce himself.
The Green Knight is not kind, for does introduce himself when asked. He says that he comes in peace for he has no armor, but first he tells them how brave they are: "If you be so bold as all men believe, you will graciously grant the game that I ask by right." This is only to get them to take his challenge. And King Arthur promises somebody will take his challenge: "Sir courteous knight, if contest bare you crave, you shall not fail to fight."
This passage reveals the way The Green Knight gets King Arthur's promise to take his challenge without knowing what the challenge is. The Green Knight appears as a rude, but clever challenger. He plays on their pride in a way they cannot refuse his challenge and keep their honor. From this point on, the knights are committed to the challenge, and this becomes the prediction of the next part of the story.

NB2
- Homework Grammar, unit 106 about the prepositions in ,at and on.
- Grammar: Grammar, unit 107,108 with more uses of these prepositions.
- Speaking: 6 students talked about their summer holidays.
- Grammar: A handout with practce of tenses: simple past-past continuous.
- Speaking: a thorough practice describing a drawing. This activity took a great deal of time.
- Listening. Song: Imagine. Exercises and audio
- Homework: Grammar, unit 107,107 about the prepositions in,at, on.

NI2
- Homework: Let me tell you that I was a bit cross with you when I realised that very few students had done their homework. It´s you who are going to sit the exam , so you´re supposed to do your best in order to achieve your goal, otherwise you´ll fail. As simple as this.
Reading. ST.B.p.22, grammar, unit 39,49, the remaining exercises we hadn´t done in the previous class.
- Listenning: St.B. p. 23 "It´s my Party" using conditional 1 and 2.Exercise , audio and answers
- Speaking: St.B.p. 24 "Do you want to be young for Ever?" Picture discussion .
-Listening: St.B.p. 24 An interview to a doctor who made a research abouth the "superyoung" and the factor that help to be young.
Listen to some extracts and write the exact words.
- Speaking: St.B. p, 24. Formation of abstract nouns from adjectives.e.g. insecure-insecurity.
- Homework : the speaking activity about the different ages , their advantages and disadvantages and your personal experience. Reading: St.B.p. 25 "Eternal Youth" with a multiple choice exercise. Tomorrow we´ll do some picture description, so get it ready.
some more exercises on conditionals and the answers.