That's English! - Module 7 - unit 10: Superstitions and Fears

Not all the superstitions are the same in all the countries; there are differences but what they have in common is that they are true for many people. Let's start with the general questions:

• Do you have a lucky number, clothes or an object you feel more confident with? Do you believe in lucky objects? Give reasons for your answer.
• Are you a supersitious person? Do you have lucky charms you use before important events such as exams, job interviews, sports events and so on?
• Do you think Spanish people are supersititious? Is it a problem of nationality, age, religion or sex? Compare different groups of people according to supersitions: Italian or Spanish versus British or Geman people, a youngster and an elderly person, for a wedding or for an exam...
• What's the difference between a fear and a phobia? Think about some examples.
• Do you suffer from any phobias? Is there anything you can't beat or you really hate? Do you know anybody who suffers from ones: spiders, bees, dogs or eating fish, kidney, etc?
• Were you afraid of anything when you where a little child? Do you still have it?
• Do you have any scary story that happened to you? 

Activity 1

In p.102 there is a gramar point about describing repeated and typical behaviour. You should use WILL for the present and WOULD for the past, like in these examples:

• An actor won't wear yellow clothes during a performance because it means bad luck
• Pelé would kiss the ground every time he won a match

Using this model try to think about some activities for you:

• getting up in the morning  -  going to school as a child - playing with my brothers/sisters - something you used to do before an exam - something you do on Sunday

Activity 2

In p.105 there are some proverbs. Choose one o those or pick up one from the ones given below and try to explain it to your mate (taken from this site):

• "Two wrongs don't make a right."
• "The pen is mightier than the sword."
• "When in Rome, do as the Romans."
• "No man is an island."
• "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones."
• "Better late than never."

Activity 3

Here is a video about superstitions: click here for the video. After watching it, discuss with your partner the following questions:

 Which of these superstitions are similar to those in your country?
 Which are different?
 What are the things that are considered unlucky?
 What are the things that are considered lucky?
 Do you think that there is truth behind superstitions?

Activity 4
What about you? Discuss with your partner if you are a superstious person and why you think so. Compare your attitude with the one when you were younger. Have you changed a lot? In wahat sense? Give reasons for your answers.

Activity 5
Some people think they are going to be lucky and they'll be able to change their life. Here you have a video about luck: click here
What do you think this story is about? Would you do something like that? Why/why not?

Activity 6
This is another video with a programme talking about luck: click here

See you in class and... Good luck with your exams! Next lesson is a revision and we'll have the final exam of module 7 after Christmas holidays so you should start studying.

REMEMBER WE DON'T HAVE CLASS ON THE 5TH OF DECEMBER BECAUSE WE HAVE RECUPERATION EXAMS. However,we have class on the 12th and 19th of December 2019.
We'll practise with this last lesson and with exercises for the exam in class.

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 9: Science Fiction

Let's talk about the future and imagine how many posibilities there will be in 20 years time or so. As we do in every lesson, let's start with the general questions to discuss with your partner:

• In what ways will life be different by the end of the 21st century? Pay attention to different aspects such as transport, communication, city life, medicine and health, education and so on.
• Do you think life exists on other planets? What would that life be like? Should we reserch on that to check if we are alone in the universe or is it a waste of money and time? Should we keep on such search?
• What changes will you see in Spain in 50 years time? Take into account social, economical and physical changes, especially in everyday life.
• Do you think technology will help us in the future or will it be a drawback for humans? Give reasons and/or examples for your answer.

Activity 1

Discuss with your partner about your future in  10 years time about the following topics:

       Family     Work/studies     Travelling     A flat/a house     Where you'll be living

Try to use all the future tenses with sentences such as: In 3 years time I'll have finished my degree at university and I'll be looking for a good job in a big company. I'll try to find a new house and by the end of 2019 I'll be living on my own.

Activity 2

What are your feelings about the future? Are you hopeful or scared about future? Talk about the dangers and the advantages of using technolgy. What will change in our future?. Make predictions using WILL and then we'll compare your feelings and your predictions with the rest of the class.

Activity 3

This is a listening comprehension exercise about homes in the future: click here. What's your opinion? Would you  like to live in such houses? Do you prefer your current house? Why/ Why not?

Activity 4

This is a link with cards to speak about future. You'll see different forms and tenses to express future. Work with your partner with these cards and pay attention to the tense you use each time. Click here

Activity 5
Imagine you are a fortune teller. Predict or guess what is going to happen to your mate in a short term, in 5 years time, in 10 years time... To help you with your task, you can use this video.

FUTURE TENSES
About grammar, this unit deals with future tenses. This is a video to see how to use present simple, continuous, going to and will; it's quite simple but it's useful to start with..  If you need more practise here are you some useful links: this is a good exercise or you can do this one with all the tenses. This one is quite long and you also have this link to grammar explanation or this one here.

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 8: Crime

As usual, we'll start with general questions about this topic. Here you are some questions to work on with your partner(s):

• What are the main crimes in your town/country? Have you ever been a victim of one of those? If so, explain what happened to you.
• Do you think prison is an effetive form of punishment? What other forms of punishment do you know?
• Do you think cybercrime is a big problem in Spain? What about downloading? Is it a crime?
• Are there any measures to be taken to avoid or reduce the crime rate in our society: more severe laws, more or longer punishment, more help for people who are at risk of exclusion, educational measures...?

Activity 1

Imagine you have been burglared and a police officer comes to your house. Have a role play in which you are the victim and your partner is the police officer. Give as many details as possible about what you've been robded. Then change roles and in this occasion you are the police officer and you've been mugged in the street or pickpocketed when you where on the bus. Ask questions to get details. what happened, when, where, what items you were stolen and so on.

Activity 2

Think about a detective story, novel or film you've seen recently and tell the story to your mate. If you don't remember one, try to make up a detective story about a famous detective such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot, Agatha Christie's strories and so on.

Activity 3

Here you have some listening exercises to practise:

• a short exercise about crime: click here
• this is a funny video about a crime: click here
• this is a very easy listening about a "perfet crime": click here
• this is a short text with audio including some words about crime and punishment: click here
• this a very long one but it's divided in 4 exercises: click here

Activity 4

About grammar this unit deals with non-defining relative clauses, which are the ones in which the relative pronoun can't be replaced by THAT. They are like an explanation and they go between commas (as if it were a comment or an added explanation). Here you are an exercise to see the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses: click here.

Let's practise with this. This game is called Taboo and you can't say the word in your card or very clear clues. Describe the object or the person you have in your card so you should use WHO, WHICH or THAT, like in this example:

• a screwdriver: it's a tool (which/that) you use to fix two things together. You need a screw, which is a piece of metal similar to a nail, but you also need another piece with a hole in the middle (something similar to a little ring) to fix it. - destornillador

REMEMBER: When THAT / WHICH / WHO are not the subject of the subordinate clause, it can be elicited or removed from the sentence; e.g. It's a kind of tool (that) people use to cut something or to peel fruit, vegetables or so ( a knife).

Activity 5

To work with vocabulary of crime and punishment, here are you some exercises to practise:

• exercise 1    exercise 2

This is an entry on a blog about this topic; it has some videos and vocabulary: click here


Activity 6
To finish with, remember you use passive voice while talking about this topic (reviewing this grammar point from previous lessons). Let's see some examples by ansering these questions:

• Have you ever been stolen on a bus or on the train? What were you stolen? Did you reported the theft? What happened in the end?
• Has your house ever been burglared? What happened? What were you stolen?
• Have you ever been mugged in the street? What happened? Were you hurt?

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 7: Help the World (B1.2)

This is a very humanitarian topic as it deals with NGO's and organisations focused on helping people or the planet. Let's start with the general questions:

• What are the main charities or NGO's in Spain? Do you support any of them? Why/why not?
• Do you think these charity organisations are necessary? Try to find pros and cons.
• Have you ever worked as a volunteer? What about the experience? If not, why haven't you done it? Would you like to join an NGO? Which one or what about?
• Have you ever taken part into an event to raise money? What was the experience like? How did you feel? Would you do it again?
• What do you think about famous people who give their support or their image to raise money for these organisations? Do you agree? Do you think it's just marketing?

Activity 1
Some people think that charity is not the solution of a problem and it makes the problem last longer. What's your opinion? Discuss this with your partner and try to find different aspects of this topic.

Activity 2
About grammar, we are going to work with the construction I wish + past simple and If only + past simple. They are used to express wishes and desires for the future so choose some of the below suggestions and tell your partner(s) about them:

• to buy a new car    to have a better/bigger house      to live abroad      to go on a luxury trip   
• to speak other languages     to win a lot of money      to get a gap year at work/your studies

Activity 3
The other structure is with past perfect tenses (If only/I wish + past perferct) and it is used for regrests or complaints as it is referrred to the past not to the future as the previous one. Use the same examples but use them as if you were upset because you didn't do those things at the right time.

Exercises:  exercise 1       exercise 2       a list of exercises here 


Activity 4

Here you are a listening comprenhension about charity. Do the exercise and then comment about what you have just heard. Click here

Activity 5

Some charities are more popular and have more supporters than others. Discuss with your mate about raising money for homeless people, children with problms or for unsheltered animals. Try to give reasons for your answer.

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 6: Films

The topic of this week is really appealing, isn't it? Films (or movies as Americans call them,) is one of the most typical entretainment for everybody all over the world.

As usual, let's start with some questions taken from your textbook (exercise 11, p.62):

• What kind of films do you enjoy the most? Why?
• What is the last film you've seen? What was it about? Did you enjoy it?
• Who is your favourite film star? Why? What was the last film starred by the actor you saw?
• Are there any kind of films you can't stand? Why?
• Do you follow any film festival? Do you usually see films rewarded with an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Lion of Venice or any other award? Are these festivals necessary?
• Do you know anything about ALCINE Festival in Alcalá de Henares? Have you ever been to?
• Do you like short films or animation films?
• What do you do to choose the film to see? Do you read film reviews? Do you ask anybody about the film?
• Do you prefer watching films on television, a DVD at home or going to the cinema? Explain the main differences in your opinion.  

Activity 1

Talk to your partner about the main differences between European or Spanish films and American ones. Explain which ones you prefer and give reasons for your answer.

Activity 2

Revise the vocabulary of this lesson and try to find a definition with your own words of these terms:

• blockbuster - dubbed films - feature - length - selected for screening - to release - indie films

Activity 3

Here you are a listening comprenhension exercise with an ordinary conversation about movies; click here. This other exercise is about inviting someone to the cinema; click here. Both are a good example to practise with your partner later. 

Activity 4

About grammar, we deal with an important point: passive voice. Remember it's much more usual in English than in Spanish and it has the function of impersonal forms in our language. Here you have a link with a long explanation and exercises at the end: click here. You should use it in your writing but also in your speaking as it is very usual. Rephrase these sentences using passive tenses to see how frequent it is in English:

• Someone stole my movile yesterday
• Many people say American films are much better than Europeans
• Somebody gave me this packet for you
• Someone told me you have a new job
• They opened a new exhibition about Picasso

Activity 5

To practise for the exam, here you are an exercise of gap filling. The topic is different but you can find many examples of passive voice; click here.

Hope to see you in class!

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 5: Social Classes (B1.2)

Althouhg this topic seems to be a bit difficult, we should deal with it and it has many possibilities. We are living in a society which has specific characteristics. Let's start with the general questions on this lesson:

• What does a social class mean to you? If you had to choose, which social class is yours?
• Are there events, sports or places that are popular with a particular social class in Spain? (For example: football, basketball, bullfighting, cinema, theatre...)
• What kind of discriminations are there in our country? Compare this situation with other countries such as the USA, the UK, France, Germany...
• What struggles for rights do you remember? Some ideas: against segregation, equal rights between men and women, to get a welfare state (estado del bienestar), compulsory education, healthcare for everybody, sexual discrimination, etc.

Activity 1

What makes a person change their social status: education, money, popularity and success...? Discuss with your partner and try to get an agreement on the topic.

Some people think that education or going to university is one of the best ways to change your social class to belong to upper classes. Here you are a listening comprenhension about Education. After doing it, let's talk about how important it is to rise in society. This is the exercise. 

Activity 2

Here are you a lot of questions related to discrimination. Discuss with your partner about some of them. Adapted from http://iteslj.org/questions/discrimination.html

• Have you ever been discriminated against? What happened to you? What was your reaction? Have you ever discriminated against anybody?

• Why do you think discrimination exists? Why do people discriminate?  What could you do to reduce discrimination?  What would you do to cope with discrimination? Why do we treat people differently? Is discriminating against a certain group of people ever justified? What do you think about quota or possitive discrimination?

• Do you think males and females are equal?  Do men earn more than women? Why?
• What king of sexual discrimination do you know? 

• Why is it that when children are small,they discriminate against other people that are not the same size and color as they are? Is discrimination something natural? Are our children going to live in a less discriminated world? 

Activity 3

Some people say that trade unions are going to disappear in a short term. Do you agree? What are the main consequences of that fact? Discuss with your partner but you can also use this reading comprehension exercise: click here 

Activity 4

About grammar, this lesson deals with connectors. Here you are  a good explanation with an exercise at the end. Click here

Activity 5
You can practise some listening comprehension about this topic but the level is B2 not B1. This video is about Working Women in Lesotho: click here

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 4: Modern Family

This unit is about family and how this has changed in the last decades. Let's start with the topic with general questions to discuss in class:

• What changes have you seen in families since the 1950's?
• Which of these changes is the most remarkable and why?
• What are the main problems of being a single parent? Are there any advantages?
• What is the "boomerang generation" (described in your textbook, p.43)? Could you guess other reasons for coming back your parents' home?
• Compare your parents' family and the new models of family. What are the main challenges for "modern families"?
• What is the usual family in Spain? Are there any other kinds of families?

Modern Family is a very famous TV series and here you are an interview with the principal stars. They answer their audience's questions  about their characters but also about family and many other subjects in a humorous way: click here for the video. Try to do it directly and then use the subtitles.

About grammar, there is a reference to reminding things and promising. Let's use it in oral practice with these exercises:

Activity 1
Work with your partner and think of all the things a person should do in your house to keep it in good conditions until you come back from holiday. Tell aloud these actions using:

• Don't forget to...       Remember to...       Let me remind you to....   Could  you …..?

You can watch this video to see the meaning and use of these verbs: click here

Activity 2

On p.42 you have a revision of making suggestions and how to accept or refuse them. Let's work on this point by doing exercise 8 on that page and then we'll make some suggestions for these situations related below. Before starting talking you may watch this video about suggestions:

• Your friend wants  to go on holiday for a week but she/he doesn't know where to go yet ( to the beach, a city break, a cottage in the country...)
• It's your friend's birthday and you want to prepare something special for him/her (eating out, cinema, a surprise party...)
• It's your father's or mother's birthday and you don't know what to buy as a present: a book, a jumper, a cd, a voucher for a department store..

Activity 3

On p.43 there is a current topic about living at your parents' home. Discuss with your partner about this and tell your own experience. Think about pros and cons of living with them: money, independance, rules, personal life, etc.

Activity 4

As usual, here are you an exercise of listening (filling the gaps). It's not difficult but it's a help for getting used to doing this kind of exercises for the oral and written exams. Click here

Activity 5

Here you are another listening about raising children. We'll do it in class and then we'll share our opinion on the topic. The exercise is here

In the final exam of this module you'll find an exercise of filling the gaps in the reading test. Here you have a link with two examples to practise this kind of exercise: click here

Hope this post is useful for you and see you in class!

That's English! - Module 7 - Unit 2: Good science, bad ethics? (B1.2)

Introduction
In this unit we are going to speak about how development can be something good or something to be aware of. About grammar, we'll see purpose clauses. Besides, there is a review of connectors and how to use them to join and connect all the ideas expressed in a text.

General Questions

• Do you think there is a "good science" and a "bad science"? Give reasons for your answer
• Do governments and/or society should set boundaries to science? Which ones?
• Can you think of a dilemma connected to science or medicine, such as the use of stem cells, palliative cares, who is worth being save or what to do with terminal ill people?
• Taking drugs should be legalized? Under what conditions or in what cases drugs might be allowed?
• What technical advances would you like to see in the future? Explaqin how those improvements would affect our lives.

Activity 1
Which advances mentioned below do you think are more necessary? Discuss with your partner and give reasons for your answer.

• Advances in biotechnology, especially the use of stem cells.
• Safer, faster transportation
• Improvements in information technology: is it a necessity or an addiction?
• The use of IT: new devices and how to use them
• Space travel, as the last frontier and even as a touristic destination

Activity 2

The use of purpose is very usual in spoken English. Let's work with some examples. Find some sentences which express the meaning given below:

• To say the use or purpose of something:  A hammer is a tool for .... (-ING); a camera is something you use to .... (INFINITIVE); an umbrella is something people use so that they ...... (followed by A SENTENCE); we use medicines in order not to ..... (INFINITIVE)

• To say the reason for doing something: I started doing exercise to feel better. The doctor told me to do it little by little in order to avoid health problems. I trained more and more so that I could take part into a competition. I did it hard for geting the first price.

Try to do the same with your partner. Share your examples. This link will give you some examples as well: click here.

If you want to see a good summary of how to express purpose, go to this link. At the end of this page you've got a chart about purpose.

Activity 3 (use of conditional sentences)

In this unit there is a review of zero conditional or general truth conditional sentences (if-clause with present simple and main clause with present simple as well). Let's work with second conditionals or hypothetical/conditional sentence (simple conditional - simple past). Here you are some questions to work with your partner:

• What happens when you want to lose weight?  If you need to be slimmer you can do exercise; if I were overweight, I'd try to eat less
• What can you do to learn a language?
• Professional athletes need to take drugs to boost their performance.

Activity 4 (listening comprenhension)

Listening comprenhension exercise. You'll here some news about cloned animals. Fill in the blanks with a missing word. Click here
This other exercise is very useful to review passive voice. Although it is not in this unit I think it'll be a good help to refresh your grammar with this exercise: click here

Activity 5

See you in class!

That's English! - Module 7 - lesson 1: Our planet (B1.2)

Introduction
This unit is focused on improving your vocabulary in order to be more accurate when you describe a place, especially about geographical features. Let's start with this vocabulary and here you can find some exercises to do:

• an easy exercise to stat with: click here
• a list of exercises: click here

General Questions

Work with your partner and answer these questions. Give as many details as possible:

• Where were you born? What was it like?
• Describe the best place you've ver been to. Be precise and descriptive.
• Tell us an anecdote that happened to you or a friend of yours while staying abroad or in another city.
• Do you prefer to live in the countryside or in a city? Why?
• To get relaxed do you go to the country or to the seaside? Why? 
• Describe the most beautiful landscape you've ever seen.
• What city in the world is your favourite? Why?

Activity 1

To start with here are you a listening exercise about Canada. Pay attention the way they describe the country and the use of adjectives. Do the exercise here

Activity 2

Work with your partner(s) and describe a place you've visited and say why you like it. Try to be as precise as possible and use the vocaburay you've learnt about geographical features. Don't forget to use adjectives to express your emotions in your description such as:

amazing - spectacular - gorgeous - lively - incredible - breath-taking - vast - peculiar - outstanding -unspoilt - unique - impressive - awesome - astonishing - bustling

This is a good example of a description of  a well-known place: Paris. To do the listening comprenhension, click here and then use it as a model for your own descriptions.

If you want to know more adjectives related to nature, there is an exercise to help you: click here

Activity 3

This listening exercise is very easy but it's a good exemple to see what you could do to describe your own country. First, do this exercise (click here) and now try to expalin to your mate(s) the geographical features and climate of Spain/your country or a place you know well.

Activity 4

In your textbook, in page 9 exercise 6 you are asked to describe the place you grew up. Besides, tell us how much or little that place has changed. When your mate is working, make questions to get more details and make the conversation more lively. Use questions such as:

• Where is it exactly and how long did you stay there?
• Have you ever come back there? If so, what feelings did you have? If not, why not?
• What kind of memories do you have related to that place? What did you like most and least about your birth place?

Activity 5

Work with your partner(s) to explain the main differences between the north and the south of Spain, or between the coast and the plateau in our country. Then we'll share your opinion aloud.

Activity 6

According to what you've read on your textbook, choose what place of the world you'd like to visit and what place you couldn't go to or you wouldn't stand going to. Give reasons for your choice.

Here you are an example. If you want to know more about Australia, go to this video.

Hope these  activities have been useful. See you in class next\ week!

British versus American English (module 7-unit 2)

Here you are some practice to see the difference between American and British English. Although the text we use is British, the influence of American English is getting more and more spread all over the world, especially thanks to the internet. Let's have a look the main differences:

• Vocabulary: here you have an exercise with a list of words. Click here
• This is a list of exercises with both kinds of English. Go to this page
• The British Council has this exercise with a link. Click here
• This last link is pretty complete. Click this

If you want to practise with listening, here you have some links:

• this a video about both pronunciations and vocabulary. Your can click here or click  here
• this one is about vocabulary connected to cars 
• this is about the difference in general with a person showing the principal differences. Click here

Just for fun, here you have two more videos about American and British English; they are rather difficult but I think they worth a visit:

• Eddy Izzard's video
• Hugh Laurie's video