Revision of prepositions + ---ing form

Here you have some exercises to work with preposition  + -ing form:

• http://www.world-english.org/gerundprep.htm
• http://www.tolearnenglish.com/cgi2/myexam/voir2r.php?id=82507
• http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/gerund3b.html : here you can find two forms which are usual
• by + ---ing (means or method to do something)
• for+ ---ing (a kind of purpose clause)

If you want to revise more prepositions, go to these links which work on adjective + preposition:

• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/adjectives-and-prepositions-exercise-1.html
• http://www.english-4u.de/adj_prep.html : here you have a list and exercises at the bottom
• http://wwwedu.ge.ch/cptic/prospective/projets/anglais/exercises/adjprep2.htm

Official exams in Asturias

These are the certificate exams of Asturias. Have a look and try to practise with them but remember they could be differente from the ones we've got in Madrid.

• http://www.educastur.es/media/publicaciones/apoyo/innovacion/modelos_pruebas_eoi.pdf : this is the link for the exam paper but all the languages and the levels are here so you should look for your intermediate level (if you feel confident, have a try with the advance)
• http://www.educastur.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2708&Itemid=54: this is the previous page of the above one but there, at the end, you can unload the audios.

Relative clauses

It's very important for intermediate students to use relative clauses properly so here you have some links to help you to revise this grammar point. You can go to:

• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/relative-clauses : a complete explanation with a test at the end to check your knowledge on the topic.
• http://www.slideshare.net/carolinarovira/relative-clauses-2992234: a very clear and short presentation about relative clauses, including examples and some exercises
• http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/who-versus-whom.aspx: this is a listening about the difference between who and whom, but the wxplanation is there as well.
• http://www.agendaweb.org/grammar/relative_pronouns_clauses-exercises.html: here you can find a huge amount of exercises to work with relatives. Have a look but you should pay attention to the level. You'd better try the last ones.

See you in class

Crime and punishment

Here you have some exercises to work with this topic, just in case you want to practise some more:

• http://www.eslpartyland.com/quiz-center/crime.htm: a multiple choice exercise on line
• http://www.englishclub.com/english-for-work/police-crime.htm : quite interestin with "useful" questions and a list of words related to the topic
• http://www.english-at-home.com/vocabulary/english-words-for-crime-and-punishment/ : an alphabetical list of legal terms connected with crime.

Let me remind you the vocabulary you have in your own textbook and about the grammar point of this lesson you can use th entry of gerund and infinitive.

Indirect speech

This is a point of grammar that many students understand as an exercise to translate direct speech into indirect speech. Although this is a good way of learning I must say it's useless if you don't understand that it's much more frequent in our common language than we could think and not just a grammar exercise.
We use indirect speech to rephrase what you or other people have said before, especially in sentences or situations such as this one:
Yesterday I phoned my mother to ask her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she said she didn't fancy doing anything special but I suggested going to a new African restaurant. She accepted the suggestion and asked me if I could organise everything and I said I'd do it as soon as I could. She reminded me to call my brother Peter but I asked her to do it herself. She agreed and said she'd do it that afternoon. 
If you want to work with this grammar point you can use these websites:

• http://esl.about.com/od/grammarintermediate/a/reported_speech.htm :with an explanation and at the bottom you’ve got some exercises of transformation and a list of reported verbs.
• http://esl.about.com/od/grammarchants/a/l_repspeech.htm : this is a page with resources for the teacher. There are a couple of exercises to be done at class.

Remember you can find some more exercises on your own on the internet. See you in class.

Complaining about shopping - complaint letters

When you go shopping sometimes you've got problems what you've bought so you should complain about your purchase. Here you have a video explaining what you should do in Great Britain:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=cz4ThDI0Qu8 : a listening about what to do when you buy something and you have a problem: how to complain, what to do, etc.


A very common way of complaining is by writing a letter or sending an email. Here you have very good pages to teach you how to write it with templates or samples:

How to write a complaint letter: very good page with the structure of the letter and some examples of each part and of the whole letter. http://www2.elc.polyu.edu.hk/cill/eiw/complaint_letter_constructor.htm

Official complaint letter: page of the USA government to help you to write a complaint letter. Quite interesting but you should take into account this is target to American people. http://www.usa.gov/topics/consumer/complaint/complaint-letter.shtml

The Australian complaint letter simple: the same as the previous one but related to Australia. http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/815324

Printable complaint letter: this page is a page where you can subscribe for free to get models of complaint letters depending on the topic (buying, restaurant, holidays, services, etc.) The problem is you have to subscribe but it’s supposed to be free. http://www.complaintletter.net/

Curso de escritura en inglés - cartas de queja: this is a course to learn how to write in English. The problem (or not) is, it’s in Spanish but it has quite a lot of useful sentences and some examples. It helps pretty well. http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/OMWRITE/personal/unit49.htm

Complaint letter templates: this is a British page to show you templates to write a complaint letter. The problem is, it’s very difficult to read unless you do a couple of examples but it’s quite useful. http://www.howtocomplain.com/info/cl-template.shtml

Passive voice

The passive voice in English is formed in this way:

TO BE (tense)   +   PAST PARTICIPLE (meaning)

We've seen in class that this form is much more frequent in English than in Spanish because it's used instead of impersonal sentences in Spanish. Take into account it's not possible to have a verb without its subject in English so when this subject is not important, not known or not said we should use passive voice. Have a look at these examples:

• Most people say...   =   It is said ...     (Se dice que....)
• We can speak English here   =   English is spoken here   (Aquí se habla inglés)
• They opened a new exhibition yesterday  =  A new exhibition was opened yesterday (Ayer se abrió una nueva exposición)
• Someone sent an email yesterday   =   An email was sent yesterday   (Se envió un email ayer)
• Someone has sent a letter to Susan   =   Susan has been sent a letter  (A Susan le han enviado una carta)

Some other typical expressions or examples of passive voice are:

• This book was published in the UK 
• The conversations are being held in secret (Las conversaciones se están llevando en secreto)
• America was discovered in 1492 (América fue descubierta / se descubrió en 1492)
• The film is directed and starred by G. Clooney 
• I've been told you're getting married next Monday (Me han dicho que te casas el lunes que viene)
• John was given the job after the interview (A John le dieron el trabajo después de la entrevista)

Here you have a very easy page which explains the use of passive. If you want to have a look go to this link: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/activepassive.html

To finish with here you are some exercises to practise:

• http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/passiv.htm : this is the exercise we did in class
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive : here you have a really good explanation of passive and then you can find exercises at the bottom. The level is not too high but quite useful.
• http://www.e-grammar.org/passive-voice/ : again exercises and explanation
• http://www.autoenglish.org/gr.pas.i.htm: very easy but quite complete
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive/exercises?05
• http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-passive-voice-exercise2.html