Answer key

UNIT 5 

VOCABULARY (page 36)

Exercise 1

1.P

2.N

3.P

4.P

5.N

Exercise 2

1. upset

2. out of work

3. outstanding

4 grateful

5. talented

Exercise 3

1. c

2. e

3. d

4. a

5. b

Exercise 4

1. make a choice

2. do the shopping

3. do business

4. do...a favour

5. make plans

VOCABULARY (page 37)

Exercise 5

1. second-hand

2. in demand

3. a rip-off

4. brand-new

5. on sale

6. worth it

Exercise 6

1. customers

2. price tag, costs

3. fake

4. luxury items, status symbol

5. image

Exercise 7

1. made a difference

2. second-hand

3. outstanding

4. brand-new

5. discount

6. influenced

Verb collocations

Are collocations driving you crazy?
Well, look what I found! I love free useful online resources!

It is a set of verb collocations for you to learn and practice. You can listen to them, do some online exercises and then, take a test! There is even an on line contest!!

I hope you like it as much as I do!

Quizlet: Make/ Do business collocations

The importance of a good dictionary (or not)...

In this post I want to talk about the importance of a good dictionary. 

Whenever my students have to write an essay I tell them to use a good dictionary to look up for the words they don't know in the foreign language.

 Some of them follow my advice, but some other can't resist the temptation annnnnd they end up using some free translation tools on line(always a badddd badddd choice, guys).

Well, today I want to give you to explain my reasoning with an example.

Have you heard of Superbritánico? 

It is a Spanish company (very popular among teachers of English in Spain) which takes advantage of literal translations (commonly a result of the aforementioned tools) and use them to create the cutest designs. 

Let me show you an example:

Obviously, this weird translation does not work well in the target language (that is, English). However, any Spanish speaker would immediately recognise this idiom (and have a laugh). 

But, my students are clever (yep) and they would look up this idiom in the dictionary (right?) and they would find out that:

(source of the picture:http://es.languagebookings.com/cursos-espanol/espana/malaga/comments/stim-spanish-teachers-in-malaga.html)

Answer key

Although attendance is compulsory in Secondary Education, the last lessons before the holiday breaks always have the same impact in the classroom. 

Let me show you a picture...

(source of the picture: http://blog.educalab.es/inee/2015/05/22/explotacion-de-las-variables-educativas-de-la-epa-2014-el-indicador-educativo-abandono-temprano/)

Just add a sad lonely female teacher to this picture and you will perfectly get the idea (¬¬)

However, some students of my home group broke this 'rule' and attended my last lessons (now you can add two more students to the former picture).

Given that we went ahead on the syllabus, I want to post the answer key to the exercises done in class.

ANSWER KEY (page 66 of the Student's Book).

Exercise 3:

1. True. 

<>(lines 2-3)

2. False

<< Mandela shares his vision with François Pienaar...>> (lines 18-19)

3. False

<< The Springboks' captain...leads the team to success beyond all expectations...>>(lines 19-20)

4. True

<>(line 22)

Exercise 4:

1.c

2.a

Exercise 6:

1. real (line 7)

2. unite (line 12)

3. leads (line 20)

4. superb (line 24)

5. strength (line 35)

I'm back!

Easter Holidays in Spain last a week. And this break took place last week (snif).

Good news is that this blog is back!

Yay!

(source of the picture: http://www.fuelzoneprimary.co.uk/news/welcome-back-to-fuel-zone--12.html)

Some of my students told me that the holidays were so short that they didn't even have time to relax (sigh). 

The fact is that I thought that they were tired before the holidays. But now that I have them back in the classroom, I must confess that they look EXHAUSTED! 

What happened to you, guys? What did you do?

Well, I'll show you some pictures which describe their answers...

(source of the picture: http://www.xpats.com/switch-to-full-time-work-and-enjoy-more-holidays)

(source of the picture:http://www.rycestudio.com/when-its-your-first-time-to-experience-snow-holidays/)

(source of the picture: http://www.semana-santa-sevilla.com/)

.

...

.....

......

No wonder they are tired!

More weather vocabulary

Listening activity--> The weather forecast

An online activity to practice the vocabulary of this unit (by courtesy of the British Council).

Listening activity: The weather forecast

Some weather humour

I must confess that I am currently obsessed with weather vocabulary.

 

Yep.

I've spent several hours browsing the web in the search of appealing exercises/games/ activities for my students.

And, I found this gem the other day and I couldn't resist  posting it.

 

 Isn't it cute?

 

Have a nice day!

 



Weather vocabulary--> games

As you already know, the vocabulary of this unit involves weather and I've been doing a little digging and found out the following games.
Hope you like them!

Weather vocabulary game (easy level)

 

Weather vocabulary game

 

Weather maze

 

 

 

 

 

Opinion essay--> Writing prompts

The second term is almost over. And I said ALMOST, because there is still some work to do. And, in my case, there is still much tests/notebooks/essays to mark (sigh).

 

 

 

And, today I wanted to remind you that the due date for the opinion essay is this week.

 

And as promised, I've gathered some useful words when you have to write an opinion essay. Together with the transition/linking words, I've included some text samples. Click on the link to download the adapted version of the exercise (below you have the link to the original document, ;))

 

(link to the original document: http://www.eslflow.com/Acargumentativessay.html)

Opinion essay