Categoría: B2.1

Hello again! How are you all keeping? Below you will find the guidelines for homework that I have prepared for this week.

• Open World:

– GRAMMAR p.72. If you have already gone through the Grammar reference on p.214, do exercises 1, 2, 3 and 4 on p.72. Ex.5 poses the question whether you have ever seen a film or play based on a book you have read. What are the differences between both? Which one do you prefer? -think about it! No need to do ex.6 on the same page.

– WRITING: REVIEW p.73. In the past book and film reviews were the main type of reviews. With the internet, people are often asked to review a wide variety of products and services, and they are more likely to review something they loved or hated, rather than something they considered average. The texts on this page are examples of reviews of a video game. Answer exercises 1 and 2 that are based on them.

Move on to the box with the rubric for a Book Review and the sample text given that answers it. Read it carefully. Ex.3 provides information about what a book review looks like: heading/ overview/ plot/ recommendation. See ex.4 too.

In the WRITING BANK of the book, page 238,  you will find an example of a Film Review. There are exercises and examples dealing with other types of reviews on pages 238-9 you can have a look at, but focus mainly on book and film reviews for the moment.

• More work to do

– In the EOI WRITING BANK section of this blog you will find more detailed information about the layout of Book/ Film Reviews and some sample writings.

– More on FILM REVIEWS. Learn some more vocabulary and do some practice on how to write a film review:  Film Review Practice

– More GRAMMAR PRACTICE: Narrative Tenses. 

past perfect or past continuous 1

past perfect or past continuous 2

– LISTENING: «Holidays and Places»

exercises        audio        transcript        key

– READING and USE of ENGLISH: «Art installations»

cloze text        options        key

Try to work on all this the present week before moving on to the following sections of Unit 5, which we will be doing next week.

Keep on safe and well!

Believe it or not, Easter is here!  Almost three weeks have gone by since confinement began! Next week I won’t be sending you homework to do, so that you have some time to go through the exercises from the past three weeks if you have not been able to do so yet – Complaint writing included, you can send me throughout Easter week if you have not done so.

If you are up-to-date on the previous work, or you feel you need more listening or grammar practice, you can do the holiday homework below. We usually give homework to do on your holidays, don’t we? Let’s keep good customs!

Let’s hope that after Easter the worst of the crisis is over! I’ll get in touch  again after the Holy Week. Take care!

LISTENING: Books and films

Books and Films: exercises and key 

Books and films: audio 1        Books and films: audio 2

LISTENING: A time I was happy

A time I was happy: exercise + writing task, key and script

A time I was happy: audio

USE OF ENGLISH

Interactive gap-fill Past simple vs Past continuous

King Lear: reading/ cloze text

IMPORTANT: If you are asked whether you want to open the files in your browser, click YES and the file should open without a problem. You can also download the files to your device.

Hi guys,

This is the LESSON PLAN for this week. I hope you are all very fine and feel like working on it.

– Vocabulary: Books and Reading p.70. Exercise 2 is essential to learn the basics of what a book review is like. Most of the language can also be used to talk about a film. On p.71 you have an example of a review and more vocabulary practice in ex. 3.

Note the points remarked in ex.5, which are essential when talking about a book or film: author (director, screenwriter, adaptation for a film), setting, characters, plot, recommendation. I will be giving you some more exercises on this, so for the moment just familiarize with the review language and structure.

– Grammar:  Past Simple vs Past Perfect Simple and Continuous. To start with, download and watch the video on page 72, go on to read Grammar Reference 5 on p. 214 and do the exercises there. Then go on practising using the links below.

Online practice:

Use of past perfect simple/continuous

Use of all narrative tenses

Exercises on past simple, past perfect and past continuous 1

Exercises on past simple, past perfect and past continuous 2 

Narrative tenses multiple choice

– Extra practice on Unit 5: Reading. The following exercises have to do with the topics of p.68 listening on music and p.69 text about cinema:

A concert     Key

Filmmaking page 1      Filmmaking page 2

The following link is a multiple-choice reading based on an extract from a book:

What’s in a book      Exercise      Key

That’s it for now. Take care and stay well!

Unit 5, «Grab some Culture», is very interesting and entertaining in my view. It is mainly focused on reading and listening, so it would be fantastic if you could start having a look at it.

For the moment, before writing a Review, you only need to read the examples given in the book, paying special attention to the specific vocabulary used, which is also necessary to speak about hobbies and interests at the level required at B2.

– Read the questions posed in Getting Started page 68, and think about how you would answer them.

– Listening Part 3 p.68: do exercises 2 and 3

– Reading Going to the Movies p. 69

– Reading and Use of English page 70, exercises 6 and 7

Check your answers with the help of the key and script on pages 302-3.

Next week I will post some more work on the topic.

Stay well and healthy!

Hello everyone,

This is the first part of the homework schedule for this week.

– Real World: Buenos Aires. You have very interesting and entertaining exercises on pages 66-67, which as usual are varied in format and good practice to improve your speaking skills in an informal register. Do the reading and listening activities and check your answers on pages 301-2.

Download the video and watch it several times to answer the questions. Go through the vocabulary and note the language style, typical of travel programmes and brochures, which repeatedly appears in these sections (famous for, renowned for, home to, if you’re into). These are suggested answers:

The city of Buenos Aires: capital city of Argentina, over 2 million tourists per year.

9 de Julio Avenue: one of the widest streets in the world.

Teatro Colón: famous for its classical music and opera.

Palacio del Congreso: home to Argentina’s parliament; dome weighs about 3, 000 tonnes

La Boca: home to Caminito, famous for its bright, colourful buildings and Boca junios football stadium.

There will be more work for this week coming soon. Check on Wednesday.

Stay well!