Holidays and Travelling- Listening

1. Listen to this man talking about living in a foreign country.
2. Listen to a teacher giving a lesson on the effects of tourism.
3. Listen to an interview about a trip to the Antarctica. Check your answers in "comments".

Holidays and Travelling- Speaking

Here you can find a speaking sample with questions and vocabulary related to Holidays.

Another sample here.

Holidays and Travelling- Vocabulary

Click on the presentation. You'll find useful vocabulary and questions to think about when talking about this topic.

Ethical shopping

Listening activity

Do the preparation activity first. Then listen to the audio and do the task. You can also read the script.

Clothes and Fashion- Speaking

How to talk about clothes and fashion. You can listen to and read some examples. 

Example 1

Example 2 

Clothes Vocabulary

Vocabulary: click here and look at the vocabulary posted in the blog last year. 








Click here to do a listening activity with vocabulary about clothes shopping.

Clothes

Write your notice selling an item of clothing. Include your first name, surname and group (18J or 18M). The deadline is Thursday 1st February. I'll tick it once I've checked it. Thanks!

Would / Used to

Click here to read about this grammar point. 

Watch this video with some examples of "used to" and "would" to talk about repeated actions in the past talking about childhood.

Now watch this one and see if you would have won the fantastic prize in this gameshow.



Click here to do a quiz. 

Grandparents 2

Listen to a conversation between a man and a woman and answer the following questions. Click here to see the script.


1. Where was the woman?
2. How is his grandmother doing? 
3. Why did he see his grandparents very often when he was a kid?
4. What did his grandma use to do?
5. Why didn't she have the same relationship with her grandparents?
6. What did he stopped seeing his grandparents so often?
7. What was common in the past (former generations) according to him?
8. What was he reminiscing with his grandma about?
9. What would they do every Sunday afternoon?
10. What would his grandma do?

A poem

WARNING by Jenny Joseph

Watch the video and fill in the gaps. You'll need between one and three words in each gap. Click on the author's name to see the answers. 

  When I am an old woman I shall ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________ (1)
  With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me ____________________ (2).
  And I shall spend ____________________ (3) on brandy and summer gloves
  And satin ____________________ (4), and say we've no money for butter.
  I shall sit down on ____________________ (5) when I'm tired
  And gobble up samples in shops and press ____________________ (6)
  And run ___________________ (7) along the public railings
  And make up for the sobriety of ____________________ (7).
  I shall go out in ____________________ (8) in the rain
  And pick flowers in other ____________________ (9)
  And learn to spit.

  You can wear ____________________ (10) and grow more fat
  And eat three pounds of ____________________ (11) at a go
  Or only bread and pickle ____________________ (12)
  And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and ____________________ (13).

  But now we must have ____________________ (14) that keep us dry
  And pay ____________________ (15) and not swear in the street
  And set a good example for the children.
  We must have friends to dinner and ____________________ (16).

  But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
  So people who know me are not too ____________________ (17)
  When suddenly I am old, and start to ____________________ (18). 

 Jenny Joseph

Grandparents

Watch Moonbot Studios' Emmy-nominated short film inspired by the life and heritage of Antonio Pasin, inventor of the Radio Flyer wagon. A small boy's day with grandpa transforms into an epic adventure.




Vovô

Vovô (2010) from Luiz Stockler on Vimeo.

This is the video we did in class (the first part). Try to do the second part (be aware it's a bit sad) and click here to check your answers.

One day, he called me into his room to _________________________ (1). I was busy, so I told him I'd be there _________________________ (2). I never went. And that night, he woke up, _________________________ (3) and told my grandma he needed to _________________________ (4). I didn't see him again until _________________________ (5). They dressed him _________________________ (6) and combed his hair. I watched him lying on the cushion. He looked _________________________ (7) than I remember. I wondered if he was _________________________  (8). I stared at his face for a while, his moustache neatly covering his _________________________ (9), and I held his hand. I wonder what it was he wanted to show me. I'll ask him _________________________  (10). He's just resting his eyes.

The elderly seen by millennials

Life's third act

Click here to watch a video in which Jane Fonda talks about the extra 30 years that have been added to our life expectancy and how we can re-imagine this new phase of our lives.
Listen and take notes. Then watch it again with the subtitles or click on the tapescript and check your ideas.

Life Stages / Getting old

Vocabulary

1. Click here to learn some vocabulary to talk about the different stages of life.

2. Watch this video and learn to talk about the signs of aging.



Listening

1. Here there's an intermediate level cloze test activity about the topic of getting older and happier. You should listen to it just once. 

2. In this unit you’ll develop your listening skills around the topic of age. You’ll practise listening to opinions as well as getting general and detailed information, while people discuss their attitudes to age and getting older. You’ll also be able to review ways of describing ages.

The listening includes the questions and answers for the different tasks.

3. Click here and listen to a podcast about "aging population". You can also get the script. 



Old people are rich :
they have silver in their hair,
gold in their teeth,
stones in their kidneys,
steel in their knees, 
lead in their feet,
iron in their knuckles,
sugar in their blood,
and gas in their stomach.

Shadow reading

Watch this video. The girl explains a technique that will help you improve your pronunciation and fluency. It's called "shadow reading" or "imitation technique" and it's very effective.




The following video is another example of shadow reading.




Look for things that you find interesting. You can use listening activities from your textbook, podcasts, videos from the Internet (https://www.ted.com/ is a great site to practise presentations or videos from TV shows will help you with more informal language- you can also use this technique with interviews shadowing one of the speakers). Find something you like and practise as much as possible!

Happy New Year!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

1. Click here to see a vocabulary activity about the topic. 
2. Watch this video and do the quiz below it.

Watch these two videos to get some ideas.

Watch the video below and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".



1. What's Ellen's second question to the audience?
2. Why hasn't Ellen made any resolutions this year? What was her last year's resolution?
3. What is Ellen's new rule?
4. According to Ellen New Year's Day is probably not the best time to make resolutions because:
- What time do you usually wake up on that day?
-  How are you usually?
-  What aren't you sure about?
-  What are your priorities?
a. 
b. To figure out why there's a banjo with you in bed.
c. To figure out why you're covered in cool whip.
5. What are her Facebook fans' resolutions?
i. What? When? Why?
ii. What? / What does Ellen think her resolution should be?
iii. What? / What does Ellen say about this resolution?
iv. What?