Life events

Click here to learn how to speak about life events. There's a video and a listening at the bottom of the page.

Living without money

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

1. When did Daniel give up money?

2. Finish the sentence; “Money is an _____________.”

3. How much money did he leave in the phone booth?

4. What did his friend think of his decision?

5. How did 2008 change the narrator’s perspective?

6. What did Daniel choose to live in?

7. Name his food sources:

8. My philosophy is to use only what is freely ___________ and discarded and what is already ____________ and already ___________.

9. What does he will think will happen to money in the future?

10. We can cultivate freely giving and freely receiving, ______________ _______________ what station of life we’re in, that’s our true ______________ and it ___________ in everybody.

Would winning the lottery make you happier?

Choose the correct answer. Check them clicking on "comments".

                  1. Based on a study of lottery winners, it was found that winning the lottery:

a.       Has little or no effect on long term happiness

b.      Can make you less happy than you were before winning it

c.       Has little effect on the intensity of anger, stress, and sorrow in your life

d.      A and b only

e.      All of the above are good answers

2. The hedonic treadmill:

a.       Discusses our ability to keep working despite wanting to quit

b.      Our continual attempt to make more and more money

c.       Describes our tendency to adapt to a new situation and maintain a stable emotional equilibrium

d.      Makes us less emotionally sensitive to any kind of change

e.      Both c and d

3. Winning the lottery sometimes may not be a wonderful event. What can happen?

a.       It may be difficult to manage large sums of money

b.      A person may spend or lose it all too quickly

c.       It may be socially isolating

d.      It may make you not such a nice person

e.      All of the above

4. The more you spend money on ___________ the happier you will be.

a.       Expensive cars

b.      Food

c.       Experiences

d.      Your home

5. You have received a large sum of money, the best way to ensure your happiness is to:

a.       Immediately spend it on something for yourself

b.      Spend it buying something for someone else

c.       Put it in the bank

d.      All of the above

From: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/would-winning-the-lottery-make-you-happier-raj-raghunathan

What would you do if you won the lottery?

Life-changing experiences

Write a post about a life-changing experience (100-120 words). Try to use "used to", "would", "get/be used to", "no longer" or "any more" and a "result phrase".
I'll put a tick next to it when I correct it.
You can upload it until 28th February.

used to / be used to / get used to

Read the grammar and do an exercise here.

Exercise one

Exercise two

Used to / Would

Click here to read the grammar explanation and do an exercise.

Click here to do another exercise.

Click here to see old posts about the same topic.

The lottery

Click here to listen to a podcast about the lottery and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".

1. How much money did Richard's money win?
2. When did the Euromillions start and where can we find this lottery?
3. What has been the biggest win ever? Who won it? When?
4. How much does the average household in the UK spend on lottery?
5. What is the problem with that?
6. How much money goes to good causes? Why isn't this always good?
7. Why do so many people buy lottery tickets?
8. What encourages people to buy more tickets?
9. Why do the lottery people advise winners to go public?
10. What's Richard's mother going to spend her winnings on?

Click here to listen to another podcast about the lottery (the winners) and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments". 

1. How much money is spent on lottery tickets in the UK every week?
2. What is easier to find in the newspapers according to Jackie? Why?
3. What do we know about Michaell Carroll before winning the lottery?
4. When did he win the lottey and how much did he win?
5. Name some of the things he bought with the money.
6. When was all his money gone?
7. What did Elaine Thompson do before winning the lottery?
8. How much did she win?
9. What did she do with the money?
10. What does Elaine say about being happy?
11. What did Julie Jeffrey and her husband do before winning the lottery?
12. How much did they win?
13. What did both women do with the money? What does Jackie think about it?
14. What does Julie say about the newspapers?

Money vocabulary

Happy Valentine's Day!

Click here to do a listening activity about St Valentine's Day (it includes writing summaries and the answers are at the bottom of the page). This is the audio. 

Click here to listen to a love song (My Valentine by Paul McCartney).

Click here to see old posts about the same topic.

Mediación escrita

Watch the video once (up to 3'18'') and take notes. Follow the instructions in the photocopy. You have twenty minutes.

Extreme Sports

1. Click here to do a listening activity about the topic.

2. Mountain Climber


Listen and fill in the gaps with the correct information (one word in each gap). Check your answers in "comments".

-On her expedition , she become aware of the feelings of _________________ and _________________ connected with mountaineering.

- She had previously taken part in several so-called _________________  _________________ 

- She found the _________________   _________________  for climbing Everest particularly hard.

- She was particularly worried about the _________________   _________________  she would have to climb through

-She says you cannot take any of the _________________  of life with you on Everest.

- On her first trip there, she regretted taking her _________________  with her.

- When she climbed Everest, she left her _________________  after a certain point.

-She says you mustn't waste _________________ when you are on the mountain.
-When they reached the top, they had a sensation of _________________ _________________ 

-Her book about climbing Everest is called _________________  _________________  _________________  _________________ _________________ 

Drugs in sport

This is the listening activity we did in class.



Click here to listen to a six-minute podcast about blood doping.

That's English-  Module 7 - Unit 2A- Sports and performance-enhancing drugs

Module 7 - Unit 2A

Present perfect simple and continuous

Click here to watch a video and do some exercises.

More exercises: 
One
Two
Three- a website with different pdfs with exercises and the key to them.