ENGLISH ESO 4

WELCOME TO A NEW SCHOOL YEAR!!

TENSE REVIEW: THE FUTURE

Below you will find an attachment with the uses of the different forms to express the future that we learnt last year. After reviewing them carefully, please, do the following activities to practise them: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

TENSE PRACTICE: PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE / PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS

Again, some more practice for those who want to review the uses of these two tenses. Click on the numbers to go to the exercises: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

For practice on basic tenses, you can visit the pages of the previous years.

RELATIVE CLAUSES

If you want to practise this new structure a little bit more, you can do it in the activities that follow.

First, you can review the use of the different pronouns. Just click on the numbers: 1, 2, 3.

Now, practise the use and possible omission of some of the relative pronouns: 4, 5, 6, 7

Finally, you'll find TRANSFORMATION exercises in the following links: You'll have to join simple sentences into a relative one. Please, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS for the activities carefully. They look similar but they are different: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

NELSON MANDELA: A SYMBOL OF THE POWER OF GOOD (Mail & Guardian 5th December, 2013)

Nelson Mandela, Madiba for South African people, died on 5th December, 2013. He will always be remembered for his fight for freedom and democracy in his country, for his endurance, his capacity to forgive, for his desire and fight for reconciliation between black and white people after the terrible political system in his country named "apartheid", which involved extreme segregation and lack of civil rights for black people. In spite of his 27 years in prison, revenge was never a word in his personal vocabulary. Just the opposite, he was able to work a miracle by bringing apparently irreconcilable enemies together thanks to his goodness, his wisdom, and even his wonderful sense of humour.

My eternal admiration to his figure.

Ana Martínez

Some of his quotes:

""The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days."

- 26 June 1961

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

- 20 April 1964. Rivonia trial

"Since my release, I have become more convinced than ever that the real makers of history are the ordinary men and women of our country; their participation in every decision about the future is the only guarantee of true democracy and freedom."

- 1990. The Struggle is My Life

"The task at hand will not be easy, but you have mandated us to change South Africa from a land in which the majority lived with little hope, to one in which they can live and work with dignity, with a sense of self-esteem and confidence in the future."

- 10 May 1994. Speech at his inauguration as president

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead."

- May 2002

"Those who conduct themselves with morality, integrity and consistency need not fear the forces of inhumanity and cruelty."

- July 2003

(All quotes from the guardian.com, 6th December, 2013)

For further information about his biography, you can watch a short video and read in a much more detailed way on the following website: Nelson's Mandela biography

For some more quotes by this admirable man, you can read here: Nelson Mandela: a life in quotes

VOCABULARY: CRIME

We've been learning some vocabulary about crime in our textbook these days. For those who want to learn some more, you can click on the following link on the word crime.

TENSES: PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

Now here you are some activities to practise both the form and uses of this new tense, Past Perfect Simple. Read the sentences well in all cases. You'll learn about the use of this tense just by reading lots of them. You'll also find activities to practise the contrast with Past Simple. As usual, just click on the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

I hope you found the play Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde interesting and entertaining. For those who want a little bit more of it, now you can read the script of the performance that we saw. Just click on the title of this entry and you'll go to a PDF version of the script.

I hope you'll enjoy it even more!!

EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE

These days we've known about some extraordinary lives for different reasons. First, we've met Amar Latif, the blind man with such an incredible initiative. Then, Ronald Mallet, the university professor who's building a time machine. Finally, we've known about Stephen Wiltshire, the autistic artist that draws buildings and cities from memory.

Here you can watch some of the videos we've seen in our lessons. Those who didn't have time to do the activity about Wiltshire have another chance to finish it now.

AMAR LATIF

RONALD MALLET, THE "INVENTOR" OF THE TIME MACHINE

STEPHEN WILTSHIRE, THE HUMAN CAMERA

IN THE FOLLOWING VIDEO YOU CAN WATCH HOW THE MADRID PANORAMA WAS PREPARED. ONLY IMAGES, NO WORDS.

GRAMMAR PRACTICE: CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Last year we studied conditional clauses. This year we've reviewed the types we studied then, and we've also learnt about conditionals related to past time, the third type.

If you want to review, first you can do all the exercises on the ESO 3 web page. There are 15 exercises, lots to practise with. When you finish, you can also do the following ones.

On this site, you'll review the different types of conditional sentences and the tenses used in general. At the bottom you have a lot of exercises. Click here to go to that website.

Some more exercises: First or Second conditional?

Finally, you can play a game to practise the three types. Easy!!

GRAMMAR PRACTICE: MODAL VERBS

Some students need some more practice of modal verbs, so here is a wonderful page where Cristina Cabal has collected exercises from different websites. Just click on the following to practise must, mustn't, have to to express obligation, prohibition or lack of obligation, and must/can't, may and might to express deduction and possibility.

Here is an activity to practise mustn't / needn't and two more to practise can / could / be able to: 1, 2

GRAMMAR PRACTICE: REPORTED SPEECH

As usual, some more practice for new grammar is offered on our website so those of you who want to practise a little bit more can do it. In the following exercise you'll be able to practise on when to do the tense backshift or not. Remember, if there is no change in real time, there isn't a change in tenses either.

Practise changing time expressions in this one now. And what about changing pronouns and possessives in this one?

When we talk about statements, the distinction between say or tell is a real problem for some Spanish learners.

Now, time to practise how to report statements in general. There are four exercises to do it: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Next, some activities to practise questions. On the following websites you'll be able to practise Yes/No Questions and Wh-questions, and both types on 1 and 2.

And an activity to practise both statements and questions.

Finally, two activities. The first one is a news report about Bill Gates and the second one about what some people said. Obviously, in both reported speech is or must be used. Click here to go to the website.