Transitive Verbs

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/verb-patterns/transitive-verbs

Complex sentences

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/sentence-structure

A complex sentence has a main clause and one or more adverbial clauses. Adverbial clauses usually come after the main clause:

Her father died when she was very young
>>>
Her father died (main clause)
when (subordinating conjunction)
she was very young (adverbial clause)

She had a difficult childhood because her father died when she was very young.
>>>
She had a difficult childhood (main clause)
because (subordinating conjunction)
her father died (adverbial clause)
when (subordinating conjunction)
she was very young (adverbial clause).

Some subordinate clauses can come in front of the main clause:

Although a few snakes are dangerous most of them are quite harmless
>>>
Although (subordinating conjunction)
some snakes are dangerous (adverbial clause)
most of them are harmless (main clause).

A sentence can contain both subordinate and coordinate clauses:

Although she has always lived in France, she speaks fluent English because her mother was American and her father was Nigerian
>>>
Although (subordinating conjunction)
she has always lived in France (adverbial clause),
she speaks fluent English (main clause)
because (subordinating conjunction)
her mother was American (adverbial clause)
and (coordinating conjunction)
her father was Nigerian (adverbial clause).

There are seven types of adverbial clauses:

	Common conjunctions
Contrast clauses	although; though; even though; while;
Reason clauses	because; since; as
Place clauses	where; wherever; everywhere
Purpose clauses	so that; so; because + want
Result clauses	so that; so … that; such … that
Time clauses	when; before; after; since; while; as; as soon as; by the time; until
Conditional clauses	if; unless; provided (that); as long as

As and Like

Link to exercise

 

As and like are often confused since they are both used to compare actions or situations. There are, however, important differences.

As

We use as to talk about job or function. 

• I worked as a shop assistant for 2 years when I was a student.
• He used his shoe as a hammer to hang the picture up.

In comparisons, the structure ‘as adjective as’ is often used.

• He’s not as tall as his brother
• She ran as fast as she could.

In the following comparisons as is a conjunction – it’s followed by a clause with a subject and a verb.

• He went to Cambridge University, as his father had before him.
• She’s a talented writer, as most of her family are.

Like

In the following comparisons, like is a preposition and it’s followed by a noun or a pronoun.

• I’ve been working like a dog all afternoon.
• None of my brothers are much like me.
• She looks just like her mother.

Like and As if/As though

Like, as if and as though can all be used to make comparisons. There is no difference in meaning among the 3 forms.

• You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.
• You talk as though we’re never going to see each other again.
• It looks like it’s going to rain.

Expressions with ‘as’

The following expressions all use as.

• As you know, classes restart on January 15th.
• I tried using salt as you suggested but the stain still didn’t come out.
• As we agreed the company will be split 50/50 between us.
• Their house is the same as ours.

FCE Reading part 2

Try this FCE exam test - you can check your answers.

http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_reading2.htm

FCE Exam Practice - Reading (Removed sentences)

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/tests/part1.htm

Learning English - Words in the News 14 January, 2005 - Published 14:54 GMT Kraft cuts snack ads for children

The American food group Kraft Foods says it will stop marketing junk food to children. It means that the company will not advertise products with a lot of fat, sugar or salt to children under twelve years old. This report from Mark Gregory: Kraft is one of the world's largest food producers. In America its products include Oreo biscuits and Kool Aid drinks. Likerivals, the company has come under mounting pressureto encourage consumers to cut back on potentially unhealthy foods. There's been particular concern about risingobesity levels in rich countries - in America two thirds of adults and fifteen percent of children are overweight. In a statement Kraft said it recognised that parents were concerned about the mix of food products advertised to young children. The company will no longer run advetisments for high calorie, high fat products in cartoon shows and other television programmes aimed at young viewers. It will also change marketing policies for advertisements in newspapers and other media. Health concerns among the big food firms are driven by legal worries as well consumer pressure - last year the hamburger chain McDonalds fought off a lawsuitby children who blamed their weight problems on its products. Mark Gregory, BBC rivals people or companies which compete in the same market come under mounting pressure if you come under mounting pessure, somebody expects something from you urgently to cut back on to reduce obesity the state of being very fat a statement a declaration health concerns worries about health driven here, forced fought off defeated a lawsuit a legal claim made against a person or company Click here to go to the web link

Calorie counting menus

Listen to the audio report in this link and then learn the vocabulary from the section below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/07/120706_witn_calories.shtml

Past Continuous and Past Simple

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-exercises/past-continuous-and-past-simple

past simple

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/past-tense/past-simple

 

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Forms

With most verbs the past tense is formed by adding -ed:

call >> called; like >> liked; want >> wanted; work >> worked

But there are a lot of irregular past tenses in English. Her are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tenses:

infinitive	irregular past
be begin break bring buy build choose come cost cut do draw drive eat feel find get give go have hear hold keep know leave lead let lie lose make mean meet pay put run say sell send set sit speak spend stand take teach tell think understand wear win write	was/were began broke brought bought built chose came cost cut did drew drove ate felt found got gave went had heard held kept knew left led let lay lost made meant met paid put ran said sold sent set sat spoke spent stood took taught told thought understood wore won wrote

Use

We use the past tense to talk about:

• something that happened once in the past:

I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.

• something that happened again and again in the past:

When I was a boy I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

• something that was true for some time in the past:

I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

• we often use phrases with ago with the past tense:

I met my wife a long time ago.

Questions and negatives

We use did to make questions with the past tense:

When did you meet your wife?
Where did you go for your holidays?
Did she play tennis when she was younger?
Did you live abroad?

But look at these questions:

Who discovered penicillin?
Who wrote Don Quixote?

For more on these questions see question forms

We use didn’t (did not) to make negatives with the past tense:

They didn’t go to Spain this year.
We didn’t get home until very late last night.
I didn’t see you yesterday. 

BBC Radio 4 - Womens' Hour

Ladykillers

Female serial killers have always been something of an oddity in criminology and of macabre fascination to society. We like to assume that women are less capable of murder than men, but it’s been proven that female killers can be meticulous and methodical in committing their crimes and often remain undetected for longer than men who kill. Yet the personality profiling of such women is still in its infancy as experts struggle to create a template as to just what makes a female serial killer. A new television series starts next week which examines the life histories and careers of some of the most notorious female murderers and assesses the sociological backgrounds that may have helped create these women. The programme is presented by crime writer Martina Cole. She joins Sheila along with Elizabeth Gurian from the  Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University to talk about what motivates women to kill. 

Link to BBC Radio 4 Womens' Hour

Learn It

afraid / scared - frightening / terrifying Hasan Belut and Natali from Belgium and Ukraine writes:   Hasan asks: when do you use afraid and when do you use scared?   Natali asks: Could you please explain to me the difference in meaning between scary, frightening and terrifying?     Roger Woodham replies:     afraid / scared / frightened   There are differences in use and I shall try to illustrate these. But all these adjectives express roughly the same degree of worry or fear and can therefore be used interchangeably to some extent. Frightened suggests more sudden fear:   All small children are afraid of / scared of / frightened of school bullies.   Don’t be scared / afraid / frightened. I’m not going to hurt you.   All three can be followed by of + -ing clause. Frightened cannot always be followed by of + pronoun or noun:   He’s afraid of / scared of / frightened of flying in small planes.   He’s a strict teacher. Everyone seems to be afraid of / scared of him.   All three can be followed by the to + infinitive pattern:   She seemed too scared to swim where there were such big waves.   After such an experience she’s afraid to go anywhere near the sea.   I was too frightened to jump in at the deep end of the pool.   We can be scared by or frightened by something. We cannot use afraidin this way:   She was scared by the hooting of the owl.   They were frightened / terrified by the gunfire and the breaking of glass.   Note that terrified expresses a stronger degree of fear.   She’s terrified of / by large dogs and won’t go near them.     afraid / scared / frightened - position in clause   Note that afraid is one of those adjectives that cannot normally be usedbefore a noun, but instead is used after a verb. Scared and frightenedcan be used in both positions:   He seemed afraid. He appeared frightened.   He was, without doubt, a frightened man.     I’m afraid I / we / he / etc   I’m afraid… is also used in another way, meaning: I regret that I have to tell you that…. It is used to introduce bad news in a gentle or polite way:   I’m afraid there’s been an accident at the crossroads. Your son’s been knocked over on his bike.   I’m afraid we shan’t be able to come on the skiing trip with you. John’s got to work.   He’s done very little work, I’m afraid. He’ll have to repeat the course.     I’m afraid so. / I’m afraid not.   We can use these forms as short answers to confirm bad news:   Will I really have to repeat the course next year? ~ I’m afraid so.   Can’t you really come on the skiing trip with us? ~ I’m afraid not.     frightened / frightening   As a general rule, adjectives ending in -ed are used to describe how people feel. Adjectives ending in -ing describe the things or situations that give rise to these feelings. So, remember, frightened describes how you feel.Frightening describes the things that make you feel frightened:   She looked very frightened when I told her she would lose her job.   It was one of the most frightening films I had ever seen.   It’s frightening to think that they are capable of producing nuclear weapons.     terrified / terrifying   Similarly, terrified describes you feel. Terrifying describes the thingsthat make you feel terrified. Terrified and terrifying express a higherdegree of anxiety or worry than frightened and frightening:   I was so much in debt. I was terrified I would lose my job when the restructuring was announced.   It was a terrifying experience. I doubt he will ever recover from it.     scared / scary   Scary is the adjective relating to things or situations; scared the adjective relating to how people feel. Scary and frightening express similar levels of fear or worry:   Being alone in a cave with five thousand bats was scary.   I felt scared when night fell and I was nowhere near human habitation.

BBC Newsline - Latest stories

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsline/content/articles/2009/08/05/lotto_feature.shtml

Third time lucky lotto winners

third time lucky lotto winners

Past simple word endings

Watch this presentation on phonetics and practise word endings with /t/ /d/ and /id/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh_DM7qJGWo

BBC 3 - Geordie Language School

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvfN5FI9xyI&feature=related

UK regional accents

Watch this funny Youtube video clip from the Graham Norton show featuring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek trying out accents from the north of England.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjtS2rjicpA

Wishes and hypotheses

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/wishes-and-hypotheses

Talking about the past

Practice your knowledge of tenses when talking about the past.

Read the grammar reference and then try the activities.
Choose the correct form of the verb to complete the sentences.
Remember which tense is used for punctual and progressive past actions.

Click here to go to the British Council page

Horror films

Are you scared of horror films? What words do you know in connection with horror?

Do horror films make you feel jumpy and on-edge?

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/i-wanna-talk-about/horror-films

A serious case

Listen to this short track about phobia and try the exercises.

Don't forget to read the hidden script while you listen.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/stories/serious-case

Empathic Civilisation

Watch this interesting animated white-board presentation Youtube video about empathic civilisation by Jeremy Rifkin.

It's very fast but offers good listening practice as you can relate to the images and vocabulary as you're listening.

Click here to watch the video

Words in the News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2010/06/100621_witn_mafia.shtml

Tracking crime on Twitter

Words in the News

Listening practice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/08/120828_witn_twitter_crime.shtml

Adjectives of Personality
Try this crossword to see if you know how to describe personality.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/crossword/121019_crossword_personality.shtml

BBC News - Smartphone Hacker
Listen to this extract and learn new vocabulary from the link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/10/121019_witn_smartphone_hacker.shtml

The Present Simple
Go to the link, watch the video and complete the multiple choice and gap fill exercises.

Click here to go to the British Council video link