Less versus Few and Comparative

It's frequent to misuse less and fewer, especially in a comparative sentence. Have a look these two sentences and decide which is wrong:

• In this course there are less students in class
• In this course there are fewer students

When you use plural (countable nouns) the right form is FEW and FEWER and you use LITTLE and LESS for singular (uncountable nouns) or to modify an adjective.

You can go to these links where you can find a really good explanation and some exercises at the end of the page to practise with. Click here or here
If you need further practice, do these exercises:  exercise 1 - exercise 2

Preparing Oral Exam NB2

These are the typical topics in oral exams. You can prepare the topics at home and try to record the ones you can such as descriptions, expressing your opinion, giving instructions and so on. Topics:

• Going shopping:

  buying clothes or items

  having a problem: complaining

• Health problems:

  going to the doctor's 

  at the chemist's 

  being on a diet 

  getting fit

• Describing your town:

  giving/asking for directions 

  describing places 

  what to do in a town

• Eating out:

  Going to a restaurant 

  At a cafeteria/fast food restaurant

• Family:

  describing relatives 

  talking about problems (generation gap, elderly people...)

• Comparing things, animals, towns, people...
• Food: habits about food, how much/how many, recipes
• Using past tenses:

  Talking about past events, stories, etc. 

  Talking about memories: past tenses and used to

• Modals: suggestions (should, why don't you..., don't do..., shall we), habilities (can/could), permision (can, could,may), rules and prohibitions (must, have to, can't/couldn't), possibility (can/may/might)
• Habits, likes and dislikes (enjoy/love/hate+----ing)
• Expressing opinions (I think..., from my point of view, etc.)
• Agreeing and disagreeing (with reasons: I know what you mean but..., don't you think ..., I don't agree, I don't think so)
• Talking about future (present – will – going to):

  predictions, plans (going to): it's going to rain, we're going to play tennis 

  possibility or not planned (will): I'll do it if I can; I'll go, no problem

  something sure to happen (present): the train leaves at 5; I'm working tomorrow

Going shopping

This is a really common situation not only in the oral exam but when you are travelling so here you have some practice using videos. The only problem is that they are in American English (try room instead of fitting room) and they use more situations than the standard; I mean, when you want to change something, comments with other people about purching, etc. Here you are the videos:

• buying shoes; click here
• buying clothes; click here

Working on listening skills

Here you have a couple of things to work with:

• cloze test (textos con huecos): if you want to practise, here you have some with different levels and topics. Click here
• if you want to practise listening here you have some from PET examinations. These exercises were done in class.  

 Multiple choice: click here
Filling the gaps: click here
True/False listening: click here

• To have further practice, go to this link where you can find a lot of exams of this kind. You can do all of them if you want but the parts which are more similar to our exam are part 2, 3 and 4. Click here

Hope to be useful. See you in class.

An interesting link

I've been given this link to practise English. It is graqded and you can choose the level you need. Have a look and tell me if you like it. See you in class.
http://www.multimedia-english.com/contenidos/busqueda

At the hotel

Here you have some practise for this typical situation. If you want to see a model of conversation, here you have for the reservation, the check-in and the check-out and you have some practice at the bottom; click here.
But if you prefer images, here you have some videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZJPOd1sGqM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5MXfq9rtm4

I hope this will be helpful for you. See you in class.