What to do this week

As I told you in class, this week you should work on the blog in order to prepare the final exam. Here you have a link to practise with the exam of NB2 in Durango; click here. Notice that the writing part is shorter than in Comunidad de Madrid; the composition should be longer: 80 words for the first writing and 125 for the second.
The other model you can do is the one from Comunidad de Canarias; the link is here
Try to work on your own and remember to organise your writing before starting it.
See you soon!

Money!

This is a very typical topic and you've got a lot of vocabulary on the book, as well as the one I gve you in class. Here you are some songs which deal with money:

• The Beatles: All I want ; click here
• Cabaret: Money; click here
• Pink Floyd: Money; click here
• Mickel Jackson: click here
• Jessie J: Price Tag; click here

I hope you'll enjoy this but there are more examples, I guess.

Using relative pronouns

In lesson 8.1 we are working with relative pronouns WHICH, WHO, THAT and WHERE; we are going to start with  WHOSE as well.

A relative clause is introduced by a relative pronoun and it is used to explain or give detail about something mentioned before (the antecedent). But let's see how it works.

• This is the flat where I live and Peter is the person who lives with me and whose car is parked outside.

The most difficult part of this grammar point is, as usual, when it isn't the same in Spanish:

• Kerry is the mate I work with: here the relative pronoun has disappeared, something that/which doesn't happen in Spanish. 

Let's see some pages to work with this grammar point:

• another example; click here
• an exercise of rephrasing: use relatives to join clauses; click here

To finish with, here you are the two songs about the lemmon tree:

• Lemon tree by Peter, Paul and Mary
• Lemon tree by Fool's Garden

Healthy Habbits

To keep fit is really important and we all should be very careful with the things we do or we eat. Here you are an article which explains how to keep healthy; click here

Saint Parick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! This is the national feast in Ireland but it's an important date for many places where the Irish are present, like the States, the UK or Australia. Here you have some information about this feast; click here or here
But if you want to get a general idea about this typical feast, here you are some videos:

• a typical parede in Dublin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuaAGewaXeY
• the parade in New York: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPX7lPWJRyU 

Some very accurate advice to prepare the listening exam

I found a blog with a long answer for a problem that an adult student of an EOI had to pass the certificate exam for NB2. This teacher gives some clues about how to prepare the listening skills and I've cut and pasted her tips here; the comments between brackets are mine:

"Si tienes este nivel (NB2), o un nivel superior, debes seguir la misma estrategia y practicar con los AUDIOS DE TU EOI LOCAL (o con los de otras comunidades autónomas, aunque el nivel no tiene que ser el mismo exactamente, pero sí muy parecido).

Este, por ejemplo, es el examen de comprensión oral del nivel básico de 2011 de la EOI de Oviedo.
Como podrás comprobar, el audio que utilizan está en internet. Es este. 
Lo he encontrado poniendo en Google  "6 minute English Rob Ivonne Families". 
¿Qué hay qué hacer entonces?
Evidentemente, escuchar más audios de este tipo, que además, están en internet. Imagínate que haciendo esto, te sale en el examen precisamente el audio que tú ya has estudiado.

Este el examen del nivel básico de 2012 de la EOI de Oviedo. 
El primer audio es este.- Yo lo he encontrado poniendo en Google "We British love tea", que es la primera frase que dice el "speaker".
El segundo audio es el número 76 de esta lista. Lo he encontrado poniendo en Google "Podcast Penela". Fíjate como en el examen está la referencia de la página. Así que más fácil no puede ser.
El tercer audio es este. Lo he encontrado poniendo en Google "podcast britishcouncil.org favourite time of the day was night adam rob"
Taken from: http://elblogdelingles.blogspot.com.es/2013/08/como-aprobar-el-listening-para-un.html

Practising listening skills

Alghough this level is higher than the one you have, I think it's more accurate to the one you could find in the official exam of certificate. Use them to prepare your exams but don't get panic if you aren't as good as you thought at doing these listening exercises.

Remember that there are many pages on the internet to practice listening skills. Here you are some of them taken from a page which gives you examples of two types of exams: PET and IELTS. The ones we need to prepare our exams are these but maybe the level is a bit too high:

• http://www.examenglish.com/IELTS/cbIELTS_listening.htm --- multiple choice
• http://www.examenglish.com/IELTS/IELTS_listening_part1.htm --- fill in the gaps+business
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part3.htm --- taking notes
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part4.htm ---T/F or yes/no questions
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_test2_part4.htm --- T/F or Y/N
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_test2_part3.htm --- taking notes
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_test2_part2.htm --- multiple choice

Hope it'll help you, guys!

Carnival and Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday, also called Mardi Gras or fat Tuesday is a famous festivity in Carnival time.
It's on the day before Ash Wednesday and it represents the end of the carnivals because the following day is when Lent starts. It will last 40 days.
Here you are some curious videos about carnival in different places:

• Mardi Gras in New Orleans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo5ClQDKnqk
• The Pancake Race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlo3yuhOSlI this is another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRunuhmmwsg
• The Carnivals in Venice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z766I4d6oK8
• Winter Carnival in Quebec: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSNLydguFl8

 Happy Shrove Tuesday! Enjoy the last day of carnivall because tomorrow it's over.
See you in class.

Purpose, Cause and Reason clauses

As the own name indicates, these clauses are used to express the purpose, why the action is done.

• I went to the market to buy some fruit

There are some possible forms to introduce purpose clauses:

• TO + infinitive / IN ORDER TO + infinitive (SO AS TO + infinitive)
• IN ORDER NOT TO + inifinitive / SO AS NOT TO + infinitive
• SO THAT + Subject + Verb

Look at these examples:

• I visited the doctor to lose weight
• I visited the doctor in order to lose weight
• I visited the doctor in order not to have health probles for losing weight
• I visited the doctor so that he could give me some advice to lose weight

Notice that FOR+ -ing form is also possible but the infinitve form is much more common. 

If you want to get a further explanation you can go to this link; click here

For practising, you can do these exercises:

• exercise 1         exercise 2

In unit 7.2 the book deals with purpose, cause and result clauses so you can go to this link to see a long explanation and an exercise at the end but it's of a much higher level; click here

Remember there is a link between the three kinds of clauses and it depends on you and what you want to say to use one or another.

• I went to the pub to meet my friends
• I went to the pub because I wanted to meet my friends
• I wanted to see my friends so I went to the pub

To finish with, let's see the different forms and meanings of SO:

• SO + adjective: She's so nice
• SO MUCH + singular/uncountable nouns  and   SO MANY + plural: I don't have so much money but I have so many coins
• SO THAT+S+V: I bought some medicine so that she could have it
• SO .... THAT .... : She was so tired that she went to bed
• Some expressions: and SO on; I think/hope SO; Do you like it? SO,SO
• You can also go to this link; click here

To finish with, here you have this song to see the use of infinitive of purpose: what can I do to make you love me?