Hello!

In our last lesson we were working mostly on verbs in the -ing form, present participle of the verb, just as we had studied before the infinitive form of the verb.

It is on page 54 (Clara, you have the sheet, it is the one we started last Monday). Here you can see 3 cases when you use the present participle (-ing). I had already mentioned them on Monday: when we use the verb as noun, after some verbs (e.g. enjoy, hate, love) and after a preposition.

We practiced questions and answers using the verb in the -ing form: for instance questions starting with: Do you mind (always followed by a verb in the ing form) doing your weekly shopping?
and did Ex. b under Vocabulary and Speaking on pg. 55.
Students answered the questions on 5.b, and then we listened to the recording to find out ( Why am I using and infinitive here?) weather our answers were correct or not. The listening has been uploaded to the Aula Virtual and it's called SingingCourses.

HOMEWORK

1. Write about a short course you  have done sometime. Say what the course was about, how long it lasted, what and how much you learned (or improve), what you did in the course.

2. On page 53, choose 5 of the questions under 5c and write an answer them. Each answer should take about a paragraph.

Ex. Do you find it difficult to remember people's names? 
I don'd usually find it difficult to remember people's names  although I usually need to ask them twice before I memorize them.I always learn a person's name after asking a second time, probably because I know that I would be very embarrassed if I had to ask them a third time.

Hello!

I uploaded the listening Conversations Party.  In this listening you'll here several conversations of people who have just met at a party. In each conversation one of the participants says "the wrong thing" to say to somebody you have just met. It goes with an exercise on your sheet. Diana, as you don't have that sheet, what you can do is listen to it and try to decide what it is they say that the other person does not feel happy about.

The advise we are given before is that when we meet somebody for the first time and we get to know what is their job or profession we should not make any comments about it or ask for their professional help. Nobody likes to work when they are at a party or hear unfriendly comments about their jobs.

Hi!

This week we practiced - among other things - giving directions to get somewhere.

A question you may ask when you are in a new place and you need to get somewhere is:

How can I get to the _____(bus station)?

As you can see, the verb to use is get, do not forget.

Other questions you may ask are:

Is there a shopping center nearby?

Other important questions are:
Is it far? (A possible answer:It's only a few blocks from here, it's just a few minutes away)
Can I walk from here? 

Giving and following directions is not easy. It's easy to get mixed up. Some terms you need to know are:

Walk straight on, walk up the street, walk down X.
to the end
turn right, turn left on the (1st, 2nd, etc.) street.
go past (a church)
go over the bridge
it's on your right or left.

HOMEWORK

Just to let you know that the listenings have already been uploaded to the Aula Virtual, so you can do the exercises.