Happy New Year / Feliz Año Nuevo

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year, full of hopes and new ideas.
Les deseo a todos ustedes un muy Feliz Año Nuevo, lleno de esperanzas y nuevas ideas.

How Is the Internet Changing English?

Twenty years ago this week the British inventor Tim Berners-Lee created the world’s first webpage. It is worth pausing to consider the extraordinary impact that his invention has had on the English language.

Everyday words like google, unfriend and app simply didn't exist in 1990.

Even more words have had unexpected shifts in meaning in those two decades. If you had mentioned tweeting to an English-speaker a few years ago, he would have assumed you were talking about bird noises, not the use of the microblogging site Twitter.

Long ago, if someone lived online, it didn't mean they spent every waking minute on the internet, but that they travelled around with the rail network.

And wireless still means, to anyone of a certain age, a radio - not the system for retrieving internet pages without wires.

"The internet is an amazing medium for languages," said David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor. "Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly."

English is a remarkably inclusive language, and if words continue to be used for at least five years they generally end up in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Grammatically correct? An LOLcat.

But less accepted are the peculiar dialects that have sprung up amongst some users. For example, 'LOLcat' is a phonetic, grammatically-incorrect caption that accompanies a picture of a cat, like "I'm in ur bed zleeping".

In an article called "Cats Can Has Grammar" the blogger Anil Dash referred to LOLcat as "kitty pidgin". But does something like LOLcat have the staying power to become an accepted form of English?

Not according to Professor Crystal. "They are all clever little developments used by a very small number of people - thousands rather than millions. Will they be around in 50 years' time? I would be very surprised."

Taken from BBC UK China

Communicative Language Teaching

Macmillan

Harso Lancen

English - 6th Senior

First Certificate in English

Periodismo

Clases de Español Online

Se dictan clases de español online a través de Skype o Windows Live Messenger. Las clases son personalizadas, para adolescentes o adultos. El alumno puede sugerir el material que desea estudiar y se organizan la clases según sus necesidades. Puede ser español para viajes, trabajo, estudios o simplemente conversación.
En las clases practicamos las cuatro habilidades: hablar, escribir, leer y escuchar.
El costo por hora es de 10 dólares, el pago es por adelantado por medio de Paypal. También se pueden hacer paquetes que incluyen 5 o 10 clases con un descuento en el precio de las tarifas.
Quienes estén interesados, pueden agregarme al Skype: barbaratp1978 o escribirme un mail a barbaratp1978@hotmail.com
Los espero!!!

Online Tutor

Foreign Languages on the Web

A truly global web must represent the languages of its users. And with growth in usage of the web in foreign languages outstripping English, businesses are playing catch-up with their potential customers. They’re rapidly trying to get as multi-lingual and diverse as their current and prospective client base.

In the last ten years, the use of Arabic online has increased by over 2500%, while Chinese and Spanish rose twelve and seven-fold respectively. And English? It didn’t even triple.

Today, 42% of all Internet users are in Asia, while almost a quarter are in Europe and just over 10% are in Latin America. These stats shouldn’t sway businesses towards targeting one region over another, though — Latin American countries account for over 200 million people on the web.

However, the vast majority of all online searches are in a language other than English. English is losing its online market share rapidly, which is no bad thing for businesses that recognize and embrace the opportunities on the foreign language Internet.

'The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching'

In their book, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track, authors Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg point out that today's education system is seriously flawed -- it focuses on teaching rather than learning. "Why should children -- or adults -- be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can?" the authors ask in the following excerpt from the book. "Why doesn't education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create?"

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught."
-- Oscar Wilde

Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns such fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress, and so on without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or at leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much or what is remembered is irrelevant.

In most schools, memorization is mistaken for learning. Most of what is remembered is remembered only for a short time, but then is quickly forgotten. (How many remember how to take a square root or ever have a need to?) Furthermore, even young children are aware of the fact that most of what is expected of them in school can better be done by computers, recording machines, cameras, and so on. They are treated as poor surrogates for such machines and instruments. Why should children -- or adults, for that matter -- be asked to do something computers and related equipment can do much better than they can? Why doesn't education focus on what humans can do better than the machines and instruments they create?

When those who have taught others are asked who in the classes learned most, virtually all of them say, "The teacher." It is apparent to those who have taught that teaching is a better way to learn than being taught. Teaching enables the teacher to discover what one thinks about the subject being taught. Schools are upside down: Students should be teaching and faculty learning.

After lecturing to undergraduates at a major university, I was accosted by a student who had attended the lecture. After some complimentary remarks, he asked, "How long ago did you teach your first class?"

I responded, "In September of 1941."

"Wow!" The student said. "You mean to say you have been teaching for more than 60 years?"

"Yes."

"When did you last teach a course in a subject that existed when you were a student?"

This difficult question required some thought. After a pause, I said, "September of 1951."

"Wow! You mean to say that everything you have taught in more than 50 years was not taught to you; you had to learn on your own?"

"Right."

"You must be a pretty good learner."

I modestly agreed.

The student then said, "What a shame you're not that good a teacher."

The student had it right; what most faculty members are good at, if anything, is learning rather than teaching. Recall that in the one-room schoolhouse, students taught students. The teacher served as a guide and a resource but not as one who force-fed content into students' minds.

Ways of Learning

There are many different ways of learning; teaching is only one of them. We learn a great deal on our own, in independent study or play. We learn a great deal interacting with others informally -- sharing what we are learning with others and vice versa. We learn a great deal by doing, through trial and error. Long before there were schools as we know them, there was apprenticeship -- learning how to do something by trying it under the guidance of one who knows how. For example, one can learn more architecture by having to design and build one's own house than by taking any number of courses on the subject. When physicians are asked whether they leaned more in classes or during their internship, without exception they answer, "Internship."

In the educational process, students should be offered a wide variety of ways to learn, among which they could choose or with which they could experiment. They do not have to learn different things the same way. They should learn at a very early stage of "schooling" that learning how to learn is largely their responsibility -- with the help they seek but that is not imposed on them.

The objective of education is learning, not teaching.

There are two ways that teaching is a powerful tool of learning. Let's abandon for the moment the loaded word teaching, which is unfortunately all too closely linked to the notion of "talking at" or "lecturing," and use instead the rather awkward phrase explaining something to someone else who wants to find out about it. One aspect of explaining something is getting yourself up to snuff on whatever it is that you are trying to explain. I can't very well explain to you how Newton accounted for planetary motion if I haven't boned up on my Newtonian mechanics first. This is a problem we all face all the time, when we are expected to explain something. (Wife asks, "How do we get to Valley Forge from home?" And husband, who does not want to admit he has no idea at all, excuses himself to go to the bathroom; he quickly Googles Mapquest to find out.) This is one sense in which the one who explains learns the most, because the person to whom the explanation is made can afford to forget the explanation promptly in most cases; but the explainers will find it sticking in their minds a lot longer, because they struggled to gain an understanding in the first place in a form clear enough to explain.

The second aspect of explaining something that leaves the explainer more enriched, and with a much deeper understanding of the subject, is this: To satisfy the person being addressed, to the point where that person can nod his head and say, "Ah, yes, now I understand!" explainers must not only get the matter to fit comfortably into their own worldview, into their own personal frame of reference for understanding the world around them, they also have to figure out how to link their frame of reference to the worldview of the person receiving the explanation, so that the explanation can make sense to that person, too. This involves an intense effort on the part of the explainer to get into the other person's mind, so to speak, and that exercise is at the heart of learning in general. For, by practicing repeatedly how to create links between my mind and another's, I am reaching the very core of the art of learning from the ambient culture. Without that skill, I can only learn from direct experience; with that skill, I can learn from the experience of the whole world. Thus, whenever I struggle to explain something to someone else, and succeed in doing so, I am advancing my ability to learn from others, too.

Learning through Explanation

This aspect of learning through explanation has been overlooked by most commentators. And that is a shame, because both aspects of learning are what makes the age mixing that takes place in the world at large such a valuable educational tool. Younger kids are always seeking answers from older kids -- sometimes just slightly older kids (the seven-year old tapping the presumed life wisdom of the so-much-more-experienced nine year old), often much older kids. The older kids love it, and their abilities are exercised mightily in these interactions. They have to figure out what it is that they understand about the question being raised, and they have to figure out how to make their understanding comprehensible to the younger kids. The same process occurs over and over again in the world at large; this is why it is so important to keep communities multi-aged, and why it is so destructive to learning, and to the development of culture in general, to segregate certain ages (children, old people) from others.

What went on in the one-room schoolhouse is much like what I have been talking about. In fact, I am not sure that the adult teacher in the one-room schoolhouse was always viewed as the best authority on any given subject! Long ago, I had an experience that illustrates that point perfectly. When our oldest son was eight years old, he hung around (and virtually worshiped) a very brilliant 13-year-old named Ernie, who loved science. Our son was curious about everything in the world. One day he asked me to explain some physical phenomenon that lay within the realm of what we have come to call "physics"; being a former professor of physics, I was considered a reasonable person to ask. So, I gave him an answer -- the "right" answer, the one he would have found in books. He was greatly annoyed. "That's not right!" he shouted, and when I expressed surprise at his response, and asked him why he would say so, his answer was immediate: "Ernie said so and so, which is totally different, and Ernie knows." It was an enlightening and delightful experience for me. It was clear that his faith in Ernie had been developed over a long time, from long experience with Ernie's unfailing ability to build a bridge between their minds -- perhaps more successfully, at least in certain areas, than I had been.

One might wonder how on earth learning came to be seen primarily a result of teaching. Until quite recently, the world's great teachers were understood to be people who had something fresh to say about something to people who were interested in hearing their message. Moses, Socrates, Aristotle, Jesus -- these were people who had original insights, and people came from far and wide to find out what those insights were. One can see most clearly in Plato's dialogues that people did not come to Socrates to "learn philosophy," but rather to hear Socrates' version of philosophy (and his wicked and witty attacks on other people's versions), just as they went to other philosophers to hear (and learn) their versions. In other words, teaching was understood as public exposure of an individual's perspective, which anyone could take or leave, depending on whether they cared about it.

No one in his right mind thought that the only way you could become a philosopher was by taking a course from one of those guys. On the contrary, you were expected to come up with your own original worldview if you aspired to the title of philosopher. This was true of any and every aspect of knowledge; you figured out how to learn it, and you exposed yourself to people who were willing to make their understanding public if you thought it could be a worthwhile part of your endeavor. That is the basis for the formation of universities in the Middle Ages -- places where thinkers were willing to spend their time making their thoughts public. The only ones who got to stay were the ones whom other people ("students") found relevant enough to their own personal quests to make listening to them worthwhile.

By the way, this attitude toward teaching has not disappeared. When quantum theory was being developed in the second quarter of the twentieth century, aspiring atomic physicists traveled to the various places where different theorists were developing their thoughts, often in radically different directions. Students traveled to Bohr's institute to find out how he viewed quantum theory, then to Heisenberg, to Einstein, to Schrodinger, to Dirac, and so on. What was true of physics was equally true of art, architecture...you name it. It is still true today. One does not go to Pei to learn "architecture"; one goes to learn how he does it -- that is, to see him "teach" by telling and showing you his approach. Schools should enable people to go where they want to go, not where others want them to.

Malaise of Mass Education

The trouble began when mass education was introduced. It was necessary

• To decide what skills and knowledge everyone has to have to be a productive citizen of a developed country in the industrial age

• To make sure the way this information is defined and standardized, to fit into the standardization required by the industrial culture

• To develop the means of describing and communicating the standardized information (textbooks, curricula)

• To train people to comprehend the standardized material and master the means of transmitting it (teacher training, pedagogy)

• To create places where the trainees (children) and the trainers (unfortunately called teachers, which gives them a status they do not deserve) can meet -- so-called schools (again a term stolen from a much different milieu, endowing these new institutions with a dignity they also do not deserve)

• And, to provide the coercive backing necessary to carry out this major cultural and social upheaval

In keeping with all historic attempts to revolutionize the social order, the elite leaders who formulated the strategy, and those who implemented it, perverted the language, using terms that had attracted a great deal of respect in new ways that turned their meanings upside down, but helped make the new order palatable to a public that didn't quite catch on. Every word -- teacher, student, school, discipline, and so on -- took on meanings diametrically opposed to what they had originally meant.

Consider this one example from my recent experience. I attended a conference of school counselors, where the latest ideas in the realm of student counseling were being presented. I went to a session on the development of self-discipline and responsibility, wondering what these concepts mean to people embedded in traditional schooling. To me, self-discipline means the ability to pursue one's goals without outside coercion; responsibility means taking appropriate action on one's own initiative, without being goaded by others. To the people presenting the session, both concepts had to do solely with the child's ability to do his or her assigned class work. They explained that a guidance counselor's proper function was to get students to understand that responsible behavior meant doing their homework in a timely and effective manner, as prescribed, and self-discipline meant the determination to get that homework done. George Orwell was winking in the back of the room.

Today, there are two worlds that use the word education with opposite meanings: one world consists of the schools and colleges (and even graduate schools) of our education complex, in which standardization prevails. In that world, an industrial training mega-structure strives to turn out identical replicas of a product called "people educated for the twenty-first century"; the second is the world of information, knowledge, and wisdom, in which the realpopulation of the world resides when not incarcerated in schools. In that world, learning takes place like it always did, and teaching consists of imparting one's wisdom, among other things, to voluntary listeners.

Teaching Young Learners Tips

Teacher's Appreciation Song

Getting learners to notice grammar

Educacion 2.0: Las Tics y el Nuevo Paradigma Educativo

Educacion 2.0: Las Tics y el Nuevo Paradigma Educativo

View more presentations from Ana Laura Rossaro.

La importancia del manejo de una segunda lengua

¿Qué pasa cuando queremos leer un artículo y no dominamos el idioma?

Una de las opciones más comunes y rápidas es utilizar un traductor on-line del inglés al español y de esta manera traducir el artículo al español en pocos instantes.
Aunque esta herramienta puede resultar una ayuda muy valiosa en muchas ocasiones, debemos saber como utilizarla correctamente ya que esta traducción muchas veces puede presentar carencias e inexactitudes bastante importantes en el sentido general del texto.

A pesar de haber ido progresando muchísimo a lo largo del tiempo y hoy en día cada vez reconocen expresiones más complejas, aún no logran captar todas las sutilezas que un escritor imprime a sus textos en el idioma original. Y cuando uno no leyó el texto en dicho idioma, la traducción puede sugerir algo distinto de lo que quiso transmitir el autor.

Por eso en ciertas ocasiones no conviene confiarse exclusivamente de dichas traducciones y, a pesar del gran avance en los últimos tiempos de las tecnologías de traducción, las traducciones realizadas por un traductor siguen siendo irreemplazables.

Esto resalta la importancia de saber otro idioma aparte del español ya que en un mundo globalmente conectado como el de hoy, nos encontramos muy a menudo con artículos escritos en diferentes lenguas. A parte de la satisfacción personal al comprender un texto sin depender de herramientas externas o de otra persona, esto dará lugar a una mejor consideración por parte del empleador.

Ing. Abner Chamson
Traductor y diseñador
mcreations.com.ar

No more Free Trial Classes

From now on, there is NOT a Free Trial Online Class. If you'd like to enroll for my classes, you can contact me and pay BEFORE the class.

Your Online Tutor

International Prices for the Online English Lessons

Single Lesson: 8 U$D

2 Package Lessons: 16 U$D

3 Package Lessons: 24 U$D

5 Package Lessons: 35 U$D

10 Package Lessons: 70 U$D

Online English Classes Contract

1) The English classes can last between 30 minutes and an hour.

2) You'll need a set of headphones with a microphone and a webcam.

3) I can teach you General English or Conversation.

4) There is a FREE TRIAL CLASS of about 10 or 15 minutes.

5) In the Trial Class you should do a Placement Test, to evaluate your level.

6) The cost of each hour of class is 8 U$D, or the equivalent in Argentine pesos.

7) You must pay before each class, before each week or each month.

8) You will have some DISCOUNTS for UPFRONT PAYMENT.

9) You will receive invoices for your paid classes.

10) If there is a class cancellation or you are going to be late, tell me as soon as possible. I promise I'll do the same to RESPECT you.

11) We must arrange a schedule that is possible for both, especially with foreign students.

12) If you live in Argentina, you can pay through bank transfer.

13) If you live in another country, you can pay using http://www.paypal.co.uk/uk.

I hope you understand this contract. It's better to explain everything before starting the classes.

What else does your online course teach you?

Introducing myself

En el medi@El currículum no, quiero ver tu blog

Cómo la revolución de la web 2.0 y los blogs abre la posibilidad de nuevas prácticas de reclutamiento y formación profesional

> Ir a la nota

lanacion.com | Información general | Lunes 14 de mayo de 2007

Cómo anotarse a las Clases de Inglés Online

Hoy en día se hace muy difícil tomarse el tiempo para asistir a clases convencionales de inglés, especialmente para algunos jóvenes y adultos que trabajan muchas horas por día. Sin embargo, el inglés es un idioma internacional que se usa en el mundo de los negocios y también en las universidades, ya que los estudiantes muchas veces se encuentran con libros de temas específicos de su área que están en inglés.
Este novedoso método de enseñanza les permite a los alumnos practicar el idioma sin tener que moverse de su casa, simplemente usando la computadora, con algunos programas instalados, como el Windows Live Messenger o Skype, que son los más conocidos, por lo menos en este momento. También existe una plataforma virtual, llamada WIZIQ, donde se programan clases virtuales en grupo.
Las clases que se dictan son personalizadas, prestando mucha atención a los requerimientos de los estudiantes. Como requisitos técnicos se necesitan: auriculares, micrófono y cámara web.
Se brindan clases de apoyo a alumnos de escuelas primarias o secundarias (siempre con el consentimiento de los padres o adultos), también a jóvenes universitarios o de nivel terciario que necesitan rendir el idioma como una materia más para recibirse.
Finalmente, es muy útil para aquellos adultos que desean practicar el idioma, ya sea por placer, motivos de trabajo o estudio.
Se les da una clase de prueba sin costo, para conocer el método y hacer una evaluación del nivel de cada uno. También para conocer las expectativas que tiene cada persona. Luego, se organiza el curso, las clases que cada uno necesita por semana, dependiendo del nivel y los horarios de cada alumno. Además, se les explica cómo manejar el software necesario para las clases.
Con respecto a los precios, se arman paquetes de precios según el nivel y el tiempo que necesite cada alumno.

El costo de cada clase varía según el alumno y su nivel.
Para alumnos de Argentina, a modo estimativo:

Clases de apoyo: $20 la hora
Clases particulares: 2 horas por semana - $ 150 al mes
Clases de conversación: 2 clases por semana de media hora cada una - $120 al mes

Para contactarme: barbaratp1978@hotmail.com - Cel: 0291-154251613

Suscribing to English Classes Online

If you want to suscribe to my English Classes online, write me a comment or an e-mail and I will answer you, explaining what type of classes we can have, taking into account your own level or interests.
They are personalized, for children, teenagers and adults who want to practice the language at home, without so much pressure. However, in the near futute I will give private classes at home.
You only need a computer with a set of headphones and a webcam to practice. If you have your own English book you can use it, too. Besides, I'll give some extra material to practice.
See you soon!!!

Your English Teacher

P.D: The first class is free of charge, because it includes a placement test and an evaluation of the student's level.

Mi perfil en WIZIQ

We're going to watch a video!!!

Watch this video and answer the questions:

1- Does the pig like apples?
2- What colour are the apples?
3- What are they going to bake?
4- Does Granma like mangoes?
5- What type of fruit does mama like?
6- How many fruits do they mention in the song? Name them.

Did you know?

Blogs in education

The use of blogs has become popular in educational institutions including public schools and colleges. Blogs can be important tools for sharing useful information and tips among co-workers, dispersing information to students, or keeping in contact with parents. (Blogs in Education). Teachers can create, monitor and edit blogs to ensure that the postings are appropriate and pertain to the classroom.

There are many teacher related blogs on the internet where teachers can share information with one another. This can include specific content that they are working on in their classroom or exemplary lessons that they wish to share with other teachers. It is a tool for educators to share ideas with one another on what has worked with students and what has not. Teachers can often rely on these sources to communicate with one another regarding any issues in education that they may be having including classroom management techniques and policies. In this way the blog often acts as a support system for teachers where they can access ideas, tools, and gain support and recognition from other professionals in their field. Some of these blogs have become nationally recognized as useful tools, especially teacher blogs which are directly making a difference in the educational system. Anthony Mullen’s blog, for example, is about a teacher traveling the country discussing drop out rates and sharing his experience with others.

Teachers use blogs as a way to communicate and enhance classroom instruction among their students. It is easy to introduce the use of blogs in the classroom and allows both the teacher and student the ability to edit and add content at any time. The ability for both the teacher and student to edit content allows for study to take place outside the classroom environment. Blogs increase exposure to other students from around the country or world while improving writing and communication skills. Teachers are using blogs as a way to post important information such as homework, important dates, missed lessons, projects, discussion boards, and other useful classroom information that is accessible by all. Students can access this information from home, or from any computer that is connected to the Internet.

Students can use blogs to communicate with other students for group projects as well. Students can also access the blog to ask each other questions regarding a missed assignment or lesson. It also gives students an opportunity to collaborate on poetry, various writing assignments, or readings. Students can respond initially to the text, including their thoughts, feelings, connections, questions etc. Other students would have the opportunity to respond and react to these responses. This would generate conversation amongst the students and develop their critical and analytical thinking skills. It also allows students who are shy and reserved in class to voice their opinions and insight using a different approach. With the use of blogs in the classroom students learn from one another and individually express themselves as well.

The use of blogs in education gives students a global perspective. Teachers from different states, countries, and continents are able to collaborate on different projects and learnings. A classroom in China can collaborate with classrooms in Germany, Mexico, Australia, etc. with just a few clicks of a button. Learning through blogs allows students to take control of their own learning and steer it to their own needs. Students are able to see that opinions and even strategies vary based on location and culture. Children are all different, but a common thread of learning can unite them. The use of blogs in the classroom embeds technological literacy in children that will help them in adulthood.

Teachers and parents can also use blogs in order to communicate with one another. Information can be posted for parents on special events occurring in the classroom such as field trips, celebrations, and presentations. Blogging is also a central tool for parents to find out daily assignments so that they can check up on their children and classroom expectations. Having this clear and open communication between parents and students can ensure success. (The Child Development Institute). Assisting parents on what is developmentally appropriate for their children on a blog could open communication and help parenting skills as well. A teacher's first priority is to educate their students, but educating and communicating openly with parents through blogs is a helpful tool to keep lines of communication open between teachers and student families.

What do you think about this?

(Taken from Wikipedia)

What is a blog?

A blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs.

(Article taken from Wikipedia)

Practice Test - Taken from "Reward" Pre-Intermediate

SECTION 1: VOCABULARY (30 marks)
1) a- Underline the odd-one-out and leave a group of three related words. (10 marks)
b- Add one other word to the group of words. (10 marks)

Example: her my our they their
1- after always often sometimes -----------
2- afternoon morning night yesterday -------------
3- basin bath fridge shower ----------------
4- aunt cousin husband tourist ------------
5- cathedral countryside factory park ------------
6- crowded friendly generous polite -------------
7- children man students women ---------------
8- did lived see wrote ---------------
9- British France Germany Japan -------------
10- dirty expensive modern safety -------------

2) Complete these sentences with ten different verbs. (10 marks)

Example: I buy food at the supermarket.
1- I never ----------- the shopping.
2- She doesn't ------------- a musical instrument.
3- I ---------------to music at home.
4- Pleased to ------------ you.
5- Where do you ------------ from?
6- I ------------- about ten cigarettes a day.
7- Where do we ------------- for the bus?
8- I can't -------------- the weather in Britain.
9- Where do you ------------- dinner?
10- They don't -------------- glasses.

SECTION 2: GRAMMAR (30 marks)
3) a- Choose ten of these words to complete the first ten spaces in the passage. (10 marks)

Example: a) had b) has c) have
1- a) go b) was c) went
2- a) cousin b) cousins c) cousin's
3- a) a b) an c) the
4- a) because b) but c) so
5- a) get b) got c) has
6- a) has b) is c) isn't
7- a) a b) one c) two
8- a) from b) in c) to
9- a) because b) but c) so
10- a) aren't b) weren't c) didn't

b- Complete the last ten spaces with ten of your words. (10 marks)

When did I last have a holiday? Well, six months ago I (1) --------------------to the United States because my (2) --------------------- is out there. He's (3) ------------------------ engineer. He lives and works in Denver (4) ----------------- I decided to visit him there. Denver is an interesting city and it's (5) lots of theatres and art galleries. There aren't many tourists and it (6) -------------- very expensive. After (7) ---------------- days in Denver, we took a plane (8) ------------------ Las Vegas. We had single tickets (9) ------------------ we wanted to drive back to Denver. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. There is a hotel in Grand Canyon Village but we (10) ----------------- stay in the hotel. The weather (11) ---------------- awful but we decided to walk to the bottom of the Canyon. There is a hostel at the bottom of the Canyon (12) --------------- we stayed there. There (13) beds for about thirty people in the hostel and there (14) --------------- a kitchen and a dining room. You pay about $50 per person and (15) ----------------- have dinner and breakfast there. I come from the north-east of England and I (16) ---------------- some people from my home town in the hostel. The hostel was full and (17) ------------------- were lots of American people there. I (18) ------------------ Americans because they're so friendly and polite. The next day we had breakfast (19) ------------ seven o'clock and checked out at half past seven. Then we walked back to (20) ----------------- village and had lunch in the hotel.

4) Write your own questions for these answers. (10 marks)

Example: Yes, I am. This is my husband.
Are you married?
1- I'm twenty-three.

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2- I'm an engineer.

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3- Fine, thanks.

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4- At a quarter past seven in the morning.

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5- Yes, one brother and two sisters.

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6- We usually go abroad.

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7- I watched TV, then I went to bed.

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8- I'm writing a letter.

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9- No, there isn't.

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10- I'd like a beer, please.

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THIS IS THE END OF THE EXAM

A new experience

This blog reflects my first experiences as an online English Teacher. I'd like to have some students who join me during this time. I can teach English and also Spanish, because I'm Argentinian.
I hope you enjoy this idea like me. I'm also a trainee teacher, so I'm also studying and learning as well.
You can contact me anytime you want and we can schedule a class.
Thanks in advance!!!