Paco Iglesias' informal letter

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did:

_______________________________________28 Randalls Street
_______________________________________Baskerville Hall
_______________________________________Devonshire
_______________________________________3 March
Dear Holmes,

Thank you for your letter. It was great to hear from you.
Sorry for not writing earlier but I’ve been so occupied since you went back to London.
I’m writing to thank you again for resolving the strange death of my uncle Charles and for saving my life. When you stayed here it was very interesting to see how two clever men, you and Watson, could find out the truth about that frightening hound.

After your departure, I’ve been quite busy in my new house. I’ll need time to get used to living in this wonderful valley. It’s a bit hard when I have been living all my life in North America. I’ll have to hire a butler soon because Barrymore and his wife have left the village after the terrifying death of Selden, Barrymore’s brother-in-law. Also I’ve been seeing and talking with Mrs Stapleton every evening for the last two months. She’s the best woman I’ve ever meet. We are thinking about living together.

That’s hardly all for now. But I have a slight problem. Four days ago I heard at night a howl which woke me up. I saw how you killed the hound and how Stapleton disappeared in the marsh, so I don’t worry. But, what should I do? Would you give me some advice, please?

Please, don’t forget to write back soon. Would you like to go back to Baskerville Hall to investigate again and to see the changes I have had in my house? Mrs Stapleton, Laura Lyons and Dr. Mortimer would like to see you. Summer would be a good season: London is so crowed at that time and you’ll be able to have a rest here.

I hope to hear from you soon. Give my regards to Watson.

Best wishes,

Henry Baskerville

Twenty-fourth week

How are you this week?

I guess a little bit nervous... well... don't be.

Our last two lessons were quite interesting. On Tuesday, Taran taught us some useful expressions to keep conversation going, and then Miguel talked about Lemurs in Madagascar. Here you can read his article, if you haven't yet.

Then we were solving some questions you had about relative clauses.

You can download the key to handouts 33 and 34 clicking on this link.

Thursday was devoted to Aung Sang Suu Kyi, as we celebrated the International Women's Day this week. Here you have the two videos that we watched. I think that you will have better sound quality in your computers and you will understand them better.

BBC Profile

Aung Sang Suu Kyi on the Non-violent Approach:



And, of course, "Walk on" by U2, a special edition, Live from London:





Next week we will have exams: the written part on Tuesday (reading, listening and writing) and Speaking on Thursday (dialogues). I hope you can find time to revise and all of you get good results.

By the way, St. Patrick's Day is on Wednesday. It is an important celebration in many English-speaking countries, especially in Ireland, and one of the things they do is to wear something green, as it is supposed to bring good luck. Why don't you wear something green to come to class this week? Thus, we could celebrate this party and at the same time it will be a kind of charm! Here you can read more about St. Patrick's Day and how it is celebrated in different countries. The most important symbol this day is the shamrock, as St. Patrick said it represented God.

Watch this funny "biography" of St. Patrick:



You can also read my last year's entry on this celebration here.
Good luck!!

Twenty-third week

Hiya!

Last week we learnt a lot of new things!

We learnt how to write an informal letter (you had to write one for last Thursday),
we revised how to manage in the London Tube, and we also learnt about Relative clauses and -ing/-ed clauses (also called "Reduced relative clauses").

Ed Ing Clauses

View more presentations from mariaelenatapia.

Relative Clauses

View more presentations from mariaelenatapia.

Here you have the key to handout 32 and next week I will upload the key to handouts 34 and 35.



For homework, you had to do these handouts and you finish unit 3 in your workbooks. If you have time, you could also read the text on page 93.

This week we will be with Taran and Virginia, and I have really interesting activities to do with you.

You should also revise for the exam, as solving your problems and answering your questions will be my priority.

See you in two days!

Twenty-second week

Hi everyone!

How is the long weekend going?

This week we have been learning how to describe people with Taran. After Taran, Felipe spoke about our ancestors more than 5000 years ago. It was quite interesting!

We also practiced finding the way in the London Underground and revised the features of informal letters.

We have finished unit 3 in the Student book, so you need to finish it in the workbook. You also have to do the activities on the yellow pages in your book just after unit 3. Here you have the key to them.


See you next week!

Keys quicktest 3

Hi there!

Here you have the key to Quicktest 3 (corrected).



Sorry for the mistake!

Twenty-first week

Hi there!

Last week we had an interesting debate about diet which was raised by Juan's oral exposition. He did quite well, congratulations Juan!!

He have learnt how to convey ability and permission with modal verbs such as "can", "could" and "be able to".



We learnt where to stress negative sentences with the modal verbs "can" and "could" both when the sentences are positive and negative (only stressing CAN'T in this last instance).

We also revised the two different functions of "so".

As for vocabulary, we learnt the difference between adjectives ending in -ing and in -ed, and we learnt 3 phrasal verbs: take up, give up and carry on.

We were working on the London underground map, practising questions like: What is the easiest way to get to...?; Where do I get off?; How many stops is it?; How long do you think it takes to get there?. Please, revise these questions and the dialogue on Practical English Unit 3 as next Tuesday you will carry on practising this with Taran.

In this website you can find information about the London underground and you can even download maps.

Don't forget to do your homework: the handouts I gave you and unit 3C in the workbook, if you haven't finished it yet.

Next week we will do a revision activity on reading, listening and speaking (please bring the reading activity in handout 31).

Felipe is doing his oral exposition on Tuesday as well. You can read his article here.

I am so sorry Cristina could not come last Thursday! I hope you are alright Cristina!

See you next Tuesday!

Twentieth week

Hello everyone,

This week we have met Virginia, who will be with us every two Thursdays for half an hour. I think she is great, don't you? She taught us a song and expressions like "Hold on to that feeling", "Everyone wants a thrill", among others. Well, of course, we also were with Taran on Tuesday playing guessing games and using modal verbs of deduction.

On Tuesday we were listening to a guitarist whose mother was Spanish and whose father was English.

On Thursday Damián told us about servience in Paris, according to a British journalist with a broken leg. She was quite unlucky indeed! I liked this text, in spite of the difficult vocabulary. You can read it here. Thanks Damián!

We were also talking about our abilities: What we CAN do now, what we COULD do when we were five years old, what we would like to BE ABLE TO do, what we have never BEEN able to do, etc.

I am going to upload the keys to the handouts you have to check. Please, ask me any questions in class.

Describing people's appearance and personality

Grammar 3A and 3B:




For homework, you have to read the text in unit 3C and complete it with the correct sentences. Practice reading it aloud, as we will read it aloud in class. You also have to do grammar 3C on page 135 in your books, finish unit 3B in the workbook and update any handout or workbook unit which you have not finished yet.

Next Tuesday Juan is going to make his oral exposition. I am curious! Please, read his article before coming to class. (Juan, don't forget to send us the link!)

Have a happy St. Valentine's day!