26 Enero 2009
How long since the last time I saw you... (on the web, I mean)...
Well, as promised, here you are the file containing the exercises on prepositions we are working on at the moment and that, as has already been mentioned in the class, have been scanned from Thomson, A.J. and A.V. Martinet, A Practical English Grammar: Exercises 2 (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986 [1ª ed. 1975]), pp. 22-5 and 166.
We have always thought of English prepositions as something really difficult to learn and use. Nevertheless, they are not... Of course, as almost everything dealing with English as a Second Language, it depends on the learners' attitude to/towards them. In this sense and in order to avoid mistakes when using prepositions, it is essential, as almost always, that you read and do as many exercises as possible dealing with different aspects related to the use of prepositions in English. In order to help you, here you are some Web sites on which you will find information about/(on) and exercises on prepositions of place and prepositions of time.
However, as you may imagine, not only do we have those "elementary" prepositions in English. We can also talk about "prepositional phrases" (defined in the Collins Cobuild Dictionary as "a structure consisting of a preposition and its object. Examples are `on the table' and `by the sea'" [bold type is mine]), or "collocations" ("words in habitual company" as were defined first by J. Firth ["Modes of Meaning", in Firth, J. (ed.), Papers in Linguistics (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1957, p. 183)] , on this occasion "grammatical collocations" (for those interested in the different kinds of collocations and what they consist in, read this article [although its title may seem laughable or uninteresting for us]), to say but a couple of examples (I have tried to avoid phrasal verbs and idioms). That is the reason why I have decided to add some more Web pages which prove to be really useful to improve our knowledge of such a "frightening" subject.
First, you will find here a short description of prepositional phrases and some exercises (Advanced level), and here you are a useful web page to practise (more exercises can be found on this page).
Secondly, as far as collocations are concerned, an interesting and useful dictionary can be found on the web (although no Spanish meanings have been included, but I think they are not necessary). Finally, an indispensable list of verbs followed by a preposition and some exercises, compiled by Helen Kisunko, can be found here.
I really hope all those Web sites and exercises are useful enough to stop making so many mistakes when using prepositions... Have fun!
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27 Julio 2008
The word anecdote, which dates from the XVII century (1686), is frequently defined as "a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical". Accordingly, everybody has more than one anecdote to tell. Interestingly enough, however, they seem not to be amusing except to friends, or relatives, and are quite often told just to have fun.
Nevertheless, it is not the same with those anecdotes about well-known people. In fact, more and more books offering different accounts of anecdotes have been published throughout the centuries Some of them are really funny, others aren't, but all are, in my opinion, very entertaining and you may learn quite a lot from them.
Here you are a minute selection of the above-mentioned anecdotes taken from
Hendrickson, Robert. The Wordsworth Book of Literary Anecdotes (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1997 [1st ed. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1990)
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Probably no fictional death in history affected readers more in its day than the death of Little Nell (Trent) in Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop. For just one more example, the Irish revolutionary and Member of Parliament Daniel O'Connell is said to have been reading Dickens's book in a railway carriage. Whe he read the passage where the child died, he burst into tears and groaned, "He should not have killed her!" and threw the book out the train window. (op. cit., p. 85)
Sir John Fielding (1722-1780) Sir John Fielding, the younger stepbrother of English novelist Henry Fielding, was a writer himself, publishing several works on criminal justice that gave him an honored place in the history of modern jurisprudence. But Sir John was much more famous in his own time as a justice of the peace or police magistrate, a position he gained on his brother's death, after serving as Henry Fielding's appointed assistant. Sir John, blinded by an accident at age 19, was one of the few literally blind justices who administered over the ages. Known as "the Blind Beak", he was said to be able to recognize some 3,000 thieves by their voices alone. (op. cit., p. 101)
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair; 1903-1950) Writing to his publisher about his celebrated novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Orwell advised: "It isn't a book I would gamble on for a big sale". From shortly after he died of the tuberculosis until the year 1984, when it became a bestseller again, his book, which added "Big Brother" and many other words to the language, sold well over ten million copies. (op. cit., p. 200)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) It was in Shakespeare's Othello on December 8, 1660, that the first woman appeared on the English stage. Prince Rupert's mistress Margaret Hughes played Desdemona that night at a new theater in Clare Market, London. Before that boys had always played women's parts and they kept doing so up until 1706. (op. cit., p. 235)
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Shaw was standing alone in a corner at a cocktail party. "Are you enjoying yourself, Mr. Shaw?" his hostess anxiously asked him. "Certainly", he replied. "There is nothing else here to enjoy". (op. cit., p. 242)
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22 Junio 2008
As I told you last week, here you are the Third-Term-Use-of-English test for the 1st Year of Bachillerato. I have decided not to include the keys since, in the 2nd year of Bachillerato, we will begin by reviewing this test.
Nevertheless, I think it would be an excellent idea to print the exam and, after checking the language points studied throughout the course, do them again, especially those of you who have to take the extra test at the very beginning of September. You should also bear in mind that in that exam you will have to write a composition.
Last week, I also handed back the text and questions of the Reading Comprehension & Composition test. Those of you who are interested in it, go to the High School from July 14 on and I will give you a copy or ask a classmate to lend it to you and photocopy it.
I really hope you have a great time in summer. Resting is very important as well, mainly when you deserve it.
P.D.: Remember that the graded reader for next course is
American Crime Stories. Oxford Bookworms. Level 6. With CD. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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6 Abril 2008
English pronunciation has always thought to be difficult, if not "impossible" for students, since quite frequently spelling of words has nothing to do with the way they are pronounced. That is the reason why I would like to recommend you a poem by George Noist Trenité (1870-1946) included in "The Chaos" (1922). I think it is both funny and useful to learn some rhymes and the pronunciation of some frequently-forgotten words. Not only may you download the audio file (I recommend you to download the file with the highest quality) from this page (thanks to Stateside Sounds for letting us enjoy it) but you can also get the poem from it (I decided not to include it in this article because it is quite long).
You can improve your English pronunciation first through working on the vocabulary and phonetics of every single word in the poem. Then you should listen to it several times while you read it.
I really hope you have fun!!!
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10 Marzo 2008
As promised, here you are the 2nd-term "Use of English" tests. Remember to do them at home at Easter so that we all may work on them from March 25th on. Both are in .pdf, so you'll have to print them.
Good luck!
Bachillerato 1º B
Bachillerato 1º C
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10 Enero 2008
As promised, here you are the answer keys for the 1st term grammar-vocabulary tests. All the different questions for each group have been included in one only file.
I really hope you may consolidate every single point studied in the first term. Very soon, exercises to improve the passive voice in English will be added.
See you soon.
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8 Diciembre 2007
How long since my last article about British Kings and Queens. As you know, I do not have enough time! Nevertheless, as I told you last week, here you are the answer keys for the exercises provided in the Unit tests, which you did or are doing at home. The first file belongs to Unit Test 1, done the week some of you travelled to Granadilla; the second to Unit Test 2, which you may photocopy downstairs.
As you know, our partner Flor Merino gave me those tests in case I wanted to use them with my students, and, as you may imagine, I want to use them.
REMEMBER: The more you practise, the better for you and the improvement of your English.
See you!
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11 Abril 2007
A long time ago, Britain had a lot of Kings. Celtic kings and princes were the rulers of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and the rest of Britain was divided up between tribes of Anglo-Saxons.
Each tribe had its own king. On some occasions, one of those kings became more powerful than the others, and for a short time he was the chief king of all the tribes. Then in early 800s, bands of Danish Vikings from the north of Europe started to attack Britain. In 878, Alfred the Great, who was the Saxon King of Wessex, won a great battle against the Danes and forced them to agree to peace. A huge part of Britain was divided into Danish land (known as the Danelaw) and Anglo-Saxon Land (known as England).
As time went by, the Danes and the Saxons learned to live together and in 924 Athelstan (Alfred's grandson) became king of both Saxon and Danish lands. Athelstan is frequently known as “the first King of England”. However, after 60 years more or less, the Viking raids began again and only finished when the Danish King, Canute, the Great, became King of England in 1016, and ruled until 1035.
Canute’s son, Harald I, Harefoot, became Regent and King of England in 1035, although the legitimate heir to the throne was his half-brother, Hardicanute, who was then King of Denmark. Harald Harefoot ruled until he died in 1040, just when his half-brother was preparing to invade England to claim his rightful crown.
When Hardicanute claimed the throne of England, he was elected king, and became known as Canute II. However, he was disliked and his reign was short and very unsuccessful. He ruled from 1040 until 1042, when he died of convulsions at a drinking party in June.
After that, two more Saxon kings would rule England:
* Edward III, the Confessor, who ordered the construction of the Cathedral of Westminster, where all the Kings and Queens of England should be crowned, and who ruled England from 1042 until 1066.
* Harold II who ruled just for a few months before the normans, led by William I, the Conqueror, defeated him and the English on October 14, 1066 at Hastings. William the Conqueror became king of England until 1087.
From then on, we can find a long list of Kings and Queens of England, and from 1603 on, of the United Kingdom. Here you are a list of the Houses and lines they belonged to (all the Kings and Queens will be briefly dealt with on the blog in short).
Timeline of the Kings and Queens of England from 1066 to 1603
The Normans (1066 - 1154)
Plantagenets (1154 - 1399)
The House of Lancaster (1399 - 1461)
The House of York (1461 - 1485)
The Tudors (1485 -1603)
Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom from 1603 to the present day
The Stuarts (1603 - 1649)
The Commonwealth (Oliver Cromwell and Richard Cromwell (1649-1660)
The Stuarts (1660 - 1714)
The House of Hanovarians (1714 -1901)
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1901-1910)
The Windsors (1910 - Today)
NOTE: The only time when there was no King or Queen in Britain was between 1649 and 1660, when the country was a republic. This period is known as The Commonwealth, and the rulers were Oliver Cromwell, who ruled the country from 1649, when Charles I was executed, to 1658 (he governed the country not as King, but as Lord Protector of the Realm); and his third son, Richard Cromwell, who ruled between 1658 and 1659. On May 29, 1660, the monarchy was restored in England with Charles II.
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