Composition of Informal E-mail By Arturo

Composition 7 Informal E-mail

Hi, Max

Would you like to dinner with me? I haven’t seen for a long time. I miss you because I haven’t seen you since we finished the university degree together. You should tell me his experience in India. What did you do in your trip? I hope to see soon.

I work in the USA. My job is very boring. I work in Burguer King in Massachusetts. I look forward to going on a trip but I don’t have enough money in order to visit other countries. I try to save money so as to travel around the world. I am studying a Master to find a job with a good salary.

I hope to see you with more frequency because we are good friends. I hope to spend a good time with you at dinner.

Much Love

Jack

Idioms

Google images

Idiom of the day:

Get the boot!

This is an idiom related to work which means to lose your job. There are two other expressions similar to this one which are to get fired and to be made redundant. In both cases it means you lose your job but in the first one the reason is a mistake you've made whereas in the second one the reason is you are not needed anymore because the amount of work has gone down.

Back to class

Dear students,

Hello again! My two-week paternity leave is now over and therefore next Monday you will see me again in class. It has been great to be able to spend the first 15 days with my child but now I must get back to real life. 

I have to thank my colleague Elena for taking over these last few classes; she has reported to me with the activities you've been doing and the great job you have all done. I have a few compositions to mark which I hope I'll give back to you on Monday.

Have a great weekend!!

Miguel

B1 class 08/02/2016

Good afternoon everyone! if you didn't come to class yesterday, have a look to this post and find out what we did.

First of all we corrected the homework on page 39, exercises 7 and 8. This last exercise is about rewriting so bear in mind something like this can appear in the exam:

I'm more ambitious than her (as)

She is not as ambitious as me.

Then we saw the idiom of the day: get the boot! the meaning of this is to get fired and we saw the difference between these two expressions and to be made redundant / make someone redundant.

Then we continued with the listening/speaking exercise on page 41. We discussed the picture on the previous page and we checked the answers after listening to the track. This listening activity served as an exmple to explain future tenses: 

- will + infinitive: we make a decision at the moment of speaking. But also for predictions based on our personal opinions.

- be going to: to describe plans or intentions. Also for predictions based on present evidence.

- present continuous: arrangements in the future

Finally we corrected the reding exercise on page 42 and we talked about our best/worst birthdays.

For homework students must do exercise 9 on page 41 and exercise 4b on page 43.

Composition 6: Article for a state agency magazine by Arturo

Composition 6: Article for a state agency magazine

Rent this charming flat. It’s perfectly situated in Nazaret (Valencia), near the Albufera and a fifteen-minute drive from the centre.

This flat has vintage furniture. It has one bedroom, one bathroom and a small living room. These rooms allow to produce cheap bills. In this cheap apartment, you can see a lovely view of the sea through the thick windows.

The neighbourhood is quiet and it’s perfect for people who like the peace of living in the outskirts. This house is ideal for single people or young dynamic couples because it’s found on the 4^th floor and this block doesn’t have a lift.

To sum up, this apartment is in a building with character. It’s ideal for traditional people. Another feature about this house is its perfect orientation.

Good job Arturo!! I have corrected a few mistakes on the composition. Well done for using adjectives and the structure of the text.

AMAZING FLAT NEAR TO SEA

Rent or sell a cosy flat in Valencia, in Nazaret neighbourhood, near to the port sea, Valencia beach, and 10 minutes drive from the city centre and five minutes from Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias and two shopping centres: Aqua and El Corte Inglés.

It’s a beautiful fourth-floor 50-square-metre flat dating back to 1960 with no lift.  It has one pretty bedroom with great sea views of sea port and one bathroom with shower. The small living room has a good orientation (south east), with a balcony that let us enjoy the seabreeze in summer and sunshine in Valencia mild winters. Because of this, it’s not necessary air-conditioning and central heating machines, making our bills small. Kitchen has a washing machine in the veranda and a fridge. The house has a charming old-fashioned furniture that makes gives the house a lot of character. Also, all rooms have a big windows with lovely views of the sea and the neighbourhood.

Nazaret is a quiet small town into the city, perfect for people that can’t bear the noisy city, but love to be near from theatres, museums, shopping centres, etc. Besides, people who love the sea, the beach and the country can find there a very special neighbourhood to live, with a lot of parking spaces, all services, and a lot of activities to do and entertainment.

Finally, this flat is ideal for singles or young couples without children, who love healthy life and sport, that are looking for a cheap flat with cheap community bills in a friendly environment in a multicultural neighbourhood.

Great composition Fran!! Very good structure and use of vocabulary. Congratulations!! 

Idioms

Idiom of the day:

Skeletons in the closet.

This idiom refers to someone who is hiding a terrible secret, something this person is ashamed of and that would cause great distress if anyone knew.

I think Mary is hiding something, she probably have skeletons in her closet.

B1 class 03/02/2016

The lesson started with a quick revision of comparatives and superlatives:

1 syllable adjectives

fast                  faster                  the fastest

big                   bigger                the biggest

2 syllable adjectives ending in -y

frienly             friendlier            the friendliest

2 or more syllable adjectives

interesting       more friendly     the most friendly

Irregular adjectives

good                better                  the best

bad                  worse                  the worst

far                   further                 the furthest

We also saw some adverbs to express big differences (a lot, mch, far) and small differences (a little, a bit, slightly); these adverbs are placed before the comparative: Your bedroom is much more spacious than mine.

There are some other structures to express comparison:

the same + noun + as > My car is the same colour as yours.

as + adjectives + as > My mobile phone is as good as yours.

different from > This dress is different from the one we saw earlier.

similar to > This song is very similar to one I heard on the radio.

We also looked at the opposites of more and the most: less and the least. These are not usually used with one syllable adjectives since it's preferred to use an adjective meaning the opposite.

To practise the use of comparatives we talked about two houses we knew well and we had to compare them using these structures.

Then we corrected the homework on page 40, exercises 1 and 2, and we explained the meaning of the phrasal verbs. This was followed by a discussion about how organised we are and whether women are more organised that men or the opposite.

The idiom of the day this time was given at the end of the lesson: skeletons in the closet.

For homework students must do exercises 7 and 8 from page 39, and exercise 3 from page 42.

Idioms

Idiom of the day:

Google images

be on the house.

This idiom has nothing to do with houses. It is used in restaurants and bars when something is served for free, meaning the house (the owner of the bar/restaurant) pays for it. 

The meal was 35€ but drinks were on the house.

B1 class 01/02/2016

As with every class we started the lesson with the idiom of the day: on the house. This idiom has nothing to do with the literal meaning of the word house and therefore no one got the right meaning. 

We continued the lesson discussing in pairs the different types of homes on page 38 talking about which kind of house we would prefer to live in and why we would make this decision.

Using positive language.

This speaking activity served as an introduction for the listening activity on poge 38 as well. A couple who have visited three homes and they are deciding which of these house they would like to rent.

Then I handed in a photocopy with 3 exercises; first they had to substitute the adjective nice, which appeared 10 times in the text, for another adjective with a more specific meaning. Then they were given the characteristics of a very special flat and they had to use positive language to turn those bad characteristics into something more appealing. And finally, for homework, they have to write a text similar to the one given describing the flat they talked about. The purpose of this activity was to learn new vocabulary and practise both speaking and writing.

You can download the activity clicking here.

The composition is for next Monday; for Wednesday all you have to do is exercise 4 from page 39 and 1-2 from page 40.

Composition 5 My biggest adventure Arturo

Composition 5 Your Biggest Adventure

My biggest adventure was when I went to Ibiza with my family in a boat. I traveled with my brother in law. He is a practical and adventurous person. He came across the Atlantic in boat and in that trip he was alone.

I enjoyed this journey because I had never been in an island. Ibiza is a beautiful and touristy place. We slept inside the boat and I remembered the noise of the waves near to me. Moreover, in this trip we visited Formentera, this place was so peaceful.

To sum up, when we set off, Spain was playing the final of World Soccer Cup. Fortunately, Spain won the Netherlands but we knew the result the next day on the radio.

Thanks a lot for uploading your composition Arturo!! You're making great progress with your writing.